News

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Man, how long has it been since the last time we sent you fine folks a newsletter? 3 weeks or something? Sorry to deprive you Sorry State readers for so long! I guess Scarecrow’s been outta town a bunch. And also, Daniel’s been busy taking all these flights to places like Denver purely for pleasure, no business ventures whatsoever. Hehe. I want to report any fresh personal updates, but at this moment I’m having a hard time wrapping my brain around what the hell has even happened since the last time I checked in…

I think since the last newsletter, Scarecrow made our way to and from Pittsburgh for Skull Fest. Had a pretty damn good time, I must say. My main highlight would be seeing Meanwhile live for the first time. They threw the fuck down, and all the punks ‘n crusties went nuts. Always good to see old friends as well. Thanks again Krystyna for having us. (I have no idea if she reads this or not haha.)

I had a birthday pass by since we last spoke. Another trip ‘round the sun, as they say. Don’t quite feel like an old man yet, but yeesh. Lifer status incoming. I did lock down a pretty significant birthday gift for myself. Nice 7 inch-size platter with some bricks on it, if ya know what I’m sayin’. I’m stoked.

There are some local gigs in Raleigh coming up I want to mention. Hopefully by next newsletter I’ll have flyers made. Firstly, Ejaculators are… coming (oof, didn’t think about that as I wrote it), and I’m stoked for those KBD-style synth-laden punks to debaucherously throw down in Raleigh. That show is October 20th at RUMAH along with Meat House and DE()T. Then on November 10th, BLOODSTAINS are playing at Kings. Meat House is doing a run of East Coast dates with them as well. Hopefully those start getting publicly announced soon. The gig on November 10th is Bloodstains with Shaved Ape, Meat House and Reckoning Force. Get HYPED.

We’ve had a smattering of new inventory arrive at the shop lately. I decided to choose a record for my staff pick that I had little-to-no prior knowledge about. This Indikator B 7” on Doom Town Records has really grabbed my interest. I’m pretty sure we stocked a tape by this band a couple years ago. I’m pretty sure the band is from Croatia? Someone can correct me on that if I’ve been misinformed. I don’t know why, perhaps because of that Koridor record we also got from Doom Town, but I half expected Indikator B to sound like post-punk. It’s not at ALL. This 7” is like a raging hardcore record. And when I say it sounds 80s, it like—REALLY—sounds old. Something about the dark, yet thick, warm sounding recording really captures a vintage feel and kinda cold, tense atmosphere.

I’m not even sure exactly what to compare the sound of the music to. The label description says something like “Indikator B carries on the classic sound of Yugo-punk tradition” or whatever. I’ll be honest and say that I need to be more thoroughly educated about 80s punk and hardcore from this region of the world. I guess one band I know from that general region is UBR, and I think musically that’s a pretty good jumping off point for describing Indikator B’s style. And even though UBR is from Slovenia and not Croatia, I swear there is one riff that sounds like Indikator B totally lifted from one of the tracks on the UBR 7”. Hey, ain’t complaining. But then, in terms of the feeling of darkness, I guess I do detect a bit of Midwest US hardcore sensibility like the dissonance of Mecht Mensch or something.

The pace of most of the songs is that kinda bouncy, what I often call “in-between” speed of playing. Like, super groovy, mid-fast, almost UK82 speed with thick, pounding drums keeping that rhythm in the pocket. One thing that stands out to me is that even compared to the band’s detectable influences, the vocals are NOT just grunting or screaming. The singer is actually carrying a melody most of the time, which to me is a big selling point of the band’s songwriting. Of course, I have no idea what the singer dude is saying in the lyrics, but there’s a few of these unexpectedly catchy sing-along moments with some “AH-AH-AH’s”. It’s killer.

Anyway, the inspiration for me to continue advocating for this Indikator B has run dry, so I’ll just leave it there. But I would really hate for this record to fly under the radar because people aren’t paying attention. It’s a great record. I highly recommend checking it out.

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

‘Til next week (uuuh right?),

-Jeff

The Damned: The Black Album LP (Chiswick, 1980)

Lately I’ve been trying to shake up the way I listen to music on my own time (i.e. off the Sorry State clock). I write most of the content for the Sorry State newsletter—including the descriptions for the Record of the Week and each week’s Featured Releases—and doing that work for so many years has left its mark on how I listen to music. I have a philosophy about how I approach these pieces of writing. They’re not record reviews; instead, I always refer to them as descriptions. This distinction reflects a difference of intent. I’m not trying to tell you whether the record is good or bad (after all, I’m trying to sell these fuckin’ things). Instead, I try to give you context and information to help you figure out whether you might be interested in a record. Often my descriptions end with if/then statements that try to connect a release with its audience: “if you like classic power violence, then check this out;” “if you like post-punk but think it’s gotten kind of stale, listen to this band because they make it sound fresh again.” An essential part of this practice is putting my own tastes and preferences aside and getting into the head of a band’s intended listener. I’m always asking myself the question, “who is the audience for this record and what does that audience like about it?”

This is all fine and good for writing for the newsletter, but I’ve noticed this practice of self-erasure makes it difficult to access my own feelings on music. When I listen to something new, my habit is to see it from this objective perspective, analyzing the choices the artist makes and why. I’m sure most people reading this can identify with the sensation of hearing something and thinking, “this is good, but I don’t think I like it.” Maybe the band is skilled at playing, or maybe the singer exudes undeniable charisma, or maybe they make a sound you’ve never heard. Those are things you can appreciate on an intellectual level, but do you like it? Does it move you? I’ve kind of trained myself to see the good in whatever I listen to, but in doing that, it feels like I’ve lost that sense of identification—this is mine—that’s necessary to truly love a piece of music. I sometimes worry that if I heard something I could love as much as the Adolescents or Koro or Can I would just process it in this robotic fashion and move onto the next thing without giving it the opportunity to get its hooks in me.

I’m not sure how I came up with this solution, but lately whenever I listen to a record from my personal collection, I’ve been assigning it a rating out of 5 stars. I’ve long kept a sporadic listening journal, so I just note the rating there. Thinking about how I rate an album has totally shifted the way I listen. When I’m listening for the newsletter, I’m trying to locate the record within a context: what is the artist responding to? What are they trying to say? Who are they trying to say it to? But when I listen with this rating system in mind, I’m thinking about my personal relationship to the music. The context is myself, my background and tastes. What does this music make me feel in my body? How does it change my headspace? Is that a pleasurable change? Am I excited to spend more time with this, or am I eager to move on to something else? A 4- or 5-star record has to get me up and dancing, singing along, or at least intellectually engaged. It’s gotta “spark joy” as they say. A lot of the records in my collection are 3’s and 3.5’s: interesting, competent, not a waste of time, but I’m not gonna cry if someone takes it off in the middle and puts on something else.

The Damned’s The Black Album is a motherfucking 5-star record. I was listening to it because I recently came across an original double-LP Chiswick pressing. The copy of The Black Album I’ve had in my collection since forever is a later pressing on Big Beat Records, and while I like the cheeky Beatles rip-off sleeve, it sadly trims the original release’s track listing to fit on a single LP. From what I can tell, all the single-LP pressings of The Black Album simply omit the second disc in the set, ending the album with “Therapy.” While I could take or leave the live versions of Machine Gun Etiquette songs on side D (though they are well-recorded and quite different to their studio versions), the real crime is losing “Curtain Call,” the 17-minute epic that takes up all of side C. The Black Album starts with “Wait for the Blackout”—one of the Damned’s very best songs—and delivers one singalong pop hit after another until you reach “Curtain Call,” where the view suddenly widens and the musical landscape stretches to infinity. It’s the perfect way to end the album. Sides A and B are such a visceral experience, all the singing along pulling me out of my head and into my body, clearing my mind, setting the stage for “Curtain Call,” whose sprawling openness feels like a meditation. It’s a trip, a journey, and one I love going on.

So yeah, the Damned rule. Sorry if my piece this week was too heady or abstract or rambling… I live a weird fucking life and this is the shit I think about. Now go out and listen to something you really like.

Savage Pleasure: S/T 12” (Toxic State Records) After a demo cassette a few years ago, Toxic State Records unleashes the debut vinyl from New York’s Savage Pleasure into the world. If you haven’t heard Savage Pleasure, the first thing you might think when you listen is “whoa, this band really sounds like Amebix,” and while that’s a fine thing, I worry that belaboring the comparison will get in the way of appreciating what a fantastic album this is. There’s something about the way Savage Pleasure deploys dynamics that keeps me flipping this record over and over. While they pack the LP with hooky metal riffs, Savage Pleasure largely avoids the grand gestures—breakdowns, flashy guitar solos, big chord changes—that form the highlight reels of most hardcore punk records. Instead, their sound churns (a verb I come back to whenever I try to describe their sound), seemingly as regularly as the tides, but like the ocean, possessing an undeniable power. Tempos shift gradually in a Celtic Frost-ian way, with just enough variation to ensure the music never gets stale or repetitive. As the record’s synth and acoustic guitar intro sets the scene, Savage Pleasure pulls you into their world with “The Sickening Fear,” and it’s like a fog has descended, blocking out the rest of the world and saying “you’re with Savage Pleasure now.” The album is quite short—only 20 minutes, which feels brief given the cinematic scope—but there isn’t a moment that feels redundant or half-baked. When you’re in Savage Pleasure’s world, you’re there completely. There has been a lot of creative energy in this UK crust-influenced corner of the underground lately, and certainly if you’ve been enjoying recent records by Industry, Rigorous Institution, and Subdued, check out Savage Pleasure. But I think this is more than just a RIYL record, so try following Savage Pleasure into their world, and if you’re anything like me, you’re going to want to stay for a while.

Welcome again to my little corner of the internet where I get to talk about records that I am listening to on a week by week basis! Hopefully I have encouraged you to buy or listen to a record that you may not have heard of. I know this is something that I look forward to weekly, being able to read about what my co-workers are listening to as well. My week has been pretty basic most days. I fill the online orders that come in and then I work on listing a massive metal CD collection that we got in a few weeks ago. So much good stuff has already been listed and we really have barely begun to scratch the surface of this collection. To give you some perspective on it, I have only gone through almost 2 full boxes and we have 50+ more boxes that need to be listed. So needless to say we will have a ton of awesome metal and extreme music adjacent CDs being listed for a while if that is your thing.

On to my pick this week. I went back and forth with a couple of newer releases that have been on my radar for a while. King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard is not for everyone. Some people get turned off by the fact that they change their sound with every album. Spanning genres such as electronic, metal, folk and jazz funk. A lot of die hard fans have their favorite album out of the 26 studio albums that they have put out so far. Mine are the heavy and more psychedelic albums like Omnium Gatherum, Petro Dragonic... and Flying Microtonal Banana. The following this band has created in the states is something special. It almost feels like they are Australia’s answer to the Grateful Dead. People plan entire summers to follow them on tour in the United States. They even have parking lots sales before every show with folks making bootleg King Gizzard shirts, pins and stickers among so many other things. I will finally get to experience my first show at the end of month in Asheville. So if you are out there and you see me say hey!

The new KGLW album, Flight b741 is a snapshot back in time to older boogie rock, taking influence from bands like The Doobie Brothers, Little Feat or the Steve Miller Band. It’s classic dad rock but done with the King Gizzard twist. There are huge riffs and endless hooks on this album, which also features all members of the band on vocals at least once on the record, which is something new for them from the albums in the past. One of the big highlights for me was the amount of harmonica on this album. I am sucker for harmonica in my classic rock albums and Ambrose continuously just kills it every time. Overall, this album is a classic and will be a favorite of a lot of die hard fans. If you have never heard King Gizzard before, please go back and listen to the albums that I listed above. Until next week! Thanks for reading!

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a nice week. If you live anywhere along the east coast, I’m sure you’ve been dealing with all this rain the last couple weeks, especially this past week with big Debby rolling through. I had the pleasure of waking up the other day and walking into my kitchen to be greeted by a water bubble forming on my wall due to a leak in my gutter. While it’s annoying to deal with, I know a lot of people had to deal with a lot worse with this storm than I did, so if that applies to you, you have my sympathy. This leads me to the record I’d like to talk about today: Whiskey Before Breakfast by the great Norman Blake. That title sounds more and more appealing the more problems that come my way. This album was released in 1977 on Rounder Records and features 14 acoustic tracks. When an album opens up with the lyrics “I got high, Lord I got in jail,” you know you’re off to a good start. This album also features a healthy amount of instrumental tracks such as Under the Double Eagle, Salt River, Arkansas Traveler and a couple more with some real nice pickin going down on them. Good thinking music. Me and Dom both share a love for the track Old Grey Mare, which, as you could maybe gather, is a song about an old grey mare. We’re usually big fans of any old bluegrass/folk song about an animal, train, or even the local paper boy (poor Jimmy Brown.) Anyway, this is a great album start to finish. Next time you need some good country picking in your life, why not turn to ol Norman Blake.

Hi Sorry State fam! Feels like I have been absent from class forever, but I guess I only missed one week. I went on vacation to Bermuda for a full week. I go to our local beaches every year for 4 nights typically, and it’s gotten kinda boring. So it was super extra amazing to go someplace special for a week, and it’s my favorite place I’ve ever been in terms of beauty and beaches and relaxation. I’ve been three times now, and the first time was literally 20 years ago. It’s only 3 hours away and is pretty much directly parallel to Charlotte. It’s a gorgeous, clean, quiet, friendly place with mind blowing beaches and coves where you can go way out in calm, crystal clear turquoise water and still be only four feet deep. And you can see lots of pretty, colorful fish just by looking down. No snorkel required.

Something that makes Bermuda extra special is that the sand has a pink tint to it because of coral reef that has broken up and washed up on shore over many years. I’ve been to other tropical places like the Bahamas and Jamaica and the only similarity to Bermuda is there is pretty water there too. But it’s very different in just about every other way. Now, it’s not that cheap to eat or buy groceries, and there is no coffee culture. So getting an iced coffee was no easy feat, but it’s very easy and cheap to get around the island in very nice air conditioned buses. They still won’t lead you to iced coffee.

It was kind of a bitch because my passport expired and Bermuda is British territory, so you do need a passport. But damn, I’ve never been through such a laid back and chill customs process. Highly recommend. One drawback is there is not a single vinyl on the island. I looked. But like I said, I was ready to go home and get back to my normal life, my records, my cats, and my staff pick. Which I promise I am gonna get to right now.

I wrote about the band Pura Manía early this year when they put out their Extraños Casos De La Real EP. They took me by total surprise with their big anthemic energy and just overall great songs. The band is from Vancouver and Mexico City. So I went back in time to take a listen to their 2016 LP, Cerebros Punk, and it kicks ass. So much ass. All the elements that made their later music so good started on this album. So it turns out that they’ve never not been good. The riffs on this thing are a key component to making this record interesting and impressive and so damn likable. Hot damn, do they know how to write a good song. The songs are hooky and catchy with big energy, and woah-oh-oh’s that get the juices flowing. They sound like a hardcore band, but more musical, more experimental, with a dose of weirdness. They insert some weird bits here and there, mostly at the end of the songs, that could pass for sound effects but could just be them in between takes.

The music can go in so many directions because there is a lot of versatility in the riffs. Sometimes they sound a little bit dungeon punk, a little bit pub rock, even a little power pop, but they maintain a toughness throughout. The tough gritty vocals keep the music in the punk temperature range, but they have some fun and play around with other sounds at the same time.

My absolute favorite track is the album closer, Cerebros Punk. I absolutely love the lead riff on this one. So catchy and so versatile. Ranks high on the danceability meter, and balanced so well with the more raw vocals. It’s a banger and worthy of a few listens in a row. This may be one of my favorite tracks of the year. At first I wasn’t super keen on the backing vocals, but the more I listened they grew on me. That guitar riff is what makes it. It’s so catchy. The catchiest on the album. You could write so many punk or indie songs around that riff. You could speed it up or slow it down depending on the genre, and it would work.

Another great track is 1000 Años Despues del Hombre. There’s a great big intro that sets the tone for the rest of it. It has a darker feel to it. It’s full-on, fast and fun, with a killer repeating riff that leads you to its close. The high energy is perfectly maintained by the next track, Grandes Esperanzas. This speedy track delivers some strong woah-oh-oh’s. It’s the best two-song run on the album. And right around the corner is my favorite track that I’ve already talked, Cerebros Punk. After the few songs that precede it, they knock it out of the park with that one.

This is a great album! If we have any left, give it a go! You won’t be disappointed. And if you are, listen to it 2 or 3 more times to correct that.

Thanks so much for reading! Until next time..

-Angela

Hello and thanks for reading. Today I will be briefly writing about AVKSUM, yet another band who was under the influence of DISCHARGE during the early 80s in Sweden. The EP I am writing about today, Crucified By The System, came out in 1984. However, they had already released a demo cassette in 1982, making a mark in their small city of Kristinehamnm. SKÄMS was probably the most notable band from their city at the time, with their EP coming out in 1979. Micke Blomqvist of ASTA KASK recorded the AVKSUM demo at his studio Kloakens Alternativa Antistudio. I’ve mentioned Micke before, as he deserves so much credit… at his studio legendary bands like Nyx Negative, Crude SS, Asocial, Svart Parad, Anti-Cimex, Avskum, and Rövsvett all recorded. This demo has previously been reissued on Prank actually, but it looks like it needs to be put back in print again!

Prank has also previously reissued Crucified By The System back in 2007. Before that, it had been bootlegged in the ‘90s. I am glad Prank put this back in print, cos I think this EP is absolutely essential when it comes to Swedish hardcore. AVSKUM brings a unique sound to hardcore early on, mixing super melodic and anthemic riffs with hardcore and d-beat drumming. It comes off as almost proto-stadium crust or something haha. Members had previously played in obscure punk bands DEAD CORRUPTION and ADRIAN CUBA. DEAD CORRUPTION had a very slight bit of a hardcore sound, somewhat reminiscent of super early ANTI-CIMEX or something, maybe more like DNA, actually. ADRIAN CUBA sounded much more like traditional ‘77 Svensk punk. Call me crazy, but I think this ‘77 style was super influential and apparent in the AVSKUM sound. This ADRIAN CUBA song was actually re-worked later as an AVSKUM song on their 1985 EP that never ended up coming out.

After AVSKUM released their debut 7", they hit the studio again in 1985 for another EP. They had written many notable labels to see if they’d be interested in the release, including Propaganda, MRR, and Clay Records. It was UK label Mortarhate Records who agreed to release the session as a 12" record. AVSKUM had sent them the tape and artwork, but in the end, nothing came of it and this material remained unreleased until a discography CD came out in the late ‘90s. I hate to sound so cliche, but this unreleased material is my favorite AVKSUM material. On this EP, they lean even more into their melodic tendencies, and I especially love that intro on “The End.” That is some weird shit to pull off. This discography compiled a ton of unreleased stuff that was recorded before that EP that also never came out. If you haven’t heard Crucified By The System (or their demo), you can find it on the discography of course.

AVSKUM remained a band until their breakup in 1988. It seems kinda crazy to have existed for all those years and just release on EP. I guess they got burned pretty bad by Mortarhate, so I can’t blame em. I read translations from the Crash-Mag zine where they explained trying to record once, and it resulted in the studio engineer getting into a huge argument with their producer, resulting in the producer leaving in anger, and everything falling to shit. I guess they didn’t have the best luck in the 80s. AVSKUM reformed again in the mid-90s and came back in full force. I think they had more or less the same line-up as before, but I didn’t look into that much. I think their later albums are excellent. It’s not like bands who reform and put out super boring or sterile D-beat records. AVSKUM’s later shit rips. I listen to it just as much as the 80s shit. Alright, I need to get back to work and I wrote all this shit super quick just a few hours before this newsletter is coming out. Thanks for reading me write not about much, but I hope it was an entertaining read on some level. Again, I think Crucified By The System is absolutely essential. If you don’t have a copy - grab one now!

What’s up, Sorry Staters? I hope you are all well. It’s been another week with plenty going on in the news and here on the East Coast of America we have had to deal with Hurricane/Tropical storm Debby that just passed through. We didn’t get hit too badly here in Raleigh, just lots of rain, but other parts of the state experienced tornado touchdowns and damage from the wind and rain. We certainly hope that any of you along the storm path were not affected badly.

I’ve been completely submerged in the Olympics again this week and have really loved watching the events and catching the great atmosphere in the crowds. Paris has done a fabulous job and there has been so much to cheer for and enjoy no matter where in the world you live. Being here Stateside, the coverage is obviously slanted towards Team USA, but I have been happy to see some medals going to Team Great Britain as well. I sadly didn’t get to any of the pre-season friendly games that Liverpool played over here. I know, not a real fan, but I at least got to watch them on TV. We won all our games too, and in front of record crowds. Only a fortnight away from the beginning of the English Premier League, so that’s exciting.

Anyway, with all this sport to watch, my listening time for music has been reduced significantly from normal. Thank goodness I work in a record store so that at least for the hours spent here I can get my fix. Even being here eight plus hours a day isn’t enough time to get through all the things I want to check out, whether it’s new stuff or old records. I do my best.

You would think that when someone works in a record store, they would be able to get their hands on any release that they wanted. That’s not always the case. A store can’t deal with every label and distributor out there, and when things must be imported from overseas, it sometimes makes it cost prohibitive. The point being that I have lots of records that I would like to get for myself and the store, but can’t always find for a decent price. Occasionally I’ll check our one stop major label distributor and see whether on the off chance they have random titles. Such was the case this week as I was able to order a copy of a record I had been keeping eyes out for, but hadn’t seen available for sale locally or from US sellers online. I’d like to make it my pick for this week and if you end up being curious and dig it and want one too, I am hoping that Sorry State can bring in a few copies for you guys. The record is a reissue of a 1992 album that only saw a cassette and CD release at the time, which finally got a vinyl release a few years back. I’m talking about the band Ffa Coffi Pawb and their album titled Hei Vidal.

Who the hell are they you ask? What language is that? It’s Welsh, and the band features future members of Super Furry Animals and Gorgy’s Zygotic Mynci. Formed in the late 80s by teenage friends Gruff Rhys and Rhodrii Puw in Bethesda, Wales over a love of 70s Glam, Krautrock, Power-pop, and Shoegaze, the band would release a couple of cassette albums before Hei Vidal, but it was on this third where everything gelled. Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals main man) would say that they were influenced by all the B’s—Bolan, Bowie, Big Star and Badfinger—sounds of the 70s that SFA would perfectly blend a few years later with their debut on Creation. On Hei Vidal, they are almost there and the album now in retrospect serves as almost another SFA album. A pre-quill if you like. That title and their name especially are little inside jokes. Translated, their name says Everybody’s Coffee Beans but said phonetically in Welsh it reads as Fuck Off Everyone. Nice one. The album title is more clever word play and references Vidal Sassoon hair guru and Gore Vidal the TV pundit, both names in the news and popular culture at the time.

The album came out on Ankst, an independent Welsh label that would go on to release SFA’s first couple of singles. However, some funny business with a song publisher who apparently disappeared meant that the album remained out of print for years until a compilation CD in the early 00s gathered this and other Ffa Coffi Pawb tracks together. This 2021 pressing is its first time on vinyl. As I don’t listen to CDs that much (only in the car), I had not listened to this in years, and it was quite refreshing to hear it again and especially on wax. Clear vinyl no less.

Musically, it still stands up. Even if you are not a Furries fan or a Gruff solo follower like I am, I strongly believe that there is plenty for anyone to enjoy here. Regardless of whether you understand Welsh, these are great songs with mature levels of songwriting from the young fellows. The playing is also accomplished and shows clear signs of the great stuff to come later when Gruff and the rest of SFA hit their stride. Two perfect examples of songs that sound like fully formed Furries tunes are Dilyn Fy Nhrwyn and Colli’r Goriad. Gruff’s unmistakable vocals and harmonies along with the glam sounding guitar make it very clear who you are listening to. Assuming, of course, that you are familiar with SFA and their music. If you aren’t, I can only advise you start checking them out. As anyone who reads our newsletter regularly knows, I am a fan and will gladly talk anyone’s ear off about how great Super Furries are and what a generational talent Gruff Rhys is. A Welsh national treasure who deserves an MBE or something from the King for all his contributions to music and culture. At the very least, a plaque on his house saying Gruff Rhys lives(d) here.

You can click here to listen to the record and check back with us next weekend if you liked it, as we should have a copy or two. Thanks everyone.

Cheers - Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

It’s been a crazy last week or so. Raleigh catching the edge of that hurricane has made for some terrible weather for several days straight. My phone was buzzing with flash flood warnings left and right. One morning when I woke up, after the storm had been particularly bad overnight, there was standing water in my apartment. Crazy shit. Hey, what’re you gonna do? But over the weekend as I was writing this, everything cleared up, the sun was shining, and the store seemed like it was slammed busy! People be havin’ that cabin fever, I suppose.

Public Acid had to unexpectedly cancel and didn’t end up playing Armor’s record release show this past Saturday. After making this decision, I unfortunately decided to stay in Raleigh and missed the gig. I’ve been seeing clips and photos of the Invertebrates set, and it looks like my homies tore it the fuck up. Gave me a dose of F.O.M.O. for sure. At the time this newsletter comes out, I would imagine the Argh/No Knock gig on August 12th in Raleigh will be taking place in real time—possibly as you’re reading! Wish I could use this platform to announce ahead of time that The Losers from San Francisco were added to the gig last-minute! Hoping it ends up being a killer gig. 3 ripping touring bands? Hell yeah.

Speaking of ripping bands, I think I’m late to the conversation on this Malakili band. I knew that they’re from Portland. Sorry State has stocked a couple tapes from them over the last couple years, and we just got in the band’s debut LP released on Black Water a couple weeks ago. I’ll be honest, I never really gave those previous tapes a proper listen. Maybe the band’s name threw me off? But I saw the cover art on this new LP: a skeleton in his bedroom surrounded by empty beer cans… I thought to myself, “This is relevant to my interests.” And man, I don’t know what I expected, but I threw this thing on and to my surprise, this record is just straight up, go-for-the-throat, ripping hardcore!

At first, just because of the style of hardcore that Malakili plays, I wondered if this band possibly featured folks from the Brain Squeeze/Alienator crew, but upon further research it doesn’t look like it. The guitar playing stands out to me immediately. Furious riffing that makes me think of Swedish käng influence straight out of the modern hardcore landscape of the Herätys/Infernöh/Larma variety. But I think to simply describe Malakili as a “d-beat” band would be somewhat of a misnomer. There’s a definite US hardcore flavor in the mixture of ingredients. The guitar sound is pretty clean, like the guitar is plugged straight into the front of a cranked Marshall. The singer’s voice is kinda high-pitched and more snotty and snarling, definitely NOT a deep, burly growl. The vocals are double tracked too, which gives it this seasick, off-kilter feel when the singer kinda gets in and outta time with himself.

But because of these stylistic factors that stand out to me, I think Malakili has more in common with a band like The Hell, or maybe even another contemporary example like The Massacred? Also, though, the band’s blend of snotty US hardcore and käng riffing, along with this perception of disorderly nastiness reminds me a lot of Gas Rag. Malakili surely has slightly more polite lyrics than Gas Rag, but you get what I’m sayin’ maybe? I think of them sounding more aligned with bands of this ilk than they do bands going for straight Discharge influence. Perhaps due to their environment, I do hear a bit of early-era Poison Idea creeping its way into the band’s style. There is a Poison Idea poster hung up on the skeleton’s bedroom wall after all, haha. There’s a couple mid-paced stomper tracks that sound way more like “Pure Hate” than they do “Protest And Survive”. You pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down?

Anyway, if you were like me and sleeping on Malakili for whatever reason, I would definitely recommend giving this record a shot. A sleeper ripper in its own right.

That’s all I’ve got this week. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

The Alley Cats: Escape from the Planet Earth 12" (MCA, 1983)

If you watched the recent episode of What Are You Listening To? when Jeff and I were guests a few weeks ago, you already know how I came by this record. It was one of our fellow guest Dave Brown's picks (he of Sewercide Records, whose most recent release from Cell Deth we just got in stock), and when I said that I'd had my eye out for a copy, Dave generously offered to send me the spare copy he had in his "to sell" box. Dave is a stand-up guy and he followed through on his promise (dutifully ignoring my attempts to give him money), and it arrived the other day. Unsurprisingly, since Dave has incredible taste, it totally kills.

While I've had both of the Alley Cats' singles for years (including their classic "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore" on Dangerhouse), I'd never investigated either of their full-lengths, Escape from the Planet Earth or its predecessor from 1981, Nightmare City. Someone had mentioned Nightmare City to me in the months leading up to the episode (I swear it was Jeff, but maybe I'm wrong), so I'd been on the lookout for both albums, but Nightmare City still hasn't come my way. I'm sure I could dial up these records and check them out online, but I like to let my desire percolate for a while. Plus, when you're really anticipating hearing something, diving straight in with the full physical release almost always provides the best first impression.

Speaking of first impressions, not much about Escape from the Planet Earth indicates that it would be as good as it is. Four years on from their first single, this album found the band moving from the indie label Time Coast to the major MCA. It took me several listens to even notice the album was on MCA, though, because it looks and sounds so much like an indie release. The black-and-white cover with simple typography (the back cover looks a little slicker) and the bare-bones recording are more in line with something I'd expect from a self-released record, but in this case I think it's a good thing the Alley Cats didn't get the full major label red carpet treatment, because that might have ruined what is otherwise an excellent album.

You can definitely hear the Alley Cats' years of maturity on Escape from the Planet Earth. While even their first single featured tight and agile playing, Escape from the Planet Earth is the sound of a band that really knows how to play together. There’s plenty of barn-burning punk, but many of the songs on this album have rhythmically quirky, new wave-ish grooves the band executes with power and precision. The trio sounds totally locked in, a feeling that's amplified by the clear but unvarnished production. I hear very few overdubs on the album, just the sound of three musicians perfectly in sync. Even on the less straightforward songs, the band lays into it like they're gakked up on a pile of cheap powders. The drummer in particular is wailing, and the super dry recording with the drums right up front in the mix makes the performance hit that much harder. And when they hit you with a full-on rocker like the closer, "Just an Alley Cat," they're unstoppable.

Thanks again to Dave for turning me onto the gem and getting it into my hands. If anyone out there reading happens upon a copy—the going rate seems to be about $20—I highly recommend picking this up. There aren't too many early 80s punk LPs where original copies give you this much bang for your buck.