Pub Can Records

In the spirit of the holidays, we have decided to do a little something special this year. As a way of giving back to all of you who have been so supportive this past year with Mark Rice’s new album, Mark and Dave have put together a really wonderful version of the familiar Christmas carol, “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”, and we are giving it away completely free.

The song can be downloaded from our site as an MP3 [download here], but we are also releasing the single, along with a newly recorded, previously unreleased song, on a special nostalgic vinyl CD which looks and feels like a 45RPM record, complete with vintage label designed by the ever-talented Jaclyn Rice. For the month of December, all who purchase Mark Rice’s new album “Topography of a Bird” will receive this limited print, serialized CD absolutely free.

For those of you who would love to have this great promotional CD for your Mark Rice collection, the CDs can be purchased for $5.00 from the store. And in addition to this great gift, we have reduced the prices on all of our CDs by up to 40%. And as always, there are no shipping charges on any of our CDs. There’s never been a better time to buy.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from all of us here at Pub Can Records.

Join us on Saturday the 25th of July at 8pm to celebrate Mark Rice’s long-awaited full-length release, TOPOGRAPHY OF A BIRD. This CD Release Party will be the second of two, the first being for all of his close friends, family, and fans in Pittsburgh, and this being for all of us here in the Philadelphia area.

Mark will be performing the album in its entirety, accompanied by vocalist and violinist, Sissy Clemens; pianist and keyboardist, Chris LaRosa; bassist, Tom Swope; percussionist, Verien Brotzman; and of course Mark’s producer and loyal sidekick, Dave Young.

Also taking the stage will be performer and good friend, DAN COLLINS, to start us off. And we may also be delightfully treated to a few songs by the stunning SISSY CLEMENS.

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Burlap and Bean Coffee Shop
204 South Newtown Street Rd
Newtown Square, PA 19073
484-427-4547
Saturday July 25, 2009
8:00pm
$5

www.BurlapandBean.com

“Three things are necessary,” wrote Thomas Aquinas, “for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.” It could be said that Topography of a Bird, the charming full-length debut from singer-songwriter Mark Rice, is an exploration of that path to enlightenment.

Freelance writer and editor of Twenty Pounds of Headlines, Nick DiUlio reviews Mark Rice’s latest release, Topography of a Bird. Head on over to Twenty Pounds of Headlines to read what he has to say.

This is Mark, Verien and Dave’s performance of “Ohio” from the CD release party in Pittsburgh. A special thanks must go out to Tim Young and Nick DiUlio for the use of their cameras, and especially to Nick for his awesome camera work. Nick must also be given credit as co-producer along with Dave Young, as the two met at Widget Studios and cranked this baby out in an evening. We hope to see more great work like this from them in the near future. So let us know what you all think. Leave a comment here at the bottom, and then head on over to YouTube and leave a comment there. We need each and every one of you to help start this revolution!

On April 11th, just 2 weeks away, we will be throwing a party at the Union Project in Pittsburgh, PA, to celebrate one of our proudest moments in Pub Can’s humble existence. Mark Rice, our first signed artist, after about 3 years of hard work and patience, has just completed his first full length album, along with the guidance of producer, Dave Young. Mark and a number of friends will be sharing the stage to provide a great atmosphere of music and entertainment, while the new CDs and other special hand made items will be available for purchase. Come prepared to support Mark and show your love for his music, as we celebrate such a wonderful achievement.

“TOPOGRAPHY OF A BIRD” CD Release Party
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
7:00pm-10:00pm

The Union Project
801 North Negley Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 1520

Check out the Union Project online.

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The new record hasn’t even released yet and already folks are raving about it. Two podcasts featured songs from Mark Rice’s “Topography Of A Bird” this week. The first being The Music Discovery Podcast from CD Baby and the second being The Iron City Rocks Podcast.

CD BABY MUSIC DISCOVERY PODCAST – check out their website here

“… the vocals take this record to the next level…”

The CD Baby Music Discovery Podcast was doing an episode on quirky children’s music, but before getting into the main content of the show, they played 2 editor’s picks, the first of which being Mark’s song “Tuscan Sun”.

IRON CITY ROCKS PODCAST – check out their website here

“… quite possibly one of the best songs we’ve had on this podcast…”

READ BEFORE YOU CLICK! – Iron City Rocks is a podcast dedicated to promoting Pittsburgh’s own rock and metal music. Interestingly enough, Mark, on a whim, sent a record on over to the guys at Iron City Rocks, not necessarily expecting a dig at all. But at the very end of the segment, they chose to make Mark’s song “Save Me Tonight” number 5 of only 5 songs featured in the podcast. I might add humorously that this is probably the only radio format that could get into such an album track as the very six-and-a-half minute song itself.

Mark Rice’s upcoming Pub Can release “Topography Of A Bird” will be widely available on April 11th after the CD release party being held at the Union Project in Pittsburgh, PA.

Pre-order your copy today!

Many said that this day would never come… well, maybe not. But if you’ve followed the last 2 years of this project at all, you know that we intended for this record to be completed long before now and never really had a grasp on when we could expect to be finished with it. Originally slated for January of 2008, the record took a long hiatus while we worked out schedule conflicts and other things that come with operating a growing small business. But today we have reason to celebrate because the record is finished and we now have boxes full of the beautiful discs just waiting to be sent to all of our wonderful Mark Rice fans everywhere.

The official release date is set for April 11th, 2009. There will be a party held at the Union Project in Mark’s new hometown, Pittsburgh, PA commemorating the event. Musicians and artists from Mark’s old hometown, Philadelphia, PA as well as the record’s producer, Dave Young and his wife Kristine Young representing their first Pub Can Records recording artist will be among the many convened to celebrate Mark’s great and long-awaited achievement.

The CDs are currently available for purchase HERE for $12.00 plus tax which includes the cost of shipping. These pre-ordered CDs will be sent out the week leading up to the April 11th release party in Pittsburgh. We encourage everyone to pre-order their copy today, and to those of you who already placed their order, thank you very much. We certainly appreciate all of your support.

The Project for Nuclear Awareness presents Peace Jam 2008, a youth-focused concert featuring local Philadelphia acoustic musicians. All concert proceeds will support our Youth Leadership Network, which aims to educate and empower college students and young adults, aged 18-30, to support public awareness of, and action on, nuclear weapons policy.

Come on out on April 3rd to show your support of a worthy cause and check out Mark Rice along with other great local philly artists. This will actually be the first time Mark has played out formally since taking his hiatus to work on his upcoming full-length 2008 release. Singing with him at the show will be newly found band member, Sissy Clemens, and of course his trusty sidekick and producer, Dave Young.

World Cafe Live (upstairs)
3025 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Also Performing:

Oud Blues

Katie Barbato and the SleepWells

Dan Collins

The Parsnip Revolt

Liz Dieleman, who a little while ago left the east coast for a short time to pursue academic and other interests in Michigan, has returned to rock The Big Apple. She will be playing at 169 Bar on Thursday, October 25th at 10:00pm. This is her first time to play New York City and as rumors have it, it sounds as though she may be taking up residency there.

169 Bar
Rutgers St and East Broadway,
New York City, NY 10002

Mark Rice and Pub Can have recently begun planning for a full length record rumored to release sometime in early 2008. In the meantime, Rice has decided to take a breather from the late nights and difficult-to-organize rehearsals. Instead, Rice plans to use his time to concentrate on carefully designing the sound he hears in his head for this upcoming release.

There is no official date yet, but there are rumors of a big release party and other great things to look forward to from Mark come 2008.

Come on out to the Tritone on South St. this Thursday night July 19th at 10pm for some great music. Mark Rice will have Verien Brotzman and Dave Young along to accompany him. This is one you won’t want to miss.

The Tritone
1508 South St
Philadelphia, PA 19146

If you are aware of this issue already, go here http://xpn.org/petition/ and sign the petition. If you want to know more, read on…

Streaming Internet radio is one of the most artistically beneficial innovations of the last decade and the United States Government (that’s yours and mine) has decided to all but shut the practice down completely. How? By allowing the U.S. Board of Copyrights and Royalties to raise the rates these streaming stations must pay. Before this hike, Internet radio stations (which range from monoliths such as AOL and Yahoo to college students in a dorm room with a laptop annd stack of CDs) had to pay 12% of their proceeds to the government. To put this in perspective, satellite radio (XM and Sirius) pay 7% and terrestrial radio (you know, the steaming pile of worthless, banal, commercial-ridden crap you get when you dial into that box in your car’s dashboard) pays NOTHING. As though this weren’t injustice enough, the government has decided to raise the rates for I-radio even more, making it thoroughly cost prohibitive for a large majority of these stations to function. That means if you’re a fan of Pandora, for example, you’re going to be very sad very soon. Better get used to hearing, “Hey this is Slick Rick Rocky and his Morning Buzz Babes bringing you the greatest in the 80s, 90s and today. Hey, how ’bout a little Bachman Turner Overdrive to get you goin’ this fine Friday morning! B-b-b-baby, you just ain’t s-s-s-seen nothin’ yet! YOW!”

All who wish to be forced to live in that world again, raise your digital hands…right. Thought so.

This is not only a matter of artistic democracy. This is a revolution my friends, a call to tell this government of ours, “No, we will not let you herd us like intellectual sheep into your same tired, worn-out stables.” Internet radio is a wonderful medium, one that has benefited artists and listeners in ways previously unfathomable, and it is here to stay!

So, if any of this rings true, follow the above link to XPN’s website (whose online streaming radio, by the way, would come under the axe of this draconian measure if things don’t change) and sign the petition to save Internet radio. It takes less than a minute.

“Lights out. Gorilla radio!”

Please pass this LINK TO PETITION on to anyone you think may want to take up arms.

For those of you planning to hit the Raven Lounge this evening, March 19th, there has been a scheduling error and there will no longer be an appearance made by Rice and band. However, it looks as though there may be another date to replace it for Monday night, April 2nd. We will post more when we recieve confirmation.

We’ve just booked some new shows. Click on the “shows” tab above and find out when you can see Mark and Verien hit the stage.

be with you tonight mark rice 2005 (2007 re-release) $5.00

Being the perfectionist that producer Dave Young is known for, at no surprise came his recent statements of dissatisfaction with the outcome of the Mark Rice 2005 EP release, “Be With You Tonight”. He was recently quoted (although noted on loose authority) saying, “I would have never allowed that out of my studio had I not been tied up and outright robbed by Mark’s croonies!”. Since this statement, slight investigation has provided reason to believe that no such croonies actually exist. However, Young’s passion for complete and utter perfection rings through his passionate claims.

In following up with these sentiments, Young has convinced Rice and company to agree to a 2007 Pub Can re-release of the 2005 EP having been touched up in the mixing lab and completely re-masterd. Throw in a 2-panel full-color insert with liner notes and a jewel case, and this record becomes a great opportunity to own a piece of Mark Rice history(still in the making), and all for the same low price of $5 US.

Check out more of Mark’s stuff on his artist page.

Pub Can Records is greatly pleased to announce that Liz Dieleman will be joining its family of artists. Liz has been performing on her own for years. She released her own record “The Old Apartment Demo.” in 2006. In 2007, she plans to return to her hometown, Holland, Michigan to pursue music as well as prepare for her upcoming entrance into grad school.

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Two internet based radio broadcasts featuring independent music have approached Mark Rice about airing his tunes and even hosting him for an interview.

Radio Volta

This Sunday evening December 17th from 8pm-9pm Radio Volta, a local online broadcast, will be hosting Mark Rice in the studio along with a couple other Acoustic Philly supported artists. We expect to hear some dialog and possibly as many as 4 songs performed live by Mark in the studio.

[Listen-HIFI]
[Listen-LOFI]

Pod Bean – Indie Music Sampler Podcast

Indie Music Sampler is a weekly podcast based out of Oregon playing genres from acoustic to rock. Mark was recently approached by “Paul the Music Lover” from IMS asking permission to feature one of Mark’s songs on one of the next podcasts.

I’ve listened to a couple of these podcasts and it sounds like they are reaching out very far into the depths of american subculture to find the varied list of artists they play. It really is a great way for artists to get their music heard. Check them out at ims.podbean.com

You can listen to the podcasts straight from their website or you can subscribe to them using just about any RSS feed reader out there.

This Tuesday night from 7-8 WQHS DJ Sam McDermott will be hosting our very own and beloved Mark Rice live in the studio to talk a little and sing a tune or two. Show your support by tuning in and listen. Click the link below.

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songs from the right verien 2006 $3.00

Verien Brotzman, veteran session drummer/percussionist, boldy steps onto the stage with his debut solo EP – Songs from the Right. For years Brotzman has backed up artists all over the globe and made a name for himself as the perfect side-kick. Now, the only name you need to know is “VERIEN“. Taking on singularity, Verien has become the quintessential pop songwriter picking up where the likes of Brian Wilson, Jack Johnson, Ben Lee and Ben Kweller leave off.

Read more »

We’re finally here, and this time it’s for good.

We are extremely excited to present to you our new website designed by some of the best programmers in the world to bring to you all of the information you desparately seek out. Your days of surfing the web aimlessly are over. All of your favorite Pub Can recording artists are here. Photos, Bios, Album releases, Tour Dates, and more!