News

Ferocious X photo by @yasuhiro_1623

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State newsletter! I’m totally exhausted from traveling to Pittsburgh and back this weekend for Skull Fest and working way too many hours so far this week, so I’ll keep this preamble brief. As usual, we have a whole bunch of new and old punk rock from around the world to tell you about. We don’t often highlight super poppy releases as our Record of the Week, but this new Plastic Tones album has really been doing it for me. However, if you’re looking for something a little grittier, you know we have plenty of options for you. So let’s get into what’s new this week…

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Usman was tidying up around the Sorry State warehouse and found a small stash of colored vinyl that’s been sold out for some time, many years in several cases. We found just a few copies of each, so grab ‘em quick if you missed out the first time:

Woodstock ’99: Super Gremlin 12” (clear vinyl)

Hüstler: S/T 12” (pink vinyl)

Scalple: Skillful Butchers 12” (blue vinyl)

ICD10: Faith in Institutions 12” (yellow vinyl)

Invalid: S/T 12” (red vinyl, screen printed jacket)

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! It’s funny, you may have noticed last week’s newsletter was a little light on staff picks. I cracked the whip oh so very gently at our weekly staff meeting yesterday and the crew turned out for you… this week we have a full slate including a VERY long one from me about an interesting house call I went on today. Of course there’s plenty more to tell you about too. All three of our featured releases this week are killer… I had a lot of trouble deciding which to name Record of the Week. There’s also a bursting New Arrivals section with loads of killer new international punk, a couple of very cool reissues, and the usual stuff we fill your inboxes with every week. So, let’s get to the nitty gritty…

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Photo of the high-flyin' Invertebrates by the legend Chris Boarts-Larson.

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! It’s been a busy week of driving around and catching gigs for me, all of which I detail in my staff pick below. You might think all this traveling would make things slow down at SSR, but instead I’ve chosen to deprive myself of sleep and rest in order to keep bringing y’all the latest and greatest in international punk. And we have some pretty cool stuff in this week, including a very cool 80s US hardcore reissue as our Record of the Week, two totally killer featured releases, and new arrivals from all over the world and all throughout punk’s history. We get into it all below, so keep reading!

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Sorry State is very stoked to announce a new distribution agreement with Australia’s Anti-Fade Records! We helped them out with Stateside distribution of the recent Institute EP, and since that went well we’ve agreed to carry Anti-Fade’s future releases in quantity in the US, and we’ll also make limited color versions available on the Sorry State site. Pre-orders for Anti-Fade’s next three releases are live at Sorry State now. A new edition of R.M.F.C.s Club Hits with revised packaging comes out on September 18, P.P. Rebel’s second album Devotee follows on October 2, and Lost Animal’s third album Give Some Get Some is out on October 23. More info on these releases below. And if you have a store or distro and you’d like to carry these releases, please get in touch for wholesale information.

R.M.F.C.: Club Hits (Nightclub Hits Edition) 12" (PRE-ORDER)

Third pressing of R.M.F.C.’s classic debut LP, Club Hits. “Nightclub Hits Edition” features new artwork with silver foiled lettering, black side tab, inverted back cover, reverse board sleeve and A3 double sided poster. Out September 18th on Anti Fade Records, ahead of R.M.F.C.’s EU/UK tour beginning September 23rd.

ROCK MUSIC FIGHT CRINGE

What is modern music writing without the opening descriptor “long awaited”? To describe most records as being awaited is ridiculous. Nobody today has the patience to wait for a text or a tram or a traffic light… and yet… there is something here, I have a point to make…

Please resist cringe – I will not cringe, cringe is the mindkiller – I assure you, I never use words like “long awaited debut” in polite conversation and avoid those who do by general rule.

But.

ROCK MUSIC FINESSE CLASS

The imminent arrival of the R.M.F.C. long awaited debut means rules must be broken, tablets must be shattered, sacred pigs must be slaughtered…

In our age of media saturation and attention deficit, where every band has side project with a triple LP catalogue before they’ve played a show or had opportunity to tease or tantalise, there’s a lot of easy music being created… and forgotten… look back over the past decade and see how many hype bands you’ve forgotten, how many redundant “long awaited debut” ended up ashen within a month. Nobody is waiting for more easy music. We are waiting for the R.M.F.C. Club Hits LP.

Anyone paying attention to underground Australian guitar overdose would relate: the R.M.F.C. Club Hits LP has been the culmination of five years of work, patience and discipline. If you’ve heard these songs live at any of their shows over the past couple of years you’ll understand – the wait is over and the result is exhilarating.

ROCK MUSIC FANATIC CONVULSIONS

To your average German the sound of Bach made them reverent with Lutheran frenzy, and for the average rock music fan the sound of R.M.F.C. makes them catatonic with guitar overdose.

To your exceptional German composer that came after Bach, the sounds of Bach inspired genius invention, and for the generation of exceptional rock music creators that come to Club Hits, a great deal of easy listening rock music has become redundant and this is a new standard: the craft of these songs is precise, the flow of this record is masterful.

Club Hits is one of those rare records that sounds absolutely of its time without evoking depression, despair and disgust – for we live in times of desperation that most rock music bands are adorning with insipid, tedious tunes that couldn’t make most people put their phone down let alone believe in R.M. – but with the benefit of 80 years of ROCK MUSIC to draw on, there’s a lot of mistakes that Buz learned from and hasn’t replicated here.

ROCK MUSIC FOOTBALL CLUB

I like music and I like football. I like physicality, sweat, blood, I like music with guitar and drum… I like to experience being in the presence of violent movement that is graceful and produces goals or songs…

Great live band this R.M.F.C. Kicking goals, making songs.

If not for the experience of watching them play these club hits live, I don’t think we would be “awaiting” this record. Which is to say, on record FC President Buz takes on all duties: songs written, songs recorded and songs mixed by the Commander In Chief Clatworthy.

If this was the extent of it, if we couldn’t SEE and FEEL the rock music in R.M.F.C., if it was RECORDED MUSIC FAN CLUB - I’m sure you understand me – Buz has managed to make a solo bedroom project into a rock music band of great quality, and hearing these songs develop and stick in your head for days and weeks and months after the show, festering and waiting to be unleashed on the world this coming November 3rd.

ROCK MUSIC FAN CLUB

For those who read these things without listening first, you might ask: what does this R.M.F.C. sound like?

Let’s stay with the overused descriptors – I think R.M.F.C. is rock music band, more specifically a post-punk band.

Indulge me.

If you could say anything about post punk it means post-Wire, who were past punk before punk had an opportunity to codify and become everything brilliant and stupid that we’ve spent 40 years unpacking.

Wire unpacked punk immediately and spent three perfect albums mapping what comes next – their “long awaited debut” came after a pub rock punk phase… and entered into the world of angular guitars and arctic ice feel.

Wire’s opening Pink Flag jab – Chairs Missing straight – and 154 hook knockout has haunted the mixing desks of ambitious post-punk bands since, and every major city in the western world has at least one Pink Flag band, one Chairs Missing band, one 154 band.

Few bands manage to sound like all 3 records, but R.M.F.C. are rock music fan club…

ROCK MUSIC FREAK CLUB

One day when I listened to the Velvet Underground ‘What Goes On’, I thought: this is a perfect song. I could listen to this song for hours on end. I did this – I listened to live versions, multiple ten minute plus jams, alternate mixes, and then back to the album. Over and over again. The song continually delivered new revelations, I saw a golden path leading through a dark cloud of misery, surrounded by spite and resentment, a golden path leading toward something better… and in Club Hits, I hear that same obsessive nature, I could imagine you understand this too, I know I am not alone in listening to rock music like I am encountering the sacred sound of a new religion… you must be obsessed to make music like this, and you must also respond with true passion and devotion… our times need the Club Hits…

ROCK MUSIC FINAL COMMENT

R.M.F.C. Club Hits LP on Anti Fade (AUS) / Urge Records (USA) will be released on November 3rd.

Written, recorded and mixed by Buz in Burrill Lake and Sydney between January 2022 & April 2023. Mastered by Mikey Young.

Dream World is back home from their recent west coast jaunt and they just announced a record release show for their self-titled LP on Sorry State. It’s at the legendary Richmond house VSC on August 29 with support from Ultimate Disaster and Subversas. Speaking of Subversas, Dream World just released a split tape with this new Richmond anarcho-punk band and you can listen to the tracks on the Dream World and Subversas Bandcamp sites. Word is we’ll have a handful of copies for sale at Sorry State for those who can’t make the gig.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! After last week’s abbreviated edition, we’re back in full force with a fresh round of staff picks alongside the featured releases and new arrivals. As usual, there’s a ton of great international punk and other cool music to tell you about, so let’s get to business.

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Rat Cage photo by @vogonlaundromat

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! We just have a short one for you this week as I’m supposed on vacation, but there are a bunch of new arrivals that you probably want to know about, including two new pre-orders on La Vida Es Un Mus and a big ‘ol heaping helping of the 80s punk reissues we all love. We’ll be back with all our regular newsletter features next week, but in the meantime let’s get into what I have for you this week.

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La Vida Es Un Mus has two new releases up for pre-order this week, with both of them officially out on August 28. First, we have a new LP from one of our favorites here at Sorry State, the almighty Rat Cage! As usual, we have a few copies of the limited color pressing on “powder rose” vinyl, so be sure to order soon if you want one of those. Here’s the skinny on Not Asking for Much:

It feels like a lifetime ago that the first Rat Cage demo tape was spat into the Hardcore Punk underground. Maybe that’s because for the past 10 years Bry Suddaby has been relentlessly chucking out a slew of pummelling records, arming many Punks worldwide with a soundtrack to survival in the modern age of death and destruction.

Fourteen bloody releases later, the third RAT CAGE LP comes crashing in as the state of global horror reaches a grave pinnacle. In true RAT CAGE fashion, the drums relentlessly hammer away under rollercoaster riffs, while Bry’s viciously cynical bark spills the trials and tribulations of trying to get by in 2026.

For the uninitiated, RAT CAGE pulls influence from 80’s Northern European Punk like MISSBRUKARNA or APPENDIX, contemporary Swedish sweet spot Hardcore like HERÄTYS or FYFAN, ripping USHC ala POISON IDEA or OUT COLD, while naturally adding a classic British injection of GBH or THE VARUKERS.

As always, there’s the constant apprehension that you never quite know what’s around the next bend, and with ‘Not Asking for Much’ Bry has cast the net even further. There’s moments that get as heavy as BASTARD, as melodic as the UK SUBS, and even a title track that gets as rocking as the PINK FAIRIES. All amounting to a distinctive and characterful sound that’s unmistakably RAT CAGE.

With little to be hopeful about as we all suffocate within the authoritarian nightmare, this LP could once again be your beacon of fire. So, light the match and burn alone at maximum volume.

Alongside the new Rat Cage album, we also have a brand new EP from London’s Nekra called Is It Really Living?. While there isn’t a color version for this one, the whole pressing is limited to only 300 copies and not likely to stick around long. Here’s punk lifer Bryony Beynon’s description:

The international pit sisters pull up to their milestone of a decade in the game with the top down and the system blown-out blaring. Nekra is back, clawing in the dirt in search of a new world with press-ons and bared teeth. ‘Is It Really Living?’ explodes with all accumulated force of a band that has maintained maximum steez and minimal regard for men’s feelings. The ferocious howls and whiplash tempo switches is the Nekra you know, but there’s new exploration here in pacing and flow. Across nine minutes of boiled fury which stings like a chemical burn, they give the gender police a powerful shove, saluting Imane Khelif and all those who fight and resist under the sign of woman. They meditate upon the layered and contested meanings of Latinidad, and they chant for universal freedom of movement against the violence of borders. Transcending the vague romance of the hardcore girlgang, these songs have a backbone that sounds a lot like solidarity in practice: what it means to not only show up but stick around. The struggles remain unchanged, the reasons to lose your shit these days? Too many to count. Nekra have given you a timely shake-you-by-the-shoulders cue: assess what’s weighing you down, deep breath in, brace, and bench it. The times are intolerable. The girls? Unbeatable, still. (Bryony Beynon)

ONE TIME PRESS OF 300

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! Oh man, we have a heaaaaavy batch of new releases for you this week. First up, we have a brand new release on Sorry State: the self-titled debut LP from Richmond’s Dream World. We teased this one a few weeks ago, but it’s officially out now and you can listen to the whole thing on our Bandcamp and order the vinyl now, which will ship right away. On the distro front, we have new releases this week from Destruct, Absolut, Kinetic Orbital Strike, and Alienator… it’s like Christmas, but with way more distortion! That’s not all either, as we also have excellent new releases from Gimic, No Stayer, Chrome Cell Torture, a very cool 80s zine and cassette combo reissued, and plenty more. So let’s jump in…

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We are very pleased to announce that the self-titled debut LP from Richmond’s Dream World is out now on Sorry State! No pre-order on this one… it’s in stock and ready to ship to you right away. The entire record is also streaming on Sorry State’s Bandcamp, so give it a listen there. And if you’re on the west coast, note Dream World is touring your part of the world from July 27 through August 3, so come out and catch a date if you can! Click here for more info on the tour and see below for what we have to say about the album.

Richmond, Virginia’s Dream World follows up their 2024 demo cassette with their debut vinyl, a self-titled LP for Sorry State Records. While Dream World’s songs feature more than enough tom-heavy drumming and shouted, martial vocals to land them firmly within the neo-anarcho-punk scene, what sets the band apart is their commitment to the eclecticism that made the 80s UK anarcho scene so exciting. A ripper like “Yes Man” or the brooding, Killing Joke-via-Amebix-style “Oligarch’s Reality” will get the punks moving, but songs like “Never Ends” and the standout “Submission” show Dream World isn’t afraid of an infectious rock riff; the latter track’s propulsive power chords wouldn’t be out of place on Nirvana’s Incesticide. And then there’s “Soft Rains,” another outlier track built around guitar arpeggios that morph gracefully between creepy, menacing, and gentle, and when the spoken vocals (adapted from a poem by early 20th century American poet Sara Teasdale) come in, it’s a dead ringer for something off Slint’s monumental Spiderland. It’s rare to compare a band to both Amebix and Slint, but Dream World’s organic, eclectic take on punk consistently defies easy comparison and categorization.

Dream World’s self-titled LP is presented in a limited edition of 300 copies with screen printed jackets featuring a stunning new illustration from artist Thomas Sara (Public Acid, Cicada) on the front and a companion piece from Dream World bassist Spazzy on the back.

Recorded at Strange and New Sounds by Jon K

Mixed and Mastered at Dead Air Studios by Will Killingsworth

All songs written and performed by Dream World except for lyrics from Soft Rains taken from the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Sara Teasdale

Front Artwork by Thomas Sara

Sorry State is very pleased to handle physical distribution for the debut album from Philly d-beat gods Kinetic Orbital Strike, The Terrifying Power of Bombardment. The vinyl is up for pre-order now and should ship by August 6. And if you have a shop or a distro, please reach out to us for wholesale copies. The whole thing is streaming now on KOS’s Bandcamp, and you can read the band’s description below:

The anticipated debut full-length from Philadelphia’s Kinetic Orbital Strike arrives with the force of a full-scale military assault, heralding our horrific modern era. The influences are unmistakable, but imitation isn’t the point. Channeling the scorched-earth legacy of Why-era Discharge, late Cimex, and the plodding dirge of Doom, K.O.S. doesn’t merely pay homage to the classics - it weaponizes them. Entirely self-recorded and engineered, the sonic impact of The Terrifying Power of Bombardment feels less like music production than arms production.

Brief but traumatic, the album’s thirteen waves of aural ordnance deploy a wall of distortion punctuated by militaristic battery and agonized vocals, refining the formidable assault of their standout demo/EPs. As if to rival the spectacle of our own demise, The Terrifying Power of Bombardment is the soundtrack to humanity’s sadistic campaign of self-destruction.