NL RPM Challenge Radio

Hear music from 88 new local albums recorded in the month of February as part of the RPM Challenge.

Almost 900 songs.
2 days worth of listening.
More than 80 bands.

We’re pretty excited about this.

This year, for the first time ever, you can hear music by local RPM Challenge participants as it arrives at the Scope HQ!

Have a listen for yourself by clicking the above or directing your browser to http://www.livestream.com/nlrpm2010

Public listening parties are being lined up for Saturday, March 27, so stay tuned for more details. We should be announcing that in the next print editions of The Scope.

RPM submissions so far…

As of February 28, 2010

As of March 1, 2010

And more coming in!

As of March 10, 2010:
18 Hertz
4 Fold Aprons
Action Hotdog
Adam Baxter
Alex Wells
Allan Locke
am-fm dreams
Andrew Harvey Presents False Advertising
Audrey Cohen
Back to Copenhagen
Barbeau
Barry O
Billy Boland
Brad Clarke
Brett Vey
Cara Lee Coleman
Counter Destroyer
Crash Jones
Crystal City Printing Press
Dave Walsh
DJ Frosty
Drysdale
EGo
Electro-CHAK
Elling Lien
epo
Friends Of
Glen Connolly
Grant Kingston
Hatch
J. Alfred
Jack Betty
Jason Earle
Joe Harvey
Jonathon Aubrey
Kevin Woolridge
Liam Peacock
manny steiner
Matthew Hare
Mike Williams
Mythical Man-Month
Naomi Russell
Nicolas Trnka
Night Men
OK Potato
Osprey Signal
Other People
People On Pause
Pet Legs
Pilot to Bombardier
Ragged Dick
Rob Bishop
Robin Graves and the Diggers
Robot Scout
Ryan Taylor
Schizophrenic Bi-Polar Bear
Scrambled Meggz
Sharona Clarke
Shawn Walsh’s Mustache
Sheavy
Shed Devils
Sigma
Sluts on Sluts
St. John’s Ukelele Club
Stephen Green
SUPERGOD!!!!!
Terry Rielly
The 6 Fort Waldegrave
The Bart Pierson
The Blossoms
The Cause
The Coffee Dates
The Composers
The Dead Ponies
The Ice Cream Headaches
The Jack E. Tar
The Last Starfighter
The Magnus Svensons
The Parliament of Owls
The Potholez
The South Symposium
Thom Coombs
Tim Barnes
Ultramammoth
Vickee Loo
Wizards of Kaos
Worker
WTCU

= 88 albums

Quotes from the Newfoundland RPM Challenge blogosphere

This is it! It’s the end of February, and the RPM Challenge is in its final stretch. Musicians from across the globe have been busy working on their 35+ minute and/or 10 song album of original music this month, and have but a few hours remaining to complete it.

Listening parties will happen on Saturday, March 27, with details to come.

Here in Newfoundland, almost 170 bands signed up to take The Scope’s RPM Challenge. The tears! The laughter! The hard drive crashes! Here are some updates posted on the RPM website about their progress, in all their spelling mistake glory.

For more info and to hear some of what the bands are working on, visit www.rpmchallenge.com.

From The 6 Fort Waldegrave:
Right den, we gots 9 tunes an only just now got our recording machine set up… we gets da drummers dere dis weekend… see what happens wha?

From Shaun Burton (comedian):
That’s all in how the writing process works. You just keep hammering it out and eventually you’ll churn something out that’s not completely embarrassing.

From The Burnout Project:
Got together and jammed today. Had a laugh, smoked a bat and matched a bowl in the sun porch. (Tuesday, February 9)

Me and Josh spent all afternoon working on getting a perfect drum track down, and I deleted it by accident. (Tuesday, February 9)

Drop out of school, quit your jobs, squat in an abandoned building and beg for your food. It’s the only way, men.

Our keyboard player recently had to sell his keyboard. It’s a long, sad story, but we can work around it.

From Tom Harter:
Last year I did everything in the last week and this year I’ve been spreading out the work. It’s more relaxing this way!! :-) Keep going everyone… we can do it!!

From Matthew Hare:
I… managed to convince myself that it would be a great idea to have a choir of children singing on one of the tracks because if there’s one thing you need when your trying to be quick in the recording process, it’s complexity. This will likely end up being me singing in a number of child like voices and altered to help with the help of Ye Olde Computer.

From Jonathon Aubrey:
5 out of 10, or 20 minutes out of 35…. We’ll see!!!! Wrote 4 new tunes this evening, and recorded three of them. This is working out!
written on February 15th

From Liam Peacock:
I have all my songs written. WOOOOOOOOT.
Also, my audio interface has a broken USB connection. WONDERFUL.
From Joey Bennett:
Ever throw yourself a surprise party? I don’t imagine it being successful unless you planned it while you were drunk or something like that. I only ask because I somehow managed to surprise myself this past week when it comes to writing.

The best material doesn’t always come from not trying to write, but it happened for me. Monday night I sat down with my guitar, and my only intentions were to tune it and maybe run a few songs for my gig tomorrow. What actually happened was I wrote, what I feel, is probably my best song to date.

From zanderwel:
I woke up yesterday and, after a few errands, found myself at about 1pm starting what would turn into almost a non-interrupted streak of writing that lasted until 4:30am this morning!!! Yesterday I managed to complete the writing or 3 other songs!!! The recordings are also just about done. This album is going to have some vast differences from one song to the next. So far I’ve got two acoustic songs going on along with two heavier songs with drums and the works!

I think I’m gonna go and start off day 2 by reviewing the sounds of fatigue from last night. Hope this doesn’t hurt too bad or involve too many required changes. This challenge seems to have set my brain on fire and oh how sweet the burn!

From heart to mouth:
heh. today i finally figured out garage band. here i come!

From Robot Scout:
This morning’s studio session resulted in one long multi-themed jam, which we may cut into some pieces, or add minimal overdubs for more depth. Either way, we finally have some parts to work with after scheduling time to devote to the process. This will likely be the last week that Chris and I can record and get a proper mix, so the pressure’s on. There will be an album done, in whatever method we can figure out to create it. Excitement…yeeeaaahh!

From RPM Doc:
The plan is to make a documentary in 28 days about the artists making an album in 28 days. I’ll interview those taking part, get shots of their recording operation, footage of them performing then some how take it and put it all together into at least a 35 minute documentary. Its not going to be anything fancy. Just me, a camera and the artists.

From Crystal City Printing Press:
Feb 19th. O.k everything has gone awry and we are going with the stripped down versions of EVERYTHING!!!! 10 songs don’t mean much ….but you got to keep it real….

Hope and time are both waning fast

From Pet Legs:
We took some time in January to write so there would be more time for recording this time around… The challenge this year is to build on our sound and see if we can do better. So far so good.

Last year’s record seemed to be about goodbyes and endings, while this year’s is all about hellos and beginnings. It’s a more living kind of winter.

From Justin Guzzwell:
Last years RPM challenge was the most fun I’ve had recording in a long time, but this time around life is too busy to get things done on my own. Thankfully Alex Bridger has given me a creative push, and we’ll be writing/recording/producing an RPM album together! See you all at the finish line.

From People on Pause:
So far this recording effort has consisted of Guzzy cranking out hit after hit, while I scrape the recesses of my brain for lyrics like a elementary school students scrapes the bottom of his Minigo with a spoon that just ain’t the right dimensions. While Guzzy has been struck with RPM fever, I’ve been struck with branding fever, and have been devoting most of my efforts to coming up with the more shallow aspects of the album; cover art, band name, album name, what the next album will be like. Basically, Guzzy rules.

From Jack Betty:
5 tunes completely in the can by Feb. 17 is pretty good, it’s nice to have a full month to work on this (last year I was away for gigs a lot). My Toshiba NB200 netbook crapped out a week in (junk, don’t buy!) but thankfully I’d uploaded all my files to my Hotmail Skydrive thingie, otherwise I’d have lost it all and given up. Don’t forget to back up!

From Worker:
Help Is On The Way: was programmed when I should have gone to sleep sunday night. I managed to get to work on time the next morning, but I’m still a lilttle sleepy as I type this. THX1138 was a bit of inspiration for this.

From Samuel Whiskers:
For the past month, my heart has been stuck in my throat like a kitten in a chimney.

From Clash Contrast:
Crazy, only have the nine days to complete the math. 10 songs or 35 minutes. 1 through 10, however long, or 35 minutes. So even if it is 10 songs but less than 35 minutes, it’s cool. So, I literally have two in the can, and one on the mixing table, not quite there.
I will have to work through these next songs with resplendant fervour, that which others would not venture. My own full length by March first. Good to send out as demos, good to create some promotional materials in and of. Good to use as grant proposal materials. Ectetera…Melpomene…these are the days in the forlorn maze, finding space for my grace. Wish I was off the richter, eh?!

From The Composers:
I hear somewhere that Elton John and Bernie Tuppin and their studio musicians wrote and recorded his breakthrough album in a feverish weekend of non-stop creativity so a month is actually a long time when you think about it. And remember Deep Purple only had a month to record an album with a mobile recording bus and they came up with Smoke On The Water

From Alive Underground:
Just Chillin’…really! It’s minus 25 degrees C with the wind chill! good weather for indoor activities! Feb 4th

From Audrey Cohen:
I kind of wish I was writing this with other people…it’s much more fun playing music in a group because every once in awhile you have those magical moments where everything fits. When you’re sitting in front of a computer listening to tracks you recorded yourself, it’s not the same. I’m still having some moments of clarity, when something perfect happens and everything fits together, but…it’s just not the same.

From Wizzards of Kaos:
So I’m realizing that this has become really hard managing family time with a wife and child. But thanks to the RPM, it’s helping me learn how to manage my time and motivate me with a bunch of friends to lay some tape, well.. hard drive space.

Since early 70’s, as a child, I had an interest of cheesie post apocalyptic movies, i.e. Mad Max. It was interesting how we perceive Doomsday and make all these calcualations to show it on film. We decided to pretend we were scoring a typical movie and use that as a template for our inspiration. Hope you like it!

From am/fm dreams:
Well the worst has happened. After 6 long years of service our faithful Boss 8-Track has bitten the dust, taking with it all of our work thus far. Luckily, I back up 6 of the songs on CD, but we’ve been set back from 8 songs to 6. Now we need to find a new mixer (rent/borrow/buy) ASAP. We’ll finish this album if it kills us.

From Sharona Clarke:
I’m stripping down……….. the instruments, that is. Just me and the piano. What you see is what you get. Nothing else. Hmmm… naked cover art maybe?! ;)

From Kevin Woolridge:
1 song written. 1 song almost written. and two solid starts. i played the finished song for my girlfriend and she said that was her favourite. i said ‘of everything?’ and she said yes. so i guess if anything i’ve gotten one really good song out of this. the rest should be all downhill. right?

Scratch and sniff the surface

We’re only a few weeks in, and more than 150 local bands have signed up to record an entire album in one month for this year’s RPM challenge.

We have almost no idea what’s going on inside those 150 makeshift basement, bedroom, and/or kitchen recording studios. We’re left with only a handful of clues about what they’re up to.

No worries! Sarah Smellie has all the information to make sense of it all. Maybe.

Band Covering The Most Ground (literally)
Crystal City Printing Press

They’re a group of actors on a tour across rural Manitoba who are also recording an RPM album. You can follow their progress on the road here (www.tinyurl.com/y9dcf9u) and on their album here (www.tinyurl.com/yh976zv).

•••

Covering The Most Ground (figuratively)
de Zen Jenga and the Melting Pot Orkestar

So they’re a band of gypsies playing neo-indie power pop and “hope-filled, uplifting, big band fun.” Luckily there are eight of them. And make-up. And costumes. And fire spinning. www.tinyurl.com/yeoe3mb

•••

Most Non-Musical Entrant
Shawn Walsh’s Mustache

This stand-up comedy troupe—and devotees to some dude’s hairy upper lip—are making an album in hopes of earning themselves unlimited glory and “tens of ones of dollars.” www.tinyurl.com/yjzs9ug

•••

Most Provocative Band Name
Sluts on Sluts

This is Mr. Matthew B’s second year slutting up the challenge with his noise/drums/noise combo. Does that make this Sluts on Sluts on Sluts on Sluts? Hm. www.tinyurl.com/yeaop4b

•••

Best Band Name That Is Also A True Statement
Teenagers Don’t Wear Jackets

It’s true—and these two guitarists may sing you a tune if they can muster up the confidence. www.tinyurl.com/ycxcgd3

•••

Best Band Name That is Also An Interesting Collective Noun
Parliament of Owls

In addition to his solo entry, contender for St. John’s sweetest bike mechanic Jake Nicoll has collected a few soundscape-making friends to “make a record that will enable more people to have new, unique experiences.” The group promises not to prorogue anytime soon. www.tinyurl.com/ykgk5qy

•••

Most Glammy/Metal Sounding Name
Wizzards of Kaos

These Wizzards are bringin’ their doom ambience all the way from Portugal Cove-St. Philips, and not even conventional spelling is safe! Featuring Ritche Perez, who you my remember from RPM 2008’s Ohio Scream. www.tinyurl.com/yhujgt9

The Wizzards also pick up a nod in the Most Gratuitous Use of The Letter “Z” category, along with the group Cougarz in Legwarmerz.

•••

Punniest Name
Missed Her and The Misses

“Listening and growing” is the only information provided on this band’s page. Guess they’re a missed her eee. www.tinyurl.com/yek72lo

Runner Up: The Uke of Duckworth, aka Jordan Young. He also happens to give ukulele lessons, so maybe uke-an play too.

•••

Band Name Which Most Aptly Sums Up This Year’s RPM Challenge
Mythical Man-Month

By a casual, unscientific scan of the list, about a third of all of this year’s entrants are solo man acts. A third! What’s with that?

Runner Up(s): heart to mouth (Aww), Options (You got ‘em!), SUPERGOD! (You’ll feel like one when you’re done) Ubiquitous Gazelle (Augh! They’re everywhere!)

•••

Best Evidence of Procrastination from Last Year’s RPM Challenge
The Ultramammoth logo

It is pretty sweet. www.tinyurl.com/ycjukpe

RPM 2010 info for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians

This is the challenge:

Record an album in 28 days, just because you can. That’s 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material recorded during the month of February.

Don’t wait for inspiration. Taking action puts you in a position to get inspired. You’ll stumble across ideas you would have never come up with otherwise, and maybe only because you were trying to meet a day’s quota of songwriting. Show up and get something done, and invest in yourself and each other.

Anyone can come up with an excuse to say “no.” So don’t. Many of you are thinking “But, I can’t do that. I don’t have any songs/recording gear/money/blah blah blah…” But this doesn’t have to be the album, it’s just an album. This is an artistic exercise. Do your best with what you have to get it done. If you have a four-track, become a four-track badass! Mini-disc, Pro Tools, a Walkman, an ’80s tape recorder? Use it. Do your best. Use the limitations of time and gear as an opportunity to explore things you might not try otherwise. If you can afford studio time in a “real” studio, fine, but let’s be completely free of any lingering idea that “good” records can only be made in a studio. Well written, honest music is compelling and undeniable no matter what it was recorded on.

February will come and go whether you’ve taken the challenge or not. Do you really want to be left out?

—

The Details

• Record 10 songs or 35 minutes of original music in 28 days. Just because you can.

• This is not a contest!

• This will be fun!

• There is no fee!

• Record 10 songs or 35 minutes material, and burn it to CD.

• When it’s finished, mail your disc to us (postmarked by March 1) at:

RPM Challenge NL
c/o The Scope
PO Box 1044
St. John’s, NL A1C 5M3

You can also drop it off in person at our drop-off box inside Fred’s Records, 198 Duckworth Street, by noon on March 1.

• Recording can only be done in the month of February—no prerecorded songs.

• All material must be previously unreleased, and we encourage you to write the material during February too.

• Registered participating bands and musicians get their own page at rpmchallenge.com where you can blog as much as you want. You also get access to the discussion board, where you can swap ideas, resources, etc., and the ability to e-mail and private message with other participants.

• When the month is over, there will be local listening parties where at least one track from each completed album from NL will be played.

• All the completed albums may be put up in the jukebox on the website. If you’d rather not share your work with the public, then no one needs to hear it but you. But what’s the fun in that?

For more information or to sign up, visit www.rpmchallenge.com

2009 RPM standouts

Patrick Canning picks 7 of his favourite discs from last year’s 70 local offerings.

Last year’s RPM challenge brought in an unprecedented bounty of 70 albums from the St. John’s area. That’s almost equal to the total amount of professional releases put out in the entire province in all of 2008.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “How can you possibly make a quality album in just one month’s time?” You’d be friggin’ amazed actually. Late-night inspiration hits, you find that old banjo to pull it all together, and things just fall into place. And when that happens, you have every reason in the world to celebrate. Shout it from the rooftops if you have to.

Musical genius is not what the RPM is about. It’s about giving people an excuse to be creative and the impetus to get something—anything—done. But it sure is nice when brilliance happens.

So let’s have a look back at a few of the standouts from last year’s challengers to show you that 28 days is totally do-able—you can pull this off, no matter what your skill level and experience—and that sometimes, genius happens.

Vegan Porn’s album To The Animals… May We Be Forgiven? has been stuck in steady rotation in my media player since I heard it last March. Lone porn star Matthew Finateri came out of nowhere to produce one of the most weirdly infectious albums of left-field pop music I’ve heard in ages. It takes a few listens for it to fully sink in, but when it does, this collection hard-to-categorize, semi-lo-fi indie pop, with lyrics filled with snarky social and political commentary, gives the listener plenty of meat- and dairy-free goodness to digest. The songs “Fish In Your Stew” and “New-Welfarist In The 21st Century” are great standout tracks that stick to you like crab lice. Good crab lice. Yeah. Listen here.

Errand Boy’s RPM entry Cape Disappointment was strong enough to make into last year’s Atlantis Music Prize shortlist, if that tells you anything. It’s a rich, and densely textured aural stimulant that feels more organic and less sample-driven then his previous releases. Errand Boy, a.k.a. Bryan Melanson, has been getting a decent bit of attention here and away for his world-class talent for crafting exquisite, moving, and complex electronic auditory panoramas. Cape Disappointment not only fueled the fervor, it proved him to be fully capable of churning out lush, cinematic masterpieces under strict time constraints. Listen here.

Steve Haley’s Two Steps in the Dark is one of the best singer/songwriter albums I heard last year. It’s a lovely collection of delicately, intelligently arranged songs that are lonesome as all hell. They ebb and flow with an easy-going grace that heightens the unforced, dramatic nature of the tunes. The end result is a perfect album for a late-night sulk in the darkness. I found this style of brooding, down-tempo folk to be a much better fit for Steve’s voice than his previous work with The Human Soundtrack. Listen here.

The 6 Fort Waldegrave (from 6 Fort Waldegrave Street, of course) take the award for best concept album of last year’s RPM. All the songs on Long Night on Camp Blood are directly inspired by the classic slasher movie Friday the 13th. Some directly reference scenes from the movie, and some are meant to be played over certain scenes as an alternative soundtrack. Done in just two weeks, but remarkably well-recorded, it has the trademark shambolic, off-the-cuff feeling you would associate with RPM participants, oozing giddy sounds of friends getting drunk and ridiculous. I mean, really, with titles like “Kevin Bacon Gets an Arrow Through his Neck” and “Chick Gets an Axe In The Face” you can’t go too wrong. Listen here.

RPM veterans and notorious local weirdos Mopey Mumble Mouse made one of their most inspired and enjoyable releases, The Wrath of Least Persistence. All the members take over on songwriting and frontman responsibilities so it’s more of a mixed bag than usual, but each member has at least one classic track on this album: Curtis Kilfoy’s vocal performance on “Forever and Ever, Amen” is cathartic and exemplary; Tom Davis’s “Grey Afternoon” is a really beautiful and tender piano ballad; and Bart Pierson delivers the rock classic we all knew he was capable of with “Vicious Circle” which drips in classic Elevator to Hell/Sabbath thunder and riffage. Listen here.

Typically found drumming for the Subtitles, Bryan Power picked up a guitar for last year’s RPM and, as Pilot to Bombardier, delivered one of my favorite albums of 2009. Come In Bombardier is an eloquent and subdued offering, with lush but delicate arrangements reminiscent of Smog or Red House Painters. Subtitles drummer Bryan Power’s voice is warm and understated, with an easy yet world-weary charm. The production is subtle and nuanced, perfectly highlighting the quiet mood of each song. Especially good is “Out of Tune,” with its quietly aching chorus and its vibraphone nod to “Chariots of Fire.” Listen here.

Another Subtitler, Rebecca Cohoe, teamed up with Exit Party’s Ian Murphy to make Pet Legs, a pure pop confection of the minimal 80’s keyboard variety. That type of album usually sends me running in the opposite direction, but Pet Legs’ self-titled gets the formula spot-on, with strong voices, energetic tempos, and catchy hooks all over the place. It’s the perfect type of project to benefit from the RPM challenge situation: With more time to spend, the album would definitely be at risk for over-thinking, over-producing and needless clutter. But the arrangements are beautifully sparse, the performances are solid, and the mixes are really full. A catchy, perky little gem of an album. Listen here.

Listen to more 2009 RPM Challenge albums here.

RPM Challenge 2010

This is the challenge: record an album in 28 days, just because you can.

That’s 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material recorded during the month of February. Go ahead… put it to tape.

It’s a little like National Novel Writing Month, (NaNoWriMo.org) where writers challenge each other to write 1,700 words a day for 30 days, or the great folks over at February Album Writing Month (fawm.org), who encourage artists to write 14 new songs in February. Maybe they don’t have Grapes of Wrath or Abbey Road at the end of the month, or maybe they do—but that’s not the point. The point is they get busy and stop waiting around for the muse to appear. Get the gears moving. Do something. You can’t write 1,700 words a day and not get better.

Don’t wait for inspiration – taking action puts you in a position to get inspired. You’ll stumble across ideas you would have never come up with otherwise, and maybe only because you were trying to meet a day’s quota of (song)writing. Show up and get something done, and invest in yourself and each other.

—

Sign me up!

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, sign up at www.rpmchallenge.com/stjohns

RPM: Keep calm and carry on recording

em>Notes from the Newfoundland RPM Challenge blogosphere

This is it! It’s the end of February, and the RPM Challenge is in its final stretch. Musicians from across the globe have been busy working on their 30 minutes or 10 song album of original music this month, and they have only until February 28 to complete it.

A listening party will happen on Saturday, March 28, with details to come.

Here in Newfoundland, more than 140 bands signed up to take The Scope’s RPM Challenge. Here are some updates posted on the website about their progress.

For more info and to hear some of what the bands are working on, visit www.rpmchallenge.com.

Craig Soper
So if there is one thing that I learned this year, it’s that the Rpm challenge is much harder then I thought. Allthough I am making progress….it seems like its not enough. But I guess thats always how it is. I have even had dreams about making the RPM deadline. Sometimes it works out, and others it doesent. But if it do or not, Im still having a blast testing myself. Can’t wait to hear everyones work. I look forward to the after party. (St. John’s)

…of secrets and numbers
Having settled on a name for the project (… of secrets and numbers) and for the album (lost whale tribe) we’re getting pretty psyched up. Currently we have about two or three songs that are almost entirely done, short of the final mixdown. On top of that we have about a half dozen songs that are 60-80% complete and a number of others that are at varying stages. Either way it looks like we’ll have more than 10 tracks and more than 35 minutes of audio. Huzzah! (St. John’s)

Errand Boy
RPM Challenge, I love you because songwriting is the hardest thing in the world for me. I love you the same way I love playing Tetris, because I know it’s something I can never be perfect at, and to me that quest for self-improvement is like going after a girl who’s way out of your league. You pretty much know you’re only going to earn it through tons of hard work, and I respect hard work more than anything. (St. John’s)

ADAM BAXTER
It’s over halfway there. There’s but only 12 days left. I have 9 songs written and recorded, but am aiming for 11. As I’ve probably shoved in your face already, I’m really really happy with how this album is shaping up. I know that this is my sound. This is what I do in my room and god damnit, I’m finally ready to share it. Is it perfect? Fuck no. Do I care? Fuck no! (St. John’s)

WARRPD
Several attempts at a soundscape arrangement resulted in potential. Blues tune arranged with the help of my lovely wife on keys. Lullaby arrangement started, with refinement coming tomorrow night. I think real recording will start as early as Wednesday. Woohoo! (St. John’s)

/gay
Well, we’re still getting used to this writing / making tracks part, but we’re getting there. (St. John’s)

IAN FOSTER
Essentially, this is a soundtrack to a film that does notexist. There are characters, and things happen, and they are all narrated inthe songs, though not through the words. This is your candles and glass of wine album. This is yourchill out album. This is your “while you study” album. This is your “get jiggy wit it” album (and I’ll let you define “get jiggy” in this case). (St. John’s)

Justin Guzzwell
This month has been something else, hasn’t it? An orgy of music is being made; creative fluids are being shot off in all directions. This month has given me the chance to try things I wouldn’t dare to try in the past, and this is what it has come to. I’ve posted one of my lasted recording efforts on my profile, a reggae song called “Bossman”. Heavily influenced by Lee Perry, complete with hot as shit backing vocals by my girlfriend, Barrett Porter. (St. John’s)

PET LEGS
guess that’s what happens when you try to record an album on victoria st.
in the small hours, long after RC had tracked her keys and succumbed to slumbered murmurings, IM laboured over the charts for the numbers-of-the-day.

percussion morning – shots just right. no one likes to keep an orchestra waiting (“we had two of everything”, she said, “it was like: ‘they have one drummer, we’ll have two’ – and that’s where that wall of sound came from”).
reverberations in headphone-land can make you feel half-crazy. they can also be a bit of a gateway…
maybe all this 60’s teenage carcrash imagery has been speaking to someone who felt like speaking to IM. by the hairs standing up on the back of his neck, you’d think it might have been two or three of them. he swore up and down that there was someone behind him. shrugged. another stab at the verse.

but there it was again.

what?

nothing, only heavy air and something’s gaze and breath.

it was time to call it a night. (St. John’s)
THE BLACKFLIES
Having a blast recording tunes for this contest! Dave and I are dropping tracks individually during the evenings, and collaborating via email. A little slower than working togeather in the same studio but it allows for lots of privacy and focus. (St. John’s/Goose Bay)

MR. POWER’S SON
My time is cut back to 7 days.. hockey tournament in Nain. I like some of the stuff that is coming out of me under the crunch. It’s gonna be a fight to the finish though, and my time is precious as I am pulled in ten different directions at the same time. Is it cool that my entire album is on garageband? I’ll be learning Serato and Ableton starting next week. Blog out. (Natuashish)

circuit tree
got some tracks down, now the challenge is the mastering, i’m pretty gray in this area. no idea how to get all the songs sound at the same level, for instance. (St. John’s)

6 Fort Waldegrave
getting the gear set up to record. egos already beginning to clash. concept changing by the minute. not sure if we’ll make it!
…
brad walked out on the recording. we claim his heart isn’t in it, he claims he has to work at 2. will update as the situation develops
…
beer has improved morale… working as one again! (St. John’s)

ROB BISHOP
I really wanna do this RPM thing, but with so damn much schoolwork to do, it feels like a noose is tightening around my neck. The worst part of all is that the few snippets I have done sound pretty cool, so I feel not only like I’m missing out on RPM but on making good music in general. I wonder how much sleep I can survive without… (St. John’s)

SHARONA CLARKE
Ahhhh here we go. I’m getting somewhere with all this! Two songs in the bag. Not to say that I won’t go back and tweak to no end at them once they are done, but so far it’s the first and third mix respectively for “Panic Attack” and “My Heart, For Free”. …My heart goes to Panic Attack as my all-time new favorite Sharona song. :) (St. John’s)

NL RPM albums 2008

We’re preparing for February 2009, so we had to remove the 2008 playlist. You can still hear them on the RPMChallenge.com site, however.

RPM teaser

Here’s a little selection of the local music produced for the RPM Challenge.

Come hear more RPM music at the official NL listening party on Saturday, March 29th from 8pm (sharp!) to 10pm. The Ship.

Congratulations folks!

We’ve received 22 successful RPM Challenge submissions!

We will be announcing this officially very soon, but there will be a listening party at The Ship on Saturday, March 29th. 8pm (sharp!) to 10pm. We’ll be playing at least one track from each of the local albums submitted.

First one submitted!

Congratulations to Terry Reilly for completing the challenge!

Enter your album info!

Enter your album info!

There is now a tab in your profile where you can enter your album information, once you’re finished! Just log in, go to your profile, then go to edit > update your profile > 2008 album info. Enter the date that you submit your album, and we’ll enter the date we received it!

To those of you who are doing the challenge but haven’t yet registered: for shame! Sign up right away and rectify this heinosity.

http://rpmchallenge.com

Delivery options

Remember, it just has to be postmarked by March 1 — Ten songs or 35 minutes of recorded material, on a CD, postmarked or hand-delivered by noon on March 1.

Submit your album by mail! Put your CD in the mail by noon March 1 to:

RPM Challenge NL
c/o The Scope
PO Box 1044
St. John’s, NL, A1C 5M3
CANADA

If you’d like to stop by in person — and you’re in the area — we’d love to see you! Drop off your CD by noon March 1 at:

Fred’s Records
198 Duckworth Street
St. John’s, NL
Drop-off Hours:
Fri 9:30am – 9:00pm
Sat 9:30am – noon

We’ll have information about next month’s (March 28) listening parties soon!

– The RPM Dietary Advisory Board

Drop box at Fred’s Records!

There will soon be a drop box at Fred’s Records at 198 Duckworth Street for all you RPMers looking to submit your album.

It may even be wrapped!

(OOoh!)

7 Days Left

It’s amazing what you can get done in 7 days — 168 hours — that’s like four solid eight-hour-a-day workweeks, if you don’t sleep, and have your food delivered! Partial albums can become whole, and whole albums can find new shades of brilliance in seven days… we can’t wait to hear what you come up with!

Remember, it just has to be postmarked by March 1 — Ten songs or 35 minutes of recorded material, on a CD, postmarked on March 1 to:

RPM Challenge NL
c/o The Scope
PO Box 1044
St. John’s, NL, A1C 5M3
CANADA

Or you can drop it off at Fred’s Records on March 1.

Other webby things:

There are several great podcasts about RPM out there, and we’ve linked to a few of them — drag the little podcast icon on the home page into your iTunes, or go to http://www.rpmchallenge.com/content/blogcategory/276/336/ to browse them, or go to their sites directly at http://www.indiebandsurvivalguide.com/blog/ or http://www.sidedown.org.

If you’re a flickr user, there’s an RPM flickr group here that’s looking for your pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/rpmchallenge/

In these final days, we’d love to hear about your progress — in addition to being able to send us video about yourself via www.yousendit.com, or contacting eyesfingerstoes@gmail.com to set up a web video interview, you can also reach us via Skype. If you have a webcam and mike and you use Skype, look up either of our usernames — rpm.challenge or rpmhq2 — and if we’re online, we’d love to hear from you!

Good luck!

– RPM Nerve Center

Thar be choons!

Richard Seypka of St. John’s has posted some of the stuff he’s been working on this month, and it’s sounding really good…

Check them out on his RPM profile.

7 Tips To Survive Mid-February RPM Disorder

By Another Cultural Landslide. Via this thread.

1. Don’t Think. Just Do.

2. F— Perfection.

3. Budget your time carefully.

4. Free yourself from bullshit expectations.

5. Passion & Desire.

6. It’s only a crisis if you want it to become one.

7. Stop kicking yourself.

Read more here.

Alison Corbett aka Black Molly

Alison Corbett aka Black Molly of St. Johns: RPM participant.

How are things going?
Black Molly is doing sopme of her finest work. She’s getting fellow musicans from The Angelshakes as well as from The Subtitles (although they don’t know it yet!) to play on some tracks. SuperGod! Patrick Canning is doing the recording for her, and is also playing on some tracks. She’s terribly busy with school and work, but things are going okay. A slight stomach flu put a snag in the process but it’s all going okay! (more…)

Daily RPM affirmation…

Check out this thread on the RPM Challenge website and get reaffirmed.

Matt Riche a.k.a. Retsyn

Matt Riche aka Retsyn of St. John’s, RPM participant.

Could you describe your project in a few sentences…?
I’m going with the name I’ve used for alot of my solo work in the past “Retsyn”. Primarily electronica, boasting a narrative and varying structure, almost exclusively made with trackers. This time around though I’m opening up to adding some guitar work and perhaps, if I’m feeling particularly sadistic, vocals. Electronica plus electric guitar usually spells heavy industrial, but that’s not my goal this time around, something a bit more chilled is my intent. (more…)

Thomas Coombes

Thomas Coombes of CBS, RPM Participant.

How are things going?
Things are moving slower than I predicted. I’ve been trying to get a friend in to sing with me, but between work, weather, coughs & colds and other winter shenanigans, it’s a bit of a problem. If we had more time, it’d be simple, but I guess that’s the name of the game.

Could you describe your project in a few sentences…?
It’s all lo-fi folk for me. Up until now, I only had a 1-track and a 4-track. Today, I just bought a Mac, a preamp, and some condenser mics. I’m just doing one more really homemade album -something that (I hope) would’ve belonged with all those shrimper records tapes, like Lou Barlow’s Sentridoh, from the 90’s. People usually tell me they like my music, but their mom loved it….So, I guess it’s like the songs your mother wrote, that were recorded one day in the basement, and left there for a decade. (more…)

RPM interview

The folks at Indie Band Survival Guide chat with two RPM organizers in their podcast:

Listen here.