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What’s up Sorry Staters?

I had a few people hit me up after last week and check in about my insulin pump and not feeling so well. Well, for those who care, I got my new insulin pump and am feeling much better! Just in time too, because I’d hate to be in a sorry state (hehe) health-wise during all the rad stuff I got coming up in June. I mentioned in a previous newsletter, but next weekend I’m flying to Minneapolis for a skate event hosted by Thrasher. Then, that evening, Public Acid is playing with Electric Chair. It would’ve sucked to be having a hard time with diabetes while being far from home, so I’m glad I’ve got that all sorted. Should be a blast!

I was trying to think about what to write about for my staff pick section this week. It’s always strange timing when several celebrities die within a few days of each other. South Park had a funny episode about that several years ago where the plot revolved the “rule of 3” where celebrities always pass away in groups of 3. Kinda funny. Kinda dark too, I guess haha. It is kind of a weird time we live in. Seems like famous people are at an age where every other week they’re dropping like flies. I don’t know, I honestly have mixed feelings about the nature of “celebrity” in general. Not that I roll my eyes or anything, but when I find myself being bombarded by a flood of social media posts about celebrity/musician/actor X, it becomes a bit exhausting. Like, Tina Turner passing away is sad and all, but I personally don’t have a deep emotional reaction upon receiving that news. But hey, that’s not to diminish anybody’s feeling any type of way about a famous person’s passing.

All that said, Algy Ward died. I’ve decided that’s what I want to write about and I’ll attempt to not be cringey in the process. Maybe my perspective on this comes from the crabby, judgmental part of my brain, but it’s hard for me to think of Algy Ward as a “celebrity.” I understand that he was a public figure that played in bands that many people consider meaningful (myself included), but my reaction to his passing doesn’t feel the same as like when Tom Petty or Olivia Newton-John or whoever passes away. It’s just not the same. I also find myself questioning the character of said famous person when they die. But whatever, maybe that’s not what you’re supposed to care about. I will say that with Algy, he touched upon some records that hold a special in place in my heart—most notably, he played on my favorite record ever made.

I find Algy Ward’s journey pretty interesting. Though I love Music For Pleasure, you could argue it’s basically like The Damned’s sophomore slump. When the band reassembled after Brian James quit, Captain Sensible moved to guitar and they got a particularly interesting fill-in on bass. I don’t know if they had other scab bass players in between, but I’m pretty sure Algy stepped in to take over for Lemmy Kilmeister. Pretty rad. Then the band would make my favorite record ever (probably, so hard to say emphatically) Machine Gun Etiquette. I think Algy was only 19 or 20 at the time. Just before that, he played on The Saints’ Eternally Yours—my personal favorite Saints album. So right there he touched upon 2 legendary punk bands’ third and best albums. The rule of 3 (wink wink). Not too long after leaving The Damned, Algy formed the heavy metal band Tank. And then, bringing it back to Motorhead, Fast Eddie Clark produced Tank’s debut album Filth Hounds of Hades. Pretty Damned good run if you ask me.

Many readers of our newsletter probably know all this info already. I’m not trying to re-write the dude’s autobiography or anything. It’s just when I take a look at Algy’s string of records he played on, I do find it rather mind-blowing. So rad. RIP Algy. Thanks for the music.

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

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Egg: The Polite Force LP (1971, Deram)

I have now succumbed to one of the ultimate record collector cliches: I’m into Canterbury. This has been brewing for a while—I chose Caravan’s album In the Land of Grey and Pink as my staff pick way back in July 2020 and I had been checking out Gong and Steve Hillage before that, but the world of Canterbury has sucked me in over the past few months as I’ve spent more time with Canterbury mainstays like Soft Machine, Hatfield and the North, and Quiet Sun. I’d been exploring this scene on my own time, but the process got sped up thanks to a couple of folks who sold records to Sorry State. One guy was so attached to his Canterbury records that he kept all those, but sold us several thousand others, and on my house calls I spent a lot of time talking with him about his favorite records. Then, coincidentally, another prog aficionado sold us his record collection. This guy was willing to part with his Canterbury gems, so I scored original copies of several of the records the first guy was raving about. Synchronicity!

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Canterbury refers to the city in Kent, England (famous as the setting of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales), and Canterbury music refers to the explosion of music that happened there in the late 60s and early 70s. For me, what’s interesting about Canterbury music is its unique set of influences. The musicians in that scene were interested in the then-current psychedelic and progressive rock movements happening in the UK, but they were also engaged with jazz (including the contemporary jazz-rock fusion movement Miles Davis was pioneering), avant-garde and experimental classical music by composers like Stockhausen and Edgard Varèse, and early modern English folk music. These aren’t influences that lend themselves to a natural fusion, and a lot of Canterbury albums can feel eclectic, with jarring shifts in tone and style from one track from the next, or sometimes even within a single track.

I’m not sure when I happened upon Egg’s second album, The Polite Force—it may have just been in reading about the Canterbury scene—but when I first listened to it, the monstrous organ riff that opens the record knocked me on my ass. While Egg didn’t employ a guitarist, organist Dave Stewart lays down a riff as dense and sludgy as anything Black Sabbath or Deep Purple did in their heyday. While nothing else on The Polite Force is like that, it’s a great introduction because it demands your full attention, which Egg subsequently tests over the course of the album. In researching the critical reaction to The Polite Force, I found many people were put off by the album’s experimental elements. The Polite Force certainly leans more toward that end of the Canterbury spectrum, with much of its runtime given over to Stockhausen-influenced tape manipulation and freewheeling jazz experimentation. I guess I can see how it’s too much for some people, but for me Egg keeps the ideas coming fast and furious, and even if I like some moments more than others, wondering what they’re going to do next keeps me engaged throughout the record.

Last night, as I was playing The Polite Force, I was pondering why Canterbury music appeals to such a particular breed of nerdy record collector. Can you appreciate this music if you have less than two thousand albums in your collection? Perhaps you can, but having a voracious appetite for music seems to help. Maybe that’s because the Canterbury scene is so embedded in its context that you need some knowledge of the influences they were working with to appreciate what they were doing. Or maybe it’s because the way these bands combined the different elements of their respective sounds was often surprising, even jarring. Maybe it’s perfect for an old head who craves that sense of discovery, but has kind of heard it all before.

Another way the Canterbury scene whets the collector nerd’s appetite is how interconnected everything is. As I was reading about Egg last night, for instance, I learned that guitarist Steve Hillage had played in a group called Uriel, which was basically Egg plus Steve Hillage. While Uriel never released anything, the group reformed in 1969 and released a self-titled album as Arzachel, which streaming service recommendation algorithms really think I’ll like, but I’ve never checked out. Even more enticing is Khan’s album Space Shanty, which came out in 1972. Khan featured most of the personnel from Uriel / Arzachel, and the songs on their LP were intended for the follow-up to Steve Hillage’s solo album Fish Rising, another ye olde staffe picke para moi. The vibe on that one is supposed to be more space rock than prog, and I can’t wait to dive in and learn more.

Electric Chair: The Beat Sessions cassette (Shout Recordings) As someone whose idea of perfect production is the low-budget, quickly but professionally engineered records that came from the underworld of recording hubs like London and Los Angeles in the late 70s and early 80s, the Beat Sessions series is a dream come true. Like Peel Sessions, Beat Sessions capture bands clearly and powerfully, but force them to work quickly and lean on their strengths as players. And as anyone who has seen Electric Chair live knows, they’re a blistering unit, perhaps the single best hardcore punk band in the world right now. Recorded in a single day, this cassette features a selection of tracks that pulls evenly from the band’s three EPs and recent LP. Electric Chair is ferocious here, the clear and powerful recording showcasing both how insanely fast and precise their playing is and how hooky their songs are. It’s exhilarating in the same way Pick Your King is, and just like Pick Your King, as soon as it’s over, I want to listen to it again right away. The tracks from Act of Aggression sound great here, and I think many people will prefer this recording’s dynamics over the more punishing, full-scale-assault sound of the album. And the tracks from their first two EPs blow away those other versions… the band has gotten so much more ripping since they made those early records. It all adds up to a killer tape, and one of 2023’s most essential hardcore punk releases.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a nice week. Last week I travelled to Colorado to visit one of my best friends who lives there and we attended the two nights of Billy Strings at Red Rocks. Ever since I learned about Red Rocks when I was probably like 13 I’ve wanted to go to a show out there, so it was awesome to finally have the opportunity to do so. What fun would a trip be without some bumps along the way, though? Upon arriving at my gate to fly out from Raleigh, my flight was delayed by 4 hours due to a tornado watch at the Denver Airport. No worries, as long as I make it over there I don’t mind. I finally make it to Denver and my buddy comes to pick me up and drive back to his place in Boulder and it’s pouring rain. He told me it’s been raining the last two days straight and it should let up tomorrow cause it never rains for that long there. It did not let up the next day. We ended up getting to the venue at about 6 for a 7:30 show time. We park and throw on all our protective layers, raincoats and ponchos and all. It was also about 40 degrees and windy up in the mountains, so not only was it gonna be wet, it was gonna be cold. We have a couple beers and grab some roadies for the long line ahead. We were hoping the rain would eventually let up some, but it honestly only got worse. By the time we got to the end of the line to get into the show, my water resistant boots and two layers of socks had already soaked through and my pants were drenched as well. Really, the only part that kept dry was my upper body cause I had about 6 layers on. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything else, though. It felt like a true journey just to get to the show and only the strong and willing had made it. The huge amphitheater was still packed out despite the weather. The sound of wind ripping through cheap plastic ponchos filled the air. Nary a joint could even be lit in the harsh conditions. But Billy and the boys finally rolled out onto the stage and the place erupted and the attendees who stuck it through were treated to an incredible show. The whole show was fine tuned and songs thoughtfully picked to address the weather, starting things off with Cold On The Shoulder, a song written by the late Gordon Lightfoot, who just passed away earlier this month. Shortly following this was a performance of Dreadful Wind and Rain (how could you not?), a more recent interpretation (made popular by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman) of a traditional murder ballad dating back to the 17th century. Before the end of the first set was also a performance of one of my favorite Doc Watson songs, Red Rocking Chair. Man, I love hearing them play Doc Watson tunes. Set break rolls around and when the music stops and you’re not dancing, that’s when you notice how bad the weather is. It was raining sideways. Sometimes you would think it was letting up, but then the lights would hit the right angle and you could see it was still pouring. It was like being a wet fish in water. The second set started off strong, but my favorite part of the show was when Billy mentioned how a lot of songs he plays were learned by way of Doc Watson and this next song is one Doc picked up from Mississippi John Hurt, which was Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor. I was so happy to finally get to hear Billy perform it, and at such an amazing venue. Like I’ve mentioned before, that’s the reason I love bluegrass and folk music so much, a song passed down from three of my favorite artists, always reaching a new generation. Another highlight of the show was the performance of It’s Raining Here This Morning, a song made popular by a favorite of Dom and I’s, the Stanley Brothers. I think you can pick up a theme for the show from the song titles. It’s cool to think how different the setlist would’ve been had the weather just been different, but having the rain pour on me at Red Rocks is a memory I won’t soon forget. Okay, I’m gonna do a shorter recap of the second night cause that was really long. The weather was amazing for this show. We ended up getting to the lot to hang out before the show at around 4. It was nice just chilling before the show up there in the mountains. We even saw an elk walking around the top of the venue. Hell, people just walked up to you and handed you free mushrooms. Colorado is a great place. I even got to meet up with one of my best buddies from Memphis who I haven’t seen in years, and he joined us for the show. The weather was great throughout the whole show, but compared to the weather the night before, it felt like the biggest luxury in the world. I’m pretty sure I saw a bunch of shooting stars and a UFO during the second set that night, but that’s still up for debate. Anyway, both nights were incredible, and it was such a fun trip out there. I always love visiting Colorado and hope to make it back to another Red Rocks show. Technically, this write up should be about my record of the week, so I’ve picked out this Doc Watson record Dominic got me for my birthday a couple weeks back, the appropriately titled Memories, which features the aforementioned song, Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor. As me and Dom like to say, you just gotta put it out there in the universe. Sometimes things just work out exactly as they should.

Hi Sorry State readers! Hope you’re having a good week. It’s been a pretty chill week on my end. May has been kind of meh so I’m gonna talk about June.

So I was writing down the stuff I’m doing in June so that I don’t create any schedule conflicts, and it looks like June is gonna be pretty fun so far. We’ve got Subhumans with Scarecrow right around the corner at Cat’s Cradle! Stoked to say the least. About a week after that, I’m seeing Pixies here in Raleigh. Seeing Pixies is just mandatory at this point. Public Acid is playing a couple days after that at King’s here in Raleigh. Super excited to start seeing shows there again!

Anyway, my staff pick is Display Homes: What if You’re Right and They’re Wrong? I was entertaining 3 or 4 staff pick options, but this one won out without question. I liked it immediately and I’ve played it a couple times a day every day this week.

To preface this, I just wanted to say that when visiting the band’s IG page, I learned that the band’s guitarist and close friend Darrell had passed away last June. My sincere sympathies go out to the band. Darrell does some incredible guitar work on this album.

Display Homes hails from Sidney Australia. They recently released this fantastic post-punk album that leans poppy in a wonderfully weird and dynamic way. It’s mid to fast tempo the whole way through and it keeps you on your toes. It’s raw and minimalistic, which gives you a chance to really hear and appreciate their individual contributions. And the vocals are one of their greatest instruments. Loud, raw, erratic, and exciting. You never know what you’re gonna get.

Sometimes the singer does a talk and sing type thing on certain tracks that reminds me of the Pixies. But just a little bit. What’s impressive is how the drums are perfectly locked in with every syllable she sings. Maybe that’s easier to accomplish when you’re the singer and the drummer, but it sounds seamless. The song Proofread is a perfect example. That’s my favorite track on the album. I love the shouting vocals that become increasingly more intense in the chorus. There are a lot of big choruses in the album and this is where the singer really shines.

I can’t say enough about the bass parts on this album. The bass is an integral part of their sound. I don’t think more than ten seconds go by where you don’t hear the bass. The album is full of boppy bass intros and solos, and he is a big part of providing a solid foundation throughout the album. It also feels like he’s very intuitive.

The clean and razor sharp guitar work sounds killer played over the lower melodic bass riffs. The sharpness of the guitar riffs and frenzied vocals are mediated by the rhythm section in a really complimentary way. It’s obvious the band has really great chemistry.

This album is a must have for melodic post- punk lovers, but I think its the type of record a lot of people would enjoy. Every track is good, but my favorites are Proofread, Nitty Picky, CCTV, and Background Check. Check it out!

Thanks for reading!

-Angela

Hello and thanks for reading. I have been listening to KOHTI TUHOA a lot lately. I recently moved and Pelon Neljäs Valtakunta keeps finding its way back onto my turntable. I wrote about them in a staff pick a few years ago when I first heard them. They instantly had me hooked. When I heard their PAINAJAINEN cover, I lost my mind. On the album I just mentioned they have a song entitled “Kohti Tuhoa.” Unfortunately, there are times when a band has a song named after the band and it just doesn’t hit very hard. But every now and again there are occasions like this where it hits so hard you punch the fuckin air, even if you’re just jamming in your room alone. I feel like when you name a song after the band, it must be like the best song ever. It probably won’t have the same effect when you pull it out of the context of the full album, but “A Mean While” by MEANWHILE is another excellent song of this style. The lyrics are super clever, too. My drive to work takes about as long as the Who Killed Dove EP. I’ve been playing it every day for the past two weeks I think, haha. Funny enough, the song starts off with a song entitled “Crow.”

Anyway, today seems like a good day. I’m looking forward to whooping ass tonite in laser tag, and as you can see from my staff pic, I had a pretty sick mail day yesterday. I’ve been looking for this HEADCLEANERS 7” for ages it feels like. It feels great to cross one off the want list. (Yes, I have an actual written out want list.) I still desperately seek Extrem P with a green cover… I hope one day I find a copy to cherish and love forever, until death do us part. I got this copy of Disinfection in the mail from the UK alongside a few other new releases. I am here today to talk about one of those new releases, TÀRREGA 91’ on La Vida Es Un Mus. I saw they dropped a few new releases at once recently, and TÀRREGA 91’ instantly grabbed my attention. The cover looked classic, and even the name sounded classic as hell. I went to check it out, and surprise, the first track had my full attention! The band was described to take influence from bands like HHH, MG15, and ARROGANTA AGITATORER. I can definitely hear this, but one thing I hear (and see) is TAMPERE SS. Aside from the cover looking similar to an ‘80s Finnish punk collage, Tàrrega is the name of a city, just like Tampere. For the song structure, I mean of course at the end of the day it’s all DISCHARGE, but they have a few slower songs remind me of classic Finnish bands like TAMPERE SS or RIISTETYT. Speaking of RIISTEYT, the back cover of this TÀRREGA 91’ EP looks similar to Laki Ja Järjestys. The TÀRREGA 91’ discs are white labels, and they have these tiny gold stickers on them. They look just like the stickers Vote Vasko (P. Tuotanto) put on the represses of Laki Ja Järjestys and Systeemi Ei Toimi E.P. Haha, alright… enough of the nerd shit. Aside from TÀRREGA 91’ referencing their city of origin, it’s also referencing the year tons of youth rioted and nearly burned down their town hall. So sick. Per usual I didn’t really explain what the band sounds like but whatever. Overall, this is a killer record, and I would check it out if you have not. Alright that’s all for today. Thanks for reading and thanks for the support!

It’s Thursday and Newsletter time once again. Hi there everyone. Thank you so much for reading and supporting the store. We truly appreciate it. You have more than enough options for your screen time and buying needs, so any of it you throw our way means a lot. Cheers to you all. I always say the same thing each week, but it’s true, records are coming at us (thankfully) at a continued deluge rate. All sorts of stuff: cheap, expensive, rare, common, but all good. At least we think so. This week we worked on a nice collection that had some cool 70s Prog along with a lot of interesting UK pressed 45s from the Post Punk era. Those will be hitting the floor in the weeks to come. I bought another bunch of records the other day from a chap which we had to brush off outside first before bringing them inside due to the heavy layer of dust and fluff covering them all. I spent a couple of days dusting and cleaning them, getting black hands and sneezing constantly, but at the end came out with some nice records. So, although it may seem to some that we’re spending our time taking selfies and eating bonbons, we are working hard to make these records with all this great music available to you at a fair price. Sometimes we may pose on social media holding a record. This apparently annoys some, but guess what? That’s the game and how things work.

One of the rewards for going home with dust in your hair and lungs is that occasionally, as a record store jerk, you get to bring home a cool record. From the bunch of post punk 45s that I mentioned, I did grab a Wire—Dot Dash single. We are all big Wire fans here at Sorry State manors, as are you probably. I won’t front and say that I was hip to them out of the gate. I was just a kid in 1977, but sometime in the mid 1980s or so, I was introduced to their first two records and later the third. During the Brit Pop era of the 1990s, Wire became quite the influencers, to the point that they had to take bands to court for ripping them off. Anyhow, over the years, I have collected those first three albums and surrounding singles whenever I found a copy I could afford at the time. I still need a Mannequin single (don’t we all) but crossing off the Dot Dash one from the ol’ want list does feel good. What a crackin’ tune it is too and not an album track to boot, along with the B-side song Options R. For the last few decades, I have thankfully owned the Wire Play Pop compilation that had Dot Dash and Mannequin on it, so wasn’t without a version, but as all record nerds know, that’s not the same as owning the original singles. Who doesn’t love a picture sleeve with exclusive tracks?

As I said, Dot Dash is a cracking tune. Great catchy chorus—something about not crashing, with the trademark Wire guitar sound over a boppy beat. I had always thought the dot dash was a morse code reference, but now looking at the sleeve and listening again to the lyrics, it’s apparently about car headlights and their fog settings. Fair enough. Genius stuff and all under two and a half minutes. A proper length for a pop song.

Daniel and I were talking about some of the later Wire records and in particular A Bell Is A Cup…Until It Is Struck from 1988, as there was a copy of that one in this one collection. I admit to not being familiar with that one, along with The Drill from the 1990s. Daniel gave a big thumbs up to A Bell and so Jeff and I gave it a spin earlier. Naturally it’s a good record and of course I want it, but might have to be good and spend my money on food or rent or some other waste of finances. We promise we don’t take all the good stuff home ourselves. That’s called getting high on your own supply. Lol. Although I did have to convince Daniel that he shouldn’t feel bad about taking a couple of Prog and Krautrock records for himself.

So yeah, Wire, they’re awesome and you should listen to their records. That’s all I got on that for this week. Get to discovering them if you are new to the group and don’t forget the later albums too, there’s plenty to enjoy.

Cheers -Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Another week, another smattering of records piling up around us here at Sorry State. I’ll be honest, I’m a bit flustered while I’m writing this. I’m the resident diabetic in the Sorry State crew, and I’ve been having a rough go of it for the last 12 hours or so. My insulin pump broke, and all morning I’ve been on and off the phone with both my doctor and customer service for the company who manufactures my pump. I’ll be working at the store today like usual, but keeping an extra close eye on my blood sugar, and sneaking into the bathroom periodically to give myself shots haha. Oh well, such is life. I’m trying to stay positive. Dom is playing “Electricity” by OMD, so that’s helping.

Speaking of music that eases feelings of frustration, I’ve been listening to Eddie & The Hot Rods a whole lot. Specifically, the Life on The Line record. I’m a regular viewer of the Analog Attack YouTube channel, and have tried my best to keep up with the series What Are You Listening To? Mike, the face of Analog Attack, has been cranking out episodes with different special guests every single week. Selfishly, I hope this rate of output doesn’t slow because, as a fellow record nerd, I eat it up. I love seeing dudes bringing good energy and cool records week after week. Should Mike invite me on and give me a chance to be a guest on the show one day, then I’d love it… if I can overcome my deep-seated self-consciousness, that is. Anyway, I digress. Eric Good, Pittsburgh resident and all around cool hardcore dude, talked about Eddie & The Hot Rods when he appeared on a recent episode. This rekindled my interest in the band.

Life On The Line is one of those records that I’ve seen come through the shop a million times, but I’ve never taken a copy home. And it’s not even really an expensive record. Which is weird, because this record is right up my alley. There’s a few bands that I would lump into the category of UK pub rock with a melodic edge that falls right on the heels of the punk explosion. “Do Anything You Wanna Do” is really a song to end all songs in my book. I’ve been listening to that song on constant repeat ad nauseum style. I’ve been in a weird mood over the last couple weeks and the melancholic undercurrent of this song has been striking a real sus-chord with me (get it? I’m such a dork). The song has that perfect blend of early glam a la T Rex, but mixed with a bit Heartbreakers attitude, Stiv Bators Disconnected-era catchiness, and that underlying debt to Mott The Hoople and Bowie. Speaking of which, (they mention this in the Analog Attack episode too) the dude on the front cover of the record kinda looks like Mick Ronson – well, you know, without my face being expertly super-imposed with Photoshop overtop of his haha. The lyrics speak to that feeling of dissatisfaction with your surroundings and desperate yearning for more. Acknowledging feelings of loneliness, but with that hard outer shell of feeling like you’re better off alone. The lyrics are just vague enough to be totally timeless and (for me anyway) relatable. The sentiment is similar on “Quit This Town,” which is also a banger and a bit more of an up-tempo rager than the anthemic opener. And I gotta be honest: the first 2 tracks are where it’s at for me. Eddie and the boys kinda lose me on “Telephone Girl.” That’s not to say there aren’t other great moments on this album. But in my childlike obsessive replay listening habits, I think a single with “Do Anything..” on the A-side and “Quit This Town” on the B would be ideal. Just a damn classic.

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

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Claire Dederer: Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma (2023, Knopf)

One of my least favorite duties at Sorry State is managing our “banned list,” the list of albums and artists we refuse to carry. This is not a task I am well equipped for. While I think of myself as a morally upstanding person, I don’t have a strong sense of justice. I tend to look at the world more analytically, examining situations from multiple perspectives, and as someone who loves music and art, my curiosity and love for art is apt to outweigh my sense of right and wrong. So, I rely on my colleagues for guidance here, and when they’re offended by something we carry, I trust that it’s the right decision to remove it from the racks. It’s often a difficult decision, though. Some things, such as music that explicltly promotes hateful ideologies, are beyond the pale. However, what about work by artists with stains on their legacy? When I was younger, many people thought it was OK to listen to the first few Skrewdriver records, which they made before they became an explicitly racist and nationalist band. Nowadays, all the band’s releases are taboo, and they’re all banned from sale on mainstream sites like eBay and Discogs. But what about the country singer David Allan Coe, who made at least one album full of slurs and other reprehensible ideas, which he seems to have intended as a joke. Do we remove all his records from the shelves? What about people who have done bad things which don’t show up in in their work? We didn’t have to decide to stop carrying Bill Cosby’s records because people just stopped buying them. But what about Michael Jackson? Morrissey? Miles Davis? Our customers are still eager to buy those artists’ records. Where is the line, and how do you determine what side of it things are on? That is the question Claire Dederer addresses in this book.

Once I started reading reviews of Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma this spring I was eager to read it, because I realized this is an issue I think about all the time, and I desperately wanted to read an analysis that’s smart, or even (fingers crossed) wise. The problem is that most sane writers don’t want to touch this topic with a ten-foot pole (in fact, I find myself nervous to write this staff pick), because the stakes are high and the dangers of missteps are real. Sympathizing with a monster can get you branded an apologist, putting your own politics and ethics in question. Thus, the discourse around this topic is dominated by people with the most extreme views. Shouts of “burn the witch” play well on social media—I click on them despite my better judgment—and the only people who stand up against the zealots tend to be reactionary dummies. If someone uses the terms “cancel culture” or “woke,” that’s an immediate red flag for me, a signal that they’re an asshole, someone who thinks it’s acceptable to trample on other people’s feelings to protect the “freedoms” enjoyed by the privileged. As someone who cares about art and culture, it often seems impossible to find the middle path that respects the feelings of victims, marginalized groups, and other stakeholders while reserving space for artists to do what artists do… what we love them for doing.

Dederer’s book starts by examining the reputations of Roman Polanski and Woody Allen. These filmmakers make excellent test cases. Both made art that, at least at some point, was acknowledged as great, and both men have done bad things (though, as becomes apparent, there’s much more to be said than that). Dederer analyzes both cases at length, examining the work for evidence of the darkness we see in the bad things the artists did and tracking the discourse around these artists and their work, from the people who think they should be resigned to the dustbin of history to the people who think we should “separate the art from the artist,” and everyone in between. Consistency and easy answers are in short supply. The metaphor Dederer lands on to describe the situation is that of a stain. I find this metaphor apt because it’s so flexible. Stains can be larger or smaller, darker or lighter. Some people can live with stains and keep wearing clothes even after their stained, while others find themselves unable to unsee the stain, or rather to see past it. Whatever your attitude toward the stain, it’s still there.

Along the way, Dederer pulls a bunch of threads related to this central line of inquiry. There’s a fascinating chapter about women monsters, who are rare, but they exist. Unsurprisingly, what constitutes an unforgivable transgression is very different for a woman than it is for a man, as are our attitudes about the women who cross those boundaries. There’s also a great chapter about alcoholics and addicts, who present a more complicated case because the monsters aren’t just monsters; they’re also victims. And what of the addict in recovery? What happens to the stain when the artist commits to mending their ways? Is there any hope of redemption? Dederer also a fascinating reading of Lolita, a book I’ve never read because I am frightened of it. But I am always interested in what people have to say about it, and Dederer’s chapter on Nabokov and Lolita is gripping, a masterpiece of literary criticism. For Dederer, Nabokov is the anti-monster… unlike the bad men who made great art, Nabokov is (by all accounts) a decent person who made a monstrous piece of art, which both illustrates and complicates our feelings about the relationship between art and monstrosity.

If you’re looking for Dederer to provide a list of which artists are and are not beyond the pale, or even a stable rubric you can apply on your own, then you’re going to be disappointed. However, the book still has some substantial takeaways. A big one for me is that capitalism is a big part of the problem. Under capitalism, art is a commodity and the consumption of art-as-commodity is inherently politicized. Viewing art as a commodity complicates the picture in all kinds of ways, in no small part because of the system of celebrity that has built up around the culture industry. Appreciating a Woody Allen film—even if you don’t pay money for it—feels like an endorsement of Woody Allen, one that Allen and the people and businesses who associate with him profit from, if only indirectly. Try as we might, though, we can’t opt out of capitalism, and these problems are likely to remain with us for the foreseeable future. And even if Dederer doesn’t offer a solution to the fan’s dilemma, her book brings the issue into much clearer focus and does a great deal of work to carve out critical space for those of who value art’s ability to question, antagonize, and even offend.

Display Homes: What If You’re Right And They’re Wrong? 12” (Erste Theke Tonträger) As you might expect given how immersed I am in the world of music, I’m pretty much always playing something. While I treasure the time I get to listen attentively, often music is playing in the background while I do other tasks. Every once in a while—though not very often—something I have playing in the background is so interesting or exciting that I have to stop what I’m doing and give it my full attention. That’s what happened with this debut LP from Australia’s Display Homes. I was sitting at my desk, half my brain replying to emails or some other rote task while the other half (realistically, less than half) was checking out the latest releases on the German label Erste Theke Tonträger so I could put together an order. When I first started listening to What If You’re Right And They’re Wrong?, I thought I knew what I was in for. Display Homes’ music is upbeat and punky, with a bubbly bass high in the mix, scratchy guitars, and kind of yelp-y vocals… they reminded me a lot of Spread Joy, or maybe a less hardcore version of Warm Bodies or a less arty version of Lithics or Suburban Lawns. All this comparing and categorizing was happening almost subconsciously as I listened, but when Display Homes dropped into the instrumental chorus to “Nitty Picky,” my ears perked up and the music demanded my full attention. What a beautiful melody! Now that I’ve listened to this several times, I’m struck by what a masterpiece of a pop song “Nitty Picky” is. I love the way the song takes a strong left turn during the chorus, moving from the angular rhythms of the verses (which are cool in their own right) to the almost syrupy melody in the chorus. I also love that the chorus doesn’t have any vocals… the band recognized that the guitar hook was so strong that the singer’s best option is to lie back for a moment and let it shine. That stark contrast between the verses and the choruses strikes me as a Pixies-esque move (though Display Homes sounds nothing like the Pixies), and while having the chorus part depart so dramatically from the verses is a risk, when it pays off it pays off big. All that happens on the first track, but the rest of the record also brims with subtle and brilliant pop chops. “Proof Read” is a mid-album highlight, its tense and moody verses featuring vocal melodies strong enough for mainstream radio, but with a chorus pared down to dramatic stabs that are pure punk rock. Another highlight is the closing track “Aufrutschen,” whose shimmering guitars and brilliant bass line make me think of Jawbreaker circa 24 Hour Revenge Therapy. While What If You’re Right And They’re Wrong? has all the hallmarks of a cool underground punk record, and will appeal to people who follow labels like Feel It and Anti Fade, Display Homes has a knack for pop songcraft that’s something special.