pugetive.com . nasoalmo

NaSoAlMo: National Solo Album Month

National Solo Album Month is an annual challenge where musicians endeavor to produce an entire album by themselves within a single November. Participants must play all roles through the process: writing all the songs and lyrics from scratch, singing and performing all instrumental parts, producing and engineering the recording, and mixing and mastering the final product. A successful attempt must run at least 29:09 in length, and one cover song is allowed. So far, I've finished three times and failed once.

As for the track listings for the whole albums below, I have conveniently marked the songs from least to most favorite by their relative size and color. The bigger and darker, the better. It's just my opinion, of course, but if you listen to any of the small and light-colored songs, you do so at your own risk. Covers and pseudo-covers are marked with an asterisk.
Sampler

2005 - Present

NaSoAlMo top ten

Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Production, Engineering, Mixing, Mastering
Keeping in mind the ridiculous constraints under which NaSoAlMo songs are produced, here is a sampling of the ones by which I am the least embarrassed. The first is a Heatmiser cover, so it's safe to say that I am the least embarrassed by that one.
Jason and the Juggernauts

Random Articles (2008)

NaSoAlMo project

Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Production, Engineering
This year I tried to do songs based strictly off topics that surfaced by clicks on the "random article" button on Wikipedia. It didn't go very well. I didn't complete NaSoAlMo, but here is a sampling of some song attempts, titles including the random article on which each was based. Never mixed for real, and never mastered. So, with regard to how they sound, never mind.
The Novemberists

Meta Songs (2007)

NaSoAlMo project

Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Production, Engineering, Mixing
I'd started learning the drums in 2007, so I incorporated them in my NaSoAlMo stuff this year. Which means I tried a few rock songs too. I had a lot more fun at it this year and this is probably my favorite of the three I finished. These are "Meta Songs" because they're all about the process of recording the album at NaSoAlMo speed.
The Snockerers

The Photo Album (2006)

NaSoAlMo project

Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Bass, Percussion, Harmonica, Production, Engineering, Mixing
My second go at National Solo Album Month. I'd learned a year earlier that it was posssible for me to write songs, so this time I tried writing better ones, and chose a theme I actually cared about, Photography. I put too much pressure on myself and melted my brain.
Speler

Watermelon Songs (2005)

NaSoAlMo project

Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Bass, Percussion, Production, Engineering, Mixing
My first foray into National Solo Album Month. Also my first foray into songwriting, as well as recording with GarageBand. I chose the theme of watermelons so that I wouldn't waste precious recording time writing lyrics.