Introduction

There are so many bands these days releasing MP3s and even a few CDs that it’s hard to keep up. So we’ve prepared this handy beacon to help you circumnavigate the world of music ensembles without even repositioning yourself in your beanbag chair. From wedding bands to jug bands, we cover the ins and outs of forming, transforming and performing the skills you already have in a variety of different groups. If that doesn’t work, read a bit about the history

Illustrations by Chris Taylor

of mariachi music to see if that’s a better fit, or take the skills you’ve already honed playing Rock Band and make your own tribute band to compete with MiniKiss. If nothing works, lean back and reminisce about all the bands you’ve told people you were in over the years (trueor not), as the man who calls himself Sweet Meat Market does in our section on imaginary bands. If you do nothing else with this guide, though, just take a minute to ogle the vintage ’90s press pics that we won on eBay. We’re not afraid to admit that we stared at them for hours before storing them neatly in polymer bags with a filing system that would take World War II code talkers to break. All (sort of) kidding aside, they kind of made us want to form a band… Now where should we start?