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Hi and thanks for reading. I still have not really been listening to records lately. My life has been a mess, and I am trying to get myself under control. I still have a stack of records I need to listen to that I brought home from Finland and Sweden back in June. I have been reading some books here and there in my free time. I’ve been listening to BIG L and MOBB DEEP quite a bit, though. I have some of their records, but I have been listening to them online while I work. They are classics in my opinion, although I don’t always agree with the topics and language they use, haha.

The photo I used above is the foldout poster I mentioned last week from the LAMA Väliaikainen 7”. If you still haven’t grabbed one of these box sets—what are you waiting for?! A Sorry State supporter from Finland, Joona, wrote me after my last staff pick and let me know some cool trivia about LAMA’s track Väliaikainen. I was not aware this song is actually a cover of a Finnish songwriter named Tapio Rautavaara, and it originally came out in 1955. Wild. I know the Finns love cover songs, but this still caught me off guard.

The DEATH SIDE reissues have finally arrived at our HQ. It sucks you can’t order them from us at the moment, but I am hoping we can get some more copies soon. Daniel and Jeff have been chipping away at the mail-order queue, so if you haven’t gotten a tracking update for your copy, I am sure you can expect an update before the week is over. I wanted to mention this here cos I was SUPER impressed with the packaging on this one. The massive booklet is so nice and well-done. Nice work, Paco!!! This reissue has been needed for ages now.

I picked up one of these DESTRUXION AMERICA 12”s last week. This record isn’t doing anything new, but I think it’s a good listen. While I hear some similarities to other contemporary bands, I do hear something else going on in there I don’t really hear from bands these days. If you haven’t heard this one, check it out!

We got these STRUL LPs in stock the other day. STRUL has been around for a while, and I initially checked them out when Jeff and I released the SLAN 7” in USA. STRUL and SLAN share one member, and both bands make some ripping Swedish hardcore. When I initially checked out STRUL they didn’t really stick out to me, but this new LP Fuck Strul is a certified ripper. Jeff and I jammed a copy in the store the other day and I had to grab a copy. If you haven’t checked this one out yet, I would suggest it cos you’ll likely need a copy as well.

Oh yeah, I don’t think I have mentioned FRIGÖRA here yet. This is another reissue that has been needed for ages now. Their 7” and Dance of the Plague Bearer LP go for big bucks on the secondhand market these days, especially for being 90s records. I don’t have either of those records, so this one was even more essential for me. Aside from compiling all their material, General Speech added three unreleased tracks to this record. So sick. I don’t have a copy yet, as I mail-ordered directly from General Speech cos I had to get that limited color vinyl on this one, haha. If you aren’t familiar with FRIGÖRA, you can stream the entire reissue here. I know this style isn’t for everyone, but it hits the spot for me. Alright, that’s it for this week then. Thanks for reading, and much love to my friends out there.

Hey there everyone. Thanks for taking the time to check in with us this week. Hopefully it serves as a distraction from the horrible news and bs that’s all around us these days.

We have had a lot of cool shit come through the store in the last week or so. Restocks on current bangers, reissues of classics, and more obscure deep cut titles. One that caught my eye and has proved to be a winner is my pick for you this week. It’s a compilation too, and anyone who knows me will tell you I love a good comp.

Various Artists – All The Young Droids (Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985). School Daze

This is a lovingly compiled collection of obscure and under the radar synth pop and DIY sounds from a bygone era. It has been curated by Phil King, bass player from Lush (among his many credits) and put out by Glasgow-based label School Daze, which is a subsidiary label to Night School Records. They have done a nice job indeed. Twenty-four tracks of synth-based pop and punkier sounds from artists whose names, for the most part, will be known only to the keenest collectors of music from this period. Almost all the tracks originate from the United Kingdom, but there are one or two Euro and World entries included for good measure. The collection comes with a nice booklet, reproducing sleeves and providing artist and track information. The copies we received were on pink vinyl, and there is supposed to be a clear version too. These are stated to be in a run of just 500 each, but there looks to be a more available black vinyl pressing. Obviously, once we sell the copies we have here, there is no guarantee that we will get more of the same, but hopefully we should get something. Should demand require it, naturally.

Synth pop, I know, isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. Often looked down on by some, as a genre it’s almost a poor cousin to the cooler punk and guitar-based styles of the day. Every genre has good and bad examples of the respective music. I would argue that, if anything, a lot of the synth-based music being made during this pioneering period of the late 1970s and early 1980s was far more progressive, new and exciting than a lot of the stodgy rock music being made then. I’ve always had a soft spot for it, probably beginning with my love for Soft Cell, Human League, Heaven 17, OMD and the like. I still dig those records out and enjoy them to this day. I’m not opposed to pop music at all. A good tune is a good tune at the end of the day.

On this compilation, the focus isn’t on the known names, but rather those who were on smaller labels and those who just put out one or two records independently. There are some names, like Ian North from Milk ‘N Cookies fame, who might be recognized, but probably not this track by him. One of my favorite tracks is “I’m On A Rocket” by Harry Kakoulli, who was in Squeeze. His contribution is potentially the more post-punkish of the set and has guitars on it too. Great cut that sort of reminds me of the stuff Elton Motello was doing. Kakoulli released one album in 1980 under his name and it’s not too bad. It includes the Rocket track and a couple of other good ones. You should be able to find it cheaply, especially in the U.K.

For me, the cuts that work the best on the compilation are those like Kakoulli’s which are less than obvious synth pop. Out of the twenty-four tracks, it’s the ones that pull out all the pop cliches that are the least interesting. You’ll always have one or two tracks on a double LP collection that aren’t your faves, especially when digging into more obscure selections, but thankfully on this one there aren’t many. I’ve only had the record a week or so and played it a few times, but didn’t hear anything that made me say, “this sucks.” Naturally, individual experiences will vary, but dollar for dollar this set is great value in my opinion.

For archivists, historians and just those interested, the full-size color booklet is a treasure trove of information. Informative notes, photos, record sleeve scans and even a rundown of the electronic instruments used on the records heard. Phil King is no stranger to curating compilations of this nature, but on this one he has done an exceptional job I believe. Kudos, sir. It sounds great too. To make the package even more attractive, you will find some real rarities and some unreleased tracks that those of us stateside are very unlikely to stumble across in the wild.

I’ll leave by repeating the quote from NME music journalist Nick Kent that is printed in the booklet.

“And then came the rise of synth pop: blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended: not with a blood-curdling bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”

Hilarious. He thought he was being clever by putting down the music, but of course, as we all know, electronic music wasn’t the end of pop, rock or anything else. It continued to grow and evolve and spawn a whole new culture. Whether you like it or not. The dinosaurs of bloated ‘60s and ‘70s rock are the ones that sound dated now and barely hold up, whilst a lot of the “new” music made back then still sounds fresh today. I’ll take Depeche Mode over Foghat any flippin’ day, mate. Kent was also wrong in thinking synth-based music was new. He obviously hadn’t heard of Wendy Carlos or Delia Derbyshire or picked up a copy of Switched On Moog, which coincidentally we had a copy of the other day, and I was jamming in the store and sold right off the turntable. Don’t be a Luddite. Sewing machines didn’t end the world, and neither has a Moog synth. Will we eventually be killed by robots in the future? Possibly. But for now, let’s enjoy the noises they can make.

Cheers and see you all next time.

-Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Even when there’s nothing eventful happening, life seems to feel like a blur. Whenever I manage to escape my routine, I’m actually enjoying enduring the heat outside this summer, believe it or not. Trying to be within proximity of as many charcoal grills cooking veggie burgers and drinking as many beers by bodies of water as I can. Because Daniel was on his beach trip, we skipped a newsletter last week. So, what have I been up to? I guess I drove up to Richmond with a crew of people to go see Alvilda about a week ago! They were so great live. It was like a dream, or “a movie” as the kids say. A welcome joyful escape. My good buddy Eric Chubb opened the gig with his new band The Crazed where, rather than beating the life out of a drum set, he actually took on guitar and vocal duties. They covered “Walking Out On Love” and I saw the Alvilda ladies singing along. Pretty cool. Look forward to seeing what that band does next.

Now for my staff pick. Rather than talking about joyful dreamscapes, I’m going to talk about cold, heavy darkness. I will admit that I felt quite sad when Ozzy passed away. I did have a lil session of blasting some Sabbath along with the first couple Ozzy solo records. Those records are still special and were very formative for me. Especially when I was learning guitar, my dad was basically drilling into my head that Randy Rhoads is the gold standard and God’s gift to awesome rock guitar playing. Haha. I still love Randy’s playing. But along with my rotation of Ozzy listening, I’ve been throwing on this newly reissued album Tears by Sacrifice.

My familiarity with Sacrifice was somewhat limited. Just to be clear, we’re talking about the Sacrifice from Japan, not the Canadian band. I’ve always been drawn to Japanese heavy metal, my interest starting with more accessible bands like Loudness, but then moving onto Flatbacker, Sniper, and heavier stuff like Sabbrabells. In my exploration, I maybe had some vague awareness of Sacrifice’s first album Crest of Black from 1987. But of course, I’d never gotten my hands on a copy. I would later learn that this album is deemed sort of a “cult classic” for Japanese metal. Most of the Japanese stuff I’d heard was still glam-adjacent or still rooted in what I think of as more Scorpions-influenced rock. Even the more speed metal stuff still had flashy, soaring vocals and guitar work that was decidedly Judas Priest-esque. I discovered that Sacrifice’s sound is much darker and heavier—scary, even.

After Crest of Black, Sacrifice released two more albums that were only available on CD format in their initial release. Bitter Lake Recordings, a label that reissues a lot of great stuff, managed to finally release these long overdue Sacrifice albums on vinyl for the first time. My journey with Sacrifice really began with their 1990 album Total Steel when Bitter Lake reissued that record back in 2020. The evolution from Crest of Black to Total Steel moves from the brittle, cultish, Venom-esque metal sound of a band’s early stages to a much more polished, tight and crispy production. What’s funny is that even though I guess I could have easily gone and checked the band’s Discogs page, I didn’t really know another step in the Sacrifice trilogy was awaiting me. Honestly, I’m kinda happy my initial experience hearing Tears was throwing the actual record onto the turntable for the first time.

What can I say about Sacrifice’s sound? I guess you would describe them as a thrash metal band. But I think a hallmark, signature element of the band’s sound is how dirgey the riffs are, like these gritty, plodding chugs played with groove and restraint waiting to explode. Makes me clench my teeth. Like, I would say a good portion of Sacrifice’s songwriting is mid-paced, low and grunting. But like insanely powerful. The word I want to use is like “muscular?” These riffs make me feel like a scary dude in the back of a smoky motorcycle club with humungous biceps is slowly walking over to punch me repeatedly in the face. I would, for example, describe a lot thrash guitar playing as being very biting and sharp. The guitar playing on this record is like blunt force trauma. It feels like being bludgeoned. If you wanna know what a go-to Sacrifice riff sounds like, just listen to the guitar intro of “Time Slips Through In Front Of Your Eyes” with the way the beat kicks in, and there you have it.

On the first epic track, “Never Land Never Again,” this boiling intensity, which is played in the pocket at a slow groove, finally grows into this grandiose outro with the tightest double-kick drum work you’ve ever heard, only to devolve into this slow, doomy, almost ceremonious completion. I feel like this crescendo-like building of song structures is masterful. But then, the band amps up the energy on the 2nd track, “Breaking The Silence of The Night,” which is like if you took the punkified Motörhead-influenced foundation of G-Zet, but then covered it in stainless steel armor. I gotta say, for the guitar tone being so gritty and blunt, I love guitarist Hiroyuki Murakami’s lead playing. In contrast to the riffing, his solos are these bright, meditative, intelligently structured melodic flourishes. Literally goosebump inducing.

From what I can decipher, it seems like Sacrifice was mostly driven by bandleader and lead vocalist Akira Sugiuchi. His voice is so unique, totally raspy like he’s been preparing to go on stage by chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking a fifth of Jack Daniel’s. He rides over the top of the instrumentation with these throaty, abrasive, bellowing screams from the underworld. That said, the vocal arrangements, along with the chanted gang background vocals, are super catchy. Like how the huge chanted vocal hook of “Do I Fight For God” follows the rhythm of the riff. I can just imagine Sacrifice playing back in the early 90s and seeing a sea of studded, leather-clad fists in the air just shouting along.

Apparently, Sacrifice has recently reunited and they just played a couple shows in California. In true DIY underground love fashion, I think they only played with punk bands! Like I think The Dark played the show. So rad. Damn, really wish I’d known so I could have seen them… Oh well!

Anyway, I feel like these records should be considered underground metal classics. Maybe with these two 90s albums finally getting the proper vinyl treatment and being available outside of Japan, Sacrifice may finally get the credit they deserve. Hope you Sorry State readers give Tears a chance based on my description. Or not, whatever haha. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Let’s take a break from all this punk nonsense and go for something a little different this week:

Stray: S/T LP (Transatlantic, 1970)

Stray was from London and formed in 1966, releasing this self-titled album, their debut, in 1970 on Transatlantic Records. I know basically nothing about the members of Stray or what they got up to in the years between 1966 and 1970, but one thing I really love about this album is that you can hear all four of those years of massive development in the rock world in Stray’s music. It’s hard to overestimate how much happened in that short period. In 1966 Revolver was the hot new Beatles album, but by 1970, Led Zeppelin had three albums out, Black Sabbath had two, the Stooges Fun House had come out… the 60s were fuckin’ dead, man!

Not so for Stray, though. Or at least not completely. Stray’s leadoff track, “All in Your Mind,” feels like it comes from that perfect moment in 60s rock when the era’s best artists had been fully trained as hook-generating machines, yet they’d also grown up a little, maybe turned on, and gained some artistic ambition. The songs got more complex, but kept their big pop hooks. Records like the aforementioned Revolver, the Kinks’ Face to Face, and the emerging freakbeat scene with bands like the Creation and Pretty Things feel like the musical antecedents of “All in Your Mind.” Maybe it’s the word “Mind,” but my brain also jumps to another favorite from late 60s London, the Open Mind.

That’s hardly the entire story with Stray, though… in fact, I don’t think anyone would call Stray a freakbeat band, as the emerging hard rock scene and the high psychedelia of 1967/8 are also fundamental ingredients on this album. For starters, “All in Your Mind” isn’t a concise two-minute pop tune, but a 9-minute-and-fifteen-second labyrinth of a song. Trust me when I say, though, that those nine minutes fly by. I think that’s where the pop song craft training comes in… Stray gets freaky with it, but keeps the song exciting and packed with hooks and melody. (There is a three-and-a-half-minute single edit of “All in Your Mind” out there, but I haven’t heard it.) “Around the World in Eighty Days” is more in that high psychedelia mode, its huge chorus hook and lyrics evoking a sense of childlike wonder reminding me of so many progeny of Sgt Pepper’s. Side A then ends with “Time Machine,” which starts off with a Sabbathian crunch and wanders into a sitar-emulating fuzz guitar solo, a heftier, more substantial take on the raga rock descended from “Within You Without You.”

I’ve seen Stray described as a hard rock band, but aside from “Taken All the Good Things” and “Only What You Make It,” their songs generally avoid the blues / Cream / Yardbirds influence that shaped so much proto-metal. Instead of the blues licks and structures, what Stray takes from that sound is the density, the insistence of the rhythm, and the sheer volume. In blues rock, vocals can often seem like an afterthought, and the guitar solo is typically the gravitational center of the song. But, like I said, Stray’s songs, for all their stretched-outness and heaviness, still feel like pop tunes with short instrumental hooks and vocal melodies as their basic building blocks.

So yeah, check it out… a fantastic and pretty unique record, I think. Oh, and I should also mention that Stray is often cited as one of Steve Harris from Iron Maiden’s favorite bands (Maiden even covered “All in Your Mind”), but I can’t hear much of a musical connection myself. Don’t let that dissuade you from checking this out; just don’t expect it to sound anything like Iron Maiden. And if you can track down an older pressing, the packaging is pretty cool, with the band’s logo die-cut into the jacket to show the inner sleeve. The inner part of the cutout has been ripped away on my copy, but you can just see how the band’s logo is stylized into the outline of a cat… pretty neat.

Frigöra: Fullständig Frigörelse 12" (General Speech) General Speech Records brings us a vinyl discography with bonus material from these mid-90s Japanese crusties. To be honest, I wasn’t too familiar with Frigöra before this record. I knew them as that Japanese band with Swedish lyrics, but I didn’t know their music because it fell into one of my blind spots. In 1995-1998, when these records were coming out, I was still listening to NOFX and Pennywise, and by the time I got hip to Japanese punk a few years later, these records were nowhere to be found. Eventually I’d grow obsessed with finding out about older Japanese punk, but Frigöra weren’t far back enough to have the vintage patina of 80s bands or even early 90s groups like Bastard. I’m pleased to learn all about Frigöra today, as I probably appreciate their music today more than I would have at any time in the past. Fullständig Frigörelse captures two iterations of the band with different rhythm sections, the first of whom recorded a self-titled 7” and a split with Diskonto, and the latter their 12” EP, Dance of the Plague Bearer. The earlier version of the band is as steeped in 80s Swedish hardcore as you might expect. While they have Mob 47’s insane tempos, they also capture some of the magic from the Shitlickers EP, particularly on their 1995 self-titled EP, which has something of the uniquely desperate tone that only Shitlickers had. Frigöra’s sound changed a bit for the 12”, the new drummer playing with less groove, the rhythms getting more fractured, and the guitars incorporating multiple distorted tones for a wider sense of dynamics. While the cover art and title might make you think Dance of the Plague Bearer is a stenchcore record, it really points the way toward bands like D-Clone and Lebenden Toten who took the Disorder / Confuse / Gai sound into the psychedelic stratosphere. Fullständig Frigörelse is packed with General Speech’s typical care, with crisp graphics and a fold-out insert that reproduces the graphics from the original release with nothing in the way of heavy-handed historicization.

Major brain fog has come over me this week, so this might be a short one! I hope everyone has had a great week and has picked up some really great records. I have been really nostalgic recently when it comes to music; honestly when am I not? I seem to always go back to the records I listened to in high school and college to try and grasp a glimpse of how fun those days were, not having a care in the world. Having to be an adult with bills sucks. Summertime also makes me want to listen to a lot of pop punk from the late 90s and early 2000s.

The Huntingtons—High School Rock. I never thought I would own this record, as older 90s Tooth & Nail Records are becoming very hard to find and very expensive. I was lucky enough to stop by this shop in Wilmington on the way to beach and there it was on the wall, and signed by all the members. I knew I could not leave the store without it! This band is legendary for one big reason. Joey Ramone ended up doing some shows at CBGBs before his death. If I remember correctly, he had a bunch of bands submit recordings of them doing Ramones songs as some sort of competition to see what band he would front as what would become his last time playing live at CBGBs before his death in 2001. The Huntingtons have had numerous Ramones cover albums put out on Tooth & Nail Records and Burnt Toast Vinyl, as well as a bunch of original records on those same labels. High School Rock is one of my favorites, if only because it’s the first one I heard from the band back in the late 90s. This is as good as it gets when it comes to Ramones style pop punk. Please check them out if you haven’t heard them. There is also a video of the show on youtube. Until next time. Thanks for scrolling all this way down at the bottom to read my pick this week!

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a nice week. It’s been hot and rainy here in Raleigh, but what’s new? Almost a year ago, I wrote about the Norman Blake album Whiskey Before Breakfast. Coincidently, I finally just came across a copy of his 1972 album, Home In Sulphur Springs. Another album full of some of my favorite songs he’s written and some incredible picking. I really love all the instrumental tracks on here, especially Warp Factor #9. Usually once a week on one of my days off, if the weather is nice, I like to go on a hike at Umstead State Park here, especially in the summertime. This song always makes me think of cruising down the trails there alongside the river and the light shining through in patches through the canopy of the forest. I probably just listened to this song while doing this one time and it’s secretly burned into my memory, but also the instrumental just gives off so much emotion and paints a vivid picture, all without lyrics. My favorite track on here, though, is Randall Collins, which is the song that originally got me hooked on Norman Blake via Billy Strings. It’s just such a cool song. Other highlights on the album include Cattle In The Cane, Ginseng Sullivan, and Bringing In The Georgia Mail. This record is essential if you’re into this kinda music and I’m happy to finally own a copy.

Hi and thanks for reading. I got my LAMA box set in the mail the order day, and I want to write a bit about that. But first, I wanted to briefly mention these two reissues we have back in stock. I wrote about BARN AV REGNBUEN and SISTE DAGERS HELVETE about one year ago, when we returned from tour with some distro copies. PUBLIC ACID also played at Blitz in Oslo on the way to K-town like we had done the year before. I met up with my homie Bård again and I grabbed a nice stack of his reissues to restock Sorry State. Both of these bands rip, especially BARN AV REGNBUEN. Compared to other Norsk bands I think they are a bit underrated. Bård explained to me that the sound on SISTE DAGERS HELVETE was improved from the original pressing, as the band was not happy with the original pressing on Rock-O-Rama. They had a few compilation appearances, which are included on this reissue as well. BARN AV REGNBUEN compiles their 7” on X-Port Plater, their absolutely raging flexi that was released the year after, and some bonus tracks that I have no idea where they came from. If you don’t have these reissues already and like Norwegian hardcore, I consider them essential!

Moving on, I think LAMA was the first Finnish hardcore band. I could be wrong, or maybe it’s just a matter of opinion. Maybe this opinion is crazy to a Finn, haha. I know they weren’t full-blown distorted like KAAOS or CADGERS, but they certainly walk a fine line between punk and hardcore. LAMA began in the late ‘70s under a different name and their first record came out in 1980. RATTUS was another Finnish hardcore band who began in the late ‘70s with their first record coming out in 1980 as well; however, the sound was not nearly as pummeling as LAMA. RATTUS kinda had a ’77 sound up until their legendary 1982 Rajoitettu Ydinsota EP, at which time they were clearly under the influence of DISCHARGE. I am not sure what LAMA’s influences were early on, but on their 1983 7” Ajatuksen Loppu I can certainly hear some DISCHARGE.

LAMA was from Helsinki. They released four 7”s and an LP between 1980 and 1983. I’m not too familiar with their line-ups and related bands, but I know they had some ties to UNICEF. UNICEF was just a drunk punk band who was also from Helsinki, and they had a revolving line-up. I read they didn’t like to be paid at gigs, instead requested to be paid in booze—Sorbus more specifically, haha. It’s funny the title track on their sole 7” is actually a Skrewdriver cover sung in Finnish… Rane Raitsikka was in UNICEF, and he was also playing bass in LAMA. He was not an original member though; the only record he played on was Ajatuksen loppi. He got his nickname from Epe, the singer of LAMA. The name came from when he had placed small bombs he found at a construction site in Lepakko between some tram tracks. Juha “Jusa” Ranta was also in UNICEF and LAMA. He was not the original drummer of LAMA but he played on all their 80s records (I think).

So, these LAMA 7”s have been reissued before. Back in the ‘80s the original label who released them all, Johanna, compiled them onto a 12” entitled …Ja Mikään Ei Muuttunut. Svart had previously done a reissue of this as well, actually. Back in 2009 Finnish label Combat Rock Industry reissued all the LAMA 7”s in their original format. I don’t have any of those pressings, but to me it’s always cool when stuff is reissued on their original format. One could argue the 12” compilation is better cos most of the 7”s have only 2-3 songs each on them. But their third 7”, Väliaikainen, has four tracks alongside one of the coolest foldout posters ever. These 7” reissues have been hard to come by, and you’d likely have to pay over double the original retail cost to secure a copy on the second-hand market. I think they were each limited to 500 copies.

Svart always keeps the cost of box sets considerably low for what they contain, and I really appreciate that. They reproduced the LAMA 7”s sleeves quite well and the sound is excellent. The discs sound nice and crisp, and the bass really carries through. The box itself is fairly flimsy, but I don’t care about that. I kinda dislike box sets in general and put the actual box on a shelf never to be seen again, and then I file the records individually, according to country, in alphabetical order.

Svart has a pre-order up for LAMA’s s/t 1982 LP now. They’ve previously reissued this, but again like most LAMA reissues, coming across a copy of that in the USA in the last handful of years has not been so common. If you don’t have that one, you’re definitely gunna need it too—and Sorry State will certainly have copies. Continuing about LAMA reissues, I wanted to point on that we have some copies of this LAMA live cassette Onks Marko Täällä? from 1982. This is kind of a nerdy archival reissue. You’ll probably never see one of these in the wild, so it’s great that the Finnish Hardcore label gave this one an official reissue, and on its original cassette format.

Alright before I go, for a long time I thought Väliaikainen (1981) was my favorite LAMA shit, but lately I really lean towards their 1980 debut Totuus Löytyy Kaurapuurosta. Hilariously, the title track ended up on an 80s television ad for some Finnish oatmeal brand named Elovena. It’s not actually LAMA playing the song in the commercial and they’ve altered the song a bit, but it’s still a pretty good laugh. Alright, I think that sums it up for this week. If you haven’t gotten your copy of the LAMA box set yet, what are you waiting for?! Cheers and thanks for your support.

Hey there Sorry Staters! Thanks for clicking on the newsletter and taking a read. We always appreciate it. I hope your July is going well. My summer of dentist chair surfing is continuing well. Had a couple of fillings today and next week I have a triple extraction and bone graft to look forward to. Yay! I’m still not done either. The big one comes last. Certainly, as far as expense goes. Oh well. What else am I going to spend thousands of dollars on that I don’t have?

This week I thought I would shine a spotlight on some cool vintage sounds from the African continent. We recently stocked some interesting titles from the always impressive Awesome Tapes From Africa label along with one or two others from the Born Bad label from France and the always reliable Numero Group.

The other week, John Scott and I were listening to several cool records online, and I checked to see what we could order for the store and managed to get one or two in for you guys.

Firstly, we were loving the keyboard sounds of Hailu Mergia from Ethiopia. If you have dipped your toes into the world of Ethiopian jazz and funk, then you’ll be familiar with that unmistakable sound even if you don’t know the names of artists like this. Awesome Tapes From Africa, a great reissue label, has done us all a favor by making this wonderful music readily available to us here in 2025 on the other side of the world. Hailu Mergia played the organ, keyboards and synths and has had a career lasting over fifty years. We got in his first record, Tezeta, originally released in 1976, that has him backed by the famous Wallias Band. That group was formed by Mulatu Astatke, arguably the most well-known and successful of the Ethiopian new school. He was also a keyboard and organ player, but crucially brought the sounds of the vibraphone and a Latin influence on to the local scene. If you have listened to any of his records and liked them, you’ll no doubt enjoy the music of Hailu Mergia.

The second record we have by him, Shemonmuanaye, was recorded later in the 1980s and utilizes then current synths in addition to the already used organ. On this record, he revitalizes the sounds of the previous decade and creates a unique mood. Whenever we have had this spinning in the store, someone always asks who’s playing. This record and the previous one mentioned have a very calming and chill vibe to them. There’s nothing too crazy or funky here but just nice pleasing music. It’s hard to really describe. Just gentle, repetitive grooves over sparse drum machine beats. It can sound almost mystical in places and has a very hypnotic sound. One for a summer’s day to relax to or great to have on whilst working. Highly recommended. A companion record would be the collection of unreleased recordings from Charles Stepney called Step By Step, which I have spoken about here previously. If you dig that lo-fi retro groove thing.

From Cameroon, we have a cool collection of music from Frances Bebey called Psychedelic Sanza 1982–1984, released by Born Bad Records. Bebey was a multi-instrumentalist, writer, poet, singer and producer whose career spanned three decades. As the title informs us, these recordings stem from the early 1980s. Still a very fertile period in his career. There are a lot of interesting and cool sounds on this one. It’s folky, it’s funky, it’s soulful, it’s humorous. Bebey has a great vocal delivery, and his lyrics are funny in places and politically spot on. He sings in both French and English. This one has been getting a lot of spins on my turntable, and my favorite track so far has been one called Forest Nativity.

The same label has a compilation of slightly earlier, mid-70s recordings that we are trying to bring in, but for the time being our distributor is out of stock. We’ll keep trying for you as that set has some bangers on it too.

Lastly, from Nigeria, you shouldn’t sleep on Lijado Sisters’ Danger LP. We spoke about the Numero Group reissue of their later album, Horizon Unlimited, here in the newsletter before. That record came out originally in 1979 and has a more disco edge to the funk sound. Danger is from 1976 and on this one the sound is more afrobeat, but with psychedelic touches throughout. Great guitar playing from Biddy Wright, who played several instruments on the album and produced it. It’s a terrific record, doesn’t outstay its welcome and has a Nas sample on it, if that sort of thing interests you. As with the above records, highly recommended.

Okay, that’s my lot. Some cool summer (or anytime) jams for you. Go take a listen and see what you think and snag yourself a copy. Why not?

Cheers - Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Welp, one thing is clear over the last week or so: Y’all punk ass mofos LOVE Death Side. The amount of pre-orders we’ve been receiving is overwhelming, but good on you Sorry Staters for stepping to the occasion. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This top-tier odds n sods collection for Death Side’s non-album tracks is long overdue. I’m personally stoked to have the tracks from the Chaos UK split and all the various compilation appearances in one convenient place on an official release. As much as I love Death Side, I have not yet managed to track down all of the many comps they’ve appeared on. The energy and anticipation felt from you all has been very exciting, to say the least.

I told you last week that I would report back about my weekend, and so here goes: The 7Eleven show was a total blast. I arrived around 4PM in the charming suburb of Midlothian, VA, about 20 minutes outside Richmond. The appearance of the outdoor shopping center where the 7Eleven was located looked eerily similar to somewhere like Cary, North Carolina. That may mean nothing to some of you readers, but let’s just say it certainly appeared to be a clean, nice, upper-crust neighborhood. The reflection of the sun off of the asphalt was blistering, but it was a bonding experience for everyone involved. We all suffered together. I immediately grabbed my free slurpee, as is customary on July 11th, and joined my friends who were hanging out on the tailgate of a pickup truck. These were the summer activities I’d been craving. As I would walk into the 7Eleven to buy more beer, I would interact with strangers who were totally confused about the crowd outside. “So… WHAT exactly is happening??” It was super funny.

The scene began with a small gathering that would sneak their respective refreshing alcoholic beverages into 7Eleven plastic cups. As the crowd started swelling, it devolved into hordes of 20-somethings irreverently roaming the parking lot with open containers. I think 12 or 13 bands played? It was a long day, but the changeover from one band to the next was very snappy. I remember watching Cicada play, thinking to myself that surely the kids dancing in that signature side-to-side mosh style would inevitably lead to some road rash from spills onto the concrete. I climbed onto the back of a stranger’s truck to watch Invertebrates from a high vantage point. I just marveled at this wild gathering of freaks raging to hardcore under the sun. It was a beautiful thang. As it got closer to the end of the night, former 7Eleven employee and host for the event, known simply as “Joker,” grabbed a megaphone to alert the crowd. Not surprisingly, noise complaints had gotten out of control and Joker gave everyone notice the gig might get shut down and that everyone in attendance needed to clear out as fast as possible. Destruct and Public Acid both played truncated sets. PA only played about 5 songs before we wrapped the whole thing up. Totally worth it.

Well, that ended up being a more long-winded summary than I expected. Now let’s talk about something completely different…

Recently, I cheated on Sorry State once again and went to grab some records from the homie Rachel over at the Pour House. She gave me a heads up, because I guess some dude who was a big horror movie fan and metalhead came and sold some of his collection. I grabbed the soundtrack Trick Or Treat by Fastway, which I was pumped about. But I also grabbed a missing record to complete my Hellion 12”s. Well, I probably still don’t quite have everything, but whatever. I don’t know how many people are super familiar with Hellion. The band was based out of Los Angeles in the mid-to-late 80s. The band was most notably fronted by a woman named Ann Boleyn, who also founded independent label New Renaissance Records.

Now, even though they were from LA, I would describe Hellion and the whole New Renaissance scene as a totally counter movement to the all the 80s glam and hair metal bands playing along the Sunset Strip. But the sound is not exactly thrash either. Hellion falls under a category I affectionately refer to as “Night Metal.” Think about the creepier sounding Dokken riffs, like the intro to “When Heaven Comes Down.” Still following? It’s like, heavier than Ratt, but it’s also not quite speed metal. Like, rather than dayglo-colored spandex under neon lights, it’s more like bedazzled leather pants in smoky, dark alleyways. But obviously, all still within the streets of LA. Hellion’s style of metal is also marked by a penchant for drama in presentation, and also no shame in displays of virtuosity, both in the guitar playing, but also in Ann Boleyn’s signature snarling yet flamboyantly operatic vocals.

At Pour House, I grabbed Hellion’s 1983 eponymous 12” EP. I was stoked to see that it was a first pressing on independent label Bongus Lodus Records (which I can only assume is self-released by the band under a goofy label name). As expected, the records are in typical 80s metal condition, promo corner cuts and all. For me, the banger off of this EP is a track called “Driving Hard”, which really, even with its grandiose execution, is still not far off from glam metal. Maybe with a little Priest injected. I mean, come on, the song says “baby”. Not heavy. But awesome? Oh yes. But to really get an idea of the musical trajectory of Hellion on subsequent records, I highly suggest checking out the title track from their debut full-length Screams In The Night. When she does the vocal imitation of the guitar riff at around like 1:38? Forget it, that’s the shit.

Because it’s probably the record I’ve owned the longest, I’ve also always had a special place in my heart for the 1988 12” EP Postcards From The Asylum. I love the song “Nevermore.” Killer riff, super catchy. They also do a pretty badass cover of “Exciter” by Judas Priest.

Okay, then one last thing I wanna mention about New Renaissance Records before I bore you all too much. The label in my mind is significant for releasing several series of compilation albums that highlighted underground heavy metal bands. Most notably, the Speed Metal Hell and Thrash Metal Attack series of compilations. New Renaissance also released this compilation that I personally have a soft spot for called Ladykillers, which spotlights women playing in metal bands during that era. Some bands on this comp are better than others, but it’s a fun listen. Hellion is on it of course, but then the comp also features a track by Jaded Lady, who you might remember singer Terry O’Leary as one of the talking heads in Decline of Western Civilization - Part II. Pretty cool.

Alright, I gotta wrap it up. Hope my updates about Slurpees and Night Metal at least kept you briefly entertained. As always, thanks for reading!

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

A few months ago, I wrote about the old Spanish punk compilation Punk Que? Punk for my staff pick, and in my write-up I mentioned how much I enjoyed the two tracks on that comp by KGB and that I’d like to hear the band’s other material. Amazingly, our friend Marko in Finland read my babbling and got in touch, offering to sell me his original copy of KGB’s lone single. Marko and Usman have been pen pals for a while and were already planning to meet up while we were in Helsinki last month, so Marko hand-delivered the single to Usman and it’s my staff pick this week:

KGB: Treblinka 7” (DRO, 1983)

Man, what a single! One thing I love about a lot of old Spanish punk is that the bands often wear their ’77 influences on their sleeve, and that’s certainly the case here, with both the a-side and b-side of this single being upbeat songs with big singalong melodies in the chorus. I compared KGB to the Dickies when I wrote about Punk Que? Punk, and while these two songs aren’t as sunny-sounding as that, they definitely have a similar combination of super tight playing and pop songcraft chops. I think KGB’s bass player is their not-so-secret weapon. The bass is way in the front of the mix on the single’s two tracks, and the way the bass player’s runs cascade across these relatively straightforward chord progressions really makes them pop.

The production on these two tracks is really strong. The recording isn’t lush or overdone, but the drums and bass have rich and clear tones that keep these tracks chugging along. There aren’t a ton of overdubs, but some keyboards help bring “Treblinka” to a big climax, while the falsetto backing vocals on “Luftwaffe” practically beg you to join in singing. I have a feeling that if I spoke Spanish the urge to sing along would be even stronger, but it’s pretty darn strong as it is.

The packaging on the single is excellent too: a beautiful 3-color print on heavy, textured paper that folds out multiple times. It’s thoughtfully designed and looks classy as hell, whether it’s folded down to 7” size or all splayed out. This is what collecting old punk singles is about… I’m sure I could have dialed these songs up on YouTube, but hearing them at maximum fidelity and getting to interact with the great packaging really helps bring the whole thing home.

Thanks once again to Marko for the hook-up, and for everyone else who reads the newsletter so closely. Please get in touch if you’re ever able to hook me up with something I’m looking for. Speaking of which, now I really need to track down the KGB LP on Vomitopunkrock Records, which appears to collect songs from their two rare cassette-only releases.

The Berserk: Where’s the Dictator? 12” (self-released) Debut 12” from this new band from Philly whose demo we carried a few months back. Given the personnel involved, I knew this band would be good, but I was blown away by how fresh and vital the Berserk sounds without straying outside the relatively narrow bounds of fast hardcore punk. The title track, which kicks off the record, is a little different from the other songs, working within the early Chaos UK template with a fast tupa-tupa beat and rubber band bass sound, but infused with the precision and power of the best early US hardcore. While the Berserk is super tight and locked in, the vocalist is loose and unhinged, his syllables splayed across the beat like loose entrails. That dynamic between fist-pumping tightness in the music and savage insanity in the vocals remains compelling throughout these seven tracks, whether the Berserk is playing at an Out Cold-esque groovy fast tempo (“Liquidate Society” and “Never Absolved”), a menacing stomp (“Razed Catholic”), or dipping back into that Chaos UK / Disorder / Confuse wildness (“Next Invasion”). The recording showcases the band perfectly as well, achieving a great balance of grit, punch, and clarity. Anyone who likes fast, old school hardcore should give this record a shot… the Berserk delivers everything you want from a fast hardcore record while bringing a ton of their own unique personality to the table.