Welcome to 2013 – We hope you had a fun and safe New Years Eve! We did, and now we’re rested up and ready to get back to work!
Topics:
I. Vacation Bible School / Pity Party split 7″ Pre-Order!
II. UCR turns 9 Years Old!
III. Ska is Dead Subscription Series Update
IV. Winepress Discography LP, release show at Ian’s Party this weekend!
V. Latest Releases / Upcoming Releases
I. Vacation Bible School / Pity Party split 7″ Pre-Order!
I put the the pre-order up for the Vacation Bible School / Pity Party split 7″(click here to stream these tunes) earlier today. please note, the covers will be here on Monday, so these will start shipping in the middle of next week!
Order a copy today here at the UCR Distro.
II. UCR turns 9 Years Old!
December 26th is the birthday for the label. Nine years ago we went from possible idea to actually creating albums and setting out on a journey, literally.
On December 26th, 2003 I left for tour with Haunted Life, a great Chicago hardcore band,
that took us from Indiana, to Tennessee, to Georgia, to Florida, to Alabama, back to Florida, to Arkansas and back home to Chicago (in a horrible snowstorm!). In-tow we had a box of 200 copies of the tour edition of Haunted Life’s “the Dust has Settled” CDEP (UCR002) with pretty sweet letterpressed and silk screened covers, and hand glued info on the inside of the CD sleeve. It wasn’t a smashing success, but that was our humble beginning.
Thanks for all the support over the past 9 years. I’ve gotten to work with so many friends and made 10 times as many in the process. We have released more records than I’d have ever expected, from bands I never thought was possible, and had so many great adventures along the way because of it. I’ve never compromised the original vision of the label, and I never will. I’m intensely proud that I’ve been able to genre jump as much as we have and I think there’s still a cohesion to it what we’re doing. From the ska records, to the comedy releases to the hardcore and punk rock records, and everything in between, to me it still makes sense. There’s a common theme of independent spirit running through them all. I cannot imagine doing things any other way.
I switch back and forth a lot between “we” and “I” a lot because it’s not really about me. I never do all the work. There’s a long list of friends that have helped with everything from picking me and a bunch of boxes up and driving me around town for things; to helping assemble the records; lent me their computer to design ads and flyers, the friends in other labels that are advice sounding boards; to hosting our website(s), to one special person that puts up with an apartment full of cardboard boxes endlessly cluttering up the place, and last but certainly not least anyone that enjoys/buys records from us, wears our shirts, reps the label on message boards, downloads the podcasts, etc… Your willingness to go on the ride with us is amazing and you’re an equal component in what we do.
III. Ska is Dead Subscription Series Update
Ok folks, the last two 7″s arrived at Asbestos Records HQ in Connecticut last week, so these are shipping now!!
The last two 7″s feature the bands:
Void Union / Dropsteppers
Pilfers / the Snails
If you haven’t ordered this yet, and are interested, the Ska Is Dead series has it’s own store…check that out at: www.skaisdead.storenvy.com
The first four 7″s featured:
Dave Hillyard And The Rocksteady 7 / The Fad
Five Iron Frenzy / Suburban Legends
King Django / Green Room Rockers
Vic Ruggiero / Chewing On Tinfoil
IV. Winepress discography LP / release show at Ian’s Party this weekend!
We are re-releasing the WiNEPRESS discography – a classic nugget of early 90′s Chicagoland pop punk for the first time ever on vinyl…well… as the collection – It’s an exciting day!
Our forefather label Harmless Records originally put together this compilation back in 2001 and it was released on CD only, the band played a few reunion shows around it’s release as well. At the time I was working at Ryan from Winepress’s store in Lansing, IL called Bossa Nova, and until the show(s) happened, I only barely knew who the band was. That first reunion show at Off the Alley strongly cemented the band deep in my head and in my heart. They were a band from Chicago that I knew more in a historical sense than their music, and having a guy like Scott @ Harmless helping get everything in one place, reminding anyone that cared to track it down that yeah, they did some cool, fun songs, now you can hear them in one place. I always appreciated these efforts…so we’re reminding you again what great songs they are.
When it was announced that Winepress was going to play Ian’s Party 2013, I reached out to Ryan with the idea of “wouldn’t it be cool if we put the discography out on vinyl for the show?” He told me that would be amazing because the band wanted to bill this as their 20th anniversary show too! Excellent! So we were off and running. I quickly made calls, send masters off to the plant, got the records pressed (we made 100 blank label copies for the show) and that pretty much brings us up to speed on the whole project.
We made a Facebook page for the band too, please go LIKE that if you’re into that sort of thing:
www.facebook.com/winepressband
I put up the album streaming on our bandcamp page here:
undercomm.bandcamp.com/album/the-complete-recordings
We’ll be celebrating the bands 20 year anniversary this weekend at Ian’s Party 2013, please come hang out and sing along, pick up an LP too. Any remaining copies will be available for purchase starting on Sunday afternoon I’ll post a note on the Facebook page when they are up…or if any remain… we are going to press more and those will be ready later this month.
V. Latest Release / Upcoming Releases
Latest Releases
1. Vacation Bible School / Pity Party split 7″
Poppy-punk rock from Chicagoland vs. Poppy-punk rock from New York/New Jersey! 2 brand new VBS tunes & 4 songs from PP, this is their first release too! PP features ex members of the Measure (sa)!! Also rumor has it that Mikey Erg has been seen playing drums with them as of late!
2. Break Anchor / Unsinkable Molly Brown split 7″
Copies of this have been flying off the shelves, don’t miss out on it! Rad melodic punk rock from Detroit & Toledo!
both of these new releases are available NOW! in the UCR Distro
Upcoming Releases
1. Young Light LP
2. Easy Action / Snakewing split 7″
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Take care! -Justin!
Underground Communiqué Records
http://www.undercomm.org
http://www.undercomm.storenvy.com
http://www.twitter.com/UnderComm
http://www.facebook.com/undergroundcommuniquerecords