the Mushuganas - "Lows in the Mid 90's"...almost here.

After years of legitimate setbacks, procrastinating and...well that's about it, Beercan Records is very proud to announce that the Mushuganas retrospective "Lows in the Mid 90's" is just about ready for release to the general public. We're expecting the CD's in our hands by the end of this month. Yes, this month. April. Yes, 2010. Why don't you believe us?

Anyway, the stars seem to have further aligned and it just so happens that the Mushuganas will be playing a show on Saturday, May 29th at Subterranean (2011 North Ave.) here in Chicago as part of the Windy City Sound Clash. Jeff, the WCSC mang in charge, has found it in his heart to co-bill this already momentous eventous as a CD release show for "Lows in the Mid 90's" as well.

More details to come very soon so check back here often. In the meantime, you can get lineup info on the Windy City Sound Clash at www.myspace.com/windycitysoundclash and you can get tickets at http://www.subt.net/.

If you can't wait another couple days for these details mentioned in the last paragraph, feel free to drop us a line at beercanrecords@gmail.com you impatient creep.

Reviews - 4/16/10

The Wide Angles - Wide Angles 7 Inch - Rock solid, and dare we say anthemic, punk rock from out Elgin-way. That's Illinois to our out-of-state and international readers.
By way of references, think the Arrivals or maybe the Bomb. Workmanlike but very talented daddy-o. These here Wide Angles are the band that are on the bill opening for the band that you planned your evening around. But maybe before you go to bed, maybe the next morning, maybe the next week, you say to yourself, "you know what, I think that Wide Angles band was the best band I saw that night."
Here's to the next time you see them. We like underdogs.
And you can also pick this one up at both http://www.letspretendrecords.com/ or http://www.nobreaksrecords.com/. We also like split label releases.

Tweak Bird/It Burns - Tweak Bird/It Burns Split 7 Inch - First things first, great artwork on the sleeve of this fucker. On to the music...
Our prodigal sons, It Burns (www.myspace.com/itburnsrockmusic), offer up two ditties of palpable hatred and frustration. But as always with these guys, it sounds like a great time. The title of track 2 pretty much answers the question of what is the rudest possible question you could ever ask of someone. From personal experience, a couple of rude ones are, "when are you expecting?" (she wasn't pregnant) and "why do wear so much make-up? (she didn't think she did). But those were honest or, at least, good-intentioned mistakes. It Burns just straight-up asks some fucker, "Why Can't You Be Dead?" And the music matches the gist of the question. Does it ever.
2 more destroyers from It Burns that you need. 8 years of unbelievable rock and roll by our count. Do yourself a favor.
Ironically, the first lyric from the Tweak Bird (http://www.tweakbird.com/) side of this slab proclaims, "Life on Earth is great/Full of surprises". But this isn't necessarily the polar opposite of the It Burns side of the split. There's a pretty heavy psychedelic vibe to the Tweak Bird track like they're on kind of a Hawkwind trip or something like that. Thundering drums, twisting bass-ish lines (is that a bass or no?), some pretty high-pitched vocals, etc. Definitely some cool stuff going on here. We'll keep our eyes open for another release with more than one song, and so should you.
If you beat us to it, let us know.
(Minimal internet searching after the fact now tells us that Tweak Bird has a new album coming out. Don't worry about alerting us anymore...we'll pick it up ourselves.)

Reviews - 4/8/10

We've been very, very backlogged on the reviews lately, and for good reason, but to get the ball rolling again, let's fire up a compare-and-contrast of a couple demos that showed up in the magical PO Box (PO Box 457, LaGrange, IL, 60526) over the last few weeks. In other words, we'll review one longtime favorite of ours and one new lemon-du-jour. Then, after getting through these, we'll move on to the considerable aforementioned backlog even though some of them are probably over a year old at this point.

But first things first, even though they're not technically "first" no more...

Colleen Green - Milo Goes to Compton - So, to start the comparing and contrasting, this 8-song demo starts off with a cover of the Descendents "Good Good Things" and it does a really nice job of dropping the listener into a trance right from the get-go. I was stone-cold sober when I put this disc on and after the first few notes kind of felt like I'd guzzled 3 beers really fast and was sitting on a beach or something. And yes, I realize that that last sentence sounds like I'm favorably comparing Ms. Green's cover to a Best of Jimmy Buffett album, but I'm not. Let's just say that track 1 sounds nothing like the Descendents, nothing like Jimmy Buffett, but is nice and ethereal.
The next 7 songs are all put together with the help of a drum machine which, as discussed at least a couple of times at other points in our meandering reviews, is OK with Beercan brass so long as we get the impression that the drum machine is just being used as a medium to get some songs committed to tape in lieu of taking the time to get a full band together and running the risk of never getting the songs committed to tape. And that's the impression we got here but really, for all we know, Colleen Green could be crazy for drum machines and think them to be superior to real live drummers in all aspects. We would disagree, but the point is, it works for this batch of songs.
For avid readers of the Beercan reviews (probably an oxymoron) you may recognize the vocals to be one and the same from previous pleasant-surprise picks that appeared in the Beercan PO Box, Fenwick and the Have-Mercy's. While the speed and volume has been toned down from the aforementioned bands, Colleen's voice is still mondo-cool and controlled, while emotive and punch-packing. No idea how she's performing this stuff live as far as a backing band (if she uses one at all), but at this point it doesn't really matter. Whether tunes like "I Wanna Be Degraded" or "(I Want A) Nice Boy" ever get a full rave-up, live band treatment or if they remain just-this-side-of-tranquil slow-burners, there is no denying that the Green one knows what she's doing and we approve.
In fact if you disagree and find yourself at a show in the front row, she'll probably call you a bitch or a dirty-ass ho.
Sorry, but there was literally no chance that I'd get through a review of a CD called "Milo Goes to Compton" without making some dumb N.W.A. reference. No chance. (www.myspace.com/c0lleen1)

Matchstickmen - Demo - (www.matchstickmenuk.com)