News

Today Roachleg Records launched the new album from New York’s Mirage! After a 7” and a 12” EP, this is Mirage’s first full-length, and it continues to draw inspiration from the furious years of Italian hardcore while giving it a distinctly New York twist. Listen to the whole album on Roachleg’s Bandcamp and order the vinyl now.

Also, remember Sorry State handles Roachleg’s physical distribution, so if you want to carry this Mirage album (or any of Roachleg’s excellent other releases) in your shop or distro, please hit us up for wholesale info!

We just put up pre-orders for a couple of upcoming Feel It Records releases, and one in particular is of interest to the SSR newsletter’s readers: But for Who?, the new album from Odor Eater. Odor Eater is a duo comprising Harley Moore and Logan Devlin, and you might recognize Harley’s name because they also play in Sorry State’s own Fugitive Bubble! While Odor Eater is more synth-y and new wave-y, Harley’s musical and lyrical fingerprints are all over the project, so if you like Fugitive Bubble, there’s a good chance you’ll like Odor Eater too. You can listen to a track from But for Who? on Feel It’s Bandcamp and pre-order the vinyl at Sorry State now. Here’s Ben Michaelis’ full description for Feel It:

On Odor Eater’s third album, their first for Feel It Records, But For Who?, Harley Moore and Logan Devlin have appropriated various sonic idioms of the New Wave employing a similarly playful mode of critique lyrically and musically while updating the social context to reckon with the maelstrom of contemporary pop culture. The Olympia/Portland duo have created a record that speaks the language of their influences fluently but with a definitively contemporary accent—a bricolage of the sounds of Devo, Bill Nelson, Vince Clarke-era Depeche Mode, and Kraftwerk. Devlin and Moore bring fresh ears to this style of composition, mixing freely the aforementioned with a more fully developed sound of their own that is brighter this time around—less heavy and more danceable. Over the course of 11 songs, propulsive drum machines bip bap in deceptively simple patterns, with Devlin’s zig-zagging bass lines shuffling under arpeggiated chords and rhythmic synth leads while Moore’s vocals act as a sort of post-everything Virgil guiding us through the contemporary inferno. Lasers zip-zap in the background, machine-like sounds whoosh and whirr, percussive blips and beeps pop here and there, along with occasional clarinet parts provided by Moore. Meanwhile the lyrics, written and sung by Moore, deal with a wide range of personal and political issues, their vocal delivery often calling to mind the expressive dynamics of Stateless era Lene Lovich—at times veering towards the shouts and howls of Lydia Lunch. There’s songs that deal with genocide, the MAGA cult, and social one-upmanship—and there’s a couple of love songs too.

There is a line of logic that suggests that the proper response to social control is playfulness. Think Dadaism, the Situationists, or Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters: this is playfulness with a definite edge, like Marcel Marceau with brass knuckles & a blade. Similarly, New Wave with its kitschy futurism and programmed musical repetitions, exposed the ridiculousness of 1980s American consumer capitalism. If New Wave pop at its best was an implicit critique of the pre-programmed optimism and happiness of the Reagan era, a once faded memory that has come back to us now as a recurring nightmare—or an AI-induced psychosis delivered by phones rather than rabbit-eared TV sets, then Odor Eater picks up perfectly where those that came before them left off. The songs on But For Who? ask the most urgent personal and political questions in a fearlessly playful manner utilizing a sonic palette that has remained relevant musically and politically for forty-plus years. As a result, Odor Eater are able to create music that pulls one in as it skips along, unable to sit still whether through excitement or anxiety—the allure is at least in part because it’s impossible to tell the ratio of either element of such a potent mix. This is perhaps the perfect soundtrack for a world that is both shocking and hilarious at the same time.

-Ben Michaelis

Zorn hits the road this July in support of Escape from Castle Death, their new album on Sorry State. If you’ve seen Zorn live, you know to expect theatrical antics, but for this jaunt they’re upping the ante and asking the crowd to bring home-made weapons to the gigs. What do you win? I don’t know! Win or lose, you know you’re going to have a great time if you come to the gig properly armed.

Zorn’s new album is up for pre-order now! The vinyl is in-house already and will start shipping later this week or early next, so there’s no reason not to secure your limited orange vinyl copy, especially since it comes with a big ‘ol poster and a vinyl-only bonus track. Listen to a track on the Sorry State Bandcamp and get the full skinny below:

Philadelphia’s Zorn returns with a new album for Sorry State, Return to Castle Death. While the two years since Endless Funeral have seen Zorn’s stage show grow increasingly surreal and elaborate (giant Kaiju-style monsters and oversized medieval weaponry are now regular features of their gigs), Return to Castle Death finds the band whittling things down musically, giving us a meaner, leaner, and more riff-focused Zorn than we’ve heard previously. But while these seven tracks feel more straightforward, the hallmarks of Zorn’s sound are still here in force: the blackened punk riffs, virtuosic drumming, touches of neoclassical melody, and vocals that can can move from a Sakevi-influenced gurgle to a banshee death howl in the space of a line. There are also a few new twists, like the warped organ solo at the climax of album-closer “Guest of the Mad Prince.” And make sure to pick up the physical version, because the vinyl features an exclusive bonus track: a cover of Annihilation Time’s modern classic “Bald Headed Woman” put through Zorn’s metal-punk meat grinder.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! As I mentioned last week, we’re kind of easing back up to speed with the newsletter after taking a couple of weeks off. This week I’m actually putting together the newsletter from the road (more on that in my staff pick) and rather than try to coordinate everyone’s staff picks internationally, this is a very heavily Daniel newsletter. I hope that’s OK! It’ll be the same next week, and then we should be able to get totally back to normal the following week.

As usual, there’s plenty to tell you about on the record front! This new Meanwhile record is a scorcher. It arrived just before I left for my trip, so I was able to get it downloaded to my phone, where it has been on constant repeat. I can’t get enough! We also have two very different (but equally cool!) releases from Itchy & the Nits and Demonstrate in the Featured Releases section, and a ton of new arrivals to tell you about from labels like Neon Taste, Ugly Pop, Iron Lung, Goodbye Boozy, the brilliant Station Model Violence LP from earlier this year back in stock, and plenty more.

So what are you waiting for? Read on!

Read the full newsletter here!

See Saw just interviewed the Shaved Ape! @dogwithamullet sat down (in person! IRL!) with Vince to learn more about the project, its origins, and Vince's punk origins and philosophy. It's a great read, so head on over here to check it out. And give See Saw a follow and support them while you're at it... a top-notch punk publication.

I know a lot of y’all were waiting on this, so I figured I’d make it a news item rather than burying it in the Recently Restocked section. The debut LP from Australia’s Station Model Violence is back in stock! Undoubtedly one of the best records of 2026 so far, the first pressing flew out the door but Static Shock Records got the repress done with the quickness. Grab your copy now!

Hello friends! Apologies to those of you who have been checking your inboxes, impatiently anticipating a new issue of the Sorry State newsletter for the past few weeks. I’ve been struggling with some health issues that put me out of commission for a while. If you’ve been reading my (Daniel’s) staff picks lately, it’s the same mental health troubles I’ve been talking about there. Unfortunately things got worse before they got better, but I’m hopeful I’m now now moving in the right direction. Also, I feel like I’m always apologizing for not getting back to people, but if you’ve contacted me over the past several weeks, you probably haven’t gotten a reply. I’m working on getting caught up, but it’s going to take a while.

As for the newsletter, I’m easing back into it with a somewhat abbreviated version this week. No staff picks, but I managed to write up a Record of the Week for you… hopefully you’re wise enough to have checked out Indikator B already (and, if you were lucky, catch them on their recent US tour), but if you were waiting for Sorry State’s ringing endorsement, here it is.

Most of what you’ll read below are updates on new stock to hit the distro, which (along with the shop) has been plugging along at full steam while I’ve been gone. There are a TON of excellent new and reissued records to tell you about… there are at least half a dozen records there that fully deserve a Record of the Week nod. So read through and find some new music to treat yourself to. It would help us out a lot.

I’m about to head out to do some traveling, and the plan is to keep sending out these abbreviated newsletters from the road, maybe telling you a bit about my journey. That’s the plan, anyway. It feels strange to be leaving for a trip so shortly after being out for a while, but this was planned months ago and everything is non-refundable. I think a change of scenery will do me some good, though.

Oh, and if you’re reading this from in or near Raleigh, come see Fentanyl, Steramines, Sunyata, and Besitos Wednesday night at RUMAH! It’s gonna be a good time.

Now, on to the goods…

Read the whole newsletter here

Can you believe G.U.N.’s self-titled debut LP on Sorry State came out way back in 2023? I know plenty of y’all still keep it close to the turntable… I know I do. Our boys from Nashville took their time percolating the follow-up, but it’s finally here and it’s out now on Poison Vision Records, a new label run by Keith Caves (whom you know from his killer artwork and his band Meat House). You can listen to the whole thing now on Poison Vision’s Bandcampand/or the streaming services, and you can pick up your physical copy at Sorry State now. Act fast, though, because this bad boy is limited to only 300 copies!

We have another great new pre-order from La Vida Es Un Mus! Sadly, it’s the final record from Cœur À L'Index, but they go out with a bang. The 7” is officially out now so you can hear both songs on La Vida Es Un Mus’s Bandcamp, and you can pre-order the vinyl from Sorry State now, which will hopefully ship pretty soon. Here’s the official description:

CŒUR À L’INDEX return with their final offering which is the perfect indie pop and power pop format - a two track 7”. The A-Side ‘Fatigueé’ is a bittersweet, dreamy and mournful song that has the charm of the slower SHOP ASSISTANTS songs. The flip ‘Mes Heros’ is a complete fizzbomb of indie pop and power pop that sounds like an obscure band from the Girls from the Garage compilation series mixed with DOLLY MIXTURE. It’s sparkles and shines instantly. CŒUR À L’INDEX leave this world with a perfect trio of releases - the original demo, the album 'Adieu Minette’ and now this 7”.

Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter. I’m a day late again this week… if you’ve been reading my staff picks, you can infer why, but I assure you that even if I’m having trouble keeping up with my SSR duties, the staff is continuing to kill it getting new stuff up on the website and your orders shipped out with the quickness. Speaking of new stuff coming in, it’s a big week for cool reissues, with a stone-cold classic and a deep cut banger from Sealed, some essential Japanese hardcore from General Speech, and some of that under-the-radar 80s USHC we love from the Spanish label B-core. We also have some killer 7”s—each in a very different style—in our Record of the Week and Featured Releases sections, and a bunch of the new international punk releases you expect in the new arrivals. So let’s get into it…

Read the full newsletter here!

We’re back with another run-down of the latest pre-orders to hit the Sorry State site!

Most exciting for the Sorry State crowd is another artist making the jump from one of our distributed labels (in this case Berlin’s Static Age Musik) to a bigger pond: this time it’s Cosey Mueller, whose new album Embodiment of Denialscomes out June 26 on Bretford Records.

Cosey Mueller is probably the coolest punk adjacent preorder this week, but there are a few other punk titles. Bouncing Souls have a new album called Born to Be and we have that available in a few different variants. Fat Wreck Chords’ key catalog titles continue to get repressed after the label’s recent sale, and the latest title is No Use for a Name’s Leche Con Carne. Canadian punk legends DOA have a new greatest hits comp called Take on the Tyrants and Articles of Faith’s Vic Bondi brings us the debut from his new project Vic Bondi and His Issues.

I don’t really know where to put this as it’s kind of uncategorizable, but GWARhas a new limited 7” featuring a cover of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” on one side and a cover of “I’m Just Ken” from the Barbie movie, appropriately re-titled “We’re Just GWAR,” on the b-side.

A few key hip-hop new releases also went up this week. JPEGMAFIA has a new album called Experimental Rap and we have two very different versions of that: an indie exclusive version on white vinyl with an alternate cover and a standard version on black vinyl with the “classic” cover. Del the Funky Homosapien brings us Future Development, only the third full-length of his long career, and Vince Staples has a new album called Cry Baby and we have an indie exclusive version of that one available.

There are a few big mainstream albums that went up this week… in fact, you don’t get more mainstream than the Rolling Stones, whose new album Foreign Tongues comes out on July 10. Ariana Grande also has a new one called Petaland we have that in an indie exclusive white vinyl version. Lizzo is attempting a comeback with her latest album BITCH and we have an indie exclusive version of that too on copper black ice vinyl. Kehlani also has a new self-titled album and Natalie Imbruglia has a new one called Algorithm that we also have in an indie exclusive version.

In the world of indie, Pure Noise is repressing a bunch of Drug Church’s early records like Paul Walker and Hit Your Head and we have a few different variants available. Waxahatchee’s first album American Weekend is back in print after a few years’ absence, and Dinosaur Jr’s monumental You’re Living All Over Mehas a new pressing as part of Secretly’s “Revinyl” series of indie classics on recycled eco-mix vinyl (we also have Bon Iver’s For Emma Forever Ago available as part of the same series). And Drag City represses two early drone classics from Om: Variations on a Theme and Conference of the Birds.

As usual, that’s just the tip of the iceberg! We’re up to nearly 400 titles in the pre-orders section of the website, so head over there and check out all of them!