Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! I feel like my head is spinning this week because so much is happening in my world. Some of it I can tell you about, some of it I can’t yet. The biggest deal to me is that I got married on Tuesday! I’ve been with my partner Jet for like 12 years, so it’s about time. Jet is a huge part of why Sorry State can function, making sure I get fed and sleep every day, being very patient with me when I take on way more than I can do, and bringing sunshine to everyone whose life she touches. She even made vegan banana bread for everyone at Sorry State today. Yay Jet! In the midst of getting married and whisking my bride up to Richmond for the evening to see Riki, Sorry State has been getting pummeled with packages full of new releases, with many more on the way still. This week two of our featured records, the White Stains 7” and the Inyeccion LP, are among my favorite things I’ve heard this year, and there’s plenty to talk about besides that, including a pre-order for the incredible new Straw Man Army album. So buckle in, folks, and let’s get to it!

White Stains: Blood on the Beach 7” (Neon Taste Records) White Stains’ first record was one of our favorites of 2020, so I had high expectations going in, but Blood on the Beach more than lives up to them. It sounds to me like White Stains backs off the throttle just a hair on Blood on the Beach, dialing back the rapid-fire slingshot rhythms and leaning into the more melodic and song-oriented aspects of their sound. In other words, it’s a little more Adolescents, a little less Group Sex. The melodies are infectious too, with moments like the chanted chorus of “2021” and the epic outro of “Laughing Gas” (ripped pretty much straight out of the Rikk Agnew handbook) standing out on this short but memorable record. Despite its brevity, Blood on the Beach feels composed and fleshed out; the songs are like little punk rock symphonies. White Stains can cut things down to the bone when they want to, but these brilliant songs prove they’re just as good at making punk rock that’s more composed and deliberate. Four total anthems, surely one of the best records that will come out in 2022.

We are pleased to announce Sorry State will distribute the new Straw Man Army LP, SOS. Like their phenomenal first LP, Age of Exile, the record is a co-release between D4MT Labs (US) and La Vida Es Un Mus (UK), but Sorry State will handle the physical distribution so the D4MT folks can do what they do best, which is make more music! We launched a pre-order for SOS on our website already and while the release date is April 15, the vinyl is en route to us now and will ship as soon as they arrive.

You can hear two tracks over at the D4MT Labs Bandcamp site, but I’ve been lucky enough to hear the entire album and I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s even better than Age of Exile, which is saying something, as that’s one of my favorite records of the past several years.

New York’s Straw Man Army return with SOS, the follow-up to their 2020 debut LP, Age of Exile. Emerging from the D4MT Labs group that also includes Kaleidoscope and Tower 7, Straw Man Army’s delicate musical touch, embrace of melody, and rapid-fire, clearly articulated vocals separate them from the louder and noisier end of New York’s fertile punk scene. While Age of Exile examined the legacy of colonialism through the musical milieu of melodic anarcho-punk, SOS turns its attention to the increasingly bleak prospects for the human race and planet earth. While Straw Man Army’s lyrical approach remains dense and thought provoking on SOS, their musical scope grows wider, encompassing Age of Exile’s melodic take on anarcho, bleak and brooding post-punk, psychedelic instrumental excursions, and even the wistful pop of album highlight “Beware.” SOS is everything Straw Man Army’s fans could have hoped for in a follow-up and so much more, cementing the band’s status as one of the most original, exciting, and important groups in the contemporary punk underground.

Also shipping a little early (isn’t it great when that happens?) is the new Romero LP on Feel It Records! We ran a pre-order for this a few weeks back and the release date is April 8, but Sam at Feel It Records got us our copies earlier this week, so we’ll be shipping them out a little early. Even better, we still have copies of the limited cream vinyl in stock!

Romero just released a video for “Halfway Out the Door,” the second single from Turn It On!. Watch it on YouTube here.

Another pre-order we launched a few weeks ago was for Peace de Resistance, the solo project by Moses Brown of Institute and Glue. This week Moses dropped another preview track on his Bandcamp site, and there’s also a new interview about the project on Jane Pain’s website. (Jane took the album’s incredible cover photo.) You can still preorder Bits and Pieces on Sorry State’s website and it’s looking like we should have the vinyl in hand by the April 13 street date.

We’re pleased to announce Sorry State is now distributing Under the Gun Records! UTG’s latest release is the new 7” from Power Flower, but they’ve also released titles by Sorry State favorites like Erik Nervous, MAZE, and many more. We have stock on all of UTG’s in print titles and we’ll have their upcoming releases as well, including a much-anticipated LP collection from Ignorantes due in the next few months.

Your weekly update on Lasso’s Amuo 7”: the jackets and inserts have been dispatched to us and, according to the tracking information, they appear to be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean right now. That means we’re expecting them in the next few days, at which time we’ll start shipping your pre-orders right away. Speaking of which, we still have copies of the limited white vinyl version available on our website, so getchu one now!

Sorry State is proud to present the debut cassette from Richmond, Virginia’s Invertebrates. Featuring two members of Public Acid as well as North Carolina legends Wriggle (amongst numerous other groups over the years), Invertebrates’ punk rock bona fides make it no surprise the initial self-released version of this cassette sold out immediately. Sorry State offered to slap our logo on a new run of pro-printed tapes (the j-cards and inserts are still hand made by the band), and lucky for us they agreed! Invertebrates’ sound is pure hardcore punk that finds the perfect balance between catchiness and power. The bouncy rhythms and earworm riffing give off UK82 / oi! vibes, but the shredded vocals, blistering tempos, and jackhammer playing style are rooted in classic US hardcore. Four hardcore punk rippers for fans of Bloodkrow Butcher, Bootlicker, and the Fix.

Oh man, Usman got me with this week’s edition of Hardcore Knockouts, which returns once again to Japan. I went with Kuro because… honestly, I can’t rationalize it. I just went with my gut. Both Kuro and Zouo are fuckin’ classics, though!

Cast your vote in the next edition of Hardcore Knockouts on our Instagram stories next Tuesday!

My pick from Sorry State’s Discogs listings this week is this 7” of unreleased material by the Bags on Artifix Records. The Bags didn’t leave a wealth of recorded material behind, and this 7” collects a few songs from studio demos and live sets that didn’t appear on their legendary Dangerhouse Records EP. All Bags is good Bags, so grab this long out of print EP if you need it!

Remember, you can always combine your order from Sorry State’s Discogs site with your order from our webstore and save on shipping!

1. Varaus: Tuomittu Elämään 7” (Lärmattacke Records)
2. White Stains: Blood on the Beach 7” (Neon Taste Records)
3. Lasso: Amuo 7” (Sorry State Records)
4. Golpe: La Colpe É Solo Tua 12” (Sorry State Records)
5. Invertebrates: demo cassette (Sorry State Records)
6. Mercenary: Demos Collection 12” (Beach Impediment Records)
7. Peace Decay: Death Is Only... 12” (Beach Impediment Records)
8. Torso: Sono Pronto a Morire 12” (Sorry State Records)
9. Agoni: En Röst För Fred 12” (De:Nihil Records)
10. The Chisel: Retaliation 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Here’s your weekly rundown of what’s selling at Sorry State! The Varaus and White Stains records shot right to the top of the list… which makes sense because they’re both fuckin’ great!

As I write this, we have four copies left in stock, but I still want to mention that this week we got in copies of the reissue of Varaus’s Tuomittu Elämään 7” on Lärmattacke Records. We had a Sorry State exclusive pressing on white vinyl, and with only 100 copies pressed they flew out the door pretty much immediately when they arrived earlier this week. Sorry to those of you who rely on the newsletter rather than social media to keep apprised of what’s in stock… this one sold way faster than we expected.

I’m not sure how widely known this is, but Crass Records has started a reissue campaign where they are pressing their legendary catalog of 7” releases as 12”s. This week we got in the first titles in the series, the 12” reissue of Honey Bane’s great You Can Be You single and Jane Gregory’s Do Not Go, a piece of classical music that was the very last Crass Records release during the label’s original run.

Roach Leg Records is back with two new cassette releases. We carried an earlier version of the Semtex-87 tape self-released by the band in Australia, but that’s long sold out, so now we have the Roach Leg version. And we also have the demo tape from New York’s Xero.

Our copies are almost gone already, but we got a few copies of the new live tape from Destruct. This features live versions of tracks from their first LP and their upcoming, yet to be released second LP. Even better, Sorry State’s own Usman designed the artwork for this tape!

The new issue of Razorblades & Aspirin zine is out now, featuring cover stars the Chisel, an interview with Sorry State faves Public Acid, and much, much more.

This week we restocked all the essential Discharge reissues on Havoc Records because we are a punk record store and this is fucking Discharge we’re talking about.

Iron Lung Records has two new 7”s out this week, a flexi from Australia’s No Future and a hard vinyl 7” from Japan’s Klonns.

Dig! Records brings us the debut LP from Christian Blunda, the solo alter ego of Mean Jeans singer / guitarist Billy Jeans.

California’s No Solution Records brings us two new demo tapes from Rifle and SoCal’s Parishioners… that Parishioners is a good grip if you’re also picking up the White Stains 7” this week.

YOFC brings us a new LP from Australia’s Cutters and a new pressing of this ripping UK hardcore classic from Ripcord, Harvest Hardcore.

Phobia Records has several new releases in this week, including a new compilation called Demons Inside Us, a new full length from Burning Flag, a cassette collection from Warcollapse, and a cassette version of Exploatör’s Avgrundens Brant.

This week we also grabbed the latest several releases from London’s Upset the Rhythm Records, including the new 12” EP from Clear History and the new LP from Nicfit.

From Adagio830 Records we have a new double LP compilation of non-album material by Australia’s the Shifters and a new 12” from Berlin post-punkers Liiek.

We also got in a live cassette from 90s hardcore band Fuckface recorded in 1996 as well as two volumes of a compilation series called Wright Copy, which compiles auditory ephemera from the massive tape collection of Bay Area punk Pat Wright.