My buddy Tim brought the concept of Crap Art, and more specifically, the Album-a-day, to my attention. Man was I missing out...
I have to say, this is something everyone should do at least once - like driving until you run out of gas, or staying up all night to watch the sunrise.
Album-a-day is not a site where a favorite album is highlighted each day. No... it's something far more interesting than that. Album-a-day is when people write, and record an entire album in 24 hours. It's an exercise in creativity.
Here are the rules, right off the main site:
- It must be written, performed, recorded, post-produced, etc. all in one contiguous 24-hour period (preferably with no sleep break in there).
- It must be at least 20 minutes or 30 songs. (many short songs tend to work better than long songs which drag on forever, trust me.)
- Your band may have multiple participants, but they should not work on different songs simultaneously. (So just one song being worked on at a time.)
- No ideas from before the chosen day! This means covers or reinterpretations are not allowed.
- No out-takes! If you start a song, finish it and put it on the album.
I have a few qualms with the rules (who really wants to listen to 30 songs that are less than 45 seconds each?) , but it's still an awesome idea, and totally worth doing.
Plus, you can video tape the whole thing and add it to your parents' home video collection as a kind of cute prank. I know... I'm a little weird.
A few tips to make it go smoothly:
- Set up all your gear, and recording stuff the night before, so you can focus on writing during your precious 24 hours
- Get a friend to stop by a few times throughout the day with a video camera, and (regular) camera to help you document how awesome those 24 hours were. It is a home video right?
- Don't be too much of a perfectionist or you won't finish
- Try new things, make it interesting
- Have fun!
Ok, I know the 'have fun' part was a little campy, but it felt right.
So, do an album-a-day, let me know about it, and I'll totally drop you a link :) It's a good way to get some tracks up on the myspace too.
