That's the gear five Bellingham men will rely on as they undertake an experimental, year-long quest to document independent music scenes across the country and showcase the results online.

Evan "The Bug" Jerome, 23, a local musician and founder of Bellingham's Murder Mountain Records, said The American Field Recording Project aims to spend one to five weeks in various cities, shooting documentary video and still photos of three to four bands a week performing in their element: live concerts, house shows and practice spaces. The crew will edit the material on the road, displaying the results online for free. The crew also plans to shoot sit-down interviews with many groups, in addition to on-the-road, journal-like updates from crew members.

The group's maiden voyage took place at Anacortes' "What the Heck Fest" on the weekend of July 18. AFR plans to start work in Seattle on Aug. 28, moving down the West Coast and planning the rest of their trip in San Francisco.

"This is a dedicated group of people," said Jerome, who, like the rest of the group, will use personal savings and proceeds from merchandise such as T-shirts to fund the trip. "No one's paying us to do this."

Video editor Jack Lipke IV, 19, said he's motivated to undertake the project to pioneer a new model of music journalism archiving.

"We're trying to invigorate bands and bring independent music forward to a bigger audience online," Lipke said. "The attractive thing is that as far as we know, no one else is doing this."

After completing the West Coast, the group plans to travel through the Midwest and down the East Coast.

Until the group's Web site is complete, updates can be found at www.myspace.com/americanfieldrecordings.