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What’s up Sorry Staters?
Wow, feels crazy to be using that catchphrase again after all this time! I was just checking a moment ago, and it looks like the last Sorry State newsletter we sent out was back in May? Psycho. And of course, I didn’t even appear in the last newsletter because I was already in the middle of my European tour, probably in like Barcelona or something. It also feels strange that even though I’ve already been back home in North Carolina for a while now, this is still my first opportunity to even acknowledge my return from Public Acid’s journey overseas. In some ways, I’ve readjusted to normalcy. But even having been back for a couple weeks, I’m still carrying a bit of the post-tour blues. I had such an amazing time on tour, to the point where I kept jokingly saying that I might just not come back. I would think to myself, “I suppose I could just miss my flight.” Kidding of course… Or am I?
I almost feel weird mentioning stories or details from the tour. Not sure if you readers care to read them anyway ha! We’ll see how this goes now that the feeling of returning home and reminiscing all the many moments isn’t as fresh on my brain. I’ll keep the highlight reel short:
The UK shows with our buddies in Tramadol were great. Our driver Dom is an absolute legend—he’s one cheeky rock’n’roll maniac. Trish, our good friend who plays in many great bands you all know from Philly, filled in bass for the first leg of tour and crushed it. She also kept us laughing constantly. Noise Annoys fest was so killer. So many great bands. Finally got to see Muro, who were just totally amazing live. Rat Cage brought the fuckin’ heat. Gefyr from Sweden ripped so hard it was insane. The Croatian bands Koridor and Indikator B were so rad to see live. Big thanks to Bry for an amazing time and also helping with booking the first half of our European dates. Met many cool and wonderful people this round at our gigs in France. It was also great to visit Basque Country and Barcelona for the first time. Speaking of which, the couple days we got to spend in Athens were absolutely incredible. Takis and Vangelis from Plektani were the most welcoming hosts and so cool to hang out with. The show was killer, we got to eat the most amazing food, and getting to witness the sprawling view of the city from atop the Parthenon was pretty wild.
Then we flew to Sweden for the Scandinavian half of the tour. The platinum chiller Wilhelmina drove us, just like she did on Scarecrow tour the year before. She rules. Funny enough, Usman met up with us in Sweden and just came along with Public Acid in the van. Then Daniel suddenly showed up in Helsinki! My other dudes at Sorry State just couldn’t resist coming along for the ride haha. Had a wonderful reunion with everyone in Vidro upon arriving to Umeå. Then we took the ferry to Finland to begin our run of gigs with the mighty Kriegshög! Feel so lucky I got to watch that band absolutely dominate on stage every night, only to learn they’re also incredibly sweet and awesome people. So rad. Kohti Tuhoa and Ignorance who played all the Finnish shows with us were awesome as well. Our show in Stockholm was totally killer. The show at Blitz in Oslo was a total rager. And of course, K-Town was the perfect finale. All the gratitude to Christina, and all the organizers/volunteers at the BEST punk festival. So many other people, details, debauchery, blah blah I could mention, but I’ll quit blabbing. Like I said, feeling a bit depleted returning home, but when I sit and think about our killer month-long adventure, I feel very grateful.
So anyway, I did manage to buy a bunch of records while I was on tour. Mainly found stuff visiting record stores in Sweden and Finland. I think I came back almost exclusively with Swedish and Finnish punk from the late 70s and early 80s. Since my last visit to Sweden, I made a point to brush up on my Swedish punk classics, and I had a decisive list of records I was looking to find. Lucky for me, Trash Palace in Stockholm had the goods. This store organizes their punk singles by region or country, so you can just go dig through box that’s all Swedish punk 7”s. Looking at the list of stuff I was looking for, they had pretty much EVERYTHING. I honestly wish I could have gotten more records, but some of the more high-ticket collectory priced items I had to pass on. Maybe more next time. But I was stoked! I made it back with a few punk singles that (to me at least) feel like cool Swedish deep cuts I maybe would have only found while I was over there.
I got a ton, but I’ll talk about just a few records. The 1st record is by a band called Kontaktlim, which I was really excited to find. They only released this one single in 1982. The first track, and the big hit “Kontaktlim” opens with this melodic guitar pattern that falls into a category that I always refer to as “New Age Blitz” style riffs. The vocals are a bit eccentric, but super tuneful, almost making me think of Stiff Little Fingers at times. But the sing-songy vocal style I feel like is something I love about punk from this era that is distinctly Swedish. Funny enough, this band is an early punk band from Eskilstuna, which is where No Security is from. The 2nd record I’ll talk about is by this band Usch. Usch is made up of 3 women and 1 dude, which is super cool. This 4-song EP was released in 1979, and for being that early, the guitar sound is super noisy and grimy, and even though the vocals are mostly melodic, to me the drive and unhinged power of the songs is already hinting at hardcore. The first track clocks in at just over 1 minute. Total banger, little sleeper hit rager of late 70s Swedish punk. Then lastly, I was super stoked to find this particular single by a band called Slobobans Undergång. I can’t remember how I discovered this band a while back. I assume they’re from Gothenburg, since this single came out on GBG Records. The band has several singles, but for me this one from 1980 entitled Kommer Du Bli Lönsam Min Vän? is THE one. Something about the cover with Frankenstein’s monster sick in bed caught my attention as well haha. This band has some kinda kooky weird little passages. But thankfully, no ska parts. But in general, it’s super heavy guitar-driven, riffy, catchy punk. All the songs on this single are great, but the total banger, which is the whole reason I wanted the 7”, is this track called “Atomkrasch”. It just kicks in with this raging riff and catchy shout-along chorus. Total bop, it rules.
Anyway, I think that’s all I’ve got for this round? We’ll see if I get back around to talking about new releases that Sorry State has in stock. SOOO much new shit to listen to since I’ve been gone. It’s kinda overwhelming. But as always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week (let’s hope lol),
-Jeff