News

Apologies for the blog being a little quiet lately. Not only did I miss last week’s post, but Jeff and Seth were also both MIA for their scheduled posts this week… maybe we’ll just forget that week existed and move on from there? I feel like the lack of activity is a combination of it being really oppressively hot and muggy here in Raleigh—weather that makes you want to sit around and do absolutely nothing—and the store being really busy. We’re still not out of the cash crunch I mentioned last time by any stretch of the imagination, but we’ve been managing to fill up all of our time nonetheless, mostly pricing killer used stock for the store and bringing in a bunch of extremely cool new releases, many of which will be discussed below.

For the past few weeks my personal listening diet has been focused heavily on the new Sheer Mag and Impalers albums—both of which I like a whole lot—but when I’m not spinning the two of those relentlessly I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to looser, jam-ier and more experimental music. The reissue of Yoko Ono’s Fly that came out last week prompted me to sit down with that album for the first time in a while, and then at the Kombat show the other night Matt from Public Acid / Menthol mentioned that he’d been really into Miles Davis’s On the Corner lately, which prompted me to pull out that album. Man, what a record! It’s kind of Miles’s homage to Sly & the Family Stone and James Brown, but the density of rhythms on it (there is a LOT of percussion… like maybe even more than a Fela Kuti record) surpasses those records, and a lot of the playing and soloing on it is completely wild. This kind of improvisation has become really interesting to me… hearing how far bands and players can take a melody to where it’s virtually unrecognizable. But, then again, On the Corner doesn’t really have melodies, just groove, but somehow your ear makes sense of it anyway and interesting things are happening in your ears and brain pretty much constantly. It’s a real joy. Thanks so much, Matt, for reminding me about that record.

Sheer Mag: Need to Feel Your Love 12” (Wilsuns) Like a lot of people, I’m sure, I wondered how Sheer Mag would navigate the transition to full-length, but it doesn’t appear to have been much of a hurdle. My experience with Need to Feel Your Love was pretty much exactly the same as it was with the band’s previous EPs. On the first listen I have a hard time hearing the hooks and I wonder if I’m over the band. On the second listen I start to hear some of the hooks, and I think to myself “there are some pretty good songs on this, but also some I don’t get it.” Then on the third listen I’m pretty much in love with every moment, and I play it to death over the next several weeks. Need to Feel Your Love is, however, quite stylistically different than the band’s earlier stuff, but it’s something you really only realize when you reflect on it, because the band still plays to their same basic strengths, but they take those strengths into new areas. “Meet Me in the Street” and “Turn It Up” are pure 80s radio rock… while radio-friendly hair metal isn’t a bad comparison, what those songs really remind me of is what Jeff likes to call “cowboy boot metal,” i.e. bands like Dangerous Toys and Junkyard that injected a distinct Skynyrd / southern rock vibe into the hair metal formula. I love both of those songs, but the real gems on this album, for me, are the tracks where Sheer Mag goes full Jackson 5. The disco-funk of the title track is up there with the very best songs that Sheer Mag has written, and is the clearly highlight of the album for me. While I tend to prefer the hard-hitting a-side tracks over the spacier, country-inflected songs on the b-side, there isn’t a track here that I want to skip. This honestly far exceeds my (pretty lofty) expectations for a Sheer Mag full length, and I’ve already played it so much that this will probably be the record that I associate with the summer of 2017 for many years to come. I’m sure this band will continue to have its haters, but for me they remain one of the most vital and exciting bands to come out of the punk scene for the past several years, but even more than that Need to Feel Your Love is just a blast to listen to.

Vittna: demo cassette (self-released) I’m not sure how much Jeff is going to hype his own band’s demo, so I wanted to make sure that everyone knows how hard this rips. Vittna features much of the core of the sadly-departed Blackball, along with new face Sea Bass on vocals, but you can tell that Vittna is a concerted effort to do things a little bit differently. While Blackball felt largely like a “back to basics” affair, Vittna seems to push forward into something a little more distinctive and original, primarily by incorporating the quirky rhythms and more complex chords of bands like Die Kreuzen and Nog Watt into the foundation of straightforward, US-meets-Sweden hardcore. Yeah, there are plenty of riffs that are blistering, crushing, et al, and the vocals are completely savage, but what really stands out about this demo is the overall vibe, which is slightly dark and spooky… again, sort of like the first Die Kreuzen album, but with an added layer of claustrophobia and misanthropy. Additionally, while a lot of punk demos can feel very tossed-off, this feels fully conceptualized in every respect, from the density of the songwriting (both musically and lyrically), the subtlety of the recording (which is excellent, but still raw and in your face), and even the artwork, which uses a cool little transparent overlay to give it a slight 3D effect. This is, without a doubt, one of the standout demos of 2017.

Judy & the Jerks: 3 Songs from Us to You cassette (self-released) Brand new 3-song cassette from this band out of the unexpectedly fertile (for punk rock, at least) land of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I remember being blown away by Judy & the Jerks’ first tape, but we under-ordered it and it went out of stock before I really got a chance to let it sink in. I rectified that problem with this new tape, and of course immediately grabbed a copy for myself so that I can play it into the ground. If you haven’t heard Judy & the Jerks before, they play hardcore punk, but rather than (like a lot of bands) being grounded in heavier stuff and noisy d-beat, Judy & the Jerks seem more like the sped-up, sarcastic punk of bands like the Circle Jerks and the Dead Kennedys. Like those bands, the playing is tight, fast, and unexpectedly melodic, and the vocals have a ton of personality and character rather than just being someone yelling at you in the same pitch and timbre for a few minutes straight. The closest comparison that I can think of in terms of the overall approach is Warm Bodies, but Judy & the Jerks aren’t nearly as musically out there as Warm Bodies… they’re certainly not as musically irreverent, and they even have a pretty straightforward hardcore breakdown in one track. If your tastes extend across the divide between the more straightforward hardcore scenes and Lumpy / Neck Chop Records-style quirkiness then I would say this is a no-brainer (and will probably be one of your favorite new bands as well!), but even if you’re solidly in one of those camps or the other I would highly recommend checking this out… it’s really something special.

Pollen: Fear of Another War 7” (Brain Solvent Propaganda) I remember when Pollen’s last EP came out I listened to it twice, in its entirety, at 33RPM rather than 45, being blown away by what I thought was the best death metal record I’d heard in years. While it was still really good on 45, I honestly kind of preferred it on 33. Well, I wonder if the folks in Pollen did the same thing, because what I liked so much about the slowed-down version of their last EP actually comes across pretty well on Fear of Another War when played at the correct speed. At this point, Pollen are so raw and so gross-sounding that they’ve transcended d-beat… while their foundation (particularly in terms of their visual aesthetic) is clearly still grounded in that scene, I feel like Fear of Another War sounds way more like Napalm Death’s Scum than any d-beat record that I can think of, even super noisy stuff like D-Clone or Zyanose (though it is actually comparable to some of the very rawest Disclose stuff). For me, there’s some kind of invisible line between music that is, at its core, rock and roll, and stuff that is more like industrial music… it’s not about dancing, but rather about reflecting a bleak reality. Pollen are definitively on the other side of that line… when I listen to this record I don’t want to thrash around, I just want to lie on my back and let the fucked-ness of it all wash over me. If you come to this record looking for riffs you are going to be sorely disappointed, but if you like hardcore that teeters on the edge of industrial and noise music (i.e. you’ve checked out Merzbow and not immediately thought “this isn’t for me”), then you need to check this out. It’s definitely one of the most extreme and punishing records I’ve heard in some time.

Impalers: Cellar Dweller 12” (540) The day that this thing hit Bandcamp I remember asking Jeff, “have you heard that new Impalers yet?” and we both just looked at each other purely flabbergasted at how great it is. After their last record it’s kind of hard to imagine how Impalers could have gotten better… Psychedelic Snutskallar was already such a perfect hardcore record, and there really wasn’t anywhere to go in terms of getting faster, meaner, tighter, or whatever. So it seems, from my perspective at least, that Impalers didn’t even really try to do any of those things; they just made some more songs that just happen to be even better than their last batch of songs. I mean, not much has changed… this is still a pure hardcore record, and if anything it’s a more straightforward one than the last LP. However, there are all of these incremental improvements that are hard to put your finger on, but just make everything better. The one thing that really jumps out at me about Cellar Dweller is the vocals. For heavy hardcore bands like this, the vocalist is usually just fighting to be heard, screaming and yelling as loud as they possibly can in order to compete with the electronically-enhanced bashing of the other instruments. However, on this record Chris’s vocals have a real sense of dynamics… not only are there different approaches (like on the instantly-memorable “Technology”), but also there are all of these smaller moments where the vocals do something really memorable and exciting, whether it’s a perfectly-timed grunt or an unhinged, cathartic scream a la Barney from Napalm Death. And then there’s the epic closing track, which is a reworked version of the title track (which appeared on an earlier tour tape) with no vocals and an epic, 3-minute-long guitar solo. So, while those are the things I like about it, at the end of the day all I can really say about this record is that it’s a perfectly realized statement. That also extends to the details of the physical product… the mastering on the vinyl is crushingly loud and powerful, the jacket artwork is beautiful (and as subtly innovative as the music), and it also comes with a huge poster with full-color illustrations for every single track. Cellar Dweller is such a next-level statement that it’s bound to be near the top of everyone’s year-end list, so you might as well just go ahead and get it so that you can have something to talk about when all of your friends start jibber-jabbering to you about how great this record is.

Kombat: S/T 7” (Hysteria) This EP had a little bit of hype behind it, so I checked it out despite not having listened to the band’s previous demo tape, and honestly on that first experience it was kind of in one ear out the other… but really, that probably had more to do with me than the record, because a few nights later Kombat played in Raleigh and blew the doors off the place. Their set was, without a doubt, the single best set of live hardcore that I’ve seen in years. I mean, we have some seriously great bands in North Carolina and I see killer touring bands regularly, but Kombat felt like they were playing exactly my vision of what hardcore should be. There were no breakdowns, they were playing as fast as they could possibly play, and while the music was stripped-down and raw, they also were clearly pushing themselves to play at the very edge of their ability as players. They kind of reminded me of a band trying to play along to the SOA 7” at 78RPM, but they were also more than that, the guitarist in particular throwing in all of these complex but non-shred-y bits that elevated the songs to another level. So, after that experience I revisited this EP and of course I liked it a lot more. I do wish that the drums were a little more up front in the mix and I could do without the chorus effect on the guitar, but by and large I hear the band that I saw at that show on this record. It’s really cool to hear a band without a bunch of obvious reference points… it doesn’t sound like they’re trying to recreate any particular era of hardcore or rip off any band’s sound… it sounds really authentic, like the genuine and spontaneous expression of the people in the band. I guess that’s why it sounds like an old hardcore record to me… not because it sound’s particularly vintage-y (it doesn’t), but rather because it’s free of pretense and exudes authenticity in a way that’s very similar to the hardcore bands from the 80s that I love. Highly recommended.

Criaturas: Ruido Antisocial 7” (Todo Destruido) Has it really been four years since the last Criaturas record? That just seems so wrong! Maybe it’s because I still revisit their records so often, but it feels like Criaturas hasn’t dropped off the face of the earth like most bands seem to when they go for several years without a new record. At any rate, despite my warped perception of time I could not be happier to have this record in my hands, particularly since it is the best Criaturas record yet! As with the latest LP from Impalers (with whom Criaturas share their guitarist), not much has really changed… any of these songs could have appeared on any other Criaturas record without sticking out, but everything has been fine-tuned. This is particularly true of the production, which is beefy and raw, but still clear and powerful, particularly on the vinyl (which is cut LOUD). I’m not really sure what else to say… Criaturas have long been one of my favorite hardcore bands, and this record is their best one, so what are you waiting for?

Glue: S/T 12” (self-released) So, I actually wrote the label’s description for this record, so I’m not really sure what else I have to say about it. I’ve been on board the Glue bandwagon ever since their demo, and I’m still here. They had a pretty great formula from the get-go—basically marrying the heaviness of prime-era SSD with the upbeat catchiness of pogo-punk—but they’ve also consistently shown a willingness to mess with that formula. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the track “Flowers of Friendship” on this record, where they fuse their sound with something akin to melodic oi! music. Altogether, this 12” is probably the rawest and nastiest thing that Glue have done (excepting their tour tape, which was REALLY raw), and they manage to sound raw and feral without losing any of the power that made them stand out in the first place.

All New Arrivals
Taking Back Sunday: Louder Now 12" (Warner Bros)
Radiohead: OK Computer OKNOTOK 12" (XL)
Chainshot: demo cassette (self-released)
Black Lips: Satan's Graffitti or God's Art? 12" (Vice)
STRFKR: Vault Vol. 2 12" (Polyvinyl)
Modern Baseball: MOBO Presents: The Perfect Cast EP Featuring Modern Baseball 12" (Lame-O)
Various: Gettin' Together: Groovy Sounds from the Summer of Love 12" (Rhino)
The Electric Prunes: S/T 12" (50th anniversary edition; Rhino)
Love: S/T 12" (50th anniversary edition; Rhino)
Grateful Dead: Smiling on a Cloudy Day 12" (Rhino)
Neo Neos: Neo Neo Neo Neo Neo Neo Neos cassette (self-released)
Neo Neos: Type V cassette (self-released)
Neo Neos: Oen Night in Basement cassette (self-released)
Neo Neos: Unit 02: In Punk for the Culture Set cassette (self-released)
Neo Neos: Puke Girl Anthology cassette (self-released)
Shabazz Palaces: Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines 12" (Sub Pop)
Shabazz Palaces: Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star 12" (Sub Pop)
Silverstein: Dead Reflection 12" (Rise)
Yoko Ono: Approximately Infinite Universe 12" (Secretly Canadian)
Yoko Ono: Feeling the Space 12" (Secretly Canadian)
Yoko Ono: Fly 12" (Secretly Canadian)
Psychic TV: Allegory & Self 12" (Sacred Bones)
Psychic TV: Pagan Day 12" (Sacred Bones)
Waxahatchee: Out in the Storm 12" (Merge)
Missy Elliott: Supa Dupa Fly 12" (Atlantic)
Weaks: Flamenco 7" (Strong Mind Japan)
Tigress: S/T 7" (Not Normal)
Cherry Death: Saccharine 12" (Not Normal)
Liquids: Hot Liqs 12" (Not Normal)
Humanoids: demo cassette (self-released)
Mania for Conquest / Svaveldioxid: Split 7" (Brain Solvent Propaganda)
Vagra: Refuse 7" (Brain Solvent Propaganda)
Pollen: Fear of Another War 7" (Brain Solvent Propaganda)
Melvins: A Walk with Love and Death 12" (Ipecac)
Nightbringer: Ego Dominus Tuus 12" (Season of Mist)
Pandemix: Scale Models of Atrocities 12" (Boss Tuneage)
Flowers of Evil: Cities of Fear 12" (Deranged)
Hurula: Vapen Till Dom Hopplosa 12" (Deranged)
Sheer Mag: Need to Feel Your Love 12" (Wilsuns)
Hygiene: Hypocrite cassette (self-released)
Hygiene: Soylent Clean cassette (self-released)
Geiger Counter: S/T 12" (Desolate)
GG King: Another Dimension 7" (Scavenger of Death)
Caesium Mine: God's Messenger to Fukushima cassette (Scavenger of Death)
Bloodclot: Up in Arms 12" (Metal Blade)
Expulsion: Nightmare Future 12" (Relapse)
Integrity: Howling, for the Nightmare Shall Consume 12" (Relapse)
Shit Blimp: Good Natured Friends of the Scene 7" (Shit Blimp Inc)
Criaturas: Ruido Antisocial 7" (Todo Destruido)
Glue: S/T 12" (self-released)
Impalers: Cellar Dweller 12" (540)
Innocent: demo cassette (Side Two)

Restocks
Blue Dolphin: Demo 2016 cassette (self-released)
Blue Dolphin: Earth Day 2017 cassette (self-released)
Blue Dolphin: 2 New Songs cassette (self-released)
Cryptopsy: Blasphemy Made Flesh 12" (War on Music)
Tarantula: S/T 7" (Lengua Armada)
Rank/Xerox: M.Y.T.H. 12" (Adagio)
Life's Blood: Hardcore A.D. 1998 12" (Prank)
Municipal Waste: The Fatal Feast 12" (Nuclear Blast)
Nurse: 2nd 7" (Scavenger of Death)
Kombat: In Death We Are All the Same 7" (Hysteria)
ISS: Endless Pussyfooting cassette (State Laughter)
Kurraka: Otra Dimension cassette (Todo Destruido)
Breakdown: 87 Demo 12" (540)
Warhead: S/T 12" (540)
Rakta: S/T 12" (540)
Section Urbane: The Final Program 7" (540)
Merchandise / Destruction Unit / Milk Music: Split 12" (540)
Big Boys: Fun Fun Fun 12" (540)
Breakdown: Runnin' Scared 12" (540)
The Clean: Oddities 12" (540)

So, it's another #newreleasefriday, but we're going to take this opportunity to catch you up on a few other things that have been coming out over the past few days. First and foremost we have the long-awaited debut LP from the almighty Sheer Mag! I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about this album in a future Featured Release Roundup, but for now I will say that I love it and if you love their singles you should definitely get it. Sheer Mag are definitely exploring some new tricks, but without losing the riffage and melodies that made them great in the first place.

Next up we have three new releases on the Brain Solvent Propaganda label: new 7"s from Pollen and Vägra as well as a split 7" between North Carolina's Mania for Conquest (ex-No Tomorrow) and Sweden's Svaveldioxid. If you're into raw d-beat hopefully you know that Brain Solvent Propaganda is a label that you should be watching closely (and buying most everything they put out as well), but if somehow you've missed out on them, now's as good a time as any to get on board. All three releases are killer, but I'll feature the new Pollen EP:

Next on the agenda we have two new cassettes from Vancouver's Hygiene (who are, incidentally, not the same Hygiene that Sorry State released a 7" by a few years back). Vancouver's Hygiene are pretty killer, though, playing snotty and nasty punk with some synth flourishes... highly recommended if you're into the kind of stuff on labels like Lumpy, Neck Chop, and Total Punk... in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if one of those labels brought us vinyl by Hygiene at some point in the future. We have both of their cassette EPs in stock, but here's their Soylent Clean EP:

Now getting into the #newreleasefriday stuff, first up we have the debut album from Bloodclot, which is the new project from John Joseph of the Cro-Mags. As was the case with Harley's solo LP from last year, this doesn't stray too far from the Age of Quarrel template, but it's bolstered by some blistering guitars from Todd Youth of Warzone, Murphys Law and Danzig, and I have to say that JJ has a much more dynamic vocal delivery than Harley. Check it out below:

Next up we have a new album from Integrity! Now, I'm a big fan of everything that Integrity did up until Seasons in the Size of Days, but I kind of lost track of them after that as they seemed to be constantly breaking up and reforming and releasing records on lots of different labels. It turns out that Howling, for the Nightmare Shall Consume is a great time to check back in, as it finds the reinvigorated band on a new label (Relapse) and really gelling with their current lineup of musicians, anchored by Dom from Pulling Teeth / A389 Records on guitar. It's the same mix of influences as Integrity has always blended (perhaps a little heavier on the 90s black metal in places), but this sounds really fresh, alive and current. If you're an Integrity fan I'd definitely take the time to check this one out:

Next we have a couple of reissues that I want to highlight. Sacred Bones has reissued two gems from Psychic TV's back catalog, Allegory & Self and Pagan Day. I know that Psychic TV have a big and imposing discography that I won't even pretend to be familiar with, but I've always heard that these two albums were two of their best and great places to start getting into them.

We'll finish things off with something a little different. Secretly Canadian Records have been undergoing a reissue campaign of Yoko Ono's solo albums, and today sees the re-release of three of her best. While I've never checked out Feeling the Space, Fly and Approximately Infinite Universe are two incredible albums. Fly in particular is a real gem. While there's some super weird stuff on it that recalls Ono's days as a conceptual artist (like "Toilet Piece," which is just the sound of a toilet flushing), the bulk of it has a real psychedelic / krautrock vibe that is very atypical of American music at the time, though Ono's vocals are even wilder and more out there than bands like Can or Amon Düül II... seriously, if you're into those bands check out the track "Mind Train" and I think that you'll be won over pretty quickly.

In addition to that we also have plenty of other new items and reissues from artists like Shabazz Palaces, Silverstein, Taking Back Sunday, Missy Elliott, and Love (their absolutely brilliant debut LP just got a 50th anniversary repress), so head on over to the New Arrivals Section and check it out.

So, I guess I missed last week’s update. Honestly, it’s been a rough few weeks for me. I’m not sure what it must seem like to be part of Sorry State from the outside, but from my end of things it’s a ton of work with extremely infrequent and erratic payoff. Lately a ton of people have been selling us records of all quantities, values, and coolness levels, and while that’s very, very cool, the combination of paying out for all of these collections and the typical sales lull that comes when the weather gets hotter means that our cash is stretched pretty thin and I’m left fretting about whether I’ll be able to pay our bills. I’m a worrier by nature, so this is really not a great position for me to be in, and circumstances like this can put my mental and physical health in a tailspin. I’ve really been running myself ragged, which eventually resulted in a 2-plus week illness, at least 10 days of which included a fever and simultaneous throat, sinus, and ear infections. And of course just because I’m sick doesn’t mean things stop being added to the to do list, which creates more worry and further feeds the cycle. This whole situation makes it very tough for me to step back, relax, and see the bigger picture, but I’m doing my best. However, enough complaining…

Before I get to the proper descriptions, I wanted to write a little bit about the Celtic Frost reissues that just came out. I don’t really feel the need to go through album by album and give you my thoughts on each, but I did want to touch on the topic because I’ve been thinking a lot about Celtic Frost lately. My friend Scott lent me Tom Warrior’s autobiography a few weeks ago and it was a very interesting read. While much of it comes off as brazenly revisionist (not to mention whiny and self-pitying), it was great to get a more thorough chronology of Celtic Frost’s career and get some insight into why they underwent the changes they did (even if you have to read that insight between the lines of Warrior’s then-current take on his own past). One of the things that I find so fascinating about Celtic Frost is how they navigated the dumb/smart axis differently than any other band I can think of. I love it when smart people play dumb (the Ramones being the prime example), but honestly I have no idea whether Celtic Frost are dumb people trying to be smart, smart people trying to be dumb, or something else entirely. They were simultaneously one of the most primitive and neanderthal-like metal bands of all time, but at the same time one of the genre’s most ambitious and least myopic. They were so daring, and the fact that the risks they took failed as often as they succeeded only makes retracing their every step even more thrilling.

It seems like Tom Warrior was closely involved in these reissues, and his meticulous attention to detail is apparent throughout. First and foremost, these records sound incredible, possibly even better than the originals. One of the reasons that I’m often wary of reissues (except when the original pressing is cost-prohibitive) is because most newly-pressed vinyl doesn’t have the depth, clarity, or power of my old records. I have so much 70s and 80s vinyl that blows the doors off of most anything pressed in the past few years. I assume that’s because the fields of vinyl cutting and manufacturing were no longer attracting first-rate engineers and that the art of cutting a loud and powerful record was slowly dying. However, with vinyl’s rise in popularity over the past few years—to the point where it’s once again seen by most music aficionados as the default physical format—it seems as though bigger labels are more willing to invest the time and money to make records sound really good, resulting in things like the recent 50th anniversary pressing of Sgt. Pepper’s (with it’s newly-created stereo mix) and these Celtic Frost reissues. And of course in addition to the superior sound, they also come with a heap of extra stuff. Each LP has a full disc of bonus material, a few poster inserts, and a full-color, 10”x10” booklet featuring a ton of vintage photos, lyrics, and liner notes, all of which are printed with the care and gravity of a big-name museum exhibition catalog. They’re really something to see.

As far as the actual music, I have to admit that Into the Pandemonium may now be my favorite Celtic Frost album. Of course I still love the early stuff, and I think that one could make a good argument that heavy metal has never been more intense than the Morbid Tales album. However, Into the Pandemonium is so artistically uncompromising that the end product has this slipperiness and un-knowability about it. The band’s craft is moving in so many new and unique directions that it’s impossible to know what they were going for or if they achieved it. All you can do is marvel at a track like “Rex Irae…” what is it? Is it metal? Classical music? Opera? How the hell did they make it? Is it just the sound of classical musicians doing their best to play over top of a primitive metal song, or is this exactly what the members heard in their head when they conceived the track? Do the performers appreciate how odd and dissonant the harmonies are, or are they just going for it blindly like Johnny Knoxville trying to skateboard? While there are, perhaps, bigger head-scratchers on the album (“I Won’t Dance” remaining the biggest… were CF really trying to fuse their primitive metal with something like Janet Jackson’s defiant R&B?), “Rex Irae” remains the most fascinating moment to me, not just because the band was bold enough to throw together that bizarre stew of influences, but moreso because it actually works.

Various: Horrendous New Wave 12” (Lumpy) Lumpy’s first compilation LP! I think that I say this every time we get in a halfway decent 12” compilation, but I have the utmost respect for anyone who is able to pull off one of these things, because the amount of work involved in coordinating all of the different contributors is really excruciating. Anyway, I’ve been listening to Horrendous New Wave a lot and the thing that sticks out to me is how it kind of undercuts the very idea of what a compilation LP is. The compilation is, at its core, a marketing tool… it’s a way to introduce people to new bands, a function that reached its most brazen incarnation with the budget-priced label sampler compilation. However, Horrendous New Wave doesn’t introduce you to any new bands, because none of the bands listed on the jacket actually exist. If you’re in the know, you might be able to identify contributions by certain people (Joe Sussman of Muff Divers / Dangus Tarkus / Nancy, Scott Plant of Droid’s Blood / Broken Prayer, folks from Lumpy-affiliated acts like Natural Man and Ms. Lady, Warm Bodies, Gibbous, and Janitor Scum), but the packaging on the record is absolutely no help in figuring out these connections, nor does said information seem to be accessible anywhere online. You don’t even really know what the conceit or point of this compilation is… are the artists giving us their interpretation of “new wave,” or is that something that was added after the fact to tie it all together? It’s altogether unclear, and while I’m sure some people will find this frustrating, I actually think it’s really cool. It reminds me of listening to compilations in the pre-internet era, when you couldn’t just Google a band you were interested in and check them out on YouTube or buy their record on Discogs. I remember getting a copy of the American Youth Report compilation when I was in high school (mail ordered from the catalog that came with my copy of Bad Religion’s Recipe for Hate), but it was another ten years before I would hear more tracks by Modern Warfare, Legal Weapon, or the Flesh Eaters. I guess that what I’m trying to say is that, as a person who is kind of addicted to contextual research, the fact that Lumpy has taken away my ability to gratify that impulse leaves me free to take each of these tracks solely on their own merits, of which they have many.

Blank Spell: Miasma 12” (World Gone Mad) After a handful of tapes and a 7”, Philadelphia’s Blank Spell hits us with their first big vinyl, and man is it a stunner! I think that my favorite thing about Blank Spell is the fact that you can’t really pin down their music to a certain genre. Blank Spell somehow bring together the creepy punk vibes of bands like 45 Grave or early Christian Death with much faster, tougher-sounding hardcore without losing what makes either genre great. The riffs and song structures can be, at times, almost dizzyingly complex, but the singularity of the vibe that Blank Spell creates across these tracks holds it all together and makes it sound unified and composed. The chorus-drenched guitars (something I usually hate, but not here) and herky-jerky rhythms make me think of Davidians and Warm Bodies, but Blank Spell have neither the cold artsiness of the former nor the loose and earthy quality of the latter, instead landing on a kind of confident propulsion that reminds me of well-oiled hardcore bands like Exit Order or Blackball, bands that seem to march relentlessly forward rather than side-stepping or zig-zagging. I know that this is all very vague and I’m getting a real (and, alas, unfortunate) “dancing about architecture” vibe from this description, but the point is that Blank Spell have created a really powerful and singular record, and one that seems destined to become a staple of my summer 2017 playlist. Highly recommended.

The Bug: Humbug; or, So Many Awful Things 7” (Not Normal) I’ve been a big fan of the Bug since they started, but this new 7” brings things to a whole different level, quickly catapulting the Bug to “one of my favorite current bands” status. It’s funny, when I’ve tried to describe this record to people I generally compare it to the Mozart 7”, early Wretched, or call it something like “anti-music” because it’s so loose and wild, but on the other hand I think that what makes Humbug by far the best release from the Bug so far is that they’ve managed to capture things with just a hair more coherence and clarity. Previous, the Bug were so wild and anarchic that at times their expressionistic bursts could sound like a bunch of people wildly banging on their instruments. However, the clarity of the production on Humbug makes it clear that there’s some order to the chaos, if only an incredibly idiosyncratic one. My favorite part of Humbug is listening to the guitar and bass play off of one another… actually “play off” might be too strong of a word, because it often sounds like they’re playing completely different songs. Just listen to my favorite track on the EP, the expertly-titled “Late Lunch Sogged with Grease,” and try to figure out what on earth the bass and guitar lines have to do with one another. I’ve listened like ten times and I can’t figure it out, but I absolutely LOVE it. As with the Mozart 7”, here the Bug manage to combine the almost innocent sense of experimentation of free jazz with the manic energy of hardcore… something that’s actually really, really hard to do in practice. If you love Mozart, or if you tend to gravitate toward hardcore bands with a left-of-center aesthetic (Mystic Inane, Lemonade, Warm Bodies) this should be at the top of your list of stuff to check out.

Pierre et Bastien: Musique Grecque 12” (SDZ) Latest record from this French band who have been around for a couple of years. It’s been out for a few months now, but due to a shipping mis-hap we’re only just now getting our copies. I think it’s worth the wait, though, as Pierre et Bastien play some of the catchiest and most memorable garage-punk around. While the punchy and clear production can make this sound at first glance like some of the standout modern garage bands like Marked Men, Radioactivity, Video, etc., when you listen to these songs closely there’s a real Euro-punk vibe to them, particularly the marriage of dense, catchy riffs that recall the Stooges or Radio Birdman with a detached, almost robotic vocal style that sounds a bit like Devo or Kraftwerk, though perhaps not quite as inhuman as either. Complimenting those low-affect vocals is the way that every song seems to bob along at roughly the same tempo, giving this album a hypnotic quality that you don’t typically hear from stuff in this genre. If you’re looking for that big, catchy chorus this might not be for you, but if you like ’77-style punk as well as heartbeat-steady rhythms this one just may catch your ear.

Mikey Young: Your Move Vol 1 12” (Moniker) Solo debut from Australian Mikey Young, who you may know as the guitarist of Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, the Ooga Boogas, and others I’m sure. While Young’s work with bands spans a pretty wide breadth, this solo project seems to extend the line of thought begun on Total Control tracks like “Liberal Party” and “The Hunter.” However, since none of these tracks have vocals, the overall vibe is quite different. I really like how it’s tough to pin a genre tag on Your Move Vol 1… though there’s a steady pulse, the beat isn’t insistent enough to call it dance music, and though the instrumentation is largely similar the lack of vocals keeps it from being classified alongside new wave and minimal synth music like the early Human League. Instead, the closest thing that I can think of vibe-wise is non-heavy Krautrock like Neu!, Kraftwerk circa Autobahn, or maybe Harmonia. The layering of sounds is quite dense (mostly synth and drum machine, though I do hear a little bit of bass and I think even a heavily treated guitar at one point), but that steady pulse holds it all together as you listen to the different sounds swoop in and out of the mix. This is the kind of album I can have on in the background while I’m reading, or it can hold my sole attention if I’m listening to it while I’m working out. It’s really a beautiful little record, and if you’re a fan of any of the aforementioned I think this is well worth your time.

Wiccans: Sailing a Crazy Ship 12” (Dull Tools) This new full-length from Texas’s Wiccans is a nice surprise… I’m not sure I even realized they were still together, but as is the case with similarly unexpected recent full-lengths from other Texas bands like Glue and Institute, I’ll certainly take it. Wiccans have always seemed to have one toe in the garage scene (which makes sense as they’re from Denton and share members with several garage-ier bands like Bad Sports, Video, and Radioactivity), but Sailing a Crazy Ship is pure hardcore, if somewhat quirky. It’s actually kind of tough to pin down precisely what is so quirky about it, because Sailing a Crazy Ship is almost uniformly fast and loud, but it just doesn’t sound like any other hardcore record. The production and mix emphasize aspects of the music that most hardcore bands don’t tend to place the focus on, particularly quirky, angular guitar riffs that would be just as at home in a Video song if they were played about 3/4 as fast and didn’t have the snarling, manic vocals (which, as Jeff pointed out to me, sound quite a lot like the singer for Glue). And like Video’s best stuff, this LP feels like a real journey… not just a sequence of riffs or songs, Sailing a Crazy Ship seems to go somewhere, and better yet goes somewhere I didn’t expect to go and didn’t even really know existed. That Wiccans manage to be so original while keeping pretty much everything I love about hardcore in the first place is a real achievement.

Entombed: Left Hand Path 12” (Earache) I was born in 1979, so I’m old enough that my journey toward underground music started a little bit before Nirvana broke, but not quite early enough that I was a full-on metalhead in the 80s. As I entered my tween years, I searched out the most intense and weird music I could find, groping around in a number of different directions… Metallica, Faith No More, Guns N Roses, Sonic Youth… whatever I could get my hands on. And even after Nirvana kind of changed everything in 1992, some metal still slipped onto my playlist here and there… Biohazard, Pantera, Slayer… basically anything that could match the intensity of the punk rock I was discovering at the time. However, sometime around 93 or 94 (when I was 14 or 15) I learned enough about the punk rulebook to understand that metal was verboten, and I pretty much stopped listening to it (with the exception of bands like Converge, Cave In, and Dillinger Escape Plan, who at the time weren’t really classified as metal, at least to me) for a very long time. I give you this long introduction because when I finally got metal-curious again (I’m guessing this is sometime in the mid-00s, after a solid decade of listening to pretty much nothing but punk and hardcore), Entombed’s Left Hand Path was one of the things that really grabbed my ear. I remember my bandmate Matt from Cross Laws giving me a big stack of metal CDs by bands like Celtic Frost, Asphyx, Sodom, Bathory… stuff that was a little too underground for me to have come across it when I was a teenager in the pre-internet age. While I have come to really love all of those bands, at the time Left Hand Path was the record I couldn’t stop listening to, and sitting down with it again now that this reissue is available, I’m still struck by how punk rock it sounds. Despite the fact that it is indisputably a death metal record—there’s nothing a death metal record should have that it doesn’t, and nothing that it has that would be out of place on any other death metal record—there’s something about this record that really appeals to a punk/hardcore sensibility. What is that? I have absolutely no idea, and no one I’ve talked to about it has really been able to articulate it any more precisely. So, this whole long, rambling biographical treatise is basically to say that if you’re into hardcore but you’re metal-curious, check out Left Hand Path. It may just be the record that turns you.

Haldol: The Totalitarianism of Everyday Life 12” (World Gone Mad) Haldol’s previous LP (their second) was one of my absolute favorites of 2015, and it’s one that I still revisit frequently. Everyone at Sorry State loves it, and I’d be willing to wager that it’s one of the all-time most-played pieces of vinyl on the shop’s turntable. So, to say that I was anticipating this new album was something of an understatement. However, as with most great bands, Haldol don’t quite give us exactly what we expect. While the overall sound and vibe haven’t really changed, The Totalitarianism of Everyday Life strikes me as a much more complex and perhaps even difficult record. It’s not so much that it’s off-putting or difficult to listen to, but rather it’s so dense with ideas and so original that you can’t really wrap your head around it quickly. I’ve probably listened to this LP a dozen times already in the 5 days or so since it showed up in the mail, and each listen still provokes the same feelings of discovery and slight disorientation as the first. It reminds me of a Rubik’s cube… when one idea twists into place and starts to make sense, it means that another one that you weren’t paying attention to shifts out from underneath you and when you return to it it’s not quite what you remembered. Sound-wise, this is very much in the “death rock” meets hardcore vein… if you like the sound of bands like Rudimentary Peni, Part 1, or early Christian Death you will like the sound of this record. But for me, it’s not so much about the sound as about the songs themselves, and I feel like these songs would retain their cryptic beauty no matter what kind of window dressing you put on them. It’ll be interesting to see how the scene reacts to this record… I could see its complexity causing it to pass by with little notice, or I could see Haldol becoming a huge punk band off the back of this record. I suppose time will tell, but I can assure you that, like their previous LP, The Totalitarianism of Everyday Life is a record that I will remain captivated by and continue to treasure for a long time.

All New Arrivals
Echo & the Bunnymen: It's All Live Now 12' (Run Out Groove)
Saccharine Trust: The Great One Is Dead 12" (Recess)
Fifteen: Extra Medium Kickball Star 12" (Dead Broke)
The Cure: Greatest Hits 12" (Elektra)
The Cure: Greatest Hits Acoustic 12" (Elektra)
Carcass: Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious 12" (Earache)
Celtic Frost: Vanity / Nemesis 12" (Noise)
Celtic Frost: To Mega Therion 12" (Noise)
Celtic Frost: Morbid Tales 12" (Noise)
Celtic Frost: Into the Pandemonium 12" (Noise)
Entombed: Left Hand Path 12" (Earache)
Beach House: B-sides and Rarities 12" (Sub Pop)
of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? 12" (Polyvinyl)
John Holt: 1000 Volts of Holt 12" (Trojan)
The Coathangers: Parasite 12" (Suicide Squeeze)
FREE: Ex Tenebris 7" (Triple B)
Swans: The Great Annihilator 12" (Young God)
Judy & the Jerks: 3 Songs from Us to You cassette (self-released)
The Snails: Demos 7" (Neck Chop)
Process of Elimination: S/T 7" (Neck Chop)
Sick Thoughts: Songs About People You Hate 12" (Neck Chop)
Mark Cone: Now Showing 12" (Neck Chop)
Various: Horrendous New Wave 12" (Lumpy)
Various: My Meat's Your Poison 12" (Euro Import)
The Teenage Graves: S/T 12" (Ken Rock)
The Smiths: The Queen Is Dead 7" (picture disc; Rhino)
The Smiths: The Queen Is Dead 12" (Rhino)
The Idylls: Why / White Lies 7" (Richmond; dead stock)
Gloria Balsam: Fluffy 7" (Richmond; dead stock)
Video Rouge: Little Red Book / Total Destruction 7" (Richmond; dead stock)
Earth Quake: Mr. Security / Madness 7" (Berserkeley; dead stock)
Paranoid: Live At HAGL Fest 7" flexi (At War with False Noise)
Rash: Midnight Crooner 7" (IFB)
Landbridge: Autarch: Split 12" (IFB)
Various: Eight Feet Under Vol 1 12" (IFB)
The Bug: Humbug; or, So Many Awful Things 7" (IFB)
Lion's Share: Demo II cassette (self-released)
Jietai: Demo 1979-1980 12" (pre-the Stalin; Euro Import)
Selkäsauna: Pyromaani 12" (Punk Off)
Blank Spell: Miasma 12" (WGM)
Haldol: The Totalitarianism of Everyday Life 12" (WGM)
Iron Bars: demo cassette (self-released)
Rotting Christ: Non Serviam 12" (Peaceville)
Goatwhore: Vengeful Ascension 12" (Metal Blade)
Tracy Bryant: Parachute 7" (Volar)
Chain & the Gang: Best of Crime Rock 12" (In the Red)
Modern Art: Oriental Towers 12" (Color Tapes)
Fred Schneider & the Superions: The Vertical Mind 12" (HHBTM)
Bad Posture: C/S 12" (Mono)
Male Gaze: Miss Taken 12" (Castleface)
Nots: Cruel Friend 7" (Goner)
Wiccans: Sailing a Crazy Ship 12" (Dull Tools)
Mikey Young: Your Move Vol 1 12" (Moniker)

Restocks
Nosferatu: S/T 7" (Lumpy)
Q: S/T 7" (Lumpy)
CCTV: S/T 7" (Lumpy)
Lumpy & the Dumpers: Huff My Sack 12" (Lumpy)
Perverts Again: Our Big Party 12" (Non Commercial)
Swans: The Great Annihilator 12" (Young God)
Niku-dan: Discography 12" (Euro Import)
Ghost Bath: Moonlover 12" (Season of Mist)
Alabama Shakes: Boys & Girls 12" (ATO)
Alabama Shakes: Sound & Color 12" (ATO)
Country Teasers: Secret Weapon Revealed 12" (In the Red)
Crass: Feeding of the 5,000 12" (Southern)
Feederz: Ever Feel Like Killing Your Boss 12" (Broken)
Alain Goraguer: La Planete Sauvage 12" (Superior Viaduct)
Hot Snakes: Audit in Progress 12" (Swami)
Hot Snakes: Automatic Midnight 12" (Swami)
Jawbreaker: 24 Hour Revenge Therapy 12" (Blackball)
Jawbreaker: Unfun 12" (Blackball)
Jawbreaker: Bivouac 12" (Blackball)
Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady 12" (Superior Viaduct)
Thee Oh Sees: Mutilator Defeated at Last 12" (Castleface)
Sleep: Volume One 12" (Tupelo)
The Sound: From the Lion's Mouth 12" (1972)
The Sound: Jeopardy 12" (1972)
Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation 12" (Goofin')
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: Murder of the Universe 12" (Castleface)

Can: The Singles 12” (Spoon) I’ve you’ve been paying attention to my writings over the past few months, then you already know that I’ve been on a pretty big Krautrock kick, but I think that the thing I like so much about this singles collection from Can is that it really casts their music in a totally different light than what I’m used to. In the last volume of the All Things to All People blog I wrote about how all of these Krautrock bands that I’ve been discovering put me into a different mode of listening, allowing me to enjoy songs that are longer and have a wider, more cinematic scope. That’s definitely true of Can’s classic albums, but that isn’t really the Can that you get on The Singles. While there are a handful of rare non-LP tracks (the most noteworthy being the excellent “Turtles Have Short Legs”), for the most part what is collected here are 7” single edits of songs that appear in longer, more fully-realized versions on Can’s albums. You would think that this would completely neuter Can’s power, but what it actually does is reveal that there are great little pop songs sitting at the core of Can’s extended psychedelic jams. If listening to albums like Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi is like watching an old French film, then listening to The Singles is like a highly-compressed montage, and an incredibly enjoyable one at that. The joy of listening to these tracks is only enhanced by the absolutely stunning physical product that they have put together. The jacket is beautifully-designed with a stylish spot-gloss finish (and the inner gatefold is even more beautiful), and these LPs sound GREAT, with deep, full bass and punchy drums that actually match the clarity and power of the original pressings (something I can say about a very, very small percentage of current reissues). Like the record that got me into Can, Cannibalism, The Singles is a great entry point if you’re curious about the band but haven’t really checked them out before, and if you’re already a fan it exhibits a side of the band that most of us haven’t really engaged with before.

Niku-Dan: S/T 12” (Fan Club) Fan club release from this obscure Japanese punk band from the early 80s. Despite the fact that they had several releases during their life as a band (including a split 8” with the great Japanese band Gas) I hadn’t really spent much time with them before, which ultimately made this LP hit with even more impact than it would have otherwise. While their releases came out in 1983 and 1984, Niku-Dan’s sound was much more grounded in 70s punk, and at times they bear an almost uncanny resemblance to the Stalin circa Trash and Stop Jap. While they don’t have any songs that rise to the anthemic level of the Stalin’s best tracks, they have a similar combination of speed and power, and the clear and punchy production (which, again, reminds me of the Stalin) makes this a real treat to listen to. Like the recent Sexual fan club release that popped up, this looks and sounds great (it’s almost certainly sourced from the official CD reissue, given that the insert is a scan of the CD booklet, staples and all), and if you’re fascinated with the 80s Japanese punk scene I wouldn’t hesitate to call it an essential purchase.

Skull Cult: Vol. One and Vol. Two 7” (Erste Theke Tonträger) Another gem from the fertile Indiana scene, and if you like stuff like Coneheads, CCTV, and Liquids it’s probably more or less a given that you’ll be into this as well. Skull Cult have elements of a lot those bands’ sounds as well as some of their own tricks. The claustrophobic, direct-in-the-board guitar sound and manic rhythms remind me of Coneheads and the big melodies paired with hardcore tempos reminds me of Liquids, but Skull Cult’s 60s-sounding synth work (which often sounds kind of like a farfisa organ) is all their own, as are the almost demonic screamed vocals (which, despite their harshness, manage to carry more than a little bit of melody). I’m kind of amazed that they managed to cram so much music on this 7”—it could have been pressed as a 12” and I doubt that anyone would have batted an eye—but the value you for money that you get here makes this record feel weightier and even more worthwhile than it would have otherwise, and personally I find the listening experience of vinyl a lot more pleasurable than shuffling out a couple of short tapes. Throw in some downright iconic cover artwork and you have a real standout EP… grab this one now before it becomes another one of those things with shocking Discogs price tags.

Liquids: More than a Friend 7” (Drunken Sailor) So, this latest 3-song EP was originally released on Drunken Sailor Records in a criminally small edition of 111 copies on gold vinyl, which was only available through the Drunken Sailor store, and of course sold out basically instantly. While they originally made it sound like that was going to be it, thankfully they’ve repressed another, probably still too small, edition of 390 copies on black vinyl that we were able to get a few copies of. I still listen to Hot Liqs regularly, but anyone who follows Liquids knows that they have some total gems scattered across highly limited, hard to find releases, and More than a Friend contains some of their best stuff. The title track in particular is an absolute scorcher… it sounds like a long-lost gem from the Lookout! Records catalog, though it’s also noisier and more aggressive than just about anything else I can think of on that label, and the melodies might even be better too. Seriously, this track is right up there with early Green Day in the way that it seamlessly melds punk rock with a delicate pop sensibility. If you like Liquids, you simply need this song, no two ways about it. As for the two tracks on the flip, while they’re not quite on the level of “More than a Friend” (which is, frankly, a band-defining song, though Liquids have a few of those under their belt), they’re as strong as any other Liquids track and you won’t have any problems wearing out that side of the record as well.

Hyena: demo cassette (Scavenger of Death) 7-song demo from this new hardcore band from Atlanta, which features most of the lineup of Sorry State’s own Bukkake Boys. While Hyena more or less picks up right where Bukkake Boys left off (though thankfully without a name that makes us wince!), there are some subtle differences in their sound. The basic framework is still heavy, full-bore hardcore that lies somewhere in the fertile ground between mid-period Poison Idea records like War All the Time and Kings of Punk and more Discharge-inspired stuff like Anti-Cimex’s first 12”. Like Bukkake Boys, Hyena is also elevated by absolutely brilliant drumming… Corey is one of my favorite hardcore drummers, and I couldn’t be more stoked to hear his distinctive and crushingly powerful beats behind a new band. Hyena do have a different guitarist than Bukkake Boys, though, and he peppers a couple of these tracks with blistering leads that push Hyena more in the direction of classic-sounding Japanese hardcore, but with the slight looseness and power of the aforementioned bands. If you’re into the kind of hardcore bands that Sorry State has put out in the past, this is pretty much a no-brainer. Highly recommended.

The Scam: Everything Ends in Rot 7” (Antitodo) Reissue of this excellent 1986 7” from New Hampshire’s the Scam on Spain’s Antitodo Records, which has been digging up quite a few interesting USHC obscurities as of late. The Scam were ripe for the picking, because while I imagine that their metal-tinged hardcore might have sounded a little bit de rigeur in 1986, nowadays it’s easy to appreciate the uniquely sinister vibe of this one. Basically, it sounds to me like the Scam’s music is informed in equal parts by early 80s SoCal punk like the Adolescents and TSOL, the more punk end of Death Rock (particularly the first Christian Death LP and maybe Samhain) and a touch of crossover / thrash (a la Animosity-era COC). I can’t think of another band that sits in this spot of the venn diagram, which is particularly impressive because they tend to adopt the best parts of each of those genres, namely the catchiness of SoCal punk, the spooky atmosphere of death rock and the musical sophistication / precision of thrash. Vibe-wise, the closest comparison I can make is some moments of United Mutation. While it’s not exactly like that, I think that it’s a safe bet that if you’re into those kind of “outsider” early 80s bands with a really unique vibe—UM, Mecht Mensch, Spike in Vain, Power of the Spoken Word, Die Kreuzen—you’ll flip out for this one. Highly recommended.

Violence Creeps: Ease the Seed Bag 7” (Drunken Sailor) Brand new 4-songer from this San Francisco-area band who have been a Sorry State favorite for a while now. You get four songs here, three of which you may already know, including an alternate version of their cover of Soft Cell’s “Sex Dwarf,” which originally appeared on their 12” EP on Total Punk (which, IMHO at least, remains THEE Violence Creeps record to get). While Ease the Seed Bag lacks the unity of sound and vision that some of Violence Creeps’ other releases have had, what it lacks in unity it makes up for with the strength of the songs themselves, as this EP collects some of the band’s most memorable moments. Too musical to be no wave but too musically confrontational to really be called straightforward punk, Violence Creeps have the same kind of stance as bands like Flipper, No Trend, and Public Image Ltd., and like those bands at their very best Violence Creeps have a way of wrenching jagged but memorable melodies out of the chaos. Keeping up with this prolific band’s bulging discography can be tough, but the rewards make it well worth it.

Tarantula: S/T 7” (Lengua Armada) Since, as of this writing, we’re already sold out of this EP and whether we can get a restock is very much TBD I won’t spend too much time raving about it, but I had to go on record as noting that this is definitely one of the best punk records that 2017 has offered us so far. I’m sure you know by now that Tarantula features a number of former Cülo members among their ranks and pretty much pick up right where Cülo left off, but honestly I think that this EP is better than anything Cülo produced, and I’m a pretty big Cülo fan! It’s funny, I mentioned to Jeff that for a band that didn’t even have a bass player in their previous iteration, the basslines on this EP are absolutely killer, and without a doubt one of the bright spots in the songs. The other reason I prefer this somewhat to Cülo is because they’ve slowed the tempos down just a hair. While this is still pretty much full-bore punk rock, playing at just a tad less manic tempo really makes the catchiness of these tracks jump out at you. I feel like I hear a lot of the classic punk sensibility of bands like the Dickies or even prime-era Naked Raygun in these tracks, though without sounding like a rehash or an homage at all. The lyrics are even really strong and well worth a read. Here’s hoping that we get a spate of Tarantula releases much like the deluge of Cülo vinyl that we saw in 2010 and 2011 and that they’re all as killer as this one.

Paranoid: Praise No Deity 7” (Konton Crasher) My favorite d-beat band in the world, Sweden’s Paranoid, grace us with another 3-track opus! Why are Paranoid my favorite d-beat band? Well, that’s a really hard thing to put my finger on. I think that ultimately what I like about them is that they have perfect balance of purism and progressivism. When you’re making the self-conscious choice to play a genre like d-beat with relatively tight formal constraints you need to find a way to honor what makes the genre great without simply rehashing, and Paranoid consistently manage to do that. The a-side (I won’t type out song titles because they’re all written in Japanese on the sleeve) is the centerpiece, and uses some of the same chords as Celtic Frost’s “Into Crypts of Rays,” which Paranoid actually covered on their excellent, highly recommended covers album. As the track listing for that covers album hints, Paranoid have more than a little bit of metal in their DNA, and this track achieves that perfect balance between Celtic Frost’s neanderthal chug and the almost breezy quality of first 12”-era Anti-Cimex. The b-side’s 2 tracks both exhibit slightly different sides of the band, the 1st track being a little rawer and nastier (sounding more like the Anti-Cimex 7”s, but with more modern production) and the second one is slightly (I mean really slightly) more technical with more complex changes than your typical d-beat track. I imagine that a lay person would probably throw this on and think “just another d-beat record,” but if you’ve spent some time listening to the genre closely and you have the background knowledge to appreciate what Paranoid is doing, then there isn’t a current band that does a better job of keeping this rich tradition alive.

All New Arrivals
Pierre Et Bastien: Musique Grecque 12" (SDZ)
Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, James McAlister: Planetarium 12" (4AD)
Terror: The Walls Will Fall 7" (Pure Noise)
Kreator: Pleasure to Kill 12" (Noise)
Kreator: Terrible Certainty 12" (Noise)
Kreator: Endless Pain 12" (Noise)
Kreator: Extreme Aggression 12" (Noise)
Big Thief: Capacity 12" (Saddle Creek)
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust 12" (gold vinyl; Parlophone)
The Drums: Abysmal Thoughts 12" (Anti)
Mattin: Songbook #6 12" (Munster)
JJ Doom: Bookhead EP 12" (Lex)
Can: The Singles 12" (Spoon)
Fleet Foxes: Crack-up 12" (Sub Pop)
John Coltrane: Ole Coltrane 12" (Org Music)
John Coltrane: Giant Steps 12" (Org Music)
John Coltrane & Don Cherry: The Avant-Garde 12" (Org Music)
Past: Czarno / Biala 12" (???)
Spodee Boy: Sterile World 7" (Drop Medium)
Datenight: Sonic Youth 18 Years On Earth cassette (Drop Medium)
Datenight: Datenight Does Dallas cassette (Drop Medium)
Allvaret: Skam Och Skuld 12" (Erste Theke Tontraeger)
Muff Divers: No Muff Too Tuff 7" (Erste Theke Tontraeger)
Skull Cult: Vol 1 + Vol 2 7" (Erste Theke Tontraeger)
Self Abuse: (I Didn't Wanna Be a) Soldier 7" (Antitodo)
The Scam: Everything Ends in Rot 7" (Antitodo)
Tarantula: S/T 7" (Lengua Armada)
Venenum: Trance of Death 12" (Ajna Offensive)
Niku-Dan: S/T 12" (Euro Import)
John Coltrane & Wilbur Harden: Tanganyika Strut 12" (Superior Viaduct)
Relatively Clean Rivers: S/T 12" (Phoenix)
Brian Jonestown Massacre: Bravery, Repetition and Noise 12" (A Recordings)
Albert Ayler: Prophecy 12" (ESP Disk)
Ball: S/T 12" (Horny)
Golem: Orion Awakens 12" (Mental Experience)
Teenage Filmstars: (There's a) Cloud Over Liverpool 12" (Munster)
Generation X: Sweet Revenge 12" (Munster)
Alex Chilton: Take Me Home and Make Me Like It 12" (Munster)
Bruce Haack: The Electric Lucifer 12" (Telephone Explosion)
Reality Group: Demo 2016 cassette (Electric Heat)
Xertz: Demo 2017 cassette (Electric Heat)
The Sexual: Discography 12" (Euro Import)
Disorder: Human Cargo 12" (Rest in Punk)
Negazione: 1983: Pre-Early Days 12" (Disforia)
Ash Ra Tempel: High and Mighty Priestess 12" (Euro Import)
Ash Ra Tempel: Join Inn 12" (Euro Import)
Ash Ra Tempel: Schwingungen 12" (Euro Import)
Ash Ra Tempel: First Album 12" (Euro Import)
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless 12" (Euro Import)
GG Allin & the Jabbers: 80s Rock N Roll: The Singles 12" (Euro Import)
Misfits: 12 Hits from Hell: The MSP Sessions 12" (Euro Import)
Science Project: Basement Blues 7" (Neck Chop)
Process of Elimination: S/T 7" (Neck Chop)
Paranoid: Praise No Deity 7" (Konton Crasher)
Svaveldioxid: Ändlös Mardröm 12" (Konton Crasher)
Utanforskapet: S/T 12" (Konton Crasher)
Necrot: Blood Offerings 12" (Tankcrimes)
Fucked Up: Year of the Snake 12" (Tankcrimes)
Connoisseur: Over the Edge 12" (Tankcrimes)
Fuck You Pay Me: Dumbed Down 12" (Tankcrimes)
Deny the Cross: Alpha Ghoul 12" (Tankcrimes)
Victims: Sirens 12" (Tankcrimes)
Vivisick: Nuked Identity 12" (Tankcrimes)
Connoisseur: Stoner Justice 12" (Tankcrimes)
The Shrine: Waiting for the War 12" (Tankcrimes)
Brainoil: S/T 12" (Tankcrimes)
Exhumed / Iron Reagan: Split 12" (Tankcrimes)
Ghoul / Cannabis Corpse: Splatterhash 12" (Tankcrimes)
Municipal Waste / Toxic Holocaust: Toxic Waste 12" (Tankcrimes)
Ghoul: Wall of Death 7" (Tankcrimesew)
Cliterati: S/T 7" (Tankcrimes)
Annihilation Time: Cosmic Unconsciousness 7" (Tankcrimes)
Hyena: demo cassette (Scavenger of Death)
Danzig: Black Laden Crown 12" (Nuclear Blast)
Iced Earth: Incorruptible 12" (Century Media)
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound 12" (Southeastern)
Ataxxia: Demo cassette (self-released)
Mutoid Man: War Moans 12" (Sargent House)
Ride: Weather Diaries 12" (Wichita)
Piece War: Apathy 12" (Square One Again)
Various: Bingo!: French Punk Exploitation 1978-1981 12" (Born Bad)
Wicked Lady: The Axeman Cometh 12" (Guersson)
Wicked Lady: Psychotic Overkill 12" (Guersson)
MF Doom: Operation: Doomsday 12" (Metal Face)
Disfear: Misanthropic Generation 12" (La Familia)
Conflict: The Ungovernable Force 12" (Hätääpu)
Conflict: It's Time to See Who's Who 12" (Hätääpu)
Inferno: Anti Hagenbach Tape 12" (Power It Up)
The American Epic Sessions OST 12" (Third Man)
The Monks: Hamburg Recordings 1967 12" (Third Man)
Songs: Ohia: S/T 12" (Secretly Canadian)
Songs: Ohia: Axxess & Ace 12" (Secretly Canadian)
Jason Molina: Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go 12" (Secretly Canadian)
Broken Hope: Mutilated 12" (Century Media)
Dying Fetus: Wrong One to Fuck With 12" (Relapse)
Ex Eye: S/T 12" (Relapse)
Tyrannosorceress: Shattering Light's Creation 12" (Tofu Carnage)
Helmet: Meantime 12" (Interscope)
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: Murder of the Universe 12" (Castle Face)
Raincoats: S/T 12" (We Three)
Iron Maiden: Brave New World 12" (Sanctuary)
Iron Maiden: A Matter of Life and Death 12" (Sanctuary)
Iron Maiden: Dance of Death 12" (Sanctuary)
Iron Maiden: Rock in Rio 12" (Sanctuary)
Jeff Tweedy: Together at Last 12" (Anti-)
David Bowie: Hunky Dory 12" (gold vinyl; Parlophone)
Piss: II 7" (Static Age)
Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain 12" (picture disc; Warner Bros)
Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain 12" (remastered; Warner Bros)
Tigers Jaw: Spin 12" (Atlantic)
Carach Angren: Dance and Laugh Among the Rotten 12" (Season of Mist)
Immortal: Diabolical Fullmoon 12" (Osmose)
Municipal Waste: Slime and Punishment 12" (Nuclear Blast)


Restocks
Baroness: Blue 12" (Relapse)
Baroness: Yellow and Green 12" (Relapse)
Brand New: I Am a Nightmare 12" (Pmtraitors)
Death: Human 12" (Relapse)
Death: Scream Bloody Gore 12" (Relapse)
Death: Spiritual Healing 12" (Relapse)
Geto Boys: S/T 12" (Rap-a-lot)
Geto Boys: We Can't Be Stopped 12" (Rap-a-lot)
Joey Bada$$: All Amerikkkan Bada$$ 12" (Cinematic)
King Diamond: Conspiracy 12" (Metal Blade)
Modest Mouse: This Is a Long Drive 12" (Glacial Pace)
NOFX: The Decline 12" (Fat Wreck)
Jay Reatard: Blood Visions 12" (Fat Possum)
Royal Headache: S/T 12" (What's Your Rupture)
Run the Jewels: S/T 12" (Mass Appeal)
Run the Jewels: 2 12" (Mass Appeal)
Run the Jewels: 3 12" (Mass Appeal)
Slayer: Show No Mercy 12" (Metal Blade)
Swans: Filth 12" (Young God)
Urchin: How to Make Napalm 7" (Roach Leg)
The Coneheads: 14 Year Old High School PC-Fascist Hype Lords 12" (Erste Theke Tontraeger)
Dystopia: Human=Garbage 12" (Tankcrimes)
Ghoul: Dungeon Bastards 12" (Tankcrimes)
Ghoul: Transmission Zero 12" (Tankcrimes)
Ghoul: Maniaxe 12" (Tankcrimes)
Ghoul: We Came for the Dead 12" (Tankcrimes)
Ghoul: Hang Ten 10" (Tankcrimes)
Fucked Up: Year of the Dragon 12" (Tankcrimes)
Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism 12" (Barsuk)
Downtown Boys: Full Communism 12" (Don Giovanni)
Elliott Smith: S/T 12" (Kill Rock Stars)
Elliott Smith: Either/Or 12" (Kill Rock Stars)
Danny Brown: Atrocity Exhibition 12" (Warp)
Alice Coltrane: World Spirituality Classics Vol 1 12" (Luaka Bop)
Led Zeppelin: I 12" (Atlantic)
Metallica: Kill 'em All 12" (Blackened)
Radiohead: Kid A 12" (XL)
David Bowie: The Man Who Sold the World 12" (Parlophone)
The Cure: Three Imaginary Boys 12" (Rhino)
The Replacements: Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash 12" (Rhino)
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust 12" (Parlophone)
Green Day: Kerplunk! 12" (Reprise)
Operation Ivy: Energy 12" (Epitaph)
David Bowie: Hunky Dory 12" (Parlophone)
Motorhead: Ace of Spades 12" (Sanctuary)
Jay Reatard: Watch Me Fall 12" (Matador)
The Cure: Disintegration 12" (Rhino)
Metallica: Master of Puppets 12" (Blackened)
The Replacements: Let It Be 12" (Rhino)
Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool 12" (XL)
Nirvana: Bleach 12" (Sub Pop)
Metallica: Ride the Lightning 12" (Blackened)
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures 12" (Rhino)
In School: Cement Fucker 7" (Thrilling Living)
Blitz: Voice of a Generation 12" (Radiation)
Broken Bones: A Single Decade 12" (Havoc)
Chaos UK: The Singles 12" (Radiation)
Dezerter: Underground Out of Poland 12" (Nikt Nic Nie Wie)
Discharge: Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing 12" (Havoc)
Discharge; Why 12" (Havoc)
Discharge: Realities of War 7" (Havoc)
Discharge: Decontrol 7" (Havoc)
Discharge: Fight Back 7" (Havoc)
Discharge: Never Again 7" (Havoc)
Discharge: State Violence, State Control 7" (Havoc)
Extreme Noise Terror: Phonophobia 12" (Agipunk)
Sacrilege: Time to Face the Reaper 12" (Havoc)
Jack White: Blunderbuss 12" (Third Man)
The Melvins: Houdini 12" (Third Man)
The White Stripes: S/T 12" (Third Man)
The White Stripes: White Blood Cells 12" (Third Man)
The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan 12" (Third Man)
The White Stripes: Elephant 12" (Third Man)
Zero Boys: Vicious Circle 12" (Secretly Canadian)
Zero Boys: History of 12" (Secretly Canadian)
Die Kreuzen: S/T 12" (Touch & Go)
Big Black: Bulldozer 12" (Touch & Go)
Big Black: Atomizer 12" (Touch & Go)
The Fix: At the Speed of Twisted Thought 12" (Touch & Go)
Negative Approach: S/T 7" (Touch & Go)
Husker Du: Zen Arcade 12" (SST)
Beastie Boys: Hello Nasty 12" (Capitol)
Death: Leprosy 12" (Relapse)
Funkadelic: Free Your Mind 12" (Three Men with Beards)
Funkadelic: S/T 12" (Three Men with Beards)
Funkadelic: Maggot Brain 12" (Three Men with Beards)
Misfits: Collection 12" (Caroline)
Misfits: Legacy of Brutality 12" (Caroline)
Misfits: Static Age 12" (Caroline)
New York Dolls: Too Much Too Soon 12" (Mecury)
Pearl Jam: Vitalogy 12" (Sony)
Velvet Underground & Nico: S/T 12" (Vinyl Lovers)
Weezer: Pinkerton 12" (Geffen)

Spodee Boy: S/T 7” (Drop Medium) Debut vinyl from this Nashville project (I think it’s a one-person band). The person behind Spodee Boy actually dropped by the store while on tour with his other band and mentioned this project, noting that it was in a similar vein to a lot of Northwest Indiana stuff like DLIMC, Coneheads, Liquids, et al, and the similarities to that sound are pretty obvious with its raw production, Devo-inspired mechanical-sounding (but as far as I can tell acoustic) drums, but willingness to engage with a lot more melody and traditional pop songcraft than most noisy DIY punk bands. I think it’s pretty much a given that if you’re into that sound—particularly Liquids’ rawer cassette releases—that you’ll really enjoy this too, but I’ll also say that Spodee Boy can get pretty far out there. While some bands / songs in this style can almost start to sound like pop-punk with rawer production, Spodee Boy seems more grounded in a Hardcore Devo / Electric Eels type of thing. Definitely recommended if you’re still enjoying pulling on this thread of current punk.

Obnox: Niggative Approach 12” (12XU) Obnox has been a name that has been bumping around the edges of my awareness for some time now, and while I’ve heard records in passing and even seen him/them live a few times, I’ve never before actually sat down and tried to engage with his music. Niggative Approach has me rethinking that whole… er, approach… because, man, what a record! This album feels like a world that is completely unto itself, because I’ve never heard anything remotely like it. Attempting an exhaustive list of the influences on this beast would be completely impossible, but the primary ingredients in the stew seem to be classic funk and soul, modern hip-hop production (particularly the shimmery “Chipmunk Soul” sound that was really popular a few years ago and, for some reason, always reminds me of the Love Boat theme), hardcore, psych, and neo-garage. But I’m sure there’s way more to that, and dismissing this album as a mere cross-pollination of genres is something I definitely don’t want to do. Rather, it seems like Obnox is a man with a vision, and he’s able to pull songwriting and production techniques from whatever he feels like in order to realize that vision. The result is something that sounds utterly unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, but if I were to choose a couple of adjectives to describe the music on Niggative Approach they would be “lush” and “trippy.” I’ll refrain from trying to break this down any further, because at the end of the day it is what it is, and if you consider yourself an adventurous listener you should probably check it out.

Ben Trogdon: Rock N Roll Forever book (self-released) This is a lengthy (100+ pages) compilation of photographs by Ben, who you may know from the long-running zine Nuts. First of all, calling this a “photo book” is kind of misleading, because most of those that I’ve seen consist primarily of live band photography, and the photos themselves often portray the act of playing music as a kind of heroic, larger-than-life activity. Rock N Roll forever kind of does the opposite… portraying the music scene in a way that is almost shockingly devoid of pretense and posturing. Most of the shots are candid pics of people hanging out. The exceptions are a handful of band photo shoots that I think were mostly done for previous issues of Nuts and a smattering of live photos, neither of which really have anything of the tone and texture of most of what gets printed in contemporary zines and photobooks. In these photos, the bands don’t look heroic at all. They, almost without exception, look kind of schlubby and, in a word, human. That’s true to an even greater extent of the candid shots that form a majority of the book’s content. Most people don’t seem like they’re trying to look cool, and in the cases of the ones who are, Ben’s camera is able to capture something about them that feels very real and human. I know a lot of the people photographed in this book, and there’s a kind of truth to what Ben captures about them in his photos, and by aggregating them all together into this book (particularly along with the meticulously-constructed individual layouts for each page, which definitely add up to a unique and coherent aesthetic) Ben also reveals a wider truth about the punk scene of the last ten years as a whole. If you’ve been heavily involved in the DIY punk and hardcore scenes over the past decade, flipping through this will probably feel like flipping through a high school yearbook, though for a high school we all would have wanted to go to rather than the ones that we all, I’m pretty sure uniformly, hated. That mix of gratifying my very human impulse toward nostalgia as well as capturing something a bit higher and more artistic is a real achievement. I’m sure this isn’t for everyone, but it’s so perfectly and truly for me that I can’t help but give it my highest recommendation.

Sick Horse: S/T 12” (Static Age) I’ve been trying to think of a way to describe Sick Horse’s music, but I’m drawing a blank. They have this way of skirting categories… they’re too fast and too punk to really be accurately labeled a post-punk-inspired band, they’re too melodic to really be a hardcore band, and they’re too cerebral and angular to fit the mold of a straight up punk band. But even though they’re none of those things, somehow they’re also all three at the same time. I guess that they have a similar mix of elements as a band like Hot Snakes, but when I try to pin down that comparison Sick Horse don’t sound much like Hot Snakes at all… while the stew of influences might be similar, vibe-wise this is totally different… slightly loose and organic where Hot Snakes are nervy and wound super tight. Jeff said that Sick Horse sounds like Heavy Metal (the band, not the genre) with the goofy / campy elements removed, and I suppose that I can hear that as well, particularly on a track like “Culture Is Getting High,” which closes out the a-side quite brilliantly. I must say that I’m really looking forward to being done writing this description, because while analyzing their music feels like a fruitless activity, listening to Sick Horse is a really fun activity that I would very much like to get back to.

Ekman & Owen: S/T 7” (Goodbye Boozy) Transatlantic collaboration 7” between one of Finland’s Achtungs and DD Owen of Sick Thoughts. It’s funny, both Achtungs and Sick Thoughts have fairly manic sounds that tend to blur the lines between punk and hardcore, but both of the songs here are uncharacteristically mid-paced. “New Orleans to Helsinki” is a punky power pop track that reminds me of a lot of old European stuff that blurs the lines between those genres, Hubble Bubble in particular. On the other hand, “Gonna Go Downtown” is pretty much straight-up glam, with a rad, melodic mid-paced bootboy riff (that maybe owes a little to “Two Tub Man” by the Dictators), a Bolan-esque vocal (which I’m honestly kind of surprised Drew is capable of) and some sick Mick Ronson-worthy soloing in the outro. Someone told me a few months ago that they thought the next big punk trend was going to be bootboy glam, and “Gonna Go Downtown” makes a good case for punks making this genre their own. Like a lot of the singles on Goodbye Boozy, this one feels frustratingly brief, but damn do both of these songs smoke.

S.B.F.: Double Blind 7” (Goodbye Boozy) Second 7” from this California band that shares members with Race Car (as well as, presumably, a number of other projects), and I think it’s even better than their already-awesome first one. The first thing you’ll notice about S.B.F. is that they have a really distinctive sound. They use a drum machine, but rather than using it to program quirky robotic beats they instead use it to play the manic, Ramones-derived beats that power bands like the Carbonas. While a lot of these newer drum machine-based projects have a very thin and brittle sound, S.B.F. actually have a fairly beefy, heavy but melodic guitar sound. Putting aside the drum machine, the guitar tones and riffs have a very OC punk quality that reminds me of things like D.I. or Rikk Agnew’s solo LP. And, fortunately, S.B.F. also has the songwriting chops to match that comparison. Both of the tracks here have a surprising amount of complexity, with layered, overlapping guitar riffs that again recall the master Rikk Agnew’s work, particularly the darker flavor of the first track, “Disintegrate.” I love pretty much everything that has come out of this crew, but Double Blind strikes me as a real high-water mark.

Various: Ketters Van Het Vlaamse Platteland 12" (Mauerstadt) While I can’t make much sense of the German-language liner notes, I believe that this is a compilation of Belgian post-punk music from 1979-1983, including the bands De Brassers, Enterprise Incorporated, Struggler, Suspects, and Camera Obscura. When I think of Belgian punk the first thing that usually comes to mind are the more ’77 era/style bands like the Kids, Hubble Bubble, the Pigz, Chainsaw, et al, but Ketters Van Het Vlaamse Platteland has a different focus, centering on artier and more experimental bands working in more of a post-punk milieu. While the bands featured are quite different from one another, I can tell that they’re aware of what was happening in the English / British post-punk scene as you can hear the distinct influence of those bands, the Fall’s dystopian, Krautrock-inflected moments in particular. While several of these bands (most prominently De Brassers) went on to release vinyl, Ketters Van Het Vlaamse Platteland captures them at a very early stage… everything compiled here feels raw and immediate (possibly even live?) but with more than enough fidelity to hear everything that’s going on. Admittedly this is pretty niche stuff, but man there’s some good music on this one, as well as on the Mauerstadt label as a whole.

Piss: II 7” (Static Age) Second vinyl EP from this German band who recently toured the US, and it definitely stands up to the quality of their first. In case you didn’t check out that first one, Piss remind me quite a lot of S.H.I.T. and Blazing Eye in that they play noisy hardcore, often employ a really fast pogo beat, but also manage to infuse their music with some of the apocalyptic vibe of G.I.S.M. at their very best. While Blazing Eye’s sense of camp makes them special and S.H.I.T.’s mastery of atmosphere causes them to stand out, Piss stake their claim by upping the raw fury and aggression to the maximum possible level. At points, this EP even begins to transcend their established aesthetic, moving toward something more like the progressive noise-punk of Japanese bands like Zyanose or D-Clone. I also would be remiss not to mention the excellent packaging on this thing, including an eye-catching full-color layout and a cool screen-printed polybag that references a bunch of punk graphic cliches without feeling like a low-brow rehash. Definitely one of the standout hardcore releases of the past few months.

Bikini Cops: Number Two 7” (Goodbye Boozy) Second 7” from this Australian band, and it’s a real standout. Stylistically, this reminds me a lot of the Carbonas (and other adjacent Atlanta punk) in the way that it sounds like classic rock and roll (or that end of the 70s punk, a la the Brian James-era Damned) amped up to the point where they can hang with just about any hardcore band in terms of velocity and aggression. The combination of pop hooks and punk power is one of the most exhilarating things in music, and Bikini Cops totally nail it. Bonus points for also having more than their fair share of the vibe of Aussie punk classics like the Saints or the Chosen Few, but again sped and amped up for our modern age. Fortunately Bikini Cops even managed to persuade Goodbye Boozy to put music on both sides of this record, so it feels like a fully-realized EP and not the too-brief snapshot of some of the 1-sided Goobye Boozy releases. Basically, if you’re into any of the stuff above I’d strongly recommend checking these folks out.

All New Arrivals
Blue Dolphin: Demo 2016 cassette (self-released)
Blue Dolphin: Earth Day 2017 cassette (self-released)
Blue Dolphin: 2 New Songs cassette (self-released)
Various: Various Distractions 12" (Mauerstadt)
Various: Ketters Van Het Vlaamse Platteland 12" (Mauerstadt)
Vonbrigði: Ó, Reykjavík 12" (Mauerstadt)
Strange Devotion: Again the New Formation 7" (Mauerstadt)
Neural Circus: S/T 7" (Mauerstadt)
Mutter: 25 2x12" (Mauerstadt)
Rancid: Trouble Maker 12"+7" (Epitaph)
Crisis Man: S/T cassette (self-released)
III Guera: S/T 12" (Discos Enfermos)
Gaitze: S/T 12" (Discos Enfermos)
Asinus / Venganza: Split 7" (Discos Enfermos)
Ekman & Owen: S/T 7" (Goodbye Boozy)
Fresh Flesh: S/T 7" (Goodbye Boozy)
Bikini Cops: Number Two 7" (Goodbye Boozy)
Bad Boyfriends: S/T 7" (Goodbye Boozy)
S.B.F.: Double Blind 7" (Goodbye Boozy)
Draggs: 3D Funeral 7" (Goodbye Boozy)
Dead Kennedys: Bedtime for Democracy 12" (Manifesto)
Dead Kennedys: Plastic Surgery Disasters 12" (Manifesto)
Dead Kennedys: Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death 12" (Manifesto)
Slapshot: Step on It 12" (Taang!)
Negative FX: S/T 12" (Taang!)
Kilslug: Answer the Call 12" (Taang!)
Slaughter & the Dogs: Do It Dog Style 12" (Taang!)
Last Rights: Chunks 7" (Taang!)
Lemonheads: Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners 7" (Taang!)
Poison Idea: Learning to Scream 7" (Taang!)
RAS: Rien A Signaler 7" (Dirty Punk)
Distrust: A Dream of Peace + FOAD 12" (FOAD)
FCDN Tormentor: Demonic Thereafter 12" (FOAD)
Toxic Noise: Discography 1990-1994 12" (FOAD)
Kaleidoscope: Neurosonic Data Collection cassette (Outsider Tapes)
Violence Creeps: Gift of Music + Singles cassette (Total Punk)
Performing Ferrets: S/T 7" (Insolito)
Suffocation: Of the Dark Light 12" (Nuclear Blast)
Merrimack: Omegaphilia 12" (Season of Mist)
Morbid Opera: Collection 12" (Vinyl Rites)
Subversive Rite: The Demos 12" (Bloody Master)
Allergy: Smog 12" (Bloody Master)
Obnox: Niggative Approach 12" (12XU)
Ben Trogdon: Rock N Roll Forever book (self-released)
Bulsch: Tartington 7" (Blow Blood)
Magic City: S/T 7" (Blow Blood)

Restocks
4 Skins: The Good, the Bad & the 4 Skins 12" (Radiation)
Death Piggy: Studio Session 84/85 12" (Vomitopunkrock)
Samhain: Unholy Passion 12" (Euro Import)
The Crowd: A World Apart 12" (Radiation)
Rhino 39: S/T 12" (Radiation)
Wretched: Libero E Selvaggio 12" (Agipunk)
FU's: Kill for Christ 12" (Taang!)
DYS: Brotherhood 12" (Taang!)
Buck Biloxi: Hollow Earth 7" (Holotrash)
Patsy: Tuley Tude High 7" (Total Punk)
Paranoid: Cover of the Month 12" (Svart)
Vagra: Demo 12" (Bloody Master)