Burgerama Caravan of Stars Tour Friday, Sept. 20 Fueled by a

September 12, 2013 11:55 am

Burgerama Caravan of 
Stars Tour

Friday, Sept. 20

Fueled by a love of the Beatles, the Monkees, and garage rock, Sean Bohrman and Lee Rickard launched Burger Records in 2007, initially as a platform to release albums from their band Thee Makeout Party. After receiving a tape of a friend’s band, the pair realized that not only were cassettes inexpensive to manufacture, but that very few labels even made them anymore. A few phone calls to a few bands later, Burger Records eventually morphed into the nation’s premiere label for limited-edition cassette releases.

The label has issued more than 500 releases—most of them cassettes, and most available for $6—from a disparate list of artists including Beck, Ryan Adams, and Suicidal Tendencies. Though Burger Records also issues CDs and vinyl, it is best known for releasing other labels’ albums on cassette, like OFF!’s 2010 debut, first released on Vice Records, or Beachwood Sparks’ recent Tarnished Gold, which Sub Pop released on CD, vinyl, and as a digital download—but not on tape.

“It’s like a business card, like a hand-held little collectible item,” the pair told online music service AllMusic recently about the appeal of the retro format. “It’s something you can hold in your hand instead of a download in your computer.”

Cassette-pressing ideals fly directly in the face of the modern recording industry, but Bohrman and Rickard found a niche outside it and embraced it, and now the industry is coming to them—for example, a recently inked deal with respected independent distributor Red Eye music will help get their releases into more stores.

And Burger Records is branching out even further. In addition to their record store, a YouTube channel that features 
original content, and a $75 coffee-table book, Bohrman and Rickard are launching the Burgerama tour after testing the idea via a series of successful label showcases. The tour stops at Neumos tonight and includes a slew of bands that have released music through the label: the Growlers, Cosmonauts, Gap Dream, together PANGEA, and more. It’s an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of meaty, garage-y rock ’n’ roll bliss–and there should be plenty of cassettes on hand. With La Luz, the Memories, Collared Green.

Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9951. neumos.com. 
6 p.m. $15.

DAVE LAKE