News

Hi there and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! We have a slightly slimmer-than-usual issue this week. I have to go out of town for a few days, so my deadline is tighter than usual, and rather than making the crew put together their Staff Picks early, I gave them (and myself) the week off. Staff Picks will be back next week, but in the meantime I still tried to give you something worth perusing this week. We have some very cool featured releases this week and a heap of new arrivals, including the much-talked-about new Dissekerad album, the latest in the Descendents reissue series, and plenty more. Let’s get to it then, shall we?

Read the full newsletter here!

Hi there and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State newsletter! Once again the newsletter is hitting your inbox on Thursday rather than Wednesday. I just can’t seem to get it all wrapped up on Wednesday evening lately. It takes a shitload of time to put this thing together… I need to sit down and listen closely to everything I plan to write about, and of course sometimes the writing comes easily and sometimes it doesn’t. This week was tough. I deleted a whole giant intro section to my staff pick that, after I read it back, didn’t really say anything. I’m always revising and tweaking this thing until the moment I hit send. And of course, while I’m working on the newsletter I’m also temporarily putting aside all the other work I need to do, and there’s quite a lot of that at the moment, which is stressing me out! Sorry to complain, but it’s what’s on my mind at the moment.

As usual, there’s plenty to talk about this week. First up, the long-awaited new Psico Galera album is finally in stock now! We ran a preorder for this like three months ago, and since that seems like way too long ago, we’re relaunching the record this week (see also my goofy first attempt at an Instagram reel if you follow us on socials). Next, I finally got around to writing my magnum opus about this London Clay record I’ve been raving about for the past few months. I probably didn’t make it sound super appealing to the casual listener, but writing my brief Record of the Week blurb at least helped me clarify for myself why I like it so much. The new arrivals section is also full of scorchers like that new B.O.R.N. 12”, a very unexpected Huggy Bear reissue, a big batch of releases from the UK’s Crew Cuts records, and plenty more. Read all about it below. As well as the staff picks, which are the heart and soul of the newsletter. This week we cover 80s Yugoslavian punk, Uniform Choice, vintage dub reggae, seminal Athens, Georgia post-punk, and the new Angel Du$t album. Quite a spread.

So let’s get to it, shall we! Read on and enjoy!

Read the full newsletter here.

Finally, Psico Galera’s new LP, Memorie Di Occhi Grigi has landed! These were originally supposed to be out in early November 2025, but a series of incredibly frustrating production delays kept bumping the ship date back. Fortunately, though, they are finally here and they look beautiful! All your pre-orders have shipped, and we have some even better news: while the limited turquoise vinyl version sold out in preorder, the pressing plant made a small overrun and they’re in the webstore now. Act fast if you want a copy.

Lasso is heading back to Europe this April and May for a run of dates around Scandinavia. If you follow Sorry State, hopefully you already know Lasso… we’ve released three 7”s and one LP by them so far, and they are an absolutely brilliant band. They’re also incredible live, one of the tightest and most intense hardcore punk bands around… and they’re only a three-piece! How does Marcelo do those crazy vocals and guitar parts at the same time, haha? If you’re in Scandinavia this spring, hit one of these gigs and see if you can figure it out.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! Sorry we’re a day late this week. It’s been a busy one… Record Store Day orders were due yesterday, and we also had a massive batch of preorders to set up on the site (more on that below). The staff actually got their staff picks on time to me yesterday, but when it came time to write my bit the tank was just empty. But I’m back, baby!

Lots to tell you about this week. We have two hot new preorders from one of the best labels going, New York’s Roachleg Records (I can’t wait to hear that Pura Manía LP!), and as I mentioned there are a TON of other upcoming releases in the pre-order section. I’m particularly stoked to have Fipper’s Generic LP back on the shelves soon. In the “shipping now” department, we have a couple of very cool reissues on Spain’s B-Core, a live LP from Laughing Hyenas, and a new dispatch from Leeds’ Brainrotter Records, who have their finger on the pulse of what’s new and exciting in hardcore punk right now. And speaking of exciting labels, Sex Fiend Abomination brings us our Record of the Week, a 3-song demo from Charlotte, North Carolina’s System Maintains that I have listened to about 400 times since it came out.

There’s lots more to cover, plus some great staff picks this week (you’re a fool if you don’t take up Jeff on his Eppu Normaali recommendation!), so let’s get to it.

Read the full newsletter here

Good news! The vinyl for Belgrado’s latest 12”, El Encuentro, has arrived, as has Institute’s new self-titled Australian tour 7”! I believe all of the Belgrado pre-orders have shipped already, while Institute 7”s should start shipping today (Thursday). Expecting a shipping confirmation email soon if you haven’t received one already. And if you order either of these from here on out, expect your order to ship right away!

We just made a TON of new pre-orders live on the pre-orders section of the site. Like a lot… we currently have almost 300 pre-orders going at the moment! Too much, I know, but feel free to scroll through anyway. But first I thought I’d hit you with some highlights.

At the top of the list for me has gotta be the first reissue of Flipper’s first album Generic Flipper in quite some time (at least 15 years by my count). Poison Ruin has a new one coming soon and we have both the chainmail and swamp green vinyl variants available. This is an all-time favorite for me, and it’s on Superior Viaduct Records so you know they’ll do a great job. From Talking Heads we have a wider release of the collection of very early demo and live material that they released previously on Record Store Day. Two Alkaline Trio titles—Good Mourning and Crimson—are coming back into print in reasonably-priced standard versions. Wharf Cat Records is releasing a collection of material by the great, super underrated Boston-area 70s punk band La Peste, and one of NOFX’s most well-regarded records, the single-song opus The Decline, is coming back into print. The latest RSD Essentials release is a 35th anniversary pressing of the Smashing Pumpkins’ debut Gish, with the original cover art rather than the metallic version we have been stocking for the past few years.

We have a few Rhino Hi-Fi reissues coming in if you need to hear some of your favorites in the highest fidelity possible, including Devo’s debut as well as T Rex’s Electric Warrior and Alice Cooper’s Love It to Death. Florida death metal band Massacre’s debut is getting a new pressing on Earache, while John Dwyer’s synth-drenched product Damaged Bug has a new album available (we have both the pink and standard black pressings available).

A few other quick highlights that might be interesting. Jazz group Irreversible Entanglements has a new album out soon. Raleigh legends Corrosion of Conformity will muddy their legacy once again this spring, but maybe you’re into it? We had some Sacrilege in the last update, but we have some more for you with Radiation Records compiling the band’s excellent early demo material. Morbid Angel re-releases a rare 90s EP that features some remixes by the industrial group Laibach. Dog Faced Hermans are reissuing Everyday Timebomb, which is very cool… I hope there’s more to come, because I don’t know if you’ve checked, but Dog Faced Hermans records have gotten VERY expensive on the used market. Black metal / war metal vets Revenge have a new one on Season of Mist. Napalm Death and Melvins have a collaborative album that got a limited release for their tour, but is now becoming more widely available.

Those are some of the highights, but there’s a LOT more in the pre-orders section, including some very cool stuff I didn’t have time or space to mention here. So head over and have a browse!

Roachleg Records has two new LPs up for pre-order now! Up first of the debut 12" from New York's Cross, which features members of Mercy and Mirage playing similarly dark hardcore. The second is a new 12" from Pura Manía, one of our favorite bands here at Sorry State... a thrilling intersection of '77-style punk, hardcore, glam, post-punk, and plenty of other sounds but coming out completely original. Listen to a track from Pura Manía and two from Cross and pre-order your copies from us below! These are expected to ship in early March.

Also, Sorry State is handling worldwide distribution for these and all other Roachleg titles, so if you need copies for your shop or distro please get in touch!

Hi there and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! How y’all living? I’m OK, I guess. Actually, I’ve been experiencing a lot of anger lately. I’ve been really frustrated with the forces of enshittification constantly getting in the way of what I want to do and accomplish, and I’m really annoyed with a lot of large corporations at the moment for being bad at what they’re supposed to do. I’m sick of phone trees and AI customer service agents and other bullshit that pretends to be helpful but actually just gets in the fucking way. The world seems to have officially moved on without me. I hereby pronounce myself old and bitter.

Thankfully, there’s still music, and the flesh-and-blood humans at Sorry State are working our behinds off to bring that to you. We missed last week’s newsletter, and as usual when we miss a week, the first week back features a monstrously large stockpile of new stuff to tell you about. Extremely hot pre-orders, plenty of things in stock and shipping now, new groups, reissues of both lost and acknowledged classics… find it all here and more. And make sure to scroll to the staff picks section to read what some honest-to-god human beings are thinking about. At least until AI clones our voices and does a better job of it than we do (yeah right!).

Sorry for all the negativity, but it’s been a tough week around here. So let’s put that aside and get back to the shit we love: punk fucking rock.

Read the whole newsleter here!

We are very stoked to announce that Mecht Mensch's Anthology LP is back in stock! Even bettter, No Coast hooked up Sorry State with our own exclusive pressing on transparent blue vinyl. And even better than THAT, this second pressing is a little cheaper than the first pressing (due to slightly scaled-back packaging). Order your copy below, but be quick... once they're gone, they're gone! Mecht Mensch are one of the best and most underrated US 80s hardcore punk bands, and their Anthology LP should be in any self-respecting 80s USHC aficionado's collection.

Good news! The Youth Avoiders (Destructure Records) and Draümar (Static Shock Records) titles we were running pre-orders for are now in stock! All pre-orders have shipped (unless your order includes another pre-order item that isn't in yet), and any new orders will ship right away. Draümar is still listed as a pre-order on the site, but that's only because its street date isn't until February 27.

Check these records out and order copies below if you haven't already!

We just put up a pre-order for the latest reissue on Sealed Records: a reissue of the two long-lost demos by obscure 80s UK anarcho-punk group Bikini Mutants! Read the description, listen to a couple tracks, and order your copy below! This is officially out on March 20 and vinyl should ship around that time.

It’s taken Sealed records more than five years to put this release together but finally it’s here. The one and only Bikini Mutants. The Bikini Mutants were from Yeovil, Somerset and part of the All the Madmen world. In their short life as a band they recorded two demos at Monitor Studios, Milborne Port in Somerset in 1982. Let's Mutate collects these two demos on one LP, along with a 20 page booklet featuring photos, lyrics, reviews, interviews and much more. The band played mostly in Yeovil and the West Country along with the Mob and the Review, and even though they were part of the West Country anarcho scene, the sound was a mix of scratchy post punk and indie pop. Members of the band went on to be in My Bloody Valentine and the Chesterfields. The songs are intricate, delicate and engaging with the drums and bass locked in, the fuzzed out guitar weaving on top and Criss Cole’s angelic voice taking each song to pop heaven. Think a mix of Girls at our Best, Au Pairs and the Marine Girls.