Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! This week I’m scrambling to get the newsletter done a little early because I’m off to see Boy Harsher and Nine Inch Nails here in Raleigh. My friend Marco, who played bass in Sorry State’s own Smart Cops as well as recent favorites Psico Galera, is hooking it up. Thanks Marco! I’ve never been a huge Nine Inch Nails fan, but I love Boy Harsher and it should be an interesting show. It’s at an outdoor venue near the shop and thankfully the weather in Raleigh today is just perfect. Aside from that, things are well. I’m exhausted after Record Store Day weekend (you can see how tired I am in the photo for my staff pick this week), but we still found the energy to catch up with the massive queue of online orders that we had been struggling with for the past few weeks. You can once again order from Sorry State with confidence! Wondering what you should pick up? Keep reading to find out!

Pitva: S/T 12” (Static Age Musik) I spent the first several listens to this Pitva record just trying to wrap my ears around it, figuring out what was going on. Really, I’m still in that stage… what is this strange record? The easiest way to describe Pitva might be to say that they live at the intersection of hardcore and noise music, but that can mean so many things. Pitva isn’t hardcore with noise elements laid on top like Bad Breeding (whom I also love), and they aren’t noise music with a hardcore pulse. Maybe they’re not hardcore or noise music at all, as Pitva seems to arrive at their sound by some kind of weird alchemy. The one record in my collection that Pitva reminds me of is the first Iceage LP, another record that had me wondering, “is this hardcore? and if not, then what is it?” Perhaps, like Iceage, Pitva will abandon the chaotic and abrasive elements of their sound and focus on the icy atmospheres and ghostly hooks, but it’s hard to image that based just on this record… the abrasiveness is too baked in. Despite having spent a lot of time listening to Pitva since this record landed at Sorry State, I feel like I’m still not really hearing the music, because I’m still staring agog at the turntable, wondering how they arrived at this sound. Where most music seems to be built up by a gradual accretion of rhythms, melodies, lyrics, and other musical elements, Pitva sounds like they started with a block of white noise and chipped away at it with chisels, axes, hammers, hydrochloric acid, and other caustic agents. This isn’t music you dance to or sing along with, it’s music that inspires wonder, that transports you to a place that’s strange and uncanny.

We teased our latest release last week. Now it’s time for the full reveal! Lukko is up for sale on our site right now and streaming on our Bandcamp page. Gitchu some!

Sorry State is proud to present a US pressing of Lukko, the debut cassette from Joensuu, Finland’s Valtatyhjiö, who caught our ear here at Sorry State with their wild and original sound. While Valtatyhjiö’s vocals have the trademark snarl we love to hear in Finnish hardcore, their songs (on the first three tracks, at least) are rooted in Swedish mängel, with insanely fast tempos and a wild, careening sense of rhythm that makes their take on this classic sound truly exciting. The drumming, however, might be the star of the show. Double bass drumming is taboo in many hardcore circles, but Valtatyhjiö proves it can work, integrating crazy, Dave Lombardo-style kick drum rolls into a frantic explosion of hardcore percussion whose only point of reference might be Jerry’s Kids’ Is This My World?. After three tracks with the pedal to the floor, Valtatyhjiö close out Lukko with “Pahat hahmot,” an anthemic mid-paced track that wouldn’t be out of place on a classic record by Kaaos or Lama.

This edition is 150 professionally duplicated cassettes with pro-printed j-cards and paper labels.

We had a great Record Store Day at Sorry State with a ton of customers in the store on Saturday and a massive pile of online orders to ship when our stock went online Sunday morning. That being said, there are still some goodies left. You can see the selection here, but I’d point newsletter subscribers’ attention to our remaining stock of the Wipers’ Youth of America reissue, the reissue of Wire’s EMI demos (which sound incredible, and are well worth the hefty price tag in this Wire fanatic’s opinion), the Cure’s Pornography reissue, and the Dali’s Car LP, which is Peter Murphy from Bauhaus among others worshipping at the altar of Another Green World-era Brian Eno.

I was a big fan of Spread Joy’s first album for Feel It Records, and this week we’ve launched a pre-order for their second album. I gotta say, having heard the whole thing, II is even better than Spread Joy’s first. We have both coke bottle clear and black vinyl options available on the Sorry State site, and hopefully these will ship well before the official release date of May 13, 2022.

Spread Joy may as well be their own musical genre. An immediate flavor and mercurial ‘Qu’est-ce que c’est?’ begin their second album with the 45 second opener “Ow”. Coincidentally, the album spins at 45, just like Spread Joy’s self-titled 2021 debut. The Chicago group came out of nowhere, mid-pandemic, with a stunning ten track LP on Feel It. Returning to the warm analog environment at Jamdek Recording Co., Spread Joy have truly honed their craft across these 17 minutes and 17 seconds. This is the kind of punk-forward music that is made to be heard and felt, far from the distorted mirror of the web. A group living free, moving at their own speed, and making music that will be remembered - that’s Spread Joy, folks!

Speaking of upcoming Sorry State releases, the vinyl just showed up for Sorry State’s next three LP releases! We’re still waiting for the print so these won’t be for sale for a minute, but look forward to new releases from Invalid, Hüstler, and Woodstock 99! As you can see, we made limited color versions of each and they make a nice set.

Usman gives us the choice between two pretty obscure Swedish rippers in this week's edition of Hardcore Knockouts. I've never managed to pick up that Puke EP... that's something I need to rectify at some point. Clearly y'all agree!

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 2013 single by Chicago’s Repos. There was a time when Repos records were the hottest thing in the scene, but I guess after being inactive for a few years (at least as far as I know) interest in them is probably at an ebb. Sooner or later, though, people will remember how hard the Repos ripped and everyone will clamor for their records again. Beat them to the punch and pick up this single for a little over two bucks!

1. Straw Man Army: SOS 12” (D4MT Labs)
2. Rutto: Ilmastoitu Painajainen 7” (Final Doomsday Records)
3. Rutto: Ei Paluuta 7” (Final Doomsday Records)
4. Peace de Résistance: Bits and Pieces 12” (Peace de Records)
5. White Stains: Blood on the Beach 7” (Neon Taste Records)
6. Invertebrates: demo cassette (Sorry State Records)
7. Torso: Sono Pronto A Morire 12” (Sorry State Records)
8. Valtatyhjiö: Lukka cassette (Sorry State Records)
9. Erupt: Left to Rot (Static Shock Records)
10. Klonns: Crow 7” (Iron Lung Records)

Here’s your weekly roundup of the top 10 sellers at Sorry State for the past 30 days!

This week Drunken Sailor Records brings us the new Altar of Eden album! Their last record from a few years ago flew out the door, so don’t miss the latest dispatch from this Nosferatu-related goth project from Texas.

Denver’s Convulse Records is back with two new releases, a split 7” between Raw Breed and Video Prick and a promo cassette from Smear Campaign.

The long-awaited new album from Devil Master comes out this week! We have some neato colored vinyl in stock. The preview tracks have been cool, and I’m eager to hear what these Philly spookies are up to now that they have the mighty Chris Ulsh pounding the skins.

Canadian reissue label Supreme Echo Records has FOUR new releases in stock this week. The highest profile one is probably the reissue from early 80s Calgary punks Riot .303, but we also have vintage Canadian punk and metal reissues from Stick Farm, Pharaons, and the Nostrils.

Arizona’s Total Peace Records brings us three new tapes from Perplex, Repression, and Daniel Schurgin (whom you might remember as the drummer for Sorry State’s own Gay Kiss). Looks like the Perplex tape is already sold out, and the label mentioned we had the last copies of the Repression tape, so don’t sleep on these!

As Usman mentioned in his staff pick, we have copies of the ripping new flexi from Athens, Georgia’s Consec!

From Extinction Burst Records, we have a reissue from 90s California punks the Q Factor.

Check the Featured Releases section for the full skinny, but this week we also have the Puffer demo tape from the ever-reliable Roach Leg Records.