RPM Challenge 2010: 86 new local albums

Photo by Kevin Coffey

It’s pretty weird to look forward to February, but ever since 2008 we get excited at the thought that people across the province are hard at work in their basements, kitchens, or wherever their makeshift recording studios are, trying to come up with 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material for the RPM Challenge—Record Production Month.

Then, once March 1 rolls around, our mailbox key starts to get itchy.

In our first year as a regional hub for the international challenge, we received 22 albums of local music. Last year that number jumped to 70.

This year we received 86 albums of original music. That’s a lot of music. In fact, if you were to listen to it all in one shot, it would be two whole days of listening.

It’s not a contest—there are no winners, no losers. It’s just a challenge to get people working on their music. We can’t think of a more worthwhile thing to do in the coldest, crappiest month of the year.

Arranged by Elling Lien and Sarah Smellie
Photo by Kevin Coffey

USE WHAT YOU GOT

When you have a cruel, cruel deadline staring you in the face, suddenly not having access to things like good equipment or instruments actually matter. This is the zen art of the RPM Challenge. Once you come to realize that this is supposed to be fun, you’re liberated. You’re free to concentrate on the music.

Crash Jones, who recorded a solo album, for instance, may not have a recording studio, but he does have an iPhone.

“I wanted to use the recordSTUDIO application (a 4-track) and try to build the songs around the original take,” he says. What came out was an intimate, raw album of music.

Bands The Coffee Dates and Friends Of both used microphones from the Rock Band video game for their records.

“When we initially started recording some takes came out super distorted and robot-like, we thought the Rock Band mics wouldn’t handle it after all,” says Friends Of. “But luckily they came out pretty good, all considered.”

Lo-fi is the name of the game for Bart Pierson, who recorded his sludgy, psychedelic album on a “shitty computer mic.”

Allan Locke’s solo pop disc may sound like a full band is playing, but it’s all just him, live.

“I recorded it all directly through my guitar effects pedal, which has a record/overdub/looper function and two inputs,” he says. “I hooked up a guitar and a microphone to the pedal and made a layered album in real-time, whereby I recorded percussion through the mic, for example, which the pedal would then playback as a loop, and then as the pedal played the loop I could overdub a guitar riff to be looped on top of the percussion.”

•••

RPM FIRSTS

It’s the first year we received submissions from kids.

12-year old Naomi Russell’s folk/pop album Who I Am was the product of lots of work after school in the music room with her family—which includes Newfoundland fiddler and multi-instrumentalist Kelly Russell, her father.

“When we finished recording the album …my family was overjoyed,” she says. “It made me feel so proud while we sat in the living room listening to it.”

10-year old Nicolas Trnka’s “funny and weird” album, made up of 10 short songs about going to the comic store, aliens, jumping on a trampoline, and other stuff, is, like tigers, “just plain awesome.”

Ten years old may seem young, but it’s not the youngest participant of the bunch. We received an entire solo album by 12-month old “EGo” strumming on a guitar and plunking on a keyboard—“Avant garde experimentation for the toddler set.”

One of Ritche Perez’s favourite moments recording Wizards of Kaos’ psychedelic rock/metal opus was having his daughter lay down a few vocal tracks.

This is also the first year we’ve received spoken word submissions, including an album by The Last Starfighter and the stand-up comedy troupe Shawn Walsh’s Mustache.

•••

ON THE MOVE

Moving was a theme for some RPMers this year, whether it was across the country or across the city.

Moving to a new place in the middle of the month was tough for Brian Downton of Schizophrenic Bi-Polar Bear but he managed to complete the album days ahead of the deadline. “So it wasn’t that bad,” he says. “And the new place is awesome!”

Moving slightly farther afield was the cast of Artistic Fraud’s Theatre Newfoundland Labrador’s Tempting Providence, who were touring the Canadian North as they worked on their “headphone road album” under the name Crystal City Printing Press.

Half of digital duo Robot Scout had to travel the province for a theatre show as well, so the majority of the tracks were mixed on the road.

SUPERGOD!! aka Patrick Canning, also moved in the month of February. “I only had three weeks to do anything this year since I was in the midst of moving to a different province,” he says. “But I was still able to get 15 tracks done. Not knowing anybody in a new town helps the creative process a lot. Having a supportive girlfriend and neighbours who don’t mind loud guitars in the afternoon are both good things.”

•••

RPM WITHDRAWAL

After 28 days of concentrating on the music and letting real life fall to the wayside, March 1st rolls around.

How do you feel, now that it’s over?

Jason Earle: “Relieved, but at the same time kinda bored.”

People on Pause: “Kinda sad, it was an exciting time and the whole thing was going so smoothly. Can we stick another month of February in the summer or something?”

epo: “It took a few days after it ended to realize that it was all over and to get used to not thinking about it all the time.”

Jack E. Tar: “I’m ready to make another album… a bit mad at myself I waited this long to make a record actually.”

Mythical Man Month: “Safer—I’m not tripping over cables and maneuvering around gear. And a little lost on Monday, like when any big project ends and a void is created. No worries though, work filled the void real quick.”

Brett Vey: “With everyone’s busy day to day lives it is very challenging to focus purely on the music. Now that it is over, I have to wait till next year before I can commit this much consecutive time to writing and recording.”

Magnus Svensons: “Void.”

The Blossoms: “I want to do it again! I feel like I want to keep writing and keep the high you get from the creative process, but it’s hard after a month straight.”

18 Hertz/The Composers: “I wonder what else I could have written if I would of had more time to do more songs.”

Ice Cream Headaches: “Sticky.”

Action Hotdog: “Feeling empty again, purposeless.”

Counter Destroyer: “…everything I do is void of meaning or purpose. I feel alone in this world, and cold, so very cold.”

•••

HIDDEN TALENTS

Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of. Below are a few examples of people who tried and succeeded at something they hadn’t ever attempted before.

Jack Betty (aka Boobie Browne) realized he “could probably have a decent schmaltzy jazz career if [he] wanted.”

Repeat duo Other People found a backup singer: “My friend Debi came in to record some backup vocals for us,” says Amy Joy. “She’s a friend of mine, i grew up with her in Bonavista. She’s like a little hidden gem with this magical voice, she can pretty much harmonize anything, but she’s never recorded anything before. So it was so great to hear her belt out harmonies for a few of the songs, it almost seemed effortless to her … Then to see her face when it played back was the best feeling ever.”

Something about writing an album about Friday the 13th Part II helps people release their inner metalhead. If you ever wondered what the Idlers sounded like without the niceness and the reggae, you should hear the album by The 6 Fort Waldegrave.

The Subtitles’ Rebecca Cohoe teamed up with Exit Party’s Ian Murphy for the second year in a row for Pet Legs: “For some reason doing RPM liberates us to make the kind of pop music we love listening to, but don’t really do in our other
bands,” says Murphy.

•••

NEW ON THE SCENE

Some bands and musicians used the opportunity to hammer themselves into shape or come up with material. If you haven’t already seen them perform in town, you may see them soon…

Parliament of Owls: “The members of the Parliament of Owls are now working out details of a performance in the near future.”

Nightmen: “We used the RPM to force us to get together to get a band started and get some material ready to play shows. It was sink or swim and I’m glad to say we stayed above water. We already have played a show and will be looking to many more in the next year.”

Barbeau: “It was a great adventure and it really put my creativity to the test. After years of helping other people finish their songs it was very satisfying to actually complete my own… I’m going to re-record these songs and I plan on turning this into a CD release. Also, I can’t wait for next year’s challenge.”

Stephen Green: “I feel like I want to keep writing and keep this moving forward, and to start performing these songs live.”

Back to Copenhagen: “RPM rolling around seemed like a great opportunity to christen the band… We learned a great deal about the many angles of music creation. Now that we don’t have a deadline we can improve some of our RPM songs as necessary and we’re free to begin creating a whole new set of songs that we hope to debut in the coming months.”

4 Fold Aprons, who describes his music as “a drunk DJ in limbo” says he is already starting another album. “Bigger and better. Keep the ears tuned.”

•••

WAS IT EASIER THE SECOND TIME AROUND?

Pilot to Bombardier: Nope. “From RPMing last year I knew what to expect though it didn’t make much difference. The chords and melodies came together pretty quickly, the lyrics were a struggle—I rarely pay attention to song lyrics but I realize that most of my friends do. I felt I couldn’t get away with random sentence fragments so I consciously fought with/for the words.”

Mike Williams: Yes! “This year was my second year completing the challenge and I went into it with a bit more of a plan than the previous year. That alone took a lot of the pressure off cause I knew what I wanted to accomplish and I had a rough idea of how everything was going to layout right from the start. Last year was more of a learning experience that anything.”

Worker: Yes. “Compared to a year ago, my skills have grown a lot. It was a lot of fun to come up with ideas and fiddle with sounds all month. I think I work better under pressure.”

am/fm dreams: No. “This was by far the hardest year of the three [RPM albums we’ve done]. February was full of a lot of nasty real life things for us. That being said it was nice to have this little project we could immerse ourselves in… and kind of take our minds off things. “

Sluts on Sluts: Yes. Matthew Beverly is confident he has discovered the right sound for his project. “If I was ever in the mood to put together a song in the vein of ‘Sluts On Sluts’, I would have a good idea of what buttons to press and what knobs to tweak.”

Grant Kingston: Yep. “I had a slightly better understanding of my recording equipment than last year so it went a little smoother.”

Barry O: Definitely not! “I thought that having the history of the first one would make this one a little easier – wrong. I again found myself scrambling around, sequestering myself from the “real world”, trying to not only stay within the parameters of the RPM itself, but also trying to avoid repeating my ideas from last year.”

•••

THE TRICKS AND INSPIRATION

Some of the creative techniques people used to gitterdun.

Potholez: “Had to be when I when I was conducting Steve Crewe through the powers of interpretive hand dance.”

J. Alfred: “Some of the lyrics on the album were accomplished through a mental process equivalent to performing my own dentistry by punching myself in the mouth until the right tooth came out.”

WCTU: “Late night writing session fueled by new frontier in tummy aching culinary delights: toaster waffles with peanut butter and simulated breakfast syrup and a bottle of cream soda. Mmmm.”

Sharona Clarke: “It was a live, piano-and-vocal-only collection of songs from my two albums On the Right Track and The Secret… is to Dream. Stripped down to how I play them solo with just the piano.”

Ultramammoth: “I’ve always been inspired by the old home-recording stuff by Beck when he’d record songs in his shed. Therefore, I happily (and unashamedly) use that influence as an excuse to record half-arsed songs in one take.”

Hatch: “One night I had this incredible feeling of creativity coming to me. I usually start songs with a riff, or a little melody that comes to me, however this time I knew there was this entire song coming. I didn’t have any idea how it sounded in my head, but I just sat down with my acoustic and the whole thing just flowed out of me—chords and lyrics. It was almost surreal. It’s now one of the songs I am most proud of.”

Liam Peacock: I wrote eight songs about the eight games of the 1972 Summit Series between the Canadians and the Russians. I pinpointed this theme because it gave me a very rigid framework to work within, which I think is something of a necessity for RPM (especially if you lose a week’s worth of work because of stupid equipment issues).”

Vickee Loo (Victor Lewis): “Happiness is the New Depression is a collection of negative thoughts that I’ve attempted to invert through the use of recycled melodies and bad electronic effects for the purposes of cheap entertainment.”

Osprey Signal: “I had wanted to record the hum of airplanes from behind the airport for a long time. I finally got around to doing that. It was fun and resulted in a lot of ambience that really suited the album.”

St. John’s Ukulele Orchestra: “I don’t think there are words for some of the things we did during [this album’s] creation. If those words existed, they would be used in laws to make those things illegal.”

WORDS OF ADVICE FOR FUTURE PARTICIPANTS

ShedDevils (with their tenth album!): “If I have any advice, it’s always record and write as you go. Don’t write first then record because the direct-from-air-to-system version is hard to beat some times… In short: record it every time and then whittle it down.”

Kevin Woolridge: “A guy on the RPM site made a comment on my blog. He was quoting John Peel’s defense of vinyl, that ‘life has surface noise.’ After that I accepted the hiss and pretended it was just warm vinyl noise. It helped an awful lot.”

Matthew Hare: “You really have to put everything you’ve got into it and the end result is either going to be what you had pictured or it’s going to let you down in some way… If there is anybody out there who is thinking about doing the RPM, do it! It’s worth it in the end and even if you don’t finish all 10 songs then you still might end up with one of the best songs you’ve ever written.”

Jonathon Aubrey: “It’s something that every musician should try. It’s so much fun, and it really makes you think more about your music.”

DJ Frosty: “I don’t think we need an excuse to make an album at all, we should treat every month as RPM month.”

Robin Graves and the Diggers: “I’d love to see more people, especially ‘non-musicians’, make an effort to complete the RPM Challange. Everyone can make music, if they really want to.”

Manny Steiner: “Seriously, who cares if its rough, low-fi or whatever? You don’t need several thousand dollars in equipment and an audio engineering degree to make an album; of course it helps, but resourcefulness is what this thing is all about.”

•••

WE SHALL OVERCOME

These are but a small sample of the myriad problems experienced by our fearless RPMers. And then there was technical failure. Which just sucks.

South Symposium: Worst moment? Trying to find a drummer.

The Cause: “Thinking we recorded three hours only to discover the recorder was on pause the whole time.”

The Dead Ponies: “Finally getting together the equipment we needed, getting a quick tutorial on how to use M-Audio, then realizing right after our tutor left that we had somehow screwed up the settings and could record nothing. I think that was frustration in its purest form.”

Drysdale: “[I was] down to the wire, finishing the CD, and I rushed around to get the cover done and stupidly locked my keys in my car with my CD 30 minutes before the deadline… in the rain.”

Adam Baxter: “The worst moment was at 10:30pm on January 31st when my recording gear completely died on me. I had to go out the next day and purchase new recording hardware. Then I had to figure out how to use it.”

Alex Wells: “I’m not overly a confident singer and some trained ears out there might recognize why. I think for the most part things turned out okay. It wasn’t easy, but I’m sure it made me better in the end!”

Ryan Taylor: “I knew noise complaints would be an issue with everything, so figuring out where to do the singing was also a bit of a challenge. My biggest obstacle was getting past the fact that there were so many obstacles… And in the end, everything worked out (as it always does!)”

•••

MISC.

Now that it’s all over…

Cara Lee Coleman: “Now that it’s over I feel proud that I’m at a stage in my life where I can churn out something so good, so quick. I’ve learned a lot.”

Andrew Harvey: “With all the terrible things technology does, tearing down the corporate music industry by enabling anyone to record an album might be one of its most positive aspects.”

Terry Rielly: “Thanks to Glenn Tizzard of Distortion for offering to help me get a CD of my songs together! It was nerveracking because I am so technology challenged.”

Dave Walsh: “Everyone says finishing the RPM is their best moment but that’s wrong. The best moments are when you surprise yourself with a note you never thought you could hit or you finally get the correct 3rd of a guitar riff.”

Billy Boland: “Every time I got a song finished, I felt better about the whole experience. Seeing the album and a few songs show up on the livestream a few days after was nice. Feedback and comments as well made it worth while.”

Tim Barnes: “[The worst moment was] realizing what day it was, as in it was the 27th and recording was yet to start.”

OK Potato: “The biggest challenge was finding time. Between figuring out our recording equipment and scheduling ourselves, including Olympic hockey on Feb 28, it was tight.”

Joe Harvey: Worst moment? “Having to watch the Olympic Men’s Hockey championship game on mute while trying to finish recording the album.”

(Honourable mention goes to the nearly-complete participants Ragged Dick, electro-CHAK, and Audrey Cohen. Come to the listening parties to hear some of their music too!)

RPM Listening Parties 2010: The schedules

Free and open to the public! The songs played at Folly in the daytime will be repeated at CBTGs at the beginning of the evening. The idea is if you want to hear a track from everyone, you can come to the party at Folly, then go to the party at the Levee, then hop over to CBTGs — all without hearing a repeated song. RPM CDs may be available for sale by the artists.

Folly

(All ages) 1-3pm
5 Bates Hill

1:00pm – 1:30pm
Allan Locke — Live By Love
Pilot to Bombardier — The Lights of Pearl Mountain
Nicolas Trnka — Doin’ The Robot
Stephen Green — Track 1
St. John’s Ukelele Club — Track 4
Wizards of Kaos — Deliverance
Scrambled Meggz — Snakes & Ladders
WTCU — White Night
Sigma — The New Scene
Kevin Woolridge — Will You Run?

1:30pm – 2:00pm
Other People — Wind Up Robots
The South Symposium — Track 1
Pet Legs — The Fast Years
Jason Earle — Hi, My Name Is Jason
Jack Betty — Brno Bryes!
Nicolas Trnka — Comic Store
Terry Rielly — No Kiddin’
electro-CHAK — Track 4
The Last Starfighter — Track 5
Ubiquitous Gazelle — Shake

2:00pm – 2:30pm
Back to Copenhagen – Jesus Drove a Pickup Truck
4 Fold Aprons — My Little Shadow
Vickee Loo — Phantom Vibrations
Naomi Russell — Who I Am
Cara Lee Coleman — Outbreak
Jonathon Aubrey — Just Can’t
Ragged Dick — small girl
Liam Peacock — Night Games

2:30pm – 3:00pm
Matthew Hare — This City
OK Potato — Feaver’s Lane
Tim Barnes — Livin’ Right
Nicolas Trnka — Tiger
EGo — Synthy Skins
Mythical Man-Month — Sleepy All Day Blues
Joe Harvey — Poor In The Summertime
Sharona Clarke — A Bully Revealed
Schizophrenic Bi-Polar Bear — Fart Party (Poopie Pants Dance)
The Magnus Svensons — Paarjavi
Shed Devils — You Got A Lot To Learn

•••

The Levee

(19+) 9-11pm
Holdsworth Court

9:00pm – 9:30pm
J. Alfred — Sliders
DJ Frosty — Day 1 – Exposure
Shed Devils — You Got A Lot To Learn
The Ice Cream Headaches — 106
Elling Lien — Falling in Love!
Crash Jones — She’s All Love
Hatch — free, simple.

9:30pm – 10:00pm
Grant Kingston — Track 3
The Cause — A Funk
The Dead Ponies — I Played House
epo — two eyes on the door
The 6 Fort Waldegrave — Triple Murder!
Sheavy — The Black Tower

9:30pm – 10:00pm
SUPERGOD!!!!! — Satan Has Two Eyes You Know
Crystal City Printing Press — Hotel Rooms
The Potholez — Wait For Me
Counter Destroyer — Buffalo Plant
Dave Walsh — Why Not?
Sluts on Sluts — Damhnait
Cara Lee Coleman — Outbreak
Ryan Taylor — Revolution in Heaven

10:30pm – 11:00pm
Crisis Averted — Help
The Coffee Dates — Breathe
The Composers — Track 1
Rob Bishop — Sterile
Brett Vey — Please Don’t Go (Crystal Vey)
Robot Scout — Robot Two-010
Friends Of — Run Riverbed
The Jack E. Tar — Pistol Whipped for Jesus
Robin Graves and the Diggers — RPM Jam

•••

CBTGs

(19+) 9pm-late
Holdsworth Court

9:00pm – 9:30pm
Allan Locke — Live By Love
Pilot to Bombardier — The Lights of Pearl Mountain
Nicolas Trnka — Doin’ The Robot
Stephen Green — Track 1
St. John’s Ukelele Club — Track 4
Wizards of Kaos — Deliverance
Scrambled Meggz — Snakes & Ladders
WTCU — White Night
Sigma — The New Scene
Kevin Woolridge — Will You Run?

9:30pm – 10:00pm
Other People — Wind Up Robots
The South Symposium — Track 1
Pet Legs — The Fast Years
Jason Earle — Hi, My Name Is Jason
Jack Betty — Brno Bryes!
Nicolas Trnka — Comic Store
Terry Rielly — No Kiddin’
electro-CHAK — Track 4
The Last Starfighter — Track 5
Ubiquitous Gazelle — Shake

10:00pm – 10:30pm
Back to Copenhagen – Jesus Drove a Pickup Truck
4 Fold Aprons — My Little Shadow
Vickee Loo — Phantom Vibrations
Naomi Russell — Who I Am
Cara Lee Coleman — Outbreak
Jonathon Aubrey — Just Can’t
Ragged Dick — small girl
Liam Peacock — Night Games

10:30pm – 11:00pm
Matthew Hare — This City
OK Potato — Feaver’s Lane
Tim Barnes — Livin’ Right
Nicolas Trnka — Tiger
EGo — Synthy Skins
Mythical Man-Month — Sleepy All Day Blues
Joe Harvey — Poor In The Summertime
Sharona Clarke — A Bully Revealed
Schizophrenic Bi-Polar Bear — Fart Party (Poopie Pants Dance)
The Magnus Svensons — Paarjavi
Shed Devils — You Got A Lot To Learn

11:00pm – 11:30pm
am-fm dreams — Paint By Numbers
Barbeau — Lovely Blues
18 Hertz — Track 1
Worker — 1987
Shawn Walsh’s Mustache — Screaming Mittens (Sarah Walsh)
Alex Wells — Scape Goat
manny steiner — orgasmic od0ntalgia
Billy Boland — Tapes

11:30pm – 12:00pm
The Parliament of Owls — Peacher Noble
Shawn Walsh’s Mustache — Glasses (Jeff Patey)
Audrey Cohen — Six Is The Loneliest Number
Drysdale — Gothic Girl
Thom Coombes — Down To The Wire
Back to Copenhagen — Jesus Drove a Pickup Truck
Osprey Signal — Rothera
The Blossoms — The Glow
The Bart Pierson — Walking Dead

12:30pm – 1:00am
People On Pause — Jack-O-Lantern
Shawn Walsh’s Mustache — Dairy Queen (Kurt Hull)
Ultramammoth — You Baaastaaarrddss!!!
Night Men — From The Depths
Andrew Harvey Presents False Advertising — Powder Revisited (Hand in Hand)
Mike Williams — The Cause
Action Hotdog — Going
Adam Baxter — Affirmation
Shawn Walsh’s Mustache — Pet Names (Shawn Walsh)
BarryO — Ironic Shelter
Glen Connolly — Come Apart

1:00am – 3:00am
Random play

NL RPM Challenge Radio

Hear music from 86 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…)