Dominique Guiot: L’Univers De La Mer 12” (WRWTFWW Records, 2020)

While I’ve been isolating I’ve been watching more movies than I have in years. Between all the reading and record listening that I usually do, I rarely find the time to watch feature-length movies, but I’ve been getting through at least one per day for the past couple of weeks. Being trapped in one small room for ten days has drawn me to movies that take place in rich, immersive worlds. A couple of nights ago I watched Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, and that fit the bill but I found that movie’s satire of bureaucracy interesting to contrast with the present state of America, where no one seems to be steering the ship at all. Some other night (they’re all the same) I tackled all four hours of Ben Hur, which was an equally rich world-building exercise, albeit a totally different world from Brazil.

One film I watched during the first few nights of isolation was La Planète Sauvage, a 1973 French-language animated film. The movie was cool, but one reason I wanted to watch it was because I’ve listened to its soundtrack so much over the past few years. Superior Viaduct reissued that on vinyl a few years back and has kept it in print, so it’s easy to come by. The beautiful cover art drew me toward that record (and the movie is animated in the same surrealistic style), but the music kept me returning to it again and again. It’s perfect music for putting on while I’m working or doing something that requires my attention. Like a lot of great soundtracks, it’s a record that sets a very distinct vibe when you put it on—“sinister jazz in space” maybe?—but also rewards your attention when you give it. If you haven’t checked out _ La Planète Sauvage_—the movie or the soundtrack—I’d encourage you to get on that right away.

If you do like La Planète Sauvage, there’s a good chance you’ll like my staff pick for this week too. L’Univers de la Mer, while not the soundtrack to a specific film, is a 1978 library record by the French composer Dominique Guiot featuring music meant to evoke a vibrant undersea world. While La Planète Sauvage’s palette is mostly acoustic instruments along with a wah-drenched electric guitar, L’Univers de la Mer relies on synthesizers and that, along with the rich evocations of wide-open undersea landscapes, makes it sound like a mix between La Planète Sauvage and 70s synth experiments from Klaus Schulze, Cluster, and Tangerine Dream. Like all the aforementioned records, you can put it on in the background to bring some fantasy to your day, or you can give it all of your attention, letting it transport you into its purpose-built world.

Switzerland’s We Release Whatever the Fuck We Want Records has just pressed up a new version of L’Univers de la Mer featuring the original cover artwork, now presented in its full glory rather than being obscured by text as on the original version. Sorry State has copies in stock right now. WRWTFWW is a label worth keeping an eye on if you’re into this kind of thing… you might remember them from their reissue of Yasuaki Shimizu’s great ambient jazz album Kakashi a few years back or their represses of those killer Grauzone 12” EPs last year.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

So…in what I’m sure is a big “duh Jeff” moment: I’m really glad I tested negative for Covid. I’m also happy that, while I’m sure he doesn’t feel real great, Daniel is hanging in there pretty good… but I’m sure waiting it out in quarantine totally sucks. When I’m in headspace where I’m either worried or feel vulnerable, I tend to gravitate back toward things I loved when I was younger. When I was a young teenager, like 13, before moving onto hardcore, The Offspring was my FAVORITE band. Like, in my mind, I sincerely believed music didn’t get any better. My malnourished music taste at that time must have just been thoroughly stimulated by that same “whoa-oh” melodic structure that The Offspring use in just about every song. Needless to say, I’ve moved on quite a bit since then.

But while doing some revisiting, I decided to listen to the first Offspring record, which I hadn’t heard in quite a while. And man, I gotta say, it’s a pretty damn good record. Their melodic songwriting signature that would appear on later records is definitely present, but there are also some very cool and dark things going on all over this record. Weirdly, I don’t wanna say it’s dumbed down, but I think musically this record is much more unique and adventurous than their other records. It’s funny, the sort of “Eastern”-influenced riffs that most people would probably associate with “Come Out and Play” seem to have been a big part of the band’s songwriting even this early on. A song like “Tehran” is a perfect showcase of this. That said, rather than being a device in a kind of novelty song context, their use of this sound comes across as being more influenced by surf-inflected punk bands like Agent Orange or even Dead Kennedys. Similarly, upon rehearing the song “Demons”, I was blown away by how much it clearly sounds like TSOL. Plus, you gotta love the morbidity of a track like “Beheaded”. Also, while not on the CD version I had when I was a kid, “Kill The President” totally holds up. Clearly a product of the prior wave of California punk bands surrounding them, The Offspring wear their influences on their sleeves. Sure, maybe with this record coming out 1989 they were a bit late to the game, but to me this sounds like a classic LA hardcore record.

Here’s kind of a silly mental exercise: Let’s say you were to exclude the the reality of the “year that punk broke” and pretend that The Offspring’s later MTV-era records didn’t exist, and therefore they wouldn’t color your opinion… I think if this scenario were the case, and I were to approach listening to this first Offspring record like they were an unknown/obscure 80s punk band, then my only thought would be: “This is killer!” It’s interesting to think of an era when The Offspring were just a local band in the Southern California hardcore scene. The collector-nerd part of me does entertain the idea of trying to snag an og copy of their debut on Nemesis with the highly superior original artwork. Then again, maybe $200 ain’t worth it. Oh well, I had fun listening to it.

On a side note, when we got in that huge collection of 80s punk comps a couple weeks back, a few of those We Got Power compilations on Mystic were mixed in. The second installment, We Got Power II: Party Animal, features a track by a band called Manic Subsidal, which was an early incarnation of The Offspring. Pretty funny, huh? Listen to that track here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MieMdIMlKM

As always, thanks for reading.
-Jeff

Sweeping Promises: Hunger For A Way Out 12” (Feel It)

I knew absolutely nothing about this band aside from the fact that Feel It! Records put out this record. It was recommended to me while I was shopping at Vinyl Conflict and after they threw it on the shop table I knew I had to take it home. This album strikes me as a perfect new wave / post punk record in the year 2020. Every song is melancholy and melodic, but they always throw in what feels like an uncomfortable sounding bridge with some sort key change in the guitars or synth, which gives the tunes a dynamic that is refreshing to me (let the record show I’m usually pretty anti-synthesizer in my punk, but I guess this is a little different). Another huge selling point for me is the vocals. The vocalist has a great range and a phenomenal sense of vocal rhythm spacing (which is sometimes more important than the sound of the vocals to me). To round it all out, the bass and drums are perfectly dry and thumpy in the best way.

I won’t pretend like I’m an expert in this kind of thing, but I am a sucker for a good hook and melody. If the title track doesn’t suck you in right off the bat I don’t know what to tell you.

Happy Halloween Sorry Staters. Our apologies for missing you last week. It’s 2020 and shit definitely happens. Anyway, that is behind us and we move on and find ourselves approaching October 31^st and Halloween weekend. I hope you all manage to have some safe fun one way or the other. Recently whilst going through our famous bargain bins I found a great seasonal choice for this week’s pick.
 
The Robert Cobert Orchestra: Soundtrack-Dark Shadows. Philips 1969.
 
I was not familiar with the TV show Dark Shadows until watching an episode of the The King Of Queens years ago. In it, the character played by Patton Oswalt wanted to attend a Dark Shadows convention and had a Barnabas Collins outfit and everything. His girlfriend, played by SNL’s Rachel Dratch wouldn’t allow him to go and the hilarities followed. I still haven’t seen the original Dark Shadows but did enjoy the Tim Burton directed movie that came out in 2012. Apparently, there is also a short run TV remake that came out in the early nineties and I haven’t seen that either, so don’t look for a fan’s expert analysis or review here.

Back to the soundtrack LP that I have here. It’s kinda cool and reminds me of the message that was written on record company dust sleeves about records being your best form of entertainment. They really are. This one provides a little bit of everything to please the record buyer back in the late sixties and early seventies. You got the music from the show, artwork and photos from the show, a poster of the main characters (this copy did not have one) and liner notes about the show and the music.
The man behind the music was a Robert Cobert and his Orchestra. Cobert, it says, was a Julliard graduate and he certainly incorporated some of his classical training on this soundtrack. There’s cool and creepy electronic sounds with the spoken word dark lyrics over the top. Being on a bit of a downer mood this past week I found the track When I am Dead spoke to me. Ha, ha.

I’m a big fan of soundtrack records in general and have quite a few in my collection. As a DJ I find them great sources for instrumental music and stuff that isn’t often heard and can be used in sets. They were created to inspire a mood and to accentuate the action onscreen after all and so often scenes set in clubs and bars etc. might have some sort of appropriate music in the background. This Dark Shadows soundtrack is no exception and has a couple of pieces that were played during scenes at The Blue Whale, the show’s hip night spot. One of them is a pretty groovy surf-garage instrumental called Back At The Blue Whale. It’s pretty much the most up-tempo thing on the record but could definitely be played amongst a set of sixties garage and beat music. I was pretty psyched and satisfied. Indeed, this record was a great choice of entertainment. You can find one cheap on line or in the bargain bins of your local emporium and I would recommend picking it up whether you are a fan of the show, like vampire stuff, enjoy sixties music or just want to hear poems about death and occult shit. It’s all here. I’ll leave you with a couple of links to check it out.

Back At The Blue Whale
https://youtu.be/mNusZRf5wUE

When I Am Dead
https://youtu.be/1eBjnpUnvQo
 
Thanks for reading and keep digging.

David Wallace-Wells: The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (2019)

This week we’ve had so many killer records coming in to the store that I haven’t been doing much listening outside of new releases, so for this staff pick I’ll go with a book. The Uninhabitable Earth is a book about climate change, and its basic argument is that things are much, much worse than anyone has acknowledged, and we’re not heading in the right direction if we want things to get any better. The book is a tough read. Besides having to swallow the bitter pill that is Wallace-Wells’s thesis, the writing style is dry, focusing on statistics and logical arguments without many of the anecdotes or illustrations that science writers use to pull in lay readers. I noticed readers complaining about that in the book’s reviews, but part of Wallace-Wells’s argument is that the genre conventions of science writing (alongside pressure on scientists not to be “alarmist”) have made the threats surrounding climate change seem much less dire than they are.

One of the most surprising things I’ve learned from this book is how much greenhouse gas emissions and other contributing factors for climate change have been increasing over the past few decades. We’ve been hearing about global warming and climate change for so long that you figure we must be making some progress on the issue, but in fact things are getting worse, with global emissions rising sharply since the 80s. The natural world differs greatly from when I was a child, with changed weather patterns and a sharp decline in biodiversity, all due to human beings’ actions. While we think of climate change as happening on an imperceptibly slow timescale, these are changes I can observe over the course of my own life. Unfortunately, the changes are coming faster and faster with each passing year.

Even if emissions stayed where they are, climate change will seriously impact human beings’ quality of life as its effects pile up, but at this point emissions staying where they are is a pipe dream. The question isn’t whether emissions will continue to rise, but how quickly, and Wallace-Wells outlines the consequences of what different levels of action will look like in the coming decades. It seems like there is little hope that much of the world won’t be uninhabitable by the year 2100, and while that’s longer than I expect to live (I was born in 1979), our generation’s children and grandchildren will, according to Wallace-Wells, live in a world that is far different and much, much harsher than ours. Vast stretches of the earth will be literally uninhabitable (i.e. you won’t be able to go outside for more than a few minutes at a time), which will cause a cascade of negative effects including (but not limited to) climate refugee crises, food shortages, civil unrest, war, and economic collapse. Anything short of drastic action in the very near future will produce similar results by the year 2050, a year when I’m hoping I’ll still be alive. Unfortunately, drastic action is not looking likely, and I worry that in my old age the earth will be a miserable, unforgiving place.

This book came out in 2019, and it’s interesting to think about it considering everything human beings have gone through with the COVID pandemic. One thing this disease has helped me to see is that no one is steering humanity’s ship. In the US, at least, either no one is willing or no one can change the momentum that is pushing us toward disaster. In fact, many people seem philosophically opposed to doing good things for humanity, confident that their own privilege, wealth, or intelligence will shield them from whatever horrors are on the way. As bad as COVID is, climate change is even more challenging because it is a global problem that would require an aggressive, globally coordinated solution. If we are to solve that problem it will require a total rethink of how human beings organize and imagine themselves, and right now I don’t see who has the vision or the resources to make that happen. I can only hope that COVID serves as a warm-up that gets us heading in the right direction so we can confront the even more serious crisis lurking just beyond it.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

I feel certain that, generally speaking, most people who are into punk rock have an affinity for at least the first few Ramones albums. What I think is less common is those people out there who love the Ramones records from the mid-to-late 80s. I don’t know if I would consider myself a late-era Ramones apologist per se, but I do find good moments on just about every Ramones record. The album that I have a particular soft spot for and that took me a while to finally physically get my hands on is their 1986 album Animal Boy. Alright… so now that we’re talking about this record, let’s get the criticism out of the way: The album opens with the pseudo-hard rock epic “Somebody Put Something In My Drink”. Don’t get me wrong, I acknowledge this song is very strange and pretty fucking corny. Between that and the third track “Love Kills”, which Dee Dee takes the lead vocal on, I will concede that there are tracks that I’m not a huge fan of. It is interesting to hear the bubblegum pop sensibilities that we all love about the Ramones transmitted through the lens of the mid-1980s. Songs like “Crummy Stuff” or the ballad “She Belongs To Me” could easily have been on early Ramones records… but if the Ramones are like a nice house built in the 70s, then Animal Boy is a version of the house that was vacated and condemned with some dated renovations. BUT, sandwiched between the era-appropriate gated reverb on the drums and some cringey songwriting choices are some really great Ramones songs.

One of the cool things about this record is that underneath the production, we can hear the Ramones clearly being influenced by 80s hardcore. Songs like “Eat That Rat” and the title track “Animal Boy” are just total rippers! Even by Ramones standards, these songs are super-fast in tempo, which is maybe due in part to the drumming contributions of Richie Ramone. Harder tracks like “Freak of Nature” are also totally killer, even if it is a bit slower. Even with the ragers on the album, I gotta say I still love the poppier songs. Even before some asshole brought the supposed “AOR” vibe to my intention, I always did really love “Something To Believe In.” Some people will probably say it’s cheesy, but I actually think it’s a very genuine and beautiful song. Nice one, Dee Dee. That said, it was years before I saw the music video where they have the backdrop of the “We Are The World”-esque “Ramones Aid” that comes across like an infomercial? I admit, it is totally cheesy. I do get the impression that they were making fun of those types of organizations though. Then again, I would also love it if the sentiment of the music video was totally sincere and the Ramones were actually making an effort to raise money, because their “sincerity” is hilarious. But finally, the moment I’ve been waiting to get to: how great is “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down” (aka Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)? Haters gon’ hate, but I swear this is one of my favorite Ramones songs.

Here’s the video for “Something to Believe In”. Can someone please tell me that they’re joking?

Thanks for reading,
-Jeff

Hi everybody. It’s week 42 of the sci-fi year that is 2020. How are you all holding up? We’re still here at SSR trying to keep sane and sling records and personally I’m listening to as much music as I can to try and drown out the noise pollution that is life right now. This past week I have been on a bit of a reggae kick and have had one record on regular turntable rotation.

Last week in the newsletter I talked about being a kid in the 1970’s and visiting America and New York City and it made me remember what a great decade the seventies were to have been growing up in for so many reasons. The main one was all the music that was being created during that period. It could definitely be argued that the seventies were the golden era for reggae music. You had superstar figures such as Bob Marley topping the charts, producers Lee Perry, Bunny Lee and King Tubby at their creative peaks and as a kid watching Top Of The Pops, you could see Althea & Donna singing Uptown Top Ranking and go to the local record store and get a copy of Junior Murvin’s Police And Thieves single, another huge hit. Perhaps I was spoiled by living in Britain where the love of Jamaican music was something that went back to the Windrush days when immigrating West Indians exposed the local youth to their music. The mods and original skins embraced ska, rocksteady and reggae music immediately and this continued through the seventies with the punks. It was a Punky Reggae Party after all. As a youth buying records during this time we had companies like Trojan keeping us supplied with collection after collection of great tunes and you could buy these at the local Woolworths even. During the 1980’s whenever I made trips to London to go shopping and see bands I would sometimes get to visit the great Peckings reggae record shop that had the hottest new slabs direct from Jamaica and had been doing it since the early 1960’s before anyone else. Anyway, the point being, that reggae music for most music fans of a certain age is a part of our DNA. It definitely is for me.

A highlight of my times working on cruise ships sailing the Caribbean in the 1990’s were my visits to Jamaica where I got to pay my respects to Bob Marley at his resting place high in the hills and to visit his house on Hope Road in Kingston where that day we met Ziggy Marley who was there recording. Great memories, two among many that I racked up during that time.
 
I could pick one of many hundreds of classic reggae albums to steer you towards but I’ll stick to one for this week. Let’s talk about George Faith and his album To Be A Lover. It came out in 1977 (that year again) on Island/Mango Records internationally and Black Swan in Jamaica and was produced at the Black Ark Studios by Lee Perry. Born Earl George Lawrence, Faith was given the name Faith as a stage name by producer Perry. The two had been working together at the Black Ark, Perry’s own studio, for a number of months, recording several covers of American soul and pop hits that were popular at the time with the Jamaican audience. Faith’s version of To Be A Lover, the William Bell hit proved to be a hit when released. The disco 45 12” version is an awesome ten minutes long. A second single, I’ve Got A Groove was issued based on the success of the first release and a third, In The Midnight Hour, the Wilson Picket classic followed. Eventually those three tracks plus five more were compiled for the album called Super Eight in Jamaica and To Be A Lover elsewhere. For anyone familiar with this classic period of Lee Perry productions through his work with The Heptones and The Congos, you should expect more of the same with this record, plenty of echo and reverb and that trademark swampy sound. Most of the musicians who played on those records are on this one and backing vocals are provided by members of The Meditations and The Mighty Diamonds.

I’m a big fan of Lee “Scratch” Perry. His productions from his Black Ark period are among the best in reggae music. Instantly recognizable. His solo work over the years under his Upsetter title and his own name are the cornerstones of the genre. I remember watching a documentary about him made in the 1990’s I think with Jools Holland as host and there is a moment when Holland asks Perry why he has an old toaster up on his wall. The reply was classic, “That is because I am a toaster and not a boaster.” With the legacy he has behind him, he has every right to boast.

Do yourselves a favor and look this one up.

Here’s a link to the extended version of the To Be A Lover 12” single to whet your appetite.
 
That’s my lot for this week. Be safe, love each other, play records and thanks for reading.
-Dom

So far, I have only written about records or tapes that I actually have. For this Staff Pick that is not the case. Just feeling nostalgic I guess... I first got into punk in middle school. I'd heard Offspring in elementary school and did enjoy it quite a bit at the time but I don't count that shit. If you know me, or for some stupid reason have been following my Staff Pick since I started working here, you will know The Casualties was the first "punk" band I'd ever heard. I remember the first time I heard For The Punx, my middle school friend brought it over on a burned CD. Back then we always hung out in groups of at least 8, sometimes up to 12 of us. We had a crew, we walked fucking everywhere. We skated (didn't do drugs yet, haha) and we vandalized property indiscriminately. Anyway, my friend put that shit in the CD player and I lost my fucking mind. I had never heard anything like it before. We "circled pitted" in my room. The Casualties are a weird topic. I had abandoned them before I left middle school, before I had heard any of the stuff about the (original) vocalist being a rapist. I remember On The Frontline came out, and I was "too cool" for the The Casualties by that point haha. But, I had taken in so many bands by reading their jackets and t-shirts, mostly old classic UK82 bands but some current ones, like Antidote!

I had heard Antidote (Netherlands) long before I heard the US band. The US band is cool, except they have that one song "Foreign Job-Lot" and I'm not sure what the fuck that's about... so if you do, know please inform me. I hope it is satire. I had Antidote painted on my jacket through most of high school, all cos of this demo tape right here. I did buy some of their later LPs to give a try but I'm not sure if I even have 'em anymore... "Street punk" was how I got into punk/hardcore but it's not a sound that really stuck with me. To me, this Antidote tape arguably doesn't really qualify as street punk... Maybe I completely wrong. I would agree that their 2000's material is without a doubt two-fingers in the air street-fucking-punk. But this tape just goes so hard, it seems hard to compare it to other street punk bands. There are definitely some songs that rely heavy on the melodies, but most all the songs are played with this raw intensity. To me, it comes off as raging punk/HC played in an anthemic fashion.

Haha, maybe I really am just in denial about still liking street punk as I get older. I have plenty of friends that are "older" punks (I am 30). They aren't bitter, jaded, or bigoted assholes like some of those who I've encountered.. "You ask me where I was in 1977. You ask me what I did in 1982. But this is fucking '97, now we're the punks and where the fuck are you? You tell me I can't be a punk cos I was only born in 1975. But look at you, a pathetic drunk, you're not the one who keeps punk alive. Old punk, sad punk, old punk, dead punk. Lost old punx telling stories, they think the past had it all. Well we are fucking today's punks. Still they want the past to rule us all. I don't say I'm a punk reviver, I don't claim I invented it all. But look at it from a different angle - Where will you be 20 years from now???" That was the lyrics to Dead Punx, the first song on the tape. I love the lyrics so much, to each song. I still know them all by heart. Some of my other favorites are Drinking in the Sun and Dogstory. I included a link from the good ol' punk lyrics website, scroll to the bottom of the page to find all the lyrics to the songs on this tape. Reading along as you rage is integral. So, Jeff just walked into the store with me blasting this shit. He agrees with my sentiment about the raw intensity but says the way the riffs are played sounds definitely like street punk...

http://www.plyrics.com/a/antidote.html

Legal Weapon: Death of Innocence LP (1982)

This week I’m writing about an underrated slab of early 80s California punk rock: Legal Weapon’s 1982 album Death of Innocence.

Legal Weapon formed in 1980, growing out of an earlier punk band called the Silencers (who are well worth checking out!), who themselves evolved from the Shock, whose single “This Generation’s on Vacation” record collectors know from Killed by Death #3. Vocalist Kat Arthur and guitarist Brian Hansen (the creative core of the band) knew their way around a tune from the very beginning. The Silencers had a UK punk edge that sounds like the Avengers, while Legal Weapon’s debut 12” EP toughens things up, giving it a grittier sound that would have fit perfectly on the Dangerhouse label. Speaking of which, that 12” EP, No Sorrow, featured Pat Bag from the Bags on bass, and it’s stupid rare. I’ve never seen a copy, though there’s one up for sale on Discogs right now for $495.

Fortunately Death of Innocence is easier to find. While the original is still a collectible record, there’s a 1991 reissue on XXX Records with slightly different (for the worse) artwork that shouldn’t be too hard to pick up, and it’s also available on streaming services. Even better, while No Sorrow is a cool record, Death of Innocence is Legal Weapon’s masterpiece.

Besides a phenomenal batch of songs, Death of Innocence has a secret weapon: Steve Soto on bass and Frank Agnew on guitar, both of them fresh off recording the Adolescents’ legendary first album. I don’t know how much the two contributed to the songs on the album, but Steve Soto’s brilliant, melodic bass playing is all over the record, and the whole thing has a confidence and power that is head and shoulders above No Sorrow. While the record’s most anthemic tracks like “War Babies,” “No Sorrow,” and “User” hearken back to the more UK-influenced style of the Silencers, Legal Weapon is just as powerful on slow burners like “Don’t Pretend” and “Death of Innocence.” “Don’t Pretend” in particular sounds like a close musical cousin of mid-paced Adolescents tracks like “Kids of the Black Hole” and “Democracy.”

Legal Weapon returned in 1983 with another LP, Your Weapon, and while there are some good tracks on it (particularly “Equalizer,” another anthem right up there with the Avengers’ best songs), overall it lacks the fire and focus of Death of Innocence. The album after that, 1985’s Interior Hearts, moves toward the hard rock popular on the Sunset Strip at the time. While I haven’t heard much after that, a quick perusal of their 2002 self-titled album shows them dabbling with a throwback punk sound, but with 90s-sounding production. Unfortunately, though, I’m not the person to provide an in-depth analysis of those records.

Tales of Terror: S/T 12” (1984)

I remember becoming aware of this record when I was a teenager and feeling captivated by the austere, but super rad cover photo. But then, I remember throwing it on and being totally disappointed by the opening track, which is a sloppy rendition of the old rock’n’roll standard “Hound Dog.” My listening didn’t venture much further into the LP before I had moved on. In more recent years, I don’t know if my teenage brain wasn’t ready or didn’t understand Tales of Terror yet, but the record’s really grown on me. Since working at Sorry State, maybe one or two copies have come through, but I never jumped on one. But now, I finally took my copy home and I just can’t stop listening to it. Even with their sloppy rock’n’roll undertones, it does seem like ToT is a bit tongue-in-cheek with this influence, especially when looking at titles like “Over Elvis Worship.” I get the impression that they were maybe even making fun of rockabillies at the time. Maybe there is a hint of rock’n’roll attitude, but between these bluesy numbers are some of the most powerful and intense hardcore tunes that I was clearly missing out on. A song like “Death Ryder” is like The Germs meets Bl’ast, but maybe even more youthful and explosive. Even in their slower moments, ToT evokes this feeling of danger and irreverence that really just bursts out of the speakers. Plus, there is absolutely shredding guitar work all over this LP. I know I tend to embellish when I’m hooked on something, but I feel like this a hugely overlooked album in the California hardcore timeline. Totally destructive.

Also, while not pure skate rock, Tales of Terror always was contextualized with skateboarding whenever I would hear about them. Shout out to my buddy Chris at Velted Regnub for recommending I check out the live footage. Here’s a clip paired nicely with some 80s skate footage:

Thanks for reading,
-Jeff

Hello to you all out there, wherever you are, and thanks for clicking on this week’s newsletter. It’s been another bonkers week, hasn’t it? And it’s still only half over. Another week of crazy news and WTF moments and another week of sad losses to the music world. I won’t pretend and say I was a huge fan of the band Van Halen, I don’t have all their records but I sure as fuck recognize the genius and skill of Eddie Van Halen and his passing is clearly a major loss for the world of music. The death of singer Johnny Nash is also very sad and he was someone that I did follow and have several of his records. His career lasted a good while and there are plenty of great cuts that he recorded over the years. I like some of his soul and r ’n b sides that he cut particularly those for the Argo and Chess labels. Check out him doing Love Ain’t Nothin’ for a good example. May these two heroes rest in peace.
 
This week I had some emotional conversations with my family back in England. I haven’t seen them for too many years now. The last time I was back home was unfortunately to attend my Dad’s funeral. My Mum has her own health problems now and is doing her best to stay safe, home alone and away from any chance of Covid-19. My sister told me that my nephew (my God son – his father passed when he was a baby) who has just started university had to go into quarantine with his entire flat/dorm as pretty much all of them tested positive. Initially we thought he had but thankfully he retested negative. Still it was a very tough phone call and being on the other side of the Atlantic doesn’t make it easier. It got me to thinking about how I ended up being this side of the pond. About how many times I have crossed that ocean either by sea or air and why I kept coming back to America and have stayed. Why I love America and am desperate to become a citizen despite the current state of affairs. It’s a difficult question to answer simply. I believe it came from my Father. He was fascinated with the States and actually emigrated here himself in the 1950’s after his National Service stint was over. He served in Egypt during the Suez Crisis. Along with my uncle, they sailed over on the Queen Mary. My uncle stayed and ended up moving to Canada where he remained but my dad after a few years returned back to England. About twenty years later he and mum brought myself and my sister back for two epic road trips. The first on the East coast and Southern states plus Canada and the second on the West coast, California up to Washington. These two trips cemented my own love for America. It’s hard to describe how different things were back then between England and America. It was for us kids as if we had left a monochrome world and been transported to a technicolor one. America in the 70’s was bigger, louder and just better to us in every way thinkable. On those trips, we travelled everywhere by Greyhound bus. Can you imagine that? My parents and two kids from England on a bus back then. The sights we saw and characters we met. Amazing. So many incredible memories but one that stuck with me was being in New York City Port Authority bus depot and being told not to walk too far as it was a “little dodgy” out there. This was summer of 1977, heat wave, blackouts and Summer of Sam. Port Authority and Times Square were a long way off from Giuliani and Disney. My sister and I liked to sit in those chairs that had a small television attached to them and would pump quarters in to them and watch. Remember back in Britain at the time we still only had three TV stations. Anyway, we were sitting there and witnessed cops running through the place chasing a dude and then shooting him. Mind blowing. It was like watching Kojak or any of the other TV cop shows that we loved. You’d think that an event like that would discourage a young boy from wanting to come back but I knew that I would return and less than twenty years later I was back and living in New York City.

My dad and I didn’t share too much leisure time together when we were home but we did enjoy watching American westerns and war movies and particularly the TV cop shows. He liked the aforementioned Kojak and The Rockford Files and we both loved Starsky And Hutch. The theme tune of that show was one of the best and so it is here that I eventually get to my staff picks. Finally, you say- I thank you for indulging me here. Initially for the first season of the show they had a theme by Lalo Schifrin which is killer and sounds more like the work he did for the Dirty Harry movies starring Clint Eastwood, very dramatic and a little dark. For the second season, they switched to a theme composed by jazz sax dude Tom Scott called Gotcha. This was probably the one most people remember. It’s funky and fresh and captures the seventies vibes a bit more than the Schifrin theme, which still had a late 60’s feel in places. Strangely for the third season they changed it again to a theme by Mark Snow. It’s still a good one. Finally, for season four they returned to the Gotcha theme by Tom Scott, although slightly updated and redone and in my opinion not quite as funky. It’s a pity, as I think the earlier version is the best and features less of the dreaded sax. Unfortunately, it’s only this later version that is available as a record. Someone needs to do a Record Store Day release that has those earlier themes and cues. It would be killer. I’ll leave links to them so that you can compare. Of note, for me at least, was that when I lived in NYC, my landlord drove a Ford Gran Torino car just like the one in the show. His wasn’t red with the white stripe but was two tone blue and beautiful. It was meant to be that I lived there and got to see that beast of an automobile every day.
 

Season One-Lalo Schifrin.


Season Two-Tom Scott.
 
Something that I do have as a record (albeit an unofficial release) is the soundtrack to the movie The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three from 1974. If there ever was a film that really captures the true spirit and feel of New York City and the one that I witnessed as a nine-year-old wide eyed little British kid back in ’77, it is this film. An absolute classic and with the mother of all action themed cop type soundtracks. Composed by David Shire who also wrote the music for All The President’s Men among his many credits. Younger readers may be aware of the horrible 2009 remake and possibly a made for TV version from 1998 but it’s the original that rules. So much so that Quentin Tarantino based a good part of his Reservoir Dogs on a major plot device of the original film. The ’74 version stars Robert Shaw, Walter Matthau and Hector Elizondo but also features Jerry Stiller and a great cameo from Doris Roberts as the mayor’s wife. I highly recommend you watch the film. The dialogue alone is priceless. Certainly, before the politically correct era. The scenes with the visiting Japanese delegation are a little suspect now but you have to remember back in 1974 WWII was a living memory for anyone over thirty and so attitudes obviously were a little different. Not to excuse it but it has to be considered.
Regardless it’s the music and scenes of the city that stuck with me all these years and whenever I am needing a fix of funky cop themed music this soundtrack is always in the mix. Honorable mention must go to the film Black Caesar which came out the year before and with the awesome funky soundtrack from James Brown. That one is the bomb and full of hip-hop samples. The Pelham soundtrack never got an official release at the time other than a promo radio spot seven inch with three cues but a few years back Simply Vinyl made a pressing and Retrograde put out an official CD in 1996. I’m guessing my US pressing was dubbed from that. It has all the cues and the kick-ass opening and end credit themes. You should seek it out.
 

The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three End credits-David Shire.
 
Thanks for reading friends. Let me know if you fall down a cop show theme tune rabbit hole like me. Until next time.

Today I write about a bouquet of absolute hardcore classics! I apologize for writing about two recent releases that are not actually available through Sorry State (which I will write about first.) However, per usual, anyone is welcome to hit me up (in.decay@yahoo.com) and i'll make a tape dub of the Aivoproteesi record with cute lil cover and shit. And, I do have a small stack of distro copies of the Absolut Country of Sweden cassette that you can grab via email from me. I got both these releases through my homie Chris Hardy who does Velted Regnub Mailorder. I'm so stoked that he had hit me up about the Aivoproteesi EP. I first heard them in my early 20's on the Killed By Finnish Hardcore compilation LP. I think I have talked about this compilation before on a previous staff pick. This compilation to me was instantly a "modern" classic. It introduced me to so many bands. Every single song on the LP rules. If you don't know a whole lot about Finnish HC and would like to, this compilation is the one you want! Even if you do already know all these bands, its a really cool compilation to just throw on when you don't feel like listening to a full-length. (You can get a copy here https://veltedregnubmailorder.bigcartel.com/product/v-a-killed-by-finnish-hardcore-lp).

Aivoproteesi is also band Jeff has talked about for years haha, he had mentioned to me on several occasions before that he wished he could hear more songs by them - finally, his time has come!! Chris from Velted Regnub actually gave up his own personal copy to Jeff cos he saw how excited Jeff was about the band. Chris just has an unconditionally generous and positive attitude. He just wants to get killer records into the hands of punks. The world needs more people like him. It went down like that cos this release is an extremely limited pressing, hand-numbered out of 82 copies... strange how that happens when the band is already obscure as it is, it's almost like you'd wanna flood "the market" with the release so people can hear the shit - but I'm not criticizing the label, everyone has their reasons for every thing they do. At first when Chris told me about this release I was mad reluctant to grab one cos they are lathe-cut discs, and my experience with lathes is not so pleasant. But man, when I busted this shit out I was so surprised to see the disc looked like an actual record. The material it's cut with looks solid and well made. The grooves do look like lathe-cut though. I mean all lathes are cut in live-time so the grooves will probably all generally look similar no matter what the material was. The sound is amazing. I am so happy about it. It was completely unexpected - crisp and clear studio tracks. I expected constant surface noise and distortion cos its a lathe. The two tracks from side A were recorded during same session as the Yalta Hi-Life recordings, and never before released on "vinyl" (is a lathe-cut vinyl?) But, they were in fact previously released on Delirium Tremens Vol. 1. This debut volume was released in 1985, the year after Yalta Hi-Life was originally released. The tape has appearances from other badass Swedish bands like Libresse (I think i mention this band a lot, haha) and Nisses Notter. Delirium Tremens was a label that released dozens of cool compilation tapes where I discovered many bands. They were based in Falkenberg, a town located an hour or two south of Gothenburg on the coast. Anyway, I assume most, if not all, readers know what the Yalta Hi-Life comp is. If you don't, in my opinion it is a LEGENDARY compilation with LEGENDARY bands from Finland like Kaaos, Varaus, Terveet Kadet. This compilation belongs in every single record collection. If you didn't know this compilation already, or for some silly reason you do but don't have a copy already - you are in luck! I saw Sorry State has a few copies of the re-issue in stock. (https://www.sorrystaterecords.com/products/181024374)

So, I wrote about Anti-Cimex last week too, haha. Clearly this is a vey well distributed record, with several re-issue versions. I do have a re-issue version. I think the Brazilian pressing but I cant be sure cos most of my records are in boxes cos of this moving process I am still in the middle of... although I did find the original pressing for the photo! Of course, my "collectible" records are in very identifiable boxes... I remember reading liner notes from the 2014 re-issues and reading some really cool info. Unfortunately I couldn't revisit the notes before writing about this release. Maybe the this cassette has the same exact notes? Either way, it's a badass re-issue. The tape sounds great, good quality production here. The tracks were re-mastered by Jack Control at Enormous Door as well. The j-card is a thick, glossy stock with more fold-out panels than I know what to do with!! We get cool live shots, some liner notes, and lyrics contained within all the flaps. I did not know the original guitarist left the band after the 1986 self-titled record. Looking back, it makes perfect sense. Although I can hear a clear evolution from Raped Ass to the self-titled, the last two LPs are like almost a completely different ball game. I remember being younger, living in Indianapolis and two of my friends Adam Walker and Micah Jenkins (if you reading this, WHAT UP!!) were talking about starting a Cimex-style band. They were older than me, so naturally I looked up to them and would have died to play in a band with either of them. Micah showed me a lot killer bands I will never forget, which makes sense cos he worked the record store in town, Vibes Music. Anyway, I butted in the conversation and said something along the lines of "Yo lemme play drums!" One of 'em (I think Adam) said to me, yeah but we wanna do like later Cimex-style, not like Raped Ass. And he asked me if I even liked that shit... Again, I was young and looked up to them, so I lied. I said hell yeah of course, haha I remember Adam giving me strange look after I said this, I think he knew me too well. I think that if I would've listen to something like Scandinavian Jawbreaker at that age I would have passed on it, simply cos it's not what I "expect" when it comes to Anti-Cimex. I'm lucky that my horizons have expanded since then, cos depending on the day I might prefer to listen to Scandinavian Jawbreaker over Raped Ass! Uh-oh...

Moving on, to some hot Finnish slabs we have in stock at Sorry State! If you read my contributions to the SSR newsletter, thank you. It means a lot that you would read what I have spent time writing about. And given that you read my words, you probably expect by now that I tend to write about my experiences with a record or share some type of trivia about a release, rather than focus on the sound of it, haha. I'm not sure if thats good or bad, but it is what it is. Everything I write about, I truly enjoy inside and out. And I write about em to help spread info/awareness on the release cos I believe they are all worth adding to your collection. Of course this is my own "developed" taste. I like to think I am not pretentious about it. I don't care if you disagree with my opinions, especially when it comes to music. I don't think anyone's taste is more superior than another's taste, but it is awesome when you meet someone who loves all the same shit that you do. At the end of day, "taste" is just an opinion from a "critic." Critics that are really opinionated about their taste (ESPECIALLY when it comes to shit they dislike, or feel differently about that you) are just simply pretentious assholes. Who the fuck cares. It is just a record and it's just your own opinion. Alright, actually moving on...

At the beginning of quarantine someone on Discogs listed the Headcleaners (Sweden) EP. It was the final EP to complete my Headcleaners catalogue. The price was reasonable, but the listing also had a "make an offer" option. So make an offer I did... and they accepted!! YAY!!! After we agreed on the cost, I soon received an e-mail telling me shipping would be like $50 cos of the pandemic. We decided to just hold off in hope that shipping would go down over the next few months. This was like 6 months ago, haha. So, naturally my annoying ass would e-mail once a month to check on the shipping rates. I would get replies, but never with luck of a cheap shipping option. One day when I was writing to check back shipping, I noticed the email said Höhnie Records!!! If you don't know Höhnie, it is German label that has re-released countless records from legendary Finnish bands, amongst many other releases from other countries. Guaranteed if you love Finnish HC, Andreas Höhnie has done a re-issue of something from the band. So, I wrote and asked if it was who I thought it was... I got a reply that confirmed what I suspected, I was in fact buying my Headcleaners record from Höhnie Records! I was so excited to be in direct contact with Andreas Höehnie himself (which I probably made very apparent) and I asked if there was any chance that he had any of these Finnish HC classics still in stock. We were in luck! He wrote me back with several titles, and we could even get limited edition colors from him! So, BPDT, Velted Regnub, and Sorry State all threw down together for a massive 60lb parcel. The shipping cost was insanely high..but since there was some many discs in there, when it really broke down it wasn't too much added to each title. Unfortunately the parcel took a serious beating, so some covers do have corner damage. It's a shame, but we are all still stoked to have brought these titles into the States.

Earlier I mentioned the Killed By Finnish Hardcore compilation. That is exactly where I first heard Destrucktions and Kansan Uutiset. The Riistetyt Nightmare In Darkness is a classic. This band's sound certainly evolved a lot through their existence. This record is definitely on the more "rocked out" tip rather than the abrasive fast HC sound they initially started with. Through all their releases, they always exhibited this perfect "groove" regardless of how "hardcore" the songs were. On this LP, that groove is put on full blast. If you don't own this record, buy it. Really, you should buy every single Riistetyt record. Thanks to Havoc Records and Höhnie Records, we can find all their releases at affordable prices. The Destrucktions LP is a compilation of their highly sought-after Vox Populi LP, compilation appearances, and demo tracks! People actively list Vox Populi on re-sale websites for around $200, so this gatefold re-issue is really gunna save you money and also get you more tracks than the original! Badass. And finally, the Kansan Uutiset LP! It is a compilation of their Beautiful Dreams LP (someone please sell me the OG...) and their "unreleased" Suomi Orgasmin Partaalla EP, which was properly released on CD format in 2003 (haha have fun translating that one...) This double-disc reissue comes with cool booklet, it's got pictures, lyrics, a brief history of the band, etc. This, as well as the other titles we just got in stock are extremely well-done reissues. They will save you from spending an arm and a leg on the originals, with the added bonus of material that was not included on the original releases! Anyway I feel like I been blabbering, again thanks for reading...'til next time..