I did this a couple of times... back before I had kids! Don't have the time for such projects since.
The band was sort of an alter-ego thing. My brother and I came up with the name and wrote the first song almost as a joke. I recorded the first CD in less than a month (and, er, it sounded that way but this was back around 2000, so Low-Fi was, er, in vogue.), but I was pretty tickled with it all... I did vocals, guitars, bass and drums. Heck, I did the graphics for the CD. My brother and I did co-write a bunch of the songs... and he helped with mastering.
Like theBlue1, we put it up on MP3.com and were surprised by the result. Broke the Alt-Country top ten and even sold a fair number of CD's. Heck, made some money, since that was when MP3.com was paying you for plays... ah, the days of Dot Com glory!
We decided to do another CD. Spent a few months on that one. It came out just in time for MP3.com to tube. I've kept the alter ego going ever since... and am even thinking about another CD, once the kids get bigger.
Here's a tune from the first CD: