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Hi Sorry State fam! How is everyone doing? Hope you had a great weekend! It was brutally cold here, which means it was in the mid 20s and sunny till late morning. For some of you, that’s nothing, I know. I still tried to get outside and go for walks in the late mornings, but hot damn my fingers were about to fall off. You know how they make gloves that still allow you to type on your cell phone? Those never freakin’ work. I’ve tried three different pairs and I give up. I actually use the time when I’m taking a walk to do some of my administrative life responsibilities, and I find this is such a good time to do stuff like that because you’re getting the dopamine hits to kick start motivation, and usually you’re getting the sunlight to signal to your brain that it needs to be in productive mode. Oh, and the whole Vitamin D thing. For me, this works and I get shit done. So when I don’t go (like today, because I ate way too much last night and woke up feeling like shit), I not only feel less energetic throughout the day, but I am also less productive. I guess the moral of the story is, even if it’s cold, or you don’t feel like it, just force yourself to take a walk. I promise it helps make the day suck like at least 50% less. And it’s a great time to write a staff pick!
Anyway, the debut EP from the London band Grazia caught my eye and my ears this week! The EP is called In Poor Taste and is brought to us by Feel It Records. I was packing orders and came across a few of these colorful sleeves, which inspired me to take one for a spin. I guess you can file this EP under power pop and garage pop. I learned a new punk/post-punk sub-genre today, called trash pop. It’s one of the hashtags on Grazia’s bandcamp, so I thought I’d mention it. I don’t know what bands are considered trash pop or what you have to do sonically different to be called trash pop, but it sounds like a cool genre that I would like.
So this Grazia record has four songs that are all fairly equally enjoyable and make for a nice and cohesive EP. If you liked that Wet Leg LP from 2022, which was really hot and heavy for a few months, you will like this. If you liked the last Divorcer EP (unfortunately out of stock at the moment, and also one of my top 10 new releases of 2023), you will like this. If you like Abi Ooze, you will probably like this. Grazia does not sound as produced or as crisp as Wet Leg, nor are they as loosely structured as Divorcer, and they don’t have as much attitude as Abi Ooze. But none of these things make the music less enjoyable. And I may be reaching a little bit with the next comparison, but there is something about the second side (particularly the song Thistle) that reminds me a little bit of the Raincoats, but not as artsy. Grazia’s vocals remind me of some of the prettier, breathier sounds of Lush (e.g. the songs 500, Single Girl). So although they bring their own flavor, they are in excellent company. I love making comparisons. I can’t help it. It’s the first thing my brain wants to do when I hear something new. I am not sure why I need to do that, but maybe on some level I need to make it make sense to myself that I like it. I’m probably reading to much into it, but I can say will full confidence that the more I hear this record, the more I really like it.
Something else that made me take notice of this band is their video for the song Cheap. Check it out on YouTube. It’s very low budget (fitting for the song title) and low brow, with a Rocky Horror artistic quality to it, but in a much more colorful, new wave, 80s way. Picture a colorful character with sloppily applied bright pink or red lipstick that also ends up on their teeth. Someone like Iona’s character in Pretty in Pink. The music sounds like that visual, to me at least. Campy and poppy, retro, with a flair for the dramatic.
Good news, we have a handful of these left. We received the copies with the neon green and the neon pink sleeves. But apparently they also made some bright yellow. We mostly have the green left, which they only made 100 copies of compared to 300 of the pink. To my knowledge we didn’t get any of the yellow. To clarify, they are all on black vinyl. OK, I’m gonna make this one short and sweet for today. I hope you have a splendid week, and thank you so much for reading! Until next time..
-Angela