Controlled Burn Records

CBR Store Is Live

Robert — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 03:22:45 +0000

Okay, everybody just calm down! The Controlled Burn Records Web shop is back up and running. Our shopping cart has been completely revamped, so, if you have bought directly from us in the past, your old login credentials will not work anymore. Never fear, the new shopping cart is much easier to navigate and use.

That said, everything here is new to us too. Please be patient as we work out the kinks. If you have any issues, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Welcome to the New Controlled Burn Web site

Robert — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 21:29:40 +0000

We have just revamped everything at this site and are slowly coming back on-line. The store will be up soon, as will some big announcements.

Unfortunately, we have had to completely scrap our old Web site. If you have purchased from here in the past, your old account along with your order history is gone. Sorry about the inconvenience, but the new shopping system is going to be a lot better as soon as we get it completely set up!

Next Austerity Program LP Is Recorded

Justin — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 10:15:00 +0000

The Austerity Program finished recording their next record back in December. Here’s the master tapes, ready to go to Ventura, CA.

Six songs long, clocks in at about 25 minutes. I know that’s not very long for a band that hasn’t put a record out in five years but it’s pretty intense so you’ll get your fill.

Currently working on pressing details, cover art, setting up shows. Expect this thing to come out in June.

Learning Things

Justin — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 13:08:00 +0000

Our first post included the vague idea that we’d post about stuff as we learned it – as far as running a record label goes.

We’ve been bad about keeping that promise but there’s something that we did learn; it contains something like advice for someone thinking about starting a record label.

If you set up an actual company to do the label’s business then you’re going to have to pay taxes on the label’s income, as well as sales tax for sales in the state you’re based.

Here’s the problem – there’s a bunch of helpful reasons to set up a company rather than just running the label as your personal income. But hiring an accountant to do the taxes is going to run you a few hundred dollars at a minimum. And given that we’re releasing 1-2 things a year, that means we’d basically be sending all of the label’s net income to an accountant.

Which is stupid.

So we had to figure out how to do the taxes, which meant figuring out the accounting on our own. This was not easy. I am going to type that again for emphasis. This was not easy.

If anyone out there is reading this and faces the same problem (“I cannot afford to pay someone to figure out our accounting for me”) you may find this helpful: the key task was to figure out where the money was coming from and where it was supposed to go.

At the end of this long effort we have developed a database. It can tell us at any given date how much money we have, where it came from, how much we owe and who we owe it to. Corporate types call this a balance sheet.

You do not need a database; you can do this in Excel with some loss in gracefulness but a much smaller headache in setup.

I’d be thrilled to share deeper details if this, so contact me if you want to know more. I would especially appreciate it if you have a time machine I can borrow so that I can go back into 2013 and tell myself what I learned to save a huge headache in figuring this stuff out.

= Justin

Nonagon to SF, the Austerity Program’s LP drops 6/17

Justin — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 23:40:00 +0000

Nonagon is playing the first ever West Cost PRF BBQ on Saturday, May 3 @ Leo’s in San Francisco. Should be a preeeeetty amazing event, with Kowloon Walled City, Eugene S Robinson, the Gary, the Tunnel and others.

And the new Austerity Program record, Beyond Calculation, will be out 6/17. More news on that in a bit, but if you live in/near Boston (4/26), Providence (4/27) or Brooklyn (5/7), you can go see them in the days ahead. The Shows page has all the details.

This was the stuffing party for the new record. We kept insisting that everyone wash their hands.

What Do We Have Here?

Robert — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 11:08:00 +0000

Look at what arrived at CBR’s shipping department this week. If you guessed Time Life Books’ 28 Volume Series: The Civil War you would only be partially correct. That’s coming next week. What we have here is The Austerity Program’s record entering the final stages before its upcoming release. Soon.

In Case You Are Wondering What Nonagon Looks Like

Robert — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 17:12:00 +0000

Jonathan Ferris-Bohorquez was able to snap some very nice shots of Nonagon playing at The Dragonfly Lounge in Madison, Wis. Visit the show’s page on Nonagon’s Web site for the rest of the photos.

The Austerity Program Is Recording Their Next Record

Justin — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 00:32:00 +0000

Thad and Justin have started putting songs on tape for their next record. It’ll be 8 songs long and about 40 minutes long. We’ll be putting it out next Spring.

You can read more about the latest by going to the Austerity Program’s site and following the progress. And the technically minded can always check out the pre-production journal that Justin’s been keeping. He runs tests on which microphone is the best or which pre-amp sounds the most appropriate and that kind of thing.

And did you see that Nonagon show poster? Damn, it looks nice.

= Justin

A Thing Has Happened!

John — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 15:47:00 +0000

Nonagon’s new record, THE LAST HYDRONAUT (or BURN002 as it’s known among the interns and accountants) gets released TODAY. This is the first ‘big’ release on the label and I won’t lie: it’s been more work than we thought it would be. That said, it’s also been more fun and rewarding than expected… I think we’ll declare victory.

Thanks to all who helped us and cared. Couldn’t have happened without your support, love, and occasional punch in the face.

XOXO Nonagon

Prices up by a dollar. (aka “we screwed up”)

Justin — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 23:20:00 +0000

After a whopping 73 days in business (more or less), we’re already raising prices on most stuff by a buck. Why? Because we erred and forgot to include an important cost when we first put up the site. Hey, look, we’re bands, not MBAs and web designers and small business managers and PhD college professors and people who ship stuff for our jobs over here. (Actually, none of that last sentence is true because have one of each of those.)

So if you bought stuff early, great. For everyone else, we’re sorry that most things cost a dollar more. But now they do.

= Justin

PS – Thad would probably want me to say that our inflationary policy is suspiciously timed to Janet Yellen’s announced nomination for Fed chairwoman. You’d think with an attention to that kind of obscure detail, we wouldn’t have made this error in the first place but you’d be wrong.