News

It’s a weird week. But, as Dom always says, we have records to rely on to make us feel better! As we finished up pricing the collection Daniel went to Denver for, I somehow found even more ‘grail’ items I had to take home. I keep making a joke that me and that collector are the same person. Doom/stoner/sludge metal, international folk music, sound effects, old country records… everything I love.

But what got me the MOST excited (besides the David Lynch record I wrote about a few weeks ago) are the few Harvey Milk records I found in the collection. I think Harvey Milk was one of those bands I found on an old Blogspot page and have loved ever since. They are a very doomy, slow, noisy experimental metal band from Athens, GA. They were mainly active in the early 90s and their discography isn’t huge. What a bummer. I could listen to so many more albums of theirs. From what I can glean on the internet and the liner notes of the reissues I picked up, they were a well loved band when they were around and I can only imagine a big portion of it has to do with their live sets. I love the music on the internet or a record, but live must’ve been a totally different beast.

It’s also kind of full circle that I found some Harvey Milk records at Sorry State because I have a very vivid memory of missing out on one of their releases a few years ago. Anyone that shops in store knows the struggle of picking out some amazing stuff throughout the store and then, as you check out, you dig through the rare bins and find something with a hefty price tag that’s almost too good to pass up. That happened to me… I decided to grab the records in my hands instead of the rare Harvey Milk record that was worth my entire total. I thought, who the fuck knows this band? It’ll be here in a few weeks! Lo and behold, my boss at the time (shout out to Danny from Holy Mountain and his amazing record collection) posted a picture of the Harvey Milk record, saying he picked it up from Sorry State a day after I put it back. UGH. But now I have not one, but THREE of their records in my collection thanks to the guy I lovingly call The Denver Dude. If you’re not familiar with Harvey Milk, you best get to listening!

Summer of Soul (...Or When the Revolution Could Not be Televised)

I’m a bit late to the game, as this documentary came out last year, but I’ve been telling anyone who will listen about it! It’s your turn, faithful newsletter readers. So, the premise is interesting enough on its own: a huge series of summer concerts happened in the heart of Harlem during the summer of 1969. It was extensively filmed and incredibly well attended but the footage sat in a basement for 50 years and got upstaged by Woodstock. The film sat in a basement for fifty years until someone found it, Questlove got a hold of it, and this documentary was born. A story about long lost footage piqued my interest on that premise alone, but holy shit there is so much more in Summer of Soul that had me mesmerized.

The footage is amazing- seas of people dancing and singing to an absolutely insane lineup. Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder….It would’ve been a shame if we never got to see these performances. Throughout the movie, I found myself thinking about what it must’ve felt like to be the first people to watch this in 50 years. To stumble upon this magic? Insane. Questlove really did this story justice. Watching the documentary felt like discovering something magical.

The talking heads in this documentary are a mixture of people that performed and attended the concerts. I could’ve easily sat and watched the found footage from start to finish, but seeing these people react to this thing that had only been a memory for FIFTY YEARS is almost as amazing as the footage itself. This event was revolutionary. It was a showcase of black culture in a predominantly black neighborhood during a time in America where it was even harder than it is now to be black. It was in 1969, but you can still feel the electricity today. Obviously there’s only so much I can say as a white girl, but the information provided by the interviews doesn’t shy away from talking about the influence on black culture. The whole story and documentary is almost more powerful from a 2021-22 perspective because of how far we’ve come, but also how little has changed.

All that being said, check out the trailer and the soundtrack to this movie, but most of all PUHLEASE watch it.

Aliester Crowley: Black Magic

I lost a few good records when I broke up with my last long-term boyfriend. There are three that still haunt me, all these years later, and I’ve finally been able to add two of them back into my collection. I can’t remember if I was even the one to purchase them (probably not) but I was so excited to somewhat own them. I usually save my money for used records because I know Daniel and our customers always bring the heat and I have a hard time saying no but the past few weeks have tested my wallet with these new releases.

Any stoner with a feigning interest in metal/psych/desert rock should (and hopefully does) listen to Earthless. Their latest record came out a few weeks ago, but what I was MOST excited about are the reissues of their back catalog. My ex got From the Ages when we split and it’s been a bitch trying to secure a copy of my own. Thanks, Earthless, for the represses! Still on the hunt for Black Breath’s Sentenced to Life LP…

What I’m really here to write about is this Aliester Crowley record, though. I have no idea if this is the same thing as what my ex got at, where else but Graveface. We didn’t have a working record player until we were 20+ records deep into collecting, so I can’t recall what it sounded like or if we ever listened to it. We kept it hanging on the wall throughout every move, though. When I saw the familiar photo on the ‘coming soon’ section of one of our distributors, I immediately messaged Daniel so we could secure a copy for at least myself.

I’m glad he bought more than one because I’d feel a little guilty depriving anyone else of this rad release. I love Cleopatra Records and always look to them to release the weird shit. They got a bunch of electronic artists to create tracks with the famous recording of Crowley as ‘vocals’ for all the tracks. I’ve heard the recordings on YouTube but I did not know it was from an old wax cylinder from the early 1910s!! This compilation is really a great mix of dark ambient, beautiful instrumentals, and overall just some shit you wanna hear in a dark smoky goth club. Crowley’s voice doesn’t feel forced into the tracks- everything compliments each other. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing, so I thought it was fitting to share it with some people who (hopefully) will also like it.

The best part of this release isn’t the music, though that comes as a close second. The release has two LPs on a beautiful red vinyl and the second record is a newly remastered version of JUST the old wax cylinder recording. It sounds super crisp and I think I understood a lot more of it than when I’ve listened to poor quality youtube videos in the past.

If you like the occult or just like some good ol’ witch house/dark synth/ambient goth shit/whatever, you MUST listen to this. As I write this we still have two copies in store and on the website…

The Horrors: Strange House

So I know I generally talk about shitty screamo bands when I talk about my childhood, but I swear there were a few bastions of good taste somewhere in there. Now and then I remember the album Strange House by the Horrors and fall back in love with it. I think I found it shortly after it came out; there was a copy of Alt Press I got my hands on that had a very mall-gothy photo of them so I wanted to check it out. I think I was sold on the flippy hair and eyeliner, to be honest. Their music is anything but the typical mall goth/emo/whatever bullshit from 2007, so even my 12-year-old ears felt refreshed when I put it on for the first time. I guess it’s a very punk album, but I never considered it as such… I also thought My Chemical Romance was the hardest fucking band in the world, so you can’t trust my opinions.

For a while, The Horrors reigned supreme as my favorite band just from this one album. It was so unlike anything I’d heard or could find at the time. I pored over the lyrics but no matter what I never understood them; I think that’s partially what kept me coming back for more. I love how garage-y and frantic each track is. I almost didn’t need to understand the lyrics (I still tried though). Sometime in 2010-ish, the Horrors played at Cat’s Cradle on my birthday and I couldn’t have been more fucking excited. I’d spent years listening to Strange House at that point, and I needed to hear it live. I guess I vaguely knew the tour was for a new album, but I just thought I would hear more weird fuzzy music like their first album. I’ve never seen a band change genres so quickly and drastically, but I found out that night that the Horrors completely changed their sound. Even worse, they didn’t play a single song from Strange House, and I was absolutely devastated. What’s the musical equivalent of blue balls? That’s what happened to me; I went to the venue expecting to dance to songs I’ve loved for years and instead everyone stood around while boring shoegaze music blasted through the PA.

I’ve tried to listen to the Horrors’ albums after Strange House. I really have, but they don’t do it for me. Shoegaze as a genre doesn’t really do it for me, so it makes sense. At least they’ve kept up the strong aesthetics and attention to design throughout their career. The singer is an amazing visual artist and I haven’t let my distaste for shoegaze ruin that, at least! Check out Strange House and lament with me that we only got one album of this sound…

David Lynch: The Big Dream

The collection Daniel brought back from Denver is pretty freaking nuts. The amount of ‘grail’ items I’ve found… and we’re only about halfway through. All the Uncle Acid and Electric Wizard you could want? Check. Super special edition black metal? Check. A ton of Harvey Milk records? Yep. Dude even had some weird educational/spoken word/field recording records I’ve been eying on Discogs for a while. A lot of it is special editions way out of my price range, but I’ve already snagged some stuff I’m fucking ECSTATIC to finally have in my collection.

I don’t know if my coworkers heard the awful sounds that came out of my mouth when I found The Big Dream in a stack of records I was pricing the other week, but it was definitely loud and probably embarrassing. I’ve loved David Lynch ever since I watched Eraserhead in high school and binged his short films for weeks afterward. That led me to Twin Peaks and his other movies, but as I switched my major from film to printmaking while in college, I found out Lynch is also quite the accomplished lithographer! I think all of Lynch’s work is very distinctly his style, but it’s hard to put a finger on what makes something Lynchian. One of those things where I know it when I see it.

The same goes for his music. In college, a friend was playing The Big Dream in their car and I remember saying ‘this sounds like the soundtrack to a David Lynch movie’... lo and behold, he’s the singer. The whole album is ethereal and creepy. In my head, Twin Peaks is the perfect backdrop for this music. For being electronic and vocoder-y (I don’t even know if he actually used one), there’s something anachronistic about this entire album and I love the line it straddles. I don’t know any other artist besides David Lynch who could make music like this and have it work so well. When I tell people his singing voice is similar to his talking voice, I see a lot of hesitation, but LET ME TELL YOU, it works so well! If you haven’t listened to any David Lynch music but are a fan of his visual art—you have to listen to this shit.

And I Don’t Want to Live This Life, Deborah Spungen

Growing up, my mom never let me listen to the Sex Pistols. When I first got into punk, she would tell me it was because the band was ‘yucky’ or that the bassist was a murderer. I can’t remember exactly when she finally came clean about her intense Sex Pistols hatred, but it was much later and coincided with her giving me this book.

In my mom’s early teen years, she dated Nancy Spungen’s brother David. They went to the same Jewish summer camp; he even went to her Bat Mitzvah. She never met Nancy and broke up with David well before Nancy was thrown into the limelight and eventually died, but my mom always remained close with the family. Her hatred of Sid Vicious’ band, I found out even later, was much less to do with the tragic death of Nancy but more about the fallout surrounding the tragedy. My mom never hid her distaste for the worship of that couple. She would always bring it back to the Spungen family and how the media attention after Nancy’s death almost ruined them.

I’ll admit, it was years after being handed And I Don’t Want to Live This Life, that I actually read it. Before I read it, I kind of shrugged off my mom’s intense emotions on the subject as yet another way for her to try and get the punk outta me. As my interest in punk faded, I forgot about this book on my bookshelf and picked it up one evening out of boredom. I read it in two days, completely unable to put it down. Deborah Spungen wrote this book just five short years after Nancy was found stabbed in a hotel room. It’s intensely emotional and raw. This book is 20 years of pent up anger, frustration, and sadness.

Nancy’s life was never easy. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, there were only very rudimentary understandings of mental health and she suffered heavily because of it. Reading it from a modern perspective is heartbreaking because you can see, very plainly, that medication and therapy would’ve at least partially prevented Nancy from leading such a short and painful life. Mental health has come a long way since the year she died, 1978, and the year this book came out, 1983, but there are still a ton of people like Nancy unable to get the help they need. We might have a thicker DSM5 than those years, but access to life saving mental health treatments are still hard to come by.

Even if you’re like me and not a fan of Sid Vicious or the Sex Pistols, And I Don’t Want to Live This Life is the heartbreaking background to one of pop culture’s most notorious toxic couples and absolutely well worth the read if you can find it in print somewhere.

Short n’ sweet this week. We got a package from Me Saco Un Ojo earlier this week and I made the mistake of queuing them all up during my shift. I knew Undergang ripped but the rest of the bands? Fucking killer. It’s a mistake because my hold pile is getting out of hand and I’m having such a hard time convincing myself against all these titles, ack! I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from buying the Ossuary LP. That is hands down my favorite. But the Hyperdontia record is nuts; super worth listening to. Today I’ll be making my way through the new Undergang joints we got in and probably kicking myself for wanting to buy those, too. This job is such a blessing and a curse; I love going into work every day, but holy shit Daniel needs to stop finding all these ways to part me with my money. Check out all the new Me Saco Un Ojo releases we got in and help me shake a fist at Daniel for finding all the best shit.

Angel Hair - S/T 7"

All of this talk about a 00s revival and some festival in Vegas (haha) has me reminiscing on my middle school emo phase. It’s funny to see the things I was ridiculed for become trendy 15 years later… I’ll just say I was ahead of my time. I have been spending a lot of my car rides listening to From First to Last and The Used, continually surprising myself with how much I still LOVE their early releases. I don’t wear stud belts and wish for straight hair anymore, but I guess you can never get the angst out of the 00s emo kid.

All of this to say, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised I’ve been gravitating towards 90s hardcore/emo/screamo/post-hardcore/whatever the fuck type of music you’d categorize Angel Hair. I was initially transfixed by their packaging—as a printmaker, I always make it a point to listen to something with compelling hand printed packaging. The music matched the manic, monotype style I saw on the sleeve and I immediately fell in love. They are similar to other bands I’ve written about who put out 7”s in the 90s—grungy, feedback-y, chaotic Dillinger Escape Plan-esque hardcore. So far I’ve only collected their self-titled 7” and a split they did with a band called Fisticuffs Bluff (also a great band, I found out) but I’m eager to snag more of their discography.

But the cool part of this band is a Blogspot I found linked to their Discogs page. I don’t stray far from my roots, because I love emo and I love a good Blogspot page and have since I was barely a teenager. As you can imagine, googling ‘Angel Hair’ doesn’t have many fruitful results and the Discogs page of the band and members don’t provide much information. I think this blog was done by a fan and not a member, but it’s hard to tell. Someone lovingly and painstakingly scanned in flyers, physical releases, and other ephemera relating to Angel Hair. There are so many cool flyers and I even found a lithograph one of the band members made inspired by the art on their self-titled 7”! Knew I liked these dudes… printmakers just know their people. If you want to do some deep diving into the scene in Colorado in the 90s, check this blog out. And do yourself the favor of listening to Angel Hair while you browse!

Necromancy: In the Eyes of Death

God fucking bless Urbain Grandier, y’all. They are a Canadian label TRULY doing the Lord’s work. We all know there’s a lot of unearthed music out there and it’s rad to see it hit the light of day with labels like Sealed and Svart, among others. I spent a lot of time in high school seeking out obscure releases digitally, so I’ve really grown to appreciate the magic a physical piece of media brings to a release. These labels and people who have put so much time, attention to detail, and love into bringing back these obscure gems are saints in our record collecting world.

I’d never heard of the Urbain Grandier label until it hit the ‘New Tracks’ section of our newsletter. I’m so glad Daniel brought these records in because I’ve been spending a ton of time in the store spinning Necromancy, SFH, and the Metallic Assault compilation. UG knows how to find some absolute fucking fire. I wish I could buy all three, but the used records sitting in my hold pile are screaming to be brought home… decisions, decisions. I landed on grabbing the Necromancy LP because this shit sounds straight up evil. Something with it has resonated with me and I kept finding myself coming back to this demo. Daniel also wrote about this release in last week’s Featured Releases, but this album deserves another mention. The production isn’t great; it sounds very demo-y but you can tell that this band was onto something. I wish they released more music.

When I was a kid, I would line up and organize most things I could get my hands on—pokemon cards, toy animals, beanie babies. I’ve realized I’ve graduated from those toys to records; the other week I alphabetized my collection. No particular reason, I guess I wanted to see if any patterns emerged. I didn’t realize anything besides I hated my shelves being organized alphabetically. So I spent most of my day off putting things back by genre (and then alphabetically within that) and my brain is much happier with it.

Like I said, I didn’t make any revelations about my collecting habits, but I did realize I own way more Czarface than I expected. They are great at putting out amazing variants, and I fell victim to the black and white rendition of Czarface meets Metal Face (among others). Super slick packaging and sleek white vinyl for a release I didn’t have yet, so it was a no brainer when I saw it in an order a few months ago.

Czarface is also one of the few artists I seek out when I’m listening to music digitally. I listen to a lot of NPR, podcasts, and CDs, so I don’t have a lot of instances where I’m pulling something up on my phone, but Czarface works in 99% of those situations. I really love sample-heavy music because it’s like Eye Spy for your ears. I feel like I come away learning something new if I listen to something with a lot of unique sampling.

Anyways, Czarface Meets Metal Face is rich with interesting samples, like most of the group’s work. I haven’t gone super deep, so I don’t know the origins of the samples but I don’t think I’m finished figuring out all the ones that interest me! I like to think all you newsletter readers have great taste and I’m speaking into an echo chamber when I talk about current music but, who knows, maybe I’m wrong? Not about your taste (it’s obviously great if you’ve made it this far into the newsletter), but about Czarface. If that’s the case, start with this release and PLEASE go down a deep hole of their music.

This year feels like a blur for so many reasons. I transitioned to Sorry State full time, got triple vaccinated, thought the pandemic was ending, got sad that it wasn’t, and spent so, so much money on records. I slowly ventured back out into the world and might have, uhh, almost doubled my record collection. Going back into thrift stores and the flea market, I didn’t count the amount of records I was buying because it’s always cheap… hundreds of records and an additional Kallax shelf later… fuck. 80 cent records might not add up to a lot of money but it’s a lot of shelf space. And, of course, having to work around so many amazing records, maybe I should pat myself on the back for not getting more? I doubt it.

I’ve been digging through my Discogs for the past few weeks trying to make sense of everything I’ve amassed this year and, without repeating something I’ve written about previously, here are my top acquisitions and top releases of 2021 (in no particular order):

Top Acquisitions of 2021

1. Curious George Takes a Job 7” (1969)

I didn’t have a baby blanket or teddy bear as a baby; for some reason my parents got me a Curious George puppet. I still have it; the Curious George logo has long since rubbed off, all of his fluff is gone, but like the people that are attached to strands of a baby blanket, I can’t get rid of him. I was excited to find any CG on vinyl, let alone THIS story. For those of y’all not familiar, George tries to get employed but ends up locking himself in a room with paint fumes and getting high as shit. I always remembered this story so I, of course, had to get this 7”.

2. Various: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 12” (2020)

I can’t take credit for this find; my boyfriend found it on a rare record buying outing without me. This is a bootleg so I can’t find out much information about this release. But I want to kiss the hand of whoever thought to press a soundtrack like this on vinyl. I suck at this game but, man, this soundtrack makes me nostalgic.

3. Project Pat: Mista Don’t Play Everythangs Workin 12” (2000)

Holy fuckin’ grail, my dudes. Another I technically didn’t purchase (thanks, boyfriend!), but most definitely enabled. This album is on rotation a ton in our house so finding an OG pressing on vinyl was a no brainer, no matter what the price tag was (don’t ask).

4. Osibisa: Woyaya 12” (1971)

I’m going to be wholesome for a second and say I REALLY LOVE MY JOB. Retail is hard, especially as a super antisocial person but our customers always seem to lift my spirits when I work the counter. A few months ago I was helping someone pick out records for their very new collection and he asked me about this record; I didn’t know it so I threw it on and we were both vibing to it. I told him I’d buy it if he didn’t but, of course, he purchased it and I told him I’ll be looking out for the next one… instead, he handed it to me and thanked me for the help and left the store before I could protest. A sweet memory I will forever associate with this record.

5. Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic: Symphony No. 3 Kaddish 12” (1963)

I picked this up for $1 at my favorite flea market spot because I always try to pick up anything Jewish on vinyl. My Jewish vinyl finds are few and far between but this is the most memorable. I grew up going to temple and I know everyone has their own tunes to the prayers but I’ve never heard the Kaddish like this. This is like some crazy witch shit, I’m linking to a recording because you just have to hear it.

Top releases of 2021:

1. Dollhouse: First Day of Spring 7” (Toxic State)

I love the weirdo vocals. I love the catchy guitars. But I was first drawn in by the packaging; beautiful screen printing and a haunting image is a match made in heaven. I also used to collect the type of doll in this photo so I immediately felt a weird kinship to Dollhouse.

2. Zorn: Hardcore Zorn 7” (Sorry State)

Not to toot our own horn, but FUCK, this release is everything I want in punk. It’s metal and menacing and EVIL. And I absolutely cannot wait for the day I finally get to see Zorn live; after seeing their videos I’m fucking dying for it.

3. Skeletal Family: The Singles plus 1983-85 12” (Graveface/NeverNotGoth)

I haven’t written about Graveface in a while, but I follow the owner’s career closely after working for him in college. His work ethic and passion for creating are so admirable and had a big impact on my time in Savannah, GA. Because obviously two+ record labels, a storefront, museum, and his own musical acts weren’t enough, Ryan has set out to release old obscure goth rock under the name NeverNotGoth. This is the first big release from this new label and it was at the top of my list for Record Store Day. Do yourself a favor and become familiar with Skeletal Family!

4. Collapsed: S/T 12” (Phobia Records)

Listening back to my new release purchases, almost everything skews on the metal side of punk. Usman will hate me saying this but I feel like crust and metal have a lot in common. And I think this release by Collapsed is the perfect example. The song structures feel punk but the vocals and guitar solos appeal to the metal in me.

5. Tower 7: …Peace on Earth? 12” (D4MT Labs)

I imagine I’m not the only one that had a pretty good idea of what the best of the year was and then Tower 7 came along and dropped this fucking bomb on us. It only took the first song for me to know this was going to slide its way into my top of the year. This thing rips from beginning to end.