After losing a manager and label prospect, the Abracadabras held their glitter and released a free album.

The Abracadabras have had some severely swollen nuts lately.

Problem is, they keep getting punched in the groin. Every time the pain subsides from one blow, another is seemingly waiting in the wings.

The departing manager, the smoke-and-mirrors record deal, the stolen trailer — punch, punch, punch …

So when Collin Rausch awoke at 6:30 a.m. one morning to find the Abracadabras’ brand-new rig missing from his driveway, he took matters into his own hands.

“I scoured the suburbs all day trying to find it,” Rausch recalls. “I’d look in people’s eyes as I was driving by to see if they looked guilty.”

The trailer eventually turned up on the side of state Route 291 in Lee’s Summit with about $500 damage in ripped locks and body scars. It looked like it had been attacked with a hatchet. But the fact that it miraculously returned was music to the Abracadabras’ ears.

Now that they have a 12-song album under their belts, the five members of the Kansas City band finally have a reason to put that trailer to use.

“There’s no point in even leaving the state if you don’t have product,” says guitarist Travis McKenzie.

Be Still, Be Cool is the conclusion to chapter one of the Abracadabras’ star-crossed existence. The aforementioned character-building episodes hardly impeded an avalanche of tunes inspired by alternative rock, Britpop, ’60s psychedelia, hippie folk, and swampy Southern blues. Regardless of what labels or managers get behind it (or not), Be Still, Be Cool sounds like a big-time record — not the annoying Fall Out Boy sort but rather the well-rounded Supergrass variety.

Recorded with producer Mike Crawford at his upstart studio, The Impossible Box, the album showcases a breadth of recording techniques from one-take numbers to the sort of trickery that has informed albums since Sgt. Pepper’s. Each track is stacked with harmonies, guitar overdubs and vintage keyboards.

“We threw the whole kitchen sink into it,” lead singer John Nixon says. “Mike added a lot of great X factors to tracks. He’d dial up perfect guitar and keyboard tones.”

Nixon says the group intended to stack the front of the record with pop songs and then let it “slowly unveil itself as something else.” The song “Deep” is a mellow acoustic number in the vein of CSN&Y, while “Show Me the Sunrise, Callie Anne” summons the campfire country-rock of the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers. Such detours complement infectious two-minute singles like “C’mon and Get It!” and “An Argument.”

“We’re enthusiasts of the art of order and timing,” Rausch says. “One of my favorite things to do is take classic rock records and rearrange them to see if I can make them better.”

This Friday’s album-release party at the Riot Room should offer a sense of vindication after a long summer. The frustrating events unfolded in July, when a prospective label fell out of the loop and manager Harley Sears also exited the picture.

Sears, who also worked with KC bands Lovers in Transit and the Rich Boys, relocated to New York City in May. He says the decision to part ways with the Abracadabras was “amicable and necessary” due to other commitments.

“I enjoyed the time we spent together,” Sears says. “Their new album was a labor of love, and the end result was a true work of art.”

However amicable the split was, the Abracadabras couldn’t help but feel a bit bummed.

“We went from almost being signed and having a manager and possibly moving to nothing,” Rausch says. “No matter how hard you try to stay grounded, you get your hopes up.”

Adds guitarist Bobby Topaz (real name: Wayne Hutcherson): “It was like the rug was pulled out from under us. There was a week where we all sitting around scratching our heads like, ‘What’s next?'”

The events motivated the group to self-release Be Still, Be Cool. They began unveiling tracks on their MySpace page a couple of months ago, leading up to a free release of the album this week. Rather than invest in hard copies, the band is handing out cards with free download codes. They also plan to make the entire album available for download via MySpace.

“I think in the long term it’ll be better to give it away,” Nixon says. “The point is that we’re not big, and we’re not making money now anyways, so we may as well try to get people to come to shows.”

Nixon is also adamant about downsizing the group’s reputation for dressing up at shows, preferring to redirect the focus toward the music.

“It became more of a thing to talk about what we were wearing than what we were doing,” he says. “[Making the record] was a long and frustrating journey, so we had to do things to entertain ourselves and the audience in the meantime. I think we all like making music more than putting on shiny jackets and making sure our hair is pretty. We like that, too, obviously.”

Plus, without the shiny jackets, they’re a lot less likely to get punched in the nuts.

“Be Still, Be Cool,” by the Abracadabras, from Be Still, Be Cool (self-released):