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We've been getting a lot of killer new punk and hardcore in at the shop so I think it's time for a quick run-down! First up is my personal favorite of the batch, the new 12" from Pittsburgh's EEL. While EEL have always had a distinct Japanese hardcore influence, this time around they're a whole lot more G.I.S.M. and less Confuse. Further, rather than just aping particular aspects of G.I.S.M.'s sound, EEL have really internalized that band's weirdly psychedelic feel. The songs sound really different from one another and the whole record feels like a real psychedelic journey in the way that few punk and hardcore records do. Obviously I can't recommend this one highly enough:

Next up is another blistering 45RPM 12", this time from New Orleans' Patsy. You may remember them from the two singles they released on Total Punk Records a while back. The 12" is along those same lines, but to me sounds a little freer, with Candice's vocals in particular going to really weird places with these strange criss-crossing melodies that push against the rest of the song. It's very unique, so check it out:

Moving to the 7"s, we've got the debut 7" from the Pacific Northwest's United Void. If you're a fan of the knuckle-dragging hardcore of bands like Dirty Work, Testa Dura, or Negative FX this is well worth checking out. The recording is nice and raw and it has that really authentic early 80s feel that so many bands go for but so few bands achieve:

Next up is the new 7" from Condition. It's been a while since we last heard from Condition and I feel like there's been a slight change in their sound for Subjugated Fate. While d-beat is still at the center of everything, it's more metallic and almost has a crossover feel, particularly on the mid-paced parts which sound tailor-made to inspire huge circle pits.

Next we have a new EP from Sweden's Glorious? released to coincide with their recent US tour. Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch them on this tour, but my buddy Usman did and he said they totally ripped. Thankfully I still have this killer new EP to assuage my feelings of loss:

We'll wrap things up with something a little bit different: a new cassette from New Jersey's the DSS. Everyone here at Sorry State fell in love with their previous cassette, which was a kind of raw, dirty metal-punk hybrid that sounded totally fresh and exciting... and they even covered "Fuck Like a Beast" by W.A.S.P.! This time around it's all DSS, but the freshness of the first tape is still very much here. If you like your metal raw, dirty, sleazy, and with a big spoonful of punk rock on top I can't recommend this band highly enough. Hopefully they release some vinyl soon!

Continuing on with having a new theme or topic for each week’s blog post, this week we are discussing game changing records. Albums that changed the way you thought about a certain genre, scene or band, or that opened your interpretation for how you look at it. I’ve been struggling to find the crucial albums that helped to shift the way I perceive certain bands or genres. As Seth stated in his blog , I can’t really recall any “AH-HA” moments that drastically shifted my taste or the way I perceived something to be. However, I think as I got older my musical palate started to expand to include things outside of my usual routine. Here is one album that I can definitively say guided me along the way:

Magrudergrind-S/T 12”:  When I was 15 I was way into skramz and screamo, and I was just starting to get my feet wet with hardcore punk. Around this time I went with some friends to see Leftover Crack at St. Stephen’s church in Washington D.C.. As much as I was excited to see Leftover Crack (a band that I had really been digging at the time) I was also excited to see the Max Levine Ensemble, a local pop punk outfit that opened the show and that seemed to be loved by the locals (just trying to paint a picture of what I was into at the time). One of the other opening bands was Magrudergrind, who I had never heard before. The 3-piece group (vocalist, guitarist, and drummer) ripped through their set and I remember my friend Paul saying, “Dude, they were so good”, to which I believe I replied with, “Really? I thought that sucked!”. My 15 year old music taste hadn’t expanded enough to include that kind of raw and chaotic sound. Paul always had a way of being ahead of the curve…

Fast forward about a year a later and I’m at a New Year’s Eve party at a punk house in D.C. and my buddy put on the new Magrudergrind record. I remember being absolutely floored, and after discovering it was Magrudergrind I felt like a total idiot. I feel like this album is extremely accessible. The recording quality is top notch, the riffs are heavy, and it’s extremely catchy. It was just the right record I needed to hear at that age, and it opened my mind up to exploring metal, grind and powerviolence (which before this point, I hadn’t really listened to at all). Now, I would not say that I am by any means a metal head now, but this album is what opened me up to exploring things outside of my limited taste at the time. This record quickly became one of my most listened to throughout my high school years. Tracks like “Lyrical Ammunition For Scene Warfare” and “Bridge Burner” were the jams I blare out of car speakers as I was leaving my school parking lot. After this album dropped Magrudergrind played locally a lot, and I took every opportunity I could get to see them play.

I’d be lying if I said that I have been keeping up much of what this band is up to now, but looking back on it was just what I was craving at that time. Even as I give this album another listen while writing, I find myself punching the air and head-banging.

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Things that rock:

Sow: Demo Cassette- In the wake of Kommunion, Sow busts out a sick demo (which I would expect seeing as these two groups share 3 members). This relatively new group based out of Charlottesville and Richmond, VA doesn’t disappoint. Marina has always been one of my favorite hardcore vocalists drawing back to her days playing in Last Words (an old Raleigh band from about 5 years ago). The vocal delivery is ferocious, and when accompanied by solid/tight hardcore riffs makes for one of my favorite releases so far this year.

Grab It Here :)

 

Rashomon: Demo 7”- You may have heard this demo on cassette earlier this year, and if you heard what I heard I think it was only fair that these tracks got pressed on vinyl.  Hailing from Washington, D.C. and featuring members from other notable bands such as Sick Fix, Pure Disgust, Kombat, and many more, this 5 piece blazes through 6 perfectly executed punk bangers. I can hear that this band seems to pay homage to other DC bands that predate them such as Void. Something that I really like about this band is the use of leads, which I think might be a product of guitarist Daniel’s writing style, seeing as it reminds me a lot of Kombat. Very excited to see what Rashomon does next!

click bait (get it while it's hot)

 

Oxidant: Deconstruct 7”-  Hailing from right here in Raleigh, Oxidant’s debut 7” features 12 tracks of ripping powerviolence. In the year 2017, it is rare that I hear too many new bands in this vein that really grab me. Oxidant is the exception. Clearly you can hear influence from the pioneers of the genre such as No Comment, Crossed out, and Infest. What really brings this band home for me is their live performance. I’m not sure if they have any plans to tour, but if you ever have an opportunity to see them I wouldn’t sleep on it.

Freakin' hell ya, we'll sell it to ya

 

 

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My band Concussion is playing tonight in Greensboro, go check it out:

https://www.facebook.com/events/129180357724944/

Cya soon,

E. Chubb

 

It's been a minute since we've done a run-down of new stuff coming in at the store, and as usual there's no shortage of good tunes to reinvigorate your playlist!

Let's do the 7"s first. First up is one of my favorite demos from last year pressed to vinyl, from DC's Rashomon. While they're clearly inspired by classic Japanese hardcore, it's noisier and messier than that, arriving at something that has a lot of the things I like about the bands they're inspired by (Death Side, Bastard, et al) but also feels really new and fresh:

Next up we have a new EP from raw hardcore punks Urchin. Their last EP was a real standout, combining the grittiness of a lot of New York punk from the last decade with the more retro sensibility of a lot of New England bands from the same period. It's a real best of both worlds scenario and the new EP absolutely shreds:

Next up we have the Laughing Wall EP from Arizona's Humiliation. If you're as bummed as we are about Gay Kiss breaking up, this should help to ease your pain. While Humiliation aren't the same band as Gay Kiss, they have a similarly desperate and intense sound, and I think it's a sure bet that if you like one band you'll like the other:

Finishing up the "little vinyl" category we have an EP from New York's Slender. This is on La Vida Es Un Mus, but it's something a little different for the label... it's kind of introverted music that sounds like it was made on an old 4-track. Moments remind me of something like Death in June, but I'm sure that someone more steeped in this kind of thing could say a lot more about it. It says a lot that LVEUM would put this out, so I think it's well worth giving it a try:

Now moving over to the "big vinyls" (as our normie customers call them), we have another killer new release from LVEUM, the debut record from the UK's Permission. Permission features Ralph from No on guitar, and if you're a follower of his distinctively claustrophobic and ornate take on hardcore this is a 100% must-buy:

Switching gears a bit, Protomartyr have a new album! You've doubtlessly heard about this one in "NOT PUNK" venues like your local NPR affiliate, Pitchfork, and the relentless Facebook ads that I've been seeing for it, but Protomartyr come from the same DIY punk scene as us and in my opinion they're still grounded enough in all of that that their current material still deserves a listen. I've only had a chance to spin this once and it strikes me as a darker and more difficult album than their last two, but every Protomartyr album clicks with me after a few listens and this one will be no different I'm sure. Oh, and if you're into that kind of thing we have the limited edition, indie-exclusive blue vinyl in stock:

If you're looking for something a little noiser and nastier, we just got in copies of the Brainstorm / Battle of Disarm split LP, which originally came out in 1993 and has just been repressed. Brainstorm were from Yugoslavia and played a kind of thrashy crust, while Battle of Disarm were from Japan and played noisy, nasty crust that's gross in all of the right ways.

Wrapping up the "punk" section of this post, we have the brand new second volume in the Killed by Meth compilation series. Collecting the best bands from the rust belt of the US and Canada, this time around you get tracks from familiar faces like Erik Nervous, Beastman, Radiation Risks, and Protruders, and a whole heap of new faces as well. And if you still need Volume 1 we have you covered on that too.

Now, if you've been patiently reading this post and thinking to yourself "WHERE'S THE FUCKIN' METAL DUDE?" your patience will be rewarded! We have two new releases from the excellent Stygian Black Hand label, the first of which is the new LP from Barrow Wight:

And we'll wrap things up with the debut LP from Antichrist Siege Machine, a punishing new death metal band featuring a bunch of familiar faces from the Richmond, Virginia punk scene, including members of Left Cross, Asylum, and many more I'm sure.

So if you haven't figured it out yet, to kind of kickstart us writing more we've been doing prompts. This is just to kind of get the juice flowing and get us all in the habit of writing more (since we have been seriously behind lately). The kind of loose prompt we have is misconceptions about an album, genre, artist we had and what changed it. I've talked a little about my kind of never ending quest to try and be cool growing up (well I kind of skirted around it). Trying to find acceptance and trying to fit in where I just didn't kind of made me a little shit at points in my life and probably somewhat intolerable, constantly basing my opinions on what I thought others would approve of our shrink back at. I'm not proud of it. This lead to my definition of what's "punk" to be fairly small and close minded. Really when I look back now I basically lived in complete contrast to how I probably actually felt and to who I've grown into as a person. With my personality shrinking back in to pleasing myself and not others my music taste broadened and so did my definition of what is and isn't "punk".  

I've never really been one for that "AH-HA!" lightbulb moment where everything suddenly clicks and the clouds part and the sun is shining and IT ALL MAKES SENSE SUDDENLY! I don't think that really happens, or at least it doesn't for me. Usually things take a lot more time and regular exposure. Usually there is some sort of catalyst that starts me down the path though. Here's two albums that helped me down the path of thinking about music differently and usually more critically.

Devo: Q: Are We Not Men A: We Are Devo

I have no clue when I first heard this or why.  Ignorance is easy, especially when pertaining to an artist with a mainstream hit.  For a long time to me, Devo was that band that did that obnoxious song Whip It, totally not punk.  Devo may be the comparison to throw at any band that shows any quirkiness these days but for a long time I wasn't surrounded by the level of fandom that I am now.  To be honest I don't remember anyone growing up that was super into Devo, or if they were they never brought it up when talking about music.  This album kind of floored me though with how raw and aggressive it was under all that "weirdness".  Of course the songs that appealed to me first were the faster songs like Uncontrollable Urge and Slap Your Mammy but eventually I started to find myself gravitating to the more airy songs like Space Junk.  On top of making appreciate things that weren't just you know blazing fast power chords it helped me to start exploring into new wave a little more and finding the punk gems in there, stuff like the first B-52's album and Adam and the Ants' Kings of the Wild Frontier.  

Kraftwerk: Die Mensch-Maschine/The Man Machine

I don't know if this is exactly what started my obsession with synths or not.  Again it's always hard to pinpoint where certain obsessions start but this album definitely helped break me out of my idea of what a band could be.  I know I listened to stuff that wasn't traditional rock band set ups but usually did a good job of sounding like it.  Listening to the trends in mainstream music in the 90s it felt like the rock band was dying.  The idea of having a drummer, a bass player, a guitar player, and someone doing vocals seemed to be fading away and I think this lead me to dislike a lot of electronic music.  My sister was really into house music and other edm at the time and while I kind of found interest in it, straight out liking it would be betraying myself as a musician (or so I thought).  These people are just pressing buttons and there is no real musicianship in it (I told you I was insufferable).  I've realized that guitar music isn't going away anytime soon and that keyboards and laptops and everything else is not a threat and not the enemy.  I feel like The Man Machine is definitely the most accessible Kraftwerk album without any background to krautrock and electronic music in general.  It's more feels more constrained within the realms of the idea of a pop/rock "song".  This falls a little into what Daniel mentioned when talking about Amon Duul II, while there are moments of less concrete music and more soundscape feelings, there are an awful lot of melodies to latch onto and beats to nod your head rhythmically to.  The Model is still my favorite Kraftwerk song, the synth lines in it are all beautiful and constantly stuck in my head.  A lot of the other Kratwerk albums definitely took me longer to wrap my head around and appreciate since there wasn't always a melody for my mind to latch on to.  I do think it was this and Tubeway Army/ Gary Numan that really did start my interest into synthesizers and a lot more synth based music.

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Anyways that's enough of the past, let's talk about the awesome records of the present!

  

Nachthexen – S/T 10”- A collection of their Other cassette and self titled 7”. A good way to get caught up with this band before their new 7” on Harbinger Sound. Nachthexen switch out a guitar player for a synth player who is pretty much playing leads the whole time. The drums propel everything with a super kick and snare heavy approach, super stompy yet upbeat and all around powerful. The bass rumbles on through filling in all the gaps and the singer gives a rather mordant delivery. Definitely killer stuff and highly recommended.

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Spray Paint W/ Ben Mackie – A true meeting of minds. Spray Paint team up with Ben Mackie of Cuntz and it’s a dark moody mess. Reverb and feedback seem to seep out of every pore as you’d expect. I definitely like the B-Side Dumpster Buddies a little more due to it’s shifts in dynamics and very kind of droll vocal delivery. If you’re a fan of either band then there’s a pretty good chance you’ll dig this.

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Chew / Rash: Split 7” – I was thinking that maybe I use the word scathing too much when I talk about bands. Scathing might be a little too light of a term when talking about this 7” anyways. It’s more so scalding, like getting a pot of boiling water thrown in your face. Hyper-aggressive and mean from start to finish. CHEW just blaze through leaving a trail of destruction and blown ear drums. Rash keep more of a middle pace but are not any less gnarly. High points – The scream at the beginning of Submission and the little guitar squeals on Bleeding Pigs.

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Flesh World – Into The Shroud 12” – I have a hard time with this album because the song title Destination Moon just makes me want to listen to B-52s. Anyways this seems to be like the missing link between Flesh World’s more punky Self Titled EP and the more shoe gaze feeling The Wild Animals In My Life LP. This manages to be upbeat yet has that airy feel to it while not loosing it’s edge. It definitely has some Killing Joke vibes, especially the song Problem In The Youth Bulge. It’s hard to knock that first EP out of my favorite material by this band but this LP is slowly nudging it off.

Well, our “Turned Out a Punk” series on the Sorry State blogs were a big success, so we’re going to attempt to keep the ball rolling with another set of posts on a unified topic. This time around we’ll be talking about game-changing records… records that might have changed the way that you think about a scene or a genre and opened up new vistas in your listening habits. I’m actually going to talk about two different records that played this kind of role at two different points in my life.

The first record I want to talk about is the Koro 7”. Now, it probably seems obvious that this is a record I really like since Sorry State reissued it as one of our earliest releases, but more than just a good record it was really a catalyst for me getting into hardcore on a deeper level.

As I wrote about in my previous post, I spent my teen years in the mid- and late 90s testing out different tribal affiliations within the punk scene. While I listened almost exclusively to music that came out of the punk scene, it seemed like punk’s umbrella was much wider in those days, and around 1999 when I first heard Koro I was checking out everything from Converge and Cave In to youth crew revival to tougher bands like Right Brigade to melodic bands like Saves the Day, and I was also heavily interested in the nascent screamo scene with bands like Pg. 99 and City of Caterpillar. And parallel to all of this I was starting to get really into researching older bands and learning about music from the 70s and 80s. This was pre-social media, so I did most of my research with actual books. I remember John Savage’s book England’s Dreaming introduced me to a lot of stuff. I actually brought a copy with me the first time I went to England. I distinctly remember reading it on the plane, boning up on all of the ’77-era punk bands so that I would know what to look out for as I scoured the used bins. I believe that trip was in 1999, so vinyl was cheap and the 99p bins were overflowing with ’77-era punk singles. When I got back home and started going through them all—some I’d learned about from England’s Dreaming and other sources, and some I just bought because they looked cool—I started to get a sense of the depth of the ’77 punk scene and how many bands there were to check out once you scratched below the surface. I’m guessing that I probably heard my first Killed by Death compilation around this time as well, which made me realize that this wasn’t a phenomenon limited to the UK.

Around this time was when I first discovered the Kill from the Heart web site, which showed me that the depth I’d found in ’77-era punk extended well into the hardcore era (and, of course, I’ve since discovered that just about every music scene is full of similarly-sized rabbit holes). I’m not sure how the conversation got started, but eventually I started emailing with Chris, the main guy behind KFTH. He sent me a mix tape full of great early 80s hardcore, but the band that really stuck out for me was Koro, whose entire 7” was on the tape.

I wrote before about how Minor Threat was such a special band for me, and despite the fact that I’d heard plenty of other early 80s hardcore bands by that point no one quite did it for me like Minor Threat did. That is, until I heard Koro. It was even faster than Minor Threat, and if it wasn’t quite as tight then it was certainly close. These were songs that were performed at the speed with which my brain worked, and consequently filled me with a strange sense of comfort. While I recognized that the music was amazing pretty much right off the bat, once I delved deeper into the record I was only intrigued even more. The band was from Knoxville, Tennessee, which was not only in the south, but it was an even smaller city than Richmond, where I was living at the time, and the Norfolk / Virginia Beach area where I grew up. The lyrics had little of Minor Threat’s earnestness, instead dealing with kind of frivolous teenage topics (“Blap!”) or very dated political topics (“700 Club”). While one would think that these dated political topics would keep me from connecting with the record, truth be told they only intrigued me more. I grew up in the land of Pat Robertson (whose organization was headquartered in Virginia Beach) and The 700 Club was a show that I flipped past a million times when channel-surfing as a kid. Knowing that such a great piece of music grew out of a context that felt so incredibly familiar was a real rush.

After hearing Koro, it was pretty much on. The Koro EP was proof positive that there was gold in the boxes and boxes of used 7”s that littered pretty much every used record store that still existed, and I set about panning, using Kill from the Heart, print sources like old issues of Maximumrocknroll and the Flex guidebooks, illegal file sharing networks, and ebay as essential tools in my arsenal. For the next several years—honestly, for the next decade or more—it was all about diving as deep as possible and seeing what I could come up with. I would hear lots of gems over the next several years, but I can’t think of any record as perfect as that EP.

The second record I want to talk about is a more recent discovery, Amon Düül II’s Yeti LP, which I also wrote about in a previous edition of All Things to All People. In that post I struggled to articulate precisely what intrigued me so much about all of the Krautrock stuff that I was discovering, and when my friend Danny read that column he put it more succinctly and eloquently than I could: I was transitioning toward music that had a kind of cinematic scope. In other words, in retrospect I realize that the way I approached listening to music was very much grounded in the traditions of folk and pop music. In other words, I listened to music in order to sing along, and “digesting” records essentially meant memorizing them closely enough that I could sing along (or play air guitar or drums or whatever) and take a kind of participatory pleasure in experiencing the music. I still listen to plenty of music in that mode, but what Yeti in particular showed me is that there are other ways. It’s possible to surrender yourself to music, to let it take you wherever it wants to go. That pop listening mold is predicated on a kind of mastery… you have to learn the song—to tame it in a way—in order to listen to it in that way. However, listening to a record like Yeti is like just floating in a river or the ocean and letting the current take you wherever it may. The pleasure here is not in taming something outside of you, but of releasing what is inside of you, letting go of your ego so that you can experience what the musicians want you to experience.

While Yeti was the record that made me really crave this mode of listening, I think that getting really into Can prepped me for the experience of Yeti. Can’s music is strange in that it has the circularity of pop music and the linearity of this more “cinematic” music in equal measure. People often remark upon the “gradually evolving repetition” motif in their classic work, and I think that the repetition provided me a kind of safety net to fall back on as I became increasingly interested in that wider scope.

Anyway, once Yeti clicked with me I was all about finding this sensation in as much music as possible. It was like I had developed a new muscle that allowed me to do things I didn’t know were possible… listening to and appreciating music really are skills, and I had just upped my level. Entire categories of music were newly accessible to me, like jazz (70s Miles Davis has been a particular favorite, including both funkier stuff like On the Corner and more atmospheric things like Bitches Brew), soundtracks (including the Japanese artist J.A. Ceasar, one of my favorite recent discoveries), and prog (which, for all of its Krautrock-y tendencies, is ultimately the category that I would place Yeti into). I even came back to some records I already loved with fresh ears, like the psychedelic concept albums of the 60s. Previously I listened to records like Sgt Pepper’s or Arthur as collections of pop songs, but nowadays I appreciate the over-arching, album-level dynamics more. And when it comes to albums like the Pretty Things’ S.F. Sorrow or Pink Floyd’s early stuff where those album-level dynamics are even more important, I’m listening to and loving those records more than I ever have before.

Interestingly, this new way of listening has also pushed me toward a different attitudes toward discovering music. There was a kind of neuroticism to the way that I searched for 80s hardcore in the years after hearing Koro… the drive to hear everything created a nice little feedback loop with my naturally high anxiety level. That neuroticism has served me well in a lot of ways… honestly, a lot of Sorry State’s success has grown out of my insatiable desire to hear everything. By contrast, I’m not so worried about hearing every single Krautrock or jazz record. I know those are deep, deep rabbit holes, but I’m pretty much content just to enjoy whatever crosses my path. In order to pursue hardcore so single-mindedly I had to close myself off to a ton of great music, and nowadays I just want to be open and enjoy whatever the universe offers up to me.

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Is anyone out there on Apple Music? Obviously Sorry State is vinyl-centric and sitting in front of my stereo with a vinyl record is still my preferred way of listening to music, but I listen to a lot of digital music as well. I’ve long preferred Apple Music over Spotify because it allows me to upload songs from my own library and fold them in with the songs on Apple’s service… I couldn’t rely solely on Spotify and not have access to all of the stuff that’s on my computer but not on that service. Anyway, enough shilling for Apple… they have enough of everyone’s money.

I bring up this topic because if anyone out there uses Apple Music and has upgraded to iOS 11, feel free to follow my profile @sorrystate and eavesdrop on what I’m listening to. Even better, let me follow you back! I’ve long been jealous of Spotify’s social features, so I’m eager to make some contacts on Apple Music and have some people introduce me to cool stuff I wouldn’t have heard otherwise.

In other Daniel news, I have a new band! We’re called Scarecrow. I play bass, Jeff from Skemäta plays guitar, Usman from Skemäta plays drums, and our friend Red (who hasn’t been in a band before) sings. Our first show is October 7 at the Bunker in Raleigh (Facebook event here). If you’re in the area you should try to make it… Haircut is killer and Bunker shows are always a good time.

The day after that I’ll be at the VG- Record Fair at Hardywood Brewery in Richmond slinging that hot wax. I’ll probably be very sleepy. Hopefully I can get someone to come with me so that we can trade off making coffee runs, and so that they can watch the table while I browse the other sellers’ wares!

No Love also has a few shows coming up. We’ll be playing with the Cowboys (which I’m very stoked about!) at the Pinhook in Durham on October 15 (Facebook event here). It sounds like we’ll also be getting to play with both C.H.E.W. and Trash Knife this fall as well, and I’m super stoked about both of those shows too. It’s shaping up to be a very punk-filled fall here in North Carolina.

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C.H.E.W. / Rash: Split 7” (Slugsalt) Well, this is quite a corker… two of the best current bands from Chicago teaming up for a split 7”! C.H.E.W.’s material so far has pretty much blown me away, and these three songs do very little to change my mind about how great they are. This time around I’m not hearing the Rudimentary Peni-isms quite as much… the production is a little heavier and the playing is a little tighter and more straightforwardly hardcore, but there are plenty of little quirks for those of you who like it weird. The second track, “Submission,” in particular has some really cool, wild vocals that fly off the edges of the song’s rhythm and some wonky whiplash tempo changes that make my face erupt in a grin every time I hear them. As for Rash’s contribution, they give us two tracks that pretty much pick up where their recent releases left off. They’ve always played in the fertile area between hardcore and AmRep-style noise rock, but these two tracks are definitely a bit more on the hardcore end of the spectrum, albeit with the dense and rich textures of the best noise rock kept fully intact. You don’t see too many split 7”s in hardcore these days, but this one makes a great argument for the format. Highly recommended!

Major Conflict: S/T 7” (Antitodo) Reissue of this 1983 NYHC 7” which is probably most famous for being “the post-Urban Waste band.” If you’re coming to Major Conflict looking for Urban Waste you’ll be a bit disappointed as this simply isn’t nearly as raw or as feral as that record (but then again, how many records are?), but it’s a nice little vintage slice of NYHC nonetheless. The three tracks here are quite different from one another. It begins with an instrumental called “How Do Ya Feel” that’s built around a cool little metallic riff that reminds me quite a lot of the Abused, then segues into a mid-paced street punk song called “Outgroup,” which seems to me to betray the influence of punkier bands like Kraut and the Stimulators, or perhaps even Subliminal Seduction-era Heart Attack. On the b-side you get a lengthier song that seems more Bad Brains-influenced, particularly the epic, “Right Brigade”-esque mosh part. While it’s kind of weird that the three tracks are so different from one another, this 7” really works, and even if it doesn’t quite make that top tier of NYHC alongside Antidote, the Abused, Urban Waste, et al, it’s solidly in the second tier alongside bands like Crucial T, the Mob, and the Nihilistics, and if you’re familiar with those records (all of them rippers) you know that’s no slight. And of course Antitodo has already established a reputation for doing great quality repro editions, so you shouldn’t worry yourself on that front.

Flesh World: Into the Shroud 12” (Dark Entries) Well, the new Flesh World album is finally here. They’ve shifted labels for this one, moving from the world of small DIY hardcore labels (their previous releases were on La Vida Es Un Mus and Iron Lung) to Dark Entries, who are honestly probably a better fit for their sound. When there’s a change in labels there’s usually some corresponding changes in the music, and that’s the case to an extent here. Flesh World are still writing brilliant pop songs, and structurally the songs on Into the Shroud are very much of a piece with the band’s earlier work, though honestly I think the melodies are more memorable and the arrangements much more dynamic and interesting. The main difference is that they’ve scaled back radically on the noise. While Into the Shroud is probably still a fairly noisy record by indie rock standards, if you loved their previous releases you’ll immediately notice how much cleaner this record is, which is hardly a bad thing, just a noticeable difference. Flesh World have always reminded me a bit of Lush, and the transition from The Wild Animals in My Life to Into the Shroud is not unlike Lush’s transition from their earlier, more chaotic stuff to the more streamlined pop of Lovelife. I love both periods of Lush, and I’m fully on board with this new phase of Flesh World. If you enjoyed this band’s earlier stuff I strongly recommend this new one as well.

Spray Paint & Ben Mackie: Friendly Moving Man 7” (12XU) Not a split release, but a collaborative 7” between these two artists. I’ve heard Ben Mackie’s group Cuntz (even seen them live once), but I’m not sure if his reverb-drenched vocals are going to be enough of a selling point for the legions of Cuntz fans out there. It’s unclear if he did more than sing on this 7”, but I do feel like there could be a little bit of Cuntz’s noise rock injected into Spray Paint’s sound for this release… it’s hard to say for sure. However, if you’re coming at this release from the Spray Paint end of things I dare say you’ll be very pleased. Spray Paint are one of the most unique-sounding bands out there… it’s hard to say precisely what it is that sets them apart, but they have such a unique voice as a band that you can hear just a couple of notes and immediately know that it’s them. The a-side in particular is extremely quirky, and it’s the kind of song that it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Spray Paint managing to capture on tape. The only bad thing I can say about the record is that it feels like it’s over before it starts, but if you’re interested in this odds are you have a stack of Total Punk 7”s in your collection that you could say the same thing about, so no biggie.

Performing Ferret Band: S/T 12” (Beat Generation) Reissue of this UKDIY LP from 1980, and it’s a real gem. I don’t claim to be the most knowledgeable about this particular scene, but it’s crazy to me that something as good as this could fly under my radar for so long. Sonically, this is just about as on the nose as the UKDIY sound gets… take some bits from the early Fall catalog, add in some of the vibe from genre classics like Desperate Bicycles or the Homosexuals and you should be pretty much in the ballpark as to what this sounds like. It also bears an almost uncanny resemblance to the Total Punk band Suburban Homes in places… I’m not sure if they’re a conscious influence on Suburban Homes or not, but I think it’s pretty much guaranteed that if you like one band’s records you’ll really like the other’s as well (unless, of course, you strictly avoid either new or old bands). For me, a lot of the pleasure of UKDIY music is in the way that they balance their poppier impulses with their more experimental ones, and Performing Ferret Band have pretty much the perfect mix for me. So, if this style if up your alley you know what to do…

Reptoides: Nueva Especie 7” (World Gone Mad) 2nd 7” from this Mexican band, not to be confused with Andy Human & the Reptoids from California, who are an entirely different group. If you liked what they did the first time around I’m pretty sure you’ll be on board with this as well, as it continues in a similar vein. As before (and as with their labelmates in Haldol) there’s a distinct Rudimentary Peni influence here, which manifests itself in the claustrophobic, chorus-y guitar tone and the general sense of dread, but like Peni they also manage to pull hook after hook out of this rather imposing shell. I can see fans of Blazing Eye being super into this as well, but it also reminds me of some of the more out-there Japanese punk and hardcore sounds by bands like G.I.S.M. or Mobs. I haven’t seen Reptoides getting a ton of hype in the US, but maybe it’s about time that changed because this—like their last EP—is totally killer.

Beyond Peace: S/T 7” (Hard Art) Debut 7” from this band out of Iowa. We had their demo a while back, but they really made an impression when I saw them live a few weeks ago. Like a lot of bands from off-the-beaten-path locales, Beyond Peace don’t sound totally in sync with the hottest trends in the underground today, but as someone who is naturally attracted to bands that fall between the cracks I think that’s an asset rather than a drawback. The foundation here is definitely straightforward 80s USHC, and it’s fast, raw, and gruff in all the right ways. The vibe is somewhat earnest and political in a way that reminds me both of 90s bands like Crudos or Born Against and 80s bands like Articles of Faith or Everything Falls Apart / Metal Circus-era Husker Du. And like all of those bands, Beyond Peace are musically adventurous as well; while they can write a mid-paced part worthy of any NYHC band (“Wearing Thin”) they can also dish out some jaggedly beautiful lead lines that could have come from Articles of Faith’s Give Thanks LP (“Big Man”). If the above references intrigue you I would highly encourage you to check this out, as Beyond Peace pretty much precisely fit my definition of real hardcore.

UVTV: Go Away 7” (Emotional Response) Latest 4-song EP from this Florida band who have quietly been maturing into one of the most distinctive punk bands out there. To me, UVTV’s music sounds like a hardcore-informed take on C86 pop like the Shop Assistants… in other words, while they have the sprightliness and heft of a band like Brain F≠, but their dreamy vocals, pop songwriting chops, and distinct Ramones influence seem to come from the mid-80s UK (which they kind of confirm here with a cover tune by the Primitives). Punk with dreamy vocals is a pretty untapped well—the only bands I can think of that do it as well as UVTV are Flesh World and Earth Girls, both of whom who have a very different overall vibe—which serves to UVTV’s advantage because they sound so totally fresh. I’m not sure why the hype machine hasn’t latched onto this band yet, but maybe someone should take some initiative and get that started. Or just pick this up and enjoy your own little secret.

ISS: Endless Pussyfooting 12” (Erste Theke Tontraeger) So, I wrote a description of this back when it was a tape and then the label actually used it as the generic marketing description for the vinyl release, so obviously I like this a lot. However, I thought I’d write something again since this record has only grown in my esteem since the tape version came out. I wrote before (and other people like Vincent have also mentioned) that the sampling-based technique that ISS uses is totally awesome, but I feel like the focus on their technique—which admittedly, is pretty exciting—detracts attention away from how absolutely brilliant these songs are. Sure, it’s fun to unpack all of the references and try to identify all of the samples, but these songs would be great no matter what instruments were used to create them. There’s such a mastery of songwriting, lyric-writing, arrangement, and production on display here that it honestly makes a lot of the other music that I listen to look bad by comparison. However, even if you don’t come to this as some kind of grand artistic achievement (and believe me, I think that’s the last thing ISS wants anyway), these are just great, fun pop songs that you can sing along to with the windows down on a warm summer day… indeed, the fact that they function so well as pop songs is exactly what makes them so great. So, at the risk of continuing to not make any sense, I’m going to wrap this up and say that it’s one of my favorite things in the world right now and that you should probably check it out if you haven’t already.

B.D.: Over 30 Singles 12” (Emotional Response) 30(!!!)-track compilation from this long-running California punk band. I’m not sure if we’ve carried every single B.D. / Bad Daddies record, but I’ve checked in with them often over the years and this band is always doing something surprising. That eclecticism is very much on display here, as songs waver between hardcore, 90s-style noise-rock and straight up pop-punk. I suppose that if I had to draw a common thread to all of the music collected here, it’s that there’s a very 90s sensibility at work, both in that a lot of the genres that B.D. dabble in sound kind of retro and in the eclecticism itself, which is jarring within the context of the current scene, where bands seem very hesitant to step outside a narrow range of influences. While there is a metric ton of awesome music here, I think my favorite thing about Over 30 Singles might be the zine booklet, which is super thick and features detailed contextualizations of every track here (and, crazily enough, many others that aren’t compiled here!) and interviews with each individual member of the band. Everything about this package is really overwhelming, but in kind of a neat way. I think one of the reasons that a lot of modern punk feels so disposable is because the audience has so little time to make room for more / richer media content in our lives. However, Over 30 Singles is a throwback to when records were one of your key media resources and not only did bands try to convey as much information as possible, but also the audience also spent a lot of time digesting all of that information. So, while it’ll definitely take some work to make time for this given the lifestyles we live nowadays, there are corresponding rewards for your expenditure of time.

All New Arrivals
Chris Bell: I Am the Cosmos 12" (Omnivore)
Mogwai: Every Country's Son 12" (Temporary Residence)
Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series OST 12" (Rhino)
METZ: Strange Peace 12" (Rhino)
Various: Warfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares 12" (Numero Group)
The Afghan Whigs: Up with It 12" (Sub Pop)
The Afghan Whigs: Congregation 12" (Sub Pop)
The Afghan Whigs: Uptown Avondale 12" (Sub Pop)
Satyricon: Deep Calleth Upon Deep 12" (Napalm)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Luciferian Towers 12" (Constellation)
Tortür: No Surrender, No Survivors 7" flexi (self-released)
Amgdala: Population Control 12" (Dead Tank)
Meatwound: Trash Apparatus 7" (Dead Tank)
Vacancy: Empty Head cassette (Dead Tank)
Lunglust: War at Home 7" (Dead Tank)
Lunglust: War at Home cassette (Dead Tank)
Mrtex / Kelut: Split LP 12" (Dead Tank)
DS-13: Umea Hardcore Forever 12" (Havoc)
Kaaos: Riistinnaulittu Kaaos 12" (Havoc)
Major Conflict: S/T 7" (Antitodo)
Flesh World: Into the Shroud 12" (Dark Entries)
Mr. Wrong: Babes in Boyland 12" (Water Wing)
Pikacyu-Makoto: Galaxilympics 12" (Upset the Rhythm)
Chain & the Gang; Experimental Music 12" (Radical Elite)
Neon: Neon / Nazi Schatzi 7" (Water Wing)
Wolves in the Throne Room: Thrice Woven 12" (Artemesia)
Dorothy Ashby: Hip Harp / On a Minor Groove 12" (Doxy)
Flower Travellin Band: Satori 12" (Phoenix)
Flower Travellin Band: Anywhere 12" (Phoenix)
Harald Grosskopf: Synthesist 12" (Bureau B)
Performing Ferret Band: S/T 12" (Beat Generation)
Genius / GZA: Liquid Swords 12" (Universal)
Chaos UK: One Hundred Percent Two Fingers in the Air Punk Rock 12" (Harbinger Sound)
Nachthexen: S/T 10" (Harbinger Sound)
Voigt/465: Slights Still Unspoken 12" (Mental Experience)
Atelier du Mal: Noblesse Oblige 12" (Mannequin)
Silverhead: S/T 12" (Vinilissimo)
Osiris: S/T 12" (Pharaway)
Aragorn: Night Is Burning 12" (Sommor)
Bruno Spoerri & Reto Weber: The Sound of UFOs 12" (We Release Whatever the Fuck We Want)
Bruno Spoerri: Voice of Taurus 12" (We Release Whatever the Fuck We Want)
Pretty Things: Parachute 12" (Madfish)
Pretty Things: SF Sorrow 12" (Madfish)
C.H.E.W. / Rash: Split 7" (Slugsalt)
Spray Paint & Ben Mackie: Friendly Moving Man b/w Dumpster Buddies 7" (12XU)
USA/Mexico: Laredo 12" (12XU)

Restocks
Broken Bones: A Single Decade 12" (Havoc)
Final Conflict: Keep It in the Family 7" (Havoc)
Sacrilege: Time to Face the Reaper 12" (Havoc)
Willful Neglect: S/T + Justice for No One 12" (Havoc)
Blitz: Voice of a Generation 12" (Radiation)
Blitz: All Out Attack 7" (Ugly Pop)
Newtown Neurotics: Beggars Can Be Choosers 12" (Nada Nada Discos)
Partisans: S/T 12" (Havoc)
Wretched: Libero E Selvaggio 12" (Agipunk)
Against Me: Reinventing Axl Rose 12" (No Idea)
John Coltrane & Alice Coltrane: Cosmic Music 12" (Superior Viaduct)
Dicks: Kill from the Heart 12" (Alternative Tentacles)
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: Flying Microtonal Banana 12" (Flightless)
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: I'm Your Mind Fuzz 12" (Castleface)
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: Quarters 12" (Castleface)
Thee Oh Sees: Mutilator Defeated at Last 12" (Castleface)
Radioactivity: S/T 12" (Dirtnap)
Radioactivity: Silent Kill 12" (Dirtnap)
Rubella Ballet: Ballet Bag 12" (Dark Entries)
Sonic Youth: Evol 12" (Goofin')
Spits: 19 Million AC 12" (Slovenly)
Spits: First Self-titled 12" (Slovenly)
Spits: S/T 12" (Slovenly)
Spits: Third Album 12" (Slovenly)
The Fall: Slates 10" (Superior Viaduct)
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard: Nonagon Infinity 12" (ATO)
Wicked Lady: The Axeman Cometh 12" (Guersson)
Wicked Lady: Psychotic Overkill 12" (Guersson)
Bad Brains: S/T 12" (ROIR)
Brand New: Deja Entendu 12" (Triple Crown)
Brand New: I Am a Nightmare 12" (Triple Crown)
Electric Wizard: Dopethrone 12" (Rise Above)
Hatebreed: Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire 12" (Victory)
Joey Bada$$: All Amerikkkan Bada$$ 12" (Cinematic)
Parquet Courts: Light Up Gold 12" (What's Your Rupture?)
Power Trip: Manifest Decimation 12" (Southern Lord)
Run the Jewels: S/T 12" (Mass Appeal)
Run the Jewels: RTJ 3 12" (Mass Appeal)
Slayer: Show No Mercy 12" (Metal Blade)
Swans: Filth 12" (Young God)
C.H.E.W. / Penetrode: Split cassette (Slugsalt)

Introduction:

Sup, everyone? My name is Eric Chubb, and I'm thrilled to join the Sorry State team. Getting an opportunity to work at my favorite store is extremely humbling (to say the least). But enough of the sappy stuff, here's a little about me:

I recently moved to Raleigh from Greensboro where I had been living for about 6 years. However, I was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Falls Church, VA. It was during my time in Greensboro that I played in my first touring bands, started booking shows, and put out too many cassettes to count. It was also during this time that I met Daniel, Jeff and Seth. Our bands would play together often and Sorry State put out my band's demo back in 2013 (or something like that).

There were a few reasons for my departure from Greensboro, however the biggest reason was to be closer to my partner here in Raleigh. Love is wild! So, for the past few months I have been bouncing around working different jobs (one of which was as a butcher, which I soon discovered was not the trade for me), exploring the town and finding ways to make Raleigh my new home. Don't get me wrong, I end up driving my ass down 40 west to Greensboro at least once a week for band practice or to see friends or whatever, but I'm definitely getting my sea legs here in Raleigh.

NOVA beginnings:

As for my introduction to punk, I owe most of my musical upbringing to my older brother, Cory. I have a very distinct memory of Cory listening to Green Day's Warning on CD when I was about 7, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world that they said "fuck" in the song "Minority." That's my go-to story when people ask me about how I got into punk (and Green Day is still my favorite band tbh). During my early teenage years, I'd always tag along with my brother (in our parents Dodge Ram conversion van that they would let Cory use) to his band's gigs around town at community centers or in someone's mom's basement. Moving forward, I'm not sure how it happened, but it was this time that I became obsessed with street punk. I think for my 11th birthday I had requested a Casualties CD (if I remember correctly it was Die Hards?), which Cory reluctantly got for me even though he thought it was some street punk BS. I jammed that freakin' CD almost every day of middle school!

As I got older and Cory moved away for college, I began to dive a little deeper into punk and hardcore. As you can imagine being from a D.C. suburb, bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains were huge for me. Cory had burned me a copy of Bad Brains S/T on CD that soon became one of my most listened to albums. Once I was old enough for my parents to let me take the metro into the city I started getting more into the local scene, where (at the time) bands like Coke Bust and Sick Fix reigned supreme. Punk houses like The Corpse Fortress and the 3rd St. Co-op were where I spent a lot of time smoking cigarettes and getting into trouble.

Me drumming for the Feed in 2009(?). 

Throughout my high school years I was playing in a kinda screamy punk band (we were once described as Pg. Ninety-Nirvana, if that paints a picture...). Once some of us got drivers licenses we were able to drive into the city to play shows and met a lot of my friends who I'm still close with today. Below is a link to our tape that we put out in 2010:

I think I was very lucky that my parents had a strange trust in punk and understood it as a good influence on me (for better or worse). For instance, my friend Paul and I would take the metro into the city on a school night when we were 15 to go see a basement show somewhere in northeast and my parents generally had the attitude of, "as long as you wake up for school tomorrow we don't care." So, I was able to get away with more than a lot of other punks my age did. My parents were so supportive of my love of music that on occasion I would lie to my parents and say I was going to a show, but instead go to some dumb high school party around the corner because I knew they would ask WAY more questions about that (sorry, Ma!). I still feel kinda guilty about that...

North Carolina:

After graduating from high school in 2011, almost all of my friends moved to Richmond (it was just the thing you did if you were into punk and wanted to get away from NOVA) and I made a bold decision to move to Greensboro to attend Guilford College. In my first year or two of college I spent most of my time on campus. I would go to a show here and there, but it took a while for me to finally put myself out there and start a new band. At the time there was show house in Greensboro called the Buttery Day Ranch where most of the DIY gigs happened in town (or at least the ones I was interested in). After a while of meeting people and pestering them to play music with me, I played in my first band since moving called Holder's Scar. It was also around this time that I began booking shows for my friends' bands when they would come through town in an attempt to recreate the thriving hardcore punk scene I grew up in. Not too long after Holder's Scar had put out our demo, I got together with some new friends in town to start a band called Wriggle. Wriggle was a fun band for me because it sounded way different than anything I had ever played before and opened up a lot of avenues to explore new music.

As the years went by, my friends and I started a DIY space in Greensboro where we would practice and host shows. Moreover, my roommates and I would host shows in our TINY living room that could hardly fit twenty people. I started more bands (ie. Bad Eric, Menthol, Louse, and too many other short lived projects to count) and was able to book tours by cashing in on favors from out of town bands that I booked in Greensboro. Looking back on it, it feels like I was on tour for about half of the year in 2016 (wild times). Recently, I have been taking a breather from booking and touring to focus on other facets of my life, but dang I miss traveling around and playing gigs with my friends. Here's hoping to get back on the road in 2018!

Bad Eric live at The Neo Tokyo Command Center (my living room) in May of 2015. Photo by Kyra Collins.

Most of those old Greensboro bands broke up, but I have a few new projects in the works that I'm sure I'll share with y'all in future posts :)

Thanks for reading! Seeing as this is my first blog post with Sorry State, I wanted to keep it relatively brief and just share a little about who I am and where I come from. When reading over this post before I publish it, I feel like there is so much room to expand, but perhaps I'll share more stories another time.

Next time I'll include some record reviews and anecdotes about gigs and other events coming up.

Cya soon,

E. Chubb

 

My 11th grade school photo; my hair is dyed the color of grass and you can see my skater image starting to merge with the then-current straight edge / youth crew look.

Indeed, my remaining epiphanies are definitely more social rather than being purely focused on the solitary experience of hearing a single band or record. Once I got a driver’s license in 1995 I was able to get myself from my very, very small hometown to the bigger cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Virginia, where I quickly recognized flyers whose graphic design sensibilities were lifted straight from the flyers in the Minor Threat CD insert. Going to these shows was my first inkling of the real DIY punk subculture, and like a lot of teenagers I spent years exploring different tribal affiliations among factions in the scene. Youth crew revival was really big when I was a teenager so I went to a lot of those shows, but I also liked more straightforward punk like Blanks 77 or the Casualties, was really fascinated with international hardcore (especially given that G.I.S.M. and Gauze were the first two non-Anglophone bands I heard), still had one toe in the commercial punk world of bands like Bad Religion and Propagandhi, and even went to metal shows now and again when I band I thought was legit (like, say, Cryptopsy) would come through town. I’m not sure whether it was that I was omnivorous or just that I couldn’t figure out who I really was, but I listened to a lot of different stuff and I’m the better for it. At some point, though, I stopped going wide and started going deep. This started happening 1998 or 1999, which is not coincidentally just when downloading music became a wide practice. I remember the first piece of music I ever downloaded was an advance rip of Bad Religion’s No Substance a month or two before it came out. At this point I’d never even heard of a CD burner, so I ran a cable from the headphone output of the computer to a cassette recorder and made a tape of it. Looking back that was a real hybrid of old and new technology, but I bet I’m not the only person my age who did it. And as more people got online and started ripping older vinyl and cassettes, downloading the new Bad Religion album quickly progressed to checking out every single band I’d ever heard of but couldn’t acquire CDs or records by, and when you follow that rabbit hole to where it ends eventually you’re listening to some pretty gnarly stuff.

A video clip from the first Cross Laws show, which is also the first show I ever played. I was 26 years old... a lot later than most people start their first band!

The next big signpost is when I moved from being a consumer of punk culture to being a participant in it. This is harder to pinpoint in the timeline, but sometime around 1999 I started writing things and posting them on the internet. While I’ve become more confident in my old age, at this point I was extremely shy, which prevented me (or, more accurately, allowed me) to have almost no friends in the punk scene… and honestly not really too many friends at all. However, once I started throwing things online people would figure out who I was and talk to me at shows about the photos I took or the things I wrote, and with the ice broken I actually started making some friends and becoming acquaintances with members of the local bands who played around Richmond like Municipal Waste and Strike Anywhere. Brandon from Municipal Waste (and later Direct Control, Government Warning, and many others) was the kind of person who would walk right up to you and start talking and then make sure you were properly introduced to everyone in the room that he knew, and his gregariousness gave me the push I needed to let my art school-honed, unwavering dedication to artistic work really cut loose. I started writing more and photographing more, and eventually I started a label and picked up the guitar that had been gathering dust in the corner since I was a teenager. Which pretty much leads me to where I am today.

It’s only started to occur to me recently how deeply I rely upon punk. For whatever reason—whether it’s because I’m a true freak and lifer or just because I was subconsciously following the punk script—I always hated social institutions like churches, schools, sports teams, and cliques. Eventually I joined the group of non-joiners, and now that group—the world of DIY punk and particularly my local scene in Raleigh—are my support network. They’re not just people I bullshit about bands with, but the people I call when I need someone to watch my cat while I’m out of town, the people whose kids I see as nieces and nephews, and the people who I hit up when someone close passes away and I need someone to talk to. My life story has been a long process of giving more and more of myself to punk and the more I give it the more it seems to give back to me.

---

Booji Boys: Sweet Boy 7” (Cruel Noise) We here at Sorry State have been following Booji Boys from the very beginning (as well as all of their many adjacent bands and projects), and it’s been cool to see them grow and refine their sound over their past couple of releases. There aren’t any big stylistic shifts on Sweet Boy… as on their previous records, Booji Boys to me sound like a bunch of people who probably grew up on hardcore and were shaped by its aesthetics, but have given themselves permission to do things like write songs in major keys and add in catchy little Undertones-esque lead parts (they even cover the Undertones here, confirming the influence). As Seth very astutely pointed out, the result is something like a much rawer, more immediate version of Hidden World-era Fucked Up, i.e. that period when they started to venture outside hardcore’s defined lines but hadn’t quite entered the period where they became deliberately psychedelic. In case you’ve heard their earlier releases and are wondering, the “underwater” effect is still on the vocals and it’s still very much a love-it, hate-it, or tolerate-it proposition, but if you’re on board with what the Booji Boys do you definitely won’t be disappointed, as Sweet Boy is more concise and ultimately even more memorable than their killer recent LP.

Agari: demo cassette (No Need for a Logo or Anything) Second cassette release from this band featuring members of Scumraid and Bloodkrow Butcher. As you might guess, this is hardcore, but it has a really interesting and unique vibe. The singer actually sounds quite a lot like the guy from Institute, but the music is rawer, more direct, and more hardcore. You can’t really pin a particular style on it as there are elements of Negative Approach’s oi!-influenced swagger, d-beat, and more intricate USHC in the vein of Minor Threat. However, it’s totally catchy and memorable, made all the more so by perfect, warm production. A real standout demo… I hope this band makes it to vinyl soon!

Aburadako: S/T 7” flexi (Crowmaniax) So, I should probably preface this by noting that I’m something of an Aburadako super-fan… my friend Joel first played me this flexi sometime in the early 00s and I fell completely in love. While I was already familiar with a lot of the burlier Japanese hardcore as well as a few more punk things like the Stalin, the particular mix of weirdness and aggression apparent on this flexi was pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear, and honestly it still is. It’s raging, quirky, and catchy all at once in a way that sounds like no other record I’ve ever heard. I’ve had an original copy of this flexi as well as a rip of the officially-released early discography for some time and I was hoping that this version would be able to replace my flexi in regular rotation as I’m always worried about the sound gradually deteriorating or—worse yet—getting a dent or other problem that would affect play. There is no one I would trust with the task of making a quality bootleg more than the folks at Crowmaniax (the party behind not only the several recent Crow reissues, but a few others like the Clay as well)… both their sound reproduction as well as their presentation of the physical product is 100% on point. That’s the case here as well, as the jacket and center labels replicate the original release almost exactly. My only issue is that they’ve clearly sourced the audio from the official discography CD, which has a very clear and well-mastered sound, but there’s also some audible tape warble / distortion. I’m not sure if the original tapes were damaged or what, but I can’t hear this distortion on my original flexi. In general, the version from this record and the CD sounds better—clearer, louder, and punchier than my flexi—but the presence of that tape noise keeps this from being absolutely perfect. So, what I’ve found myself doing is listening to this bootleg, then putting on my flexi, then imagining a non-existent version that combines the best qualities of both. That’s some real nerdy shit and usually I don’t tend to be such a snobby audiophile, but this is a very important record to me and I just want to hear it in the best light possible. However, if you aren’t such a stickler and you just need a hard copy this will absolutely get the job done, and if you aren’t familiar with this record then get ready to have your face melted. And let’s all pray to the gods that Aburadako’s first 12” EP is next up on the Crowmaniax agenda because I’ve never been able to snag an original of that one.

Negative Insight #3 w/ Skitslickers: GBG 1982 7” (Negative Insight) So, I think it probably makes sense to talk about these two items separately even though they’re sold together and obviously very linked. First up, the 7”: I’ve had several different versions of this recording over the years (bootlegs, semi-official reissues, mp3 rips from various sources), but it’s definitely never hit me with the impact that this reissue has, which is due mostly to the incredible sound. Apparently they were able to make new pressing plates from the mothers used for the original pressing, and as I’ve often noted they just don’t cut records that sound as loud and as thick as this anymore. When the first track, “Warsystem,” starts the guitar alone feels like a punch in the gut even without the backing of the other instruments, and once they come in it’s pretty much all over. The whole thing is only a few minutes long, but it’s one of the purest expressions of nihilistic rage that I have ever heard in my life. Jah bless Negative Insight for allowing me to get this onto my turntable without hocking half of my worldly possessions.

As for the zine, hopefully you’re familiar with the depth of the content and the precision of the execution from the previous two issues. #3 doesn’t slow down at all (even the ads seem designed to look at period as possible), and if you’re a fanatic for Gothenburg punk you’ll be wallowing in this issue like a pig in slop. While there are features on Absurd and a short interview with Anti-Cimex’s drummer, the two centerpieces are the extensive Skitslickers interview and the Anti-Cimex tour diary. The Skitslickers interview sheds a lot of light on a very mysterious band. From what I can gather, it seems like they were less interested in the musical or political sides of punk and more interested in pure nihilism, which makes sense given what ended up on the GBG 1982 EP. Beyond that, there are a ton of interesting little details about the band’s tenure that shed a lot of light on what it was like to be a punk at that place and time. The other big piece is the detailed dissection of Anti-Cimex’s infamous “Chainsaw Tour” of the UK. Each date is recounted in detail from multiple different perspectives (save one date where they couldn’t track down anyone who attended), and if there’s anything you ever wanted to know about that tour I’m guessing that it’s either in this piece or it’s totally lost to the sands of time.

All in all, this record-and-zine package has to be one of the essential must-buys of 2017. So if you can get your hands on one, don’t hesitate.

Neo Neos: The Hammer of Civilization 7” (It’s Trash) Debut vinyl from this Canadian project that has put out a slew of cassettes over the past few months… we still have a bunch of those in stock, so if you’re digging on this I’d encourage you to check out this band’s surprisingly deep discography. Anyway, Neo Neos’ tapes were kind of in the vein of that sloppy, jittery punk that’s been popular with people who follow labels like Total Punk, Neck Chop, and Lumpy, and I think it’s fair to say that if you dig bands like S.B.F., Race Car, Janitor Scum, and the like this will hit your sweet spot as well. It’s not quite as robotic-sounding as Race Car or as Fall-influenced as Janitor Scum… instead, its distinguishing factor is a heaping dose of the nihilism that I associate with Total Punk-type bands like Buck Biloxi and Sick Thoughts. Four tracks, and none of them are duds, so if this is up your alley I’d highly encourage checking it out.

Suck Lords: Demonstration cassette (Edger) Demo cassette from this new band out of Portland. I don’t know much about them, but I can tell you not to expect any of the crust or noise-punk that that city is known for… this is pure hardcore. It is quite fast, though… more in the vein of the Neos, Larm, or Deep Wound (or if you’re looking for a modern reference point they sound an awful lot like Alienation at times). I’m SUPER picky about when bands reach this tempo, as most groups either turn into a sloppy mess or start to sound more like grind / power violence than hardcore, but Suck Lords pretty much nail it perfectly, and if the above-mentioned groups strike your fancy I think it’s safe to say this’ll be right up your alley. Throw in some mega-snotty vocals and a couple of interesting little musical touches (the drummer has a really interesting way of emphasizing un-expected beats) and you have a very intriguing demo. Here’s hoping this band sticks around long enough to make it to the vinyl stages and doesn’t lose their rawness or energy in the process.

All New Arrivals:
The Dream Syndicate: Live at Raji's Complete 12" (Run Out Groove)
Fifteen: Buzz 12" (Real Gone)
Monster Magnet: Spine of God 12" (Napalm)
Monster Magnet: Tab 12" (Napalm)
The Slits: Return of the Giant Slits 12" (Real Gone)
The War on Drugs: A Deeper Understanding 12" (Atlantic)
Forced Order: One Last Prayer 12" (Triple B)
Self Defense Family: Wounded Masculinity 12" (Triple B)
Neil Young: Hitchhiker 12" (Reprise)
The National: Sleep Well Beast 12" (4AD)
Zola Jesus: The Spoils 12" (Sacred Bones)
Zola Jesus: Okovi 12" (Sacred Bones)
Hot Water Music: Light It Up 12" (Rise)
Burn: Do or Die 12" (Deathwish)
Olho Seco: Botas, Fuzis, Capacetes 7" (Nada Nada Discos)
Svart Städhjälp: Avveckla Dig Själv 7" (Halvfigur)
Napalm Raid: Wheel of War 12" (Rust and Machine)
Sonic Order: S/T 7" (Doom Town)
Death from Above 1979: Outrage! Is Now 12" (Warner Bros)
Neo Neos: The Hammer of Civilization 7" (It's Trash)
Public Eye: Relaxing Favorites 12" (Best Before)
Unix: demo cassette (Best Before)
Sore Points: Don't Want To 7" (Hosehead)
White Pigs: Hardcore Years 1983-1985 12" (Vomitopunkrock)
ISS: Endless Pussyfooting 12" (Erste Theke Tontraeger)
Booji Boys: Sweet Boy 7" (Cruel Noise)
Joey Cape: One Week Record 12" (Fat Wreck)
Paradise Lost: Medusa 12" (Nuclear Blast)
Paradise Lost: One Second 12" (Nuclear Blast)
Barcelona: Un Último Ultrasonido Nació Y Murió En Barcelona 12" (La Vida Es Un Mus)
Rainer Maria: S/T 12" (Polyvinyl)
Reptoides: Nueva Especie 7" (World Gone Mad)
Autopsy: Fiend for Blood 12" (Peaceville)
Cannabis Corpse: Left Hand Pass 12" (Season of Mist)
Exterminator: Total Extermination 12" (Greyhaze)
Crucifix: Dehumanization 12" (Euro Import)
Blitz: The Other Side of... 12" (Vomitopunkrock)
Crux: War 12" (Vomitopunkrock)
GISM: Detestation 12" (Euro Import)
The Exploited: Punks Not Dead 12" (Vomitopunkrock)
Morbid: Disgusting Semla 12" (Die 669)
The Execute: The Antagonistic Shadow 12" (Harto De Toto)
Aburadako: S/T 7" (Crowmaniax)
Mr. Epp: Of Course I'm Happy, Why? 7" (Full Contact)
Negative Insight #1 w/Varukers: Blood Money 7" (Negative Insight)
Negative Insight #2 w/Chaos UK: Studio Outtakes 81-83 7" (Negative Insight)
Negative Insight #3 w/Shitlickers 7" (Negative Insight)
UVTV: Go Away 7" (Emotional Response)
Natterers: Toxic Care Cassette (Emotional Response)
Bad Daddies: Over 30 Singles 12" (Emotional Response)
Enisum: Seasons of Desolation 12" (Avantgarde)
Artillery: Fear of Tomorrow 12" (Wax Maniax)
Abbath: S/T 12" (Season of Mist)
Darkthrone: Dark Thrones and Black Flags 12" (Peaceville)
Wode: Servants of the Counter Cosmos 12" (Avantgarde)

Restocks:
Bad Posture: C/S 12" (Mono)
Last Rights: S/T 7" (Taang!)
Suss Cunts: S/T 7" (Emotional Response)