Shiner

Shiner formed in 1992 first as Orchid and then soon into Shiner after adding drummer Tim Dow and signing with Flower Booking and DeSoto Records, owned by Kim Coletta and Bill Barbot of Jawbox. With the addition of Paul Malinowski on bass, Jason Gerken on drums and Josh Newton on guitar and noises, the band began a creative high and a busy touring schedule for years, with their final album in 2001 The Egg a critical success.

Countless tours of the US, Europe and Japan, and 4 full-length albums gave them a fiercely loyal set of diehards. Comparisons with their contemporaries of HUM, Jawbox, Failure, and Swervedriver are unavoidable, but Shiner carved a path of their own with a dedication to song-craft and musicianship while often wrapped in darkly sugared hooks. Shiner broke up in 2002 but not before a very special farewell show at the Madrid Theater in KC in front of a couple of thousand friends.

The years between saw them starting families and forming or joining bands like The Life and Times, Every Time I Die and reunions with Molly McGuire. Each of the members remained firmly in “the biz” in various ways as recording engineers, guitar techs, session players and in the BlueManGroup band.

Shiner reformed in 2012 unofficially to rerelease their last record The Egg on vinyl and played 5 shows in New York, LA, KC and Chicago to sold-out crowds, many of which had never seen the band years earlier.

in 2018 Shiner decided to either shit or get off the pot and make some new music. They gathered together at Earth Analog in Tolono IL to write in a lab setting to work out ideas they’d been emailing back and forth. After a few sessions over a year and a half, they emerged with 8 solid songs after sifting through the detritus.

The songs are not so much an answer to The Egg as some properly timed follow up might, but instead stand on their own after 15-year hiatus. It’s the sound of a 4 piece band with each player finding his place in a book as though he just left the room an hour earlier and picked up on the next paragraph upon return.

Jason Gerken is still a drummer's drummer and his heavy right foot is tied to Paul Malinowski's distorted-symphony bass. Guitarists Allen Epley and Josh Newton hew left and right in the mix and worked in lockstep counterpoint throughout the proceedings and leave room for the vocals to enter the mix without overtaking, and instead working as a whole within the strings and skins. The result is called Schadenfreude, the newest full-length offering from Shiner and scheduled for release on May 8, 2020