colemanation

Sofia Grey postcard

2008-02-15T01:34:24Z

Sofia Grey postcard, originally uploaded by Jeff Coleman.

Postcard promotional image for Sofia Grey, a local singer/songwriter.

www.worldracketeeringsquad.com is up!

2008-01-18T00:34:18Z

As of this moment, www.worldracketeeringsquad.com is officially up!

You can subscribe to RSS feeds for new blogs, news and lyrics, and we'll be updating the site frequently with all that stuff as well as new mp3s and videos.

Enjoy!

Excellent self-portrait from Alister Blake

2008-01-17T07:51:53Z

Self-Portrait, originally uploaded by AlisterBlake.

Here's a haunting self-portrait by the artist (and "Screwed You" fan) Alister Blake.

Isaac

Hoarse Angel (Carousel Lounge, 1/5/2008)

2008-01-08T10:19:30Z

The jukebox came on at the beginning of my guitar solo on this one! Spot the bartender bringing us free beers to make up for it later in the song.

Perfume or fabric softener?

2008-01-04T22:47:59Z

NY Times' The Moment blog:

Not only is Chloé an uninteresting, clichéd floral — why are houses still launching saccharine, vaguely unidentifiable composite flowers? — it smells like a perfume masquerading as a fabric softener. What’s worse is that there are some good fabric softener scents out there; this smells cheap and slightly chemical. What went wrong?

I've never read a perfume review before, but I think I started with the best one ever.

New demo: "You know what I mean"

2008-01-03T06:58:43Z

WRS Flier January/February 2008

2007-12-30T09:27:47Z

WRS Flier January/February 2008, originally uploaded by Isaac Priestley.

Flier advertising gigs for World Racketeering Squad in January and February 2008.

We're playing the following dates:

Saturday, Jan 5th, 10pm-1am
Carousel Lounge
w/ Sofia Grey

Thursday, Jan 24th, 10pm-12am
Carousel Lounge

Tuesday, Feb 5th, 11pm-12am
Trophy's Bar & Grill

World Racketeering Squad live at Carousel Lounge, December 27, 2007

2007-12-30T07:56:10Z

We had a few technical difficulties with the video, meaning a couple of songs are missing, including our closing number, the best "Screwed You" ever! Thanks to everybody who came out and had a great time at the show!

Lykke Li "Little Bit" live on a street corner

2007-12-29T08:19:13Z

World Racketeering Squad live at Carousel Lounge, December 18, 2007

2007-12-29T07:52:03Z

WRS in the Austin Chronicle

2007-12-27T05:47:44Z

WRS in the Austin Chronicle, originally uploaded by Isaac Priestley.

Lykke Li, "Little Bit"

2007-12-16T17:10:06Z

World Racketeering Squad live at Conan's Pizza 12/11/07

2007-12-14T18:57:03Z

World Racketeering Squad newsletter Dec 11 2007

2007-12-12T03:11:06Z

Hey Racketeers!

Well, no sooner did we send out our December letter than more news sprang up!
World Racketeering Squad will be playing at the Carousel Lounge not once but twice in December.

Tuesday, December 18th, we're once again opening for bluesqueezebox. We go on from 9-10PM, with the wonderous stylings of the accordion master following from 10-midnight.

But wait, there's more!

Thursday, December 27th, we're exultant to announce our First Headlining Gig!!!

We're playing 10PM - midnight, pulling out all the stops to bring a World Racketeering Squad show the breadth (and depth) of which you've never seen.

To take it all the way over the top, we've engaged the lovely Mustang to open for us, and mortal man knows not what she'll bring to the table for your amazement and delight.

Come to one show or come to both, but know that NO COVER will be paid on either occasion.

And don't forget those oversized WRS stocking stuffers over at our Zazzle shop! Those t-shirts won't deliver themselves!
While away those cold-ish winter nights by seeing all the WRS action you've missed on our YouTube channel.

Let the holidays treat you right,
Reed and Isaac
Tuesday, December 18th
9PM - 10PM
Carousel Lounge
w/ bluesqueezebox

Thursday, December 27th
10PM - Midnight
Carousel Lounge
w/ Mustang

http://www.myspace.com/worldracketeeringsquad
http://www.youtube.com/worldracketeer

Videoblog 12/6/2007

2007-12-07T14:53:23Z

Superman announces his retirement

2007-12-05T17:22:44Z

New soul song: "When I'm next 2 U"

2007-12-05T08:45:01Z

Today I was flipping through channels on TV, and passed something that was playing music. I heard a tune that was played as a secondary, incidental melody in something, and my brain started twisting it around and turning it into something different.

I went to the keyboard to work it out but by the time I sat down I'd lost it, so I just started playing around and came up with a new song, an electric piano soul groove inspired by early Prince. I called it "When I'm next 2 U".

Reed came over and I played it for him, and he started working on lyrics and melody and before long we had a demo recorded! It's in our music player on Virb or you can click the mp3 below:

World Racketeering Squad, "When I'm next 2 U" (2:26, 2.2 MB)

Enjoy!

World Racketeering Squad latest live music videos: Trophy's 11/27, Green Muse 11/29

2007-12-02T18:17:42Z

Here are the last of the videos from November's open mic live sets! Our show at Conan's Pizza on Monday 11/26 had some sync issues we're still working out, but here are Tuesday's and Thursday's shows:

Trophy's 11/27/07

Green Muse 11/29/07

Enjoy!

If you want to be alerted to when we're playing next and any other band news, you can subscribe to our mailing list!

Isaac

Summing up November and two gig announcements!

2007-12-02T07:49:13Z

Hey everyone,

Got some more updates on what's been going on with World Racketeering Squad. I've been filling out my pedal set lately to give me a lot more control on our songs. Got a CryBaby, a Maxon OD808, Big Muff Pi, and an Ibanez CS-9 stereo chorus. I've started running the stereo outputs to my Vox AD30VT and my little Kustom amp, just for fun.

After complaints from my neighbor, we've started renting rehearsal space and practing there on Saturdays. It's great to get to focus in an environment where we won't be distracted, and where we can turn up loud. Although my ears are still ringing from when we played a bit of "Hey Hey, My My". I really turned it up too loud in that case, I've gotta be careful. Need to get some earplugs for sure.

We spent November playing 3 open mics a week, focusing on the same set list to hone the songs and get them tight. As a result, we got a studio recording of one song, we got our first bar gig, and built up our mailing list and made some great friends!

This month we're doing it a little different. We're taking the first week of December off for the most part--my left hand's been getting sore and I want to get it rested up. We're going to find some new open mics we haven't played at before, just to branch out a bit. We're also playing a LOT of new songs! We've been building up a stock of songs we haven't played yet, and we're dying for folks to hear them! We've got some dark and intense grungy stuff, a bluesy soul number ("Hoarse angel"), a super-funky tune ("Screwed you"), and several parts of a rock opera about a quantum band who only exists when enough people are watching them.

We're also working on covers, which is new for us: "I Feel Fine" by The Beatles, "99 Luftballons" by Nena, "Elephant Stone" and "Waterfall" by The Stone Roses, and some others. I'd love to do "Johnny B Goode", but we haven't worked on that one as much! We're going to add some more Beatles as well, because they're such a huge influence on us.

And the biggest news is that we've got some better opportunities to play those songs! We opened for bluesqueezebox in November and they asked us to play with them again on December 18, which is great. Even greater is that we've got a headlining gig at the same club on December 27! And I just got a text message from my bandmate saying that our friend we tapped to headline for us has confirmed that she's in!

So now we've got our longest set yet, from 10pm to midnight. It's going to take basically ALL the songs we know well enough to play to fill out that slot, and it's gonna be awesome. We've got a number of songs on the keyboard as well, so we can mix up the night and give the keyboard songs a chance to shine too.

This is super-exciting! We've been extremely focused and as a result, a lot of great stuff is happening in a shorter time than we thought possible. Now our next big result is to audition and find a drummer and a bass player--there are two more squad members of the World Racketeering Squad out there who just don't know it yet!

Isaac

Isaac Priestley

2007-11-28T21:29:18Z

Isaac Priestley, originally uploaded by AlisterBlake.

World Racketeering Squad logo concept

2007-11-25T08:23:29Z

Possible WRS logo, originally uploaded by Jeff Coleman.

WRS Photos: Panic in the Studio!

2007-11-25T08:21:48Z

Panic, originally uploaded by Jeff Coleman.

Photo array of World Racketeering Squad recording "Panic" at Arlen Studios in Austin, TX.

World Racketeering Squad at Carousel Lounge

2007-11-25T05:14:46Z

Here's the full video of our gig at Carousel Lounge. Enjoy!

Isaac

World Racketeering Squad live at Conan's, Trophy's

2007-11-25T05:09:32Z

This was a busy week for us. Three gigs in a row! Here are the videos from Conan's Pizza, on Monday, Nov 19, and from Trophy's, on Tuesday, Nov 20. At Trophy's we decided to mix it up and play one of our newer songs, "Screwed You", as practice to play it at Carousel Lounge the next night. It actually came out better at Trophy's, in my opinion.

Isaac

Gig report: Carousel Lounge, 11/21/07

2007-11-22T16:41:25Z

Terrific show at the Carousel Lounge last night opening up for Blue Squeezbox.

It was fun and inspiring, lots of our friends showed up, and the guys in Blue Squeezebox were enthusiastic and very cool.

Both Reed's folks and my Mom showed up, which was nice! Reed's folks came to his Halloween party but my Mom hadn't seen us play, she had only heard a few recordings. The crowd that had showed up by the time we started filled the Carousel Lounge on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so we consider that to be decidedly awesome. Lots of our personal friends showed up, and people we haven't seen in a while, who heard about it through other friends or through our mailing list. Blue Squeezebox had a decent contingent, but we'd promoting show like mad since we found out, so I think that helped our turnout.

As for the show itself, our strong points are our energy and our sense of fun. We're doing stuff that nobody else seems to do on stage, a variety of styles and attitudes that combines to create a pretty unique and entertaining show.

Musically, we have a ways to go. My main bugbear right now is playing too fast. We're looking for a rhythm section, but right now it's just my electric guitar and Reed's voice. Watching the video, pretty much every one of the songs we played was too fast, and in some cases it really hurt the song musically. I get so amped up with energy that I rush through the songs like it's a race. I've been working on it, but it's really a huge priority for me right now, I just cannot continue playing like that. Must be smoother, tighter, and combine being more relaxed on stage with projecting an infectious energy.

After the show, Reed took our mailing list around to find that one of our fans had already sent it around the room and we had a page and a half of new entries! Reed picked up some stragglers that came in late, and we got a sizeable addition to the list out of it. He also travelled the tip jar, which returned considerably fuller than it started, marking the first time we've ever made money from playing music!

Blue Squeezebox played two terrific sets afterward, we hung out and enjoyed the evening. After the show we posted a short videoblog about it and some of the videos of the songs. The rest will be up soon.

We'll be at Conan's Pizza and Trophy's this coming Monday and Tuesday, and back at the Green Muse on Thursday. Things are going great!

Isaac