Skip to content
Hello, and thanks for reading.
You would think since I write a staff pick like every week this wouldn’t be much of a challenge, but I still find it difficult to get my thoughts into writing. If I am prepared, I begin to write more than a few days in advance. I start by outlining the thoughts I want to cover and noting important bits I don’t want to forget. Even though I outline, I still find myself going on about random shit and I end up removing text I spent a lot of thought on. I use WordPad to create my document, and it doesn’t have spell check. So, I have to paste all the text somewhere else to make sure there are no mistakes. I have to look up words in the dictionary more than you’d expect. I search for synonyms sometimes cos I don’t quite know what word I am looking for, and I don’t think I really understand grammar. I’ve come to learn I love run-on sentences. Luckily Daniel is an English major, and he proofreads everything we write. While the newsletter usually comes out on Monday, our staff picks are supposed to have been submitted to Daniel by the Thursday before. Usually, I would delete something like this before I submit my staff pick to Daniel, but this week I am going to just leave it in. So anyway, I saw today we restocked that 100% ass beater SALVAJE PUNK 12". I assumed it was a repress, but Daniel explained Toxic State had just found another box. If you missed this LP the first time, I would suggest you don’t even think and buy this LP right now. Who knows if or when it will be available again. I wrote about this LP recently in my year end review, and I wrote about it before that in a staff pick so I‘m not gunna get into it again. I do wanna mention again, it comes with a fucking sick poster!!!
PHYSIQUE recently released a new 6 track EP, Overcome By Pain. It feels like it came super quick after their latest LP. I wonder how soon after the LP they recorded this material. There is no recording information on the new EP, but Iron Lung mentioned it was recorded on unceded Nisqually & Squaxin land by Captain Tripps at High Command and mastered by Shige at Noise Room. Inside the gatefold of Again, it has the same exact credits, but it also says it was recorded March 2022. Talking to Daniel, I began to wonder if the EP was from the same session as the LP and they were just waiting to release the EP after the LP finally came out. But after listening to Again again (haha), I don’t think it’s the same session. There are some similarities in sound, but this new EP sounds even better if you ask me. I think the best parts about their noise come through. The record sounds kinda heavy and thick, but there is still a certain clarity about it. It would be hilarious if I was wrong and these were from the same session. I mail-ordered this EP directly from Iron Lung when it came out. Often I wait until Sorry State gets copies of a release, but I did not want to wait for this record. I didn’t even bother streaming the EP digitally before buying it. After hearing Again, there was not a doubt in my mind that I needed this record. As time goes on, I find myself more and more impressed with PHYSIQUE. I think I saw them live the first time in 2018 and they blew the doors off that club. I am actually re-visiting this 12" from 2018, and it is a monster. While PHYSIQUE is obviously under the influence of DISCLOSE, there is a bit more going on here. Besides picking up the pace a bit and playing overall much faster than DISCLOSE, I think a major characteristic is how tight the instruments are through transitions. The drummer often does rolls into punches, or vice versa, but he always keeps it fresh. Honestly, the insanely tight and creative transitions this band pulls off in the midst of the speed is what I find so impressive about them. I can’t wait to hear what they do next, and I really look forward to catching them live again next month. I heard a rumor that PHYSIQUE and ELECTRIC CHAIR were going to do a split. Maybe I shouldn’t say that, but whatever, I doubt many people are reading this. You know what fucked me up today? I discovered that Trae from Electric Chair played bass early on in PHYSIQUE, whoa haha. Check out their first tape if you want to hear it. OK, that is all for today. Free Palestine.