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Hi Sorry State fam! How is everyone? I’m good. This past weekend was a warm one in Raleigh. And I had an air conditioner scare! It just stopped working. If you live in a humid as hell place, you know the feeling of sheer panic. Is it ever less than a grand or two to repair your air conditioner? I swear no matter how big or small the problem is, the total cost is the same. Luckily, it kicked back on out of nowhere after a couple hours. That’s literally the only thing I can remember from the weekend! Ha! I need to get a life.

Well, it didn’t take long to figure out what I was going to write about this week. While browsing through some new arrivals, I saw a name that looked really familiar. It’s the debut LP from Itchy and the Nits called The Worst of Itchy and the Nits. I put it on and it was an immediate yes. Come to find out the reason the name sounded familiar was because we played their demo here at work almost a year ago exactly, and really liked it. This LP, brought to us by Total Punk, contains their demo released on Wartman Inc. as well as five new songs recorded by Ishka Edmeades, who you may know from Tee Vee Repairmann, Satanic Togas, and other projects. A total of 12 tracks that each hover around a minute long.

Let’s back things up a minute for some background info. The band is a three-piece from Sydney, Australia. Beth, Eva, and Cin switch off on vocal duties, which adds some cool melodies and dimension. They are a very hooky garage punk band with pop-style melodies, blunt lyrics, and simple, primitive guitar style.

To me they sound like the Donnas from their early days. They’ve also been described a punkier Nikki and the Corvettes, who I admittedly have not heard. But I thought it may be useful info to help pique your interest! In fact, I read in a fun little interview with them that they are the most inspired by both of these bands, as well as The Gizmos. They even cover a Gizmos song on the record (Tie Me Up).

Itchy and the Nits have a healthy dose of attitude, sense of humor, and silly, cheeky lyrics. The opening track, Theme Song, is one of those undeniably fun and catchy songs with lyrics like “Itchy and the Nits! Itchy and the Nits! Scratch your head and scratch your bits! Shake ya butt and shake ya tits!” And not to mention the several itch-themed song titles like Crabs, Parasites, and Fleas. They also have a song called Dreamboat that is admittedly about their shared crush. I’d really like to know who the dreamboat is.

Like I said, all three members share vocal duties, which makes the choruses sound fresh and not repetitive. They have some moody riffs that pair well with their vocal melodies. Their overall enthusiasm is absolutely infectious.

I’m really glad that the demo songs were left as is, because they already fit so well with the five new tracks. The demo tracks sound a little more primitive than the new tracks, but altogether, the 12 songs make for a really cohesive record. My favorite tracks are Crabs, Goner, and Tie Me Up. Check it out!

Ok, I’m gonna wrap this up. I hope you all have a great week and thanks for reading! Until next time!

-Angela

Hello and thanks for reading. This week I will write briefly about this new ABSOLUT cassette that was released to coincide with their upcoming tour dates in USA. It’s kinda crazy to think this band has been around for over a decade now. They really caught my attention with their demo, and I have been a huge ABSOLUT fan ever since. Their 2013 debut certainly had a heavy metal edge to it. And while there are serious metal influences on ABSOLUT, their sound has always come off to me as firmly rooted in hardcore punk. Their recordings typically sound raw as fuck, and the artwork more or less stays in line with what you’d expect to see on a punk record. Yeah, they definitely lean towards the Scandinavian Jawbreaker side of things when it comes to art, but never some insanely epic metal looking shit. While they kept the cover punk as fuck on this new cassette with an homage to MODERAT LIKVIDATION, it’s hard to say the music easily fits into this aesthetic. Yes, they cover GANG GREEN on the B side of the tape, but holy fucking shit this tape is metal as fuck. Their last proper release in 2019 certainly had a new vibe with double-kicking parts, but it was not like THIS. Anyone that knows me knows that I am truly not a fan of metal, but man I can’t get enough of this new ABSOLUT käng munk! It just sounds so extreme. Joel delivers absolute fucking madness on guitar.

When I dissect this release, I really treat the A side as the focus here. I know there are more songs on the B side, but those tracks were just thrown onto the tape for the hell of it, since they were never properly released. The A side also has like ten minutes of blank tape after the music ends, haha, so that really takes attention away from the B side. While I enjoy the B side, I find the master is much better on side A. On the A side, there are three totally new songs recorded last year as a promo for an LP coming later down the line. On the B side, there are two other new songs, two old songs, and a cover that were all recorded April 2022. While some people may not like the mashing up of different sessions on one release, I love when bands do this. It just comes off as so punk and DIY. I really love the packaging on the tape. It is also super punk, in the way that the tape case can barely close cos there are so many folds! While they credited me for the art/layout, I really did not do that much. I just suggested doing a huge double-side jcard that folds out from eight panels. I guess I did the mock-up for each panel, but I didn’t make the actual design. To finish off the release, an absolutely hilarious (and offensive) “homage” to Eric Clapton is featured on the back side. I think tape packaging is typically pretty fucking boring, so spicing this shit up with more folds than one can handle seemed like a good idea (...until it came time to actually folding every single one). I actually released this cassette, so all the folding was done by yours truly.

I bought Victims of a Bombraid and Absolut Country of Sweden from a guy on the internet years ago. I felt bad that he was only selling em due to pressure from his wife and care expenses, but man I was unbelievably excited to cross those two bangers off the list at the same time. To pay him, I sent PayPal over and wrote the record names in the notes. After I sent it over, the payment was flagged and it said it was under review by PayPal. Of course, the guy was nervous cos he had already sent the records, and we were both really confused as to what was going on. I had never experienced this before, but his PayPal account was new, so I assumed that’s all it was. After some time, PayPal asked me to fill out a form explaining what exactly I was purchasing. And then after I got the stuff, they wanted me to confirm all was good before they would let the money clear into the dude’s account. That sucked, especially for the dude. When this was happening, my friend Chris (what up mofo!) explained that he has often has problems with ANTI-CIMEX stuff sold through PayPal. He told me he’s not sure why the stuff is flagged, but to avoid the trouble he changes the title slightly, so it doesn’t straight up say ANTI-CIMEX. I take the time to explain this, cos when I first launched ABSOLUT: Käng Munk 2024, every single order on the BPDT site that contained this cassette was flagged and then denied. That was brutal. I called PayPal and they just explained it was a security issue and it was automatically denied, but the person on the phone could not tell me why exactly. Instantly I remembered buying Absolut Country of Sweden, and the difficulties that came with it. I wondered if that previous issue was with “ABSOLUT” cos of the liquor brand, and not actually “ANTI-CIMEX.” So, I changed the name of the tape and asked Daniel to buy a copy online. Still no luck. At this point, I gave up and decided people would have to wait for SSR and a few other distros to get copies. But, a few days later, PayPal emailed Daniel an explanation and asked him to answer one question to resolve the issue. They asked him to provide a date of birth for Käng Munk. I can’t tell you how funny I think that is. Since I finally understood why PayPal was flagging them, I removed the title from the cassette, and all that followed was business as usual.

My staff pick is stretching away from brief now, but before I go, I want to break down “käng” and “munk” cos I’ve seen a lot of comments and questions, haha. I’ll start with the simple one. Munk is simply a combination of metal and punk, but from my understanding the band must actually be good otherwise it’s not considered munk and probably just butt-metal. To be honest, I first heard this term from CLT of ABSOLUT, so I take this as some up north Canadian slang that doesn’t exist far from there. Now, käng is a lot harder to describe, but it’s actually a word in Swedish. When we toured Europe a few years ago, I learned I was pronouncing käng wrong this entire time. The letter k is not pronounced like we would in English, but the word begins with a “sh” sound. Käng is pronounced shhang, essentially. As I was breaking this down, I suddenly realized the symbol commonly used to represent kängpunk is a fist, but käng actually translates to the word boot. I know of another word “kängnäve” that people have used to describe kängpunk bands, but I did not really understand how it translated. Well, I had to get to the bottom of this, so I asked my good friend Anders to help me understand. I asked him why a fist is used to symbolize kängpunk, when the word käng translates to boot. Instead of paraphrasing his reply, I am going to leave you with quotes. If you’re reading Anders, thank you as always for taking the time to share stuff with me!! And thanks to everyone else for your support, of course.

“Käng is boot so that’s correct and kängnäve is the way your fist goes up in the air when listening to a proper käng band. The way ‘Kängpunk’ came to be was that in the mid 80’s American bands wearing flannel and converse shoes were ‘taking over’ even in Sweden and the old proper leather jacket and army boots punk was not very popular. Jimmy (bass player in 16 Blåsare Utan Hjärna, Horse Laugh etc etc) was not very fond of the transition and wanted bands to wear boots. Boot wearing bands = kängpunk. Simple as that. The term spread and the rest you know…Kängnäve probably got its name from people wearing boots going to gigs and just acting out their frustrations about society and war and bands wearing converse shoes.”

Hiya friends. I hope you are all doing well and had a happy Easter. I miss being a kid and going on Easter Egg hunts. Back in the day, my sister and I would eat our body weight in chocolate eggs and bunnies. Apart from one year when our dog ate all our booty while we were having lunch. He ate everything, wrappers and all and amazingly wasn’t sick. LoL. Good times.

Anyhow, we appreciate you checking in with us again this week. Between all the hot new slabs coming through, new and used, it’s a good time to visit the store in person or do a little online shopping. There aren’t many better ways to spend your dough than on music if you ask me, other than spending it on your loved ones and giving to charity.

A few weeks back, I recommended the soundtrack to the cult teensploitation movie Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, which I hope was a good steer, especially if it was new to you. This week I am going to stay in the soundtrack section if that’s alright. Along with music library records, soundtracks are still one of your best picks for discovery: fresh, cool music and sounds that perhaps you haven’t heard before. I could go on and list numerous reasons soundtracks appeal and why music lovers and record collectors seek them out. Ignore at your loss. Anyway, the other day as I was going through my soundtracks, I stopped to look at the one for Cornbread, Earl And Me. It’s an American film from 1975 that sports music composed and produced by Donald Byrd and performed by jazz-funk group The Blackbyrds. It’s damn funky in places. I hadn’t listened to it in a good while, but had recently just watched the film for the first time and now I feel I like the music even more, which is one of those appeals of soundtracks. As we are amid March Madness and have three local teams in the sweet sixteen (at the time of writing) it seems an appropriate time to pick a basketball related record. I will just add that, although I don’t follow basketball too closely and am an in no way what-so-ever an athlete that plays, I always appreciated the game. Back in my school days, we had a couple of cool gym/sports teachers and one time they took some of us kids to go see The Harlem Globetrotters on a visit to Britain. It was a cool experience and stuck with me. Later, when I came to America, I began following The Lakers, but not too seriously. But I digress…

If you are unfamiliar with the film, I highly recommend you watching it. The story is set in an urban environment like Chicago or a similar city, where a local kid, Cornbread, is a budding basketball player destined for success, fame and fortune. He is played by real life basketball star Jamaal Wilkes who, at the time of filming, was Rookie of the Year in the NBA and playing for the Golden State Warriors. He went on to win a championship with them in 1975, the year the film came out, and a further three with the Lakers in the 80s alongside Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In the movie, his character is friends with two younger boys, one of whom was played by Laurence Fishburne, making his film debut. It’s quite an impressive debut also. In the film, during a heavy rainstorm, the friends challenge Cornbread to see how quickly he can run home from the corner store they are sheltering in. I don’t want to spoil the plot for you, but a mix up in identity results in Cornbread being shot by the police and the rest of the film deals with the fallout from that in the community and how it affects the lives of the young friends and his family, etc. It’s very emotional stuff and sadly, as we all know, still happening today.

I did like the film and if you have seen and enjoyed similar films such as Claudine and Cooley High, which were released at the same time, then I think you will like it also. Those two films have great soundtracks also, with Curtis Mayfield producing Claudine and Cooley High, sporting a nice selection of Motown classics along with original music from Freddie Perren, who was a Motown staff producer.

Here in the store, whenever we get a Blackbyrds album, or a Donald Byrd record, they don’t stick around long. For good reason, as they are good. In recent weeks, I have been hearing them a lot as I know John Scott likes them and he has been playing them. The soundtrack for Cornbread, Earl and Me came out right in the middle of a great run for the Blackbyrds. That same year, their classic album City Life had been released and would be followed the next year by Unfinished Business and the year after that by Action. I like Action a lot and can recommend any of their 70s albums without hesitation. If a good dose of jazz-funk is what you are looking for, then you’ll find plenty of it on these albums.

The City Life album, which contained the much-sampled hit Rock Creek Park, is probably the best remembered album from the group that was formed in 1973. They were Howard University students inspired by jazz trumpeter and already legendary Donald Byrd, who wanted to take students from the academic world and expose them to the real world of music and life. They took their name from an album Byrd had released previously on Blue Note Records. That album and many of Byrd’s classic 70s records were produced by the Mizell brothers, Larry and Fonce, who were themselves Howard alumni.

Production and composition for Cornbread comes from Donald Byrd himself. The record is a mix of jazz-funk with a couple of ballads and 70s cop crime theme moments like the cut Riot, which RZA sampled for a Ghostface Killah track. Bass player Joe Hall shows his funky chops throughout, and his intro to the song One-Eyed Two Step would have Howard from The Mighty Boosh in jazz-funk bass heaven. If you know what I mean.

Overall, a fun listen and a good album, one that possibly gets overlooked when folks talk about the group’s music. Should be easy to find a copy, although we haven’t had one come through here recently, despite getting most of the other albums by the group regularly.

Alright, back to it. Thanks for reading. If you get the chance, watch the film if you haven’t already, and definitely get the Blackbyrds music in your life.

Cheers -Dom

Naked Raygun: All Rise LP (Homestead, 198?)

A few weeks ago, Jeff wrote about Government Issue’s self-titled album for his staff pick, and this week I have a similar record for you: Naked Raygun’s All Rise. Maybe there’s something seasonally appropriate about this style of music in (a little) springtime (in the back of my mind). I noticed in the archive that Jeff actually wrote about GI’s self-titled record once before, and right around the same time of year. So maybe it’s not surprising that today, when I was taking a walk in the sunny springtime weather, I was seized with the urge to listen to All Rise. It just felt right.

I’ve been a big Naked Raygun fan for a long time. One of my favorite things about Naked Raygun is the guitar-playing. I was never much of a guitarist, but when I used to play, my ideal guitar sound would have been some amalgamation of Stubbs/Hammond, Shelley/Diggle, and John Haggerty from Naked Raygun. While Haggerty rarely plays anything complicated, his tone just roars, whether he’s laying down a thick bed of chords or cranking out a hot lick like on “Backlash Jack” or “Those Who Move.” I swear, when a guitarist like Haggerty hits a big chord just right, I get a synaesthetic feeling of pleasure in the back of my throat. I just love it.

Another thing that attracts me to Naked Raygun—and this is true of a lot of my favorite bands—is that they have a big catalog and things to appreciate on every record. There’s no clear consensus pick for the best Naked Raygun album, but I think All Rise might be my favorite. It’s their second album (third if you count Basement Screams, which I do), and at this point they’ve largely left behind the artier sound of their early era and embraced the Buzzcocks-esque punk-pop that dominates their later albums. There are still traces, though, like “Peacemaker,” a Big Black-esque song with a menacing, industrial sound. Actually, Naked Raygun vocalist Jeff Pezzati played bass in Big Black, and former Naked Raygun guitarist Santiago Durango was also in Big Black. Durango’s song “New Dreams” serves as All Rise’s memorable closer even though he doesn’t actually play on the album, his composition bolstered by John Haggerty’s distinctive guitar style.

While All Rise is probably my favorite Naked Raygun album, it doesn’t have my favorite Naked Raygun song, which has to be the non-album single “Vanilla Blue.” I remember reading an anecdote on the old Dag Nasty message board around 20 years ago—I eavesdropped on many conversations among old DC scenesters there—about Government Issue playing with Naked Raygun in Chicago, and Naked Raygun giving GI a tape of the then-unreleased track “Vanilla Blue,” which GI said they played constantly as they drove around the country. I can’t remember who relayed the anecdote—it might have been John Stabb, Tom Lyle, or someone else—but I remember them saying that GI and Raygun felt a close kinship around that time, the bands having arrived at a similar sound despite evolving from very different earlier material.

Springtime… big guitars, big melodies, a hint of nostalgic longing (remembering things perhaps as they should have been)… let’s roll down the windows and sing along at the top of our lungs.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a nice week. Lately, I’ve really just been dreaming of summertime. I can’t wait to go lay out at the beach or go chill at the river one Sunday afternoon. I feel like whatever season is the next one approaching is the one I love, but man I really do love summertime. Last summer, I was visiting a friend who lives over in Wilmington for the weekend and we were hanging out on the beach and my buddy was playing music on a speaker. All the sudden this song came on and probably about a minute into it I was like, “what is this song? Man, this is amazing” and he told me it was Fried Neck Bones and Some Home Fries by Willie Bobo. A smarter person than myself would’ve been able to deduce this pretty easily, since those are the only words throughout the entire song. I don’t know how to put it into words exactly, but this song sounds like it’s been baking out in the sun all day. The vocals are very warm and welcoming like Willie Bobo himself is inviting you to come enjoy some fried neck bones and home fries with him and his friends. I remember driving back to his place after the beach that day and saying, “hey, can you play that fried neck bones song again?” The next day I was driving back to Raleigh, so I decided to listen to the rest of the album and man what a treat. It was almost hard to drive cause this whole album makes you wanna stand up and shake the dust off your hips. Everyone has probably heard a hundred different covers of Michelle whether you want to or not, but this is by far my favorite one I’ve ever heard. I didn’t know so much life and energy could be shot into that song, but Willie turns it out. The way they shout “Michelle! Ma Belle!” will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. All this to say, I’m excited to drink cold beers in the hot sun this summer while listening to Latin jazz.

Hi Sorry State fam! How’s it going? I’m actually writing and finishing my staff pick on the day I am supposed to be finishing it, which feels pretty good. Generally I’m not a procrastinator when it comes to assignments, but the older I get, it’s feels like life keeps getting in the way of my life. That sounds pretty nonsensical, but I think you know what I mean.

Something I’ve thought about recently is how long it feels since I’ve been to a show. Winter was pretty lame in that respect, but it feels like winter pretty much wrapped up a week or so ago in these parts. We may get one or two weird cold days, but I think we are heading into spring with full force. Anyway, I see a ton of shows are coming up in April/May, so be sure to check our stories on Instagram (we also keep a highlight reel for gig info all over the place), and of course our newsletter is always full of flyers. Lots of spring tours are gearing up to start. Look out for Deletar and Destruct on their US east coast tour. Also, Illiterates hit the PNW and a couple shows in Canada throughout May. Another fun one will be Fugitive Bubble and Woodstock ‘99, which starts the first of April on the west coast. G.U.N. is also touring! And in just a couple weeks, Scarecrow will play with Absolut and Destruct for us Raleigh folks. And this is just some of what’s going on in April and May. Ok, let’s get into the business.

I had two contenders for my staff pick this week and found them both the same day through two separate colleagues. First, I will mention the one I’m not gonna write about today because I haven’t listened to the record in full. It’s a record I admittedly and stupidly pre-judged without listening to it. It’s Brorlab’s Working Out in Heaven. Daniel was playing it last night and it sparked my interest pretty quickly. When he told me who it was, I was surprised. No more judging a book by its cover. I’ve done that a few times and have been proven wrong when the needle hit the wax. Had I known it was a La Vida Es En Mus record, I would have given it a try sooner. Anyway, one side of the record is all brand new songs and the other side are eight tracks that they brought back to life from their elusive and rather obscure debut EP. Given that I haven’t listened to the full album yet, I will just say it certainly has my interest and I can’t wait to listen to the whole thing! For now, I will just say it’s rather abrasive (but not annoying), electronic, fuzzy, gabber style punk, or maybe its punk style gabber. Either way, it’s on deck for my turntable.

On with my official staff pick, introduced to me by Jeff who correctly predicted I may like this band. It’s the single/EP from Melbourne’s Leatherman brought to us by Legless Records. What a coincidence! Last week I wrote about the new Drunk Mums record who are also from Melbourne and also on Legless Records. I guess it’s obvious I have a type. The Leatherman record sounds like a mix between power pop and garage rock, with metal infusion. They rock as hard as they pop and that’s something I’m often attracted to. Leatherman is a five-piece band with a two-guitar format that they put to very good use. Let’s do some band comparisons for reference. It’s kind of like the sound of The Runaways and The Donnas, but with heavier riffs and more guitar. If that sounds appealing to you, get you one of these Leatherman records.

So, let me tell you about the first song called Telephone. It is the poppier of the two songs and it is absolutely infectious. I love the vocals. The singer has a great range and the ability to sing in different styles depending on what the song calls for. The bridge on that track is one of those wow! moments. For me, it is the standout moment on the record. The song is pretty poppy until it’s not. There is a point where the style takes a turn toward heavy metal, and as the riffs get heavier, and the drums come crashing down harder, the vocals get more rock and roll, leading to a killer two-guitar solo and really cool guitar harmonies. Good stuff. It’s fun, it rocks, has depth, and the members really know how to play off of one another to get some great sounds.

The second track is Tryin’ 2 4get. The energy does not slow down at all coming from the first track. In fact, this track dials things up a couple notches on the aggression scale so you still get some great guitar harmonies and vocal melodies, but it sounds just different enough to showcase where else the band can go stylistically. What’s cool is you get to hear more of the singer’s range as she nails some high notes and goes big at the end of the song.

Literally the only thing wrong with this record is that it only has two songs. I struggle to call it an EP. Even three songs would be a stretch. With that, I’m going to side with the traditions and conventions of physical media, and what makes sense to me, and think of it more as a single. Otherwise we would have to come up with a different name for singles, haha. No, but in all seriousness, there is one more thing to mention. For those of you care about the aesthetics of vinyl, this record comes on an opaque mustard yellow vinyl with a few subtle flecks of color that most likely differ from vinyl to vinyl. But the part that caught my eye was the dead wax space. It has this cool, very subtle shimmer to it that’s only in the dead wax. It’s not super noticeable, but it gives it a little pizazz. This is probably not that important to a lot of people, but I’m a sucker for little details.

Ok, time to wrap things up! Thank you so much for reading our newsletter, and for supporting Sorry State in general. We really appreciate it! Until we meet again.

Thanks,

Angela

Hello and thanks for reading. Last week we got some tapes from brand new label, Total Recall Recordings. The tapes are debuts for both HÄXORNA and JORO PATH. Each band features a few members from CONSEC, but their song writing approach is quite different. While HÄXORNA has somewhat of a USHC vibe, I hear Swedish inspiration when it comes to the riffs. The first track kind of reminds me of KOWARD, while the other two are a bit more on catchy side of things. I guess referring to KOWARD might be silly, since they are from USA. I used them as a reference cos they too had a bit of Swedish approach to things while still retaining a USHC sound. Anyway, I think this tape rips, and I hope they do more. Alongside HÄXORNA is JORO PATH, who pulls influence from the complete opposite side of the globe, where I hear an obvious Japanese influence. They remind me of GASMASK, especially with their pulled-back style. While JORO PATH pulls influence from mid-‘80s Japan, they are not afraid to wander outside this traditional formula and keep things fresh. Total Recall Recordings is operated by one (or two?) of the people from these projects. I think it’s sick they chose to kick off a new label with their new projects, check ‘em out.

I also wanted to mention that Jeff and I have been busy with our own label the last few months. We just got the first SCARECROW EP back in print, and you can grab copies now at Sorry State. We’ve debated putting this back in print pretty heavily for some time now. We could not use the original stampers, so it would not be nearly as cheap as a “repress” should be. And who knows if there is even that much demand for it? Haha. With another tour overseas coming up this year, we said fuck it and pulled the trigger. Maybe I am biased, but I think this is the best cut we’ve had of these songs. It’s loud and clear. Over the weekend SCARECROW finished off some recordings for a promo we will have available when it comes to tour time. We recorded three new songs and three covers, and I think we are all pretty excited for how it’s turning out. You can grab our first EP at Sorry State now like I mentioned, but we have some shirts available via mail order here if that is something you are into. Alright that’s it for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone for your support!

Hey there Sorry Staters, I hope things are well with you and thanks for taking the time to catch up with us here. Daniel works ridiculously hard on getting the newsletter out to you and packing it with as much vital, cool, interesting and fun stuff as possible each week and all of us here are proud to contribute in any way possible. I look forward to reading my colleagues’ picks and reviews each week just as much as you all do. I hope that is not a vain assumption and is true. I must apologize for my lack of contribution last week (and even as I write potentially this week) as I have been going through some stuff and it just has made writing and thinking straight even more difficult than normal. I end up junking more “staff picks” than I end up finishing. I have a bad habit of writing what looks more like diary entries and self-examinations than reviews and opinions on records. No one wants to read my laundry list of woes and problems. We all got ‘em. So best just shut up and try to keep carrying on.

Easier said than done sometimes, as I can get trapped in the dark corners of my mind very easily and spiral ever deeper and darker if I dwell on things too much. What always brings me back from the edge though is the reminder that all around the world there are people and animals who have it much worse off than I do, and that I should be extremely thankful for what I have and for where I live, etc. Although news stories about bad things aren’t good for the mind and can make you sad, we need reminders that others have it much worse off. The situation in Ukraine and Gaza and the poor people there, especially the innocent children who are suffering is just awful. It’s always the children who suffer the most in these wars and such. Those who survive will carry the scars for the rest of their lives. The psychological impact is huge and will be a heavy weight on their backs as they proceed through life. Not the ideal way for anyone to enter adulthood.

Children suffering in times of war is not the best lead-in to a staff pick, but for this week this is how it is going down as I wanted to talk about the album Help, a charity album released in 1995 by Go! Discs to raise funds and awareness for War Child, a charity set up in 1993 to bring aid and relief to the children caught up in the then ongoing war in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavian countries.

The other week, whilst over at my DJ partner Matt’s house to do our radio show Worldy, I was flicking through some of his records and saw that he had a vinyl copy of the Help album. I didn’t realize that it had been reissued in 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary. The original 1995 vinyl pressing isn’t that hard to find nowadays with Discogs and the internet, but over the years I have rarely seen a copy in a shop, especially here in the States. I do still have my original CD copy that I bought with the track listing cut out from the NME, as at the time of producing the artwork the tracks and sequence had yet to be determined. More on that in a second.

I would argue that not only is Help the best charity album ever, but it is also one of the best documents of the musical landscape in Britain and Ireland during those heady Brit Pop years. Add the compilations made of the Later… With Jools Holland TV show where acts performed live and in the round with the other guests watching and one done for Radio One’s Evening Session with Steve Lamacq and Jo Wiley as prime sets of 90s UK Brit Pop bands.

In 1995, the British music scene was flying high, literally and metaphorically. Other than one or two older and established artists, notably Sir Paul McCartney, every artist and act that participated on Help were at their respective peaks and in their purple patches of creativity.

The idea was to have all the acts record their contributions on a Monday and have the album in the shops by Saturday. Inspired by John Lennon’s Instant Karma and the concept that music should be made and released quickly like newspapers. Easier said than done, of course, and to be successful, something that required many, many people to be on board and coordinated and working together. Back in 1995, this was even more difficult than it would be now. Electronic communication and advances in recording that we take for granted now simply didn’t exist then. It was all done the old-fashioned way, through phone calls and meetings, in recording studios, in art studios, in the press and on television. Not forgetting the manufacturing and distribution parts too. Quite the undertaking and that it happened at all is amazing, but that it turned out so good is down to the commitments from the artists and the incredible hard work and hustle from the people behind the scenes.

For the 25th anniversary of Help, a documentary podcast was made that detailed the whole process from idea to physical reality and interviews are done with the key players and most of the artists. It is a good listen and recommended. I learned so many interesting facts about who had a part in making it happen, who were the driving forces behind it and stuff like having to get the RAF involved to fly the albums to Europe to get them there on time. I mentioned having to cut the track listing out of the paper. That was because there wasn’t enough time to get the finished sequence printed on the artwork or even inserted after the fact. So, when you bought the CD on that Saturday, 9th of September 1995, it was a bit of a mystery listen. The music press and Daily Mirror gave free pages that following week to print the track listing for people to cut out. Seems so strange that that had to be considered and worked out, but back then graphic design and artwork was still done by hand and photographed. Modern computer apps could have that done in a second now. Talking of the artwork, the cover was done by John Squire of The Stone Roses and the back cover art provided by 3-D from Massive Attack. Liner notes were written by Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic.

Almost all the music for Help was indeed recorded that previous Monday at studios around Britain and other locations around the world, with just one or two exceptions. Finished tracks were then mixed and sequenced by Brian Eno. In conjunction with the album, there were also two single E.P.s that contained further tracks by additional artists like Black Grape and Dodgy and P J Harvey, who were not included on the original twenty track album.

There were lots of exciting and exclusive tracks on the record. Coming out after that summer where the news had gone silly over the Blur vs Oasis war, it was a big deal to have both bands on the same album together. The Oasis track was a reworking of a B-side that featured celeb friends Johnny Depp and Kate Moss on vocals.

The Manic Street Preachers covering Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head was the first fans had heard anything from them since the disappearance of band mate Richey Edwards and the death of their manager. Their Everything Must Go album would come out the following year.

Radiohead amazed everyone with their contribution. Their track Lucky was the first clue where they had gone sonically and would be central to OK Computer, the album they would release almost two years later. It said something about them that they would give away their best material at the time to a charity record. Regardless of whether or not you are a fan, this track blew people’s minds when they heard it here first.

I’ve always loved The Boo Radleys, and in 1995 they were riding high on the success of their hit Wake Up Boo. They wrote a great song especially for the record and apparently it was one of Brian Eno’s favorites.

Sinead O’Connor just made the deadline and fortunately so because her cover of Ode To Billy Joe is sublime. A definite highlight.

Bowie loving Suede do a nice job covering Shipbuilding, the Elvis Costello & Clive Langer song written about The Falklands War and released by Robert Wyatt originally.

Orbital named their song Adnan after an actual war refugee that returned to the area and was later killed.

The Charlatans and The Chemical Brothers mark their friendship with their first professional collaboration on Time For Livin’.

Stereo MCs sound just as cool and contemporary now as they did then. Their track Sweetest Truth is a marvelous modern soulful tune done only the way they could at their best.

The album also featured a new track from the great KLF under the guise of the One World Orchestra. They rework the theme to The Magnificent Seven and add samples including vocals from DJ Fleka from Serbian radio B92. Despite its creators not being that proud of the finished track in so far as musical quality, it was used as a jingle on Serbian radio and later a theme tune that became attached to the resistance as a protest anthem so went on to have a life of its own.

I was working on the ships during this time and was sailing around Italy and visiting Venice. It was hard to comprehend then that just hours from where I was, there was a war going on and so much terrible suffering happening to people. The world up to then had been almost ignoring the conflict. It seems shameful in retrospect that the media was more concerned about who was better between Oasis and Blur than the fact that children were being shot by snipers. Thankfully, through organizations like War Child and the success of the Help album things changed and much needed relief was provided. The Help album alone raised well over a million pounds. One note about that, the British Chart compilers wouldn’t include the album on the charts, as it was a compilation. It made number one on the compilations chart and would certainly have charted on the regular album chart if included, and probably would have made number one too. That decision to leave it off undoubtedly cost the charity thousands in lost sales.

As did also the inexplicable decision by Radio One not to play the single E.P., which caused it to stall at number 51. Nonetheless, the album was a huge success and not only raised money that was put to great use but put the conflict and suffering of the people there on to the front pages of the papers and into the TV news programs. Finally.

Subsequent albums have been released for War Child since then. In 2002, there was 1 Love released with the NME. That had various bands and singers cover their favorite songs. I would be lying if I said I liked everything on this one, but there are one or two good takes for sure. The follow up to Help called Heroes that came out in 2009 isn’t bad. That one has current artists covering songs by older classic artists. There are some nice versions on there. Beck doing Dylan. Lily Allen doing The Clash’s Straight To Hell with Mick Jones. Hot Chip taking on Joy Division and Yeah Yeah Yeahs covering The Ramones. All good takes in my opinion.

2003 saw the release of one called Hope, and in 2005 there was an album titled A Day In The Life. Again, these feature a variety of artists playing originals and doing covers. I admit that I am not familiar with these last two and don’t own them, but they both have artists that I like, so I’ll be checking out both collections in the future.

Regardless, they are all for a great cause, and if you can buy one or donate to the charity directly, you’ll be helping a child somewhere and that’s never a bad thing. For the vinyl lovers out there, it appears that all five of the War Child albums are available on wax, having all received recent pressings. I think I might pick up the Heroes one myself next.

Okay, I need to stop here and get this over to Daniel so that I don’t miss the deadline again. Thanks for reading and I hope someone might enjoy discovering or rediscovering some of this music. It seems crazy that almost thirty years have passed since the release of Help. Sadly, the world still has the same problems that needed addressing then. All we can do is stay informed and try to support good causes, whether they are local or global.

Before I go, I discovered a Channel Four TV documentary on Help which you can watch here.

Cheers- Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Had a pretty good weekend this past weekend (for clarity, at the time I’m writing this we’re talking March 15th/16th). I guess in the previous newsletter, I already talked about Public Acid playing the National, so I’ll spare you. But I realized I completely forgot mentioning the previous night: Much to my surprise, there was a gig in Richmond when I drove up on Friday night where that new band Cross from NY was headlining. They ripped it, and it was cool getting to kick it with them after the show. Cicada totally destroyed, love getting to see them. But a big highlight for me was this new Richmond band No Victim (whose name was something different on the flyer, but they changed it right before the show haha). The band featured my homie Merm of Invertebrates fame, but also fairly recent Richmond transplant Chester on guitar, who played in those Texas bands Stunted Youth and Save Our Children. For a first gig, No Victim crushed it. Fast, kinda dissonant and chaotic, but they also covered “Commando” by the Ramones. When they finished playing, I just looked down and muttered quietly to myself, “Goddamn, I love hardcore.”

In other news, I believe in this edition of the newsletter we’re announcing that the repress of Scarecrow’s first EP Revenge is finally back in print! Usman and I first released Scarecrow’s debut record on our Bunker Punks label back in early 2020, just a couple months before the pandemic hit. Crazy that 4 years have already gone by. Stoked that this record is available once again after being outta print for a long while. So, if you missed out first time around, hope you grab one either directly from us Bunker Drunks or from right here at Sorry State. You know you wanna snag that red vinyl! ;)

Alrighty, record write-up time: I feel like this Drunk Mums LP might be an unexpected choice for my staff pick. We just got in a bunch of new releases from this label Legless Records, which is based out of Australia. Funny enough, I checked this record out on Bandcamp when I was inspecting invoices for records we should be expecting to arrive in the mail very soon. Somehow, it totally slipped my mind that Angela had written about this very same Drunk Mums record for her staff pick several weeks ago. Whatever, I’ll double down.

Full transparency, based on this cover art alone, this looks like a record I would ordinarily avoid like the plague. The record is called Beer Baby, and I hate the look of the font they chose for the band name. Just looks kinda like a late-90’s half-ass photoshop job. And also, when someone throws out the genre-descriptor “Australian garage,” I’m usually like, nah… I’m good on that haha. Daniel and I use this term a lot: “Garage turkey.” Anyone know what I mean by that? I know you know these types o’ mofos you all see at gigs. Brown corduroy jacket, scraggly curly hair, flared bellbottom jeans, possibly a roadkill bone necklace? Textbook garage turkey. Perhaps that would be the target demographic for a group such as the Drunk Mums. But I gotta say, I threw this record on and just immediately was diggin’ it. Don’t try to box me in, muthafucka. I’m a multi-faceted creature.

I think these Aussie boiz are just good songwriters. To be fair, this record benefits from great sounding production too. Nice, upfront, lightly overdriven guitars. Thankfully, the drummer plays proper Tommy Ramone style on the hi-hat. I feel like garagey punk bands often suffer from a “trashcan” aesthetic and they proudly lean on that low-fidelity/low-effort stylistic approach. And for my money, it gives these bands an excuse to not try hard enough to write good songs. And while the Drunk Mums surely guzzle a few pints from that keg they’re carting around, you can tell these guys are actually really good players. Tight musicianship, and yet, not “stiff.” They’re rockin’ it out with swagger. Melodic, catchy tunes, man. Cool arrangements with the riff writing. I’m not sure if these dudes are slightly older, but it seems like they do owe a debt to the classic punk stylings of their local predecessors like The Saints. And I gotta say, as far as rockin’ punk style goes, I’d much prefer to hear a band from Australia that wants to sound more like Radio Birdman than they do like Pussy Galore or Royal Trux or whatever. I was saying to Dominic, the Mums have that intangible quality where if you were to go see them in a divey club and get totally hammered right up front, you’ll already be singing along with the chorus of the tunes before they’re over—even if you’ve never heard ‘em before. Possibly not the deepest lyrical content, but just fun. And what’s wrong with a little fun every now and then? I’ll find myself singin’: “It’s an apocalypse, baby!” Hell yeah.

Weirdly, I don’t know if this will make sense to some of you Sorry State readers, but I feel like a lot of these Drunk Mums tunes would sound properly great in a skate video. Have y’all ever watched that King of The Road series that was on Vice a few years back? I loved those King of The Road features that would come out on home video back when I was a teenager. Then the reprised TV show version had a theme song by this band called the Black Lips, and I don’t know why, but it would always put me in a good mood. Lo-fi catchy Ramones-ish with whistling melody for the chorus. Why not, right? Maybe I just enjoy it because I happen to associate the song with skateboard-related antics. The Drunk Mums’ songs I feel like could fit that same vibe. Like one of my favorite videos from my youth was Black Label’s Blackout video. I can imagine Patrick Melcher or Jason Adams killin’ slappies on a curb while a couple cuts off Beer Baby are kickin’ in the background.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got this week. I believe I’m gonna crack a cole one and jam some Drunk Mums. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

The Jesus and Mary Chain: “Never Understand” b/w “Suck” 7” (Blanco Y Negro, 1985)

The Jesus and Mary Chain has a new album out this week. I hate to say it, but I haven’t listened to it yet. There are a lot of Jesus and Mary Chain records I haven’t listened to. They’re a band I’ve always liked, but aside from the odd listen to Psychocandy or Honey’s Dead during a shift at the store, I haven’t listened to them much. But a while back I came across a stack of their singles and they seemed really cheap, so I bought them all. The earliest in the stack was “Never Understand,” their 3rd single from 1985, and I’ve been having a bit of a moment with it.

The night I first listened to it, I was playing a bunch of new to me singles, and that was probably the 8 or 10th single I’d listened to that night. As tends to happen, the volume knob crept higher and higher with each record to where I was really blasting them. And then I threw on “Never Understand” and it just peeled my fucking face off. The guitar tone on this record is downright audacious, as wild, brutal, and insane as anything Confuse, Negazione, or Disclose put to tape. I love blasting a record like this and just bathing in noise, and “Never Understand” gives me that sensation. I’d always associated JAMC with the softer, gauzier sound of “Just Like Honey,” but the production on this single is knives out, going straight for the throat. But then behind it is this very sunny pop song…

I’ve really been feeling 80s UK indie pop lately. I’ve always liked that kind of stuff well enough, but lately I’ve been discovering or re-discovering bands that have a punky take on that sound that’s really been doing it for me. Sealed Records’ reissues from Dolly Mixture and Chin-Chin (I know the latter was Swiss, but they’re very of a piece with this sound) remain in constant rotation, and I’m still listening to the Gymslips pretty often, too. I even thought about doing my staff pick about Girls At Our Best’s Pleasure this week, which I’ve also been playing regularly. Maybe we’ll do that some other time. At any rate, I’ve really been primed for this sound, and “Never Understand” is right on the money, with a bouncy, Ramones-y rhythm and vulnerable vocal melody.

And then there’s “Suck,” the b-side. It’s funny, I was listening to “Never Understand” with my friend Mike the other night, and I blurted out that it’s really just the Velvet Underground’s sound… straightforward pop songs drenched in feedback and noise. But “Suck” is really where JAMC goes full Velvets, reminding me of the most out-there moments on The Velvet Underground and Nico. I also love that “Never Understand” follows that UK single trope of having the pop hit on the a-side and the more daring, artistically adventurous song on the b-side. The Buzzcocks’ “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays” b/w “Why Can’t I Touch It?” is one of my favorite singles that follows that format. Siouxsie & the Banshees take this tack too, though honestly most of their b-sides are pretty bad. Listen to the singles collection Once Upon a Time and then listen to the b-side compilation Downside Up… that’s a pretty gnarly disparity in quality. “Suck,” though, strikes the perfect note, adventurous but not oblique; a diversion, but a consequential one.

A quick listen through JAMC’s early singles (they’re all on streaming, individually and not as a compilation, which is so fucking classy and cool I can’t even handle it) reveals that “Never Understand” is, perhaps not an outlier, but a moment where everything came together just perfectly. Or maybe that’s just my taste… I’m sure there are many opinions on which is the best JAMC single. I also listened to “Never Understand” on digital, where they add the song “Ambition,” which appears on the 12” version of the single. “Ambition” is a fine song, but I think it throws off the perfect balance of the 7” version.

That’s what I have for you this week. Listen to and appreciate singles. They rule!

Hi Sorry State fam! I’m writing this on Saint Patty’s Day, and I heard that someone can pinch you if you’re not wearing green. Well, I’m wearing black and I dare you. No, but seriously, Happy (belated) Saint Patrick’s Day! Moving on….

This week’s pick is kind of a weird album that leaves me a tiny bit confused, but I kind of like that. It’s the fifth album by Why Bother? brought to us by Feel It Records and titled Serenading Unwanted Ballads. You never know what to expect when you hear a new album by this band, as they are somewhat shrouded in mystery. They don’t play live, and they don’t have a signature style in my opinion. Unless you count being predictably unpredictable as a signature style. Nevertheless, they are an intriguing midwest synth punk band.

Why Bother? is a band that truly sounds like they’re making the music they want to make, and have no fear of any sort of negative reception. If you’re making music you like, you only have to worry about whether you like it, and that has to feel incredibly freeing. And you can really feel that sense of freedom and authenticity in the music.

Anyway, many of the songs on this record are getting their first vinyl appearance after popping up on various EPs and singles. I was especially intrigued by the record when I read that the song Testify was written and recorded by their friend Aaron while he was in prison serving a life sentence. I don’t know the details, but the way that bit of information was phrased sounded like the song was literally recorded in prison. Recording a song while serving a life sentence adds a pretty thick layer of mystery and darkness to the record, which is mostly, but not entirely, packed with rather gloomy ballads.

There are some really good tracks on the first side such as a dreamy, mystical ballad called Until. It is somewhere in the vein of The Jesus and Mary Chain, but sadder. I really enjoyed the first few tracks, but the first one to really get its hooks in me is called High as the Heavens. It’s a post-punk up tempo track that’s emotional but doesn’t feel heavy. I love the song’s arrangement and the infectious chorus. It sort of feels like the Why Bother? version of Just Like Heaven. It’s not as poppy and whimsical, but eerily romantic.

They really play around with different sounds and styles on these songs. I was reminded of early Cure and Lou Reed. The next track was the one that made me think of Lou Reed, and not because it happens to be called Heroin Dancer. It’s kind of psychedelic and trippy compared to the rest of the album. But even better is the song called Some Don’t Dance. It has sharper riffs and a late 70s UK post-punk sound. The melody immediately reminded me of The Cure’s Jumping Someone Else’s Train.

There is a lot of diversity in vocal styles, which becomes more noticeable in the shift between earlier tracks and Heroin Dancer. Sometimes the vocals are very prominent, more stripped down, and in the forefront, and sometimes wrapped in distortion or drowned out by synth and noise. But even the tracks that are a little more chaotic are still pretty measured and controlled versus annoying.

I really like the two faster, more punk sounding tracks on the album. One being Frothy Green, which is a live track from 2020. It leans more garage punk. It’s more stripped down and has a lot more attitude than other tracks, and the synth is more dialed down. And right after that is Feckless World, which is another energetic, and more chaotic track with a cool twist and super abrupt stop.

The song Testify is kind of how you might imagine a song written in prison to sound. I don’t even know what I mean by that, but it’s an acoustic, singer-songwriter type song that is very different from the other tracks. It has a really good main riff that feels heavy with emotion. It’s a more straightforward indie-folk sound, but it’s not run of the mill. Obviously. It was written and recorded in prison. It’s a downer, but it’s a good song.

The next and last song, Nobody Knows, is the winner of the downer award. As it should be. It would be a little tacky if they followed up the song Testify with something even the least bit lighthearted. It’s more atmospheric in terms of the music, and the lyrics are bleak as hell. It’s got lines like “I watch you shed a tear. How many lifetimes are we bound to grieve and fear? Some will stick around, others will disappear.” I really like this song and the style of these last two tracks.

The album is definitely worth checking out. It may be a little disjointed with its different styles and moods, but they aren’t a “by the book” type of band and neither is this record. Give it a listen! Thanks for reading! See you next time!

-Angela

https://flowernewyorkcity.bandcamp.com/album/heel-of-the-next-physical-god

Hello and thanks for reading. A friend of mine recently sent me a copy of the new FLOWER 7” and I’ve been listening to it a lot. This record only features one track on each side. Usually I would talk shit on a record with such few songs, but instead I am a huge fan of this release. Even though it’s only two songs, the duration of this 7" is still about eight and a half minutes. I think I would also usually find songs that are so long to be boring, but in this case I find the two tracks to be super captivating. I heard FLOWER with their debut release on Profane Existence. They played our house spot a while before that LP came out, but I was wasted, and their sound didn’t really stick in my head. On their LP, I heard an obvious nod to NAUSEA, amongst some anarcho-type riffs. The artwork had a total RUDIMENTARY PENI vibe, down to the foldout poster sleeve. I liked the LP, but I really like the EP. The recording sounds much more clear and powerful on the LP, but I find the song-writing itself to be more powerful on the 7". I feel like they really locked the sound in more on this release, and the packaging is simply amazing. I also want to mention how much I like the lyrics. They are political but worded in such a clever way. They are a serious highlight for me on the release. I love the back-and-forth bits on the vocals too. It makes the choruses even more memorable. With the packaging, it’s the same Crass Records foldout poster style as the LP. Even though they were working with less space this time with the 7" format, I feel like they really did more with it. It takes so much time and dedication to pull off this type of layout, and they executed it perfectly. Probably everyone sees FLOWER artwork and thinks Nick Blinko, right? Even though it’s so on the nose, I find there is originality to it. On the 7" especially, there are so many layers, dimensions, and messages. It is such an adventure to take it in. I really appreciate how the lyrics are incorporated into the art. You have to really engage with the record to fully take in. I know not every band has the ability to go all-out with art like this, but man I can say how much I appreciate it when they do. This record is a cooperative release between Fight For Your Mind (France) and a brand-new label called Peace Of Mind. I am pretty sure that label is operated by a member of FLOWER and a close friend of the band. I don’t think this record is actually available in the US yet, but I am sure we will get copies in due time. Alright I think that about sums it up for this week. Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone for your support!