Do It Yourself

Karen got on the email. She wanted to tell me about the RPM Challenge, which I am now telling you about. It's a NaNoWriMo for bands, where the challenge is to record an album during February. Which 833 musicians/bands eagerly did this year. And now you can skidaddle over there to listen.
Another similar website is SellaBand, where artists sell $10 shares in the hope of raising $50,000 to record an album. 50,000 sounds like a lot of dollars for some bands. You know, not very good bands. Then again, ProTools isn't cheap. And you need to know how to use it. Spunky Japanese rockers Electric Eel Shock shifted their shares in eight weeks, and are now recording. Good for them.
What's the point of all this? I like hearing about people getting on with things themselves and (hopefully) having a bit of fun in the process. Scrolling through all those bands and singer-songwriters made me realise just how many people out there are making music, or trying to make music. Obviously, a lot of it will be a bit rubbish. From the RPM Challenge, I listened to an Edinburgh band called The ZX81s. I picked them because I thought if they named themselves after an early home computer, they might sound like Kraftwerk. They don't sound like Kraftwerk but are still rather good. So well done.