the RPM Challenge 2009 progress thread

the RPM Challenge 2009 progress thread: How are you going?

I know there are a few on Mfilter that were intending to do the RPM Challenge this year. Well its the ___(9th today) February. how are you going?

posted by mary8nne (24 comments total)

9th: 1 song complete. 2 partials that are not going well.
-
This whole process of writing songs to a schedule I find rather difficult.
One thing that works for me is writing lyrics on the train to/from work each day, so that I have some material to mine when you get down to business.
posted by mary8nne at 6:24 AM on February 9, 2009

Do you have a page on the RPM Challenege website? I think we should link to our pages.

My RPM page is here. I have two songs done, one of which I posted on MuFi. Here is the myspace I made for the RPM project, for the heck of it. My 'real' myspace is in my profile. I want to be your friend. Yes, you!
posted by Corduroy at 9:17 AM on February 9, 2009

I have sketches and maybe half a verse/chorus worth of lyrics for three songs, and a few lyrical notions beside that I haven't developed at all yet. Also, I left myself a singing voicemail the other night because I had an idea for a song on the way to the grocery store and I knew the muzak inside would destroy it before I got through checkout.

Other than that, bubkis so far. Apparently creating a website about cats is what I decided to spend my energy on for the first week of the month.

To prep for the month, I took a bunch of photographs of my new neighborhood, and I've been trying to go back to those for little bits of ideas and inspiration—ideally, the album (if I actually get the hell down to it here at some point) will be mostly about the place, or about a fictional bunch of vignettes about it at least. But I really need to force my ass to start writing; I think I had most of my album down on paper by this point back in 2007, so I'm kind of worried.
posted by cortex at 9:53 AM on February 9, 2009

I haven't gotten anything recorded yet either, so don't feel bad. I have 4 or 5 songs already written, stuff that didn't work with the band for one reason or another, and a couple more in progress, so I feel like I can finish if I can get myself moving. I hope.
posted by InfidelZombie at 10:20 AM on February 9, 2009

As of tonight we have 2 or 3 completed and 8 more partially recorded. We tend to just record every guitar riff we can think of and go back later to fill it in. At this rate we may hit a double album of random songs. Here is our RPM page. Hopefully we'll get a song or two up soon.
posted by thequietriot at 3:17 PM on February 9, 2009

I don't have anything on my official RPM page yet. - not sure i'll bother. I think just getting it done is enough really. I'll probably just post it on my website.


I had a crack at some on the weekend - but really haven' thad a good solid time to do it. with working 9-5 weekdays its hard to find enough time to get it all along. - and its just me so it takes longer to record all the parts.
posted by mary8nne at 1:53 AM on February 10, 2009

We've got a couple of backing tracks completed, a shitload of lyrics written that need intense editing, and not a single song that's actually come together as a whole. The work to be done in the remaining eighteen days looms large in my mind...specifically in the form of a gray, san-serifed countdown clock.
posted by youarenothere at 11:11 AM on February 10, 2009

Yeah, I am definitely not going to finish this, particularly because I'm gearing up to move. But I do have 5 or 6 sketches that I could probably crank into tunes by the end of the month, so who knows. At the very least, I've been making an effort to write a little bit every day, which is nice.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:32 AM on February 10, 2009

I think I'll call my album Chinese Democracy.
posted by hellojed at 6:45 PM on February 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Just finished my first song. About to upload it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:25 PM on February 10, 2009

As of the 11th, we've got five songs written and another recorded. There's a couple of demos on our page that we'll most like re-record.

More recording after work tonight!
posted by man vs sun at 1:26 PM on February 11, 2009

I've been doing terribly. It's almost as though this project has stymied my usual pace. Anybody got any suggestions?
posted by dagosto at 2:58 PM on February 11, 2009

As of the 12, We've got all ten tracks written. Rhythm Guitar, Bass and vocals for most. Just at the point of realizing we are bad at percussion, need to do guitar solos, can't play the banjo, and probably ought to redo a lot of what we've done so far.

In short we've got 10 songs, going on 2.
posted by magikker at 11:08 AM on February 12, 2009

I'm psyched. I just found out I'm going to participate in this year's challenge after all, as a late entry. Some friends of mine and I do this regular improvisational noise rock thing every couple of months whenever the stars align just right (we operate according to two basic rules: 1. Rotate instruments frequently; 2. Don't stop) and we're getting together tonight to lay down the basic tracks for our entry in the challenge. Wish us luck!
posted by saulgoodman at 6:50 AM on February 13, 2009

I'm three songs into my epic Philip-K-Dick-esque rock opera. Well, almost three songs. Man, I hope I can finish this.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:59 AM on February 14, 2009

as of the 16th I now have 5 songs mostly complete. and 2 other unfinished sketches.
posted by mary8nne at 5:33 AM on February 16, 2009

The group I'm working with completed its one-night only marathon improvisational recording session on Friday night, and after a slight hiccup with porting the project files, I got my portable drive back with the source files on Sunday afternoon. Working until the wee hours last night after my son went to bed, I finally came up for air with a more or less finished mix for our first track (which I just posted to the music page). I figure as long as I can average at least a track a day for a while, we'll make it by the deadline with time to spare. Heh. Yeah, that's what I "figure." We'll see. So far, so good, though.
posted by saulgoodman at 9:33 AM on February 16, 2009

i've just listened to the 11 songs i've got and i've decided that it's done - i'll probably be mailing it out tuesday

it's the best work i've done yet
posted by pyramid termite at 8:06 PM on February 22, 2009

23rd February.

I now have 9 Songs done. but need to finalise the Mix / Roughly Master them. and might just do something cheater-ish for track 10. As I only have 3days to complete as I'm out of town from the 26th.
posted by mary8nne at 3:22 AM on February 23, 2009

I've got six completed tracks in the bag now, with a seventh nearly done. Since I got off to a really late start (didn't start working until the 13th), it's been a pretty desperate scramble, but I'm still on track to finish up just in the nick of time. Haven't had a decent night's sleep in over a week though. Thank god my wife has been so understanding and supportive throughout this whole adventure.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:16 AM on February 23, 2009

I have been teaching myself Inform and getting back into Final Fantasy XII. Shoot.
posted by cortex at 7:56 AM on February 23, 2009

Up until this weekend I really thought I'd be able to pull it off, but it isn't going to happen. The songs are mostly written, but I wanted to do my own beats this year instead of the loops I used last year-- guess I should have practiced that some in January, because it took me all day yesterday to get a rythym I liked for one song. So there's no way to get them all done by next week. Instead, I'll post those songs here as I finish them.
posted by InfidelZombie at 9:34 AM on February 23, 2009

Started late, got sick and work-slammed and unforeseen, unhappy events and gave up and then finished it anyway, by dint of a few fairly agonizingly long elements of improv on the Korg DS-10 (kicks ass; still don't really have any idea how to use it) in songs with lyrics that would have otherwise lasted about 2 minutes. Profile here. Lyrics blog here. I don't think I'm going to do any more of these "complete X artistic endeavor in Y amount of time" projects, though. I think I've got enough enforced creativity in my life. I'll get a few of the more tolerable tunes posted in here soon.
posted by nanojath at 1:35 AM on March 1, 2009

I didn't hear about it until last week. So I put together some washes and improvised pieces and pulled it off in on the last day! But - now I am sick and groggy and I still have to get the thing into an envelope and put it in the mail somehow. Also, because of the mailing deadline shift, I did not register until today so I don't know if they'll accept that, either.

The album is called "Dawn Improvisations - a wake-to-music soundtrack". It's probably better for going to sleep, but should that happen, the last piece is rousing. Ouch.
posted by AppleSeed at 10:11 AM on March 1, 2009