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What’s up Sorry Staters?
It’s 70-some degrees in February here in Raleigh. Maybe it’s because of the heat emanating from this Koro repress we have available for all you HardcorePunkMetalFreaks! Very exciting. You’re about as likely to find an original copy as a pot of gold under a rainbow, and it will cost you about the same as a used car. So considering that, it’s pretty rad that this 80s hardcore gem is finally back in print with a loving attempt to capture the feel of the packaging and sound of the real deal. On clear vinyl no less! While you’re at it, me n’ Usman will have a special version of the Koro 7” available through our Bunker Punks webstore. AND Scarecrow’s 2nd EP, Crisis, is back in print! If you missed out on the first round, we’re happy to say that now you’ll have a chance to grab a copy. If you’re local to NC, Sorry State will also have a good amount of copies for sale in-store :)
This was already several weeks ago (oh how time flies), but a little while back Sorry State got in just about every single you could ever want from English punk group Chelsea. I’d heard a couple of their early songs like “Right To Work” from 1977, which I always lumped in with UK bands from that era like Menace or even Sham 69. Kind of that gruff, street-wise, working class kinda punk that to me still kinda sounds like it has a foot in pub rock. Almost like the English version of proto-punk. We’ve sold a good amount of them now, but when we first got all these singles, a big stack of 10 or more, Dom and I stood at the counter at the store and listened to every single one of them IN ORDER. I did not realize that I genuinely like Chelsea until this day. It seems like a few years later in the band’s career, once it got to be like 1979 or 1980, that Chelsea’s sound really evolved. The 2 singles I have pictured above that I decided to take home for myself, “No One’s Coming Outside” and “A Look At The Outside” (guess these guys like talking about the outside haha), really blew me away. Since I’ve taken them home, I’ve listened to them constantly. I didn’t realize that they exchanged their rough-edged rock’n’roll for this lush, melodic, anthemic sound. Great production, beautiful jangly guitar work, background vocals with lots of oohs and ahs, intelligent and catchy vocal melodies. Just great, great songs. And even so, it’s still TOUGH. It almost kinda reminds of the direction that Stiv Bators went in on Disconnected. Somewhere between early mod influence, Johnny Thunders, The Damned and like… I dunno, Badfinger? I just can’t get enough.
I even posted a story on Instagram basically saying, “Why didn’t yall tell me Chelsea was good?” I had several people message me, including this cool ass dude from Montreal that I follow who was shocked I’d been missing out. Apparently, French Canadians love Chelsea. Who knew? So, if you haven’t checked out this era of Chelsea and the comparisons I’m drawing tickle your fancy, I highly suggest you check these singles out. Little melodic punk gems. Whenever I make discoveries like this, I always start to wonder if there are cool periods of other band’s discographies that I’m missing out on. Time will tell on that I suppose. But that’s part of the fun, right?
Welp, that’s all I’ve got this week. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff