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What’s up Sorry Skaters?

It’s my last week of my spring semester for welding school and we’ve been cleaning up the shop. I’ve been listening to more egg punk while grinding and cleaning the work tables and blocks and something about being in a shop at like 2:00am using power tools and hearing an ocean of loud industrial noises while blasting The Coneheads just fits, at least for me. So I’m going with LP1 aka 14 Year Old High School P.C.-Fascist Hype Lords Rip Off Devo For The Sake Of Extorting $$$ From Helpless Impressionable Midwestern Internet People Punks LP by The Coneheads for my staff pick this week.

The other day I was blasting this in my office at work and Usman walks in and stops by the door, maintaining a wide-eyed stare and a limp-like posture almost as if he was frozen in time. We begin the stare battle and he starts flicking the lights on and off to the rhythm of the fourth track called Hack Hack Hack. For a few brief moments we transcended time and space and entered the realm of the Coneheads. A place outside reality, existence, and even Twitter. I love me some egg punk, but the Coneheads are on their own plane. Here are the lyrics to Big City Baby. “I’mma big city baby & I gotta fade, When I lived in the suburbs I got all A’s, Now I’m in the city and I feign dumb when I wax intellectual ‘bout suburban scum, I got a big city baby she’s just like me, we both listen to the Smiths ain’t that interesting? Were two big city babies don’t believe in love, I’mma true post modern urban transplant scrub, I’mma big city baby.” I’m here for it.

With how chaotic the music sounds on the surface, the members actually show how musically knowledgeable they are with super catchy and original chorus parts and some really solid bass lines. They also do a lot of fun and abrupt rhythmic changes, but it never seems over the top cause that can get old quick.

There is a phone number on the lyric insert 1(708) 846-9494.

I haven’t tried it yet, but you should.

That’s all I got for y’all today, keep rockin’ and for heaven’s sake go listen to THE CONEHEADS!

What’s up Sorry Skaters?

Today I am exactly 10,437 days old. Pretty sure I could feel the 10,000 day mark back in February of 22’. A lot of people will experience almost 30,000 days in their lifetime. That’s pretty wild to think about. Anyway I’m going with Skemata’s A Bright Shining Hell for my staff pick this week. I really like that I can write about this record and band because half of the staff here would probably never choose this as a staff pick because Daniel put this record out through Sorry State, Jeff played guitar, and Usman did vocals. It kinda makes it feel more special. I remember being at a Skemata show years ago at the Bunker and it was upstairs in the living room. I don’t remember exactly who, but somebody was thrown into a wall and busted a huge hole in the drywall and I remember everyone being stoked on the chaos in the moment, but I’m sure some landlord anxiety ensued the next morning. I miss this band. Maybe I mainly miss Usman doing vocals. The lyrics are mostly a list of crimes against humanity and are often times the opposite of prosaic, which I LOVE. Usman said, “Fuck poetry, here’s some concrete shit.” My favorite track is “A Decade of Drone Attacks Over Pakistan.” It’s got this wild bridge part that has pretty-sounding guitar riffs and goes back and forth between dark and pretty-sounding. It kind of made me think of a child seeing the sun break through the dense cloud of dust remaining from a drone strike. The title of the record and the lyrics from the title track is inspired by Mumia Abu-Jamal’s writings from prison. He was on death row from 1982 to 2011, when his sentence was overturned by a federal court. He supported the MOVE organization in Philadelphia, which was involved in the nationally famous conflict with Philadelphia police in which officers resorted to dropping two bombs on a townhouse where MOVE members were living. The resulting fire killed six MOVE members and five of their children, and destroyed 65 houses in the neighborhood.

Here is a sample of some of Mumia’s thoughts while on death row.

A bright, shining hell

Imagine.

Imagine living, eating, sleeping, relieving oneself, daydreaming, weeping—but mostly waiting—in a room about the size of your bathroom.

Now imagine doing all those things—but mostly waiting—for the rest of your life.

Imagine waiting—waiting—waiting—to die.

I don’t have to imagine.

I ‘live’ in one of those rooms, like about 3.000 other men and women in 37 states across the United States.

It’s called ‘Death Row’.

I call it ‘Hell’.

Welcome to Hell.

Each of the states that have death rows has a different system for its ‘execution cases,’ varying from the relatively open to the severely restrictive. Some states, like California and Texas, allow their ‘execution cases’ work, education and/or religious service opportunities, for out-of-cell-time up to eight hours daily.

Pennsylvania locks its ‘execution cases’ down 23 hours a day, five days a week; 24 hours the other two days.

At the risk of quoting Mephistopheles, I repeat:

Welcome to Hell.

A hell erected and maintained by human governments and blessed by black-robed judges.

A hell that allows you to see your loved ones, but not touch them.

A hell situated in America’s rural boondocks, hundreds of miles away from most families.

A white, rural hell, where most of the caged captives are black and urban.

It is an American way of death.

Mumia has spent exactly 14,589 days incarcerated and spent well over 10,000 days on death row. Hard to imagine.

I told everyone at work the other day I wanted to do a silly staff pick, nothing serious... and here I am. Thanks for reading and we’ll see y’all next week!

What’s up Sorry Skaters?

It’s been a solid week at Sorry State International Headquarters. When I end up getting through with picking orders, I’ve been putting together the Savageheads: Service to Your Country records and I know a lot of y’all are gonna be wanting to get a copy. It’s definitely one of those albums that you won’t get bored with revisiting it often and come on... are we in any kind of excess of bands who worship The Partisans? That’s a hard argument to make.

This week I’m going with 3D and the Holograms S/T LP for my staff pick. Who isn’t a sucker for blisteringly fast high hat hits? It seems impossible to play the hi hats as fast as JJ. I mean it’s approaching the AK-47 speed. We got Bill on vox with what sounds like just the right amount of effects. Also, I really like how on the back of the cover when it is listing members, there is JJ, TV and then just Bill... Shout out to Bill and all the Herberts out there! Your name doesn’t have to be Asstoilet or Fredastairesasshole or Therighttoeatfredastairesasshole. Follow your dreams… anyway this record is killer and I love that they take a chance on getting really weird with the 6th track titled 3D Theme. It sounds like punk that got digitized/transformed for a 32 bit video game in which the main character must conquer the challenge of finding all the half full cans of beer at parties that people have forgotten about. I’d play that game and then defend myself by denying there being any nostalgic feelings there. Moving on, this LP also reminded me to revisit Tarantula’s S/T 7" from 2017 just because of the crazy fast hi hats. Love that record. As far as lyrics go, they make me think of Maniac by G.B.H. Here are a few excerpts from different songs that all share some sort of central theme: “He’s loud, he’s tough, he’s so obscene” “He cries and fights n kills” “He severs your hands” “His brain’s a piss drenched slimey ball” “He can’t see he can’t think, He’ll end your life if you blink”. It’s like if Maniac was fleshed out over half a record, but stupid fast. Brilliant. Anyways, that’s all I got for all of you this week. Hope everyone is drinking life’s cup and enjoying it. See ya next week!

What’s up Sorry Skaters?

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but water is good for you and it makes your body happy. My nephew is only 27, and he recently got a kidney stone because he never drinks water. I’m sure there were also other contributing factors, but it definitely wouldn’t have happened if he was drinking water. Speaking of making your body happy, this record doesn’t fall short. I’m going with Who Are They Trying to Con by the Scotland-born A.O.A. I’m a sucker for angry Scottish vocals and without that element in this band I probably wouldn’t be as interested. It’s like if Oi Polloi leaned more towards Discharge guitar riffs and backed it with relentless driving drums and gang vocals. No wonder the two Scottish bands, Oi Polloi and A.O.A, did a split together in 1986.

I remember having a conversation with a regular dude about this band years ago at a bar. He asked “why the hell does a punk band have a peace sign on the cover?!” Me and one of my new friends began to explain the anarcho peace punk era/scene in the UK and where the “WAR BAD” platitude comes from. It still amazes me how many people do not have even the slightest amount of knowledge of even this country’s most recent history. Anyways, this dude ended up being someone that did not merit the time to explain such things. “Screw you, I’m gonna go blast Antisect in my car.”

I’m keeping it short and pissed this week. Thanks for reading everybody and we’ll see y’all next week!

What’s up Sorry Skaters? It’s been a solid week working to help get orders picked and ready to be packed at the Hive. It’s definitely nice to see it warming back up again. There’s your obligatory comment about the weather. As much as people make fun of the supposed mundane nature of small talk regarding weather, I think deep down it resonates with people. Unless you’re a meteorologist saying that it will snow in Raleigh, there isn’t much bullshit surrounding weather. It’s right in front of and all around you. Hell, it can even give you cancer. Anyways, I’m going with Sotatila’s eight-track EP titled Vituiks Meni for my staff pick this week. Speaking of bullshit, you won’t find any on this record. You can pull out your binoculars, you can pull out your microscopes, but you’re not going to find any bullshit here. This 7” is straight up Finish Hardcore and makes you feel like you’re at a Kaaos show in some weird basement in the early 80s. I really like the back-and-forth vocals on the third track Ei Toimi. I’m a sucker for gang vocals, if you can call them that. Sometimes you just want some no frills hardcore that makes you feel right, and this does that for me. I also want to list some other music I’ve had blasting: Nisses Notter: Knackta Notter, The Insane: Why Die!, No Security: 40 Talisterna. This stuff has been helping me get through a week of very very little sleep and as I’m completing my last day of work/school, I have a sense of relief and I’m very ready to CHILL. I’ll finish up with a quote from Macbeth about sleep. “Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, Great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast.”

Hey what’s up everybody? I’m stoked to be writing my first Sorry State Newsletter staff pick. My name’s Kestrel AKA Grubbs. I lived in Raleigh for around 7 years playing in different bands and then I moved to the northwest, bouncing around Oregon, northern California and Washington. I’m now staying on a land project in Siler City with some cool people. I decided to make the hour long drive to Raleigh four days a week to work at Sorry State because I love working and hanging with these psychos. I’ve been slowly learning how to balance Sorry State work with my night classes at Alamance Community College. I enrolled this semester for the welding program, and I’ve been loving every second. When I started this metalworking trade a few years ago, I was listening to a lot of bands that, I would say, have a natural congruence with metalworking like Sabbath, Dokken and of course Metallica... duh. I swear Tooth and Nail was on repeat for an embarrassing amount of time. As far as Metallica goes, there truly is nothing like forming and melting steel while blasting Ride the Lightning. It’s like time travel. Anyway on to my first staff pick. I’m going with A D-beat Odyssey by Wolfbrigade this week. I’ve been jamming this on headphones while I’ve been in welding shop class and it just gets me cooking... know what I mean? I’ve listened to a lot of different albums while welding, but this one just FITS. The super epic crust chorus on the second track puts me in a totally different time while I’m melting steel. I totally get why Rob Miller of Amebix became a swordsmith. As an added bonus to this stellar record, Poffen from Totalitar joined up to do guest vocals because Micke of Wolfbrigade lost his voice and found out he had a tumor on his throat. I really like the back-and-forth vocals, but to be perfectly honest I wouldn’t mind if Poffen did vocals for the entire record. Although I would say I really do like the handful of times where Micke has these crazy vocal rhythms that just sound straight up EVIL. That’s a weird thing to say... A vocal rhythm sounding evil.. I don’t know how to explain it further, but maybe it’s also just that the evilness is more than the sum of its parts. Anyway this Swedish crust/punk group kills it and I applaud them for continuing to release solid raw punk records into the early 2000s.