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For our finale, I tried something a little different tonight. These three boys have indeed played music together in the past, though they've never written a song together. As each one walked in with surprise at who else was there, Ian called my bluff and said "You're really enjoying this, aren't you." Indeed.

Patrick started off the evening by having each of us write a haiku. They weren't done with the pretext of becoming lyrics, but we liked all four poems so much that the guys built a melody around them. They jammed out a bunch of ideas on 3 keyboards before settling on the chord progression and then arranging the structure. Jeff wanted a lot of harmony, and so we built up a bunch of vocal layers.

Fighting off a cold, Patrick's croaky voice provided the perfect lead. Jeff and Ian sang harmonies. Ian also played reed organ, drums and cell phone messages. Jeff played the organ bass pedals, electric bass and some distorted lyric reading. Patrick played piano. I added guitars for the ending.

And thus, the Record Of The Week Club came to a close. It's been a great summer. Thanks so much for listening!

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Phoebe, Ethan and Ann jammed out a lot of ideas before settling on this piano pop tune with a taiko drum foundation. Phoebe brought her giant japanese drums to the studio and we began exploring ways to incorporate and showcase them (hence the drum solo in the middle).

Ethan played bass and guitar in the first half. Phoebe played drums and added percussion. Ann played piano, wrote the lyrics and sang. I played guitar in the last chorus and outro.

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Tonight Nikki introduced us to one of the 52 languages spoken amongst the aboriginal people in Canada's arctic. The verses were written by John after getting a lesson in northern geography. Nikki wrote the chorus; the translation is "I am happy to be who I am."

We built the song around several takes of Nikki's throat singing. Curtis (Blunderspublik) processed parts of my recordings of Nikki's singing and John's guitar, as well building several loops. He also laid down a lead guitar in the chorus. John played guitar and piano, and sang.

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One of my favorite things about ROTWClub is getting people to do things they wouldn't normally do. Tonight, Ken Gregory sang and played guitar. I believe the year 1989 was mentioned as the last time someone had him sing. But he's there in the outro with a low harmony. The jangly guitar at the end is also his, as well as his trademark sonic manipulations - which he controls live using his own custom-made software.

Jesse Warkentin plays in an instrumental band, but also ended up singing tonight. He also laid the harmonic foundation for the song with several Farfisa and Moog riffs. The piano and guitar in the 1st half are his too. Jay Churko played drums and the guitar in the breakdown. He also wrote all the lyrics and did the bulk of the singing.

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With two new mothers and one rock drummer nicknamed Mama, there were lots of kid stories flying around the studio tonight -- and we fittingly ended up with a lullaby -- if on the darker side of the children's music spectrum. Heather (sax), Jen (viola) and Keri (guitar + vocals) worked out the chord structure and some base parts. We stuck Mama behind his shiny silver drum kit, and then started multitracking more fine-tuned parts for the viola and sax. I added bass at the end of the night.

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Chris Bauer from American Flamewhip and The Perpetrators was going to be joining us this evening, but sadly, he had to cancel last minute. This is what he missed out on: one hip hop artist and one guitar magician going toe to toe and creating a snazzy little dance piece harkening back to the good old days of cassette tapes.

Ismaila put together all the beats and vocals. I put my arranger cap on and mapped it out. And then Mark began the overdubs: playing guitar, organ, piano and bass.

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Tonight I brought three frontpeople from very different bands together. Luckily, all are blessed with great spirits of collaboration, and the result is quite impressive -- a gypsy-themed funeral lament, punctuated by an epic ending. Matt, Jo and Jaxon started with a few chord progressions which soon gave way to full-blown melody. Matt started adding guitars and laying the framework for the grand finale. I played the harmonium. Jo and Jaxon hunkered down to write the lyrics, with Jaxon adding saw and organ pedals. All three sang the round. This week also featured our first filming. Matthew Rankin stopped by to shoot some video and we'll have the results posted soon.

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What happens when you cross a DJ with a roots singer and a classical violinist? Grant burst into tonight's session with a tonne of energy and we all jumped on board the dance track train. He laid down a bunch of beats which I mapped into an arrangement after Brandy played several bass lines on the organ. Rachel started adding violin and writing the breakdown while we all began searching for lyrics. Funnily enough, a lot of them came from the DJ. Rachel joined Brandy singing the soul backups in the chorus. And our joke of an idea to include a rap became serious after Grant started freestyling.

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A flurry of ideas helped tonight's session set an ROTW Club track count record. And instead of starting with musical ideas, tonight began with indepth discussion on theme and direction. We then built a musical framework to support the lyrical ideas.

Matt provided the initial piano chord framework, played live with Lloyd on drums. We did some percussion and handclaps before Julia added organ, Matt brought out the Moog, Lloyd picked up his lap steel, and then the vocal layering began. Julia came up with the ending progression, which Lloyd added banjo to.

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After six weeks, we finally got our first rock tune! It's a sludgy number concocted by Sky (bass, additional vocal, 2nd guitar), Bucky (guitar, lead vocal) and Jaime (drums, piano percussion). We got Jaime to show off some of his quietly dormant rock drumming skills, making his little kit sing. Drums, bass and guitar were tracked live off the floor after working out the arrangement before sitting down to figure out the vocals and overdubs. Sky and Jaime found some creative percussive use for piano strings for the psychadelic breakdown, and then Sky and Bucky put four hands on the ol' organ for the finale.

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We tried something a little different tonight, and it turned out great! I asked Rusty to bring a few different song ideas to the session, and we'd see what Karla & Demetra gravitated towards. We re-arranged his song, kept only the choruses at their original speed, and gave it an instrumentation overhaul. There was a lot of laughter and smiles tonight, so I've made sure to keep some of that in the track.

Demetra sang the lead vocal, added the autoharp and some extra percussion. Karla played piano, guitar, sleighbells, and sang lots of additional vocals. Rusty tossed in the beat (that loop was played live) and Moog, plus some great vocals.