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Record of the Week: Cicada: Wicked Dream 7"

Cicada: Wicked Dream 7” (Unlawful Assembly Records) Jeff Young has already proclaimed Cicada the best hardcore band in America, and who am I to argue? For me, Cicada stands head and shoulders above so many contemporary bands because they’re so in tune with the ugliest, weirdest, most underground aspects of classic hardcore punk while still determinedly progressive, dead-set on pushing the limits of their own sound and the genre as a whole. Wicked Dream is crammed with ideas, and while five of its nine songs don’t even reach the one-minute mark, each one feels like it contains a symphony worth of music. Cicada doesn’t give ideas room to breathe and they don’t milk riffs; they get in, make their point (or ten of their points) and get the fuck out, usually within the space of seconds rather than minutes. While you hear nods to the pillars of outsider hardcore—G.I.S.M., Die Kreuzen, Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers—Cicada is on their own trip. The main riff in the first track, “Epiphany,” strikes an uncanny balance between the tightest, most agile hardcore and woozy psychedelia, while the 51-second “Suicide Fuel” launches from another dense, agitated riff, hurling itself through some insanely brief metallic lead guitar runs and into a thrilling bass-and-drums break. The musique concrete / noise piece at the end of side A and the more metal-influenced “Much Worse” might remind you of their fellow Richmonders Public Acid for brief a moment, but it’s quickly followed up by the title track, whose ethereal lead guitar and quirky but mosh-able mid-paced riff make it one of Wicked Dream’s most memorable tracks. And there’s plenty more excitement before the free jazz pig-pile at the end of the ninth track, “Desperation Ceremony.” Despite Wicked Dream’s density, it doesn’t feel like some kind of academic math-core exercise. I love following all these little threads in their music, but Cicada weaves them into a cohesive tapestry that’s just as enthralling from a wider perspective. You can disengage with this record on a micro-level, just letting the vibes wash over you, and you’ll enjoy it just as much. Wicked Dream is just a phenomenal record, and if you want your hardcore punk to deliver all the genre’s trademark speed and intensity while still serving up something new, you’ll agree this is the cream of contemporary hardcore’s crop.

Record of the Week: The Massacred: Nightmare Agitators LP

The Massacred: Nightmare Agitators 12” (Active-8 Records) After two scorching 7”s, Boston hardcore punk band the Massacred brings us their debut twelve-song LP. The Massacred’s two EPs are some of the strongest, most memorable punk records of the past several years, and anticipation was sky high for this record. As expected, it’s a total monster, but it took me a few listens to warm up to it. When I first sat down with Nightmare Agitators, I felt like the Massacred de-emphasized some of the strongest cards in their hand. One thing that sets the Massacred apart from legions of other hardcore bands is their speed and precision. They aren’t the fastest band in the world, but they may be the tightest, each note delivered with deadly precision and the bass, drums, and guitar locked together in a way that multiplies their impact exponentially. While that sound still forms the backbone of Nightmare Agitators, it’s fleshed out with more mid-paced material, and the different instrumentalists’ parts often complement one another subtly rather than remaining in rigid lock-step. There’s a lot of variation in tempo on this album, with three fully mid-paced songs and lots of other half-time sections within songs, even getting downright slow and sludgy on the intro to “Lie in Ambush.” The Massacred’s other big calling card on the EPs was their huge vocal hooks (“schizophrenic… in-saaaaaaanity!”), but those are also less prevalent on Nightmare Agitators. The chorus for “Lie in Ambush” stood out as great on first listen, but the vocals seem more submerged in the mix on Nightmare Agitators, and it took a few listens for the rest of the record’s choruses to lodge themselves in my brain. Those may sound like criticisms, but by de-emphasizing these more immediate aspects of their sound, the Massacred opens up opportunities to develop other strengths. The title track is a standout in this regard, a mid-paced song that builds tension through the verses, then goes through this wild chorus section that starts with a catchy lead guitar hook, builds to a climactic gang chant, then abruptly downshifts into a rolling tom part. It’s unexpected, but it’s my favorite part on the record. “Extermination” ends the album with another standout mid-paced track, the menacing march erupting in squeals of abstract noise guitar that scald your eardrums before settling into an eerie, phaser-drenched melody as the song fades out. As much as I love the blistering speed picking on “The Gash You Can’t Close” or “Detest,” they hit even harder as tactics employed within a more comprehensive assault. This kind of stripped-down punk often doesn’t survive the transition from 7” to 12” vinyl, but the Massacred stepped up to the challenge here, delivering a solid 25-minute full-length that not only avoids repeating itself, but is dense and imaginative enough to propel you through many repeated plays.

Record of the Week: Mob 47: Tills Du Dör LP

Mob 47: Tills Du Dör 12" (Beach Impediment Records) By now, most of you probably know the story with Tills Du Dör, but here’s a quick recap if you don’t: Stockholm, Sweden’s Mob 47 formed in 1982, dropped a stone-cold classic 7” EP in 1984 (along with some scattered cassette-only releases and compilation appearances), popped up with another 7” in 2008 that was surprisingly strong, and in 2024 they finally released their debut full-length, Tills Du Dör, to near-universal acclaim. I’ll join that chorus… this is a scorching record. Most people take pains to point out that Tills Du Dör isn’t just better than expected, or merely good for a bunch of older guys. Maybe it’s the strange path they’ve taken as a band, but both the band and the audience seem unburdened by Mob 47’s older material… it doesn’t stalk them like an albatross in the way it can for some “legacy” bands. Tills Du Dör sounds like that 1984 EP in a lot of ways, but it sounds just as much like that band with 40 more years’ experience. Mob 47 has toed this line where their legacy informs them without smothering them. Tills Du Dör has all the things that make Mob 47 great—the blistering speed, catchy riffing, impassioned politics—but the band is also tighter and the recording is certainly clearer. Mere mortals can only aspire to such supreme levels of self-awareness and actualization. No matter who made it, I think Tills Du Dör would have been lauded as one of the best hardcore punk records of 2024, so the fact that it extends the legacy of Sweden’s most legendary punk bands is merely a bonus.

Record of the Week: Plektani: Kallitechnikés Anisychíes LP

Plektani: Kallitechnikés Anisychíes 12” (Cháos & Antikomformismós) Kallitechnikés Anisychíes is the debut record by this hardcore punk band from Athens, Greece, and it’s a total onslaught of top-notch käng. Musically, Plektani (ΠΛΕΚΤΑΝΗ in Greek… it’s worth having a look at the word’s definitions on Wikipedia as they’re quite evocative) reminds me a lot of Deletär, with a similar two-guitar attack and a riffing style involving left hands dishing out power chords at insane speeds and bursts of metallic leads, all delivered with total precision. While the guitars are nimble, the rhythm section is the perfect balance of agile and heavy. The vocals also give Plektani a lot of their character, the singer’s hoarse shout sounding more desperate than ferocious. The production is pitch-perfect, and I also love the artwork, which keeps a toe in the classic aesthetic while steering wide of cliches. I can’t imagine anyone not getting a buzz from songs this energetic and exciting, but folks following ever expanding threads of Totalitär’s influence will get the most out of this one.

Record of the Week: Tiikeri: Tee Se Itse 7"

Tiikeri: Tee Se Itse 7” (self-released) I fell in love with Turku, Finland’s Tiikeri when they released their first album, Punk Rock Pamaus!!! in 2023, and now they’re back with a new 4-song EP, Tee Se Itse, on their own Tiikeri Records. While Tiikeri’s members are active in the hardcore scene, their music takes inspiration from the more melodic side of 70s punk, both Finnish groups like Koroosio and Vaavi and UK bands like the Boys and the Buzzcocks. Tiikeri’s songs are well-constructed and melodic enough that one might classify them as power-pop, but their target audience seems to be middle-aged punk record collectors rather than casual listeners just looking for a melody they can hum and/or a rhythm they can tap their toe to. Falling so firmly in that “middle-aged record collector” demographic, it’s hard for me to imagine what Tiikeri’s music might sound like from outside it, but I just love it. I can’t understand many of the lyrics so this may be a projection, but it sounds like Tiikeri writes love songs to punk rock itself. When I listen to their music, I’m brought back to a time when punk rock was the only thing that made me feel understood, when screaming along to Screeching Weasel or the Buzzcocks or whatever band I was obsessing about at the moment was just about the most pleasure I could feel. I still listen to a ton of music (perhaps I’m always searching for that feeling), but very little of it hits me in the same as those classics. Tiikeri is an exception. The gem of these four songs is “Rokenrollia” with its chiming, Nerves / Flaming Groovies-style guitar hook that’s so classic-sounding it should appeal to anyone who loves Tom Petty or Blondie, but we punks get to keep it for ourselves. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would listen to 20 seconds of Tiikeri’s music and dismiss it as pop-punk, or be flummoxed by their cutesy imagery, but this speaks to me in some deep way that I can’t even understand, much less explain. Check it out and see if you’re in the same camp, and if you’re not, I sincerely hope you can find some music you love as much as I love this.

Record of the Week: Rudimentary Peni: Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric LP

Rudimentary Peni: Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric 12” (Sealed Records) Sealed Records’ Rudimentary Peni reissue campaign arrives at Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric, the band’s third album from 1995, regarded by many as the strangest and most difficult record in the band’s catalog. Never having been able to locate a vinyl copy of Pope Adrian in my twenty-five years of Rudimentary Peni fandom, it’s the Rudi P record I’ve spent the least time with, and consequently I was looking forward to this opportunity to appreciate the full artwork and packaging alongside a deeper dive into its music. The lore is that Pope Adrian was conceived during one of Nick Blinko’s most severe bouts of delusion, when he believed he literally was the pontiff from the album’s title. While Blinko’s mental state clearly colors his music and artwork throughout his career, there’s something unique about the way Pope Adrian engages with the landscape Rudimentary Peni’s music inhabits. Repetition is one of the key themes on the album, and the way Pope Adrian leans on repetitive motifs makes it a unique entry in the band’s canon. There’s a looped chant of “Popus Adrianus” that runs through their entire album, not only between the songs but right through the mix, and while you can occasionally tune it out and focus on something else, it’s always there and impossible to ignore for more than a few seconds at a time. The songs themselves are also extremely repetitive, totally hostile to the musical development or resolution upon which all pop music (punk included) is based. Most songs are just one or two parts repeated over and over, with perhaps some slight improvisation on the theme, but never in any sort of clear direction. While the droning repetition might be difficult for some hardcore punk fans to acclimate to, Pope Adrian’s music is some of Rudimentary Peni’s most straightforward and catchiest. The lack of blistering tempos (the exception being “Vatican’t City Hearse,” which might actually make you think you’re listening to Death Church for a second) means the memorable riffs and melodies that made Rudimentary Peni’s early music so seminal shine even brighter here, with tracks like “Pogo Pope” and “Regicide Chaz III” being downright hum-able. But to appreciate those moments, you have to accept Rudimentary Peni’s embrace of repetition, letting go of the desire for the cathartic middle eight or breakdown that gives a song its sense of shape. In contrast, Pope Adrian is like a Dali landscape, stretching out to infinity, built on its own inscrutable logic. But despite all this talk about how strange the music is, I never find Pope Adrian difficult to listen to. It’s not like Nick Blinko is abstruse… he’s not attempting to hide what he’s saying or make it difficult for you; it’s just really fucking weird. That’s part of what you come to Rudimentary Peni for, and Pope Adrian delivers in spades. And even if the music is too out there for you to jam on the regular, the packaging on Sealed’s reissue is phenomenal, with a full-size booklet packed with large, beautifully reproduced images of some of Blinko’s most captivating illustrations.

Record of the Week: Naked Roommate: Pass the Loofah LP

Naked Roommate: Pass the Loofah 12” (Trouble in Mind Records) Pass the Loofah is the second proper album from this Bay Area group. Naked Roommate originally spun off from a band called the World, whose 2019 record Reddish remains one of my most-played records of the 2010s. While the World was an earthy, organic-sounding group with deep sonic roots in the early Rough Trade Records discography, Naked Roommate’s sound leans into early 80s electronic beats and synthesizer pulses, albeit still laced with the irreverent lyricism, forward-thinking artistry, and comfy DIY aesthetic the World leaned on. But what strikes me most about Pass the Loofah isn’t the aesthetic, but the craftsmanship and artistry I hear on the album. So much music today is made for short attention spans and instant disposal, focusing too much on surface-level aesthetics rather than crafting songs with strong bones. Pass the Loofah bucks this trend with a substantial 41-minute runtime that takes the listener through a range of unique landscapes, an epic journey rather than a toe dipped into a diluted, lukewarm bath. For me, one of Naked Roommate’s strengths is that they never decide whether they’re a dance band, a pop group, or an art project. Tracks like “No Kicker” and “Bus” have tough, danceable rhythms from the 99 Records / ESG school, but while the beats take center stage, the songs are stacked with memorable hooks, like the chorus refrain of “we take the bus” or “Reasons Why,” where the chorus of “that’s whyyyyyyyyy… I looooooove you” cleverly subverts the unromantic mundanity in the verse imagery. And these pop moments go down all the more smoothly because they’re cut with so much art school roughage. A standout in this vein is “Successful Friend,” a funky, Talking Heads-esque track with great lyrics, my favorite being “among your many successes (…) is having your designs printed on pajamas across the world!,” a line that’s bound to bring a smile to the face of any Uranium Club or Cool Greenhouse fan. Even further out are the album’s three instrumental tracks—including the Neu!-ish “Ducky & Viv” and the electric-era Miles Davis-channeling “G-Y pt. 2”—which are among my favorite on the album. There’s so much variety on Pass the Loofah, and not only does nothing feel redundant, but as you’re listening the record seems to spiral ever-upward, each song reaching new heights. The experience culminates with “I Can’t Be Found,” a soft landing that reminds me of the way Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets closes with its title track. Typically, a good record is one I want to play again as soon as it’s over, but Pass the Loofah’s wider scope and ambition leave me wanting to sit in silence and process what I’ve heard, a sign that I’ve consumed a substantial piece of art rather than just a bunch of instantly gratifying empty musical calories.

Record of the Week: State Manufactured Terror: The US Government Is a Kleptocratic Doomsday Cult 7"

State Manufactured Terror: The US Government Is a Kleptocratic Doomsday Cult 7” (Autsajder Produkcija) The Croatian label Autsajder Produkcija brings us the debut vinyl from this New York metallic / crusty punk band featuring members of Pobreza Mental, Headsplitters and Porvenir Oscuro. While The US Government Is a Kleptocratic Doomsday Cult is bathed in the magical sonic mud that D4MT Labs has such a knack for capturing on record, State Manufactured Terror’s sound is more in line with recent west coast groups like Horrendous 3D and Global Thermonuclear War who draw inspiration from the music happening in the UK in the late 80s. I’m thinking specifically of bands like Extreme Noise Terror, pre-From Enslavement to Obliteration Napalm Death, Deviated Instinct, Hellbastard, and Axegrinder. Much like today, many of the underground’s most interesting bands of that moment were operating at the intersection of punk and metal, drawing from Amebix’s bleak world view, Discharge’s intensity, and the ever-escalating tempos of the emerging death metal and grind scenes. I hear all that in S.M.T.’s music (along with, on tracks like “Biometricks” and “Dead Homie Song Reprise,” the bouncy, Nausea-influenced rhythms their friends Flower use), those influences smashed together to make the most extreme, jagged, and difficult to digest sounds they can conjure. State Manufactured Terror isn’t willing to meet you halfway aesthetically or politically (another revealing song title: “No Compromise With Genocidal Ethnostates”), but unlike most other modern “extreme” music, their sound is warm and organic, and while it’s often difficult to tell what any particular instrument is doing, the entire recording heaves with this unified breath that’s ugly but unmistakably alive. The US Government Is a Kleptocratic Doomsday Cult is some of the rawest music I’ve heard in recent memory, and whether you’re a dyed in the wool “noise not music” person or you just want a soundtrack that reflects the ugliness of the present world, these five tracks are going to move you.

Record of the Week: Class: A Healthy Alternative LP

Class: A Healthy Alternative 12” (Feel It Records) Tucson, Arizona’s Class is back with a brand new album and their second Record of the Week nod from Sorry State, though all four of Class’s previous releases have been worthy of said honor. From the jump, Class has sounded to me like a band out of time, a relic from a bygone era where crafting a perfect pop song was way higher on a band’s to-do list than getting their look right or perfectly replicating the guitar tone on whatever collector scum 7” whose sound they’re trying to replicate. This is probably why people have trouble describing Class’s music succinctly, because their sense of style is amorphous and flexible, able to shift to serve the song, which is Class’s true master. Class’s raw, high-energy productions and big guitar sounds mark them as punk, but they’ve always reminded me most of the ’77-era UK bands who were unwilling or unable to fully embrace punk’s year zero mentality. I’m thinking of the Lurkers, the early Stranglers, 999… The “power-pop” tag also gets thrown around, but Class’s songs generally lack the saccharine immediacy of bands like the Exploding Hearts or the Number Ones (though fans of the latter will fall pretty quickly for the magical pre-chorus in “Not an Idiot”). This means it might take you a spin or two longer to sing along, but it also means Class’s songs don’t wear out your ear or grow stale with repetition… I can listen (and have listened) to A Healthy Alternative over and over and its hooks just sink in deeper. If, like me, you’re too old and cranky for straight bubblegum, but can’t fully get rid of your pop sweet tooth, A Healthy Alternative has the perfect balance of sugar and salt.

Record of the Week: Yellowcake: A Fragmented Truth 7"

Yellowcake: A Fragmented Truth 7” (Total Peace Records / Not for the Weak Records) Phoenix, Arizona’s Yellowcake returns with their second 6-song EP, once again a split release with their hometown label Total Peace Records and east coast powerhouses Not for the Weak Records. As much as I loved Yellowcake’s first EP, Can You See the Future? (which we named Record of the Week in November 2023), when I saw the band play live I thought they were even better than the record, and I hoped their follow-up would reach the bar they set at that gig. Now that A Fragmented Truth has arrived, it exceeds all expectations. While very much the same band, Yellowcake takes a gnarlier turn on A Fragmented Truth, shifting the focus from the driving, fist-pumping rhythms of Can You See the Future? to something more jagged. The sound on A Fragmented Truth is slightly murkier and denser than the debut, and it’s altogether more punishing, de-emphasizing the agile stops and starts in favor of sheer, pummeling force. Yet, as the label’s description astutely notes, there’s a strong emphasis on textural variation here… frequently, Yellowcake is pounding away at what appears to be maximum intensity when a guitar track blindsides you with an attack from a frequency range that didn’t seem to exist a moment earlier. Similarly, the vocals sound even more dialed in here, taking the same approach as the first EP, but with a sound that’s both coarser and richer in tone. A must for fans of the noisiest, nastiest hardcore, A Fragmented Truth captures an already great band getting even better.

Record of the Week: The Carp: Knock Your Block Off LP

The Carp: Knock Your Block Off 12” (Total Punk Records) When I first heard about Cleveland’s the Carp, they were pitched to me as an oi! / street punk band from the Cruelster camp, a proposition that immediately intrigued me. As a big fan of the Cruelster universe, I wondered how on earth those two things might go together, and that they don’t really, but exist in an unstable tension across Knock Your Block Off’s ten tracks, makes it one of the most interesting records to emerge from this crew of musicians and one of my favorite punk records of 2024. For anyone with only a passing familiarity with this group of interconnected bands—the aforementioned Cruelster, Knowso, Perverts Again, Smooth Brain, and probably more I’m forgetting / don’t know about—this will probably just sound like another one of those bands with their knotty rhythms, deadpan vocals, and obtuse lyrics. Knowso vocalist and lyricist Nathan Ward is at the helm and sounds very much like himself here, and even though he’s on guitar rather than his usual bass, it turns out his guitar lines sound a lot like his bass lines, angular but hooky, not as exaggeratedly stiff as Knowso, but still coming with a big dollop of homegrown, Devo-esque robotic rhythm. If you’re not interested in what Nathan and his crew does, you can probably stop reading here, but those of us who are in for a pound on this lot are treated to an entirely new musical landscape, albeit one viewed through Ward’s distinctively cracked perspective. As I mentioned, I wondered how the whole oi! / street punk thing would manifest itself in the Carp’s music, and it turns out that it does so in fascinatingly idiosyncratic ways. It’s certainly not a parody or homage; there’s nothing so obvious as a gang chorus, and the exclamation “oi!” appears nowhere on the record as far as I can remember, but those (the few?) of us with a deep appreciation for street punk aesthetics and Nathan Ward’s artistry will love following the faint through-line. There’s work and labor as a lyrical theme (which, admittedly, flows through much of Nathan’s work, including the latest Knowso album we released on Sorry State), the nightmarish skinhead costumes in the video for “Toxic Peace” (which you should most definitely check out on YouTube), and a cover of “Cut Ups” by A Global Threat, a band close to the heart of many a 30-something former street punk. There’s also the odd Blitz-esque guitar hook or (potentially) anthemic chorus (see: “Servitude! You feed on it like breast milk”), but mostly these references are so thoroughly annihilated by Nathan Ward’s mental meat grinder that they’re barely recognizable. A standout track is “Fairview Park Skins,” whose title makes it seem like it’ll be some sort of suburban Dropkick Murphys homage, but when you actually pay attention to the lyrics, it’s not really about skinheads, but a shirts versus skins basketball game in which, appropriately, the skins annihilate the shirts. (Side note: I also love how this song slyly appropriates Rancid’s habit of littering their songs with the names of streets and bus routes.) It’s difficult for me to imagine how any of this will play to a newcomer to this group of bands… it’s so throughly drenched in their peculiar aesthetic, and I get so much pleasure from peeling the onion’s layers that I feel like I can’t access what this might look like from the outside. But for those of us neck deep in this world and loving it, Knock Your Block Off is as great as anything else we’ve heard from this crew, one of the most original and interesting voices in contemporary punk.

Record of the Week: Homemade Speed: Faster Is Better 7"

Homemade Speed: Faster Is Better 7” (Not for the Weak Records) Those of us in the mid-Atlantic hardcore scene have been aware of this group of young miscreants making noise in the Norfolk / Virginia Beach area for some time, and I’m stoked the rest of the world now gets to acquaint themselves with this group’s fresh take on raw, fast hardcore punk. As befitting the band’s name and the record’s title, the A side of Faster Is Better is a blistering sprint inspired by bands like early D.R.I., Septic Death, and Deep Wound who pressed against the limits of their drummers’ right hands and their listener’s processing capacity. The short instrumental—which sounds like they plucked it from a long-lost Mystic Records 7”—makes it clear Homemade Speed isn’t afraid to squeeze in a hook here and there, then the other three tracks are off to the races. While hardcore this fast probably all sounds the same to many people, I think Homemade Speed has a unique sound on their blistering parts, anchored by a drummer with a unique swing to his fast beat and a habit of punctuating bars with Minor Threat-esque compact snare rolls. The four songs on the B side slow things down just a hair, but the grooves are similarly slinky, allowing the chaos to shine through on moments like the climactic double-tracked guitar solo in “Nothing Left.” If you’re a fan of the blisteringly fast, raw, and wild hardcore punk we like to push here at Sorry State—particularly if bands like Shaved Ape, Meat House, and G.U.N. have been on your playlist—Homemade Speed’s debut EP is essential listening.