The Beercan Records P.O. Box will fight no more forever.
However, you can still get ahold of us at beercanrecords at gmail dot com.
Get freaky with us at beercanrecords at gmail dot com
Showing posts with label Commerce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Commerce. Show all posts
Thursday, October 17, 2013
The Magical P.O. Box
No one really seems to use the mail anymore. I suppose we've known this for years, but we're stubborn. And "old school". So we have decided not to renew the ol' magical PO Box.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Reviews - 8/29/12
Once again, you can file this post under "hundreds of days late and thousands of dollars short", but we felt this needed to be done. Travel back, way back, back into time with us for a moment, won't you?
There used to be this magical website called "MySpace" (don't look for it, it's not there anymore) that all the kids were using and more importantly, all the kids' bands were using. As a "record label", we'd get all sorts of "friend requests" from aspiring and unsigned bands or other fledgling labels trying to get a deal, promote a show or just network. I'm not computer and marketing-savvy enough to tell you why or when things started to go south with MySpace but honestly, it was pretty great there for a while. We here at the Beercan offices (ahem) would honestly listen to every band that bothered to click a mouse button and request our virtual friendship. Sure, a lot of it was utter garbage, but some of the bands were promising, some just seemed like cool folks and occasionally a band would really blow your mind...man.
Anyway, a few years back, some dude from Cutthroat Records (ancient MySpace link is http://www.myspace.com/cutthroatrecs) based out of Houston, TX dropped us a line and asked if we wanted to trade releases. We said, "sure" and dropped some stuff from our extensive catalog (ahem) in the mail. Never got anything in return, but hey, no big deal. People's lives get busy, shit happens, the Post Office is basically bankrupt and may have messed up, who knows. But then months and months later, some other guy from the label writes me back apologizing for the mix-up and says that he'll drop some stuff in the mail right away. And he did, which was very cool. And here are our thoughts, well after the fact, ranging from "well, that's not all that bad" up to "holy shit, that's a great band! I hope they're still around, but I doubt it. But even if they aren't people should track down their music to enhance their life!"
And away we go...
The Delayed - Losing My Mind - Not all that bad, but probably not something that I'll go out of my way to listen to ever again. 5 tracks of Hellacopters-inspired guitar hot-shottery. This came out in 2003 and sounds like it. That's not an insult, but you know, time marches on. Not that music has improved necessarily in 2012, but again, this sounds a little derivative of the Hellacopters and they aren't around anymore so, in a sense, it is a time-capsule. I warned you that we were going back, way back, back into time.
Pretty rad band logo though. I kind of hope that someone out there has a Delayed tattoo...that they mildly regret. Or wildly regret.
The Urgencies - the Urgencies Present Their Manifesto - Yes, the Urgencies appear to have given up the ghost around 2009 and this release is from 2006, but they had a little something going here. Now, keep in mind that I listened to this about 2 years ago in my car which, by the way, is the preferred review mode of the Beercan staff just so ya'll know. This was some pretty cool mid-tempo punk-rock in the vein of the Clash, I suppose.
Fine, you've pegged me. I don't really remember specifics. But I do remember liking it. Somewhat. Fuck you. Go to their site. Listen to the songs. Decide for yourself. Be somebody!
After all, this is all a preamble to the Born Liars review. (See Below!(http://www.myspace.com/theurgencies))
Born Liars - Exit Smiling - Now THIS...this is the main reason we wanted to put finger to key to write this post.
We dug this shit immediamente, but as a little non-chronological background, this reviewer (we have a staff of 7) had just read "Hammer of the Gods" for the first time. You know, the biography of Led Zeppelin that you may have read in high school and that the intelligent degenerate that was smoking cigarettes behind the gym DEFINITELY read in high school. It's a great, and pretty hilarious, book whether you like Zeppelin or not and you should read it. But anyway, it got me to thinking about the fact that all these British bands of that era like Zeppelin, the Stones, Yardbirds (I'd mention the Beatles, but I don't really like the Beatles) took a lot of black American music, ran it through their own personal filters and ultimately turned into some of the hugest, or most influential, or both, bands of all time. Now, I'm not going to go into some screed about how these old original blues musicians were screwed over by the record industry (which surely most of them were) but it is kind of weird how the American contemporaries of these British bands were basically light years behind their limey brethren. In other words, who wins a 6-band tag championship match between Zeppelin, Stones, Yardbirds in one corner and Bad Company, Grand Funk Railroad and, I don't know, Alice Cooper in the other? It's not even a question in my mind and for the record, early Grand Funk Railroad is great, but c'mon.
But, at some point over the last 20 years or so, that trend has slowly faded away. I'm not flag-waving and claiming this as a "victory" for America. I mean, maybe British musicians have just moved on to different things or are so far ahead of Yankee dubstep DJ's (or whatever) that I'd be shocked if I happened to run in those circles. However, we at Beercan typically run in rock and roll circles and a band like the Born Liars is such a perfect example of U.S. rock and roll, that it's magical. In running this label and in listening to hundreds of band submissions, we've heard hardcore from Eastern Europe, rockabilly from Germany, garage rock from France, indie-type stuff from Japan and on and on and on. And again, some of it's great, some of it's shit and most falls somewhere inbetween but more often than not, it is an approximation of stuff that is deeply rooted in American rock and roll history. The Born Liars, from Houston, Texas, write (or I suppose wrote) such uniquely American, straight-forward punk-infused rock and roll that the music makes you want to bury it in a time capsule with a note saying something like, "This is what American rock and roll sounded like when it was done really fucking well. No, this band wasn't hugely popular, but this is the real issue. No shit!"
I won't even get into specifics of particular tracks because every single track smokes quite nicely. The only knock is that it's sometimes so spot-on but with no frills, that you almost want to frill it up yourself. Like, you find yourself humming sax backing or adding backing vocals that aren't there. And that's not even really a knock. Again, I hope this isn't all coming off like I feel that the Born Liars are the Toby Keith of underground music and the rest of the world should fuck off. Far from it. But it sounds like the slightly countrified, blues-based rock that these cats slung, which was after-all born in this country, was just burned into their blood. They're not aping a style. They're not trying to be anything that they aren't. They're just cranking out who they are via the magic of music...which sounds simple, but is very, very rare.
So, I don't know if these guys even exist anymore as a band, but it seems like their old label still does so do yourself a favor, and retroactively do them a favor, and go buy their stuff.
Of course, now we'll probably get an email from the bass player saying, "dude, we all actually moved here from Belgium in the early 90's" or some shit. (http://www.myspace.com/thebornliars)
There used to be this magical website called "MySpace" (don't look for it, it's not there anymore) that all the kids were using and more importantly, all the kids' bands were using. As a "record label", we'd get all sorts of "friend requests" from aspiring and unsigned bands or other fledgling labels trying to get a deal, promote a show or just network. I'm not computer and marketing-savvy enough to tell you why or when things started to go south with MySpace but honestly, it was pretty great there for a while. We here at the Beercan offices (ahem) would honestly listen to every band that bothered to click a mouse button and request our virtual friendship. Sure, a lot of it was utter garbage, but some of the bands were promising, some just seemed like cool folks and occasionally a band would really blow your mind...man.
Anyway, a few years back, some dude from Cutthroat Records (ancient MySpace link is http://www.myspace.com/cutthroatrecs) based out of Houston, TX dropped us a line and asked if we wanted to trade releases. We said, "sure" and dropped some stuff from our extensive catalog (ahem) in the mail. Never got anything in return, but hey, no big deal. People's lives get busy, shit happens, the Post Office is basically bankrupt and may have messed up, who knows. But then months and months later, some other guy from the label writes me back apologizing for the mix-up and says that he'll drop some stuff in the mail right away. And he did, which was very cool. And here are our thoughts, well after the fact, ranging from "well, that's not all that bad" up to "holy shit, that's a great band! I hope they're still around, but I doubt it. But even if they aren't people should track down their music to enhance their life!"
And away we go...
The Delayed - Losing My Mind - Not all that bad, but probably not something that I'll go out of my way to listen to ever again. 5 tracks of Hellacopters-inspired guitar hot-shottery. This came out in 2003 and sounds like it. That's not an insult, but you know, time marches on. Not that music has improved necessarily in 2012, but again, this sounds a little derivative of the Hellacopters and they aren't around anymore so, in a sense, it is a time-capsule. I warned you that we were going back, way back, back into time.
Pretty rad band logo though. I kind of hope that someone out there has a Delayed tattoo...that they mildly regret. Or wildly regret.
The Urgencies - the Urgencies Present Their Manifesto - Yes, the Urgencies appear to have given up the ghost around 2009 and this release is from 2006, but they had a little something going here. Now, keep in mind that I listened to this about 2 years ago in my car which, by the way, is the preferred review mode of the Beercan staff just so ya'll know. This was some pretty cool mid-tempo punk-rock in the vein of the Clash, I suppose.
Fine, you've pegged me. I don't really remember specifics. But I do remember liking it. Somewhat. Fuck you. Go to their site. Listen to the songs. Decide for yourself. Be somebody!
After all, this is all a preamble to the Born Liars review. (See Below!(http://www.myspace.com/theurgencies))
Born Liars - Exit Smiling - Now THIS...this is the main reason we wanted to put finger to key to write this post.
We dug this shit immediamente, but as a little non-chronological background, this reviewer (we have a staff of 7) had just read "Hammer of the Gods" for the first time. You know, the biography of Led Zeppelin that you may have read in high school and that the intelligent degenerate that was smoking cigarettes behind the gym DEFINITELY read in high school. It's a great, and pretty hilarious, book whether you like Zeppelin or not and you should read it. But anyway, it got me to thinking about the fact that all these British bands of that era like Zeppelin, the Stones, Yardbirds (I'd mention the Beatles, but I don't really like the Beatles) took a lot of black American music, ran it through their own personal filters and ultimately turned into some of the hugest, or most influential, or both, bands of all time. Now, I'm not going to go into some screed about how these old original blues musicians were screwed over by the record industry (which surely most of them were) but it is kind of weird how the American contemporaries of these British bands were basically light years behind their limey brethren. In other words, who wins a 6-band tag championship match between Zeppelin, Stones, Yardbirds in one corner and Bad Company, Grand Funk Railroad and, I don't know, Alice Cooper in the other? It's not even a question in my mind and for the record, early Grand Funk Railroad is great, but c'mon.
But, at some point over the last 20 years or so, that trend has slowly faded away. I'm not flag-waving and claiming this as a "victory" for America. I mean, maybe British musicians have just moved on to different things or are so far ahead of Yankee dubstep DJ's (or whatever) that I'd be shocked if I happened to run in those circles. However, we at Beercan typically run in rock and roll circles and a band like the Born Liars is such a perfect example of U.S. rock and roll, that it's magical. In running this label and in listening to hundreds of band submissions, we've heard hardcore from Eastern Europe, rockabilly from Germany, garage rock from France, indie-type stuff from Japan and on and on and on. And again, some of it's great, some of it's shit and most falls somewhere inbetween but more often than not, it is an approximation of stuff that is deeply rooted in American rock and roll history. The Born Liars, from Houston, Texas, write (or I suppose wrote) such uniquely American, straight-forward punk-infused rock and roll that the music makes you want to bury it in a time capsule with a note saying something like, "This is what American rock and roll sounded like when it was done really fucking well. No, this band wasn't hugely popular, but this is the real issue. No shit!"
I won't even get into specifics of particular tracks because every single track smokes quite nicely. The only knock is that it's sometimes so spot-on but with no frills, that you almost want to frill it up yourself. Like, you find yourself humming sax backing or adding backing vocals that aren't there. And that's not even really a knock. Again, I hope this isn't all coming off like I feel that the Born Liars are the Toby Keith of underground music and the rest of the world should fuck off. Far from it. But it sounds like the slightly countrified, blues-based rock that these cats slung, which was after-all born in this country, was just burned into their blood. They're not aping a style. They're not trying to be anything that they aren't. They're just cranking out who they are via the magic of music...which sounds simple, but is very, very rare.
So, I don't know if these guys even exist anymore as a band, but it seems like their old label still does so do yourself a favor, and retroactively do them a favor, and go buy their stuff.
Of course, now we'll probably get an email from the bass player saying, "dude, we all actually moved here from Belgium in the early 90's" or some shit. (http://www.myspace.com/thebornliars)
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Mushuganas "Lows in the Mid 90's" on iTunes
If you're lazy and unfeeling and don't care to embrace the full artistic presentation of the Mushuganas' "Lows in the Mid 90's" CD, well, we'll still take your money via iTunes and some other online mp3 stores, or whatever they're called.
Here's the link for the Mushuganas release (and iTunes links for other albums we've put out can be found along the right side of the page here just below the Paypal links for each respective album):
All tunes are also available on EMusic, Zune, Rhapsody, Napster, IMVU and LaLa but honestly, we have no idea how any of those services work which probably means that we should keep quiet about the fact that the tunes can also be found on those sites as they probably have some weird pricing scheme where 10,000 people have to download first before we see a penny. Or, it means that we're paying extra money every year to have Beercan releases housed on those sites but no one ever uses them at all. Either way, we're probably not being very business-saavy, but we've never profited a dime from this Beercan Records endeavor, so why start now, right?
Our goal is to bring the music to the people...man.
Here's the link for the Mushuganas release (and iTunes links for other albums we've put out can be found along the right side of the page here just below the Paypal links for each respective album):
All tunes are also available on EMusic, Zune, Rhapsody, Napster, IMVU and LaLa but honestly, we have no idea how any of those services work which probably means that we should keep quiet about the fact that the tunes can also be found on those sites as they probably have some weird pricing scheme where 10,000 people have to download first before we see a penny. Or, it means that we're paying extra money every year to have Beercan releases housed on those sites but no one ever uses them at all. Either way, we're probably not being very business-saavy, but we've never profited a dime from this Beercan Records endeavor, so why start now, right?
Our goal is to bring the music to the people...man.
Monday, July 19, 2010
The Peelers, "Let's Detonate", Re-detonated on ITunes and places like that...
Ever since this wonderful album by Chicago's now-defunct Peelers became available in e-stores (ugh, it pained me to type that) back in 2006, the track listing, order and actual songs were all kinds of screwed up. In a nutshell, the 6 second intro track was posted in stores twice while the smoldering danger of "Dig Me" was omitted completely. So unless you bought the actual CD when the Peelers raced through your town, you probably weren't getting the full experience of this gem.
FORTUNATELY, we here at Beercan finally ponied up and had the old album taken down from stores like ITunes, Amazon, Amie Street (whatever the fuck that is), etc. The album is now correctly and fully available in all it's glory, including "Dig Me".
If there was a way for us to automatically send a file of "Dig Me", to all those who have bought an electronic version of the album since its release about 4 years ago, we would. But as far as we know, there isn't. So go plunk down $.99 at your favorite "virtual" store (is that term even used anymore?) and enjoy what you've been missing.
And while you're at it, check out some of the off-shoot projects that various Peelers ended up in after the explosion of this record, and ultimately their band.
Witness...
-The psychedelic garage-ish stylings of THE MEDIUMS - http://www.myspace.com/mediumcooldarkenergy
-The psycho-sexual kanoodlings of HOT AS HELL - http://www.myspace.com/hotashell1
-The I'm-not-really-sure-cuz-I-haven't-heard-them-yet-but-think-its-dark-and-heavy grindings of WITCHBANGER - http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Witchbanger/117648348257637?ref=ts
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
the Mushuganas "Lows in the Mid 90's" CD release show THIS WEEKEND - 5/29
Subterranean is located at 2011 North Avenue in Chicago and tickets for the show are available at http://www.subt.net/. Doors are at 8:30, show starts at 9:00. This show is part of the Windy City Sound Clash which runs from Friday through Sunday and weekend passes are also available so get you some.
Needless to say, we here at Beercan are very excited about this show and the CD itself. It was 75% labor of love, 25% pain in the ass, but it's here, it'll be $10 at the show, it'll be for sale here and other places after the show and here is the track listing. See you Saturday...
1 - You Really Can Never Tell
2 - Theme From Mushugana
3 - Dropout Girl
4 - Renaissance
5 - Mistreated
6 - Spoonfed
7 - Downfall
8 - Disappointed
9 - Breaking With Tradition
10 - Handsome and Beautiful
11 - When I'm Here With You
12 - You Hate Me, I Hate You (Live)
13 - Iowa
14 - We're the Mushuganas and This is Rock and Roll
15 - Aimed Wrong
16 - Strawberry Shortcake
17 - Summer Shoes
18 - WHPK Freakout
19 - Some Wings (Live)
20 - Last Night on Earth
21 - Uriah Heep Records
22 - Heartbreak '98
23 - The Vine
24 - The Deacon
25 - Long Good Time
26 - Her Boyfriend
27 - Paul Deluxe
28 - Attention
29 - Anyone Here Like Bad Religion?
30 - Everyone
31 - Ass Kissers
32 - It's Raining
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Won't You Please Help?
The Mushuganas discography, "Lows in the Mid-90's", is going to the pressing plant in a few days. To scrape together an extra few bucks to offset costs, we're putting a bunch of old vinyl up on Ebay. Most of it is of the punk rock variety, but if you're reading this, that's probably something you may have already deduced. Anyway, you may be interested in picking up some of these 7-inches and albums for cheap.
Here's the link to the full listing and keep checking back over the next few days as we'll continue to add stuff.
(http://shop.ebay.com/ohals73/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340)
Here's what's up for auction as of Sunday, January 31st.
Full-Lenghths
-the Dickies - Live In London
-Gang Green - Older...Budweiser
-Gaunt - I Can See Your Mom From Here
-the Gories - I Know You Fine, But How You Doin'?
-Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - Jonathan Sings!
-No Empathy - The Same Mistakes Endlessly Repeated
-the Queers - Love Songs for the Retarded
-7 Seconds - the Crew
-Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground
10-Inch
-Electric Frankenstein - Sick Songs
-the Jewws - Heartbreaker
7-Inch
-Aliens & Strangers - Go-Go-Goes Dragstrip
-the Campus Tramps - Stick Around
-Clone Defects - Lizard Boy
-Electric Frankenstein - An Evening with Electric Frankenstein
-Electric Frankenstein - Up From the Streets
-Estrus 1995 Nationals - Drags, Impala, Insomniacs, Mono Men, Lord High Fixers
-Gotohells - If I Could Make a Girl
-the Hectics - Come Booze Down With...
-Jack o' Fire - OK Class...Let's Review
-Jodie Foster's Army - My Movie
-Jon Cougar Concentration Camp - Victoria's Secret Sauce
-Lonestar Showdown - Motards, Reclusives, Wormdirt, Cryin' Out Louds
-the Makers - Shout On!
-the Makers/Magnitude 3 - Split 7 Inch
-Mooney Suzuki - Taking Me Apart
-the Motards/Cryin' Out Louds - Split 7 Inch
-the Motards/Fuckemos - Split 7 Inch
-Murphy's Law/Aggressive Dogs - Split 7 Inch
-Mushuganas/Chemicial Blue - Split 7 Inch
-New Bomb Turks - Sexual Dreaming/My Hopes Are Copacetic
-New Bomb Turks/Entombed - Split 7 Inch
-Pagans Tribute - What's This Shit Called Punk - New Bomb Turks, Aggravators, Quazi Modo, Slak, Solid State Ignition
-the Reatards - Get Real Stupid
-the Registrators - Monkey/Stupid Girls
-the Spits - 19 Million AC EP
-the Stranger - Prison Called Life
-the Supersuckers - Can Pipe/Play Some Rock 'n' Roll
-Teengenerate/Bum - Split Double 7 Inch
-Teengenerate - Car-Crazy! Speed-Crazy! Japaneze!!
If you win any of the auctions after reading about it here, shoot us an email at beercanrecords@gmail.com or through Ebay, let us know and we'll drop an extra musical treat in with your record.
Here's the link to the full listing and keep checking back over the next few days as we'll continue to add stuff.
(http://shop.ebay.com/ohals73/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340)
Here's what's up for auction as of Sunday, January 31st.
Full-Lenghths
-the Dickies - Live In London
-Gang Green - Older...Budweiser
-Gaunt - I Can See Your Mom From Here
-the Gories - I Know You Fine, But How You Doin'?
-Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - Jonathan Sings!
-No Empathy - The Same Mistakes Endlessly Repeated
-the Queers - Love Songs for the Retarded
-7 Seconds - the Crew
-Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground
10-Inch
-Electric Frankenstein - Sick Songs
-the Jewws - Heartbreaker
7-Inch
-Aliens & Strangers - Go-Go-Goes Dragstrip
-the Campus Tramps - Stick Around
-Clone Defects - Lizard Boy
-Electric Frankenstein - An Evening with Electric Frankenstein
-Electric Frankenstein - Up From the Streets
-Estrus 1995 Nationals - Drags, Impala, Insomniacs, Mono Men, Lord High Fixers
-Gotohells - If I Could Make a Girl
-the Hectics - Come Booze Down With...
-Jack o' Fire - OK Class...Let's Review
-Jodie Foster's Army - My Movie
-Jon Cougar Concentration Camp - Victoria's Secret Sauce
-Lonestar Showdown - Motards, Reclusives, Wormdirt, Cryin' Out Louds
-the Makers - Shout On!
-the Makers/Magnitude 3 - Split 7 Inch
-Mooney Suzuki - Taking Me Apart
-the Motards/Cryin' Out Louds - Split 7 Inch
-the Motards/Fuckemos - Split 7 Inch
-Murphy's Law/Aggressive Dogs - Split 7 Inch
-Mushuganas/Chemicial Blue - Split 7 Inch
-New Bomb Turks - Sexual Dreaming/My Hopes Are Copacetic
-New Bomb Turks/Entombed - Split 7 Inch
-Pagans Tribute - What's This Shit Called Punk - New Bomb Turks, Aggravators, Quazi Modo, Slak, Solid State Ignition
-the Reatards - Get Real Stupid
-the Registrators - Monkey/Stupid Girls
-the Spits - 19 Million AC EP
-the Stranger - Prison Called Life
-the Supersuckers - Can Pipe/Play Some Rock 'n' Roll
-Teengenerate/Bum - Split Double 7 Inch
-Teengenerate - Car-Crazy! Speed-Crazy! Japaneze!!
If you win any of the auctions after reading about it here, shoot us an email at beercanrecords@gmail.com or through Ebay, let us know and we'll drop an extra musical treat in with your record.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Brand new nonsense!
OK, so the beercanrecords.com site is currently not routing correctly. That, coupled with the fact that my current computer is very much on the fritz and incapable of handling any website updating software, has led the Beercan staff to make the executive decision to set up this blog page.
We're going to use this site to finally catch up on a shitload of CD/Demo reviews that have backlogged. Probably a bunch of stuff that gets posted is from bands that have since broken up, but it's a blog and the important thing is that opinions are posted...not that anyone reads them.
Plus, there is actual news on the Mushuganas compilation as well as a new It Burns 7" that we've recently released in conjunction with Let's Pretend Records.
Stick around...this should be a good time.
We're going to use this site to finally catch up on a shitload of CD/Demo reviews that have backlogged. Probably a bunch of stuff that gets posted is from bands that have since broken up, but it's a blog and the important thing is that opinions are posted...not that anyone reads them.
Plus, there is actual news on the Mushuganas compilation as well as a new It Burns 7" that we've recently released in conjunction with Let's Pretend Records.
Stick around...this should be a good time.
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