Left to the Right Monkey" is an attitude driven band. Because we're having fun ourselves, the audience will have fun as well, even if we make mistakes or play ungodly simple music. As such, the timeline schedules an insanely rapid progression from practice to performance to the "big time." (it's overly exaggerated. The further the predictions get from the present, the more likely the projected dates listed below will change ;)
We aren't going to "waste" oodles of time perfecting every little part to 100% (which is never going to happen anyway). We're just going to get a song "good enough" to have fun with, and then play it in front of people. It won't be flawless, but who cares?
This way there's always something novel for us to do: ideas never get stale, and the audience seems to really respond to the "seat of our pants-ness" of it all.
The initial plan was to:
End of Spring: Audition new members Start of summer: 3 rehearsals and then an open mic Midsummer: Get the set list together End of summer: Another open mic and record our demo
That was the plan. Did it happen? Well, let's find out....
March 22: Flyers go up (first round) Aprill 22: Last chance to contact me about replying to flyer. April 21-24: Live Auditions (first round)
May 17: First rehearsal: The band met and we played "trust building games." May 19: Second rehearsal: We introduced 4 songs May 30: Third rehearsal: We worked on those 4 songs May 31: First open mic: Not really- Turns out this was the one Tuesday of the year that the Canopy was closed. June 7: First open mic: It was fun.
June 21: First rehearsal: New incarnation of "Left to the Right Monkey" June 23: Second rehearsal June 27: Third rehearsal June 28: Second open mic: More fun to be had
July 5: Auditions begin again Aug 18?: Recorded our demo
So things didn't go exactly as I initally planned. Not a big surprise, in the entertainment biz, things rarely do. I did get the band together and played open mics with 4 original songs after just 3 rehearsals (twice!). But with the turnover in band members, we didn't get a full set list together. We did manage to record a demo though.
Sept 21: Flyers go up Sept 30: Server crash! I lost everyone who contacted me :( And I lost some non-backed up pages. (Like Wurm's picture, and some text describing my stuff.) Oct 15: Last chance to contact me to start the audition process Oct 21: Begin meeting with folks live for auditions. Oct 30: Band is full. LttRM welcomes Jenny and Callie! Nov 3: We lose Caitlin to work conflicts
Nov 9: First rehearsal with the new roster. We played trust building games for the first hour, and then worked on 5 songs for the second hour. Dec 20: Prep for demo recording. Dec 27: Did NOT record a demo. We lost Jenny because the band was too much work for her to juggle with all her other holiday season commitments. With just the Darkwinner and Tommy, it's time to audition band members again.
So things didn't go exactly as I initally planned. Not a big surprise, in the entertainment biz, things rarely do. We started as a trio, got two band members, lost a band member, lost a second band member and then lost a third band member. In spite of this member turnover, we managed to get 8 songs and 25 minutes of musical material together. When we lost Jenny, we're down to 6 songs and 20 minutes of music. "Left to the Right Monkey" has a "half set list" and we need a new member.
So things didn't go exactly as I initally planned (again.) Not a big surprise. Holding a band of "just for fun" musicians like herding cats into a corner :( Eventually the band ended when I moved on to other projects (like my Anatomy DVD idea) and didn't feel like rounding up another set of musicians for Summer 2006. Instead I worked on video production bits , and auditioned for Reality TV shows.
"Left to the Right Monkey" would have eventually worked if I could finally get a group of people together who:
A) are committed enough to keep going with the band even when other things come up (or when plans don't quite work out) B) don't start fighting me once we start sounding "good" C) just want to have fun creating music.
Alas, I couldn't get a group together after 4 tries. Maybe it would have worked on try number 5 (or 95) or maybe you'd get lucky and your first band would work out. Me? After 4 tries, I decided to pursue my creative side via other projects. I didn't give up, I just moved on.