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What’s up Sorry Staters?
I’ve been stoked to see the excitement surrounding our announcement of Sorry State’s 10th Anniversary celebration. Looking forward to announcing the final lineup with all the bands playing, along with the schedule of when and at what venue they’ll be playing. I know there are possibly some folks out there that don’t need a weekend pass and realistically can’t make it to both days or all the shows. We’ll be selling tickets for the individual shows soon too, so fear not. Perhaps Daniel is already planning on making some announcements in this edition of the newsletter that I don’t know about. Can’t wait!
Really, I should probably be hyping up a new record we’re stocking at the store. Oh well. Instead, I’m gonna talk about a record I was raging to while already a few beers deep. Classic. But hey, it’s been a while since I’ve talked about an old record! The other week, I made my second appearance on Mike from Analog Attack’s What Are You Listening To? podcast. All around cool dude, Scott Langlais showed off his copy of Toxic Reasons’ fourth album Bullets For You. Honestly, it had been quite a while since I’d listened to this record, but Scott inspired me to bust out my copy and throw it on the turntable. For years, I would have claimed that Killed By Remote Control is easily my favorite Toxic Reasons LP. After going into listening to Bullets with fresh ears, now I’m beginning to question my dogmatic perspective on this issue. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I was raging to this record. And now, if someone were to argue that Bullets For You is Toxic Reasons’ best album, I might go along with it.
I love Toxic Reasons, but I know they can be a divisive band for some punks out there. I’ve straight up heard people talk shit about the third and fourth records in particular. Their third entry, Within These Walls, is certainly their softest record. Dare I say new wavey? Toxic Reasons’ logo of the merging of flags was always a clear indication that they incorporate some English sensibilities into their brand of US hardcore punk. On the third record, it definitely sounds like they took some cues from English bands that got more melodic. There’s New Age-era Blitz type guitar parts all over that record—and there are honestly moments on that record that I really like. I mean come on, the cover art on Bullets For You is the same image on the insert of Voice of a Generation. Called ‘em out! Hehe.
But enough about that. I don’t know if “return to form” is the correct way to explain Bullets For You, but they definitely take a clear step toward more aggressive songwriting than the previous record. In some ways, I think Bullets is the band’s heaviest record, but also with some of their strongest and catchiest songwriting. Seriously, I think this record just kills top to bottom. For one thing, there’s no reggae numbers. Which I even think the band does well on an early single like “Ghost Town,” but it’s a welcome decision to avoid them in my book. The more aggressive, faster paced songs almost kinda remind of that slightly metal-inflected sound of English Dogs or Broken Bones. The vibe is kinda like they took the musical elements of a ripper track from an early record like “Destroyer,” but honed a more matured approach to hardcore punk songwriting. There’s some totally killer, speedy guitar licks that sound like the guitar player listened to Kirk Hammet’s guitar shredding on Kill ‘Em All one too many times. What’s fuckin’ brilliant about Toxic Reason’s approach to the ripping tunes though is that on top of the Fast Eddie-style gunslinger guitar riffing, they have huge, sing-along choruses. The song “It’s A Lie” shifts out of this more mathy, punchy descending transition right into a gang chanting “whooooa oh, it’s a lie!” It’s just begging for clenched fists waving in the air and the crowd chanting along. Probably the song most people know off of this record is “God Bless America” because it came out as a single a few years prior. I think that song only appears on the US pressing, and honestly, as much as I do like the song, it’s definitely not my favorite. The whole A-side is just ripper after ripper. Then, the last song on the record is “Gotta Believe,” which is easily the most melodic track. But it’s great! It’s got this sort of mournful, yearning undercurrent to the lyrics and the mood of the melody. This song almost kinda reminds of a song Grant Hart might write on a mid-era Husker Du record.
If you’ve avoided the later era Toxic Reasons output because you were convinced there was nothing cool to hear on them, then it’s time to change that. Do yourself a favor and check out Bullets For You. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got this week. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff