Here’s the comment block I’m using.

/*
Title: Band Options
Post Type: sms_band
*/

I must be doing something wrong. Probably some tiny little argument somewhere I’m missing.

When you say you “associated band_shade with post, did you do it like this:

/*
Title: Band Options
Post Type: post
*/

Is it possible that I’m defining an incorrect scope? I can’t find what the options for that are other than ‘post_meta’ as explained here: http://piklist.com/user-guide/docs/fields/field-parameters/scope/

Is there further documentation somewhere that lists all the scope options available?