Thee Corsairs formed in the summer of 2001, gaining early attention when their drummer started wearing a different wrestling mask for each show.

In October 2003, they self-released their debut EP, with songs that were originally recorded as demos. In May 2004, they recorded an "in-studio" performance for San Diego based radio station 91X-FM.

In May 2005, original singer/guitarist Scott Nooner left the band to continue with schooling. The remaining members continued on as a 3-piece with each member taking over some of the vocal duties.

In 2006, Thee Corsairs signed on with U.K.-based Inka Records to release their new album Tales of Rum and Whiskey as a limited-edition picture disc. Four of the tracks were recorded live at the Casbah, and 11 songs were recorded at local Earthling Studio.

"Our deal [with Inka Records] started out as a CD," says guitarist Greaser (who also works at Lou's Records). "We said we wanted vinyl. They came back and suggested a picture disc. They only made 500 copies...The A-side is a custom art piece with a pirate skeleton with rotting flesh and ripped clothes. He's holding a gun and a huge bloody sword. The B-side has our skull-and-crossbones logo."

According to Greaser, "A lot of people used to shy away from picture discs because they had really bad audio quality. Picture discs nowadays sound really, really good...once you put out a CD, everyone can [copy] that same CD. It takes more effort to [digitally] copy vinyl." Inka covered the cost of pressing the vinyl (which was done at Pirates Press, a company based in San Francisco), kept 250 copies, and gave the band 250. "Inka is selling them for, like, $30 including shipping. We are selling ours for $10."

Greaser says his band settled on Thee Corsairs as a name in 2001, "long before there was a pirate bandwagon. I just always thought pirates were pretty rad. Corsairs sounded pretty menacing. We threw in 'Thee' to make it a little more noble."

-- "Blurt," 10-30-07