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Hi and thanks for reading. I finally got around to listening to TÀRREGA 91’s new record, Ckaos Total, and I think it’s a certified ripper. It’s silly I took this long to getting around to jamming it, as their previous 7” Fill De La Merda was a previous staff pick of mine. I was chatting with a friend at THE ADVERTS gig the other day, and he was going on about how good the new one is. I didn’t even realize until today that Daniel wrote the album’s description for the label, haha. Of course, it is very well-written, and he gets the points across with ease. If you are a fan of MG 15, or maybe ANTI-DOGMATIKSS, and haven’t checked out TÀRREGA 91’ yet, you definitely should! Between their debut, Fill De La Merda, and this record, there are some subtle changes in the band’s sound. For one, the production on Ckaos Total is much better than the 7”. Fill De La Merda was not poor quality in my opinion though, and I might actually prefer it to the cleaner sound found on Ckaos Total. TÀRREGA 91’ is fast and locked-in, so the cleaner recording almost suits them better in a way. They play much tighter and less chaotic than ANTI-DOGMATIKSS did, so it felt kinda weird comparing them cos of that, but maybe you can hear what I mean. I found it interesting there are no mid-tempo songs until the final track on Ckaos Total. Half of the songs on the 7” were slow, so I expected to hear some more groovy stuff. While the final track on Ckaos Total is a mid-tempo song, it’s much more on the “A Look At Tomorrow” side of things than the groovy side for sure. If you’re just getting tapped into TÀRREGA 91’, I wanted to point out the band is named after their small town and the year that antisocial riots that nearly burnt down the town hall, which ended with the arrest of 86 youths.

La Vida released this record alongside a new KALEIDOSCOPE LP. I have yet to dive into KALEIDOSCOPE, as I don’t have a personal copy yet. I listened to it one time online and, man, it really hit the spot for me. If for some reason you haven’t checked that one out yet, I suggest you do and secure your copy now! Alright, I think that’s all for the week then. Thanks for reading and thanks for your support!

Hi everyone and thanks for taking time to read our newsletter. We appreciate it. This week I am writing with relative ease compared to last week as cool-ass boss Daniel, after learning my laptop was on the fritz, literally went out the next day and bought me a brand new one. So, I am counting my blessings and enjoying the major upgrade. The only thing that I don’t have this week (as usual) is a lot of time, and I am writing to catch the deadline.

Our week here in Raleigh had a brilliant hump-day bump when punk hero TV Smith & The Adverts played local venue Kings, and our very own Scarecrow got to open. TV Smith was incredible. His current crop of Adverts nailed every tune and between them they delivered a professional yet full of fun set. Everyone watching had grins wider than the Cheshire Cat. We even had a chance to chat with TV and the band briefly afterwards. It was a terrific evening and one we won’t forget.

The week also saw lots of boxes of records getting delivered to the store and they all contained cool records. It’s hard to know where to begin.

I was happy to take home a copy of the Soul Jazz compilation called Secret Superstar Sounds that we restocked. Check that out if you like obscure punk and power pop from the late 1970s and early 1980s. As usual with all Soul Jazz comps, the selections are all faultless and afford us poor saps the chance to hear and own some expensive and hard to find tunes on vinyl. I do own a copy of the Tours record that is on this one, however, and it’s a definite highlight.

We are all big fans of the Inscrutable Records label, and we were able to stock up on their latest releases and restock on some of the older titles. Personally, I think every record the label has put out thus far has been ace. I’ve liked them all. Some more than others, but they all have been worth listening to. Of the current crop, my favorite is Lust Online and their Go Outside E.P. If you like dream-pop and shoegaze, then these guys might do it for you. From Oklahoma City apparently, but playing more like an 80s 4AD band from Dorset. Or something like that. They play it well and have good tunes. Check them out.

Talking of 4AD, the great record label, both Jeff and I were tempted to buy the Xmal Deutschland box set that came in. Luckily for both our wallets, some of you bought the copies we had. I might still get one yet, and we’ll do our best to restock it asap. If you haven’t heard these records, I would highly recommend checking them out. Certainly, if you like Cocteau Twins and Siouxsie & The Banshees, along with other similar bands from the early 80s, you’ll no doubt enjoy these recordings. Trying to track down vinyl copies of their records is not easy or cheap, so getting this set makes a lot of sense. You get the two albums they did for the label, namely Fetisch and Tocsin, plus tracks from the two E.P.’s they released called Incubus Succubus II and Qual. I like the first album Fetisch the most I think, but am not so familiar with them to quantify that in any real way. I like what I have heard. There’s a collection of their earlier singles before 4AD available that we’ll try to stock for you also. They did go on to record two more albums to see out the 1980s, but these were after leaving 4AD, the first on their own Xile label. The sound on these is more in synch with the electronic rock and alternative rock of the late 80s. A bit more polished than their previous era, but still in a darkwave vein. Worth having a listen to. So also, are their Peel sessions, which saw a vinyl release. My advice to you, if you see any of these records in a record store and they seem reasonably priced, would be to grab them as they rarely show up, especially this side of the pond. Which makes the price tag on this current set seem reasonable all things considered.

Finally, in keeping with the vibe of the previous two choices, I would highly recommend a new release on Feel It Records by Kilynn Lunsford called Promiscuous Genes. She’s an artist that has been on the scene for a while now, making music in a bunch of different groups and projects. Left of center and experimental for the most part, but reminding me on this latest record of the sort of stuff that you would find on Crass Records or On-U Sound and other such progressive labels from the 80s. A point made by the great Ian Svenonius in his review/press release for the record. Rather than try to say what he has already said in a different way, you should just click here and read his blurb. It’s spot on. Point being, the record is cool and hits a lot of spots. Plus, the cover art is amusing, and the packaging comes with a nice lyric booklet. I’ve only spun it a few times since picking it up, but like lead track “Nice Quiet Horror Show.” Check her out.

Okay, I could keep going talking about more great records, new and old, that we have currently, but must stop here and get this delivered. Check out our webstore and the rest of the newsletter for all the stuff I missed.

Cheers to you all and bon voyage to Jeff as he heads off to Europe. Safe trip and have a killer time buddy.

-Dom

Hello Sorry Staters! Another week past means another staff pick for ya'll to read! Not much has been going on in my world other than playoff hockey and going to see my mom and hang out with her over this past weekend. I have been throwing on wide variety of music this past week, everything from James Brown to the Dickies and my most listened to this week is a record that we have had at the store for a while: Harley Poe's Satan, Sex and No Regrets. Imagine the Violent Femmes but with lyrics about being a murderer, cannibalism and even a song about what happens to your body when you die. Very much influenced by the macabre and horror movies, the record is actually quite fun, weird and very catchy. Harley Poe's catalog of music used to be very hard to come by, but a good chunk of the catalog is being put out/repressed by Say-10 Records out of Richmond, VA and Chain Smoking Records. This particular record can go for $100+, but is totally worth it. We currently have the 10” of Pinocchio Pariah on the webstore and at the shop, so check it out and pick it up! As always I have been listing a ton of CDs so you should pick out a few on your next order! Until next time Sorry Staters! Enjoy your week and do something that makes you happy!

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. Last week I wrote about my favorite movie director, Stanley Kubrick, and this week I’m writing about my other favorite director, David Lynch. Well not exactly, but an album that he produced alongside frequent collaborator Angelo Badalamenti, Floating Into The Night by Julee Cruise. This album was released in 1989 and some of the songs on here would be featured on the Twin Peaks soundtrack the following year. The whole album has that same dream like flow and feel to it that a lot of David Lynch’s work has. It always gives me a kind of melancholy feeling whenever I listen to it, but sometimes that’s nice. One song in particular I really like on here is Rockin Back Inside My Heart. It’s just a very pretty song. I remember the first time I heard it was in a scene in Twin Peaks where Julee Cruise is performing it. It was stuck in my head after hearing it, and then I looked it up and was led to this album and was like, “oh shit I’ve heard a bunch of these songs in the show.” Anyways, good album to check out even if you’ve never watched the show or anything.

Hi and thanks for reading. Today I will be writing about this MERCENÁRIAS reissue. I apologize, as I write there are only 2 copies left in stock, one of which I will be taking. Oh update, Daniel got the last copy, haha. So, my photo above won’t make any sense until you get to the bottom of my staff pick. Daniel was the one who originally introduced me to MERCENÁRIAS, via Cadê As Armas? I remember then, as well as now, he was surprised I dig them, haha. I guess this band is categorized as post-punk? I don’t know anything about that genre really. There are probably a lot of bands that sound similar to MERCENÁRIAS, but I don’t think they’d really grab me like these guys do. I guess I shouldn’t say guys, cos the band was comprised of all women! I was telling Daniel I didn’t wanna sound stupid (aka sexist) but MERCENÁRIAS remind me of THE SLITS, or FITNESS WOMXN. He told me that FITNESS WOMXN actually covered MERCENÁRIAS! I had no idea, though. I love FITNESS WOMXN, but I did not know who MERCENÁRIAS was back then. It wasn’t until we got that 2021(?) reissue of their LP in stock that I was introduced to them via Daniel. I guess I should specify, it was their first LP Cadê As Armas? I didn’t know they had another LP that came out 1987, as well as this demo from 1983 that I should probably start talking about already.

This demo was previously reissued by Nada Nada Discos ten years ago and Sorry State had copies. Again, I had no idea who they were back then, so I did not get a copy. Nada Nada teamed up with Munster Records for this most recent pressing. I probably would have missed this one too honestly. I had fulfilled some orders and that’s when I realized we had some MERCENÁRIAS shit in stock. This probably sounds awfully silly since I work here, but we stock so many titles it’s hard to keep track of everything coming in. Alongside the demo 7”, we got this 1983-1987 LP that compiles outtakes from both LPs, some live stuff, and another studio session that was never released. I checked this one a little bit, but it doesn’t quite keep me hooked like their LP or this demo. I will have to give it a more in-depth listen. If you’re curious to hear this one and don’t know where it’s streaming, check the label’s bandcamp page.

I remember Daniel telling me the band’s live performances were really raw and intense compared to the studio recordings. I think that sound is captured on their demo. I mean that obviously makes sense; there are like three years between those two releases. On the LP it sounds like they’ve improved at their instruments, and their songwriting flows more like what I imagine post-punk to sound like. I love how the demo sounds kinda rigid/janky, and the vocals really caught me by surprise. They almost don’t fit the music, making it even more sick to my ears. For some reason the first thing I thought was UNITED MUTATION; they don’t really sound anything like that but maybe you know what I mean. They shed this style when it comes time for their debut and grew into more palatable singing. I originally heard “Policia” on the LP and it stood out as one of my favorite tracks. I was so stoked to hear this song on the demo as well. When that song came over my speakers I made my order immediately, haha.

OK before I go, I wanted to mention this tape I bought this week that we do still have in stock – LOTTI BIGOTTI. It’s funny this week I am writing about two releases that are not hardcore at all… what’s happening? I saw a friend of mine with good taste made an order this week, and this tape was in the midst of the stack. It was one of the only titles I didn’t recognize, and I realized we had just gotten it in stock. I don’t have a tape player at work, but I was able to stream the demo on bandcamp. I think I was two songs in and I had already made my order, haha. I have no idea what style of music this is. They say “dark punk” on their bandcamp. It definitely has some goth-y vibes, but they are subtle. Maybe reminiscent of MUSTA PARAATI at times? It’s certainly on the punk side of the fence, though. I also find them reminding me of TOŽIBABE with the dissonant elements of some songs. And then at times it reminds me of some anarcho stuff too, like maybe PART 1? Oh duh, “deathrock.” That must be what they are going for, right? Haha. This band is from Budapest, which is another thing I think is super cool about it, as I know virtually no bands from Hungary. I’ve mentioned before, but I won’t write about a tape unless I have bought it too since tapes are not so cheap these days. I’ve heard bands that sound similar, but they usually get boring fast for me and/or the vocal style is awful. I think this tape is excellent and you should buy it, too. Alright, that’s it for today. Cheers and thanks for reading.

Hey there everyone! Thanks for clicking on the SSR newsletter again this week. It gets worse by the hour here in America so I won't try to keep up with the latest lawless and fascist moves our government is making, but suffice to say it's bad.

What to pick this week? We've had a bunch of cool new records and tapes come in this week along with some tasty used titles. If you hadn't heard, the store currently has a lot of in demand video game soundtracks and a whole bunch of pop punk records from the late 90s and early 00s. Not my bag personally, but a lot of people were geeking out hard on these over the weekend. Stop by and take a gander if you are in town.

The kind of early 2000s pop punk I like is the kind made by a band that I know many of you reading will know and love dearly. I'm talking about The Exploding Hearts, the terrific but tragically short lived band from Portland who effortlessly combined punk and power pop so well.

Again, I have Jeff here at SSR and our always homie Eric Chubb for turning me on to these guys. When a copy of Guitar Romantic came into the store, their first and only album, back when I started working here, we jammed it and I instantly fell in love with record. I'm not sure whether that was an original pressing or a reissue, but finally a couple of years ago the album was reissued in a remastered and expanded edition, and it's that version which I now have. Such a great record. So many hooks and earworm riffs and sing-along choruses. If they were trying to sound like a cross between The Clash, early Scientists and Buzzcocks, to name three potential influences, then they nailed it.

The story about the band is a tragic one though, and very sad. Poised on the brink of major success, everything came to an abrupt end when traveling home from a triumphant gig in San Francisco in late July 2003. They were involved in a horrific accident that took the lives of three of the band members. Adam, Jeremy and Matt were all still in their early 20s. My heart goes out to their family and friends and everyone else that knew them. I can't imagine how hard it was to hear that news, and I'm sure it hasn't got any easier. RIP guys. For the world they left behind we have this album, some singles and a great collection of unreleased mixes and demos plus hard to find singles collection called Shattered. That collection recently came into the store and I had to exercise my record store employee privilege and snag that bad boy. It's brilliant and has their awesome single (Making) Teenage Faces on it, which if you can find a copy will cost you a fair penny.

Luckily there is also video footage of the band available if you dig around the internet. These clips and the records will ensure they won't be forgotten. Their legacy will live on. If you already know then you know, but for those late for the party like me then I would highly recommend you seek out Guitar Romantic and Shattered asap in whatever form you consume your music. Obviously we all prefer vinyl, but until you can get yourself a copy go stream 'em.

I've had to write this on my phone as my computer decided to act weird, so I can't leave links, but you're all smart people and know how to use the Internet.

Okay, that's going to have to be it for me. Have a great week and see you next time.

Cheers - Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Another Monday… (or is it Tuesday?) I can’t keep up anymore. This time next week, all you readers won’t be hearing from me like usual. Come Monday, May 19th, I’ll be on a plane flying over to the UK. Public Acid is about to embark on our month-long European tour. Do I feel prepared for that adventure at this moment? Uuuuuhhh, I’ll get back to ya on that. How I really feel is totally INSANE. Haha, this trip really snuck up on me. Of course, I’m super excited. Honestly, a change of scenery sounds really nice at the moment. Can’t help but feel pumped to get the fuck out of this country for a while. Stoked to play rad gigs, visit a few countries I’ve never been to, and most all, to finally get to visit with friends in person who live far away. I need to buy some fucking socks.

Before I leave though… This Wednesday (May 14th), Scarecrow is playing at Kings in Raleigh with The Adverts! I just love The Adverts. Stoked to have an opportunity to jam out to TV Smith and the gang. It’ll be fun to be behave like a bunch of bored teenagers for one night.

I don’t really have a great staff pick lined up for this week. I do wanna give a little shout out to another local shop in town called the Pour House. Recently, they acquired a pretty killer 80s metal collection, apparently some dude who just casually walked through the door one day. Definitely heavy on thrash metal. Megaforce pressings of Metallica records, Megadeth, Slayer, etc. Rachel (who some of you may remember used to work here at Sorry State) gave me heads up about the collection. I darted over there as soon as the records were available for sale. The main record I wanted and was so stoked to grab was the under the radar THRASHterpiece Power And Pain by the mighty Whiplash! This record has been on my wantlist for YEARS. But I refused to buy it from some punisher on the internet for way overblown price. Rachel hooked me up big time.

Whiplash is a New Jersey band, and Power And Pain came out in 1985. So pretty early on in the thrash game! Unlike the operatic vocal stylings of other East Coast thrash staples like Overkill and Anthrax, I always thought Whiplash had a way more aggressive style. Everything about their sound is just the most extreme, the most shredding, the most ridiculous… in the best way possible. If I remember correctly, I think one of the dudes from Whiplash had a hand in helping Agnostic Front write the Cause For Alarm record. So yeah, the crossover record. And funny enough, even though the collection at Pour House was mostly straight metal, the dude also had Cause For Alarm in his collection. For me, just throw on the beautifully titled track “Power Thrashing Death,” and you’ll get what Whiplash is all about. Highly recommend.

That’s all I’ve got for this week. And yall won’t hear from me for several more weeks. International friends reading this, below is Public Acid’s tour schedule. If there’s a gig nearby you, I hope you come out to the show and say hello!

21/05 - Bristol, UK
22/05 - Newcastle, UK
23-24/05 - NOISE ANNOYS - Sheffield, UK
25/05 - London, UK
26/05 - Antwerp, Belgium
27/05 - Paris, France
28/05 - St. Etienne, France
29/05 - Bordeaux, France
30/05 - Zarautz, Basque Country ES
31/05 - Barcelona, Spain
02/06 - Athens, Greece
04/06 - Uppsala, Sweden
05/06 - Umeå, Sweden
06/06 - Helsinki, Finland
07/06 - Tampere, Finland
08/06 - Turku, Finland
10/06 - Stockholm, Sweden
11/06 - Oslo, Norway
12/06 - Gothernburg, Sweden
13-15/06 - K-TOWN HARDCORE FESTIVAL

As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til June,

-Jeff

HR: It's About Luv 12” (Olive Tree Records, 1985)

I’m feeling alright today since I just got back from a weekend in the mountains celebrating my wife’s birthday. Whenever I get away, I realize how much stress I accumulate and hold onto in my daily life. As I get further away from work (both spatially and temporally), I feel my muscle fibers loosen and my mind calm and widen. I have strategies like meditation and exercise that I use to cope with stress on a day-to-day basis, but at the end of the day I think the only real cure is time. You have to put in the hours in a space far away from your stressors, engaging instead with things that bring you peace and joy… nature, family, art, good food, etc. If only society encouraged us to set up our lives around these things rather than money, status, and all the other things that weigh us all down…

I didn’t listen to any records this weekend, but flipping through my recent arrivals stack, I realized I hadn’t written about HR’s first album, It’s About Luv, which I’ve been listening to regularly for the past couple of months. I’ve mentioned the Bad Brains a few times in my Staff Picks lately, and I guess I’ve had them on my mind. Mostly that’s due to reading H.R.’s biography and having the arc of his life and musical career come into clearer focus in my mind. I don’t think I realized, for instance, that It’s About Luv came out in the window between Rock for Light and I Against I, during the Bad Brains’ first (I think?) significant breakup. After getting super into that 1987 Bad Brains footage I wrote about a while back, I knew full well that H.R. still had it in 1985 when It’s About Luv was released, so I added it to my wants list. It wasn’t too long before a cheap copy popped up on Discogs and I nabbed it. I must not have been paying too much attention when I bought it (it was really cheap, after all), because when it showed up I was surprised to find that it was a sealed copy. Furthermore, the seller had listed it as the SST repress, when it was actually a sealed original pressing on Olive Tree. Not exactly the score of a lifetime, but I thought it was pretty neat. I felt like I’d drawn one of those Monopoly cards that says “bank error in your favor: collect $10.”

I’d always heard that a big source of the instability in Bad Brains was that H.R. wanted to get away from playing punk rock and focus on reggae. Given that, one might assume It’s About Luv is a reggae album, but it’s really not… there’s not much reggae on it at all, in fact. Having learned a little more about this period of H.R.’s life in Finding Joseph I and from listening to the SST Records-focused podcast You Don’t Know Mojack (where they researched and dissected each H.R. album at length and in great detail), I have more appreciation for where this album was coming from. I once saw someone refer to this as H.R.’s “military fatigues” era. With the Bad Brains having broken up, he was living in a collective house in DC, I believe with most or all the members of the H.R. band, and the environment was extremely counter-cultural. The vibe I got was that the group was living well outside mainstream society, focusing entirely on music and their deepening commitment to Rastafarianism. It seemed like H.R. was deep into a mission at this point in his life, and the H.R. band was a big part of that mission, aiming to be both culturally and musically revolutionary. The label Olive Tree Records was another part of this mission, and since the label was funded by a wealthy benefactor, the group could focus on the music rather than mere survival. The pieces were in place for something creative and exciting to happen.

My many hours listening to You Don’t Know Mojack made me curious about the guitarist on this record, David Byers, who seems to have been H.R.’s main musical foil during this part of his life. Byers had been in an early DC punk band called the Enzymes and numerous other projects that existed at the edges of the better-documented Dischord Records scene we all know, and by all accounts he was an enormously talented person. Of course nothing can match the uncanny chemistry of the Bad Brains’ original lineup, but the H.R. band is formidable too. Byers could shred, and It’s About Luv is full of blistering lead runs that aren’t totally unlike what Dr. Know was doing, but there’s something really unique about Byers’ melodic sensibility. His playing has an off-kilter jazziness to it, as he tends to play notes that aren’t quite the ones you expect. It’s kind of like if you took Greg Ginn’s unique tonal palette and filtered it through Dr. Know’s inhuman speed and precision. You can tell the H.R. band was using Bad Brains’ style as a jumping-off point, but Byers’ musical voice ensured they weren’t just a retread. The big guitar hook in “Let’s Have a Revolution” is a great example of what I’m talking about… it’s as heavy and as intense as the Bad Brains, but also doesn’t sound like anything Dr. Know would play.

Honestly, that’s kind of the vibe with It’s About Luvas a whole. I don’t think it’s as great as Bad Brains, but it makes up for that by being interesting and taking the sound places you wouldn’t expect it to go. The songs are stylistically diverse in a way that’s perfectly in step with H.R.’s vocal and lyrical idiosyncrasies. This makes moments like when he shouts “give me back my marijuana!” over and over or when he gives a detailed account of being busted for selling pot in “Happy Birthday My Son” (I’ll never forget that he had precisely $270 in his pocket) really pop and stick in your head. And while the slightly murky production mutes it somewhat, the band’s performance is blistering. Earl is still on drums, after all, and as I mentioned above, H.R. still very much had it in 1985.

I don’t know that I’d recommended everyone run out and buy this album immediately, but if you’ve digested all the Bad Brains’ classic material, It’s About Luv is well worth a listen.

Hello Sorry Staters! The spring/early summer allergies and sickness hit me over last week and over the weekend. Living in North Carolina, the seasonal allergies/sickness never seems to end. It has given me time to dig into some reading that I have been meaning to do. Recently, I have gotten into reading Manga and digging through so many manga artists and writers trying to find some art and stories that really stick out to me. Since my daily life revolves around art and music, I found a manga that was right up my alley.

Shinichi Ishizuka’s Blue Giant is about a guy named Dai who lives in rural Japan and dreams of becoming the best saxophone player in the world. The story revolves around Dai questioning what he needs to become the best sax player in the world. Talent? Effort? Or a lucky break? Think of the movie Whiplash, but a lot less cruel and mean and a lot more showing that kindness and being enthusiastic can bring you success. So if you are into feel-good stories about Jazz and love Japanese art, this is a great series.

As far as music goes this past week, a lot of really great preorders have started for albums that I have really been looking forward to. Béton Armé’s new single and pre order has dropped on the Sorry State site as well as the new Puffer 12”. We have been posting a lot of new and used stuff every day, so check out the site!

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. This past Sunday I went and saw Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon in theaters. I’m a huge Kubrick fan, but admittedly this was my first time watching this one. I think it’s because the time period it’s set in, the 18th century, honestly isn’t of huge interest to me. Not to mention its long run time of just over three hours. Don’t get me wrong, I love a long movie, but I think just the combination of those two things kinda put me off of it. I tried to watch it once a while back when I had Covid, but I think my brain was just really foggy and I was kinda dozing off and on and just stopped after a bit, so I was excited to have the opportunity to see it in theaters where I could really lock in and focus on the movie. The movie is the story of a young Irish lad’s aspirations and dizzying ascent to join the upper echelon of English society by any means necessary. You can’t help but find Redmond Barry, as he’s known in the first half of the movie, to be endearing in his cunning ways. After a series of different professions and schemes, he meets a rich countess, Lady Lyndon, who’s married to a rich and titled elderly man, Sir Charles Lyndon. After seducing her, he basically gives Sir Charles a heart attack by hitting on his wife so hard and not giving a fuck when confronted about it. They end up marrying and this is when our dear protagonist becomes Barry Lyndon, who soon is corrupted by wealth and greed and turns into a real dick. The second half of the movie is about how all the opulence and excess that comes with wealth will destroy the human part of someone and ultimately be their downfall. I absolutely loved every minute of it. This is probably the most beautiful film I’ve ever seen. So many shots look like incredible paintings that you’d see in massive gold frames hanging in museums in Europe. It truly feels like you’re watching a master of his craft just having a field day setting up incredible shots and scenes and nailing every single one. When I woke up the next morning after watching this, it was still racing through my mind. I had a similar experience when I watched 2001 A Space Odyssey. I could not stop thinking about what I had just watched and how incredible it was. I remember getting home afterwards and staying up till like 4AM reading all I could about it. Damn, I love Stanley Kubrick. I guess to end this I would say if you’ve put off watching this film, do yourself a favor and do it, especially if you can find a theater near you that happens to be showing it.

Hi and thanks for reading. I am sitting down to write this week with nothing in particular in mind, but I will briefly mention a few things I bought for myself today. I also wanted to mention that last week or so, we went through and marked down some more stuff. We’ve been doing this occasionally if you haven’t noticed. There is some middle of the road type shit each time we do this. But there is also always some heat waiting to be scooped up. I noticed we marked down these SISTEMA EN DECADENCIA 12”s.

This record, Nuestro Legado, is a pure ass-beater. While they are from Australia, they take obvious influence from the noisy side of Japanese hardcore, similar to classic bands like FRIGORA, or more modern stuff like D-CLONE. If you haven’t heard this one and love noisy stuff or crasher shit, I would definitely check it out!

So I heard about these PUNK JUNK VHS tapes little while ago, and I have been anticipating getting copies since. I know there are probably a lot of readers who think VHS tapes are silly, just like audio cassette tapes. To someone like me, I think it’s super cool to release something on this format. It’s much cooler than burning DVDs or just uploading the footage to YouTube. I don’t think every band on the tape is like super sick or something. There are actually a few I have never listened to. It’s the fact that this tape was done with pure passion that really draws me in. To me it just takes one glance to see this thing was made by the punks and for the punks. That sounds cheesy kinda but I’m not sure how else to say it. I think Baño from PERSONAL DAMAGE filmed all the footage himself. It looks like he’s credited Austin (BLAZING EYE) for some help with art, as well as Bungee from PERSONAL DAMAGE. I haven’t watched mine yet cos I just grabbed it, but I look forward to viewing it tonite.

We got a few different zine/mixtape combos with the PUNK JUNK stuff. While I think they all look cool, I had to limit myself to just one, and I chose the La Ciutat No Es Per Mi mixtape. The printing on this one looked especially cool, but the real reason I selected this one was for the bands. I feel like usually I’m grabbing stuff with bands I am familiar with, but in this case I was looking for something totally new. I recognize like maybe four out of these 20+ bands. On the front of the zine, it says the bands are punk & new wave, and from all over the world. I don’t really know anything about new wave really, so I look forward to Baño taking me to school (or whoever the hell made the track list, haha). Alright that’s it for the week. Cheers and thanks for your support.

Hey, what’s up everybody? I hope you are all surviving out there in this very strange time. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to find the joys in life when there is evil in the world causing so much pain and suffering. I know it’s always been that way, but I think it’s come as quite a shock to many Americans to see their own government do such unspeakable cruel things and quite so brazenly and openly and with such pride and assurance. Yesterday was May 4th, Star Wars Day for the nerds, and this prick we have as a leader posted a picture of himself with a red light saber. They can’t even get that right and think that they are the rebels and anyone non-Maga represents the Empire. Really? Have you watched the films? Have you seen yourselves in the mirror? Maga, Republicans and the Christian right are most certainly the Empire if you were going to use Star Wars as a metaphor. Like I said, strange times.

Today is Cinco De Mayo and I must imagine those same fuckwits I mentioned above will not be celebrating. No more cerveza, tequila or tacos for you guys now that you support a regime that is actively targeting the Latino community and blaming them for all the so-called problems the country is experiencing. Shameful. What do hateful white supremicist Christian Nationalists eat and do now? They hate the whole world, so what kind of food is left for them? What kind of music can they enjoy now? What kind of culture is left for them? They probably feel emboldened and powerful and think they can just plunder and appropriate at will, but those days won’t last long. It’s Springtime for fuckers right now alright.

Anyway, this morning on Worldy, the radio show I do with my partner Matt, we played a full two hours of cumbia, pop, rock and psych from Mexico and South America to sort of celebrate the day. The intention was to give a fun, fiesta like soundtrack to the day, but not necessarily making it all about Mexico. I think we achieved that, but we weren’t helped by the weather, which has been decidedly dark and overcast and not giving off tropical vibes. Although you do get the heavy rainstorms in the tropics, so perhaps it wasn’t so untypical. Anyway, once I got home and in out of the rain, the dark skies above didn’t really scream sunshine music. So I ended up throwing on a record that I haven’t played in a while, but absolutely love. It fitted the mood, and so that’s going to be my pick for you this week.

Modern English: Mesh & Lace 4AD 1981

I think everyone is aware of this UK band who had the worldwide smash hit single I Melt With You. That song appeared on their 1982 album After The Snow and could be found in any bargain bin for a fiver, although in recent years, as people have come to realize they are more than a one hit wonder, the price has rightfully gone up for a nice copy. Modern English are far from a one hit wonder band, but like a lot of MTV era UK bands, most people know them for that song. In all honesty, it wasn’t until the 1990s that I was made aware of the band having way more gems in their discography. My ex-partner at the record store I had an interest with back in England was a fan and introduced me to their first album and couple of singles, which immediately got my attention when he played them for me. The sound on these recordings from late 1979 through 1981, which ended up on the Mesh & Lace album and the singles Gathering Dust and Swans On Glass, are to my ears and many others, the more interesting.

At this point in their career, the band are much more post punk than pop and sound like a cross between Joy Division, Killing Joke and Wire, with some doses of Magazine, Tubeway Army and John Fox era Ultravox for good measure.

Yeah, for real. That’s the vibes you get from Mesh & Lace. It’s a great album with a dark and moody atmosphere, great songs, fantastic drum and guitar sounds and overall production. It took me several years to own a vinyl copy and, if I am remembering correctly, it was Daniel who gifted me this Canadian pressing. Sounds like the super cool kind of thing he would do. My memory is full of holes like Swiss cheese so I could be forgetting. Thank you Daniel. I probably already wrote about this record in a staff pick before. Woops. Oh well. Did I? Maybe. LoL. So good, it deserves a second plug.

Seriously though, if you dig that early 80s, slightly Goth/Darkwave sound then this is a record you should check out if you aren’t already aware of it. Honestly, while you are at it, you should give their other albums a second listen. After The Snow has several cool songs on it and so does their third 4AD album from 1983 called Ricochet Days. The Gathering Dust single is one of my favorite tunes of theirs and was always a good DJ spin at the Indie Disco.

I mentioned it took me a while to finally own a vinyl copy of Mesh & Lace, and that’s because you don’t see them that often in the bins, especially here in the States. A quick look at Discogs confirmed folks are willing to pay good money for a copy and for those early singles. A worthy investment if you see them at your local record shop.

Okay, the headache is starting, and deadline is approaching. I’ll sign off here, but thanks for reading and your support.

Cheers - Dom