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Longtime newsletter readers will remember a section called “Featured Releases” that used to appear at the bottom of the newsletter. Each week in this section I wrote about several new releases in addition to the Record of the Week. I really miss doing that, and I hope I can bring that section back one day, but lately things have been so busy here that the newsletter has become something I bang out in half a day. I can just about get a staff pick and a Record of the Week description done in that time, but adding descriptions of 6 more new releases on top of that is way too much for one person to accomplish every week without going insane. Maybe one day I can hire enough staff that I can spend two entire days on the newsletter each week. Until then, maybe I’ll turn my staff pick over to contemporary releases from time to time rather than only writing about old records. To kick things off, here are four recent punk/hardcore releases that are in stock at Sorry State right now, that are flying under the radar, and that I think are excellent. I’ve included links to listen and buy should you find yourself intrigued.
Fuerza Bruta: Ecos De Chicago 10” (Warthog Speak Records)
Bandcamp / Buy it from Sorry State
Chicago’s Fuerza Bruta has been around a while now, and some of their previous records have been popular at Sorry State, but I have heard little chatter about this new 4-song 10” on Warthog Speak Records. I associate Fuerza Bruta with the skinhead / oi! world, but when you actually listen to their music, it really doesn’t lean too hard on any conventions of oi! music, except for the gang vocals in the choruses. The dance / electronic record they released a few years ago shows their willingness to color outside the lines, and they’ve always reminded me of early Leatherface in that you can tell it’s steeped in traditional punk (particularly 70s and 80s UK punk), but unbound by that scene’s dictates and willing to go wherever the music takes them. Nowhere is the Leatherface comparison more apt than on the closing track here, “Lado a Lado,” which is built around some very Frankie / Dickie two-guitar dynamics. Another winner from this now-veteran band.
Ignorantes: Las Promesas Que Te Hacemos Te Las Puedes Meter Por El Culo 7’’ (General Speech Records)
Bandcamp / Buy it from Sorry State
Ignorantes is another band whose previous releases have been buzzy, but whose newest record appears to be flying under the radar. Perhaps that makes sense here, as this single differs from Ignorantes’ previous material. While most of their previous (many) records were tupa-tupa-style pogo punk, these two songs go in a more blatantly melodic direction. The vocals, while still charmingly off-key and punk as hell, are almost sing-songy melodic, and there’s the addition of some rather sunny-sounding keys playing melodies that wouldn’t be out of place on a Screeching Weasel record. While that might make it seem like Ignorantes has gone soft, the recording and performance are still of the punkest, lo-fi, sub-KBD variety. I love the packaging here too… they printed the covers on the thinnest possible newsprint stock, mocking the very idea of “mint” condition. This is down-in-the-gutter music, dirty and flawed, but by adding a dollop of sugary pop sweetness, Ignorantes has created something unique, fresh, and exciting here.
Psychic Vampire: Sophomaniac 12” (self-released)
Bandcamp / Buy it from Sorry State
While Fuerza Bruta and Ignorantes are well-known bands, I understand not being hip to this killer 12” from Minneapolis’s Psychic Vampire. While the band had a few extremely limited previous releases, this self-released 12” is the first time I’ve heard them, and that they only pressed 100 copies tells me they’re not planning on appealing to the masses. They also promote their record with a Maximumrocknroll review that consists almost entirely of incomprehensible inside jokes. Still, that fucking killer Drügface artwork should have clued you in that something interesting was happening here. Psychic Vampire shares a member with Citric Dummies, and while Psychic Vampire is more straightforwardly hardcore than Citric Dummies, I hear a similar sort of quirkiness here (particularly during the not-infrequent interruptions of hooky lead guitar). Ultimately, Psychic Vampire lies in the space between punk and hardcore where so many interesting and under-appreciated bands live. Their drummer beats the fuck out of the kit, they’re fast as hell, and their singer’s raspy shout would have the pop-punkers cowering the corner, but their incorporation of melody and their blithe dismissal of hardcore’s musical conventions are apt to alienate that scene too. If this clicks with you, though, I imagine it’ll hit hard.
Amerol: demo cassette (Helta Skelta Records)
Bandcamp / Buy it from Sorry State
Here’s my quick pitch for this Amerol demo: imagine Eve Libertine moved to the US in 1982 and joined up with a ripping young hardcore band. Amerol is from the isolated city of Perth on the west coast of Australia, and their demo comes to us via Helta Skelta Records, who have been documenting that city’s fertile punk scene for many years. There are a lot of different sub-styles of punk represented on the label, but (as if the always-killer Keith Caves artwork didn’t already clue you in), this one is for the US hardcore heads. The label’s description mentions No Thanks and Sin 34 and those are fine comparisons, but maybe undersells it a little. Amerol doesn’t really step outside hardcore’s conventions, but their music is full of little twists that make it clear they’re not content to copy from the rule book… see the strange timing on the intro to “Desperate Living” or the dissonant lead guitar stuff happening at the end of “Crossfire.” And then there are the vocals, which totally elevate the whole enterprise, the singer’s heavy accent oozing style and charisma, barking out rapid-fire venom when the songs call for it and weaving in those Crass-esque melodic lines that beg you to sing along. Wrap it all up in beautifully warm 4-track-style production and you have something really special.