Between shouting slogans in his pajamas and walking round Central Park
bundled up in Kashmir with Yoko Ono, John Lennon once said that he
wished records to be like newspapers and be recorded and released in a
week.
Well, The RPM Challenge should more than match Lennon’s aspiration.
With 201 Seacoast-affiliated bands/artists signed up to record an album
in 28 days, we should be averaging about six albums a day for this
month—the very thought of which requires new underwear.
All around us, charismatic rock prophets, woolen wrapped folk
troubadours, red-eyed bedroom computer music maestros; musicians of all
shapes and sizes, haircuts and aromas (and names, too, from “Mother
Theresa’s Smiling Corpse Brigade” to “Big Tits”), are sweating it out,
priming themselves to produce new music: hip-hop, hard rock, bluegrass,
funk, guitars, moogs, laptops, strings—it’s all here.
It was startling how many musicians made progress in the first few
days. On the RPM Web site (www.rpmchallenge.com) band posts came in on
Feb. 1 with fresh lyrics and even reports of recording. By the end of
the weekend, dozens of bands had checked in with news of sets of songs
completed or recordings begun. Some bands, like The Frosting,
post their lyrics, others just sum up their progress. The groups Apollo
and Boots of Blinding Speed already have CD artwork to go with their
new projects.
Musicians that have been together for eons seem to be finding a new
vitality. RPM has helped create a farm of free-range ideas, a vital
antidote to the preservative-pumped junk that curdles music’s blood
flow.
“I was up until 4 this morning writing snippets of this and that…
whatever came into my head,” says John from Poppacap (whose loud,
eclectic brand of crowd pleasing classic rock can be seen at Curt
Bessette’s open mic at Biddy Mulligan’s on most Wednesday nights).
“We’re looking forward to making a full-length CD—though not looking
forward to mixing it!” Similarly, Tim Deal of Craving, a band that
plays the Muddy River Smokehouse on Wednesday, Feb. 8, describes their
preparations for recording as furious and frenetic. “It’s daunting and
exciting at the same time,” he says, “It’s forcing us to become more
creative and less concerned about the product. This is important,
because self-doubt is the nemesis of true creativity.” Meanwhile,
Winterstar, two fellows that promise “new sounds,” have begun the
creative process like a couple of crazed Doctor Frankensteins, foaming
at the mouth as their pioneering experiments breed new life forms. As
Tory from the band enthuses, “Ideas are flowing, and gigs of bytes are
beginning to fill. A bass mated with a stereo phaser. And it was good.”
Many bands participating promise something very different—a concept
album (gasp!) However, whereas the likes of Pink Floyd and other prog
rock behemoths specialized in the immaculate and impenetrable, where
personality was consigned to the evolutionary dumpster, RPM’s
conceptualists seem to be offering anything but. “What we are trying to
do is write a CD that takes place in the 1960s that involves a bank
heist, a pot-smoking Indian, a rebel preacher, plus many others,”
Organic Lemonade informed us. Indeed, talk is rife of many bands doing
concept albums, with concepts ranging from 10 fingers to the month of
February. Museum of Science, however, give little away—those outside
the band who want to sit in on practices are told they will be
blindfolded, put in the trunk of 1960 Buick before being brought into
“the Lab” where, no doubt, the magic happens. I plan to sit in on them
next week, though have been told I will have my memory erased before I
leave.
As you read this, lyrics are being scrawled, guitars twanged, beer is
being spilled over expensive equipment. The sense of camaraderie as
these 201 brave souls venture into the artistic unknown is startling.
Some artists have been giving each other advice, lending each other
equipment and giving each other hot stone massages. Others haven’t been
seen of, even by friends or family, since Jan. 31, burying themselves
in the pleasures and frustrations of making an album. God apparently
took a rest on the seventh day, content that he’d done enough for one
week by creating a universe, putting his feet up, sleeping in, watching
the game. No such luck for many of the bands / artists making their
albums over this month. I command everybody in the Seacoast to applaud
these guys and girls for sweating, fretting and wetting over their
artistic creations. We are so lucky to have what we have here—a wealth
of musical talent that is as rich as our history.
“As I wandered around the Muddy River (at the orientation meeting),
placing faces with name tags, and name tags with names on the
“Participating Artist List,” I was struck by the richness and diversity
of our local music scene. It feels good to be part of something
bigger than me. This fact alone makes me want to stick it out and
finish this thing,” Deal says.
Follow the bands’ progress online at www.rpmchallenge.com, and tune in next week for our comprehensive update in The Wire!
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