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The Mentally Ill: Gacy’s Place: Complete Starbeat Sessions 12” (Almost Ready Records) The Mentally Ill’s “Gacy’s Place” is one of the all-time great Killed by Death tracks, and by extension one of the all-time classic punk songs; in fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if some people call it the ultimate KBD track. This LP expands the original 3-song EP to 8 tracks, bringing together all the tracks from the recording session. “Gacy’s Place” kicks things off, and it sounds as great as ever. It’s where everything that makes KBD punk comes together perfectly: anti-social lyrics (“they’re fucking your kids!”), primitive production, punk swagger, and a dash of Residents-esque esoteric weirdness. Wrap all that up in one of the greatest bass lines ever, and you have a song that everyone should know. Alternative Tentacles had already released the other tracks on this LP back in 2004 on a collection called Gacy’s Place: The Undiscovered Corpses (along with two other studio sessions), but I wasn’t very familiar with them. While there’s nothing as perfect as “Gacy’s Place,” those elements I mentioned above all feature in different mixtures on those other tracks, and I wouldn’t call any of them weak. While this isn’t necessary if you have the Alternative Tentacles release, it’s a great pickup for any KBD fan, from the dabbler to the full-on fanatic.
Geza X: Practicing Mice / Me No Wanna Be 7” (No Matrix) Those of you who have dug deep into LA punk should be familiar with Geza X. While, as a performer, he never achieved the fame of the Germs or the Dead Kennedys, he was a key player in the scene who played in a ton of the classic LA punk bands and produced a huge portion of that scene’s studio recordings. In fact, he produced early recordings by both of the aforementioned bands. I remember I picked up Geza X’s LP, You Goddamn Kids!, in the late 90s because it looked interesting and punk, but it confounded by teenage brain that was looking for more stuff that sounded like the Adolescents and the Circle Jerks. While Geza X’s music has a lot of punk’s energy (which is unsurprising given how talented he was at capturing that energy on tape), there are also elements of silliness and satire. The titles of the two tracks on this single, “Practicing Mice” and “Me No Wanna Be,” say quite a lot. While some people might not like the “wacky” elements like the lyrics and Geza’s high-pitched voice, if you’re a fan of the weirder, Zappa / Residents-informed end of the KBD spectrum, this will be right up your alley. The production is also interesting, with a very processed sound to the guitar. Geza X’s other production jobs are straightforward; I wonder if he felt more daring with this home-recorded material. Besides the music, you also get some interesting liner notes from Geza himself in which he recounts several wild and hilarious stories from the Masque days.
Speed Plans: Field of Vision cassette (Kill Enemy Records) Latest cassette from this Pittsburgh hardcore band, and to me it sounds like a throwback to the late 2000s and early 2010s when No Way Records ruled the scene. In particular, Speed Plans reminds me of bands like Cardiac Arrest, Wasted Time, Citizens Patrol, and Reprobates. Like those bands, Speed Plans foregrounds their early 80s USHC influences, but aren’t afraid to bring in catchy mid-paced parts or slightly melodic lead guitar licks. I would imagine they like the Adolescents just as much as they like the Negative Approach EP or Victim in Pain, even if the latter two influences are more prominent in their music. I think what makes this sound like “No Way era” hardcore to me is the lack of d-beat influence. The tradition of Discharge-inspired bands permeated the hardcore of the 2010s, but you won’t find any of it here. Thus, what was old is now new again, and it sounds as great as it always did.
Necro Heads: demo cassette (Kill Enemy Records) This debut tape from Pittsburgh’s Necro Heads came out alongside the latest Speed Plans tape, and the two of them together are quite the pair of rippers. Where Speed Plans bring in a little of that west coast catchiness to their USHC sound, Necro Heads is looser, more aggro, and more brutal. While it’s appropriate to cite the same USHC touchstones, the grittiness and ugliness pulls this more toward dark shit like Siege and Septic Death. You get six short and fast rippers, then the last track, “Opt Out,” descends into your classic hardcore dirge with noisy, feedback-drenched improvisational guitar wailing as the band dissolves into a writhing mess a la “Damaged I.” Good shit.Radioactivity: “The Last” (from their self-titled record, Dirtnap Records 2013)
If you read last week’s newsletter or keep a close eye on our social media, you might know that my friend and bandmate Osamu Sueyoshi passed away. This past week I helped choose some music for his memorial service. I needed about five minutes of music to go along with a photo slideshow. We knew we wanted a No Love song, and we ended up choosing “Dear Mrs. Nelson” from our demo because that’s the only No Love song for which Osamu wrote the words and the music. Osamu wrote the lyrics when he noticed the host of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (one of his favorite shows) was wearing a wedding band, so he wrote a love song about missing your wife while stranded with a bunch of robots watching movies. It’s pretty clever. No Love had long since disowned our demo-era material (we even turned off the tracks on our bandcamp page) because the band changed a lot after that period, moving away from pop-punk and more toward the punky, song-oriented hardcore where we ended up. I was a little nervous bout revisiting that material, but it surprised me how good it sounded. Osamu was a brilliant musician, and he wrote a perfect little pop song with a guitar hook at the beginning and a key change in the bridge. I even thought the recording sounded pretty good. It’s one of the last things I recorded myself, because by then other people like Jeff had gotten way better at recording than I was ever going to be.
Aside from the No Love song, I needed another track to fill up the five minutes, and I knew immediately that it was going to be “The Last” by Radioactivity. Radioactivity was an important band for No Love. We were all huge fans of the Marked Men, and when this record came out we were all playing it a lot. “The Last” is one of the standout tracks, and I remember whenever Radioactivity would come up, Osamu would just say “The Last” and look down and shake his head, like it astonished him that a song could be that good. Further, some of No Love’s last out of town shows were with Radioactivity and Night Birds, and that little weekend tour was hugely important to all of us (eternal thanks to Brian from Night Birds for inviting us!). I listened to a bunch of other potential songs, but doing so only made it clear how perfect “The Last” was. My partner Jet, who put together the slideshow, would burst into tears every time it played, which definitely slowed down the editing process.
Listening to “The Last” so much last week made me realize that I close myself off to letting music move me on an emotional level, which is strange because that’s the most important part of music for so many other people. I listen to so much music for Sorry State that I’ve developed this habit of checking something out, giving it enough attention to understand it on some level and slot it into (or outside or in between) a category, and then moving onto the next thing. When I listen to things over and over, it’s usually because the music is more complex or unfamiliar to me in a way that makes understanding it on that intellectual level more challenging.
However, “The Last” isn’t like that at all. It’s pure emotion and it hits me right in the gut every time. It’s so evocative that I don’t have time to think about the chord structure or how it fits in with the history of Texas punk or garage-punk or pop-punk. I just hear it and feel it. And now that I will forever associate that song with Osamu, its emotional resonance only grows stronger. More than just a piece of music, it’s like a celestial ringtone that I can use to call him any time I want.
Milk: Bricks 7” (Hysteria Records) Bricks is the first US release from this hardcore band out of Nagoya, Japan. I first heard about Milk when they played Damaged City Fest. Suddenly everyone was talking about this band from Japan that sounded like Minor Threat and had an impossible to find LP. I checked them out and their LP was super rad, but not being able to find a physical copy meant that it never sunk in that hard. However, I’ve been listening to Bricks a ton and loving it. The first thing you’ll see mentioned when someone is talking about Milk is the guitar sound… it’s not distorted at all; it’s thin and scratchy and (on Bricks even more so than the LP) it has a claustrophobic, direct-in-the-board sound. Amde Petersen’s Arme is another band I see compared to Milk, and that’s a pretty spot on comparison. The riffs are simple but catchy, and the playing has a looseness that makes Bricks sound explosive and alive. If your tastes tend toward classic, punky-sounding US hardcore, it’s hard to see why this wouldn’t do it for you. Killer.
Second Layer: World of Rubber 12” (Radiation) World of Rubber is the lone album from this short-lived UK minimal synth / cold wave duo whose members, Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey, were the guitarist / vocalist and bassist for the great post-punk band the Sound. The Sound grew more polished and pop-oriented over the course of their run (their later records are good, but have a U2 style of polish), so as you might expect Second Layer is even rawer than the earliest material by the Sound. While Borland’s voice is instantly recognizable, World of Rubber has little of the dramatic rock flair that’s a big part of the Sound’s Jeopardy. While I’m sure some fans of the Sound will miss the big riffs and big choruses, I think Borland’s songwriting is just as powerful in this context. Instead of anthems, Second Layer has a brooding, monochromatic style that reminds me of the Cure circa Faith or Seventeen Seconds or Closer-era Joy Division, that quality accentuated by a rather primitive-sounding drum machine. If you’re a fan of minimal synth groups like Solid Space or the Units, this has a very similar aesthetic, but its power is amplified by a world-class singer and songwriter. A very cool obscurity for deep post-punk heads.
Disfear: Soul Scars 12” (Havoc Records) Havoc Records reissues a record that is perfect for them, Disfear’s 1995 full-length Soul Scars. Truth be told, I haven’t spent much time with Disfear. By the time I was digging into international crust and d-beat in the 2000s, Disfear was putting out records like Misanthropic Generation and Live the Storm, and the computer-generated graphics and the fact that those records were on Relapse turned me off… I mean, who can blame me for passing over Disfear when I was just hearing bands like Shitlickers and Disarm for the first time? I bet even the members of Disfear themselves would acknowledge that I took the right path. I did see Disfear live once, in Philadelphia with Warhead and Forward. I’ve seen both Japanese bands many times, but this set was the best I ever saw either of them… which may have something to do with the enormous amount of speed my friends gifted the bands before the gig. Disfear was good that night, but you can’t beat two legends of Japanese hardcore in a chemically enhanced state. So, it’s 2020 now and my good friend Usman rides hard for Disfear, so I checked out Soul Scars and it turns out that it rips! While too many bands over the years have taken this bulldozer crust sound into directions that are too polished and/or metallic for my tastes, Soul Scars is a hardcore record through and through… if you fuck with Totalitär and don’t like “The Ultimate Disaster” or “The Price of Ignorance” you might need to consult your ear doctor. It’s too bad I wasn’t cool enough to be into this the first time around, but it’s never too late to turn over a new leaf.
Various: Yugoslavian Post-punk/New Wave mixtape cassette (World Gone Mad) Yugoslavian Post-punk/New Wave mixtape is the latest in a series of incredible international mix tapes that Aaron from World Gone Mad Records has been releasing over the past few years. If you’ve gotten any of the other genres, then you already know the deal: 90 minutes of obscure tracks you’ve never heard, professionally duplicated with strong sound. I had heard of one band on this compilation, which I’m proud of because usually it’s zero. If you’re fanatical about hearing obscure international music in this vein, this is an easy decision. However, even if you aren’t looking up every single band on here to find more material, this is a great tape that you can throw on and just let it run, like you should be able to do with any great mix tape. The compilers construe the terms “new wave” and “post-punk” broadly here, encompassing everything from minimal synth and straight up punk to music that sounds like mainstream 80s pop from the US and UK. One of my favorite things about these mixes is how these groups integrate their own musical heritage with what’s happening in the Anglophone world, and there are countless different approaches to that across these 90 minutes. Like I said, these tapes have been awesome, and this one is no exception.
Vicio: S/T 7” (Emma Navajas) This is a vinyl reissue of a demo tape from Texas’s Vicio, originally released in the year 2000. While clueless white people like myself were freaking out over “Y2K thrash” and chasing down Tear It Up pressing variants, these Texans were channeling the unhinged spirit of early Italian hardcore, blasting out these eight tracks of primitive punk. Sometimes the drummer drifts away from the beat and the bass and guitar are out of tune with one another, but the riffs are killer and the band is playing like it’s the last time they’ll ever touch instruments in their lives. I don’t know if the members of Vicio were familiar with bands like Wretched and Negazione, but they captured something on tape that evokes the same feeling as those bands. Major props to the folks who brought this recording back into circulation… you’ve done the world a service.
Second Attack: Lies and Myths 7” (Puke N Vomit) Puke N Vomit digs up this total punk obscurity. According to the liner notes, these two songs originally came out in a tiny, self-released edition of 250, but almost all of those copies were thrown away after the record failed to find distribution. I think Second Attack had a few things working against them. The first was that they were a one-person project. While the insert has a flyer showing Second Attack as support on some Conflict gigs, I can’t imagine it was easy for a project like this to get noticed in the pre-internet era. The second issue is that they recorded this in 1989 and the record presumably came out shortly thereafter, meaning this was WAY late to the party. This record sounds like a long lost treasure from the No Future Records catalog, but it’s being released at the same time as Nirvana’s Bleach. Thankfully, today’s punks can hear it because this is a solid single. The sound is primitive punk a la Red Alert or the 4 Skins, nothing more and nothing less. You could slip these tracks onto a new pressing of the Oi! compilations and I guarantee no one would bat an eye, so if that’s your style, don’t let the date on this one deter you.
Kaleidoscope: Decolonization 7” (D4MT Labs) At Sorry State we’ve sung Kaleidoscope’s praises for several years now. Every record they release satisfies and surprises us, and Decolonization is no different. Three of these five tracks ply Kaleidoscope’s usual trade of hardcore punk elevated by intricate rhythms and brilliant guitar work, and they’re as ripping and memorable as anything the band has put out so far. However, as with “Scorched Earth” on their 2017 EP on D4MT Labs, there are a couple of outliers. I’ve always sensed a Hendrix quality to Kaleidoscope guitarist Shiva’s playing, and on “Girmitiya,” they lean into the slinky, sexy (!!!) vibe of Hendrix’s more sensual songs, with a stretched-out, lazy groove and breathy vocals that sound like nothing any other punk bands on my radar are doing. Then there’s the closing track, “One Drop // Blood Quantum,” which starts off with fast hardcore but transitions into a gripping breakdown to end the record. It’s crazy that a record this good is par for the course, but such is the case with Kaleidoscope.
Rolex: S/T 7” (11pm Records) For the past few years, California’s Rolex has been releasing a series of short, two-song cassettes titled R, O, L, E, and X. Now 11PM Records helps to wrap up that project by compiling all 10 of those songs (in new, re-recorded versions) on this 7”. The only thing I didn’t love about the previous cassette versions (all of which we carried at SSR ) is that they were so short, so it’s funny that this makes or a rather long 7”. The re-recordings sound great, and the music is even stronger for having more of it. Rolex’s sound is bent and quirky, as aggressive as your standard fast hardcore band, but with a hyper-developed sense of rhythm that they show off with numerous time changes. The result reminds me of bands like early Meat Puppets, Nasa Space Universe, or Das Drip, all of whom play(ed) lightning fast but dense and sophisticated music. Rolex isn’t confrontationally weird, though; there’s more than enough catchy, old-school California punk to make these songs more than just calisthenics for your ears. Highly recommended.
Staring Problem: Eclipse 12” (Modern Tapes) Debut LP from this Chicago band that released their first cassette way back in 2010. It’s clear that Staring Problem takes a lot of influence from the Cure circa Seventeen Seconds and Faith—they even cover “M” from Seventeen Seconds on Eclipse—but they give us their own spin on the sound. On Eclipse’s first few tracks Staring Problem takes that gloomy Cure aesthetic and gives it a punky jolt, upping the tempo and putting emphasis on the bright, sing-song-y vocals. The singer reminds me of Cassie from Vivian Girls, and if you’re a fan of that band’s dreamy, upbeat punk-pop, you should give Staring Problem a listen. Ditto if you’re into another semi-recent, Cure-influenced group, Siamese Twins, who are a little more on the nose than Staring Problem but in the same vein. I like bands in this style who emphasize pop melodies over atmosphere, and Eclipse is right in that sweet spot.
Overdose: Two Wheels and Gone 12” (Splattered! Records) A while back New York’s Overdose came to Raleigh and laid waste to the Bunker with their Motorhead-inspired metal-punk sound, and ever since I’ve been waiting for more than a two-song single to listen to. The wait is over! Two Wheels and Gone is everything you want it to be… raw, undiluted, Motorhead-inspired rock-and-roll. While there’s barely a moment here that Overdose doesn’t model on Motörhead’s style, something about Two Wheels and Gone avoids the cosplay-ish quality that bands inspired by another band can fall into. It’s easy for a band like this to devolve into a party-metal cartoon, but Overdose keeps it raw and real with raw production, lyrics about motorcycles, and more riffs than you’ll care to count. This is music made to play as you hurl a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels at a cop car.
Final Slum War: Agora Fudeu! 12” (Rawmantic Disasters) This d-beat / crust band from Barcelona has been around for a decade now, but Agora Fudeu! is their first stand-alone 12” They appeared on a split 12” with Brazil’s Besthöven, and their straightforward sound resembles that band’s reverent take on classic d-beat. Final Slum War sports some cool metallic riffs and a lot of stops and starts that keep things interesting, but I could see a dabbler in the genre dismissing this as generic. However, if you go way deep with this stuff, Final Slum War will get you revved up.
Kansan Uutiset: Suomi Orgasmin Partaalla 12” (Höhnie) Suomi Orgasmin Partaalla collects this classic Finnish hardcore band’s 1983 Beautiful Dreams album on one disc along with demo tracks on a bonus one-sided disc. Kansan Uutiset intrigued me before I ever heard them thanks to the cool cover artwork (that mohawk!), and when I tracked their music down, it didn’t disappoint. Like their Finnish contemporaries in Riistetyt and Destrucktions, Kansan Uutiset is all intensity with a blazing, minimal sound that doesn’t let up (well, until the questionable Stooges cover and the surf instrumental that end the album). One thing I always liked about Kansan Uutiset is that their riffs and drumming have more of a US hardcore feel. The riffs are straightforward, with minimal but insistent drumming that makes me think of Dischord bands like SOA or Youth Brigade, albeit with a singer more in the Wattie from Exploited / “rabid barker” mode. While Kansan Uutiset doesn’t offer much in the way of frills, if you like your hardcore ripping and to the point, Suomi Orgasmin Partaalla is a great pickup.
Clock of Time: Pestilent Planet 12” (Static Shock) Clock of Time is a new band out of Berlin, and while they may seem to have come out of nowhere (Pestilent Planet is their first release, a mere 8 months after playing their first gig), the speed at which they move is unsurprising given the musicians’ veteran status. Clock of Time features people from Diät, Vexx, and Useless Eaters, but it’s Diät fans in particular who should get excited, because Clock of Time draws most heavily on that band’s sound. That being said, while the vocals have the same gloomy, melodic quality as Diät and I could imagine “Companion” or “Rotten Master” appearing on one of their records, there are some differences. “Funny Farm” is a death rock dirge a la Part 1 whose grinding, mechanical rhythm builds tension past the point at which you feel you can’t take it anymore, approaching a kind of auditory S&M. That sense of gloom (which, admittedly, was a big part of Diät too) permeates Pestilent Planet, making it feel more like a death rock record rather than a dark pop record a la the Chameleons… a subtle difference for sure, but one worth noting. If you like Diät (I love them), this is essential and you’ll love it, but even if you never checked out that band, it’s a great time to get in on the ground floor with Clock of Time. 
Cry Out: More Echoes of a Question Never Answered… Why? 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) Cry Out is a solo project from Rosie Davis, a Canadian musician who passed away earlier this summer. More Echoes… was a work in progress when she passed, and from what I understand, La Vida Es Un Mus had already planned on releasing it, and helped coordinate the record’s completion so it could get an official release. It’s an outstanding record, and I’m happy to have it, though sad to know that we won’t get to hear more. Cry Out takes a lot of inspiration from classic anarcho punk (the cover art and the track “Fucked Silly” both reference Crass’s Penis Envy album, for instance), but its sound spans that genre’s eclectic breath, even traveling outside it a bit for “Garden Song,” which (as LVEUM’s description notes), recalls Sad Lovers and Giants’ gloomy and melodic post-punk. “Your Shame Not Mine” has all of Crass’s punk experimentalism, “War Aesthetic” is a catchier punk track in the Crisis / Zounds mode, and “Fucked Silly” is a jittery, upbeat song a la Crass’s early records. While these are reference points, More Echoes doesn’t feel like an imitation, but an attempt to summon the same muses, and the primitive recording and drum machines also give it a unique flair. There’s a lot packed into these 11 minutes. 
Gen Pop: PPM66 12” (Post Present Medium) Gen Pop’s first EP appeared back in 2017, but we’ve had to wait until 2020 for their debut full-length. I’ve been wondering what a Gen Pop full-length would sound like ever since I first heard them. Their 7”s were eclectic, and the beautiful graphic design complimented their balance of tunefulness with an experimental / progressive flair. I’m glad Gen Pop took their time putting together a full-length, because PPM66 brings those elements together as brilliantly as I would have expected. Whenever I listen to PPM66 I think of Wire’s Pink Flag. While they’ve never made it explicit, I’ve always suspected early Wire was a big influence on Gen Pop, and on PPM66 they combine jittery punk like “Hanging Drum” and “Personal Fantasy” with great melodic pop like “Bright Light People” (which has 
Gag Still Laughing 12” (Iron Lung) Olympia’s Gag were the toast of the early 2010s; I remember watching them play an explosive set at the final Chaos in Tejas back in 2013, they released a series of killer EPs that led up to 2015’s America’s Greatest Hits LP, and that’s the last we heard from them. I’d assumed they’d dissolved, but a promo tape surfaced last year and now we have a new full-length. Thankfully, not much has changed in the intervening five years. One thing that set Gag apart from the beginning was their catchy, mid-paced riffing style. While a lot of hardcore bands have the ambition of playing as fast as possible and others play with dynamic tempo changes, Gag had this way of locking into a heavy, fist-pumping groove that made dance floors explode. That’s the m.o. for Still Laughing… mosh for weirdos, music made for you and your friends to crash into each other in a sweaty basement. Another thing that carries over from Gag’s earlier releases is a quirky, artsy aesthetic, which comes out in the band’s strange artwork (Still Laughing is a doozy), but also surfaces in their music, like on the minimal synth outro, “Scorpion Sequence.” Five years can be an eternity in hardcore, but Still Laughing proves that Gag’s approach hasn’t aged a bit.
Larzon: S/T 7” (Ken Rock) Sweden’s Ken Rock Records digs up this gem from Larzon, an early 80s Swedish punk band who never managed a release during their original lifespan. I’m not sure if these tracks circulated among tape traders or what, but to my ears it’s a real gem that deserves to be out in the world. While Larzon is from the 80s, their sound is rooted in 70s punk, particularly of the tougher variety. The songs with simple, major-key chord progressions remind me of UK oi!, but mostly this is grimy, overdriven rock-and-roll a la Brian James-era Damned, but maybe a little less manic. I feel certain the members of this band must have had Rude Kids records in their collection as well (and if you don’t know Rude Kids, dial up either of their first two singles or the great, underrated Safe Society LP). Lovers of obscure KBD and Europunk take note… this one is hyper obscure, but worth hearing.