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Hey there Sorry Staters. Thanks for checking out our Halloween week newsletter. I hope everyone who enjoys this time of the year is having fun. Whatever you end up doing on the night, have a good time. I don’t tend to dress up these days and will probably be at home watching old Hammer House Of Horror films. My favorites of the genre. Not that I am a big horror buff to be honest. I like the old classics mostly over the newer, darker stuff and have never really been into the super violent and gory end of things. I’m a bit of wuss when it comes to all that stuff. Unless it’s done in an over-the-top comedic way, then I can just about stomach it.
You’ll need to talk to Jeff or the others here at SSR for a Halloween film recommendation, if one is needed. I’m sure Jeff will have a great one here in this very newsletter. I’m going to stick to music and records though for my pick this week, but it is one that Jeff turned me on to. A few months back we had beefed up the metal section here at the store with some choice imports that Jeff had ordered from one of our overseas vendors. It was an opportunity for us to put some cool and interesting titles on the floor for our customers, and ones that they perhaps might not know or see much. Whilst working one day, Jeff and I listened to a bunch of them, but there was one that stood out for me, and it was called Sin Will Find You Out by a group called Original Sin. It was from 1986 and purported to be an all-girl speed metal band from New York. Cool. The front cover has a bit of cheesy shot of an almost topless woman tearing off her bra, but on the back is a photo of the band. They look like cool punk metal goth chicks that could be in a band. The only thing is they weren’t. There never was a band. It was a studio band and totally fake. Damn. However, it is a good record and rocks and has great catchy tunes with titles like Bitches From Hell and is still definitely worth hearing and getting to know.
So, a bit of backstory. The album was one of several metal-sploitation albums that the Canadian label Cobra was putting out at the time. That label was managed by a fellow named Zoran Busic, who managed Canadian group Saga. The actual musical talent behind these releases was mostly provided by a guy called David DeFeis, a keyboardist, writer and vocalist from New York. For the Original Sin album, he had his sister Danae sing. She’s credited as Danielle Draconis. Guitars are played by Edward Pursino, who’s listed as Cynthia Taylor. He plays on some of the other fake metal bands on the Cobra label with David DeFeis. On bass is Joe O’Reilly, called Pandora Fox on the record and on drums is Mark Edwards. His pseudonym was Darlene Destructo. Brilliant. Not sure who the actual girls pictured on the record cover are and if one is at least Danae DeFeis. I guess they were girlfriends of the musicians and scenesters around at the time. I’ll need to consult Jeff; maybe he knows. Besides their fake band activities, David, Ed and Joe were in a real metal band, Virgin Steele. Their label Cobra had just released what is considered a classic, the album Noble Savage, by them the previous year. To give you some idea of what these musicians were doing at the time.
The Original Sin album doesn’t hang about. Just over thirty minutes and ten songs of banging speed metal with titles such as the previously mentioned Bitches From Hell, and To The Devil A Daughter and Enchantress Of Death. How can you go wrong? It’s a great Halloween metal spin. Of course, I am not an expert and don’t know too much about these sorts of things, so I might be way off, and more experienced heads might not think it’s all that great. I don’t know. I guess click the link here and check it out yourself. I like it and think it rocks. It would have been way cooler if it really was an all-girl band for sure, but it is still real musicians and real humans singing and not AI, so it at least has that going for it. Whatever, I thought it was cool, even if the cover is a bit Benny Hill meets Page Three Girl. Looks like the album came out in Canada, America and the U.K. at the time and is now being made available by German label High Roller Records. They seem to do a nice job on their reissues, and the price point is decent too. Kudos to them. Originals don’t seem to go for that much, but a nice copy will probably set you back fifty bills.
Before I sign off and let you get back to your trick or treating, I want to mention that our Raleigh shop still has some great horror movie soundtracks left in the bins and a bunch of cool metal and punk records that will sound great this time of the year, or at any other time. If you are local, try and stop in if you haven’t already. But don’t worry, we do our best to make sure there are killer records in the bins whenever you come by to shop and say hello.
Finally, I must mention that there have been a bunch of cool, fun and interesting new release records coming through of late. I’m a sucker for anything that sounds like UK DIY or C86. That indie sound that isn’t punk but isn’t bed-wetter wimp either. Preferably with female vocals alongside male. There has been a continuous lineage of bands since picking up that mantle and carrying on. Not only in the UK and Ireland but in Europe and particularly here in the US. Labels like Slumberland and the new Inscrutable over here, for instance, are releasing great records by new indie bands.
I’d like to quickly list three new ones that came in that I liked and want to recommend.
Firstly, from Richmond, K9 and their album Thrills. We just got copies hand-delivered the other week (thank you) and I really like this one. It’s got a lot of charm but has bite too. Good mix of male and female vocals, good songs. Take a listen.
The Inscrutable Records label has their #10 release out, and it’s a likable lo-fi, bedroom pop album called Permanent Opposite. Essentially a solo, one-man project from Jared Leibowich covering emotional issues that most of us may have dealt with or might be going through and can relate to. Worth checking out if you like this sort of thing.
Lastly, underscoring how good the Richmond scene is, another interesting one from there. This time courtesy of Sarah Everton and her project called Added Dimensions. The album is titled Jane From Preoccupied America. Swell Maps fans will instantly get that reference. Again, I liked this one a lot. Seems to hit that nerve in me. We were playing this in the store when we first got it in, and my ears pricked up immediately. I don’t want to throw out lazy journalistic comparisons saying it sounds like this or that, but if you like decent lo-fi, indie post-punk flavors, then you should give this one and the records above a listen.
Okay, cheers everyone. Thanks for taking the time to read our newsletter. Thank you for supporting record stores and the artists who make the records that we champion. It’s important and appreciated.
-Dom