Getting Those Musical Ducks in a Row

I think there is no better way of demonstrating one's love for music than by donning a carrot costume and parading around in front of your coworkers for a $100 prize to be applied to band expenses, so that's what I did at my office Halloween costume party today. I won!

This is good news, because the secondhand iBook with GarageBand software that I will be picking up tomorrow is still kind of pricey, plus I have been drooling over drum sets on Craigslist.

According to the grueling band schedule, I am slated to play percussion for the first two songs we tackle: "You Know I'm No Good" (Amy Winehouse) and "Happy, The End" (The Innocence Mission). Based on listening repeatedly to these songs on my iPod during my metro rides into work, closing my eyes for concentration, and mouthing "ONE two three four five six SEVEN eight" while tapping on my purse, I have judged that "Happy, The End" will not be too tough, provided I can find a cymbal or cymbal substitute.

"You Know I'm No Good," though, has some hardcore drumming that will be difficult for me as an absolute amateur to replicate, especially if I am merely banging on pots with a spoon.

I found something irresistable on Craigslist: a kid's drum set for $85!!! Apparently they are real drums; they're just, well, miniature! Which seems fitting for a band recording an album in a month. With the aforementioned grueling band schedule, though, I am unsure when I can go take a look at them and haul them to the Know Eye Inn Teem sound studio (i.e. my basement). Are there any vehicle-enabled members of the KEIT fan base who might want to volunteer for this mission? I'll even throw in the remaining $15 from my carrot costume prize as a hauling fee!

You May Be Right, I May Be Crazy...

With a few days to go before rehearsals begin, this seems like a good opportunity to illustrate the shocking prejudice that Know Eye Inn Teem must overcome to accomplish our goal of recording an album in one month. So here goes: after I invited all my local friends to be part of the band, I got a series of responses that affectionately suggested I am bananas. Yes! They did! An anonymous sampling, for your amusement:

"GOOD LUCK, NUT CASE!!!!!"

"There is a bit of fun in watching friends slip fantastically towards a wonder bucket of insanity."

"Jennie -- I think you're a little bit crazy in the head. I like that about you."

Not to worry; this sort of allusion to our compromised mental health only makes us more determined. We wouldn't be the first rock stars to suggest that "it just may be a lunatic you're looking for."

I am looking into getting a used Mac laptop from someone on Craigslist, so I can use GarageBand software to record The Aluminum Album.

Calendar and Discography

Today I selected the songs Know Eye Inn Teem (KEIT) will play on our album. It was a big challenge matching up band members' skills and availability with the songs we want to play. Given that there is not a single day on which every KEIT member is available, we will have to record most of the songs in layers - eg. keyboard one day, guitar the next.

Various subsets of KEIT will assemble on 17 of the 30 days in November for intense rehearsals and recording sessions.

Here is the discography for The Aluminum Album (the order will change):
1) Home Grown (Booker T. and the M.G.s)
2) Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
3) Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles)
4) You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse)
5) Happy Together (The Turtles)
6) 6AM (Know Eye Inn Teem - an original song!)
7) I Just Called To Say I Love You (Stevie Wonder)
8) Brighter than Sunshine (Aqualung)
9) Happy, The End (Innocence Mission)

I will be tied up with work events on November 1 and 2, so rehearsals will officially begin on November 3. Until then, I will be attacking our scariest technical challenge: how are we going to record ourselves, anyway? Microphones, software, etc....I have five days to figure it out. No sweat.

Auspicious Beginnings

In lieu of writing a novel this November (see http://www.nanowrimo.org/), I am assembling a band to record an album. Friends received an email earlier this month with instructions on how to become a rock star, an idea based on my woefully bad third novel, The Aluminum Album.

Potential band members were advised not to worry if they, like myself, have no musical ability whatsoever. They would be heartened to learn that musical ability was not a prerequisite to be part of the band. Every interested and committed party was promised a role. Let’s just say our triangle and cowbell sections look to be very strong on this album.

The album will be begun and completed in the month of November. Since 30 days is not a whole lot of time to form a band, learn songs, record them, respond to fan mail, shave your head and enter rehab, etc., the schedule will be both grueling and rigid.

The name of the band is Know Eye Inn Teem. It comes from the novel. Yes, the novel I wrote.

The name of the album is “The Aluminum Album.” Again, from the literary masterpiece of the same name.

Auditions began on October 21. Peter Tatian wowed with a Queen song on his trombone. Julie Flinn came equipped with a Restoration Hardware "Country Band" set of instruments that included a banjo, a harmonica, and a washboard, and she offered a stirring tambourine accompaniment to U2.

Further auditions took place on October 26. The multi-talented Cerin Lindgrensavage, our band's only Andalousian lute player, tore up "What a Wonderful World" on acoustic guitar. Brad Scriber electrified with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" on the the violin, then he and Cerin turned it into a spontaneous duet. I detracted from the magic by chiming in with flat vocals. Mic Murphy arrived and set up his keyboard apparatus, jazzed around on it expertly for a while, and then took our "Sunday Bloody Sunday" to a new and wonderful level. We explored some variations after that, such as "Salsa Bloody Salsa."

Alas, after a week of unsuccessfully wooing drummers, I am still without someone with any experience in this area, but I think that with a combination of Julie "Thud" Flinn's improvisation and Mic's keyboard-created pseudo-drums, we will get by just fine.

I am not exaggerating when I say I am blown away by Know Eye Inn Teem's raw talent. I was really prepared to marshall a bunch of trianglists and cowbellers, and was quite happy with that plan, but now I see that we have potential to be genuinely musical. It's going to be an exciting November.