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This week I’m going to write about a couple of things rather than focusing on just one, ripping off the format that Rich uses for his picks. Hopefully Rich is back soon with another staff pick. I haven’t caught up with him in a few weeks, but I know he’s been super busy. I think right now he’s on the road traveling to Gonerfest. I’m sure our loyal newsletter listeners can agree that sounds like an interesting thing to write about HINT HINT RICH.

Ronan Fitzsimmons: The Toy Dolls: From Fulwell to Fukuoka book

The Toy Dolls have been on my mind lately. Of my few post-lockdown trips out of town, two of them have been to Philadelphia, and on both trips I stayed with my friends Jim and Amy, both of whom are big Toy Dolls fans. Shout out to Jim and Amy! I’m pretty sure that on both trips I told the story of when I got to see the Toy Dolls live. I can’t remember the year, but it was in Richmond in the late 90s, and they were fantastic. I didn’t know much about the Toy Dolls other than that they were an old UK punk band, but that was enough to get me to the show. Maybe it’s because I had no expectations, but the Toy Dolls blew me away that night, and their set lives in my memory as one of the best punk gigs I ever saw.

About a month ago, Scarecrow was in Richmond for a gig and, as usual, we stopped by Vinyl Conflict to check out their wares. I spotted this book on the shelf and grabbed it immediately. I have quite a few books like this that were printed and distributed primarily in the UK and it was a giant, expensive pain in the ass to get them, so even if this book sucked, I was willing to take the risk at only twelve bucks. Thankfully, though, it’s a great read.

From Fulwell to Fukuoka is based mostly on a single long interview with Olga, the Toy Dolls’ founder and mastermind. Over the course of the interview, the author and Olga discuss the entire history of the Toy Dolls and they go deep, even if (as the author notes) the rounds of pints take their toll after a while. The author is a die-hard Toy Dolls fan who grew up in the Northeast of England, just like Olga and most of the band members. He’s knowledgeable and passionate about the band, and Olga’s answers to his questions are rich with detail, if self-deprecating (he dismisses about 90% of the Toy Dolls’ output as “crap”). Olga’s recollections are rounded out with details culled from other sources, and the author spends a lot of time explaining the references in the band’s lyrics. There is some summary of Coronation Street plots, but the book remains readable throughout, thanks to the author’s combination of wit, humor, and passion for the Toy Dolls’ music. There’s also a surprisingly touching section at the end where fans share their stories of how they discovered the Toy Dolls and what the band means to them. From Fulwell to Fukuoka reminds me of Parks and Recreation, hilarious and unexpectedly heartwarming at the same time.

The Fall: Live in London 1980 12”

Loyal newsletter readers might remember several months back when I wrote at length about the recent Fall live album on Castle Face Records, throwing around the idea of a series of staff picks about live albums by the Fall. I’ve listened to Live in London 1980 five or six times since I had that idea, but even with all that attention I haven’t come up with an “angle” that could support an entire staff pick. I think said everything I have to say about Fall live albums in general in that piece, so I’ll just fill you in on the details on this record.

Live in London originally came out as a cassette on the Chaos Tapes label in 1982. The Fall was an odd fit for Chaos Tapes, whose other releases were by bands like Discharge, Chron Gen, and G.B.H., but the release sold out its edition of 4,000 copies, making it to #7 in the independent charts. The recording is magical (it became known among fans as “The Legendary Chaos Tape”), capturing one night of a two-night stand where the Fall showcased material from the recently released Grotesque and numerous songs from Slates and Hex Enduction Hour, neither of which they had recorded yet. Some of the newer songs are rough around the edges, but you don’t want a bootleg to sound exactly like the studio versions, do you? According to Mark E. Smith, the label pressed up the recording from the wrong gig and the other night was the better performance, but this may be a bit of attempted myth-making. While hardly exceptional, the sound quality is solid and the band’s intense performance shines through the grit. Mark E. Smith famously hated London, and one gets the sense he channels some of that ire into this performance.

The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall 12” (1984)

Spending so much time listening to Live in London 1980 gave me a hankering for some Brix-era Fall, so I pulled out this gem. Coming just before the landmark This Nation’s Saving Grace album, Wonderful and Frightening captures a very cool moment in the band’s history. While Perverted by Language always sounded tentative to me, like they were still figuring out how to integrate Brix into the band (though the album has its proponents… I know it’s Dave from Cochonne’s favorite Fall record), and This Nation’s Saving Grace is so perfectly synthesized and realized, Wonderful and Frightening splits the difference. It’s not so much that individual tracks seem to look forward or backward; rather, songs like “2x4,” “Lay of the Land,” and “Slang King” have something of both the art rock / pop sensibility Brix brought to the band and the amphetamine jitter of the Grotesque / Slates / Hex era. It’s also, despite its title, a ridiculously fun record. Paired with a too-late-in-the-evening cup of coffee, it prompted me to clean my entire house, a process that stretched well past midnight.

Hey there Sorry State Gang. I hope all is well with you. We mark another week off the calendar and say goodbye to summer and hello to autumn. How time flies. I’m hoping that we’ll still have some nice fall weather down here in Raleigh so that I can get my Exotica night in. We had to cancel last week due to the threat of rain and are going to try again for this week. Damn pandemic preventing responsible social gatherings.

As I didn’t get to play the records I had pulled for the evening on the night, I’ve decided to feature one of them for a special mention here. I hope you don’t mind. It’s called Africa Speaks, America Answers by Guy Warren with Red Saunders Orchestra under direction of Gene Esposito and came out on Decca in 1957.

This record has been in my collection for a while but did not get the proper attention it deserves. I had it in a box of other similar odds and ends sitting in a back-room closet. Most likely because it’s a bit of a beater copy found at a thrift store that has some weird marks on some tracks, making them almost unplayable. Fortunately, most of it plays great, and I was pleasantly surprised when I previewed it for potential play at my gig. It is an awesome record, and I am angry at myself for letting it sit unappreciated for so long. However, I played a cut on Worldy this past Monday and will slip another in at tonight’s gig. Even with the weird scuffs that make a swooshing sound when the needle passes through the grooves on the first track and a half, I have played it several times at home this past week and it am really digging it.

Naturally, my ignorance of this record is not shared by the world in general. Turns out the album is quite collectable and highly regarded critically and a nice original copy will set you back a few bucks. In addition, Guy Warren is a total bad ass and worthy of your investigation. I can’t do his career justice here, but basically he has been credited with introducing the African “Talking Drum” to the Jazz world and inventing Afro-Jazz. Such was his virtuosity on the drums that he became known as “The Divine Drummer.”

Born Warren Gamaliel Kpakpo Akwei in Ghana, West Africa in 1923, which was then known as The Gold Coast. He was an exceptional student, athlete and musician, graduating with honors. During the Second World War, he worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the American Army department concerned with secret operations and intelligence. He worked as a journalist and broadcaster, becoming one of the first Africans to have his own show on the BBC.

He played in local bands but in the mid 1950s moved to the US as he was eager to ingratiate himself into the American Jazz community. In Chicago, he joined up with Gene Esposito and his band as percussionist and arranger. It was with Esposito and American drummer and band leader Red Saunders that he made his first album, Africa Speaks, America Answers for Decca in 1956.

During his dozen or so years in America, he worked with many of the jazz greats, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Max Roach and Louis Armstrong being four of the biggest and most recognizable names. In 1974, he returned to Ghana after becoming disillusioned with America and the west but in between recorded several more albums under his own name and played on quite a few others. A couple that came out in the UK during the late 1960s are very desirable. He even has a music library album called Native Africa on the legendary UK KPM label, those of the famous green covers.

The Africa Speaks album is where it began, though, and I can see why people are willing to part with their cash to own a copy. It’s more than just a record of music; it has historical and cultural significance. Jazz was changed just as much with his drum sound and authentic African language chants as it was with the Latin influence that had previously turned the jazz world on its head.

My poor prose would never do such great music justice, so I think I will just leave you a link to the whole album and let you all judge for yourselves. I promise it to be a rewarding experience. Click here to dig in.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope I was able to steer you towards something enjoyable that will enrich your lives for listening. Peace and love - Dom

In an ideal world, I would just write about TURNSTILE again, cos one write-up simply will not do ‘Glow On’ justice! Instead of punishing you with a repeat Staff Pick, I would like to mention a few releases. Some time ago we got this 12” from MESS released on Mendeku Diskak. Mendeku Diskak is a label based in the Basque Country. I remember getting it in and thinking about the killer Japanese band ME♀SS. Their 1986 flexi is unfuckwithable!!! I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before. Unfortunately, I never took the time to listen to the new MESS cos of the old ME♀SS I love so much. Yesterday I had an order for one and tossed a copy on the turntable for the hell of it... man was I in for a treat!!! This shit is top-notch UK82 style. This release sounds like it could have been on Riot City or No Future. Of course, it is just a bit more modern sounding than the hot slabs on those labels, but in a nice crisp kind of way. The leads remind me especially of BLITZ. I hear bands who often try this style and it just comes off too ‘tough’ for me, but MESS perfectly executes this style. Shit man, as I am writing this I see the MESS has dropped a new album this month! Check it out. I will too.

Alright next note is DEATH SIDE. I’m sure most everyone has seen the new 7" plus DVD release being talked about heavily on social media. This release is coming soon on Break The Records. I didn’t think it would be possible for us to get copies at the shop, but it looks like we will get a small amount for distro! Hell yes!!! Keep your eyes peeled cos these are bound to sell-out extremely quickly. “Two out of the four songs were previously released for digital charity benefits, but the remaining two songs are completely unreleased. These songs were recorded in ‘89 for Slice Records’ compilation ‘Game of Death’ when each member recorded their own vocals. How these songs remained hidden is truly a mystery. The DVD contains footage from the late 80s to the 90s compiled with current interviews with the members. Much of this footage is also unreleased and has never been uploaded to the internet. The liner notes are written by ZIGYAKU of GUDON (愚鈍), SYSTEMATIC DEATH, BASTARD, JUDGEMENT, HALF YEARS, etc. who alongside DEATH SIDE, built the history of the hardcore scene in Japan as we know it.”

Did you see Svart Records is doing a PYHÄKOULU re-issue?! I am so excited! I don’t think we have solidified our copies yet, but I am certain we will get some for distro. You can read about it here but I will still paste some info from the page here. So exciting!! On top of loving this band, I love Svart re-issues! “This band-approved compilation includes PYHÄKOULU’s tracks from their split with ABORTTI-13, their self-titled 12″, Sankari EP, live recordings from 1987, and previously unreleased studio quality tracks the band recorded in 1989 just before calling it a day. The audio material has been carefully restored and remastered from the original tapes, and the package comes with a thick booklet full of old photos, interviews, lyrics, flyers and other memorabilia.”

Alright, DISARRAY. I decided to write about this cos it was my obligatory weekly ‘Now Playing’ post haha. I have no idea if Black Water keeps this in print or if these are just copies from the initial pressing in 2014, but Sorry State just re-upped on copies. I first heard DISARRAY when Black Water released this discography, I think? I can’t remember, but I don’t imagine me diving deep into ‘80s Japanese hardcore until around that time cos I was too busy obsessing over Swedish and Finnish hardcore. (That probably still applies today.) I moved to NC in 2014 and that is when I got access to internet at home haha. Soon after, a friend showed me Soulseek, and I went nuts on international hardcore downloading rampages. Before that time, I would have to sit outside Panera Bread or Starbucks on a laptop to steal internet and download shit off 7" Crust Blogspot or Anarcho-Punk.Net if I wanted to hear stuff like that. Anyway, there is a chance I heard DISARRAY in those days, but I am just gunna put all my praise on Black Water for properly introducing me to the band. The flexi is great. It was released on legendary ADK Records. I think this release is what they are most known for. When I first heard this flexi, I remember confusing it a lot with THE EXECUTE’s flexi. While the sounds/song-writing have some strong similarities, not much can match THE EXECUTE. When I heard DISARRAY’s second EP, it caught me off guard cos it is much more melodic and catchy than their flexi, but I still enjoy it almost just as much as the flexi. Even if you already have the flexi and the EP, this 12" is worth grabbing cos it has their 1985 demo as well. This demo has a handful of previously unreleased songs alongside a few songs that have been re-recorded, played with even more raw intensity! The sound on this tape is excellent. Before these recordings appear on the record is their 1984 demo. It is cool to hear this, but to be honest, the sound is not good at all. It is still the perfect fit for a compilation 12" though. Peep our web-store to grab one!

Speaking of Black Water, I have another note. I have been highly anticipating the NIGHTFEEDER EP coming soon on Black Water. I wrote about this band previously when we distro’d their debut cassette release. I’m assuming it is delayed just like every thing in vinyl production right now. Black Water is a fucking excellent label. I love the re-issues they do, and I love lots of the current bands they release. Alright thanks for reading everyone, ‘til next time...

Charles Kuralt from the Bob Timberlake Collection

Yesterday Dominic found a really plain looking record in a collection Daniel had just picked up, but one of the few bits of text on it was a North Carolina address, so he handed it to me. Not much comes up on Discogs, but a quick google search came up with some really expensive box sets. Like literal hand made wooden boxes with a book, this record, and some Bob Timberlake prints. If you’re from or have lived in NC for a while, you know Bob Timberlake. Every southern grandparent had one of his landscapes hanging in their house; his paintings are almost as ubiquitous as the nature he paints. Growing up with these images lining thrift stores and inoffensive walls in locations I can’t quite put my finger on (but know I’ve been to), I took for granted how state specific his work is.

I put on this record not fully recognizing Charles Kuralt’s or Bob Timberlake’s names, and as the words describing the surroundings I grew up around came on the speakers I started remembering why the record felt so familiar. The internet helped me put a name to the paintings I grew up seeing and the signature on this record. I knew who Bob Timberlake was, but I didn’t know who he was... ya know? When I looked up Charles Kuralt on Discogs, I realized I’ve owned a record he’s on for years! I found ‘North Carolina is My Home’ years ago; it was the start to picking up records having to do with my home state. Charles Kuralt was also a prolific host on CBS, so I’m sure I’ve seen his face before. My parents are transplants to the south so I didn’t grow up as steeped in Southern culture as some, but hearing Kuralt describe traditions that are so distinctly North Carolina—the tobacco sheds dotting the landscape far outside of town, apple season in the fall—made me feel nostalgic and homey.

I can’t find any recordings of this record online, but I dug into my collection and pulled out another NC gem. This was a bargain bin find I picked up because there was an NC address on the sleeve and I absolutely love it.

Dulcimer is a great instrument and very, very Appalachian. I have a lot of zither music in my collection, so it makes sense I would gravitate towards a record with a dulcimer on the cover. The Strayaway Child is a great collection of Appalachian folk songs and also happens to be one of (if not the) only record from an NC based group that I can find a recording of online. I would love to show y’all Stoney Runn, too, but alas, nothing comes up Google. If you ever see this record on Discogs, or more likely in a bargain bin, you should grab it. Somehow a group of teens got into a recording studio and a small run of vinyl pressed in Cary, NC. Not sure how it happened, but the music is great!

I’ll leave you with the best/worst NC song I found on North Carolina is My Home: the title track.

Celtic Frost: Parched with Thirst Am I and Dying (1992, Noise International)

A few weeks ago I picked up the vinyl for this 1992 compilation album by the almighty Celtic Frost. I’ve owned the CD of Parched with Thirst for years, but picking up the (slightly abridged) vinyl version prompted me to dig back into this weird and wonderful record.

Even on the surface of it, a Celtic Frost compilation album seems like a curious proposition because the band reinvented themselves, often rather drastically, with each album. It’s a long way from the primitive eruption of Morbid Tales to the more measured and confident Vanity / Nemesis, and there are numerous detours along the way. Parched with Thirst doesn’t attempt to make sense of Celtic Frost’s complicated artistic trajectory, nor does it revel in the band’s eclecticism. As you might expect from Celtic Frost, the selection of tracks and the sequencing is idiosyncratic, at first glance kind of strange, but with some indescribable logic holding it all together, even imbuing it with a strange magic.

While I was researching what people had to say about Parched with Thirst, I encountered frustration from listeners who couldn’t put the record into a particular box. It’s not a greatest hits collection or highlight reel from across the band’s career. Nor is it a “rarities” compilation; while it includes rare and unreleased tracks, there are several previously released album tracks too. It’s unclear what Parched with Thirst is or who it is for, but part of being a Celtic Frost fan—I’d say one of the best parts of being a Celtic Frost fan—is surrendering yourself to the band’s unintuitive logic, trusting them to take you wherever they’re going to take you.

For all of this conceptual and philosophical muddiness, Parched with Thirst is an engaging listen, questioning conventional wisdom about the band’s artistic peaks and valleys. “Downtown Hanoi,” a track from Cold Lake that appears here in a version re-recorded in 1991 (though not drastically different from the original), sits right next to “Circle of the Tyrants,” a classic track from the classic Emperor’s Return EP, and it doesn’t sound weird at all. John Peel famously said of the Fall that they were “always different, alway the same;” perhaps the same statement could apply to Celtic Frost?

Along with the eclectic mix of tracks from earlier in Celtic Frost’s career, Parched with Thirst is bookended by two unreleased tracks, “Idols of Chagrin” and “Under Apollyon’s Sun,” both demos intended for Celtic Frost’s next album, though the band abandoned the project. Original drummer / not-so-secret weapon Stephen Priestly programs the drum tracks for these two songs (more successfully for “Idols of Chagrin” than “Under Apollyon’s Sun”), and the riffing and songwriting are characteristically left of center. “Idols of Chagrin” is an intriguing song, with a grungy main riff and reverb-soaked production held over from the hair metal era, but with a heavy and nasty bridge part that sounds like classic Frost. I’m sure Under Apollyon’s Sun would have been a divisive album, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

I found myself midway into my week, and once again, not even close to being dead set on what to write about for my staff pick. As much as I’m stoked about the Genetic Control reissue, Imploders 7”, and a whole bunch of other new releases we’ve recently stocked at Sorry State, I can’t stop listening to this new tape by Personal Damage.

Consistent with the weird world of punk we live in in the modern era, I discovered this Personal Damage tape through the wonderful world of the internet. At first, I had no idea this was the case, but apparently, a few people from Hate Preachers are in this band. So duh, no wonder this tape is so damn good. Within the first 10 seconds of the first song, “Shits Fucked,” I already knew I would love this shit. The guitar riffs have that specific rhythmic style that to me is an obvious nod to early 80s California hardcore. Specifically, I hear a lot of Wasted Youth or Anti. But then the vocals kinda hit an aloof tunefulness that reminds me of Shawn Stern from LA Youth Brigade. Lyrically though, it’s kinda the opposite where the dude seems less earnest and more snotty, almost humorous at times. When I got to the track “I Need A Cup”, I had a nice little chuckle to myself. So yeah, I guess this band don’t take themselves too seriously, but goddamn does this thing rip.

I would have loved to lock down a physical copy of this demo for myself, but I guess it’s already sold out. Hoping that Personal Damage makes another run of these bad boiz for all our sakes.

Keepin’ it brief this week. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Hi friends, hope everyone is doing well?

The busy week continues for me personally, with the first of hopefully a series of DJ curated evenings at a cool spot here in Raleigh, The Longleaf Hotel & Lounge. Outside too. For the entire night I’ll be spinning Exotica, Tropical Latin and other mid-century Tiki Hut favorites. Easy listening for those not needing their BPMs in the hundreds whilst enjoying a craft cocktail. I’m hoping people will respond and enjoy it. I’ve wanted to have a venue and audience for this type of music for a while but typically when employed as a DJ the expectation is to be keeping the dance floor busy and rocking the joint with choice tunes and not chilling them out with gentle Latin grooves etc. It’s one thing to slip in a few of these types of numbers into the beginning of a set but another to make it the whole evening. It felt funny packing my record boxes and not including some of my go to bangers. Still, this gig is an early evening one and I think it’ll be fun playing Exotica for people.

Over the years, whilst digging for records in thrift stores and bargain bins, I have managed to collect quite a few Exotica records. For the most part, they had such great covers enticing the buyer with visions of far away places and mysterious sounds. In the mid-1950s through early 1960s, the craze for music like this, along with anything Latin, was at its peak. There are literally thousands of records that feature a mambo rhythm, bongos and other exotic percussion instruments. One name associated with the Exotica craze was Martin Denny, an American who lived in Hawaii. He released a bunch of records with the title Exotica and other similar inspired names. In 1959, he scored a huge hit with Quiet Village, a tune written by Les Baxter, another American musician who was scoring hits with his own blend of Jazz and Afro-Latin sounds. As well as these albums, Baxter was also busy scoring soundtracks, something he continued for many years to come. Similar to Baxter and Denny was a fellow named Enoch Light who made a name for himself by experimenting with recording technology and who released tons of records showcasing new stereo recording techniques, etc. A lot of these records have covers of pop hits and feature percussion instruments to the fore. In 1959, he formed Command Records and was one of the first to try and push the quality of recording to higher levels.

As I packed my record boxes for the gig, it was obvious how big an influence these names had on the genre and how many of their records I have managed to accumulate. In all honestly, these records are maybe not killer all the way through and to our modern ears sound dated, but on each one there are a couple of nice little moments, and I am hoping that I can select a good batch of tunes from my collection to entertain folks with. Wish me luck. It should be fun.

Next time you are out digging for records and see some of these exotic covers, I encourage you to investigate. They’re usually cheap and somewhat easy to find, but of course, in today’s upside-down world, maybe that is not the case for some of the better ones. Good luck.

That’s all I have for you this week. See you next time.

Cheers - Dom

Man, this album is the absolute pinnacle of the Hardcore of today! What an excellent album to follow up with! Oh shit, I guess you don’t know what album I am talking about… I am too busy to take a photo of the cover cos I’m fucking Hardcore dancing while I blast the LP instead. Turnstile, everybody. I see all you salad-eating pansies out here talking shit, but I want to see who the fuck can hang with me and my crew in the pit. You probably can’t take the heat this hot ass slab radiates. There’s no shame in that. You are just weak-minded, with poser blood pumping through your veins. All you want is the latest hype, the latest fads. All you want is D-beat and Japanese hardcore. You are blind. Turnstile is woke. All the trends will die, and Turnstile will still stand, proudly wearing their fucking Hardcore Heavyweights of the World Championship title belt. Turnstile is for the trve punks and Hardcore freaks. This album is so revolutionary. Me and my friends were at our weekly circle jerk (thank God we are back on schedule, Covid really fucked that up!) and my homie Chad threw on the new Turnstile, “Glow On.” I lost my mind at how good it was. I busted a nut immediately. “Don’t Play” is one of my favorite tracks! While Turnstile mostly reminds me of 311 mixed with a little Red Hot Chili Peppers, the ripping guitar on this track plus the gang vocals really remind me of The Casualties! What a great song! The fucking pinnacle of hardcore, you guys! You can listen to it here. Even though they have some absolutely ripping parts in the song, they still remind me so much of 311. (Another killer fucking band!) The song ‘Freak Out’ by 311 must be a really huge influence on Turnstile. There are so many parallels between the two bands. Hell yeah! So last week I had to cast another poll aside from HC Knockouts, but this time on my IG account @bunkerpunks. I had to ask the world this huge debated question!

To be honest, I knew 311 would take the cake! Turnstile fucking rule and have the capacity to crush 99.99999% of competition, but you can’t beat the originators. I know I go on about 311, but I know that Turnstile has other influences aside from 311 (and R.H.C.P.). But I really think they take influence from other killer artists like Rage Against the Machine, Dave Mathews Band (it’s true!), Good Charlotte, and of course 25 Ta Life. Sorry State sold our copies of ‘Glow On’ lightning fast (of course what a great fucking album, album of the decade!) but don’t worry, we have a restock on the way, for all you trve Hardcore motherfuckers. Alright everybody, keep glowin on!

Reverend Jim Jones: Last Sermon at the Peoples Temple

This record probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Hell, even when I put it on, I asked myself why I purchased it. It’s hard to listen to, but I’m so fascinated by Jim Jones and the cult he created, I found myself just sitting there, mouth open, while it played. Cults, serial killers, most true crime is fascinating to me and it’s been a cool experience watching it go from a fringe interest to something that is widely consumed by the public.

One of the most popular podcasts on the subject, Last Podcast on the Left, had an episode about a new graphic novel depicting Ed Gein’s life. Why bring him up? Well, the interview was great (just like most of the episodes of that podcast) but there was a moment that stood out to me and made things CLICK in my head. They talked about how Ed Gein has become this character, more than a person, and some of that is probably attributed to the lack of media there was to document his case. There are very few pictures of Gein, no videos, and he spent most of his time alone in his house. In the interview, they attribute Gein’s larger than life cultural persona to the lack of media surrounding his life and crimes. So many of the fascinating true crime stories have minimal media to consume, so we’re left with eyewitnesses and experts telling us about it. Jim Jones and his cult are a bit different.

There are tons of photos of Jim Jones, his followers, and the lives they created for themselves in Guyana. Anyone with a feigning interest in this cult has probably seen the aerial footage after the mass murders. For me, it is hard to quantify; it is hard to view Jim Jones as real. It is hard to see the aftermath photos and think about the bodies laying there. 918 people died, and that’s an impossibly large number to wrap my head around. Hearing the last recordings on this record has added voices to the bodies, grounded these individuals as people and not merely “cult members.” Jones recorded most of his drug fueled rants that were blasted on speakers all over the commune, day in and day out. There are hours of incoherent rantings you can listen to but, to me, it just made him more fantastical. How did a person like that exist?

The recording on this record, the last moments before the mass murder/suicides make the events at Jonestown so much more real. You can hear people crying, you can hear his followers trying to justify this decision, you can hear and FEEL the chaos erupting. So why the fuck did someone press this on vinyl? I’m not sure, but my morbid curiosity on all things Jonestown has been quelled by this release. I know this is the closest I’ll be to that event and it is STILL incredibly hard to wrap my mind around as something Real that Actually Happened. I can’t tell you why or what makes me want to delve deeper into these fucked up facets of humankind, but I’m glad I’m not the only one.

I’m not going to share a link to the recordings at Jonestown; it’s easily found by a quick Google search. I respect that not a lot of people would want to hear it, so I’m going to leave you with a trailer for the movie ‘The Sacrament’. It is a modern retelling of the last moments at Jonestown and will bring you just as close to this event as the record brought me…if that’s something you even want.

Stomu Yamash’ta and Masahiko Satō: Metempsychosis (Japan, 1971)

An idiom I repeat often in the world of records is, “when it rains, it pours.” It’s not uncommon for a dry spell of finding used records for the store to be followed by a bunch of collections coming all at once, sometimes more than we can handle or afford. This pattern also holds for individual titles. I can’t recall seeing an original pressing of Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain before 2021, but we’ve had three copies this year. There was one point a few years ago when we had four Beatles butcher covers in stock at once, though we haven’t seen one since.

Lately the unseen hand that controls the vinyl taps seems to have turned the knob labeled “Japanese records for Daniel.” I’m sure anyone with a passing familiarity with the newsletter knows what a Japanophile I am, so I always have a healthy want list from that magical island, but things have been dropping in my lap lately. Even when I was in New York with Public Acid, we walked into a random record store that we passed on the street and I found an original pressing of Creation’s first album from 1975. So weird. I’m sure I’ll cover plenty of these records in future picks.

This 1971 album from Stomu Yamash’ta and Masahiko Satō was the record that opened the floodgates, and it’s one I had been after for a while. Metempsychosis is one of Julian Cope’s top 50 picks in his Japrocksampler book, but it’s one I had trouble learning about. I found Cope’s description of the album intriguing, but at the time I could only find short snippets online (the full album has since appeared on YouTube). The album hasn’t been repressed since 1976, and it seems like few copies made it to the West.

Metempsychosis intrigued me for several reasons. It seemed like one of the more avant-garde titles covered in Japrocksampler, and I liked that the drummer gets top billing. I love drum-centric jazz with dense polyrhythms, and fusing that with traditional Japanese percussion sounded like a wild idea. Stomu Yamash’ta (sometimes also Yamashita) also seemed like an interesting figure. He was only 24 when he recorded Metempsychosis, and was already a rising star in the jazz world. With his long hair and flowing robes he cut a memorable figure on stage (captured dynamically on Metempsychosis’s cover photo), and he was already considered one of the top percussionists in the world. The Japanese record industry was trying several tacks at making Yamash’ta a star, of which Metempsychosis was one. Yamash’ta has had a long and successful musical career, his most famous moment for Western listeners coming in the late 70s when he led the jazz fusion supergroup Go, which also featured Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola, Klaus Schulze, and Michael Shrieve.

The other name on the cover of Metempsychosis was also a huge draw for me. Like Dennis Bovell, whom I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, Masahiko Satō’s name (sometimes spelled Satoh) just keeps coming up. His soundtrack for the 1973 animated film Belladonna of Sadness is a record I return to again and again, and while its sound is grounded in Miles Davis’s work on records like Bitches Brew and Live Evil, there’s something about Satō’s take on that style that just gets me… maybe it’s how he takes those epic, stretched-out jams and compresses them down to scene-length bursts of creativity? Satō’s album with his project Soundbreakers, Amalgamation (also released in 1971), is another record from Cope’s Japrocksampler list that intrigued me, and getting a physical copy has been a highlight of this recent deluge of Japanese vinyl to hit my collection.

Satō serves as composer for Metempsychosis, so it seems relevant to share Satō’s bio on Apple Music, which I discovered last night:

Masahiko is a Chick Corea-influenced pianist who also plays electric keyboards. His compositional depth is not considered as strong as his playing.

What a diss! I couldn’t disagree more about Satō’s skills as a composer. On Metempsychosis and Amalgamation, Satō’s compositions remind me of Bill Dixon, another of my favorite avant-garde jazz composers (and the subject of another of my previous picks). Like Dixon, Satō takes influence from 20th-century classical composers like Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez. Suspicious of conventional melody and harmony, Satō is fascinated by density and volume, often contrasting bursts of of loud horns creating dense, complex chords with long passages of near-silence. As with Bill Dixon’s records, you need to be mindful of where you set your volume knob when you listen to Satō’s work.

Circling back to Metempsychosis, it’s pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear: Satō’s orchestration and composition skills laced with lots of dense, complex percussive patterns. It’s a wild ride.

Researching this pick, I’ve also discovered a few other records I need to check out. Right now, I have Stomu Yamash’ta’s 1971 album Red Buddha playing on YouTube and I am intrigued. I also realized I didn’t talk about the artist who receives third billing on Metempsychosis, Toshiyuki Miyama & The New Herd. I see that group has a huge discography, and I’ve heard their 1970 collaboration with Masahiko Satō, Canto of Libra. 1971’s Canto of Aries, this time a collaboration with Masahiko Togashi, appears to be part of the same series and I’ve seen it mentioned in lists of notable Japanese jazz records. I also want to find a copy of Pianology, Masahiko Satō’s 1971 collaboration with the German pianist and composer Wolfgang Dauner. That record has been reissued a few times in recent years, but don’t often pop up in the US.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Honestly, I feel like the Meat House label is doing God’s work. I get stoked every time Sorry State stocks new releases from this label because they seem devoted purely to the very specific goal of getting rare and often obscure punk singles from the Los Angeles area back in print. I’ve always been attracted to the late 70s /early 80s California punk sound, and often I feel like Meat House re-releases exemplary, yet unsung gems from this era of punk rock.

About a year ago, Meat House reissued the first single by The Hated. While at the time the Hated were a band I was fairly unfamiliar with, I thought this single was super cool. At the same time, Meat House also reissued the super rare Waiting For The Bomb Blast single by Long Beach greats Funeral. Now, I wouldn’t say that the Funeral 7” overshadowed my attention toward the Hated single, but something about the burgeoning 1981 speed and ferocity of the Funeral single really grabbed me. With such poetry like “Politicians are sick, they all suck my dick!”… how could my attention not be diverted?

BUT NOW… The latest 2 releases from Meat House are out, and thankfully The Hated’s full catalog is once again available at reasonable prices for nerds like me. Man, how fucking killer are these 2 singles? Whereas the first single still had a foot in early LA punk, the Jan Brady-period single Pressure / Stereotype is a one-two punch of perfect punk with updated power and production. This single is on par with the legendary sounds of Dangerhouse, but also increasing the tempo and hinting at the oncoming Orange County fury of TSOL and the like. I mean FUCK man, the pure cynic view on suburban blight with direct but poignant lyrics: “Hate your job, hate your kids, hate your wife, hate your life”… you don’t get much more classic punk commentary than that. But for 1981? Still comes across as pretty earnestly scathing and visceral for the time. It’s anthemic dude. Catch me raging at like 2am just shouting “PRESSURE! PRESSURE! PRESSURE!” I’m hooked. BUT THAT’S JUST THE FIRST RECORD.

The Marsha Brady-period 4 Song EP for whatever reason has the kind of artwork that is instantly attention-grabbing for me. This looks like a classic punk EP that everyone should know about. Maybe in terms of speed and aggression, this record takes a step back as opposed to the aforementioned single. But that’s not to say this record isn’t just as powerful. The second track on this EP presents a melodic and innocent, but also bleak commentary on the state of your immediate reality. The hook screams “I’m afraid to leave my house today!” I dunno, even with my new-come familiarity with these songs, I just feel the frustration this band was evoking. These records feel like a missing link between bands like the Adolescents and other amazing bands from this era. Maybe I’m gushing and overusing ALL CAPS due to my excitement blasting these records right now, but I think this shit is killer. The symptoms of my ever-worsening case of Pretentious Record Collector Disease™ is now leading me to believe that I must own every original Hated single (with picture sleeves of course).

Do yourself a favor and snag both of these reissue EP’s.

That’s all I’ve got. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Greetings dear readers and thank you for clicking on our corner of the internet again this week. I apologize for missing deadline on last week’s newsletter. A combination of only being able to write dog poop and a computer mishap is my excuse. It’s been another full two weeks of news and events in the meantime. Most of it not good. We’re looking at you Texas. It really does break you down reading the news. It would be easier to ignore it, but of course we can’t. We just find ways to bring our blood down from boiling point. Obviously, for us, music is our tool to help soothe our souls or fire them up. Thank goodness for that.

Before I continue, I wanted to acknowledge the sad news of the death of genius artist, producer Lee “Scratch” Perry. I won’t get into how great Perry was. I’m sure you are more than fully aware and have some of his records in your collection. More informed and eloquent people than me have done him justice since his passing and during his life. There are some great books about him such as People Funny Boy by David Katz and every music paper and magazine worth its subscription has done a piece on him. Hey! Weren’t we just looking at an old Grand Royal magazine with Perry on the cover? Like so many of us, his music has become woven into the fabric of our being, and he was one of my musical heroes. His photo hangs on my kitchen wall. Last week over on Worldy, the day after he died, Matt and I played a full show of Lee Perry music and productions, all pulled from our personal collections as our tribute. If you need some good reggae and dub in your life, you can check it out here.

Talking of my buddy Matt, he and I are going to be DJing this week at the opening of the Hopscotch Festival here in Raleigh. We’ll be providing tunes and good vibes somewhere within Wristband City. At the time of writing this, I don’t know the exact details, but we’ll be there from 10 AM until 3 PM on Thursday and Friday. Maybe I’ll see some of you there. A big thank you to Daniel and my colleagues for covering for me so that I could do this. It’ll be fun and Lord knows we need some of that. A full weekend of listening to music. Cool. Whatever your feelings are concerning the lineups for festivals is one thing, but I have always had a good time at Hopscotch and seen some good live performances, often when I didn’t expect to. Hopscotch has day parties too and they are a good way to see some live music either cheaply or free. In the past, it’s been a blast and let’s hope this year will be the same. Obviously, under different circumstances this time around with this damn pandemic. But that’s a whole other rant and not for here.

I don’t know about you, but often in between periods of listening to killer stuff, be it new or old, especially if it is loud and powerful, I need to put on something very different. It might not be a top tenner or a dance floor smasher, but it just needs to take my head someplace else. Typically for me that is found in older music and so for this week I would like to steer you towards a record that came out in 1970 on Warner Brothers called simply, Pride.

This has been stuck in my car CD player for the past week and has ear wormed me big time.

I used to have thousands of CDs, but over the years due to storage issues, lack of use and need for funds, I have sold most of them. I probably have just a couple of hundred left at this point. I kept this one because it has the two albums producer David Axelrod made in 1968 with garage band The Electric Prunes along with the Pride album. The CD also contained a bonus disc of instrumental versions, which is very cool, and I wish there was a record that had those on it. Future Record Store Day idea.

I am going to assume most heads know who the late David Axelrod was? He is up there with the legends on the back of the recordings he made for himself and those of others that he produced. You should go look him up if you are new to him and listen to his music and read his story. The record collecting world has long valued his records and the hip-hop world especially. Go ask Dr. Dre.

Mass In F Minor and Release Of An Oath were the two concept records Axelrod wrote and arranged for Electric Prunes producer Dave Hassinger at Reprise Records, who was using the Prunes’ name but not much of their musicianship. They played some parts, but much of the music was played by other musicians. For the two records, members of The Collectors, a Canadian psych band and Climax from Colorado were employed respectively for the two recordings. These were bands Hassinger was working with, but Axelrod however preferred his guys, various members of the famed Wrecking Crew of session musicians and it is their playing that forms the meat and potatoes of the albums.

Basically, they were concept records built around Catholic Mass rituals and other religious themes and not at all like the previous garage-psych sound of The Electric Prunes. The records released on Reprise were minor hits and prompted Axelrod’s main employer Capitol Records to demand he make records like that for them. Axelrod was Capitol’s head of production at this time and had been writing, arranging and producing hits for them since 1963 when he joined as A&R man. He produced records for jazz great Cannonball Adderley, singer Lou Rawls, actor David McCallum, South African Letta Mbulu and so many others and pushed the label towards signing more black artists. As mentioned, Axelrod used core members of the Wrecking Crew for his recordings. Drummer Earl Palmer, bassist Carol Kaye, guitarists Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco formed the backbone of many of his recordings. The beats played by Earl Palmer are very prominent in the records and those, along with some other unique sounds, are perfect for hip-hop sampling. Dr. Dre sampled the song The Edge for his track Next Episode to great effect. That song, The Edge, was produced by Axelrod for one of David McCallum’s albums. The popular actor put out several records and Axelrod produced them. They are not amazing all the way through, but there are some moments.

Axelrod made three records under his name for Capitol, Songs Of Innocence in 1968, Songs Of Experience in 1969 and then Earth Rot in 1970. Using the same core of musicians as on the Electric Prunes sessions just minus the Prunes. All three albums are concept based, this time using the poems of William Blake for inspiration on the first two and then environmental pollution for the third. Axelrod combined classical music with jazz and rock and r n’ b and molded them into something quite unique and special. Without getting into a long review of them, let’s just say they are all terrific, particularly the first two, and I’ve left you links to all three plus the Prunes albums for you to check out. If this is old hat for you, please forgive me.

After these three records comes the Pride album. This was a one off for Warner Brothers that Axelrod’s manager arranged using the name Pride as the artist. It was a collaboration between David Axelrod and his son Michael, who wrote the lyrics. Singer Nooney Rickett, who had been with Love, was the vocalist. The album has similar touches to the previous Axelrod albums but is more of a folk psych record with dashes of Spanish guitar and maracas giving it a Mexican folk flavor. The drumming is still on point and there are nice stabs of twelve string guitar. It’s not very long and in the grand scheme of things not that mind blowing, but it has a charm and perhaps because I am such a fan of his other records, I like it a lot. It’s not that easy to find an original, but there is a recent reissue on vinyl. The funny thing is that when people talk about Axelrod and his records, this one hardly ever gets mentioned. Probably because of the title, but for some reason it has been the sleeper in his discography that many people missed. I’ve read reviews comparing it to late era Love and The Byrds, which is fair, but I also think it has similarities to Rodriquez’s Cold Fact album in places. Admittedly not as good as that, but somewhat in the ballpark. It has the Axelrod touch though. Check it out when you are between things to play and need something mellow but with some substance. I hope you like it.

Okay, thanks for reading and see you next time. Cheers – Dom.

I’ve stayed away from writing about music for most of my SSR Picks because my coworkers do phenomenal jobs each week and I know I can’t keep up. But I don’t only listen to bargain bin weirdos and country music (I mean I do 90% of the time) so I guess writing about something else was bound to happen! I spent yesterday listening to a bunch of metal tapes from the 90s and found a few bands I now LOVE. They’ve been kicking around the store way too long for how good some of the music is! I guess old metal tape collectors are kind of niche, but I’m slowly putting the items online, so if you fit the bill, keep an eye out on our used section! Here are my favorites from my shift yesterday:

Octinomos: Demo 2 (1994)

Some good ol’ 1994 Swedish black metal. I love this because the low production quality helps instead of hinders and creates a really dark and bleak sound. Nothing super revolutionary, but the vocals are amazing paired with the guitar tone. I can’t find much info about any of these tapes or the artists behind them, but it looks like Octinomos last released a record in 2001. It’s their only vinyl release listed on Discogs so add to want list.

Mindrot: Faded Dream (1992)

Someone snatched this up as soon as I posted it on the Instagram story and who can blame them? This cassette is from 1992 and one of only a few releases by this band. It doesn’t feel strictly one type of metal, with a lot of thrashy, doomy, other metal subgenre-y riffs over the vocals that sometimes get more yell-y than scream-y. Even though Relapse Records picked them up in the late 90s, this band’s discography is way too short, making this cassette totally essential.

Various: Diabolical Netherworld II (1993) & III (1994)

I didn’t find much info on these compilations, but whoever put them together fucking killed it. Looks like it was some dudes in a band called Moonburn, but they only have one release on Discogs and a bunch of dead ends on Google. I really enjoyed the two compilations of this series we have in the store. It mixed some unknowns with some classic black metal bands, but the quality is high on every track. The bands on these comps span most of Europe, with most becoming defunct before the 1990s ended, unfortunately. It looks like the guys in Moonburn were the only American band on Vol II, so I’m going to assume these compilations were bringing over a lot of new music to the States. It’s so cool to think about the history of these specific objects and how they hopefully informed a budding metal fan. Our copies are still available on the web store to be loved by someone new!

This week I don’t have a pick for you as such. Instead, I want to use this space to talk about what a great time I had tagging along for Public Acid’s New York and Philly shows last weekend. I think we all struggled with the idea of going on the trip given the covid situation in the US seems to be getting worse rather than better, but now that everyone is back home and has negative test results I can breathe a sigh of relief and reflect on what a great time I had.

The shows themselves were awesome. I’ve been going to shows long enough to recognize when I’m seeing something special, that (usually fleeting) moment when a band is at the height of their powers, and that’s the feeling I get when I see Public Acid in 2021. In terms of their performances, Public Acid is a total force, and their three post-lockdown sets give me that feeling of the stars aligning, of a band playing the music people want to hear at the moment they want to hear it. PA’s sets both nights crushed, and people went off. These were perfect punk rock moments.

The other bands were also awesome. I got to see bands I already love (like Dark Thoughts and No Fucker, who sounded even better than they did the first time around), new bands whose recordings had already gotten me excited (80HD), and even get blown away by a band I knew nothing about (ICD10). I spend so much time listening to new releases that it’s tempting to think I know about everything going on in the punk scene, but even all the stuff that comes through Sorry State only scratches the surface of what punk and hardcore have to offer right now. I hope that, as the world opens up, more of you can reconnect with your local and regional scenes. And when you do, tell me who the good bands are so we can stock their releases at Sorry State!

Even more important than the music was connecting and reconnecting with so many humans I hold dear. First and foremost, I’m so appreciative of the time I got to spend with the people in Public Acid. Even small tours like this one can be stressful and can bring out the worst in people, but our time together was totally chill. Beyond the fun we had from moment to moment, it was great to strengthen and deepen these relationships. I also got to reconnect with people I’ve known for 15+ years (like Jesse from No Fucker and Zach from ICD10), have great conversations with people whom I’d only met briefly or corresponded with, and meet a bunch of new people too. I’m astounded by the number of people who took me up on my invitation in the last newsletter to come up and say hi. It made me so feel so good to know that not only do people read this thing, but they appreciate and value it too. Thank you so much to everyone who paid me and the band any bit of kindness this weekend, particularly the very special people who booked the gigs, put us up, and ensured we had a great time. And I apologize if I was weird or awkward to anyone… my energy level waxed and waned over the weekend, but I didn’t meet or hang with a single person who wasn’t cool as fuck.

So many times my conversations (with both new friends and old ones) turned to how much we care about punk. A year and a half without shows, as hard as it was, reminded me how much fun all of this is and how important it is to me. And as I get older—I turn 42 in a couple of weeks—I realize the punks are my people, my family. The NC punks are like siblings, and going to these larger shows is like visiting extended family or a gathering of tribes. I’m sure plenty of people think I’m a fool for dedicating so much of my energy to punk, but immersing myself in the community this weekend made me feel great about the life I’ve carved out for myself.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

As some of you may know, this past weekend I hit the road with Public Acid to play in both NY and Philly. It was a blast. Met some cool people, caught up with some old friends, heard some rad bands and also picked up some records along the way. Thanks to all the other folks in Public Acid, the homies Merm and Daniel who were along for the ride, and all the people who helped with the gigs and put us up. After the whirlwind of this adventure, I think it’ll be nice to cool off on gigs for a while.

One person I ran into in NY was Jesse, who used to play in Extended Hell as well as many other killer punk groups over the years. He hooked us up with a few copies of the brand new 7” by his new band Suffocating Madness. I was itching to check this record out when I got back from the trip. No surprise, this thing rips.

While I’m sure the Swedish riff masters of yesteryear are owed a small debt, Suffocating Madness sounds even a bit more vintage hardcore than other bands I’ve listened to on the Roach Leg label. This EP sounds raw and dirty but still punchy and warm, not like a dumb noisy, tin can raw punk recording. I would not be surprised if the dude who’s been recording all the stuff for Active-8 recorded this session as well. There’s a specific analog sonic signature that I feel like I’ve noticed with recordings done at this studio. Everything sounds kinda pushed into the red, compressing beautifully with a warm, spongey, gritty texture. Sounds cool as hell. I don’t know if it’s due to the vocalist Pancho, but I can’t help thinking that Suffocating Madness kinda sounds like the early Varukers singles. In the midst of his barking, Pancho’s voice does hit some distinct pitches. It’s not like the vocals are sing-songy or “melodic” by any means, but I can’t help but think of the chanting of early UK hardcore. My favorite track on the EP is the last song “Disassociate”, which has some serious Motorhead riffage. Not sure if that’s what they’re going for, but some of the riffs in this song are pretty rockin’. The single-note, chugging riffs on this track hint at a minor key, which gives the song this moody, bleak feeling.

As I’m writing this, Sorry State does not have the Suffocating Madness 7”s available on our webstore. But the boxes of records have arrived at the store, and I plan on getting them up on the webstore by the time the newsletter goes out this week. Don’t sleep on this ripper!

That’ll do for now I think. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Hi,

I’ve been fucking blasting music a lot the past 10 days or so. Maybe more? Maybe that seems silly to say cos this is something I used to do every single day but I have fallen out of the habit over the past year for a number of reasons... Anyway I think this means I’m in a good mood. Or maybe it means the opposite and I just don’t want to think about all the shit that stresses me out. My drive to work is about one hour, so I have plenty of time to think haha. I currently have only one CD in my van and it has been blasting on repeat. I been singing along too, even though I don’t really know any of the words. Oh side note if you care, I have been jammin’ with a band for sometime now. We have like five or six songs. I do vocals. It kinda sucks but the people are cool so whatever. Anyway, this compilation ‘I Thrash Therefore I Am’ introduced me to some of my favorite bands of today. I remember picking this up simply cos it had Anti-Cimex on it. This was enough incentive to buy an unfamiliar record cos they were a band I had instantly fell in-love with. Who didn’t right? But I had never heard Mob 47 or Moderat Likvidation before. Man was I in for a treat. Don’t even get me started on Enola Gay and Existenz... these are some of the best tracks on this motherfucker. It’s a real shame that my young dumbass ears did not appreciate these two bands when I first heard the LP. They took me some time to warm up to. I think cos they don’t wear their Discharge “influence” on their sleeve like most Swedish bands I am obsessed with. I’m assuming most readers know but if you don’t, this compilation is actually a 12" reissue of a tape that came out in the ‘80s. The LP version doesn’t have all the tracks, while the CD version I been jammin’ actually has more tracks than the original tape. The photo up there is the back of the CD booklet. It’s similar to the 12" cover and the original tape cover, but with a lot more “color” hahaha... This photo below is the cover of the CD version. Bless whoever’s heart made the artwork to this shit. While the sound was improved, I think it’s safe to say the artwork was not. Alright thanks for reading, peace!

I spent last week (safely) traveling through the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State. I spent 98% of the week busting my ass hiking up mountains and biking like over 50 fucking miles but I still somehow was able to spend a good amount of time looking at and thinking about records. I was unexpectedly able to spend a little under 24 hours in Seattle with a friend from high school at the end of the trip, so I spent much of my nights last week looking up record stores to go to. I would’ve easily and happily spent my time trekking from one side of the city to the other but my wallet, legs, and friend said otherwise. We hit some cool spots and I wanted to share a couple of the things I brought home with me!

Various: Israel Song Festival 1971 12”

Honestly can’t remember if I’ve mentioned the section of Jewish and Israeli records in my collection, but it is quickly growing and is equally nostalgic for me as it is informative. I grew up going to temple pretty regularly and while I had (have) my gripes with what I experienced, I always gravitated towards the music. This is a recording of the competition that started in the early 60’s that was a pre-competition of sorts for the Eurovision competition. I just looked all this up, I’ll confess. I have been finding other festival recordings of various genres and have loved all of them so I was excited to find this!

Beekeeper: Seafarer 7”

My first stop in Seattle, I’m sure this won’t surprise a lot of West Coast readers, was Singles Going Steady. My friend lived right around the corner which gave me ample time to look at all the odds and ends in the store. I found a few holes in my collection and had a lot of fun picking out some random 7”s based on cover art. Something about the name Beekeeper combined with the old photo caught my eye. After seeing it was made in 1992, I thought I had a good chance at liking it. It’s in a similar vein as some of the old radio copies I wrote about a few weeks ago; grainy, feedback-laden grunge type stuff that was well worth the few bucks.

Instängd: Mitt Svar På Ingenting 7”

New thing that keeps happening: not thinking twice about picking up old Sorry State releases at other stores. I had some great stuff to pick from at Singles Going Steady but opted for this 7” from 2007. I thought it was cool that it predates the store! If any of y’all haven’t dug through the Sorry State bandcamp, you’re missing out on some serious heat like this one.

Fuck the Facts: Die Miserable 12”

This band has had a special place in my heart after I saw them live at the (now dead, RIP) Jinx in Savannah while I was in college. It was such a POWERFUL fucking show, I can’t even remember who Fuck the Facts played with. I don’t have any of their releases on vinyl and can’t remember a time where I came across them in a store so I snatched this out of the bins quick as hell.

Arch Oboler: Drop Dead! An Exercise in Horror! 12”

I mean this screams my collection, I had to buy it. If I hadn’t worked so hard on my horror records during most of last year, I would’ve tried to buy way more in Seattle. It’s really cool going to a different city on a different coast and seeing how different their bargain bins are. I spent most of my time shopping in the bargain sections of various stores (who is surprised?) and instead of Grandma’s Collection of Country and Classical, there was a wide variety of international music, radio plays, and all my favorite types of oddball records to look through. This record, though, is already one of my favorites in my collection and I’ve only listened to it once. Bite size stories from every facet of horror; it’s absolute perfection.

Zulu: My People...Hold On/Our Day Will Come 12”

I didn’t get this in Seattle but it came the night I left so I couldn’t listen to it until today. THE ZULU RELEASES ARE FINALLY ON VINYL AHHHHHHH!!! And the packaging is stunning, with an awesome screen printed b-side. As of writing this, Sorry State has already sold out of the few copies we got so good luck getting your hands on it somewhere else!

Dennis Bovell is a name that keeps coming up in my travels through the world of records. I think he first came on my radar as producer of the first Slits album, Cut. His name came up again when I was learning about one of my staff picks several months ago, the classic lover’s rock track “Silly Games” by Janet Kay, which he wrote and produced. I’ve also been dipping my toe into the deep waters of the Adrian Sherwood / On-U sound universe of music, and Bovell’s name comes up again and again in that reading. When I saw that Lora Logic, the subject of a few of my staff picks, played sax on a track on Bovell’s 1981 album, Brain Damage, I knew it was time to investigate further. It took a minute to locate a decently priced copy in the US, but one arrived last week and I’ve been digging in hard.

Bovell was born in 1953 in Barbados, but grew up in the same London of the late 60s and early 70s that shaped so much of the music I hold most dear. Fascinated by the first wave of dub reggae, Bovell jumped right into the music world and started his Jah Sufferer Sound System, whose operation briefly landed him in jail, though his conviction was overturned on appeal. He started the London reggae band Matumbi in 1971 and that group had some success, which launched him into the world of songwriting and record production, and he was off to the races. Bovell is one of those people for whom a thoroughly researched discography would be miles long. There are experts who could tell you way more about Bovell’s music and career, but I’m coming at his work from the odd angle of being a white American punk born in the late 70s, so forgive me if my understanding of his life and work isn’t as rich as it could be. I know the universe of music he made and influenced is massive, and I am eager to learn more. Maybe I’ll update you on that journey in future staff picks.

I think the first dub reggae I heard was a CD compilation called Dub Chill Out. I’m not sure why I bought it, though I remember I picked it up at the same shop where I bought the Minor Threat discography CD that changed my life. Dub Chill Out must have been budget-priced, and I probably picked it up because it was cheap and I had read about dub’s influence on punk. I doubt I had heard any reggae music outside Bob Marley before that, but that CD wrecked me. For my seventeenth birthday my dad, recognizing how much I loved music, installed a high-powered amp and nice speakers in my crummy little truck. Everything sounded amazing on it, but the dense bass on Dub Chill Out was the ultimate, with the heavy grooves shaking your bowels when you were inside. It would be years before I heard PiL’s Metal Box, but Dub Chill Out prepped me for it and instilled in me a lifelong love of crushingly heavy bass.

While the Jamaican dub compiled on Dub Chill Out clearly inspired Bovell, his music isn’t a straightforward homage. Bovell adopted the heavy grooves and experimentation with studio effects, but I’m guessing the technology he was working with was a little different (and possibly more advanced), since his music is less stark and minimal and employs a wider pallet of studio effects. Like the Adrian Sherwood productions that have piqued my interest, Bovell loves finding weird sounds, and Brain Damage is crammed with them. Along with this maximalist approach, the synthesizers and studio effects Bovell employed on Brain Damage help date this record to early 80s Britain, and it’s steeped in the same vibes as many of my favorite records from that time and place.

Brain Damage’s eclecticism also stands out to me. Part of that might be the way the album was assembled. The list of credits is a mile long, with nearly every track featuring different players. I imagine Brain Damage’s tracks must have been conceived individually and compiled as an album, since there are dramatic stylistic shifts from track to track. While there’s plenty of heavy dub, there’s also ska and other popular music styles like disco and funk. I even hear a bit of the British music hall tradition in the songwriting, a style I know from its influence on bands like the Kinks, the Specials, and Madness. As with the sound of the record, this peculiar stylistic mix stamps Brain Damage as a product of late 70s / early 80s Britain.

Another thing that draws me to this era and the style of music is how heavily integrated it was. Lora Logic brought me to Brain Damage’s Discogs page, and the track she plays on, “Bettah,” is a heavy reggae track with political lyrics that still feel relevant today. As humans, we still deserve better than society is delivering for us. While the sentiment and the core of the sound seems grounded in the experience of West Indian immigrants in London, when Lora Logic’s instantly identifiable sax comes in, it’s something else. Logic’s sound is always off-key, brittle, and marked by a shaky, uncertain vibrato. With just the sound of her horn, Logic signals that Bovell’s demands for a better world don’t just apply to his own community, but all the freaks, the weirdos, and the marginalized. At least within this community, the punks and the dreads recognized they were in the same boat, and they valued one another’s culture, style, and creativity. Together they created something that likely never could or would have existed otherwise.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

For my staff pick this week, I’m writing about the debut LP from this band Lacerate out of Cleveland. I remember Sorry State carried this band’s demo tape, but I’m pretty sure that was like 5 years ago or something? I think I recall checking it out back then, but I couldn’t really remember how Lacerate sounded. Funny enough, I instantly connected the dots when I saw this LP cover, fashioning a similar big ol’ RAMBO knife for artwork just like their demo tape. After some time has gone by, Lacerate finally gets the vinyl treatment courtesy of Konton Crasher.

I gotta say right off the bat that the quality of the music and playing grabbed my attention. I think both the riffs and songwriting on this LP are truly excellent. The way this band constructs a song is right up my alley. I hear a bit of Poison Idea, maybe a bit of Totalitär, but also not really? The label’s description of the record mentions a whole lot of bands that are all from different countries and that to me all sound entirely different haha. But taking that into consideration, it is hard to put my finger on exactly what style of hardcore to compare to what I’m hearing. I feel like this is not a straight up d-beat record, and to me sounds way more like US hardcore—sure, maybe the more euro-influenced end of US hardcore, but still… I think the guitar tone is just about perfect. Bright and cutting, where it almost sounds clean, but still played with style and ferocity. It’s tasteful, sounding more like organic, no frills hardcore than like if the guitar player used a Metal Zone pedal or something. I wouldn’t necessarily say I have any gripe with the record, but I will say that the vocals are pretty unconventional. Not like they’re a hurdle by any means, but I think the vocalist sounds quite unique and took me a moment to get used to. Follow me here: the singer almost sounds somewhere between Tam’s vocals on Turn Back Trilobite and Born To Die In Gutter-era Discharge. Sounds hard to imagine, right? You might hear what I mean when you check this out. I was definitely pleasantly surprised to find out about a raging band I didn’t know too much about. For all you punk-ass mofos out there who are hesitating to pull the trigger on this stark, black & white record cover with a big Crocodile Dundee knife on it, definitely give this a shot. “That’s not a knife!”

Short and sweet this week. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Hey there, readers, and thanks for pulling us up on your computer device again this week. Another week with more doom and gloom in the world and iconic figures departing us, but without getting too depressed about that, let’s try to concentrate on the good things in our lives and stuff that makes us happy. As you are reading this, it must mean that one of those happy things for you is music. Snap. That’s why we are all here and why I love coming to work and being around music all day.

This week I confess to not having a proper staff pick to add to the newsletter. This entry is being composed at the traditional last minute with not too much to say, certainly nothing too clever or witty or informative, but hopefully you’ll forgive me. I have been having some ongoing back and leg pain issues that leave me pretty wiped out by the end of the day and unable to do much of anything least not write some intelligent prose. So, for this week I’m going to quickly highlight two records from our bargain bin I plucked and thought were cool. We try to keep a decent bargain bin section, so next time you are in the store, remember to look down at the floor bins and at the display bin by the counter and flick through. It has been said that our cheap stuff is the equivalent of, if not better than, the entire stock of some other stores. Maybe? I know we make sure there are always some goodies in there for the diggers and those on a budget. A great place for beginners and old hands alike.

From our Jazz bins, I found one called The Jazz Life! This was a compilation of tracks recorded in 1960 and 1961 that hadn’t been previously released and was compiled by Nat Hentoff, the notable Jazz critic and writer, to coincide with the release of his book of the same name. It came out on the Barnaby label, a subsidiary of Janus Records who distributed it, and was culled from unreleased Candid Jazz recordings. The roll call of artists playing on the sessions is like a who’s who of jazz. Names include Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Booker Little, Kenny Dorham, Eric Dolphy, Kenny Clarke, Booker Ervin and even Lightnin’ Hopkins. The Hopkins track called Black Cat recorded in New York is brilliant and worth the price of admission alone. Another highlight is the cut Lord, Lord Am I Ever Gonna Know, which was recorded in Paris with Lucky Thompson as leader on tenor sax and featuring inspired drumming from Kenny Clarke and some tasty piano from European Martial Solal. It’s cool stuff, man. Dig!

To contrast the hip, cool jazz, my next find was from the Funk and Soul bins and here I have selected an album on Motown from 1977 by Mandre that sports a great Daft Punk-esque cover of a robot in a tuxedo. The sound is pure space funk disco and is awesome. And as Space Funk™ is the new hip thing, I was happy to discover it. Mandre was the alter ego of Andre Lewis who was the keyboard playing founder member of the funk-soul group Maxayn, named after his then wife Maxayn Lewis. As an avenue for his experimentations in electronic sounds and keyboards, Mandre was the name given to his new project after Maxayn disbanded. Signed to Motown, he released three records, of which this is the first. His identity was kept a mystery behind the robot mask. For sure, Daft Punk knew about this guy. Naturally, these futuristic records went largely unnoticed at the time, but over the years curious crate digging DJs and collectors have made a lot of the records from this era desirable and hip again. Sometimes the prices creep up on these things, but for the most part, certainly in recent years, it has always been easy to find these late 1970s and early 1980s major label releases. Perhaps that will change as a new audience discovers them and the prices of classic era funk and soul records continue to climb and become out of reach for the music fan on a budget.

I haven’t fully digested this album yet but have been enjoying it. The track Solar Flight stands out and gives you a fair representation of the goodies held within the rest of the record’s grooves. Apparently late-night listeners to Philly radio station WDAS-FM would have heard this as DJ Tom Brown used it on his show. Fun fact, Andre Lewis was a tester for Roland and was one of the first musicians to take possession of and record with the Roland TR-808 and worked with Roger Linn on developing early digital drum machines. Nifty.

Anyway, keep an eye out for either of these in your local record spot depending on your tastes, but always remember to dig in the dollar bins as you never know what you may find. Until next time friends. Peace and love - Dom

Hi,

I’m sure a lot of readers have heard this band regardless of how new they are, but I am still choosing to write about it cos I’m sure there are some who have yet to hear this fuckin’ hot ass reel. I am under this assumption cos the youtube sensation No Deal uploaded it, and when they upload everyone and their mother knows about it. Ideation is a new band from Tallahassee, FL. I know it’s members of Armor and Protocol, but I don’t know much else. What I do know is the recording sounds amazing. Everything is pushed to the max. Regardless of its intensity the riffs are loud and shimmering in their clarity. The mix on the drums is simply excellent. Although this shit could’ve been recorded in a tin can and it would probably sound sick cos the drummer is so, so damn good. The songs are pretty short, ranging from about 50-80 seconds. It feels like they cram a lot into the short amount of time, though. The songwriting has a fair amount of change-ups. A lot of times when bands do shit like that, I feel like it takes away from the intensity or “pummeling” aspects of the songs. Ideation manages to have some of these characteristics, but executed in perfect taste. Their tempo/rhythm changes just bring even more raw intensity to the songs. The songs are extremely catchy while simultaneously filling you with the urge to punch the person next to you in the fucking face. It’s an excellent tape. I managed to get my copy of this tape from Tallahassee transplant, Seamus (What up!), but I am hoping Sorry State will lock some distro copies down soon. In the mean time you can listen and buy a copy here. Thanks to all my loyal readers and wanna give a shout to Ashley, Sabrina, Tonya, Tina, Gina, Sylvia, Debra, Christina, Sonia, Paula, Inga, Carla, Greta, Barbara, Inca, and Darla.

Essential Logic: Wake Up 12” (1979)

A few weeks ago I wrote about my history with Essential Logic (capsule version: I bought their double CD discography some 20 years ago, didn’t really like it, but I’ve since come around in a big way) so there’s no need to go into that here. Since I got so excited about Lora Logic’s solo album, though, I’ve had my eye out for the Essential Logic records I didn’t have. And whattayaknow, this four-song 12” walked into the store the other day! I scoop things from Sorry State’s used stock for myself all the time, but it’s rare a record pops up that is literally on my want list. I often feel inundated by music and sometimes I can get overwhelmed by checking out all the new releases for the newsletter, but this was a case where I couldn’t wait to get this record home and onto my turntable.

Unlike post-punk bands who trade in icy, minimalist cool, Essential Logic are true maximalists. The band itself is large: a six-piece with two guitars and two saxophones, with Lora switching between alto and tenor sax and vocals. So many people playing at full force can kick up quite a racket, and indeed Wake Up blares like few others in its class. However, the songs are maximalist not just in their performance, but in their construction too. These tracks are knotty beasts, jammed full of stops, starts, and quick changes in rhythm, all of which the band executes precisely. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the new Gauze album, and I see similarities with Essential Logic. Both bands throw ideas at you faster than you can process them, and while this can make for a disorienting first listen, I find myself rapt on subsequent spins as I untangle these compressed studies in rhythmic diversity.

While Wake Up shares this sense of density and complexity with the Lora Logic solo album that so engrossed me a while back, it has a different, grittier sound. While there is some overlap in personnel beyond Lora herself, from what I understand, the Red Crayola was more or less the backing band for Pedigree Charm, and their playing on that record has a studied approach. Wake Up, however, sounds like the band is hanging on four dear life, navigating these songs’ baroque arrangements like someone who is just learning the art of plate spinning. There’s something to be said for both approaches, but the four tracks on Wake Up sound like a bolt of raw energy.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

I still feel like I’m recovering from a couple gigs that Scarecrow played this past weekend. Currently, I’m only functioning because of the sheer amount of caffeine I’ve been ingesting over the last couple days. It’s all worth it though, I had a blast. Thanks again to Greenough in Norfolk and the legendary Pat Walsh in RVA. But just be warned, I’m writing this staff pick feeling even more drained than usual haha.

Muerte En Paraíso is the latest release by Mujeres Podridas from Austin, TX. When this newsletter first goes out on Thursday evening, these records will not be available on our webstore quite yet. I wanted to give all of our readers a heads up, because I think this record is KILLER. We’ll have our copies up for sale first thing when we open on Friday, August 20th (which is my birthday, woohoo!).

I was lucky enough to see Mujeres Podridas play live in their hometown when one of my bands was on the bill at This Is Austin, Not That Great fest. They totally blew me away. I felt like they totally just owned the room while they were playing. My ears were totally fresh. This was before I had heard any of their cassettes they had out at the time. As the band took the stage, I was surprised to learn that Mujeres is made up of a couple familiar faces from several other fantastic Austin punk groups like Criaturas, Kurraka, and Vaaska – among others. But unlike the Scandi-influenced riffing or dark, moody hardcore of their previous bands, the songwriting in Mujeres seems to recall an earlier moment in punk.

The front cover of the record is very striking and colorful. Almost kinda looks like Jonestown Aloha by BGK or something. But while I’m looking at the cover, I can’t help but think that the arid Austin climate isn’t exactly close to the ocean haha… But vibrant beach scene depicted in the cover art does seem appropriate once you drop the needle on this LP! On songs like “Al Revés”, the guitarist hits some surfy melodic leads that kinda remind of Agent Orange. In general, Mujeres Podridas’ sound is very reminiscent of late 70s/early 80s California punk. The songs are somewhat straight forward, but also refined and well-crafted that makes me feel like I’m listening to a classic punk record. The singer Dru, who’s done vocal duties in many of her previous bands, just has one of those unrivaled voices in punk that’s instantly recognizable. That said, Dru seems to have such an ability to be versatile and flexible that her approach to singing is totally distinct from band to band. As opposed to the gnarly and intense vocals in Criaturas, the vocals are much more restrained, almost intimately whispered. The tuneful, yet sinister singing in Spanish also hints at bands like Paralisis Permanente. So maybe imagine Paralisis Permanente thrown in a blender with a couple anthemic numbers from the Dangerhouse catalog, namely songs by The Bags or The Avengers. For me, Muerte En Paraíso is a record created by some seasoned punkers trying to make music that gets to the heart of the matter. Dying in paradise might not be so bad if this slab of wax were blasting in the background. Do yourself a favor and scoop this when it goes up for sale on Friday.

That’s all I’ve got. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Greetings one and all. Cheers to you all and thanks for clicking on us once more this week. With so much shit going on around us the whole world over hopefully we provide a much-needed distraction and break. Summer heat is melting our brains down here in North Carolina but thankfully not our records, of which we have tons. Our regular visitors know what I am talking about and if you follow our Friday New Used Arrivals Drops you will too. Last Friday they were busting down our doors and lined up a dozen strong waiting to get at those records as soon as we opened. It was cool and made me so glad to see all these folks excited about their music.

This week as the world continues saying their farewells to Hip-Hop Legend Biz Markie I would like to give my space in the newsletter to quickly mention something cool that he did that I have been enjoying. The other week whilst looking through the last of my stack of music magazines that I have held on to, I saw an issue of Grand Royal Magazine and remembered it had a free Biz Markie flexi disc with it. I flicked through the pages and thankfully it was still there. Awesome.

I used to be a rabid buyer of the music press, buying the weekly newspapers and monthly mags. I literally had tons. When I moved from England to New York my Dad decided to throw them all out as he was worried the weight would damage the attic floor. Pity, as there were old NME, Melody Maker, Sounds, Record Collector, Mojo and other papers and magazines going back to the late 1970s. When I moved to Raleigh from New York I was forced to leave a lot of newer ones behind also. Finally, a couple of years ago I let almost all the remainder go and hung on to some Wax Poetics, Shindigs and two Grand Royal editions. It’s good to purge and declutter but I do love a good music mag.

Grand Royal, as you know, was the name given to the Beastie Boys’ musical empire. Record label and, for a brief while, magazine along with their other adventures. The magazine only ran in physical format for four years and for more information I shall direct you to an article from Flood magazine that tells the story well. Read it here.

The issue with the Biz Markie flexi came in was number two and it’s a killer read, having a great piece on Lee Scratch Perry as the main feature. I learnt so much from that article and the color panel photo showing a lot of the records Perry made gave me a hunting list for years to come. I’m still crossing titles off the list and probably will never get them all. In addition to the Lee Perry story, there are articles from Thurston Moore and Ricky Powell, to name two contributors, and tons of great record reviews and period photos and advertisements. The inside back cover even sports an ad for the upcoming debut album by the Foo Fighters. I wondered at the time how this post Nirvana project would sound and certainly didn’t predict an album of Bee Gees covers twenty-five plus years later. Lol. Not hating, just funny.

The Biz flexi has the genius giving us his rendition of the Elton John classic Benny & The Jets along with some Biz bonus beats. I’m so glad that I had that still and playing it back made me smile. The track was performed in concert with the Beastie Boys and came out on the compilation The Sounds Of Science. It felt like a good way to honor Biz by mentioning it today and here is a link for you to check it out.

Coincidentally, as I was thinking about Biz Markie, I was playing a Big Daddy Kane CD in the car. He pays tribute to his friend Biz on the track Mr. Pitiful, and his words seem a good place to end my short tribute. Rest in peace Biz Markie and make everyone smile in heaven. With you behind the decks, there are going to be some great parties up there.

See you all next time friends. Peace and love – Dom

Hello readers, and thank you for reading.

Today I’m not writing about anything special really, cos everyone knows who Doom is. I heard Doom early in my punk years via the Police Bastard EP. What a fuckin’ great EP. While I enjoy it very much, I pretty much stop listening to anything by Doom after the mid-90’s. It gets a bit “tough” for my liking. In 1993 they released The Greatest Invention...which is one of my favorite ‘later’ 12"s. Sonarize announced they were releasing three Doom 12"s at once: Rush Hour of the Gods, Doomed From The Start, and their Peel Sessions. I was instantly most excited for the Peel Sessions re-issue. Ever since I first heard their Peel Sessions, I could not stop listening, and it quickly became my favorite of their releases. But isn’t that the case for like every band’s Peel Session? Doom’s line-up changed quite a bit over the years, but unfortunately I do not know the changes well at all. Did you know Doom shared members with Extreme Noise Terror? And both bands together had a side project called Excrement of War. I first heard Excrement of War on their split with Dischange. They have a full-length that came out in ‘94 only on CD, but it’s just been re-issued for the first time on vinyl. Sorry State has copies on the way! I had coincidentally been bumpin’ E.O.W. when I heard about this re-issue. I actually didn’t know until I was watching this cool video that all these bands shared members. Again though, Doom’s line-up changed over the years, so the diagram is not an accurate representation of their Peel Sessions line-up. Alright that’s all I got right now. If you don’t own Doom’s Peel Sessions, pick it up right now cos it belongs in every single record collection. ‘Til next time...

I’ve been traveling (and taking Covid tests) like a mofo lately, so I’ve had shockingly little time to sit down and jam records. Shit sucks! I mean, it rules seeing flesh’n’blood friends and family, but my vinyl and magnetic tape ride-or-dies have been horrifically neglected over the past few months. It’s time to change that mess! Here are six newish releases tickling m’fancy this week.

(Counterclockwise from top left)

1. Cerebral Rot “Excretion of Mortality” - Vicious, viscous PNW death metal. #THICC
2. Neos “Three Teens Hellbent on Speed” - Canada’s finest EVER export. The gold standard of blazing high school slop. If you don’t own the original EPs, you NEED this. If you do own the original EPs, you’re a nerd and you’re probably gonna get this anyway. Mad bonus tracks… massive booklet… a total no-brainer.
3. SQK Fromme “S/T” - If you’re fucking with that Neos lp, you should probably be fucking with SQK Fromme (pron. “Squeaky Fromme”), too. Cats from Hologram, Kombat, Closet Christ, etc. bringing the real chaotic/Koro freak shit. I just saw these D.C. fools tear it up under the bridge in Richmond and was pretty floored. Do not miss. (Funny SPK nod, btw.)
4. Scarecrow “Promo” - Speaking of tearing it up under the bridge in Richmond, I also just got done roaddawging for SSR homies Scarecrow. It fucking ruled. While I could take or leave the jabronis who make up the band (jk), these tunes are too sick to skip. Scandi assbeater central!
5. Fatal “6 Songs” - A couple of the aforementioned jabronz plus the OG singer from Out Cold. (don’t forget the period) beating butts in a more Americanized Hardcore® kinda way. They even got Cousin Eric (White Stains, Loose Nukes, Direct Control, etc.) to pen a couple tunes. I like this A LOT.
6. Liars “The Apple Drop” - Yo, there’s a new Liars record? Something about that font and cover photo is bumming me out, but I’m always gonna ride for Angus Andrews’ ostentatious nursery rhyme drone. Hot, cavernous stuff here. Another one!

Zappa (film, 2020)

My partner was out of town all last week, so I spent more time in front of the TV than usual. Inevitably, I ended up watching some music documentaries, among them this Zappa documentary. I’ll watch a well-done documentary on just about any artist or style of music, and even though I’ve never gotten into Zappa’s music, the seal of approval from the hosts of the podcast You Don’t Know Mojack was enough for me to dial up this film on streaming.

Jeff, Dominic, and I were talking about music documentaries a few weeks ago, and I noted how the documentary seems to be an essential element in today’s playbook for transforming a has-been into a “legacy artist.” This occurred to me when I watched the recent HBO documentary on the Bee Gees. That documentary used a lot of footage from the Bee Gees’ episode of Behind the Music, which reran relentlessly on VH1 in the 90s, when I must have seen it a dozen times. Behind the Music presented the Bee Gees (at least partially) as kitsch, but the HBO documentary went to great lengths to argue that the Bee Gees were serious artists who left their stamp on the history of 20th and 21st-century popular music. I remember lots of shots of Barry Gibb gazing pensively over a body of water, presumably contemplating the triumphs and travails of a long and influential career, and of course a long string of talking heads attesting to the group’s brilliance. Which is all fine with me. I like the Bee Gees, and I’m happy to drag all of those copies of Saturday Night Fever out of the bargain bin and into the upper racks.

Zappa also seems at pains to cement its subject’s critical legacy. We see footage of Zappa jamming with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the usual smattering of talking heads proclaiming his brilliance, and many scenes that emphasize his credibility as a musician. He worked with the London Philharmonic. He was one of the first composers to rely on computers. There are several shots of Zappa’s massive archive where he stored master copies of nearly every piece of music he made. God knows he made a lot of music, and whether you value any of it, you have to admit at least some of it was innovative. The snippets that appear in the film even make Zappa’s music seem like something I might want to listen to.

A couple of weeks ago, Usman wrote in his staff pick about liking an artist’s music while feeling alienated from them politically. The Zappa film attempts to mitigate this issue somewhat by emphasizing that Zappa played music with women and people of color when that was uncommon. That’s great. However, what I come away from the film remembering is the way Zappa dehumanized other people, an issue that seemed to grow worse as he aged. It’s very taboo in our present culture to treat people differently based on categories they fall into, and Zappa didn’t seem to do that; instead, he treated everyone like shit. Not to get into Kantian ethics or anything, but Zappa seemed to view people as tools, as means rather than as ends that have value in themselves. Women were there for him to sleep with. Musicians were there to realize his creative vision. Everyone else just seemed to be in his way.

Obviously I didn’t know Frank Zappa, but he appears arrogant and self-absorbed. I see this not only in stories of people’s interactions with him but also in his approach to music itself. massive archive was testament to the fact that he thought all of his ideas were worth recording and saving (the film argues that this quest to document his ideas consumed him later in life, particularly after he realized he was terminally ill). There’s no sense that some of his ideas were better than others… they’re all valuable because they are Zappa’s ideas, and he had little time or patience for ideas that didn’t originate with him.

Zappa’s arrogance also comes across in the famous trope that his music was too difficult to play. His pioneering work with computers was borne out of his frustrations with getting human musicians to realize his ideas. In the early 80s, Zappa hired the London Symphony Orchestra to perform and record his classical compositions. The film shows footage from Zappa’s appearance on Letterman where he states these musicians were about 75% successful in delivering what he considered a “perfect” performance. The implication being that Zappa’s mind was so brilliant and his work so complex that even word-class musicians couldn’t wrap their minds around it.

Like a lot of arrogant people, Zappa also seemed insufferably whiny when things didn’t go his way. Zappa was bitter that his music wasn’t more successful and thought the media blacklisted him after he ended his contract with Warner Brothers Records. After he left Warners, he started his own label, Barking Pumpkin Records, and he touted the fact that his music was independent, insisting that it was only possible because of the freedoms afforded by market capitalism. In the film, he snidely notes that his music isn’t the result of government assistance or private patronage. However, believing in the power of capitalism didn’t prevent him from whining that his difficult, patently uncommercial music didn’t make him more money. To me, he sounds like the right-wingers who are against “big government,” except when it comes to their own entitlements and welfare.

I realize that I am talking out of my ass here, and that I am giving Zappa heads an engraved invitation to punish the shit out of me. I’m not really trying to talk shit or call out someone who has been dead for over two decades; rather, I’m trying to work through my own complicated feelings about Zappa’s music and the film (which I must note was enjoyable and gave me a ton of food for thought). Maybe someday I’ll even get into Zappa’s music. I joked to Dominic that I would probably love Zappa if he were British, and many of the criticisms I made above could be applied just as much to artists I adore (like Mark E. Smith, for one). I also appreciate the irony of criticizing someone for thinking their every musical whim deserves a hearing while flinging my half-formed musings into the inboxes of thousands of people who I’m certain couldn’t care less what I think of the new Zappa doc.

Hello to you all and thanks once again for checking in with us. I hope we find you well this week. Here in North Carolina, we are getting reminded that it is summer in the south with temperatures hitting the triple digits. Phew! Hot. Hopefully you are finding ways to stay cool and remember never leave your children, pets or vinyl in a parked car, even with the windows open.

This week I was inspired to pull some records off the shelf and give them a play based on a conversation I was having in the store with a customer the other day. The gentleman was buying some cool records, one of which was an XTC album – here at SSR we’re all partial to a little XTC – and we started talking about their side project, the fake 60s band The Dukes Of Stratosphear that released the awesome 25 O’ Clock LP in 1985. I mentioned to the guy that we had a record in the store compiling singles put out by English artist Nick Nicely and that he should buy it as his early singles had been a big influence on Andy Partridge and XTC and inspired them in some way to form the Dukes. His single Hilly Fields (1892) b/w 49 Cigars from 1982 is a great 60s psychedelic inspired 45 and you can definitely hear how it would have appealed to someone like Partridge, who also shared a love for records made in the original psychedelic era. Go give them a listen. The Dukes Of Stratosphear record is awesome and positively dripping in psychedelic sounds. Mellotron, fuzz guitar, backwards tape, phasing, you name it. All the 60s studio tricks are used. The cover art especially tells you what sort of record to expect, looking like a cross between The Nuggets cover and Cream’s Disraeli Gears. Although initially XTC didn’t announce that it was them, it’s obvious when you listen who is singing and playing. They adopted fake names for the project and appeared dressed in appropriate garb for press photos. By this time in the early 1980s, the nostalgia for the 1950s that had ruled the 70s had now switched to the 60s and it seemed kind of cool again. They followed up 25 O’ Clock two years later with another mini-LP called Psonic Psunspot which continued where the previous record had left off. Both records are essential listening for fans of 60s psych and XTC. Here are a couple of examples from each LP to check out.

25 O’ Clock and Vanishing Girl both the lead tracks from each record.

XTC were not alone in putting out a side project record inspired by the 1960s and, in fact, The Damned beat them to it by a year with their release Naz Nomad And The Nightmares: Give Daddy The Knife Cindy on Big Beat Records from 1984. This record was packaged to look like a lost soundtrack to an obscure 1960s low budget teen horror movie from America. On it The Damned cover garage and psych songs from the time plus throw in a couple that they wrote themselves. It’s not bad and if you are into this type of music, you will find a lot to like. Whether they bested originals like The Litter’s Action Woman or The Electric Prune’s I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) is debatable, but they gave it a good shot. For lovers of the Nuggets type 60s garage-psych, this is a nice addition to your collection. It is The Damned after all.

The tradition of groups being inspired by the 60s and forming side project bands to indulge their love continued and another cool record that captures the spirit of the original era was one that came out of the Seattle grunge scene in 1997 by a band calling themselves The Wellwater Conspiracy. This group was formed by members of Hater who were themselves a side-project featuring members of Soundgarden and Monster Magnet. They put out a record called Declaration Of Conformity that sips from the same spiked tea that the Dukes and Naz Nomad drank, but updates the sound just a little. For their inspiration, they drew from Syd Barrett mixed with some 13th Floor Elevators and even a touch of early Stooges. In fact, they cover Lucy Leave by Barrett. I picked this record up when it came out and didn’t really know who was behind it and just took it on face value. It didn’t really matter to me who was behind it, and I liked the mystery. Wellwater Conspiracy continued and put out more records in this vein, albeit with different line-up changes, with several notable names coming through the ranks. I can recommend checking into all their records if you are not already familiar with them. I only have the first on vinyl and it’s probably my favorite. The covers and originals are all well done. In addition to the Syd cover, they tackle Sandy by The Carnabeats and Nati Bati Yi by The Spiders who fans of Japanese Group Sounds era might be aware of and I think they do a decent job. Go take a listen.

Lastly, let’s jump to 2008 and the release of The Last Shadow Puppets and their The Age Of The Understatement LP which was another 60s inspired side project, this time featuring Alex Turner from The Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane formerly of The Rascals and The Little Flames. Regardless of your opinions on Arctic Monkeys, I know they are not everyone’s cup of tea, there is no argument that Alex Turner is a terrific wordsmith and live the Monkeys put on a good show. I have seen them several times, more in the earlier years, including two great hot and sweaty shows here in Raleigh. Together with scouser Miles Kane they put together The Last Shadow Puppets as a side project to indulge their mutual love of 60s pop and garage. The two had met when Kane’s band had supported The Monkeys at early gigs and he added guitar parts to some of their tunes, notably the song 505. For The Last Shadow Puppets album, they added orchestra to the recordings and in some ways emulated the sound that artists like Scott Walker had on his great 60s pop records. The title track is a good place to begin to get an idea if you haven’t heard them and I like second single Standing Next to Me also. The whole album is good, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. They took a bit of a hiatus between this album and their next due to commitments to their main bands and solo careers, but did make a follow-up album. Not so good in my opinion, but not horrible either. The first one is the way to go, though.

Alright, that’s enough from me. Four examples of records that were made by artists in love with the 1960s and all four decent attempts, I think. Dig in and hopefully enjoy. See you next time. Peace and love- Dom

I saw this artwork and immediately recognized it was Joe B’s art. So I put the record on right away haha. His art is so amazing, on multiple layers. His illustrations are always so expressive to me, almost “theatrical” in a way. The way he lays his collage out is always so damn eye-catching. It always maintains a constant motion on the page. The foundation of his art is the most important layer to me, his meaning. The feelings and ideas expressed in his art always seem very intentional and thought-provoking. These three elements together make his art so damn powerful, and just straight up bad-fucking-ass. He is probably one of my favorite contemporary artists, and I hate art. Maybe I’ll elaborate on my hatred for art at a later date hehe. Most of my friends think I am stupid for having this opinion but whatever. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with the fact that I don’t view myself as a musician.

Alright anyway then, this Exil LP! I knew nothing about this record before I saw it in store. About 30 seconds into the LP I knew I would love it haha. I fucking gooooooos. It sounds like Swedish hardcore, on the catchy side. Well, the band is actually from Sweden. I do hear a slight “Japanese” edge to it though. I am always looking for an LP I can put on that fuckin’ bangs all the way through but doesn’t get boring with the repetitiveness. I like that; all bang, no bore hehe. I love EPs alot, I have many more EPs than LPs, but sometimes I don’t wanna be flipping every 5 minutes. This LP is not crammed full like like Ni Maste Bort or something, but it has ten tracks with an average of at least 2 minutes per song. Most of the tracks are fast-paced hardcore with urgent d-beat drumming, but they do have a few mid-paced songs. The slow song on the A side I actually like a lot. I am really inclined to hate mid-tempo songs (unless they are played Dischange/Meanwhile style) but this one gets me fucking amped. We actually had stocked this LP before I left town but I didn’t make time to write about it. I’m pretty sure we sold out of the initial copies and we are on the restock. Exil: Warning is definitely worth a listen and you can pick up a copy from our web-store here! Alright, thank you for reading and thanks to everyone for the support! ‘Til next time..

Various: West of Memphis- Voices for Justice

I briefly mentioned some true crime related records in another SSR pick and I’m feeling compelled to write about one of them. I was scrolling through Facebook and came across an ad for the app Cameo. For those of y’all that don’t know, different celebrities (I use that term VERY lightly) have accounts and you can pay them to record personalized videos for you. Scrolling through the app’s celebrity list is pretty wild; from TikTok users, 90 Day Fiance stars, and old washed up actors, there are some odd names on the list. The one that made me stop and laugh was Damien Echols. Yes, the accused Satan worshipper of the infamous ‘West Memphis Three’ case in the 90s is now making short personalized videos for anyone that will pay. He spent most of his life on death row where he studied magic and was later released after a lot of public outcry. The West Memphis Three is one of the most well-known cases of the Satanic Panic that hit small towns in the 1990s. If you haven’t seen the three part documentary ‘Paradise Lost’, it is a must watch. It was filmed during the height of the investigation and really brings to light how fucked the whole thing was. It’s also an amazing time capsule of a 1990s small town wrapped in fear.

Before Echols was released, there was apparently a benefit concert, another documentary, and this record was released to raise awareness of the injustice that happened and raise funds to help get this innocent man out of jail. I found this compilation and didn’t know any of that information. I just bought it because of its relation to a story I found fascinating. I still have yet to see the documentary of the same name but, like this record, there are some pretty impressive names attached to it.

I have to say, I’m indifferent about the majority of this compilation, but it’s worth owning for the tracks where Henry Rollins reads some of Echols death row letters backed by music from Nick Cave. It’s heart wrenching to think that this teenager’s young life was completely ruined by hearsay; even more frustrating is the incompetence of the justice system for allowing someone to be locked up for almost 20 years with minimal evidence against them.

Like every other slightly alt girl in the world, I love listening to true crime podcasts and the main theme I find, the main reason some serial killers were so successful, is from how shitty the police investigations generally were. I could go down a deep hole about how we need to abolish the prison system and police forces, but that’s not really what I’m writing about today. Although I fully believe in abolishment, I will say it is pretty nice to see the difference 20ish years makes for someone like Damien Echols. He went from an edgy teen to a death row inmate to one of the foremost voices on modern magic, and you can even personally connect with him through that silly app. I guess everyone needs to make a living somehow! He has changed his narrative and isn’t viewed as someone who missed out on 20 years of their life, but as someone who was strong enough to make it through that long of solitary confinement.

With so much negative shit happening in the world, it’s easy to get bogged down by hopelessness, but something as silly as a (kind of shitty) compilation can remind you that changes can be made with the right and enough voices behind it.

Pink Fairies: Never-Neverland 12” (1971)

This week we got in a brand new reissue of the Pink Fairies debut album, 1971’s Never-Neverland. Considering how much trouble I had tracking down a vinyl copy of this album when I decided I needed one, I thought I’d shed some light on this record for those of you who might not have checked it out.

The Pink Fairies were movers and shakers in the early 70s London underground scene, and they’re connected to scores of other bands you might have heard, including the Pretty Things, Hawkwind, Motorhead, the Deviants, Twink, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and doubtless many more. Unsurprisingly given all these connections, I came to Never-Neverland in a roundabout way. While I’ve known the Pink Fairies’ name for a long time—I’m pretty sure I bought their 1976 single on Stiff Records in the mid-90s—I hadn’t heard any music that grabbed me. I took another look at the Pink Fairies when I noticed three records I like—the Pretty Things’ S.F. Sorrow, Twink’s Think Pink, and the Rings’ 1977 Chiswick single—all shared a member, drummer / vocalist Twink. It still boggles my mind that one musician was present and engaged with so many of the great flowerings of the British musical underground, from the 60s R&B / mod scene to high psychedelia to the hippie free festival scene to pub rock and punk. What a life!

I’m no historian of the Pink Fairies, and it seems like you need to be one to understand the series of events that led up to Never-Neverland. The Pink Fairies was a name that floated around London’s underground scene, getting attached to various projects with a wide variety of lineups. Eventually, a band coalesced, led by drummer / vocalist Twink and augmented with 3 members from the Deviants, who had dissolved during a disastrous American tour. This new version of the band, based in the London hippie enclave Ladbroke Grove, eventually connected with Hawkwind and began playing the same circuit of free festivals and impromptu gigs, many of which ended with musicians from both bands taking the stage as Pinkwind for an epic jam session.

Polydor Records signed the band and released the scorching single “The Snake,” a blistering fast, hard-rocking song that reminds me of the MC5 at their most electric. “The Snake” was backed with “Do It,” an extended version of which appears as the first track on Never-Neverland. Maybe I’m crazy, but the lunging rhythm of “Do It” reminds me of Black Flag, and if you’re a punker coming to the Pink Fairies for the first time, it’s the perfect gateway drug for the band’s sound.

As for that sound, while it’s similar to Hawkwind, the Pink Fairies of Never-Neverland still had plenty of high-energy R&B in their sound, and they brought an amphetamine-fueled energy to their psychedelic rock. Unlike the Sabbath end of the hard psychedelia spectrum, there isn’t much blues influence on this album, instead cramming echo-drenched lead guitar excursions into the more compact R&B sound of the early Pretty Things, Rolling Stones, and Them.

After Never-Neverland, this lineup of the Pink Fairies dissolved. The band’s next iteration eventually fell under the control Larry Wallis, who left the band after 1973’s Kings of Oblivion to join Lemmy in the original lineup of Motorhead. The Pink Fairies have reformed countless times with a huge cast of characters, and dozens of archival releases have wheeled out studio and live material from all these different versions. Maybe one day I’ll find time to pull that thread.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

I’ve always found releases on the Discos Huayno Amargo label very alluring. I grabbed the Scythe 7” a few years back and not only is it musically cool, but particularly the packaging really grabbed my attention. Beautiful screenprinted sleeve that looks makeshift and DIY, but also special and unique. Sorry State recently stocked a few new titles on Huayno Amargo and the record that to me was most reminiscent of the label’s previous presentation is the Hwanza 7”.

Hwanza is a hardcore punk band based out of Seoul, South Korea. This 7” I’m writing about is actually a re-release of their 2019 demo tape. For me though, this recording is definitely deserving of the vinyl treatment. Maybe I was already in this frame of mind after listening to the Pesadilla flexi, but based on the packaging alone, you might expect Hwanza to sound like a noisy raw punk band. The mid-paced first track slithers with some chromatic riffs that sound kinda like more contemporary bands like Glue. I hesitate to make such a high caliber comparison, but the barking vocals almost remind me of John Brannon. The singer really brings some intensity and power to the band. And really, the sound of the songs isn’t too far off from Negative Approach either. I hear a lot of different influences going on. So, when you combine the raw 4-track style production, the gruffness of the vocals, the semi-clean and frantic riffs, and the hectic but also direct songwriting… Hwanza sounds like an early 80s US hardcore band to me. The playing is kinda loose, but absolutely ferocious. A riff will begin a song and it launches into a blast of fury, all toppled by totally reckless howling. This dude’s snarling. Kinda makes me think of YDI? I’m having a hard time putting my finger on it.

I just love hearing what is going on in hardcore in other places in the world. Not unlike Slant, it does seem like the Seoul hardcore scene has an inclination toward incorporating some parts that are mosh-worthy, meat and potatoes, and HARD. Still, it’s not as if I think Slant is slick by any means, but by comparison, Hwanza is a little rougher around the edges. Personally, I think that’s cool.

Not to sound like a broken record, but I really do find the packaging compelling. Once again, it’s an all screenprinted ordeal. The black and silver ink on red background looks so cool. It’s minimalist yet dynamic, raw yet beautifully designed, organic yet clearly hand-made… I dunno, I probably sound cheesy, but I think Discos Huayno Amargo’s sleeve designs are true works of art. Also, the lyric insert looks sharp and classic. The singer of this band reached out and sent Sorry State a link to English translations of the lyrics. That was rad.

Welp, I don’t think I have much else to say. Check this record out. It’s cool.

As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Hey friends! Thanks for clicking on us again this week, we appreciate it. We know there are plenty of other internet diversions and things to read whilst sitting on the bog, so thank you.

Another full week here at Sorry State Towers, tons of dope records being added to our inventory, new and used, so come on in.

On the new tip I must mention the latest Durand Jones And The Indications album Private Space. Their third full length sees them taking off into space and adding more synths to the mix, giving the record a more modern edge to the retro soul-funk sound of the previous records. I love it and for me, these guys can do no wrong. Certainly, one of the best current soul groups playing today. My man, Kurtis Powers over at The Face Radio has been spinning them on his show from day one and it has been great to see their rise to success. We have copies in stock and have the beautiful “Red Nebula” version. Check it out here.

Personally, this week I have been rocking hip-hop. I typically always manage to play at least one rap record a week, often more. My tastes go back to the old school for the most part and anything released between 1985 and 1995 is the sweet spot. I can remember during the early 80s back in England becoming exposed to the new sounds coming from America. It was exciting, there was nothing like it. I still have a distinct memory of being in school one day and a friend handing me a cassette tape of this new style of music, which he had labelled “Scratching Music” on the tape. Mind blowing. By the time I had joined the ships and flown to Miami in late 1988, the Golden Era TM of Hip-Hop was just beginning. Each week when we came into port, I would rush to the music store and load up on CDs of the latest releases, aided by the newly started The Source magazine, which I subscribed to from its beginning. My cabin was the spot for hanging out and listening to music, even the ship’s DJ used to come down and get tips and borrow things from me. Over the years, I have parted company with most of my CDs and tapes, but do have one or two still. One tape that I played until it literally broke was a compilation of artists that recorded for the label Wild Pitch. It came out in 1994 was called simply Wild Pitch Classics and had so many of what had become and were becoming some of my favorite hip-hop tunes. Artists included Gang Starr, Main Source, Latee, Ultramagnetic MC’s and Lord Finesse. All kicking in with great cuts. Perhaps my fave, though, were the two songs from Staten Island’s UMC’s. I fell in love with their good times but conscious style of hip-hop and really can’t recommend their 1991 album Fruits Of Nature enough. It’s still a record I pull out and play and the cuts One To Grow On and Blue Cheese have been in my DJ cannon whenever a happy party vibe is required. In fact, I slipped one in on the latest episode of Worldy this past week. You can click the links to check ‘em out. Good times.

After my tape of Wild Pitch Classics broke, I found a CD version a few years later which is almost worn out too now and then only just this year whilst perusing a Discogs listing I found a promo vinyl version that a dealer had. I added that to my cart along with a Big Daddy Kane album and a couple of 12” singles he had. Great prices too. I was pumped, but then the curse of the postal service struck, and my package got lost. Oh well, too bad. Just about to give them up when three months later a miracle happened, and they showed up. Awesome. Over the years I probably have most of the tunes from that compilation either on album or 12” single but there is something about the running order and selection that still gets to me, and I am instantly taken back, and my mind becomes flooded with memories. Such is the power of music. Brilliant.

I’ll wrap it up there for this week. Thanks for reading. I hope you have some fun with your records this week and are making those connections. There’s nothing like it is there?

See you all next time. Peace and love – Dom.

Hello, and thank you for reading. I’m still out of town, but heading home today. So here we go with more random shit... My good friend back home, Sali, loved Wolfpack. I never got into them back then. Although over the years I have accumulated their handful of EPs. As I got each one, I slowly started to dig the band more and more. The sound was originally too “polished” for me I think, and there are definitely some elements I really don’t like at all. Namely the breakdowns, hehe. But what really fucks me up is back in the day when I was hanging with Sali, I never knew Tomas Jonsson from Anti-Cimex was the original vocalist of the band. I’m pretty sure I didn’t discover that until I found this video. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about this footage but it appears to be filmed while they were gigging in Germany. The video is mostly them playing live, but the interview stuff and random bits between really makes it worth it. Jonsson seems like he’s wasted and the shit he says is hilarious. Regardless of the laughs, I love watching the live footage. The shit is mean. Even though some of the riffage gets a bit “epic” their songs maintain this constant pummeling edge. Jonsson has always been an insanely powerful vocalist. I assume most people have read this interview from 2013 with him, but if not here you go! I think this is like the last interview he did? I could be mistaken, and would love to know if there is more recent stuff. Now that I think of it, I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a proper interview with Jonsson. Alright that’s all. Thank you for the support. ‘Til next time...

Various: Bippp- French Synth-Wave 1979/85

This amazing compilation was in the new Forced Exposure order we got in recently and it unlocked some old memories I’d forgotten about until now. I want to take you back to the good ol’ days before MediaFire was ruined and Blogspot was THE place to get any type of internet entertainment. People used to make a living off of their Blogspot—wild. I can’t remember how, but I stumbled upon a blog called Cosmic Hearse and I ate up every single post. It really informed my taste, even more than I probably realize, because so much of the music I listened to has lodged itself in the recesses of my brain. I lost all the files I downloaded like five computers ago, but I seem to keep finding the records at Sorry State. Thanks, Daniel, for having impeccable taste, I guess. I think I briefly mentioned this blog when I wrote about the Scam 7” I got from Sorry State years ago. The first record I put on our staff pick bulletin board was Comus’ ‘First Utterance’ that I also found out about on Cosmic Hearse and later purchased at Sorry State. I can now add this to the list!

This record feels like a dark smokey room in an art school where everyone unironically wears all black and turtlenecks. Does that make sense? This is definitely the bleakest music to make me tap my foot, and it reminds me a lot of the weird keyboard artists I sat through at house shows in college. I haven’t listened to this since I lost the files on a computer in high school, so I haven’t been able to delve very deep into this genre in the past 24 hours. The description from the label says this comp features the ‘cream of the crop’ and without knowing much outside of it, I’m going to just go ahead and agree. I know a good amount about French art in this time period and this music is the exact sound I’d expect to be the backdrop. Experimental, dark, oddly beautiful, and absolutely revolutionary.

I’d write more but I have to delve face first in these memories and unlock other music I found on Cosmic Hearse. If you’re interested in finding some real gems, some well-known now, some still lost to the ether, Cosmic Hearse is still around although all the download links are dead and it hasn’t been updated since 2012. RIP

http://cosmichearse.blogspot.com/

For whatever reason, my brain isn’t seeing things in the wide-angle, synthetic view that I try to take with my staff picks, so instead this week I’m just going to tell you about 5 things I’ve recently listened to.

Poly Styrene: Talk in Toytown 7” (1980)

Despite being a pretty big X-Ray Spex fan, I’ve never checked out Poly Styrene’s solo material. In fact, when I came across this single I had forgotten she had a solo career, and consequently went in with zero expectations. “Talk in Toytown” is a reggae-inflected, synth-heavy song that I like. While it doesn’t have the anthemic exuberance of X-Ray Spex, it has similar artsy cool to her old bandmate Lora Logic, who I’ve been listening to a lot lately.

Destroy All Monsters: What Do I Get 7” (1979)

Third single by this post-Stooges Ron Asheton band. We’ve had those singles come through the shop a few times and I’ve always passed on them in favor of things higher on the want list. Now I’ve fixed the first of three mistakes. I listen to Destroy All Monsters’ compilation CD all the time… it’s in that pocket of hooky rock and roll where I’d place the Heartbreakers.

Various: Recommended Records Sampler 2x12” (1982)

The copy of this double LP I picked up is warped and the first couple of songs on each side don’t play, but there’s still a wealth of great music here. Recommended Records released a slew of music in the 80s with an eclectic roster that drew from across the left field, from free jazz to post-punk to 20th century classical. All of that and then some is represented here. While some artists on the label are a lot to handle in larger doses (I struggle to get through entire Residents albums), the sampler format works well here.

Pink Lincolns: Back from the Pink Room 12” (1987)

Florida’s Pink Lincolns are one of those bands I stumbled onto semi-randomly in my youth. I can’t remember if I knew their name because Ben Weasel wears a Pink Lincolns shirt on the insert of a Screeching Weasel record, or if I just ordered all three volumes of their Sumo Fumes series of EPs because they were super cheap, but I had them when I could count the number of pieces in my 7” collection on my fingers and toes. The Pink Lincolns may very well be the band who introduced me to Wire, which is crazy to think about. Anyway, Back from the Pink Room still sounds good to me, snotty and obnoxious like Boogada-era Screeching Weasel, but with more nuanced, UK 77-influenced songwriting (think Buzzcocks and Generation X). I come back to this record every few years and I’m always glad I did.

Public Image Ltd.: Commercial Zone 12” (1984)

I thought I wrote a little about Commercial Zone when I chose Public Image’s Live in Tokyo as my staff pick some time ago (turns out I was remembering incorrectly), but I have been on the lookout for this record for a while and finally got a copy. I love the first three PiL albums, but nothing later in their discography has ever moved me. Commercial Zone, a kind of “lost” album between the third and fourth ones, which is about as close as we’ll ever get to another great PiL album. Some of these songs appear on This Is What You Want, but they’re de-sucked here. They might lack the monstrous tone of original bassist Jah Wobble, but they still have some spark of PiL’s original brilliance.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Every week, when the time comes to write one of these bad boys, I always try to see if I can bring some attention to a new release we have available in the store. But I gotta be honest, with the exception of the Neos reissue, I haven’t given proper attention to any new release. Definitely not enough to write a thoughtful description. It’s not that I don’t care. I think the new Sial 7” is amazing and inventive, but I haven’t spent enough time with it. Maybe I’ll write about Sial next week by the time it sells out haha.

Instead, I’ve just been listening to The Damned a lot. Big surprise, I’m back on my bullshit. As I’m sure is also the case with many of Sorry State’s punk-ass readers, I love The Damned. Like, I loooooooveeee The Damned. I think I’ve probably told just about everyone I know that Machine Gun Etiquette is for sure in my top 3 favorite records… by any band EVER. Lately though, surprisingly enough, Strawberries has been moving up the ranks as one of my favorite Damned albums. I don’t know why exactly, but this record is really resonating with me lately. Maybe it’s because of the kind of mood I’ve been in.

Now, as much I know some people think the first Damned album is the be-all end-all, I’ve also learned there’s a whole category of Damned fans out there who think that their prime was basically 79-84. Like, no Brian James necessary. Once the band broke down their creative restraints and made an ambitiously leftfield record like Machine Gun Etiquette, it does seem like moving forward that the experimentation flood gates were totally open. By the time you get to the Black Album, you have 17-minute long epics like “Curtain Call”. Still, amongst all these forays into adventurous and unusual songwriting, The Damned still always manage to squeeze in some amazing 3-minute pop bangers.

A song off of Strawberries that I’ve reacquainted myself with lately that’s really grabbed my attention is “Under The Floor Again”. Listening to this song the other night, I came to the realization it might be one of the band’s all-time best. This song in particular is such a lush and ethereal composition. The vocal melody is classy in its pop familiarity yet sweepingly sophisticated as it flows with the subtle chord changes. I will say that Dave Vanian seems to have a penchant for the dramatic. It’s not exactly musical theater, but Vanian’s performance does have a certain performative flamboyance to it. Still, unless you’re a total curmudgeon, all pretense is easily suspended when you realize that whatever perceived extravagance thinly veils complex, mature and expressive songwriting. I think more noticeably on this album than previous moments in their catalog, The Damned incorporate clear influence from 60s psychedelia – oh yes, sitar included. When you blend that ambitious 60s influence with a campy, yet sincere goth sensibility, you’ve got magic. Then out of nowhere, the band breaks into this slow, dreamy passage with ghostly vocals that sounds like it could have been on a Pink Floyd record. And I mean that in a good way. It’s amazing. Also, Captain Sensible’s lead guitar playing during this passage is so killer. The lyrical content describes a rather depressing loss of hope and the begrudging decision to disconnect from normalcy in order spend life underground. Perhaps metaphorical? Or maybe not? All you need is darkness, isolation, beer – and then maybe you feed the rats every once in a while. Yeah, pretty goth. Somehow, I do identify with the sentiment sometimes.

That’s all I’ve got. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week, I’ll be under the floor again,

-Jeff

What’s up Sorry Staters? Are you feeling good? I certainly hope so. We missed you last week, but the big dawg needed his break. We haven’t been slacking here in the meantime. There’s been a ton of great used records processed and some cool new stuff added to the bins.

Personally, I have had the roller coaster emotional ride this week. Some shitty life stuff mixed in with some good things. To hell with the bad stuff and cheers to the good things. With your indulgence I shall tell you about a good thing that happened to me and use that as my focus for my pick this week.

So, for several years now I have been a listener to an online radio station based in Brooklyn called The Face Radio. Started by one man, Kurtis Powers, with a two hour show each Sunday, it has now flourished into a full schedule with full days of new and diverse shows seven days a week. For the past few weeks, I have been guesting on one of the shows called Worldy hosted by DJ Matt Pape. His format is an open one, music without borders but not necessarily World music as it is typically viewed, hence worldy. I like that, as it keeps things open and doesn’t end up in a musical cul-de-sac. Anyway, Matt and Kurtis invited me to join the Face DJ family officially and so now Worldy will be co-hosted each Monday by Matt and yours truly. I’m well chuffed. We are going to have a lot of fun and although perhaps not the slickest on the mike will guarantee top quality tunes presented with sincere passion. Hopefully that comes across and we provide a fun couple of hours.

This past Monday we did an all-Latin music special that took in Afro-Cuban, Jazz, Salsa, Boogaloo, Funk and Disco. I think it was a fun listen. You can check it out here in the archives. We called the show Cuba Libre, and I played a song called that from the album which will be my pick for you all this week. The album is called Ritual by Nico Gomez And His Afro Percussion Inc. It came out on Omega International in 1971 and was released in Holland primarily, with a pressing also in France and Australia. Featuring an instantly attention-grabbing sleeve, it is chock full of Latin funk bombs and has been a DJ favorite for many years, demanding top dollar. I first became aware of it in the late 1990s when I picked up a facsimile pressing that was available back then. I had no clue what it was, but knew instinctively that it was going to be good. It’s since become a must have in the record box when out spinning records of this sort. There’s barely a duff track on the whole thing but people pay big money for the title track Ritual and one called Lupita, plus the one I mentioned, Cuba Libre. There was another reissue in the early 00s and finally a full reissue from Mr. Bongo in 2013 that should make it easier for you to track down. Rather than me describe how awesome those tracks sound, just click the links above and let your ears tell you for yourself.

Nico Gomez, real name Joseph Van Het Groenewoud, was born in Holland and spent his childhood living in the Caribbean where he became a musical prodigy and proficient in Afro-Cuban and South American styles. Moving back to Europe, he developed a career starting from the late 1950s as a band leader, composer and musician. He plied his trade primarily in Holland and Belgium and among other projects he was in the Chakachas who were a European-Afro-Cuban studio group that went on to have a huge hit with the song Jungle Fever in 1970. Most would agree though that the Ritual album is the one.

I won’t keep you much longer but did want to quickly mention that we just got in a couple of cool reissue singles from Breakout Records. They have put out the two 45s by English band The Cybermen that originally came out in the late 1970s on Rockaway Records. Particularly the first self-titled E.P., these are good punky pop new wave records and worthy of your $9. Fans of John Peel rock, KBD and Doctor Who step this way.

Okay, thanks for reading. I hope I have steered you towards something good and I’ll see you next time. Cheers – Dom.

Hello readers,

Thanks for reading. This Staff Pick will be a bit unorthodox, as I am on vacation with my partner Red. The picture above was taken yesterday, in the backyard of where we’re staying. I'm very grateful to be able to take a vacation like this; it is a privilege. The house where we stay has a fair amount of records actually (and a ton of books) since it was Red's grandparent's crib. There is not much that interests me though. It's mostly like Beatles and other '70s rock alongside a lot of classical music. I listened to the first Hawkwind LP the other day. That was my first and probably last time haha. There is a Bad Brains 12" here though too... it’s kinda warped and sun-bleached to hell. It's just a re-issue too, but I don't care it's still coming home with me, with permission of course haha. I don't own any Bad Brains stuff. When I was young I heard the were shitty homophobes so I had always completely avoided their music. I remember hearing HR had apologized for such behavior over the years. I don't know if it that is true, but I ended up checking them out eventually. The 1982 cassette is fucking insane. It's a shame they were (are?) shitty bigots. It's also strange to me that a band with such ideologies could make it so "far" in the world of punk. But, I wasn't around back then so I have no idea how things worked. It's not like MDC could post online after the gig and say Bad Brains was homophobes.

Another band I had always avoided from a young age was Skrewdriver. I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. When I was getting into punk and hanging out there was lots of spikey punks and plenty of skinheads. Sometimes Skrewdriver would come up, and skinheads would defend their first album tooth and nail. I didn't care if "first album wasn't racist" I still never gave them my time of day. These people were wrong anyway when they thought the band wasn't initially "racist." Let me give a little history on the band before I explain why Skrewdriver was always fucking racist. It's kind of funny that the band wasn't really into Skinhead when they began, but after pressure from their label they adopted the attire. I can't remember where I read that, but the Discogs page says it too so I assume it’s accurate. However the Discogs page is wrong about their '77-'79 line-up.

Whoever wrote that is mistaken, cos the line-up was not the exactly same during those years. The popular story is that Ian Stuart started the band, they broke up in the late '70s but reformed in the early '80s releasing Back With A Bang! (The bang is racism I guess haha.) Yes, the band did break up in the late '70s and reformed with Ian Stuart being the sole original member. Yes, they lyrics became blatantly racist when the '80s came around. But it is not just to say the band was not racist in their early years. During their All Skrewed Up era the band in fact played R.A.C. gigs and B.N.P. benefit gigs alongside other right-wing bands. So anyone who claims the first line-up is not racist, is under the wrong impression. The very wrong impression. Yeah, the songs do not contain hate speech on All Skrewed Up, but they were played at militant right-wing gigs. As a result of gigs like this, skinheads went out to terrorize immigrants and blacks alike, and they especially targeted business owned by these demographics. Enough said.

I got into the Templars at a young age. They seemed cool for a number of reasons but namely cos they were Oi! and didn't have hate songs. I mean hey, they had a black guy in the band... I was always weirded out about the patriotic lyrics that popped up in some of their songs though. As I got older, I closely re-evaluated songs like Stick To Your Guns. When I listen to it now it just sounds like some rhetoric you'd hear from the NRA. How did I not see it like this before? It's funny how you interpret things in different ways as you get older. But there is not many ways you can interpret this video of Templars covering Case of Pride (Skrewdriver) in front of an American flag haha. Alright that's all for now. Thanks for reading. I hope everyone is well. Oh shit, I forgot to mention... to be transparent, I do own a copy of All Skrewed Up. I picked it up on tour in like 2015 at Reckless Records. I understand why people defend it so much, cos it is in fact a very well written album. Welcome to the paradox. Alright, thanks for reading. I hope everyone is well. 'Til next time..

I haven’t felt inspired by any of my recent acquisitions. Lots of flea market and thrift store purchases because...why not? If the cover is cool enough, it’s worth spending $1 or less on ‘em. Honestly more embarrassed by my other purchases; am I really old enough that all the music I listened to in middle school is getting a vinyl repress? The nostalgia is deadly for my record budget! I’m already losing Sorry State cred on our Instagram, I can’t do it on the newsletter too. So I looked through my shelves and stopped at my ever growing Star Trek section and decided to pull some out and write about one of the less embarrassing facets of my collection.

I’m more of a TNG gal, but vinyl wasn’t big in the early 90s so I’ve accepted that most of the Trek records I own will be from the original series. As much as Captain Kirk bugs me, I have to admit I’ve grown fond of these radio plays and read along records. These short, simple stories are the perfect way to get in my Star Trek fill without sitting down for an episode that inevitably turns into four more and falling asleep on the couch.

I started my Star Trek record collection with a few of the movie soundtracks and slowly came across so many other cool things! My absolute favorite is definitely the Trek Bloopers I found at a used book store a few years ago. I mean, come on, William Shatner bloopers? So fucking funny. And my very first Record Store Day purchase was Trek related, of course. The repress of ‘Mr. Spock’s Music from Outer Space’ was a no-brainer for me. But after I put it on...I can’t say I’m a big fan of Leonard Nimoy’s voice but my collection wouldn’t be complete without it.

I just think it’s a cool thing- letting two of my interests combine. The more I dig into my collection for the newsletter and the more I buy, I feel like my records are becoming a great reflection of my interests and taste. I have some really cool true crime related records I’ll talk about eventually. I’ve started grabbing records (usually classical) if they have an old painting I like or recognize from my art history classes. All of this is to say, I guess, that the further I dig myself into this record collecting hole, the more reasons I find to expand my collection or dig through a section at a store I’d normally glance over.

Seeking respite from a nigh-endless barrage of recent hardcorepunkmetal mania, I was thrilled to stumble onto the new(ish) split from West Coast freaker stalwarts Bastard Noise and Amps For Christ in the SSR racks the other day.

Now these are—of course—two projects I love and respect, but they’re also two projects I’ve failed to follow closely over the last decade or so. Still, I could roughly assume some traits about what I was purchasing, and thankfully I assumed correctly.

Man Is The Bastard offshoot Bastard Noise continues to churn terrifying hellscapes recalling Gollum as he spouts humanity’s last rites from the bow of a sinking ship, and OTHER Man Is The Bastard offshoot Amps For Christ gloriously persists in that singular realm of energy-starved cyborgs jamming prog-noise-bluegrass for birds. These things bring me great comfort, and this record appropriately rips.

Big ups to Raleigh’s To Live A Lie Records for securing such behemoths of weird, and apologies to Eric Wood for the bootleg shirt (a friend made like 15 of ‘em in 2006). <3

Cro-Mags: Age of Quarrel 12” (1986 Profile / Rock Hotel Records)

This week Age of Quarrel is getting a new Record Store Day reissue (which we’ll have in stock), so now seems like a good time to get into my feelings on the record. Just to say up front, I love this record and I endorse it. I’m so stoked to have it back on the shelves that I ordered 100 copies, but since Record Store Day is Record Store Day we only got about 20. Anything we have left will hit our webstore at 8PM our time on Saturday and they’ll go quickly, but if you miss out, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a copy at or near retail price if you put in a little work. We’re all people who will put in a little work to get a good record, right?

Back to Age of Quarrel. It looms large in hardcore’s history, representing a fork in the road. After Age of Quarrel, a certain segment of hardcore splintered from punk and began evolving as its own more or less distinct subculture. Not that Age of Quarrel came out of nowhere—antecedents like Victim in Pain and the Abused’s Loud and Clear EP landed years earlier—but something crystalized with this album. While it’s grounded in punk, I’m torn on whether I’d even consider it a punk record. It’s something else, though it still keeps enough of its essential punkness that I get hyped listening to it, even though the modern bands the Cro-Mags have influenced interest me very little.

As I said, I want to share my Age of Quarrel story. Like a lot of teenagers on the east coast of the US in the mid-90s, my pathway to underground music passed through the straight edge hardcore scene. It was huge when I was growing up in eastern Virginia so it’s unsurprising that it was the first DIY scene I made contact with. There were kids at my school who wore Judge and Youth of Today t-shirts, and that clued me into the visual aesthetic. I remember walking around the oceanfront in Virginia Beach one day and, while poking around the touristy shops, finding a bunch of flyers for upcoming shows. While I didn’t recognize the bands’ names, the typography, photography, and other graphic elements tipped me off I was seeing a flyer for a hardcore show. I knew I had to be there. The gig was Ten Yard Fight and a handful of local bands playing in a basement in the University area of Norfolk, just a couple of blocks from my school. (Aside #1: Maybe one day I’ll write my story about what that show felt like from my perspective, but suffice to say I was hooked. Aside #2: Next month my band Scarecrow is playing a show on that same street where I saw Ten Yard Fight in 1995 (or was it 96?). That will mark the first time I’ve ever played a show in the area where I grew up.)

I spent the next several years pulling the straight edge hardcore thread. It was an easy thread to pull in the pre-internet days because of what I realize, in retrospect, is very strong branding. When I saw the college letters, the heroic live photos of bands yelling emphatically, and the clean, balanced layouts, I knew what I was going to get. Which was cool because the worst thing in the pre-internet age was buying a record only to find out that it fucking sucked. (Actually, I still buy records that suck all the time, so maybe I’m just a sucker.)

The next step in my journey is that I went to college, got the internet, and started pulling that thread a little harder. I dug deeper, finding more interesting stuff. While Minor Threat was one of the first punk bands I heard and someone made me a tape of 7 Seconds pretty early on, I knew little early 80s hardcore. Researching through the internet, I learned that there were a lot of bands from the 70s and early 80s that were more exciting to me than the original youth crew bands, let alone the modern-day copycats (of which there were dozens, if not hundreds, at the time). I also learned that the youth crew scene had an older brother who did drugs and led a far less clean cut lifestyle. This older brother was New York Hardcore.

Somewhere in here I discovered a fanzine called Hardware. I haven’t looked at an issue of Hardware in years, but, as I remember it, the people who wrote that zine literally worshipped the Cro-Mags. They treated them as gods and originators, analyzing their every move as if they were members of a religious cult, and the Cro-Mags were their leaders. I recall the Show Reviews section of Hardware being primarily in-depth analyses of Cro-Mags gigs. Did they play the Clockwork Orange intro? Who went off the hardest during “Malfunction?” I’m pretty sure I read all this stuff before I heard Age of Quarrel (though eventually I did and was appropriately floored). I took these stories to heart too. I remember at one point considering going to see the Cro-Mags in Baltimore, but deciding against it at the last minute because, essentially, I was scared. I had been to the venue before, so I knew there would be no escape if the gig turned into a giant brawl. Which, of course, seemed entirely possible, perhaps even probable.

This seems like a good place to say that I could not give less of a fuck about the drama surrounding this band. That shit is for people who like soap operas and professional wrestling. Like every good punk, I listened to the entire Evolution of a Cro-magnon audiobook on tour, on a ridiculously long drive from Minneapolis to Seattle. I encourage you to do that, but I’m comfortable with my policy of, whenever I see John Joseph or Harley Flanagan’s name on the internet, scrolling right past it.

Fast forward a few years and I’m in my phase of caring about nothing but hardcore from the early 80s. I can’t remember why or how, but around this time I came across a CD called Before the Quarrel. This is when I really and truly fell in love with the Cro-Mags. Nowadays any Joe Schmoe can find this out with a few clicks, but at the time I did not know that Age of Quarrel was originally a 13-song cassette that featured most of the same songs, but a different recording. And, to be frank, the recording fucking smokes the Age of Quarrel album.

The Age of Quarrel album has 1986 written all over it, with “big” production that might have sounded cutting edge at the time (I don’t know; I was 7), but sounds dated and downmarket now. The Age of Quarrel cassette has a dry recording that pushes into the red. It sounds just like the Bad Brains ROIR tape, which makes sense because the same guy—Raleigh, North Carolina’s own Jerry Williams—engineered both recordings. John Joseph’s vocal performance is also a lot better on the cassette version, sounding meaner and more unhinged. I can’t seem to confirm this now, but I swear I read once that he had a cold when he did his vocals for the album. Poor guy, getting sick on his big day.

The Age of Quarrel cassette version also laid bare for me how much inspiration the Cro-Mags took from the Bad Brains. Copping so many moves from the Bad Brains is a bad look on most bands, but the Cro-Mags pulled it off. It helped that their drummer Mackie was one of the few people who could play with anything approaching Earl Hudson’s combination of complexity, groove, and power. (In fact, Mackie later joined the Bad Brains.) The Age of Quarrel cassette sounds, to me, like Bad Brains and Discharge in a head-on collision, taking the speed, precision, and grace of the Bad Brains and marrying it with Discharge’s relentlessness. Talk about a winning combination.

I know I’m hyping the original cassette version, but I am sad to tell you there is, as yet, no definitive vinyl version of the Age of Quarrel cassette. It has been bootlegged several times, though those bootlegs are hard to find and pricey. Given the current state of affairs in Cro-Mags-land, I wouldn’t expect an official reissue soon. Even this Record Store Day pressing of the Age of Quarrel album is controversial since multiple members of the band claim ownership of the master recordings and everyone insists they’re not getting paid royalties. I’ll break my rule and link you to Harley’s instagram post about the issue. Oh, and if there was a definitive vinyl version of the AOQ cassette (I nominate Radio Raheem for this job), that would be something I’d line up and camp overnight for.

So, back to the Age of Quarrel album. It’s not as good as the tape, but it’s still really fucking good. As I said before, the Cro-Mags re-did the tape with “better” production, but they also added several songs. “Seekers of the Truth” and “Street Justice” are fine, but I wouldn’t consider them among the Cro-Mags’ best songs. However, the album version of AOQ has an ace in the hole, and that’s “We Gotta Know.” Again, the inspiration comes from the Bad Brains as “We Gotta Know” sounds like it’s modeled on “I Against I,” with a mood-setting instrumental intro that transitions into a fast, grooving verse then explodes into a massively catchy chorus. The shredding guitar solo also reminds me of “I Against I,” but “We Gotta Know” doesn’t have a breakdown, while “I Against I” does. Anyway, even if that definitive reissue of the AOQ cassette happens, I won’t be able to throw away my copy of the AOQ album until they unearth some crazy raw demo version of “We Gotta Know” and put it out as a 7”.

So yeah, that’s where I sit with Age of Quarrel. Given my distaste for everything the Cro-Mags are in 2021 and the music and culture they inspired, I feel like I need to defend myself for liking this album. But, I’m telling you, it fucking rips.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

So it finally happened… After patiently waiting out the pandemic, there was a gig this past weekend. I definitely had nerves leading up to the show, partly because it was my debut playing 2nd guitar in Public Acid, but mainly just because it was the first big social event I’d engaged in since lockdown. The show took place in Richmond and it was outside, which made me feel better. But the sheer amount of people and the energy in the air was a bit overwhelming. I’d be lying though if I said I didn’t have a blast. It was so good to rage, drink beer, and (most importantly) talk to old friends I hadn’t seen in over a year.

I spent a couple days in Richmond leading up to the show. A good portion of the people in Public Acid I’ve known for a while because they’re transplants from the Greensboro scene. Hanging with those dudes just reminded of those old days playing gigs in GSO. Spending time with Chubb, Wiley Mar, and of course Mad Merm made me realize I was in the presence of 3 out of 4 members of the legendary punk group Wriggle! Wriggle came up in conversation a couple times while we were hanging, so this inspired me to pop my copy of the demo in the cassette deck when I got back to Raleigh. So yeah, I think I’m gonna write about Wriggle for my staff pick.

Before I’d really gotten to know them, I can remember back about 7 or 8 years ago when some of the guys from Wriggle came into Sorry State one day. We used to have a plastic tub by the register where we’d just toss freebies like stickers or promo posters to give away. One of these punks from Greensboro asked if they could drop a couple of their demo tapes in the free bin. I thought to myself, “Sure, whatever.” After they left, I remember picking up one of these tapes with yellow artwork of a worm spelling out “Wriggle”. I honestly thought to myself, “what the fuck is this?” But then, the next day I walked into work and Daniel, already excited, basically yelled at me “Dude… did you LISTEN to it?? It sounds like No Labels!!” We blasted the tape over the speakers in the store and I just remember being blown away. I also just remember thinking why would these dudes just wanna give these tapes away? Then again, I think it was super cool that they didn’t really seem to care one way or the other.

I remember the tape being raw and blown out in a way that felt fresh. That sort of lo-fi 4-track sound that I associate with that whole Midwest scene of bands wasn’t really in vogue yet I don’t think. It was rude, raging, super punk and perfect. Wriggle really gave me that exciting feeling in my gut when I would hear 80s hardcore I hadn’t yet discovered. Then when I listened closer, I heard amazing lyrics like “I saw Jesus today -- after I huffed some glue!” So killer, so genius. Later on, Daniel re-released their demo tape and Wriggle became part of the Sorry State stable of artists.

Listening to my Wriggle demo the other night, it still sounds just as raging as I remember. It’s unfortunate that a lot of these great bands that came out of the small community of punks in Greensboro never really put out proper records. I miss those days sometimes, but I’m also happy that I’ve maintained friendships with all those punk ass mofos.

If you’re unfamiliar with this gem of NC hardcore, go take a look back at the Sorry State catalog and give it a listen.

As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Howdy Sorry State Gang. Are you keeping well? I hope so. Sorry that we missed you last week but sometimes we are just super busy behind the scenes doing our best to get you all sorts of cool and fun records to buy. Visitors to our actual store can attest to that, as in addition to the new shit we have bins deep of great used records. Not to brag, but our selection kicks ass. You can come in here at any time with just a dollar or daddy’s credit card and always find something. This week we will participate in Record Store Day again and there are a bunch of cool releases that should get some of you excited. We’ll be dropping in your socials with some of our highlights and Daniel in particular has some thoughts on his picks. So, busy again but we can’t be flakes and drop out for another week and not find the time to write to you guys. We appreciate you reading and hope that now and then one of us might steer you towards something worth checking out. We are all music lovers at heart.

Last week I was still caught up in the drama of the Euros and England advancing to the final that I probably would have recommended a Chas & Dave record. That might be a vague reference to anyone not British or a complete Anglophile. Chas & Dave were a household name in the early to mid 1980s in England providing good time Cockney knees-up music. I always liked a song they had called The Sideboard Song. Check it out to get a taste. Anyway, as we now know England lost to Italy in the final to a limp penalty shoot-out and instead of coming home as in the Three Lions song, football went to Rome. I have mixed feelings, like many, over several aspects of the Euros but I am glad they went ahead, and I enjoyed watching as many games as I could. The big problem was with the racist scumbags that made up a section of the English fans who booed the National Anthems of the other countries and particularly booed the England players themselves for taking a knee against racial injustice at the beginning of the games. Then in the aftermath of the final all the horrible abuse that those players had directed at them. Just so sad and maddening that there are so many simple-minded people out there that feel emboldened and justified to act this way in a so called civilized society. Anyway, fuck those people; let’s talk about music. Music, like football, is a great unifier and breaks down barriers between people and will always be my religion. Luckily for me I was able to get together with my good friend Matt, a football (soccer) coach and host of Worldy with Matt Pape over on The Face Radio on Monday and spin some records with him on his show and work out my feelings about it all through music. I played mostly Italian artists to celebrate the Azzurri. If you like good tunes and can put up with me falling over my words, go take a listen. Cheers.

For my pick this week I jumped off of a conversation Jeff and I were having in the store recently about our mutual enjoyment of a funky Jimmy McGriff record called Electric Funk that we were playing in the store. Jeff mentioned that he really liked the sound of the organ and I told him that I did, too. Plenty of space on my record shelves is occupied by organ based albums by the likes of the aforementioned McGriff, Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott, Lonnie Smith, Groove Holmes, Charles Earland, Brian Auger, Bill Doggett, Georgie Fame, John Patton, Billy Preston, Johnny Smith, Booker T. Jones and Jack McDuff. These are the more obvious names, but there are a few others that I can’t think of right now. Point is, I like me some organ in my music and preferably the sound of a Hammond B-3. That Electric Funk album is a good one and has some tasty grooves along with a terrific cover but instead I am going to pull one from my Brother Jack McDuff section called Moon Rappin’ that was recorded in 1969 and released on Blue Note the following year. It’s such a great record, and I was super happy to score a copy during my New York days back in the 00s as it is not an easy one of his to find and has always gone for a lot more than the majority of his catalogue. Due in a big part from the commercial failure of the release and the apparent dislike from critics and fans who didn’t appreciate the concept and sound of this particular album. Instead of his usual down home grits ‘n barbeque funky organ sound, McDuff chose to make this album a concept album about his conversation with the moon and his response to the recent moon landings. The sound is more rock influenced and contemporary funky. His organ actually takes third place to the real stars of the record, drummer Joe Dukes and bassist Richard Davis who just kill it. The drums sound amazing and the patterns are terrific. The bass is upfront and stays funky throughout. To modern ears this record is much more appealing, and it took hip-hop DJs and producers to rediscover and sample the record to bring it to the attention of a more appreciative audience. It’s for this reason that you’ll probably have to pay top dollar to get a copy, unfortunately. During all my years habituating in record stores and digging in the wild I have only seen copies a couple of times. During the 90s and 00s compilation LPs and CDs came out with tracks taken from it and there have been complete CD reissues and just one vinyl reissue oddly. I can’t flex completely on this one because my copy, although released in 1970 and a gatefold, is on the black and blue Liberty Blue Note label as opposed to the classic blue and white Blue Note label. It still sounds great.

The album is a five tracker that clocks in at around thirty-five minutes and thus doesn’t outstay its welcome. However, in this case we would want some more. McDuff’s next album To Seek A New Home was also more of a fusion concept record than straight jazz and is a good one too but features a different line up of musicians and gets into more exotic and cerebral territory. It does have a good funky jam called Hunk O’ Funk on it that’s pretty cool.

Back to Moon Rappin’. In addition to the stellar work from McDuff, Dukes and Davis, special mention must be given to guitar player Jerry Byrd who provides some tasty wah-wah pedal licks and to avant-garde vocalist Jean DuShon who appears briefly on two tracks. There are some unknown horn players also on the session adding little fills here and there. McDuff arranged the tunes and produced the session and did a great job. It all comes together well.

I like the record from start to finish and there isn’t a dull track among the five. Monster title track Moon Rappin’ is a highlight and album opener Flat Backin’ sets the scene and lets you know what’s in store. Go check ‘em out and see what you think. For jazz heads, beat diggers and organ groovers, this is a good one for you I promise.

Thanks for reading as always. Be good and see you next time. Peace and love – Dom.

Hello,

And again, I don’t have much time. I’m sorry. The most important thing in my mind for newest releases I wanna mention is the English Dogs: To the Ends of the Earth 12” re-issue! I think this is my favorite of their releases. I like the previous EP a lot, but I tend to gravitate towards this one. It’s not the metallic elements that make me favor it over the first EP, but simply that I don’t have a copy of the first EP haha. To the Ends of the Earth needed a re-issue for some time in my opinion, as well as Mad Punx & English Dogs. I regret not picking up one of those bootlegs with the pixelated ass covers haha. Anyway, they had done Forward Into Battle officially some years ago, and pretty much since then I’ve been waiting for this re-issue to happen!! While Sorry State does not yet have copies, we definitely will in the near-future!

I neglected to mention a handful of things last week aside from the smokin’ Infra 12" so let me touch on a few. The first one is The Bristles: Ban the Punk Shops 12"! The Bristles fucking rule. My favorite of their releases is the Boys Will Be Boys EP. It’s a bit “meaner” than their first EP and the Ban the Punk Shops cassette. So yeah, this 12" is super cool cos it’s the first time it’s on vinyl. It was originally released as a cassette on legendery Ägg Tapes. The sound quality on the LP is great.

The second thing I wanted to mention is Bootlicker’s new 12"! I first heard Bootlicker on their Who Do You Serve EP. I think this EP is killer. The sound is powerful and the riffs are great. It reminds me a bit of Bloodkrow Butcher. To me each of Bootlicker’s records sound pretty different from each other. While their first EP really caught my ear, I didn’t care to much for the two EPs that followed. But that all changed when I heard this debut LP. It is fucking killer, check out it! Alright that’s all for now, gotta get back to bustin out all these Zorn EPs! Thanks for reading, ‘til next time...

The other week, after reading Daniel’s SSR Pick, I was inspired to dig through my 7”s and brush the dust off some of the first 45s I got. At my second record store job at ((redacted)), I dug through every nook and cranny of the store and listened to anything with an interesting cover. There was a LOT of terrible music. Even with the duds, my favorite part (and where I found the most music I loved) was the 7”s. More specifically, the massive amount of WXYC radio copies the store had. I’ve seen those letters at other local record stores; WXYC is (was? I don’t listen to the radio anymore) a triangle staple and I feel like I own a piece of it with these lil records that started my collection of 7”s.

Bugskull: Fences

This is definitely me giving in to my whiny emo vocal love. I know it’s not for everyone and gets kind of grating but, hey, I’m the generation that grew up with the worst of it. I definitely didn’t start appreciating MY ROOTS (90s emo) until I started collecting these radio records.

Gravitar: Evil Monkey Boy / She Not Heavy, She My Brother

Feedbacky, gritty, and fuzzy. This came out the year I was born. Now that I’m listening to everything in succession, I’m realizing there’s a theme. Lots of feedback and mushy sounds. I don’t know much about WXYC in the 90s but I like to think the records in my list were on rotation with the same DJ.

Various: Smells Like Smoked Sausages

Tasty, tasty early 90s garage-y compilation from Sub Pop. My absolute favorite thing about radio copies are the notes from jockeys. Someone didn’t give a shit with this copy and wrote on every surface. I’ve snuck in a few radio copies on my Monday used drops, but the ‘Rat Music for Rat People’ one of y’all snatched up a few weeks ago has my absolute favorite notes.

Guzzard: Glued

Speaking of great notes. Along with the funny annotation, I really enjoy these two tracks. I didn’t really consider myself a garage and/or grunge fan; I guess most of the ones on this list fall in that category. Something about them just HIT for me.

Future Crimes: S/T

I didn’t know about this Raleigh gem until after they broke up, unfortunately. This probably, most definitely, isn’t one of the radio copies but I got it around the same time so I’m going to lump them together. I mean, this speaks for itself. Listen to it!

WPTF: First 50 Years

From a different radio station altogether, I found this in a stack destined for the thrift store when I first started at Sorry State. This is such a cool little piece of Triangle history; it includes the town song (I didn’t even know we had that?) and tons of other tidbits. I looooove finding NC-specific records and have found a small stack of, of course, country titles more so than anything else. That’s for another newsletter.

I’ve written about podcasts several times in my staff picks, but I haven’t been listening to them as much lately. For whatever reason audiobooks have been doing it for me when I want to hear someone jibber jabbering at me while I’m driving. However, earlier this week I checked my podcast app and saw that one of my favorite shows, Garbage in My Heart, had devoted an entire episode to North Carolina music. I listened to that right away and enjoyed it. As I was listening, I kept thinking of things I wanted to sayand rather than send an email to Alex from GIMH I thought I’d make it my staff pick in case anyone else cares about this shit. I hope you’re reading this though, Alex, and hit me up if you want to continue the conversation!

Before I get into the episode, I should note that Garbage in My Heart is one of the best punk podcasts going. If you’re a regular Sorry State customer, you’ll almost certainly like the music Alex plays, particularly if your tastes include or lean toward garage and (Total) punk. I’ve learned about so much great music from this podcast and even when I’m familiar with most of the tracks it’s a great listen.

Also by way of preface, Alex mentions on the episode that this is the first of a series of episodes, each of which he’ll devote to music from a state where he has lived. Like myself, Alex grew up in eastern Virginia and moved to North Carolina later (I think he said his dad was in the Navy, and the military and shipbuilding were the major industries there in the 80s and 90s). Alex moved to NC as a teen and I didn’t come here until 2002, after I had finished college and spent a year wading into the capitalist hellscape. I’m hoping Alex devotes an episode to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. It would be a challenge, but a cool one. Hit me up if you want any input on your playlist Alex!

Now onto the tracks. Alex starts the show with a mini-set of North Carolina music we released on Sorry State. He says some very nice things about me and Sorry State and I am, of course, flattered. Honestly, I never set out to document North Carolina music, but somehow I’ve done a lot of it. I don’t claim that Sorry State comprises any kind of comprehensive overview of North Carolina—just an idiosyncratic smattering of output from my circle of friends—but after spending 20 years putting out records from this place, I hope we at least warrant a mention alongside labels like Merge and No Core. It is an honor that someone with Alex’s breadth of knowledge about music sees us as that important.

After the Sorry State segment, Alex has a set of North Carolina garage punk. Appropriately, this set started off with a track by Charlotte-area band The Paragons called “Abba.” This is simply one of the greatest garage-punk songs of all time, up there with songs like “You’re Gonna Miss Me” by the 13th Floor Elevators. We carried a bootleg of it a while back and Dominic mentioned that there has been another edition recently. What a fucking track! The other tracks Alex plays are great too (you gotta give Link Wray a nod), but I want to mention one group Alex didn’t play: the Cykle. The Cykle was from Lumberton, North Carolina, and released one sought-after album. If you want an original copy, prepare to drop over a grand, I still harbor hope of encountering one in the wild. Oddly enough, if I remember correctly one person in the Cykle was Rich Ivey’s uncle (Rich Ivey of ISS, Whatever Brains, Das Drip, and many other projects, not to mention a staff pick a little further down in this very document). Rich even has a shredded original copy. Anyway, no disrespect to anyone from Lumberton, but if you’ve ever stopped there when you’re traveling down I-95, you’d be surprised any kind of interesting rock music had ever come from there, much less a total fucking monster of a garage LP that’s right up there with any freakbeat classic you want to throw at it.

As an aside, and with full acknowledgement that this is well outside Alex’s punk-oriented focus, I would be remiss not to mention that we’re barely scratching the surface of North Carolina’s rich musical heritage here. More famous musicians than you can count are from here, not least among them John Coltrane and Nina Simone. The amount and quality of music that has come from North Carolina’s large black population would take a lifetime of intense study to understand. The state also has rich traditions of Appalachian music and I’m certain there are entire populations with incredible histories I don’t even know about. We talk a lot about white men with electric guitars in this space, but there’s a whole wide world out there.

Next up, Alex gives us a smattering of 80s punk, heavy on the hardcore but also featuring the Th’Cigaretz (an early Raleigh punk band that featured Jerry Williams, who moved to New York and ran the 171A club / rehearsal space / studio, served as sound engineer at CBGB through much of the 80s, and recorded the first Bad Brains album and the Antidote EP among many other records) and Flat Duo Jets (whose singer/guitarist Dexter Romwebber pretty much provided Jack White with his entire sound and image). This set didn’t include my favorite 80s NC hardcore band, No Labels. Have I leaked word that Sorry State is working with No Labels on a reissue? We’ve been pecking away at this project for a few years, but it’ll be a while before it’s in your hands because we want to take our time and do a really good job, hopefully with a Radio Raheem-esque package featuring top-notch audio quality and a big booklet full of archival material.

Alex’s next set is devoted to what he calls the “Dark Ages” of the 2000s. This is when I moved to North Carolina, so I was familiar with most of these bands. When If first moved here I didn’t know anyone so I went to a lot of different kinds of shows trying to make connections and find music that excited me. I saw the Crimson Spectre many, many times and they were one of my favorites… energetic and catchy, like a more hardcore version of Kid Dynamite or something like that. There was another cool, albeit short-lived, band I liked called Uwharria. Pretty sure I saw Dead Things a few times; I certainly had their CD. By the time I moved here I was uninterested in metalcore so I’ve never listened to Undying, but the people who took part in NC’s fertile metalcore scene repped them hard. The track Alex played seemed to have a heavy At the Gates influence and reminded me of Darkest Hour, a band I loved in the late 90s.

Alex mentions that some of the music he played in this set came from the Southern Punk Archive. Alex expresses some confusion about what the Southern Punk Archive is. To my knowledge, it’s a project affiliated with the library of the University of Mississippi and it is helmed by filmmaker John Rash (check out his documentary on the band Negro Terror), who (not coincidentally) played bass for Crimson Spectre. Right now the Southern Punk Archive has an Instagram account featuring tons of punk ephemera and a Bandcamp site several hard to find releases (though I’m not sure why the Action Patrol discography is there… I fucking love Action Patrol but unless I’m mistaken they were from Richmond, Virginia). The Southern Punk Archive implies a wide geographic and temporal scope, but as of right now there’s a heavy emphasis the central NC scene of the 90s and 00s that John Rash was a big part of.

I am aware of, but didn’t really take part in, a bunch of other punk-related scenes in North Carolina. Throughout the 90s there was a club in Garner, North Carolina (just south of Raleigh) called the Caboose that hosted a lot of shows but seems to have been a sort of spiritual home for the Confederacy of Scum-type bands. North Carolina had a healthy hardcore scene in the 90s with bands like Gnosis and Inept whose music took cues from the trends of the time. Many people who had been involved with the 80s NC punk scene also kept playing music and many of them still do. Some of that music connects with the Merge Records / indie scene (for instance, Kevin Collins from Subculture and Days of was in Erectus Monotone, who released several cool records on Merge), while another branch whose hangout was the Raleigh club King’s took more inspiration from 60s and 70s garage and hard rock. There was also a big screamo scene in NC in the 00s, with Raleigh’s Black Castle being a key band. Rabbit holes about for the curious.

I’ll stop here, noting there are many people who know way more about this shit than I do. I’m pretty sure Rich Ivey is an NC music deep head (despite, like Alex and I, being a transplant from Virginia!) and could give you way more detail than I have here. But yeah, support your scene! Today’s hangs are tomorrow’s history.

Hey there Sorry State gang. As we approach July 4th, allow me to wish a happy Independence Day to all of our American readers. Have a great weekend regardless of your nationality. As an Englishman living in America, the significance of the holiday is not lost. Not that I “celebrate” the 4th but my birthday is two days later so sometimes it can be a festive couple of days.

This particular week I’m personally still caught up in all the excitement and drama of the Euros and getting to finally see England beat Germany in a competitive match. The first win in my lifetime. The last time was back in 1966 when we won the World Cup, two years before I joined the world. I tend not to get too crazy over international football; club footie is where it’s at and my allegiance will always be to Liverpool FC first and foremost. That being said, watching the world’s top players compete against each other in tournaments like the Euros, Copa America and the World Cup is a treat and never fails to entertain and excite. This last week saw some amazing games and results and I’m sure there will be more to come. I’ll be cheering the team on this weekend when the quarter final matches take place. My club has several players representing their countries in both the Euros and Copa America and it’s great to see them in action and I wish them success. Just don’t get injured.

Last week I gave a nod to the debut album from The Streets, an album that couldn’t be more British unless the vinyl was made from Marmite and so for this week, I am again going to pull from my UK shelves, although this time going back to the swinging sixties and the halcyon days of that historic win against Germany and England’s first and only World Cup trophy. On the day of the recent victory this week I had a CD playing in the car that was a collection of releases that came out on the independent UK label Saga. They specialized in licensing and releasing mostly classical music and were one of the first indies to offer budget priced releases and to undercut the monopoly that the major labels had on the market. At some point in the mid-sixties, they began cashing in on the pop market and commissioned a series of pop-soul and rock records. Some of the more interesting titles have gone on to be collectors’ items and can be pretty hard to score as originals.

The standout release for most is my choice today: The Five Day Week Straw People.

Recorded in late 1967 and released in 1968, this was a one-off project written by the songwriting team of Guy Mascolo and David Montague and was meant to be a reflection of the life of a typical working-class person, with the album representing a weekend snapshot. Each song details a moment in that person’s Friday night to Monday morning. A loose concept type of affair. For musicians a trio was put together consisting of John DuCann on guitar and vocals, Jack Collins on drums and Mick Hawksworth on bass. The Saga budget wasn’t going to allow expensive studio time and so the album was recorded in a London schoolroom pretty much in one session with very little overdubbing and multi-takes. By all account’s drummer Collins hadn’t even heard any of the songs before he turned up for the session.

As is often the case with these types of things, out of meager circumstances and conditions still great things are achieved. The resulting record is a terrific slice of sixties British psychedelia. There are strong pop and mod leanings but also some toughness too. Several tracks have a heavier guitar approach and are more like the sound of Cream and other heavy rock acts that were starting to take over the scene. The guitar playing is ace throughout and no surprise as John DuCann was no slouch. He was fresh out of mod freakbeat Gods The Attack and after this helped form Andromeda with his Straw People band mates and then more famously played guitar in Atomic Rooster. Bassist Hawksworth in addition to the aforementioned Andromeda also played in underground heavy rock legends Fuzzy Duck. As for drummer Collins, he also played on another cool Saga album from The Magic Mixture. That record is quite collectable too as it has some good psych tunes on it, sounding sort of like the stuff The Pretty Things were doing as The Electric Banana. Collins, whose real name was McCulloch, came from Glasgow and was the brother of Wee Jackie McCulloch the guitarist who at fourteen was shredding like Jimmy Page for freakbeat legends One In A Million.

The cover for the Straw People album has a very quintessential sixties psychedelic artwork and suits the music therein. For me, side one is the stronger side, beginning with the great title track and following up with two of the better songs, I’m Going Out Tonight and Gold Digger. John DuCann’s guitar work is excellent here and you can clearly hear the direction he was heading in with some of the heavy leads he throws down. Because the record was recorded in a classroom, it has a lot of echo and reverb but that demo like quality actually adds to the charm, I think. The songs are quite ambitious and perhaps given more time and a proper studio etc. they could have been made to sound even more epic, but everyone involved managed to do a great job. In the spirit of the great Joe Meek who made space sounds in his front room years before, the results far exceed their humble origins.

I definitely recommend you give this one a listen and to check out some of the other bands I mentioned if you are not familiar with them. The Attack singles are essential, as is the One In A Million double-sider. We had a reissue of the Fuzzy Duck album here at Sorry State a while back. If I had more time and space, I would talk more about the Magic Mixture album too, but you can do some research on your own time for that one. It’s worth exploring.

Okay, time to go to press, so I will close out here. Thanks as ever for reading and I hope you enjoy my choice for this week. Here are links to my two favorite cuts for you to check out:

Pop a sugar cube and enjoy. Until next time, cheers - Dom

Hello again,

Thanks for reading. I don’t have much time right now but I wanted to mention this 12” from Infra that come out recently. This 12" is what was originally two separate cassettes released in 2019 and 2020. The A side has a much more slick sound. I lean towards the B side cos it sounds much more gnarly. This band is from Bogotá, playing UK82 style HC. It’s fairly “melodic” but keeps up the pace, sometimes it reminds me a bit of Puke (Sweden), one of my all-time favorites. Im droppin a link at the bottom - if you dig it, be sure to grab a copy from our webstore! We actually managed to stock the limited color versions!! Alright, thanks again to everyone for supporting Sorry State. ‘Til next time...

David Bowie Narrates Peter and the Wolf

I’m running super behind. I have a half written SSR pick about the gang of radio 7” copies I have but I haven’t been able to complete it. Next week! For now, I’m keeping it short and sweet and sharing one of my recent favorite finds at work. I’m realizing a lot of weird trends in my buying habits now that I do nothing but browse Discogs, work at Sorry State, and listen to my embarrassingly large section of unplayed records.

I’ve talked to a couple friends and I’m apparently the only one who has very vivid memories of learning about classical music through Peter and the Wolf when I was in elementary school. Through collecting Scholastics Records releases, read along books, and just generally things made for children, I’ve found a ton of different pressings of this piece. I love the variations of cover art and narration but this one I found a few weeks ago takes the CAKE.

I don’t know a ton about David Bowie, but I consider myself pretty familiar with his work and I had no idea he narrated Peter and the Wolf in 1978! I was doing my usual dig for a daily soundtrack and stopped on David Bowie’s name because it just felt like a David Bowie kinda day. I didn’t read the cover or our price tag until I was back behind the counter and I immediately stopped whatever else I was listening to. AND THIS SHIT IS ON GREEN VINYL! Fuckin’ sold. As I listened to this a few times, I can safely say this is my favorite rendition of Peter and the Wolf I’ve heard so far! Some of the other versions I’ve heard are way too childish or way too stuffy. This fits snuggly in the middle of the two; maybe not the most interesting thing to elementary school aged me, but 27-year-old me is all about this shit. Best discovery ever... well, this month at least.

I’ve dropped the ball on scooping OG copies of Floridian synth-punk architects FUTURISK’s eps too many times to count, so this new triple 7”+flexi box from the ever-reliable Minimal Wave Records is a very welcome addition to my summer jam stack. For the uninitiated, Futurisk was a surprisingly early, surprisingly Southern, synth trio from the lowest depths of the Sunshine State. Led by British ex-pat Jeremy Kolosine, the group zealously cobbled together influence from Ultravoxx and John Foxx, Roxy Music, The Normal, early Human League and all that other fancyboy UK stuff while their 20-year-old FL peers were jammin’ dumbdumb rock like a buncha dumb jocks.

What made Futurisk stand out from typically colder UK acts, though, was its reliance on a real life, sticks’n’skins DRUMMER. It’s kind of like what Gary Numan was doing with Tubeway Army, but closer still to the American West Coast’s early electro-art-punk (Screamers, Units, Nervous Gender). Basically, it’s DIY AF.

And while it’s surely affected and brash, it’s also earnest as hell. Kolosine & Co. sound adept—albeit sufficiently minimal—on their studio-recorded debut 7”, 1980’s “Army Now,” but by the time Futurisk self-tracks its new-wavier “Player Piano” EP in 1982, its naivety can’t be ignored. THANK JAH FOR THAT. Precision is for the birds, and the birds are fucking stupid.

“Player Piano” is simultaneously one of the best American synth records, one of the best American DIY (punkish) records and one of the best outsider basement wavers from any goddamned country. If you already have the extended “Player Piano” 12” that Minimal Wave dropped in 2010, this boxset is 100% musically redundant, but if you appreciate playing dress-up with solid reproductions of expensive old rares, this here’s your shit. The box, booklet and previously released outtakes are pretty cool, too.

This new fan-made hardcover book about The Fall, Excavate!, is ALSO pretty dang cool. It’s comprised of a bunch of short, pedantic essays about The Fall and Mark E. Smith, and it’s exactly as pretentious as it should be. Included also are smatterings of hen’s teeth ephemera (fliers, lyrics, letters, oh my!) and a nifty visual discography of all the band’s LPs. If you happen to have a coffee table, meet your new coaster. This thing rules.

Also, also, also my buddy and I were record shopping the other day (at Sorry State, of course!), and he asked if I’d heard the above-pictured LP by Genocide. I said I had not. He said I needed to buy it. I did. It’s a collection of pre-Repulsion demo tapes, and IT IS RIPPING AS FUCK. It was a $29 bootleg culled from the used racks, and it’s probably difficult to find a copy at this juncture since it’s like 10 years old, so I guess my third staff pick would be some advice: LISTEN TO YOUR FRIENDS. They just may turn you on to some radical grindy 80s death metal you’ve never heard before. Peace!

Guru Guru: Hinten LP (1971, Ohr; reissued 2021 Play Loud! Productions)

I’m short on time this week so I’m not able to give you a full on essay, but I thought I’d take a moment to hip you to something I’ve been listening to. Last week we got in copies of a new reissue of Hinten, the second album by German group Guru Guru.

Longtime Sorry State aficionados will know that I like a lot of 70s krautrock. I like the heavier, more rocking stuff like Can and Amon Düül II and the spacier “kosmiche” sounds of Manuel Göttshing / Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, and Popol Vuh. Whenever new reissues by those groups pop up I try to grab a few copies for the store, mostly so I can buy one for myself. While I pride myself on having a solid Krautrock / Experimental section at Sorry State, I must admit that the releases there don’t turn over quickly. Oh well. You gotta follow your passion, though, right?

Back to Guru Guru. I was familiar with the albums that came out before and after this one: 1970s debut album UFO and 1972’s Känguru (which I think many people regard as their shining moment). I like those albums, but I’d never heard Hinten until we got this reissue in at the store. I was hoping to get another cool krautrock record I could put on while zoning out in the evening, but Hinten hit me way harder than I expected it to.

The thing that sticks out about the record is heaviness, particularly of the drums. Guru Guru’s approach is similar to Can in that they took the instrumentation of heavy psychedelic rock in the Hendrix mold and paired that with an improvisational approach borrowed from the avant-garde / experimental end of the jazz world. Songs are built around one or two simple motifs (sometimes a melody, but more often a groove), the band does their thing until they run out of steam, and then the song’s over. Can maximized this approach by recording tons of jamming and editing the results together into mind-bending albums that leaned on the members’ skills in music composition. Guru Guru’s music feels less edited and more jammy, but there aren’t any moments where I feel like they’ve lost the plot.

Like I said, my favorite part of Hinten is the drummer Mani Neumeier, who just wails. I wonder if the drums sound as up front and as forceful on the original as they do on this reissue, but this thing just slaps you in the face. While Neumeier’s approach isn’t as intricate as Jaki Liebezeit from Can, his propulsive power is undeniable. If you’re into the way Amon Düül II smacks you in the face on Yeti, add this to your list of krautrock classics to hear, or better yet pick up this reissue at Sorry State.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

This week I’m gonna try something different and talk about a movie instead of a record. On a whim, I watched the Minnesota Hardcore documentary the other night. I believe the documentary was put together and released through the state of Minnesota’s PBS station. How cool is that? Kinda makes me wish all public broadcasting services would release punk content in every state!

Minnesota Hardcore was initially broadcast as a 7-part docuseries, but now all 7 episodes have been merged together into what they call the “Binge Episode”. And of course, binge is exactly what I did. I’ll admit that at first I was worried that the documentary would have coverage focused heavily on Husker Du and The Replacements and not much else. And naturally, Husker Du was the first band introduced, but I was pleasantly surprised at how thorough the list of bands was. I was pleased to see featured segments about my personal favorites like Final Conflict and Willful Neglect, but also several bands that I’d never heard of before.

The episodes that covered some of Minneapolis’s local venues was super cool, revealing several amazing photographs not only of local bands, but also from when hardcore bands of the era would tour through. This one photo of Mecht Mensch I’d never seen before had me drooling. While I was familiar with the legendary 7th Street Entry club, I was less familiar with Goofy’s Upper Deck, which emerged from an unutilized space on the 2nd floor of fairly conventional local bar. Then the documentary gets to the segment about when Discharge played there. Wow, so rad. It was especially funny to hear different talking heads in the movie argue about who was better that night: Discharge vs Husker Du!!

The feature about Michelle Strauss Ohnstad and her show booking byname Garage Productions was also pretty amazing to learn about. Many of the gigs Ohnstad put on were booked at the Whittier Park Community Center, including one that literally made me shout out “Whoa!”—it was Raw Power from Italy and Riistetyt from Finland on the same bill… Crazy! She even gave some special attention to when she booked Corrosion of Conformity, which I was particularly happy about. I think she said she paid them $20 or something haha.

Having played there on tour a couple times, I feel like I do have some awareness of the current local bands and the contemporary hardcore scene in Minneapolis. I thought the documentary could have had a more accurate and cooler looking representation of current Minneapolis hardcore than the footage they chose to use. But, it was still cool they included contemporary coverage and didn’t a form a narrative like, “This happened in the early 80s and then it died.” Felix Havoc had a couple pretty powerful quotes during his talking head segments.

Anyway, my brain feels fried today, so I don’t know how eloquently I described and endorsed this cool Minneapolis Hardcore documentary. Is it as good as the Detroit documentary from 6 months ago or whatever? Probably not, but it’s definitely an interesting watch.

Watch it here: https://www.tptoriginals.org/mn-hardcore-the-binge-episode/

That’s all I got. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Hello to all of you reading this week’s Sorry State Newsletter. How’s it going? Good, I hope. Thanks for dialing us up again.

In the grand tradition of doing your homework on the bus going to school, here I am attempting to write my staff pick with the deadline clock ticking. Sounds of the Jeopardy tune playing or for those of you in the U.K. perhaps the Countdown one. To add to the pressure, I put my back out last night and am still hobbling around in some pain. No big deal. I’m used to some sort of ailment with my body these days. Funny but not funny. Anyway, I was wondering what record to celebrate this week and share with you and ended up going for one of my favorite albums from the last couple of decades and one that is about to hit the twenty-year mark in 2022. It’s a record that captures a distinct moment in time in U.K. music and culture. I’m talking about The Streets: Original Pirate Material from 2002 on Locked On.

Not an obscure choice I know and maybe not a record or an artist that a lot of you care about but there is no denying this record represented grass roots culture just as much as previous iconic albums from the like of Primal Scream or The Stone Roses or The Specials or The Sex Pistols, to throw a few names out. Each of those bands created and released an album that encapsulated a moment and has gone on to be cornerstones of U.K. music in recent decades.

The Streets was the name given to the project orchestrated by up-and-coming English musician Mike Skinner from Birmingham. The sound was that of U.K. Garage or UKG for short. The genre of music that was derived from U.S. house and named after the club Paradise Garage. I won’t try and front and give you a detailed history of the scene and pretend that I was intimate with it. I had already moved to New York by 1998 when the first UKG records began making waves and storming not only the clubs and pirate radio but also mainstream radio and the pop charts. Briefly though, during the 1990s, U.K. DJs were experimenting with changing the pitch on house records instrumentals and adding in vocal samples and other effects. Chopping up the track and changing the beat etc. They were getting their hands on all the interesting tracks coming from America and particularly from a DJ named Todd Edwards from New Jersey who is often credited for being one of the first to dabble in the new genre. Buying imports though is expensive and so inevitably homegrown DJs and producers began making their own tracks and by 1998 the records being released were distinctly British and different to their American and European cousins. By the beginning of the new millennium UKG went from being an underground sound played in pub back rooms on off-nights to a national and then world phenomenon. Names like Craig David, So Solid Crew and Artful Dodger became household names. Perhaps one record that if I had to choose as an example would be DJ Luck & MC Neat : With A Little Bit Of Luck. That song and video is a perfect snapshot. Check it - https://youtu.be/F5PXdScoOrg

Come 2002 and the original UKG scene was just about over and about to morph into dubstep and grime, but the release of Original Pirate Material still rode the high-water wave that was just peaking. It’s sort of like the Nevermind of the genre in some ways. The album cover art showing an urban block of flats has become iconic. A nod to pirate radio stations that often operated out tower blocks, their antennas hidden amongst the others on the roof tops.

A side note – I would recommend watching the comedy series People Just Do Nothing which is follows the lives of the characters running a pirate radio station. It’s very funny and pretty spot on.

When I first got my copy of this record as an import on release day, the hype sticker on the front said, “You’re listening to the future,” and twenty years later, I would say Jockey Slut magazine got that exactly right. Over the years whenever I pull the record out for a spin it still sounds just as fresh to my ears. The mark of a great record is to transpose time and place but at the same time to still sound distinctive and exact and to be able to be enjoyed years after it was made. This is one of them. I still laugh at the humour and stories of everyday living portrayed. Like U.S. hip-hop, these songs are drawn from stories of real people and their lives that at the time were not being represented in mainstream music. The newspaper of the streets, as it were. Full of cultural references and particularly language and slang. Hard to describe but totally enjoyable regardless of whether you understand exactly what they are going on about.

Skinner launched a career that is still ongoing off the back of this record and has released another half dozen albums since then along with the most recent just last year. Being English, I’m clearly biased but his appeal is universal as has been proved by his success. Do yourself a favor and get locked on. I’ll leave links to a couple of highlights for you.

https://youtu.be/I4iAw81MpU - Let’s Push Things Forward

Okay, that’s my lot. Not a detailed bio of the artist or the genre I know, but you can discover all you need to know on the ol’ internet if you are interested.

Cheers and until next time - Dom

Hello,

Thanks for reading and thanks for supporting Sorry State. It means a lot. But yes, please skip past my writing unless you wanna hear me blabbing in an incoherent fashion. To start, since the last Newsletter we got Nog Watt EPs in!!! I think they arrived that Thursday, I can’t remember. I’ve been anticipating this release since I first heard about it like three months ago, you can read what I wrote about it back in March if you’d like, but I will just say again, this record belongs in every single record collection on planet Earth, so be sure to pick one up!!! As I write this we just got a big ass box from Radio Raheem in... so keep yer eyes peeled for some hot shit on the site. Radio Raheem does a killer job; I’m sure you know this already though. I got a copy of the United Mutation reissue they did when it first came out, and my dumbass finally just opened it like three weeks ago. It’s some top-notch shit. I wish every reissue was like this. The Molde Punx reissue was killer in the same way with beautiful packaging and helli bonus shit. I heard Radio Raheem was doing Antidote and I have been pretty stoked to get em in stock. As I walked by Jeff and Dom unpacking the parcels Jeff made a joke about the song Foreign Job-Lot, and then I suddenly remembered that Antidote was the NYHC band I liked but stopped jammin some time ago cos of that song. I was like fuuck. I did see the vocalist isn’t white? Jeff said he thought he was Puerto Rican. They have an anti-Nazi song, too. Maybe it is just a song of satire and I don’t understand cos I don’t know much about the band.

Dunno if you saw the Instagram post I made this week with ‘90s HC bangers, but i’m just gunna mention some of that shit that I think is a bit “under-rated.” To start, Bacteria is absolutely disgusting. If you like mad raw, the kind some of yer friends simply can’t handle, this is probably right up yer alley. This band was actually just a side project, when a member of C.F.D.L. (Japan) was living in England in the ‘90s. This tape came out in the ‘90s but the 7" was a 2000s reissue. State of Fear was another EP in the photo. Both their 7"s are so damn good; the second one is really nasty and urgent. The first one is equally as nasty, but more groovy. I’m sure a lot of people know State of Fear, but I think the EPs are a bit under-rated for how good they are. One of the guitarists played in bands before and after, that I am also a huge fan of: Disrupt > State of Fear > Consume > Deathraid > Nightfeeder (I wrote a bit about their demo cassette and you can read here if you’d like) This was the only US band I put in the photo haha, I think the ‘90s was a bit better overseas but maybe I just don’t know shit. Or I just know how I like my hardcore haha. Another band who I can’t get enough of that was in the post was Crocodileskink. I first heard this band cos of their split with No Security. It instantly became a favorite split release of mine and I tracked down the rest of their EPs as soon as I could haha. Dispense is killer shit from Sweden. I discovered this band on yet another occasion raging at the Hardy Boys. I think this shit is definitely underrated. But this shit it top-notch, blow-the-fuckin-doors-off käng. Staying on the topic of Sweden, the Cumbrage / Dismachine split is insane. I wrote about this EP a bit when we had a used copy on our Discogs store, you can read here if you’d like to know a bit more about the EP. I gotta wrap this shit up so I’m gunna write less haha. This Insane Youth EP is my favorite of their releases!! It’s so good. I remember when Forward stayed with us, Souichi the guitarist of both Forward and Insane Youth told us some cool trivia. It was late as fuck and we were all drinking and smoking in the kitchen, and I said fuck it ima bust out my Insane Youth EP. I know that is silly as hell, but whatever I wanted to show the dude how much I loved his stuff. Luckily he seemed happy I presented it haha. When I showed him, he opened the cover and pointed to the vocalist “Gen” and said, “Kawakami.” My mind was blown haha. He said Kawakami loved to be in bands and was in too many, so he would use different aliases for projects. I don’t have it with me but on another Insane Youth EP for “Gen” it just has a silhouette of a person haha. Here’s the photo from this EP. I know it looks like Kawakami but not having any idea he was in the band I easily looked this over for years. The Disclose / Insane Youth split makes much more sense haha.

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Alright, just two more quick ones. Dischange, no I actually don’t think this band is underrated but maybe it’s a band you’ve overlooked cos the name is pretty bad? Haha. They did change to Meanwhile later. Check it out, and the demos especially. Alright, best for last: Under Threat. I had no idea they had EPs too until just now so I have no idea what they sound like, but Bomb Scars is killer. It’s just straight-forward, not-give-a-fuck raw HC. They were from Brazil. The rest of the bands I wrote about were Swedish and Japanese. Okay that’s all then, maybe you heard summin new? Thanks for reading, ‘til next time...