Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! This week is a big one, as we have the much-anticipated reissue of Rudimentary Peni’s first 7”, we’re announcing three new vinyl releases on Sorry State, and as usual there are a ton of excellent new additions to the distro to tell you about. And of course all the staff members’ journeys through record collecting as documented in their staff picks (I like to think of these as our punk gratitude journals). We even have a new staff member to introduce you to this week, John Scott! Once again, I’m rushing off to a gig this week, a total corker in Richmond with the Chisel, Quarantine, Dark Thoughts, and Public Acid. You know it’s a fuckin’ gig when Public Acid is playing first. The other bands will have a hard act to follow! Anyway, I’m looking forward to catching up with a ton of friends tonight, so let’s get this newsletter going!

Consec: Bound to this Nightmare 7” flexi (Futile Force Records) Following a couple of demo tapes, Athens, Georgia’s Consec cram a five-track burst of energy into this clear flexi. The sound is early 80s-inspired hardcore distilled down to its essence… short bursts of manic drumming and frantic power chords punctuated only with the occasional SSD-esque breakdown or quick dive bomb / whammy bar workout. Consec’s fast and snotty sound reminds me of the early Necros stuff, which is emphasized by the raw, fuzz-drenched recording. This record sounds like a basement show with too many bodies and too much gear, a perfect punk pressure cooker. If modern fast and raw bands like Violent Christians and Nosferatu get you moving, Consec should be on your radar.

This isn’t on our label, but we’re pretty excited about it, so we’re giving it prominent placement in this week’s newsletter. Sealed Records’ reissue of Rudimentary Peni’s landmark first 7” is in stock and shipping now! This reissue is mastered from the original tapes and meticulously recreates the original issue’s layout, including the rare booklet full of Nick Blinko drawings that you only had if you were as big a nerd as I am.

We’ve been teasing this for a few weeks now, but we have some more details for you about Sorry State’s upcoming releases. Today we’re sharing the cover art for the new releases from Invalid, Woodstock 99, and Hüstler! We can also tell you that we’ll launch a pre-order for all 3 releases next Thursday, May 12 (there are limited edition color vinyl versions of all three), and the official release date for all three titles will be May 27. Look out for the pre-order in next week’s newsletter!

We’d hoped the debut LP from Savageheads (to be released on Social Napalm Records and distributed by Sorry State) would be out by now, but the release has hit a pretty big snag. Social Napalm posted an update explaining the entire situation on their Instagram, and here it is below. We’re still looking forward to getting this LP in your hands as soon as we can!

It is with great disappointment that we announce the Savageheads LP will not be out soon.

Upon our friends Sorry State Records @sorrystate beginning the process of putting the release together, it was quickly discovered that the overwhelming majority of the pressing was extremely warped, had bubbled center labels, or both. There is no way in good conscience we could ever sell the pressing as is.

The pressing plant agreed that it did not meet their standard for quality, and they have agreed to repress the entire pressing.

While we are pleased they’ve agreed to do that, it unfortunately means that the release will have significant delays, as we will have to approve test pressings and then wait for our turn in the queue to get our records pressed.

I understand that a lot of people have been waiting for this release, and all I can say is that we are as disappointed as anyone with this development. This has been a challenging release, and further delays, especially one like this, only adds to that sense of frustration.

We sincerely apologize.

Questions:

Q: Is there a timeline for when it will be out?

A: Not at this time, no. My best guess is at least several months, but that’s speculation.

Q: How many of the initial pressing are salvageable?

A: Sorry State is still assessing that, but it is less than 100 of the 1100 pressed.

Q: Will the small number of salvageable records from the initial press be sold publicly?

A: No, we don’t feel this would be fair.

Any other questions, feel free to post in comments or message us direct.

Thanks for everyone’s interest and patience. We will update further when we know.

We mentioned this on our Instagram the other day, but I thought I’d reiterate for the newsletter subscribers. Our brick and mortar customers are well acquainted with the Veola McLean collection we acquired last summer and have been selling ever since. We include some details about Miss Veola in an insert included with every record we sell from her collection, but this article in Raleigh’s Walter Magazine fills in some more details about Miss Veola’s life and passions and how Sorry State came to acquire her incredible record collection.

For this week’s edition of Hardcore Knockouts, Usman brings us two more Finnish HEATERS. I was on the losing side on this one. Maybe it’s that Terveet Kadet did a better job of getting their name out there, or maybe I’m just wrong. As usual, there are no wrong answers, only lengthy want lists.

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

We had a fun time over on Sorry State’s Discogs site earlier this week when I was careless with a spreadsheet and accidentally listed thousands of items that we no longer have at prices much, much lower than the going rate. That was a fun hour while I fixed that mess! Apologies if any of you bought something during that brief window and thought you were getting a major score. And fuck you to the assholes who can’t understand humans make mistakes and leave shitty feedback on our account when their order was refunded within minutes.

Anyway, my pick from Sorry State’s Discogs listings this week is the self-titled 7” from Hysterics on M’Lady’s Records. Hysterics’ set at Damaged City Fest in 2013 was just draw-dropping… one of my favorite sets of hardcore punk I ever saw. While they didn’t quite capture the same fire on their recordings, they are still excellent and you can pick them up, like this one, for just a few bucks.

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

1. Straw Man Army: SOS 12” (D4MT Labs)
2. Piece de Résistance: Bits and Pieces 12” (Peace de Records)
3. Rutto: Illmastoitu Painajainen 7” (Final Doomsday Records)
4. Rutto: Ei Paluuta 7” (Final Doomsday Records)
5. Valtatyhjiö: Lukko cassette (Sorry State Records)
6. Torso: Sono Pronto A Morire 12” (Sorry State Records)
7. Rudimentary Peni: S/T 7” (Sealed Records)
8. White Stains: Blood on the Beach 7” (Neon Taste Records)
9. Invertebrates: demo cassette (Sorry State Records)
10. Unsanitary Napkin: All Billionaires Are Bastards 12” (Always Never Fun)

Here’s your weekly rundown of the ten best-selling releases at Sorry State for the past 30 days. I gotta say, everything on this list is fully backed. If you can’t find cool records to buy right now, you must be one jaded fucker.

We just got in the debut LP from Barcelona’s Fuera De Sektor on La Vida Es Un Mus, a snarling piece of punk rock we will tell you more about soon.

On JT Classics Records, the label you know from releasing heaps of Hard Skin vinyl, comes the solo debut of Hard Skin’s own JT. Judging by the description, this isn’t what Hard Skin fans might expect, but I’m looking forward to investigating further.

As Jeff mentioned in his staff pick, we just got in the new Violent Apathy reissue on Radio Raheem Records. If Jeff’s pick wasn’t enough for you, you can hear what I think about Violent Apathy in the Featured Releases section below.

This week General Speech Records brings us Die in Vain, a UK82-inspired band from Istanbul, Turkey. We also restocked the latest issue of General Speech fanzine if you missed it the first time.

Besides the new Rudimentary Peni and Fuera De Sektor releases, we just got in a huge grip of restocks from La Vida Es Un Mus and Sealed. Rat Cage’s excellent Screams from the Cage is finally back in stock after a lengthy absence, as is the case with Rata Negra’s excellent first LP. Home Front’s Think of the Lie LP, disappeared quickly when it came out earlier this year, but it’s back now, with records from the Chisel, Fatamorgana, and many more in tow.

This week Digital Regress brings us the long-awaited debut from Crisis Man, which (in case you don’t remember… their previous 7” came out way back in 2018) features members of Acrylics, Ceremony, and Smirk.

No Solution Tapes has some more OC punk for us, this time for the fittingly named Mainliners (not because they mainline anything as far as I know, but because they sound a lot like early Social Distortion).

Doomed To Extinction Records has two new cassette releases for us this week, a reissue from 80s Welsh anarcho-punk band Symbol of Freedom and an EP collection from Austria’s Disclone, which you can read more about in the Featured Releases section below.

Finally, if you were intrigued when Dominic chose the new LP by the Gentle Cycle as his staff pick a few weeks back, you’ll be pleased to know we have it in stock now. We even have the swanky limited green vinyl!