Days of Being Dumb

Here's my second album, "Days of Being Dumb", from 2001.

Jeff

A Spot of Kung Fu

Here's my first album, A Spot of Kung Fu:



Jeff

Theme from The Stranger

I've been playing around with some new samples and doing a bit more composition for strings and horns. Here's a little piece I whipped up yesterday for a string quartet:



Theme from The Stranger (4.37 MB, 4:46)

Jeff

Showgirls on VH1

VH1 is showing "Showgirls", and they have... digitally edited a bikini top onto Elizabeth Berkeley in her big dance number. It kinda dances around in front of her, looking freaky and unreal.

Personal DNA

(h/t Art-Mark)

Heartbreaker

Here's "Heartbreaker", the first new song from World Racketeering Squad.

Jeff

WRS 70s look

WRS 70s look
Originally uploaded by Mister Oliver

Black.White.

IMG_8755
Originally uploaded by Mister Oliver

Playing Handyman Bob's black-and-white Michael Schenker-designed Dean acoustic.

Isaac Priestley

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Originally uploaded by Mister Oliver

A poignant red-eye moment.

World Racketeering Squad in action

IMG_8773
Originally uploaded by Mister Oliver

Another action shot from the party.

World Racketeering Squad in action

IMG_8769
Originally uploaded by Mister Oliver

Got some photos back from the party on Saturday. Thanks to Catherine Givens for the camerawork!

World Racketeering Squad

Last summer my friend Reed and I wrote a couple of songs and unofficially formed a band. This year we've been writing and recording a lot more and decided to start playing. Right now it's just me on guitar and Reed singing, and Reed was throwing a party on Saturday so we decided that was the perfect time to debut the World Racketeering Squad.

The party got off to a slow start around 9 but by 10:30 it was really jumping, with a great mix of people and a good energy. Around 11:30 or so we decided we were going to play, and announced it to everyone.

It's been a long time since I've performed anywhere, and I was pretty nervous leading up to it. I realized that 'stage fright' is just a variation on the 'fight or flight' response all animals get, which basically means "pay CLOSE attention, this is important!" Not life threatening in this case, but important nonetheless.

That gave me a great perspective and we went on to play a really fun set. It was very simple, just three acoustic songs, "Sylvia", "Heartbreaker", and "Potential", all of which I've posted here on the Hear Here forum. The audience was all friends and well-disposed towards us but I was surprised by just how effusive they were, clapping and laughing and cheering at all kinds of great places. They really seemed to connect with the songs and it went great. Reed has excellent stage personality and had a good rapport with the group.

After a while a new batch of people had arrived, and a bunch of the folks who'd heard us play already insisted we do an encore for those who had missed it! So we played another set, this time a bit looser and more intoxicated. It was a lot of fun too. During "Potential", a bossa-nova jazz tune, a girl in the audience started tapping out a groovy drumbeat on a tabletop. Turns out she's a drummer and has been wanting to play some jazz, so I got her number! Also talked to some potential backup singers too!

Anyway, it was a great time. Reed posted about it on our MySpace page.

We're planning to find an open mic to go to sometime in September, and Reed throws a Halloween party every year where we're bound to play again. The crowd definitely could've handled a longer set, and we've been working on new songs. The main thing I learned was that I REALLY have to work on my rhythm, and just practice more. Rhythm and Timing has always been an issue for me, and I don't want to sound sloppy in front of people. But I can't wait to play out again!

Jeff

A Spot of Kung Fu: Evanescence

Here's "Evanescence", track 4 from "A Spot of Kung Fu", my debut album as Isaac Priestley. It's a quick little instrumental track with a distorted lead.

Jeff

Days-of-Being-Dumb

Days-of-Being-Dumb
Originally uploaded by Jeff Coleman

Finally mixed up some artwork for my latest albums! This one's only 6 years in the making.

"Days of Being Dumb" was the album I made in 2001, containing such timeless hits as "King of Comedy", "What's in a name", and "The most perfect hallucination".

It was named after the Hong Kong mob parody movie of the same title, itself inspired by Wong Kar-Wai's "Days of Being Wild".

Kraftwerk, from Wikipedia:

"The band is notoriously reclusive, so much so that it is rumored that their label partner, EMI does not have its phone numbers. Another notable example of their eccentric behavior was reported to Johnny Marr of The Smiths by Karl Bartos, who explained that anyone trying to contact the band for collaboration would be told the studio telephone did not have a ringer, since during recording the band did not like to hear any kind of noise pollution. Instead, callers were instructed to phone the studio at a certain time on the dot, whereupon the phone would be answered by Ralf Hütter, despite himself never hearing the phone ring."

“The telephone is an antiquity—you never know who is calling, there is no image, it is an outmoded product [that] constantly disrupts work.” — Ralf Hütter ^[6]