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Jeff's Staff Pick: December 15, 2022

by Jeff

What’s up Sorry Staters?

The weather is nasty as hell today as Dom and I are standing behind the counter at the store trying to bang out some words for y’all to digest. Funny enough, we’ve been super busy early on today at the store, which is a nice shift from last couple weeks. I guess there’s not much to do in Raleigh on a rainy day besides shop for records. The holiday season usually yields a surge of people coming in looking for Elton John and shit like that, so maybe this last week or so we will be slammed.

So, I’ve got something different this time around. Rather than talking about a record we’re stocking here at Sorry State, I’m gonna talk about my indulgence in silly internet entertainment. I spend a lot of my downtime watching YouTube videos. Like, more than I’d like to admit. One new trend I’ve noticed that seems to be a total product of what you can do with technology these days is people remixing or reworking classic records. That sounds kinda vague, but does anyone know what I’m talking about?

I’ll try to get into this in a roundabout way. Has anyone heard the new Metallica song? It’s called “Lux Æterna,” and it’s admittedly not the greatest thing ever. I heard one person review the song and refer to the main riff in the song as a “boomer riff,” which I found funny for some reason. But honestly, I love the first 4 Metallica records. And knowing how awful their recorded output was in the 90s and onward, I always set a pretty low bar for expectations when a new Metallica track comes out. And with this new song, I didn’t love it, but I don’t exactly hate it. It’s just kinda phoned-in, I think. I bet it’s hard to make aggressive music when you’re sleeping on silk sheets. I immediately recognized the references to “Overkill” by Motorhead and Diamond Head, so at least it doesn’t sound like St. Anger or something.

But here’s the thing. Has anyone heard these things where people re-record band’s songs with tones to sound like they’re on a different record? Like for example, “What if ‘Enter Sandman’ was on Master of Puppets?” I’m not joking, people really make videos like this. To my knowledge, it seems like what these people do is totally reconstruct the songs from the ground up and re-record the performances themselves. Which is NUTS. Recording technology has come such a long way that I guess you can download a profile of a guitar tone that is pre-made and that sounds pretty damn accurate to the tone on the record. And I guess you can do that with drum sounds too. So what I assume happens is these dudes program a drum track with some sort of program like EZ drummer, then plug their guitar directly into an interface and use a plug-in to nail album-appropriate guitar sounds, and THEN take the vocal track from the original record and chop it up to fit their reworked track. Sorry, that’s a lot… You following what I’m saying? I gotta say, lots of YouTubers do this kinda thing, and the quality of people nailing the sound and character of different Metallica albums really varies. But this one I stumbled across recently, this YouTuber StateOfMercury took “Lux Æterna” and totally re-did the song so that it sounds as if it were on Kill ‘Em All. Now, James Hetfield’s vocals on this new song would probably sound out of place on Kill ‘Em All these days, so this dude got someone to do his best young Hetfield impression. It’s also interesting, because StateOfMercury in his reimaginings doesn’t necessarily replicate the riffs exactly like the original. He sort of alters them to sound more like something the band would write during the era which he’s trying to replicate. I find it super clever.

Anyway, this is all incredibly nerdy, but I find it pretty interesting. He has several videos where he totally reimagines Metallica songs as if they were on different albums. New songs on old albums, but also old songs on newer albums. It’s wild. And funny enough, “Lux Æterna” being redone as if it were done by a young and hungry early Metallica almost fools me into thinking it’s a rad song. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qONdZg95Vi8

I guess this is kind of a weird write-up for the newsletter, but I thought it’d be fun to talk about. That’s all I’ve got this week. As always, thanks for reading. Happy Holidays!

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Posted in jeff, ssr-picks, staff-picks

Daniel's Staff Pick: December 15, 2022

by Daniel Lupton

Buzzcocks: Singles Going Steady 12” (IRS Records, 1979)

I try not to complain too much because I know my problems pale compared to so many others’, but it’s been a rough week for me. I feel like I keep getting beat up on, particularly financially. The heating system went out in the store last week and it cost over $3,000 to fix, my health insurance quintupled in price, my car crapped out on me, and every time I look at my email I seem to find either new bills or notifications that next month’s bills are going up. It’s been rough, but I’ve been trying to keep my head up and press on. This is a time of readjustment for many people, and while it’s difficult, hopefully I come out the other end stronger.

Honestly, I have spent little time listening to music this week, and what time I have spent hasn’t gotten my full attention. Usually I’m voraciously consuming new music, with a big stack of records I’m eager to dive into and explore. This week, though, that stack felt like another burden, another thing on my to do list that won’t receive the attention it needs or deserves. When it came time to write a staff pick for this week (or, more accurately, several hours after the time when I should have completed writing my staff pick), I had to think hard about what music can give me right now.

I decided what I wanted was musical comfort food. Something that felt familiar, stable, and reliable. After a quick scan of my shelf, I landed on the Buzzcocks’ Singles Going Steady. This is one of the most listened-to records in my collection, and hearing it—particularly in its entirety—brings me back to so many places. I remember being on the plane for my first trip abroad in 1999, reading Jon Savage’s book England’s Dreaming and trying to bone up on 70s punk as much as possible before I hit London’s legendary record shops. I have a vivid memory of picking up a CD copy of Singles Going Steady at a flea market in Perth, Australia, because this was a time before cell phones and mp3s and I wanted to listen to it and couldn’t wait until I got home. It was only feasible to carry a few CDs along with you on a big trip like that, so Singles Going Steady kept me company for much of that time.

One downside of being such a restless music consumer is that I rarely learn all the words on a record, even one I really like. However, I know every note of Singles Going Steady backwards and forwards, and there isn’t a moment in the record when I’m not singing, air guitaring, or air drumming along. It is a participatory experience for me, the record taking over my body and my mind. I tend to live in my head, forgetting how important physicality is to living. But moving along to a record you know and love, whether it’s shuffling your feet or waving your arms or blowing air through your diaphragm, helps to take you somewhere else. That makes me think of sleepless nights in my late 20s, during one of the bleakest depressive episodes in my life, trying to shake off the sads with full-body writhing to the Fall’s Grotesque alone in the dark.

That makes me think of a lyric from another favorite, Killing Joke’s song “Eighties:” “I have to push / I have to struggle.” I constantly fall prey to the capitalist fiction that earning one more dollar, making one more sale, fine-tuning my morning routine, or tinkering with my budget is going to make everything OK. But what are we working toward? Are we getting anywhere? I’m thankful for music, and the Buzzcocks in particular, for reminding me that cycles don’t have to be vicious. Sometime you just need to come back to the chorus, or to put on your favorite album and let it take you home.

Posted in daniel, ssr-picks, staff-picks

Featured Releases: December 15, 2022

by Daniel Lupton

Bootlicker: Lick the Boot, Lose Your Teeth 12” (Neon Taste Records) This new collection LP from Canada’s Bootlicker is one of those “does what it says on the tin” situations. Lick the Boot, Lose Your Teeth collects the four six-song 7”s Bootlicker released between 2017 and 2020. I’m pretty sure Sorry State carried all four records as they came out, but there are many of you who jumped on the Bootlicker boat mid-stream, or maybe even caught onto what the band was doing when they released their first album in 2021. Even if none of this music is new to you, it’s a convenient package that sheds some light on Bootlicker’s progression. That progression is subtle—four six-song EPs with black and white artwork that never deviate in terms of fundamental style or presentation—but each EP has its own character. The first one is the most primitive in terms of sound quality and songwriting, and likely some purists think this EP is the best thing the band did. Who Do You Serve draws on an upbeat punky energy, while Nuclear Family locks into a steadier, fist-pumping d-beat groove that reminds me of Impalers. The most recent record, How to Love Life, pulls it all together, with the hard-charging d-beat making room for more varied rhythms and dynamics. Or maybe my brain is just imposing patterns that aren’t there. Either way, this is a fuck of a lot of Bootlicker, and it all rules.

Kilslug: A Curse and Two Singles 12” (Limited Appeal Records) This 12” collects three releases by the 80s Boston band Kilslug: their 1982 cassette A Curse and their first two self-released singles, 1982’s Warlocks, Witches, Demons and 1983’s Necktie Party. These are hard to find records, so unless you’re some kind of crazy super-fan, this material will be new to you. If you haven’t heard Kilslug, Flipper and No Trend are good points of comparison, and I imagine Flipper in particular must have been a big inspiration for Kilslug. It’s fitting that this record runs backward, from inside to outside, because Kilslug sounds like they’re turning punk inside out.Kilslug’s music is slow, dirge-y, dark, and dissonant, but where Flipper in particular often beats you into submission by hammering on the same repetitive groove, Kilslug’s songwriting style is more compact. The grim atmosphere is overwhelming, but no idea overstays its welcome. I love the complex, dissonant chords here, which give these songs a weight and richness of texture any doom metal band would envy. However, rather than songs about weed-smoking aliens, Kilslug’s lyrics are set in the murkier world of everyday violence, reminding me of their fellow underworld chroniclers Big Black. A real gem from the dirty underbelly of 80s punk.

This release isn't available for streaming! Sorry!

Violent Pigz: The Night a Pig Came Home cassette (No Solution) This cassette collects the three EPs this US hardcore-style band from Osaka, Japan has released so far. Hearing this band for the first time on a collection like this is making me feel out of the loop… the first of these recordings came out in 2016, though it looks like originals are hard to find, with editions as small as 50. Violent Pigz’ sound is right up my alley, ranging from super fast, early Dischord-style bashing to songs that are a little more melodic, sort of like Marginal Man or Dag Nasty. If all Violent Pigz’ songs leaned in that direction (rather than just a handful scattered throughout this tape), I could see them appealing to folks who like late 80s post-hardcore bands like Verbal Assault or Turning Point, but the balance tilts toward the raw and ripping. Their singer sounds a lot like Kenji from Total Fury, whose 13 Songs LP is one of the world’s high-water marks for early Dischord-style hardcore in the same vein as Violent Pigz. Fans of anything mentioned above—or, even better, all of it—would do well to check this band out.

SPAD: demo cassette (No Solution) No Solution plucks another 80s US hardcore-style gem from Asia, this time from Indonesia’s SPAD. To my ears, SPAD is a dead ringer for Boston’s Social Circkle, who released a string of excellent records during the peak of the No Way Records era. I’m not sure how deep the people reading this go with that scene, so if you need some other reference points, think Career Suicide’s less blistering stuff or a more Ramones-y Night Birds. Maybe it’s that Ramones-y downpicking that has me reaching for comparisons from the oughts rather than the early 80s… it sounds like there might have been Screeching Weasel records deep in those musicians’ collections, even if they felt like they needed to live that influence down. For me, catchy and ripping are like chocolate and peanut butter, and SPAD is a Reese’s cup… familiar, but it hits the fucking spot.

Haevner: Kaldet Fra Tomrummet 12” (Symphony of Destruction Records) Symphony of Destruction Records brings us the debut record from this band from Copenhagen, Denmark. Knowing where Haevner was based, Kaldet Fra Tomrummet’s packaging had me wondering if they were a hardcore band… they are, kind of, but if I was looking to compare them to a Danish band, it wouldn’t be anyone from the Adult Crash Records roster, but Ice Age, specifically what they sounded like on their first album. Like that record, Kaldet Fra Tomrummet sounds like a mash-up of hardcore and post-punk, with dark and complex chords from Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees records delivered at tempos more befitting Discharge. I also hear a lot of the Wipers in Haevner’s sound, both in the dense, precise, and melodic riffing and the manic darkness that hangs like a violent storm cloud over the record. The ideal audience for Kaldet Fra Tomrummet would be goths on speed, but you might enjoy it even if you don’t fall precisely in that category.

Hated: Best Piece of Shit Vol 4 12” (Numero Group) Numero Group turns their best-in-the-game reissue skills toward Hated, an obscure band from 1980s Annapolis, Maryland with a cult following, for the first of what promises to be a multi-volume reissue series. Hated (or the Hated, as it’s sometimes written) has always been a mysterious band for me. I knew their 1985 7”, No More We Cry, as an odd four-song EP with two tracks of top-shelf, Revolution Summer-influenced melodic hardcore bookending two acoustic tracks that are like a no-polish version of acoustic Hüsker Dü tracks like “Hardly Getting Over It” and “Never Talking to You Again.” I was dimly aware there was a lot more Hated material out there and that the band had a small but devoted following (I knew this from the “Hated box set” proto-meme on the Viva La Vinyl message board), but Best Piece of Shit Vol 4 fills in the gaps in Hated’s story and brings together the band’s disparate early material in a way that makes sense. It turns out Hated had roots in primitive and playful sound collage, briefly coalesced into a shit-hot first-wave emo band, then splintered into a more nebulous project that encompassed earnest acoustic songs, Flipper-esque anti-punk, elaborate parody, field recordings, and cut-up collages that mixed those elements. Some people will only be interested in the most straightforward punk iteration of the band, whose output Numero Group collects on side A of this double album. Annapolis, Maryland was just close enough to DC for the young and impressionable members of Hated to fall under the spell of Revolution Summer emo, and the a-side tracks bring together their youthful energy, rigorous work ethic, and budding songwriting ability into a record that you must hear if you appreciate bands like Rites of Spring, Marginal Man, and the obscure but underrated Rain (seriously… check out their 12” on Peterbilt Records). As for the other three sides, they demand a more open set of ears, but there’s so much here. There are two versions of Hated’s signature song, “Hate Me,” which combined Flipper’s drone (the song’s lyrics are its title repeated over and over in an incantatory chant) with the psychedelic freakouts Hüsker Dü liked to close their records with, and Hated would often stretch the song out live, feeding off whatever vibes the audience was giving. The two acoustic tracks from No More We Cry appear here along with a few others in the same vein, and there’s also the “We Are the World” parody “We Are the Cheese,” and a bunch of other fragments and experiments. In contrast to the more sober and straight-laced DC scene, there’s a druggy quality to Hated’s experimentation, and some people will connect with the dark undercurrent that runs through everything Hated did. I’m a sucker for art freaks expressing themselves in a constricted, small-town environment, so I enjoyed Best Piece of Shit Vol 4, particularly since Numero Group’s incredible packaging (the label has won several Grammy award’s for packaging design) contextualizes everything so thoroughly and eloquently. You may or may not love every second of music on Best Piece of Shit Vol 4, but if—like me—you have a home crammed full of books and records, you’ll appreciate this portal into Hated’s world.

Posted in featured-release-roundup, featured-releases

Record of the Week: Silence: End of This Flesh cassette

by Daniel Lupton

Silence: End of This Flesh cassette (self-released) Demo tape from this new d-beat band from Los Angeles. The Anti-Cimex influence is potent here, and when Silence keeps the songwriting super straightforward and the singer goes full Jonsson, they sound almost exactly like them. Cimex worship isn’t the only trick in Silence’s book, though, as other songs are more complex, both in terms of the metallic riffing (a little more on the Broken Bones / English Dogs end of the spectrum) and the nimble rhythmic changes, which is something I associate with bands on Totalitär’s branch of the family tree. A couple of real nerds could have an in-depth conversation about whether this is mangel, käng, d-takt, råpunk, or some combination thereof. The playing is super tight, but the recording is raw, sounding (as so many of my favorite records do), like a great band recorded in a minimal but functional way. Every song is unique, but powerful. A killer hardcore punk demo.

Posted in record-of-the-week, rotw

John Scott's Staff Pick: December 8, 2022

by John Scott

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has had a nice week. Last week I wrote about Howlin Wolf and today I’d like to talk about a band that takes heavy influence from him as well as a lot of other blues artists and an assortment of other genres: The Gun Club, specifically their album Miami. This is their first record under Blondie guitarist Chris Stein’s label Animal Records, which was a bit of a full circle moment for front man Jeffrey Lee Pierce, as he used to be president of The U.S. Blondie Fan Club. Debbie Harry also contributed backing vocals to the album under the pseudonym D.H. Laurence Jr. I really love the sound of a steel guitar on the tracks Texas Serenade and Mother of Earth. My favorite song on this album, though, has to be their sick rendition of John Hardy, a traditional folk song first performed all the way back in the 1920s (and still covered today, 100 years later, by artists like Billy Strings). The song is a tale based on the life of a West Virginia railroad worker who killed a man in a drunken dispute one night, went on the run, and was caught and hanged in 1894. Gun Club also throws a verse from another one of my favorite folk songs, Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down, into it and it makes me just love the song even more. It’s so cool to listen to all the different iterations of a song through time and how different artists play it and add different things to it. That’s one of my favorite things about music. The copy of this record I have is a recent pressing, which is actually a double LP that contains all the demos, so that’s pretty interesting to listen to. Anyone reading this has definitely already listened to this album before, but maybe you haven’t in awhile, so if that’s the case, this is your reminder to listen to this amazing album!

Posted in john-scott, ssr-picks, staff-picks

Angela's Staff Pick: December 8, 2022

by Angela

Hi Sorry State readers! How’s it going? All is well on this end. Let’s jump into the fun stuff.

Powerplant’s EP A Spine/Evidence is one I’ve been enjoying for a while now, so it’s time to shine the spotlight on it. People in the Sun, their 2019 full length, has always been a popular one among our customers. I like it too, but I think this 2020 EP is my favorite in the Powerplant discography. It’s more simplistic, less animated, and overall just more accessible. It’s still synthy, but it’s more subtle and sounds more post-punk than their other stuff.

Evidence is the catchiest and most accessible track, which is probably why it’s placed right in the middle of the EP. It’s the most no frills post-punk sound of the bunch, and has the cleanest beat. I actually wish it was a little longer.

Prelude is what it sounds like. A prelude. It also sounds like the intro to a Goosebumps episode. But it sounds really cool paired with the super fast and frenzied album closer (Hurtwood). Hurtwood is the culmination of all the twists and turns up until this point, and it really ties everything together. I like the vocals best here because they’re the most raw, and that style juxtaposes the synthy sound nicely. If the vocals were dark and brooding like they are on the first track, Hurtwood would sound way too gothy and dated for me.

Anyway, I’d like to hear more of this style from Powerplant in the future. That’s all for now.

Thanks for reading!

-Angela

Posted in angela, ssr-picks, staff-picks

Usman's Staff Pick: December 8, 2022

by Usman

Hello and thanks for reading! I am tired as fuck today, so let me get right to it. This CHAINSAW debut is awesome. I am not quite sure why, but I didn’t like the cover art at first, and as a result I didn’t check it out. I’ve said this countless times in my Staff Pick, but the art does not really matter when it comes down to a release for me. Of course, it certainly enhances a release. It’s kind of funny the art didn’t strike me, cos the “theme” seems right up my alley. I will tell you though, the music was certainly right up my alley. I knew I was going to love this release like 5 seconds into the first song. There is a certain perfection to this record that doesn’t just happen overnight. They lay down seven tracks on this EP, and that is something I really appreciate. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am when bands put 4 songs on a 7". It’s 2023, records aren’t cheap anymore! The song-writing on this EP, alongside the guitar tone, reminds me so much of SUNSHINE WARD. Their Order 12" was so damn good. It was an instant classic in my mind. Anyway, I haven’t really described the EP at all but I’ve got to get going… looks like one of my bands is playing a last minute show tonite, hehe. Cheers and thanks to everyone for the support!

Posted in ssr-picks, staff-picks, usman

Dominic's Staff Pick: December 28, 2022

by Dominic

What’s up Sorry Staters? Glad to be back with you again with the newsletter. Thanks for peeking and reading. I must admit that I am still fully in World Cup mode. Jolly Ol’ England are playing well and still in the tournament, although that might end Saturday when we face France. It’s been a great competition football-wise, and quite exciting. With the Cup being played in December this time around and the weather here in Carolina nowhere near wintery cold, it’s been hard to think about Christmas and the holidays. It just doesn’t feel like it at all. North of the equator problems I know.

With the radio show I do, we have been playing lots of upbeat and sunnier sounding fare to suit the mood and countries playing. So, more soul, funk, samba and the like than grey, wet, cold weather music.

To get me in the mood for the Brazil game last week, I dug into a box of international CDs I have for something to spin in the car and pulled out one called Baile Funk 2: Agora E Moda.

It’s a terrific mix CD of all Brazilian artists with some nice deep cuts. The set was compiled and put together by an old DJ friend of mine, Greg Caz. Greg was a fellow record hound and DJ who promoted a Brazilian party at a great spot in Brooklyn called Black Betty that was run by a super nice, cool couple from Brazil. The party was part of my exposure to the great music from Brazil that I had only scratched the surface of prior to moving to New York. Right down the street from the store that I worked at was a great live venue, S.O.B.’s or Sound Of Brazil. A terrific spot and always hosting great Brazilian, Latin American and Afro artists. I was like a kid in a candy store throughout those years. I loved it. So much great music to enjoy and absorb. My record collection growing at a rapid rate. CDs too, as this was still the era when great lost albums and unreleased music was being issued on CD.

Greg had given me a few mix CDs and CDRs and they were all great, but this one was one of my faves. He squeezed over thirty tracks on the disc and mixed them well. The flow and transitions are really nice. There’s a good mix of artists and bands. Some legendary and some more obscure. I was introduced to many a name from this CD and hipped to some cool shit. Typical with these types of deep dives, a lot of these records would be tough to find as originals and if you did, you’d have to pay high for them. Perhaps now with the internet etc. some might be more easily available, but back in the late 90s/early 00s it was a much different landscape.

Musically speaking, the mix covers tunes cut between the mid-sixties through the late seventies for the most part. Over repeated listens I have got to love certain moments, but I still love how the first three or four tracks flow. Beginning with Os Incríveis who recorded a ton of records throughout the sixties and into the seventies, this tune came from a 45 they recorded to tie in with one of the Disney Herbie movies featuring the famous racing VW bug. It’s a cool beginning and then we hear from Rita Lee, one of a few names I did at least recognize at the time as Os Mutantes were on my radar by then. This cut is pulled from one of her later solo albums.

Third up is Rosa Maria with a cut from a single she released in 1972 that as an original goes for three figures. Luckily, over the years, the awesome Mr. Bongo label has reissued great tunes like this one, so a lot are at least accessible now. Again, twenty-plus years ago it was a different ball game. You had to work a lot harder to hear more obscure, deeper cuts. Now in 2022, a lot of these names on the mix are more widely known and many of the tunes themselves have become staples in DJ sets and compilation albums, but back in the early 00s hearing these songs for the first time was mind blowing and dare I say life altering.

There are so many more cool cuts later in the mix. Azymuth, the great jazz funk band, gives us the funky Zombie. Jorge Ben serves up some Jazz Potatoes and the great Tim Maia is represented with a cut taken from his self-titled late 70s album. All terrific.

You can click here for a link to listen to the mix. It’s not the actual mix unfortunately and a couple of tracks are missing, but you’ll get the music. It will make the perfect playlist to watch the football to. Obviously I am hoping England does well, but I’ll also be pulling for Brazil.

Oh, and I am aware that Brazil is spelled with an S, at least on their football jerseys, but for ease of writing, spell check etc., I have gone with the Z spelling here. Don’t get bent out of shape, please.

Okay, that’s my recommendation for you this week. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading and see you next time. Cheers and Via Brasil - Dom

Posted in dominic, ssr-picks, staff-picks

Jeff's Staff Pick: December 8, 2022

by Jeff

What’s up Sorry Staters?

It’s so funny that Daniel and I both wrote about the Stains last week. It was definitely kind of a face-palm moment for me. Especially because Daniel’s assessment of the hysteria surrounding the reissue was constructed much more eloquently than my usual sub-level-IQ ramblings.

This week, I think I’ve got something a little different. I’m even gonna talk about some Sorry State releases of years past! Sorry State has a work chat which we sometimes use for the sole purposes of bullshitting about music and turning each other onto new records. Former SSR employee, buddy, and all-around legend Seth still chimes in on our thread every once in a while. Recently, Seth brought up the UX Vileheads 7”, which admittedly I hadn’t listened to in yeeeears. I dug my copy out of my 7” bins and threw that sucker on and MAN, I forgot how good that record is! Listening to the record though, I can safely say that not only has it aged well, but it’s amazing. This made me feel… well, not nostalgic exactly, but listening to UX Vileheads made me want to revisit some other records I hadn’t listened to in a while. I just got a lil flutter in my stomach remembering being a teenager and loving hardcore circa 2007 or whenever it was.

I think about this all the time, but there was really something special going on with hardcore in the Scandinavian region during the early-to-mid 2000’s. I still listen to those Regulations records on the regular. And when I talk with friends of mine, it seems like Amde Petersen’s Arme has reached legendary status. But when I was breaking out my old 7”s the other day, I had forgotten how much I love those Instängd records. I listened to all 3 of them in a row the other day and was just raging in my living room. Funny enough, I’m pretty sure the band featured one of the dudes from Refused. But I remember Daniel telling me that conceptually, the band was formed with each member purposefully playing an instrument they’d never played—or at least playing the instrument they were least proficient at. And you can totally tell. Those records sound so sloppy, urgent and raw in the best possible way. I dunno man, I think about this a lot. Sometimes when punk bands are too good at their instruments, it reads as more stiff than it does exciting. The way those Instängd records sound is so intense, in part because it feels so primitive and like the band might fall apart at any second. It’s so awesome. But I think the main aspect the band did have going for them is they wrote really cool songs. Simple, but also fresh and with songwriting ideas that catch you off guard at times. On their first 7” Mitt Svar På Ingenting (released on Sorry State Records in 2007 😎), the first song “Vansinne” opens guns-a-blazing with this kinda nasty, hap-hazard guitar lead. And while I love the first 7” so much, I will say my favorite is probably the 2nd EP, Konkret Och Brutal. The opening riff on the title track just sounds like classic hardcore, but still played with that explosive, but cavemanish ferociousness. So damn catchy, too. I think all 3 of the bands 7”s are like modern classics.

You can still find these records used out in the wild for just a few bucks. To me that’s a more-than-worthy investment. I’ll probably be spending my weekend drinking beer and revisiting more Swedish punk of yesteryear and totally loving it. Hope you take some pride in your favorite dollar-bin 7”s this week as well. Who knows? Maybe one day those records will be hard to find.

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

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Posted in jeff, ssr-picks, staff-picks

Daniel's Staff Pick: December 8, 2022

by Daniel Lupton

Raw Power: Screams from the Gutter LP (Toxic Shock Records, 1985)

Earlier this week I was listening to Raw Power’s phenomenal second album, Screams from the Gutter. It’s one of my all-time favorite records, and listening to it prompted some reflection about how my listening habits have changed over the years.

This is one of many records I picked up back in the 90s, when buying records was very different. I had a small collection of records when I moved to Richmond for college in 1997, but I started buying records in earnest once I got there. I’d visit Plan 9 Records at least once a week, often more, searching for anything that looked cool or interesting. Most used LPs were priced at $8… occasionally you’d see a collectible punk record for a premium price, but it was rare. I remember seeing a copy of Bad Religion’s Into the Unknown for $50 and thinking it was insane that anyone would pay that much money for a record. $8 was about my hourly wage at the time, and since my tuition and living expenses were covered by a scholarship, the money I made at my job went to Plan 9 (as well as Soundhole, the punk and metal-focused shop that was out in the west end of Richmond, which I didn’t get to as often). I bought aggressively, and while I ended up with plenty of records that sucked, I also found gems like Screams from the Gutter that form the backbone of my personal musical canon.

While I don’t miss paying hard-earned money for shitty records because I didn’t know any better, I miss discovering records like Screams from the Gutter free of anything but the most minimal context. Nowadays when I’m exploring music that’s new to me, I start researching its context as I’m hearing it, the record playing on the stereo while I sit on the couch with my phone or tablet. I start by going to rateyourmusic.com and Discogs to see where the record fits in the artist’s and the label’s discography. Rateyourmusic is helpful as you can see how the users on that site have rated that record versus other similar ones, and you can also skim through the user reviews on the site. A lot of them are trash, but many of them are perceptive, and the site’s display algorithm puts those more thorough reviews first. I’ve learned so much from that site that I never would have known otherwise.

However, if I’d had these tools when I discovered Screams from the Gutter, would I have taken in the record the same way? I’m pretty sure I bought the record just because it looked cool and punk. I doubt I even knew Raw Power was from Italy, though the back cover makes that pretty clear. More than the mystique of the band being from a far away land, though, it was the music that knocked me out when I first listened to it. Raw Power recorded Screams from the Gutter with Paul Mahern from the Zero Boys, and much like the Zero Boys’ Vicious Circle, it’s a beautifully produced record. The tones are clear, heavy, and powerful, the recording hi-fi but free of bells and whistles. It sounds like a well-done recording of the band ripping it up in the studio, which is presumably what it is. That’s still my favorite kind of recording for hardcore punk.

As tools like eBay, Kill from the Heart, Soulseek, and Discogs developed in the 21st century, my love for Screams from the Gutter sent me down a deep rabbit hole where I’m still discovering things. What else is on Toxic Shock Records? Whoa, this Corrosion of Conformity record called Eye for an Eye is pretty cool, as is Dayglo Abortions’ Feed Us a Fetus. What other hardcore bands are from Italy? Wretched and Negazione sound insane! (I already knew Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers, as their Into the Void LP was another 90s Plan 9 used bin purchase.) Hold on, did Raw Power release any other records? Turns out Screams from the Gutter is their second album, and many (most?) people think their first one, You Are the Victim, is even better. Not to mention their demo tape, which Ugly Pop Records released on vinyl in 2019.

Of course I’m thrilled to hear all this stuff. My life is much richer for it. However, if I had access to all this when I first heard Screams from the Gutter, would it have hit the same way? I can imagine not even making it through an entire listen before I dialed up You Are the Victim on YouTube because that’s supposed to be the superior record. And I almost certainly would have thought it was too, because putting You Are the Victim side by side with Screams from the Gutter, the double-bass drumming on Screams would have been a deal-breaker, particularly since there’s so much track listing overlap between the two records. Since I heard Screams so much earlier, though, the double-bass drumming is how I hear these songs in my head.

Going further, would I have responded to Raw Power at all if I had the history of music at my fingertips? After reading so much chatter about music, I “know” that 80s Italian punk is characterized by a loose and unhinged sound. Aside from the wild lead guitar breaks, that’s not the vibe on Screams from the Gutter. The playing on the record is tight and powerful, and based on the sound of this record, Raw Power could stand toe to toe with any punk band in the world in terms of chops and, ahem, raw power. But it’s not what Italian hardcore is “supposed” to sound like, and if I was curious about that sound maybe I would have gravitated toward Wretched or Negazione’s early records because they are closer to what I would expect.

Or maybe not. Maybe Screams from the Gutter is just such a great fucking record that it would have knocked me out whenever and wherever I heard it. In this timeline, though, it serves as a reminder to be in the moment, to take music on its own terms, and to trust my ears above all else.

Posted in daniel, ssr-picks, staff-picks

Featured Releases: December 8, 2022

by Daniel Lupton

Phil & the Tiles: S/T 7” (Anti Fade Records) Australia’s Anti Fade Records once again thrusts their hand into the silt of Melbourne’s fertile punk scene and pulls up gold. If you’re partial to the current sounds of the Australian underground, Phil & the Tiles should be on your to-hear list because they bear an immediate resemblance to bands like the Shifters, Spiritual Mafia, and the UV Race, nailing the delicate balance of melodic appeal and arty repetition that makes those bands so irresistible. A song like “Elixir,” with its repetitive structure and cryptic lyrics, leans toward the arty end of the sound (and it’s a track you’ll love if you were partial to that Spiritual Mafia album that came out a while back), while “Nun’s Dream” represents the poppier side of the coin, with a sound that is dead ringer for the Brix era of the Fall… you could slide it right into Perverted by Language’s track listing and the only real tell would be the singers’ thick Aussie accents. So many cool records are coming out of the Australian underground that it can seem hard to keep up, but this isn’t the place where you want to get off the train… this record is too damn good. And with 4 meaty tracks, it more than justifies the import price tag.

Chainsaw: When Will We Die? 7” (Roach Leg Records) Roach Leg Records skips the cassette stage and brings Boston’s Chainsaw straight to vinyl , which makes sense because the band is full of experienced musicians who know what the fuck they’re doing and they have a fully realized sound that rips. I’m sure there are plenty of Scandinavian and d-beat comparisons to throw out in relation to Chainsaw’s sound, but the one I’m going with is Totalitär. While When Will We Die? is nastier-sounding than all but Totalitär’s earliest records, Chainsaw has a similar way of weaving together straightforward Discharge-style bashing (see “Alcohol” or “Knife”) with songs that are no less raging, but are a hair more musically sophisticated, even slightly melodic (see “Emergency” and “Anti Police”). The rough production and gnarly, shouted vocals keep things intense, and I love the wild lead guitar overdubs that appear on most tracks, giving an unhinged, anything-can-happen sensibility to what is, otherwise, a very dialed-in record. It’s killer, and I’d particularly recommend it if you’re into bands that lean toward the hardcore (as opposed to metal, crust, or noise) end of the d-beat spectrum.

Special Branch: Lethal Force 7” (Roach Leg Records) Roach Leg Records takes the 2020 demo from this Dublin, Ireland project and puts it on vinyl. I’m thankful for Roach Leg’s service, because I didn’t hear about this the first time around, and there’s even a Sorry State connection since Eddie from the Number Ones is in the band. Special Branch’s songs are built on rock-solid mid-paced riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on a Warthog record (high praise!), and those riffs are so strong and memorable that I imagine you could put just about any kind of window dressing on them and they’d still sound good. Fortunately for us, I like the drapes Special Branch has chosen. The rough, 4-track-y production sounds great, and the songs are shot through with interesting flourishes of lead guitar, sometimes wild and dissonant and other times more structured yet still compelling (see the NWOBHM-esque intro for the title track). I also like the record’s short intro and outro, which mix droning guitar noise with traditional Irish singing, tying the music to the project’s geographical roots. Come for the fuckin’ epic riffs, stay for the art.

Stray Bullet: Factory 7” (Not for the Weak Records) If, like we’ve been encouraging you to do, you’ve been paying attention to what Virginia’s Not for the Weak Records has been putting out, you’ve figured out what they like in a hardcore record. High energy, fast as fuck, musically dense, virtuosically performed, and clearly and powerfully recorded. I think that description fits a good chunk of NFTW’s roster, Stray Bullet included. Stray Bullet is from Sheffield, England and shares members with Rat Cage, but the sound is a little different, taking less inspiration from d-beat hardcore and more from the straightforward pummel of US hardcore bands like Out Cold (though Stray Bullet’s music tends to be faster and more complex than Out Cold’s). While some hardcore bands string together a bunch of short, simple songs, each of the four tracks on Factory is like a mini-epic that flies by in fast-motion, squeezing a dizzying amount of twists and turns into compact, pressurized packages. The songs are so fast and so dense that they might be difficult to parse on the first listen, but once you lock into Stray Bullet’s groove, listening to Factory is like bombing a gnarly hill on a skateboard, feeling in control but just on the edge of danger and chaos. Isn’t that the feeling of exhilaration we’re all looking for in hardcore?

Rat Cage: In the Shadow of the Bomb 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus) These two tracks from Sheffield, England’s Rat Cage originally appeared on a limited lathe cut record whose sale benefitted the band’s hometown punk-run club, the Lughole, but I’m glad La Vida Es Un Mus did a larger pressing because these tracks are straight FIRE. While Rat Cage works with a lot of the same influences as other contemporary hardcore bands, their songwriting and execution are just on another level. “In the Shadow of the Bomb” is a case in point. The song’s massive and memorable main riff and shout-along chorus would have, on their own, outclassed 90% of hardcore bands, but the song has this part in the middle with a subtle key change that takes it to a whole different level. It’s like a middle eight in a classic pop song… what other hardcore bands have songs with middle eights? Rat Cage changes things up a little on the second track, “Scared of the Truth,” though that song is built around a riff at least as memorable as “In the Shadow of the Bomb,” sounding like Diamond Head doing their own take on “State Violence, State Control.” This song also has a great middle section that employs some Adolescents-esque melodies in the upper octaves. Few hardcore bands can pull off the two-song single, but I’ll take two great tracks like this over eight shitty ones any day of the week.

GG King: Evoker 12” (State Laughter Records) Evoker originally appeared as a limited edition cassette that came as a freebie with some copies of GG King’s latest proper album, Remain Intact. The cassette garnered an enthusiastic reaction (including the offer of a future release on Total Punk experimental offshoot label Mind Meld Records), so State Laughter pressed up some copies on wax for us lucky GG King fanatics. On GG King’s main releases, they have a unique style I’d describe as classic punk stretched out with influences from black metal and krautrock, styles that provide a counterbalance to punk’s short and to-the-point songwriting style. Evoker, however, has an even more experimental and playful atmosphere. There are genre experiments like the pure second-wave black metal of “Evoker 2 (Circling Starmount)” and the hardcore punk of “Punxx Picnic Destinations,” a cover tune (the Television Personalities’ “Silly Girl,” which stretches that compact pop tune in drone-y and weird directions), and stylistic departures like “Leigh’s Castle,” a fuzz-drenched psych-pop song with a drum machine that sounds like it could have appeared on an early Guided by Voices record. There’s also more out-there experimental tracks like “Evoker 1,” an excellent atmospheric sound collage piece, and “Evoker 3 (Wotever Happens Next),” which channels the WTF qualities of Celtic Frost’s Into the Pandemonium, minus the self-seriousness. Perhaps there are people who like GG King’s albums but find this looser version of the group too weird, but given how quirky and unprecedented GG King’s sound is, I imagine that group is a pretty small subset of the band’s following. Thus, if you’ve followed our previous recommendations and gotten hip to GG King’s vibe, there’s no reason to pass over Evoker without a listen.

Posted in featured-release-roundup, featured-releases

Record of the Week: Nightfeeder: Cut All of Your Face Off LP

by Daniel Lupton

Nightfeeder: Cut All of Your Face Off 12” (self-released) The debut LP from Seattle’s Nightfeeder, the enigmatically titled Cut All of Your Face Off, came out back in August, but the first edition disappeared so quickly that it was gone before we told you how much it fucking rules. Now it’s back in stock, and I won’t let this second chance pass me by: this record fucking rules! For the past week I’ve been reflecting on what makes Cut All of Your Face Off such a great record, and the comparison that keeps coming to mind is Tragedy. Not so much because Nightfeeder sounds like Tragedy, but rather it’s how the record hits against the background of other stuff I’ve been listening to. Before Tragedy got popular, there was this steady background hum of post-Discharge hardcore bands that was fine, but the scene seemed like it was in a rut. Then the first Tragedy LP came out gave everything a shot in the arm, bringing in some different influences, more dynamics, and more ambitious and interesting songwriting. People latched on, and not only did Tragedy get big, but the entire scene got a shot in the arm. I feel a similar way about Cut All of Your Face Off. There are so many d-beat-type hardcore bands out there right now, and while I love the sound and style, many of the bands are fairly one-dimensional, at least compared to something like this record. Nightfeeder can rip with the best of them (see “Amoral Minority” or “And Now We Die”), but there’s so much more here, from the epic riffing of tracks like “Asylum” and “Burial” (seriously… these are fucking RIFFS!) to the Inepsy-style charge of “The Reaper’s Yield” to the anthemic street punkiness of “I’m a Letdown.” I remember listening to this record for the first time and being thrilled by each track as it appeared, each one adding new wrinkles to Nightfeeder’s rich yet uncompromising sound. Cut All of Your Face Off is one of the best punk records of 2022, so if you didn’t get it the first time, don’t miss your second chance.

Posted in record-of-the-week, rotw