So, I've hosted these gatherings wherein we get a bunch of musicians together (for anyone in the Chicago area, the next one will likely be February 20, 2012) and I've got a collaboration project underway now that can be done over the internet over any amount of time. Each person only gets to pick one instrument and nobody gets to hear what everyone else is doing until it's all done, whenever that is. You can download a .zip file at http://www.mediafire.com/?0dcak9mudwaps9l (http://www.mediafire.com/?0dcak9mudwaps9l) that contains instructions and stuff to help with playing along and tuning.
I'd love to get people from this community involved! And please don't worry about needing to be an amazing virtuoso. I think it's extremely important for music to have a solid rhythm, at least some of the time, especially for bass and drums.
Sounds like fun; wish I could be there.
Yeah, the gatherings are definitely a lot of fun. They're also very stressful because things inherently go wrong. You can always help with the album that's being done over the internet, though!