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What’s up Sorry Staters?

I must say, I’m feeling pretty damn excited as I’m sitting down to write for the newsletter this week. Amongst all the bad news I feel like I’m bombarded with on a day-to-day basis, some good news couldn’t hurt. Just this morning, Public Acid’s string of shows that we’ll be playing in Finland in June got announced. All 3 shows are with the mighty Kriegshög. Incredible. And it turns out that Kohti Tuhoa is playing all 3 dates with us as well. Last year, when Scarecrow played with Kohti Tuhoa in Helsinki they absolutely destroyed. Starting to get that buzz of eagerness and anticipation. Also, the reality that all this crazy traveling I’ll be doing is on the horizon has started to sink in. I had better be ready.

Here on the home front in Raleigh though, I want to reiterate about a couple gigs coming up in April. Just a little over a week away, Paprika from NOLA, along with Homemade Speed from VA and Scarecrow, are playing the Pour House on April 2nd. Then a few weeks later, Jail from Detroit are playing with Paranoid Maniac and Scarecrow (once again) at Neptunes on April 24th. If you’re local to the Raleigh area, don’t miss those!

For my staff pick, I realize that Daniel already made this X2000 LP record of the week in the previous newsletter. But now that I’ve had proper time to digest this new LP entitled Gótico Tropical – Firstly, I don’t know why the hell I waited around to give it a listen; secondly, it absolutely RIPS. Hopefully I won’t be just repeating what Daniel already had to say about this record, and instead, only give you further reason to check it out.

At first glance, one might expect X2000 to come from a Spanish-speaking country. But it turns out the band based out of Gothernburg, Sweden and the singer is a transplant from Colombia. On X2000’s bandcamp, there’s a brief statement about the record that reads: “Between the sultry tropics and the rural darkness of Colombia, there live beings that not even Dracula himself dares to pay a visit.” Quite an ominous synopsis to set the scene for the atmosphere this record conjures. I don’t know, man. X2000 just creates a type of hardcore that I love, where it’s so dark and left of center, that there really is this sense of horror and dread. The band’s delivery has this unhinged feeling of fear and psychosis. The singer makes his entrance on several songs with bouts of maniacal laughter. The vocal performances will often begin with animalistic grunts and powerful screams, but then shift to a feeling more like cries of desperation. It’s intense, dude.

For me, the star of the show is the guitar player. I assume the guitar is drenched in chorus. Either that, or the guitar player recorded several layers of riffs that are severely out of tune with one another. The discomfort and eeriness of the guitar tone makes the band feel even more alien and otherworldly. Lots of ringing open strings, and notes within the chords that are like harmony with brief moments of beauty, but often weaved in along with what sounds as if the guitar is creating dissonant ugliness on purpose. The guitar and bass will often diverge and play notes completely different from one another. Along with that, the deceptively simple pulse of the “1-2-1-2” on the drums will often have unexpected, and rather odd time changes. This unsteadiness and chaos of the music come across less like the band is throwing ideas at the wall, and rather like they have the structures intelligently, yet connivingly under control. Which gives the listener an unsettling sensation like you can’t get a grasp on what’s happening. You’re wrapped around their finger, as if the tendrils of your muscles are hanging like a marionette from Freddy’s claw before leaping to your death… Nightmare On Elm Street 3, anyone?

Perhaps that’s a rather abstract way to describe this record. Personally, I think it’s really cool and feels fresh. I gather the impression that there’s a layer of conception deeper than what lies on the surface with this band. I would love to see this band play—I have a hunch they might be really great live. Check out X2000 if your nap underneath the rock has gone on for too long!

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

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

I’ve had the Bad Brains on my mind lately. A few weeks ago I picked up a copy of Black Dots at Vinyl Conflict (I bought this on CD when it came out and never owned it on vinyl) so I’d been listening to that a bunch, and then the other night when I was scrolling YouTube I came across this live set from 1987:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-wgzqTKFiE

I don’t know what I expected, but as the band launches into the intro from the I Against I album and the camera lands on HR, stalking the stage and conducting the band with his arms, I saw this glimmer in HR’s eyes and I was just like “oh shit, this is about to pop off.” From there, they segue into “I,” and when HR starts to sing… holy shit, he is on fire.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched the footage of the Bad Brains playing at CBGB in 1982… it’s up there with Die Kreuzen’s public access footage as one of the most electrifying punk performances ever caught on video. But it’s such a different event than this Florida show. Not that it’s possible to overshadow the band’s incredible charisma, but the crowd is so into it at CBGB—losing their shit from the very first note—that they’re as much a part of the experience as the band in the video. You’re watching a great band and an audience who know their witnessing greatness and are acting accordingly, creating this feedback loop that propels the CBGB set to incomparable heights. The Florida set couldn’t be more different. The stage is huge; the sound isn’t that great; the setting is bizarre, and the crowd is mostly normies separated from the band by a gigantic barricade. The Bad Brains aren’t feeding off the audience here; they are their own power source.

I know some people consider I Against I the Bad Brains’ finest moment, but to be honest it’s never totally clicked with me. I remember a few months ago I was working the counter at the store while Jeff was in the back and I played a used copy we had in stock. The store was pretty quiet, so I played it loud and listened fairly closely. I hadn’t listened to I Against I in years, and I thought this might be my moment of epiphany, but no dice. A lot of my issue is with Ron St. Germain’s production, which sounds so dated to me… something about the guitar tone reminds me of a TV commercial… it’s just so slick and like corporate sounding. The irony there is that, aside from the Omega Sessions (which is thee greatest Bad Brains studio recording in my humble opinion), Ron St. Germain probably did a better job of capturing the Bad Brains on tape than any of the other producers they worked with. But still, watching this footage from Florida shows he didn’t even get close.

The version of “House of Suffering” on the Florida set in particular annihilates what they released on I Against I. The band’s energy level is a notch higher, and HR’s vocal performance is light years beyond what he does on the album. This live version has so much passion and character, and when you listen to the album version next to it, the vocals sound comparatively flat and lifeless. Beyond that, the song just clicks in a way the album version doesn’t, its main melody landing cleanly and directly like a perfectly placed body shot. The song never really stuck out to me on the album, but here it is a revelation.

After “House of Suffering,” they do a reggae medley of “Day Tripper” by the Beatles into “She’s a Rainbow” by the Rolling Stones (similar to what they do on The Youth Are Getting Restless live album recorded that same year). This should be totally cheesy, but somehow it’s not… I love the way Daryl starts the song playing the “Day Tripper” riff on the bass… I couldn’t place the melody until HR gets to the chorus. I imagine the Bad Brains must have developed this version for occasions just such as this, when they were playing for an audience full of spring breakers. I love the way HR gets lost in the song and improvises on the lyrics and melody. It feels like I’m watching genius at work.

Coincidentally, I started reading Finding Joseph I, Howie Abrams’ biography of HR, a few days ago (I’m about halfway through the book as I write). Abrams’ book charts HR’s ascent and descent better than anything else I’ve read or seen (including the Bad Brains documentary, which is very good), so I have a clearer sense of what version of HR I am watching in 1987. While people uniformly describe HR as smart, charismatic, and brilliant in his early years, signs of instability and darkness started showing in his behavior by 1982. By 1989, it seems like that first version of HR had all but disappeared. In 1987, though, you get a kind of peak. The band still has all of their musical chops, but they’ve been playing together for a full decade and have developed a level of flexibility that matches their power. That’s true of HR as well. The early performances can seem manic, bordering on out of control. The HR we see here is supremely controlled, but just as powerful. In 1982, he’s a machine gun spraying bullets, but in 1987 he’s able to wield the massive weapon that is his talent as if it were as compact and light as a pistol.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll stare at this video slack-jawed until the very last second, when HR’s perfectly timed backflip lands right on the closing beat of “At the Movies.” Fucking hell.

Putkipommi: Tuhottu Tulevaisuus 7” (Nobody 99 Records) Putkipommi (Finnish for “pipe bomb”) is a young band from Oulu, Finland. Last year when Scarecrow toured Scandinavia, Putkipommi played our show in Turku and blew us away. Who were these teenagers decked out in punk gear playing stripped-down songs that so closely recalled the early recordings of Finland’s first wave of great hardcore bands? Usman was particularly obsessed, keeping in touch with the band and ensuring that when they released their first vinyl, copies made their way to Sorry State. Tuhottu Tulevaisuus (“Destroyed Future”) is here now, and it’s a 10-song distillation of timeless punk anger and energy. I think one thing that everyone in Scarecrow really responded to about Putkipommi is that their music doesn’t sound contrived; rather than emulating someone else’s sound, they’re tapping into something real and eternal. The distinctive sounds and rhythms of the Finnish language mean that any band playing raw, Discharge-inspired hardcore is going to sound at least a little like Kaaos and Riistetyt, but Putkipommi sounds just as much like classic Swedish d-beat like Shitlickers. That’s particularly true of the drums, which are driving and groovy rather than jagged and manic. The riffs are simple and arrangements are trimmed to the bone, so when Putkipommi does something slightly unexpected—like the way the rhythm breaks in the chorus to “Elämä” or how the drums and vocals lock together on “Pyhä Sota”—it really stands out, and there are just enough of these moments on the EP to keep things fresh while ensuring the sound stays straightforward and minimal. Those of us with a particular soft spot for Finnish hardcore will especially love the gang choruses on songs like “Massamurha” and “Politikka,” when Putkipommi sounds most like their country’s forbears, but anyone who has been entranced by young punk bands like the Teen Idles or the Necros is likely to fall under their spell of these honest-to-god teenagers and their 10-song hardcore punk 7”.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. It’s starting to really feel like spring here in Raleigh: 70 degree weather, thunderstorms in the middle of the day, flowers blooming… it’s been nice being reminded how nice spring is. I forget how rejuvenating spring can feel, and I find myself listening to music that matches the feeling. Today I’m writing about another compilation, nothing fancy or special really, pretty run of the mill, Super Girls. While this may not be the most exciting record, it’s a great example of some cheap heat to me with a nice copy running you probably about $10-15. My copy even still has a cool $1 sticker from “Papa Jazz.” With 3 discs, you definitely are getting your money’s worth. This compilation features all the heavy hitters of girl groups and solo acts from the 60s: The Supremes, The Shangri-Las, The Dixie Cups, The Chiffons, Brenda Lee, and a lot more. To me, this is a perfect playlist for some cheery spring music. How can you listen to Lollipop and not have visions of sunshine and happiness dancing around your head? I’ve also found some tracks on here that I wasn’t as familiar with that take turns cycling which one is stuck in my head. Currently, it’s the song Hello Stranger by Barbara Lewis. It just has this real dreamy sound to it with the organ and The Dells providing some soothing background vocals. Other tracks I’ve really enjoyed on here are I’m Into Something Good, Don’t Say Nothin’ (Bad About My Baby), Heatwave, and Don’t Hang Up. The type of music that makes you wanna share a snow cone with the person you love on a hot, sunny day.

Hello and thanks for reading. I was out of town last week, so I haven’t really had any time to listen to records since my last staff pick. When I returned home, there was a parcel waiting for me from a friend in Finland that I have been really looking forward to. There were various tapes and records inside (including some stuff for Sorry State) that has me excited as hell, but I will save that for next week. Instead, I am going to write about this week’s Hardcore Knockouts - namely ERNST AND THE EDSHOLM REBELS.

EXISTENZ has appeared in two matches now and they lost both times. To me that’s insane. I think that record is in the top 25 sickest Swedish hardcore 7”s. Maybe they are too obscure or something? Last time they were paired with ARROGANTA AGITATORER. Both bands were originally from Helsinborg. ARROGANTA AGITATORER seems obscure as hell to me, but that 7” has been reissued, I guess. EXISTENZ’s 12” has been reissued and I have always wondered why they haven’t done the 7”, especially since they are active again!!

Now, when I say their 7” is in my top 20 Swedish hardcore 7”s, E.A.T.E.R.’s Doomsday Troops 7” is also without a doubt on that list. Yes, this record is raw and fast (maybe a bit on the sloppy side at times, haha), but I think the choruses are really what make this record stand out so much. Whether it’s the gang vocals or catchy guitar riffs, I find the songs stuck in my head often. If you haven’t heard this record, definitely check it out.

While E.A.T.E.R. originally appeared on Really Fast Vol. 1, my introduction to them was when Doomsday Troops was reissued. If you clicked that link I just dropped to check out the EP for the first time, or if you don’t already have one of these reissues, you need one. It’s funny, I always thought Havoc released this, but Havoc is only credited for distribution. Ten bucks says Felix handled all the manufacturing and/or keeps it in print, haha. In Havoc Records tradition, this reissue is super nice. The paper is a lot nicer than the original actually, and it comes with a repro of the original booklet.

The same year that record was reissued, Hardcore Survives released a 7” entitled Abort The System, which included four unreleased songs from the 80s. I actually had no idea that Distortion had also released a compilation a few years before that, which included all the tracks from Abort The System and Doomsday Troops. It didn’t just include those songs, but it also included their split tape tracks and some unreleased songs. One of those unreleased songs is “Death Wish,” which seems to be from the same session as Abort The System. I don’t want to spend too much time explaining all the different versions of songs, but between that compilation and E.A.T.E.R’s bandcamp it’s amazing all the killer shit you can hear. I read they had another session besides Abort The System that was never released, and you can actually find some of these songs on their bandcamp as well.

Let me back up a little bit, though. If you don’t know E.A.T.E.R. outside these 7”s, I would suggest checking out their split with INCHARGE. While the style is a bit more primitive, you can still hear some serious melodic tendencies here and there as well. It’s killer. E.A.T.E.R. was from a small town called Grums, and I think INCHARGE were like the only other band from there. I tried to find a link to drop for the INCHARGE side of the split, but I could not find any that were worthwhile to share. Two of E.A.T.E.R’s tracks from this tape were also used on Really Fast Vol. 1. On that Distortion compilation I mentioned, they noted those two songs were from an earlier session, but I think that is incorrectly credited and that entire tape was from 1983. Micke Blomqvist recorded both bands at his studio Kloakens A.A.S. I think he recorded all the E.A.T.E.R. stuff actually, but I am not sure about some of these demo recordings. I’ve mentioned Micke Blomqvist time and time again, and that will probably never stop cos this guy deserves so much credit. If you don’t know, Micke Blomqvist was in ASTA KASK and operated a recording studio where he recorded tons of bands like ANTI CIMEX, AVSKUM, ASOCIAL, SVART PARAD, CRUDE SS, NYX NEGATIV, and RÖVSVETT.

Alright anyway, so I mentioned I had read about an unreleased session from the 80s. Well really, I had read about two unreleased EPs from the 80s and I am pretty sure Abort The System is one of them. I found this unreleased demo tape on YouTube, but the style of playing has got me wondering when this was recorded. All the song titles are also in Swedish and that makes me think. You can only find their songs in Swedish on their split tape that came before the EPs. I mentioned earlier you can find some unreleased songs E.A.T.E.R’s bandcamp page, and these “demo tape” songs were some of them. I still included that YouTube link earlier cos oddly they excluded one from their bandcamp.

There are many odd but cool things about their bandcamp, haha, namely their “alternate” version of the Distortion compilation they have up there. It’s like an entirely different track listing. They even added a “smurf” version of a track, where it’s just sped up like hell, haha what the fuck? They also drop another unreleased song, this time “Slakt.” I can’t tell for the life of me what session it’s from, but it’s fucking sick to hear. It sounds a lot like ASTA KASK. They’ve also added some rehearsal recordings that kinda suck, alongside what sounds like old 80s live recordings that are pretty cool. There is also another version of a song from their split with INCHARGE. That was cool to hear, but the SUPER cool thing to hear was the demo recordings of Doomsday Troops. If you haven’t heard this stuff and you love that EP like me, I’d suggest checking it out immediately! Alright, I should get going. Thanks for reading.

Hey everyone! Thanks for clicking on our newsletter. Hopefully, a few minutes reading about cool shnazz will distract from the doom scrolling. It’s been another bonkers week with more extreme weather events, economic upheaval and horrible hateful actions from the current regime here in the U.S. Thank God for music. We need it more than ever.

Whilst working with Jeff last week at the store we were listening to a bunch of different things and at some point, via YouTube suggestions, we found ourselves playing a few tracks by Californian garage band Public Nuisance. At first Jeff thought I was playing more from my favorite Arizonans, The Resonars, who totally nail that sixties sound. He wasn’t wrong in thinking that the recordings had a more modern feel to them, however Public Nuisance was indeed a sixties band and the tracks we were playing were recorded in the winter of 1968 and January 1969. They do sound great, full and powerful and loud and rocking. What’s even more astounding is that these tracks remained unreleased and virtually unheard until the early 00s. There have been lots of obscure records rediscovered over the years and lots of unreleased recordings such as acetates have had a second chance to reach appreciative ears, but there probably hasn’t been a group that had so much strong material as these guys, and had it remain unreleased for decades. The reason is a bit of a story, which is worth hearing, but more importantly for lovers of late sixties garage and psych. This is one set of tunes you need to hear.

Public Nuisance was from Sacramento, California and shared a similar story to countless other garage bands. They began as high school friends who, just like everyone else, got swept up by the British Invasion and Surf music. They were more Anglophile than most, and first started playing gigs as The Jaguars and mixed in more obscure British bands’ material into their sets. They were big Pretty Things fans. Throughout 1964 and 1965, they would play the typical teen dances and fairs up and down the valley, honing their craft. In early 1966, an opportunity to record came up and they cut two songs at Ikon in Sacramento and a 45 was issued under the new name of Moss & The Rocks. It’s a decent but typical teen folk rocker single and didn’t make much of an impact. Six months later, the band, bankrolled by one of their parents, travelled to Gold Star Studios in Hollywood and re-recorded the same two songs. They were released on the Chattahoochee label, but again failed to have much of an impact.

Soon after that, in the fall of 1966, the guys decided to change their name to Public Nuisance and continue in a heavier direction. Their image also changed along with the heavier sound, and they began appearing all in black with the hair getting longer on at least two of them.

The area had quite a few notable bands they would share stages with. The New Breed, Oxford Circle and Kak were locals and part of the scene, and Public Nuisance held their own alongside those groups besides opening for touring national acts like The Doors, who Public Nuisance opened for in July 1967 at the State Fairgrounds and by all accounts blew the headliners of the stage. Other big names the band opened for were Buffalo Springfield and Sonny & Cher, plus a set at the Fillmore East with The Grateful Dead on the same bill.

During the fall of 1967, the group made three trips to San Francisco where they recorded a bunch of tracks that supposedly had them sounding like a cross between The Seeds and The Pretty Things. Unfortunately, those tapes have been missing almost from the time they were made, and very few can testify to the contents of them, but judging by what was to come a year later it seems more than likely that they might be good.

Meanwhile, a friend of theirs, Gary Shiro, along with DJ Johnny Hyde, had a record label called World United that had released records from Oxford Circle and The New Breed. That label folded, but Shiro got The New Breed signed to famous producer Terry Melcher’s new label called Equinox, and it was through these connections that Public Nuisance were given the chance to record demos for Melcher’s consideration. Thus, in September and October 1968, the group travelled to Sound Recorders in Hollywood for two sessions. Melcher liked what they recorded and signed them in November. The band (now down to a trio) recorded a dozen new songs during December of that year and continued with sessions in January 1969. As strong as the demos are, it’s a testament to the band and their ambitions that they so quickly had even better fresh songs for what was intended as their debut album. Aided by engineer Eirik Wangberg, who really made them sound big and full and seasoned, the record was mixed and mastered and ready for release.

Here’s where the story comes to an abrupt halt. In August, the Manson murders took place. Sharon Tate and her guests were staying in a house that belonged to Terry Melcher. He had been Manson’s intended target, the lunatic being angry that Melcher hadn’t come through with a supposed record deal for Manson. Naturally, Melcher was scared shitless and went into hiding and along with that went all the projects and business that he was involved with. So, no more Equinox and no more record deal and album release for Public Nuisance. The guys soldiered on totally dejected for the rest of 1969 with a couple of different rhythm guitarists, but finally packed it in as the new decade dawned.

That might have been the end of their story and the world might not have heard them had it not been for the championing done by Joey D at Frantic Records, who for years was shouting from the rooftops about how great Public Nuisance was. It was through his efforts, along with other key names in the sixties garage psych world such as Alec Palao and the band themselves, that a super double album set titled Gotta Survive was released in 2002. The CD was out on Frantic, and the vinyl version was released via Shadoks Music, the fine German label that specialized in rare psychedelic reissues. That double vinyl release also came with a bonus 7” E.P. with the four Moss & The Rocks cuts.

At the time of this rediscovery of Public Nuisance, I was working at Rockit Scientist in New York City and can vouch that everyone was going nuts when they heard the music. We sold loads of the CD and vinyl version. It’s justified. The unreleased album and the previous demos are all so good. Banger after banger. It’s hard to pick a favorite. I know I was blown away. So too was Jack White, who would go on to reissue a version of the intended album on his Third Man label ten years later in 2012.

I’m the worst at trying to describe music and how it sounds, but also subscribe to the opinion that everyone should just listen and discover for themselves. You don’t need some journo telling you when to appreciate a guitar riff or drum roll or whatever. Suffice to say, there’s plenty to love and enjoy about Public Nuisance. If you dig sixties garage with an Anglophile influence, then these guys should be right up your street. Maybe you have been turned on to them already, but it has been twenty-plus years since the first rediscovery, so perhaps there are some of you out there not aware of them that will appreciate the steer. Either way, go check them out. Here’s a YouTube link to play the full CD release.

For the record, my favorite Public Nuisance songs are Gotta Survive, Love Is A Feeling, Small Faces and America.

Okay, deadline approaching. Happy listening everyone.

Sláinte – Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

My energy feels a little low this week. I’m just gonna jump right into my staff pick and keep it brief:

I had no plan for what to write about for this week’s newsletter. These cassettes just arrived today. 3 volumes of mixtapes compiling French post-punk and new wave, each tape a different span of years. It’s funny with mixtapes like this, because as the listener, if you’re previously unfamiliar with the material, you’re kinda diving in blind. Each of these tapes has fairly minimal packaging, and while there’s a tracklisting with the various artists, there’s no album artwork or liner notes explaining where these recordings came from. I popped in the first tape, which spans 1980-1983. Within 10 seconds of the first song, I already knew I was going to enjoy it. The first song “Unisex” was really good. But then the following track “Electro-Menager” by Edith Nylon was even better. As I continued letting the songs wash over me track by track, there was a lot to take in. My general feeling, at least from this first compilation tape, is that a lot of these bands must have been on major record labels. The production on most of these songs sounds incredibly crisp and hi-fidelity. No lo-fi bedroom avant-garde noise punk, as far as I can tell. Not yet, anyway. Hyper melodic, often quirky, great lush synthesizer sounds, catchy hooky vocals… So yeah, I’m just loving it. Who knew? I love those Mexican Tecno Pop compilations on Dark Entries, and to me, these cassettes are of comparable quality and could use a vinyl treatment as well. Who knows if that will happen. Also, whoever made these tapes did an excellent job with sequencing of songs when compiling these bands. For me, the compilation flowed really well and kept me interested. I’ve only listened to the first cassette so far, but I’m curious what the following volumes spanning from 1984 all the way through to 1989 hold in store.

That’s all I’ve got. Check these out!

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

X2000: Gótico Tropical 12” (Symphony of Destruction Records) France’s Symphony of Destruction brings us the debut full-length from this Swedish hardcore band fronted by a Colombian… a real international cooperative effort. Like so many other recent hardcore bands featuring Colombians (both resident and expatriate), X2000 seems to have a direct line to levels of passion and intensity that elude most bands. The snarling vocals and bruising tupa-tupa drumbeats will grab your leather jacket by the lapels and toss you right into the pit, but for me the intricately melodic lead guitar is the star of the show. The guitarist’s sound is bathed in chorus and has a strong death rock flavor, but it’s not so much the sound as the way the guitarist plays, weaving webs of sinewy melody through the rhythm section’s blunt attack. I love moments like the breakdown in “El Linaje” and the intro for “Fragmentar El Futuro” where the lead guitar really shines, but it’s not the only trick in the X2000’s playbook. “Casa Tomada” finds the band bringing down their intensity just a hair to spotlight the vocals, which reach a crescendo of demonic slather on this track. Gótico Tropical has it all… a great, original sound, powerful songwriting, and a fierce and punk as fuck performance.

Hello Sorry Staters! The weather has been beautiful and here in North Carolina. The pollen is starting to come out in full force! It’s a win-win, really; allergies bring beautiful flowers and the birth of my favorite time of the year, spring! This week I haven’t been listening to too much music just because life can be busy like that sometimes. I have, however, started digging into more Japanese music, specifically dream pop/shoegaze.

One band that came up over and over while reading blogs and reviews is “my dead girlfriend” (not to be confused with the American manga of the same name). The band formed in 2005, releasing a couple of demos before compiling them on a CD in 2007 called 6 songs from the happy valley. Then in the next year they released sweet days and her last kiss. This was a collaboration album between my dead girlfriend and another Japanese shoegaze band called ShoujoSkip.

Over the next few years, it seems like they really tightened up their sound and explored new soundscapes by adding some synth and back-and-forth vocals between Ishikawa and Ideta, really honing in on the “noise-pop” aspect of their sound. My dead girlfriend’s most popular album and one that made it overseas to the western world is Hades (The Nine Stages Of Change At The Deceased Remains).

This album is just amazing and could stand up to any more popular shoegaze band in the past decade. It’s lofi shoegaze at its best without losing the authentic feel from the first few records. I hope everyone that is into shoegaze/dream-pop will check this out and let me know what you think! Anyway, until next week! Later Nerds!

Hello and thanks for reading. This week I wanted to write about these Brazilian hardcore classics. I don’t know a lot of Brazilian bands, but I feel like OLHO SECO is one of the most popular hardcore bands that I do know, alongside RATOS DE PORÃO. Botas, Fuzis, Capacetes was OLHO SECO’s debut 7”, and it has been reissued a few times since it originally came out in 1983. This 7” has got that track “Nada,” and I feel like that song is the epitome of Brazilian hardcore, haha. Maybe that is super ignorant of me, but I feel like everyone and their mother knows that song. I have this split 12” on New Face where those songs are compiled alongside their s/t 7” and some live tracks. Oddly enough, I was just interviewing a band and one of the members mentioned this Brazilian band who I had never heard of, FOGO CRUZADO. I discovered after that OLHO SECO has a split 12” with them that came out in the early 90s. It looks like the OLHO SECO tracks are the same on both splits and they also used the cover of Botas, Fuzis, Capacetes on both splits too. When I saw that, it made me think the tracks from the first 7” and the studio tracks from side A of the s/t 7” were from the same session. I am not sure about that, but it sounds like it when you hear it all back-to-back on the compilation.

I remember how I first heard RATOS DE PORÃO, but I can’t remember who introduced me to OLHO SECO. I remember that I bought this Grito Suburbano compilation 12” cos it had OLHO SECO on it, and that’s what introduced me to INOCENTES. It also introduced me to CÓLERA. Their tracks might be my favorite on that record. The guitar tone is nuts. It’s so fuzzy it will have you convinced there is dust on your needle, haha. On this compilation, it sounds like INOCENTES might be influenced by RAMONES more than DISCHARGE. They give you a taste of a some hardcore though. Two of their four tracks go pretty hard, while the other two sound like IGGY POP or some shit. Now when it comes to their 7” Miséria E Fome – that’s my shit right there. It sounds like they took influence from RATOS DE PORÃO or DISCHARGE and it’s so damn good. I feel like this was the sweet spot for the band. After this, it’s like these other influences took over and you can’t hear hardcore in there so much anymore. It’s a cool LP, but it does not rage like the 7” to me. It kinda reminds me of some So-Cal punk shit, actually.

Again, I don’t know anything about Brazilian punk/hardcore. I don’t know if INOCENTES had line-up changes and that resulted in the sound changing as well. But I read something significant about their songs on Miséria E Fome, though. They actually recorded enough for a 12”, but due to government censorship they were not able to release them all. They recorded eleven songs, but apparently due to their strong protest lyrics they were only allowed to release the first four songs. Luckily, that entire session was finally released in the late 80s so we can hear it all today. It’s a shame they had to trim it down, cos the entire session is so damn good!

I am super happy Morrer Discos / Sub Discos has put these two records back in print, especially cos the originals are hard (AND expensive) to come by. A few months ago someone listed a copy of Miséria E Fome for sale on Discogs. It was priced a little high, but they were located in the USA. I actually bought another record off the seller, but I didn’t pull the trigger on the INOCENTES cos of the price. When I saw we had these reissues in stock and how nicely they were done, I started itching real bad for that OG copy, haha. Well, the seller had “make an offer” on the record – so I decided I would offer fifteen bucks less, and if they declined it, I would buy it anyways. So, I made the offer and less than a half hour later I get an email saying my offer was declined. I was like ah shit, oh well it’s just $15 more and I headed back over to the Discogs page. But the listing was no longer there. I was like, “Oh fuck man, maybe they realized they already sold it? Shit.” Or my offer pissed them off? I don’t know, it could be anything. It was hard not to wonder and hope they’d re-list it later. I decided I would check again later and then try to forget about it. So, later that day I check and still no luck. But this time I noticed the sales history changed..it no longer said the last sale was a few years ago, it said it sold that very day—for that original listing price I saw. Are you fucking kidding me???! That was a hard one to get over. I should have just coughed up that extra dough. Never forget: “I don’t regret a single record that I have bought; I regret the ones I did not buy!”