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

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!

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

World Racketeering Squad at Carousel Lounge

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

Isaac

Gig report: Carousel Lounge, 11/21/07

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 been promoting the 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

We got a gig!

We got our first proper gig!

We've been playing at open mics and we've gotten to know a local band called Blue Squeezebox, led by a really charismatic frontman on the accordion.

Last night after they played, our singer Reed congratulated him on the set, and they started to chat. He asked if we ever gig, and Reed said we haven't but we're looking to. The accordionist then asked if we had six songs and wanted to open up for them at their show on Wednesday night!

We've been honing our repertoire a lot this month, focusing on getting just a few songs really solid, and as of Tuesday that set adds up to six really tight songs. We'll be practicing this weekend and making sure everything's ready, and then playing our first proper, non-open-mic gig on Wednesday, Nov 21!

We'll be at the Carousel Lounge, here in Austin, TX, Wednesday Nov 21, at 9pm.

Jeff

Link

Video: World Racketeering Squad at Conan’s Pizza 11/12/07

We had a terrific show at Trophy's last night. Video will be up this weekend. Meanwhile, here's our set from Conan's Pizza on Monday. Enjoy!

Jeff

World Racketeering Squad live at Trophy's, Green Muse Cafe

Fellow Racketeers!

World Racketeering Squad rocked the house late in the night at Trophy's on Tuesday, and here is the video:

We'll be back at Trophy's next Tuesday, November 13. We're going to make our very best effort to go on between 10pm and 11pm, the gods and the signup sheet willing.

We'll also be at Conan's Pizza at S 1st and Stassney on Monday night, where we will assuredly be playing between 10 and 11, doing a nice long, rocking set.

World Racketeering Squad also played live, as usual, at the Green Muse on Thursday, and we have the video of that. This show marks our first time ever appearing with a live bass player, which was exciting for us!  And a little unnerving in places.

Those are all the shows from this week, we'll be posting more next week as we continue our schedule of playing out 3 nights a week:

Monday night: Conan's Pizza, S 1st and Stassney
Tuesday night: Trophy's
Thursday night: Green Muse Cafe, S 1st and Oltorf

We may have some other exciting secret news to announce next week, so stay tuned for more announcements!

Jeff

New rock opera demo, "Omega and the Just-In-Times"

This week we started working on a new crazy idea for a set of songs about Omega and the Just-In-Times, a "quantum band" who appear whenever there is enough demand. We've got two songs about them in progress so far:

"Omega and the Just-In-Times"

And "Omega in Love versus the Supermonsters":

These and any other new demos we create will be included in our "Demonstrations" video playlist on YouTube.

Link

World Racketeering Squad live at Green Muse 10/11/07

Here's the video of one of our first sets at the Green Muse Cafe here in Austin, TX. This was the first performance we've recorded on video, and also the first time we took the keyboard to an open mic.

World Racketeering Squad live at Haunted Housewarming X

World Racketeering Squad live at Haunted Housewarming X in Austin, TX, on October 27, 2007. Founding Racketeer Reed Oliver was celebrating the tenth anniversary of his traditional Halloween bash, so the band played our first long set of songs--13 songs, a little over an hour. We've decided since that a 30-minute set probably would've suited the party atmosphere better, but we wouldn't have known that if we hadn't done it! It was a lot of fun and we both learned a lot.

World Racketeering Squad live at Green Muse, 11/1/07

Gig report: WRS live at Trophy's!

"We rocked so hard we cleared the room."

ROCK AND ROLL. Reed posts a little writeup on Tuesday night's open mic.

Jeff

Link

WRS at Trophy's tonight

We're going to be playing at Trophy's on S Congress tonight, probably around 10:30 or so.

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Now playing: The Ramones - Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio?
via FoxyTunes

World Racketeering Squad, live at Conan's Pizza!

World Racketeering Squad had its second gig tonight, an open mic at Conan's Pizza, of all places. It was a very genial place with a crowd of enthusiastic regulars.

The stage setup was odd, as it was all on an enclosed riser meant to hold a couple of seats, with elaborate wooden banisters and columns that blocked the view from all but a few angles. Plus the columns were draped with leafy plants.

On the plus side, that cramped little riser was stocked! It had a drum kit, a keyboard, a bongo, a guitar and plenty of mics. This is an open mic that even provides instruments!

We played with "Negra", my black Epi Les Paul, and my little Kustom amp, which always seems to find admirers at shows. It's a cute little amp, I guess!

The show was pretty rough, as we were playing some songs we haven't really done before--"Feel so lost" and "5017". When we get those tightened up, they're gonna rock a lot more!

But overall it was super fun and I can't wait to do it again.

Oh, and we're playing the open mic at Trophy's tomorrow night.

Jeff

Green Muse Cafe open mic set list

Green Muse Cafe open mic set list
Originally uploaded by Jeff Coleman

World Racketeering Squad, live at the Green Muse Cafe!

Last night the World Racketeering Squad made its open mic debut at Austin's Green Muse Cafe!

Expecting a short slot, we decided on a couple of songs to perform, to show up and find out the Green Muse gives each artist 20 minutes to play! We revised our set list to include our original party set of three, plus two newer tunes.

The venue itself is a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, with a simple unassuming stage setup. The host, Jules, was very cool, and he played a set with a small band about midway through the night. We went on later, to a small but enthusiastic audience.

Our set list:

Sylvia
Potential
Can't Keep Track (of Anything These Days)
Panic
Heartbreaker

After "Panic", we were ready to step down but John, one of the hosts, insisted we play another, so we pulled out "Heartbreaker" and rocked out!

The show was what you'd expect from a first open-mic show--lots of warts, but a whole lot of fun. I played electric guitar, which is new for me on stage, and Reed busted out the tambourine for select numbers!

The venue only had two mics, and we have two vocalists plus my acoustic guitar (no pickups), so we signed up, went home and got my Epiphone Les Paul and my little Kustom amp. I've been practicing mostly with acoustic for a long time, and was REALLY green on the electric!

Most of our songs right now are strummed, folk style, and I kept flipping the pickup selector switch with my strums! Also pulled the cord out from the amp during our last number! But we plugged it in and kept going :) It was a huge learning experience--I learned that I need to practice on electric a LOT more!

It was definitely a great experience--the audience made us feel very welcome, everybody we met was very cool, and we're excited to do more. We're playing at Conan's in South Austin at their open mic on Monday night, and at Trophy's on Tuesday, so we'd love to see some friendly faces in the crowd!

Jeff