Getting shafted by a record company usually fails to make it onto any band’s list of career goals, and understandably so.
But local indie outfit Januar (pronounced yah-new- whar) already has weathered that storm.
The head of the The Leapyear Device, the band’s Oakland, Calif.-based label, had told them their new album “The Way Back Home” was ready to be manufactured and was just waiting for payment. The band scheduled a CD-release party for Saturday at the Larimer Lounge. All seemed well.
“After some strange e-mails, we checked with the manufacturer and found out that production was on hold until the label paid for a previous project,” said singer/guitarist Amy Burbick. “Not only that, the manufacturer had never even received our artwork – which we had sent to the label, along with the master CD, in early February.”
After getting no response from label owner Mark James, the band members decided to self-release the disc – something they had originally planned to do – and use Saturday’s show to raise funds for pressing the CD. And despite the lack of distribution and booking support, the band will forge ahead and tour the Midwest in early August.
Jeremy Burbick, Amy’s husband and bassist for Januar (the Icelandic word for “January”), at first speculated the head of their label had tried to commit suicide, as bizarre as the string of events was.
“It was just a weird emotional thing, finding out we had been had or something,” he said. “Now it’s like we just lost time, because we could have done this months ago.”
Fortunately, the band retained the rights to the new album, which represents a sonic and melodic leap forward from its previous EP, “The Fall.” Whereas “The Fall” was steeped in spare, acoustic, shoegazing tunes, “The Way Back Home” rises to a dense yet crisply rendered sphere of atmospheric indie rock.
Denver-based producer Jme allows the delicate high harmonies to breathe without letting them float into the ether. Amy, formerly an acoustic devotee, even picked up an electric guitar and some effects pedals for the affair.
“I felt like he was able to plug into what we’re about,” Jeremy said of Jme, who also fronts Blue Blooded Girls and forms half the indie duo Blusom. “He allowed it to grow. It was like having another member in the band who knew what we were about.”
Amy Burbick and drummer/singer Patty Holland’s darkly melodic verses swoop in and out of reverb-drenched choruses. Songs like “Missing the Mark” and “Blown Away” recall the measured, pensive work of Low, Mojave 3 and Pedro the Lion. Similarly, Januar’s songs wrestle ambivalently with issues of faith without being overtly Christian or pedantic – two pitfalls of philosophical-leaning art.
“It’s like a searching or anger toward trying to figure out what’s going on,” said Jeremy Burbick. “It’s not like we’re promoting it, it’s just a questioning outlook on how the establishment deals with it.”
The band’s habit of searching the
horizons has kept it from standing still, even though it’s taken four years to release its first full-length CD and set up a regional tour. Original drummer Katie Aikins will be flown in to augment the lineup for the tour.
For the most part, the band members aren’t fretting about their recent troubles or feeling gun-shy about other record labels, although they’re smart enough to realize those troubles may flare up again.
“We’re trying to figure out the legal aspects of what’s going on,” said Jeremy, who has shown a copy of the band’s contract to a lawyer. “If we start making money he’ll (Mark James) probably come around, but we haven’t heard from him in over a month, so we’re not exactly sure what he’s thinking.”
Chances are he wasn’t thinking at all if he let an album as measured and gorgeous as “The Way Back Home” get away.
Staff writer John Wenzel can be reached at 303-820-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com.
Januar
INDIE ROCK|Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St.; 8 p.m. Saturday|$6|with A Shoreline Dream, Sandusky, Bluebook and Sarah Marcogliese; BigMarksTickets.com
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HEAVENLY STATES Heavenly States aren’t quite the Beach Boys, but you can tell Brian Wilson and company are major influences on this pop band that plays Friday at Benders Tavern.
JOLIE HOLLAND This Texas native and former Be Good Tanyas member is still sailing on the good reviews of her most recent record, “Springtime Can Kill You.” Not only are her voice and music from another era, but her attitude is also rooted in a sensibility that hasn’t been seen in mainstream American music for years. Holland brings her show to the Bluebird on Saturday.
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