Napalm Death: The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit, 1989)

I went crazy with my description of the new Rudimentary Peni album for this week’s Record of the Week, so I’m going keep my pick short this week. I’ve had a bootleg LP with Napalm Death’s Peel Sessions for years, but this week I scored the original Strange Fruit pressing, which sounds better. The word “extreme” gets thrown around a lot in underground guitar music circles, but the Napalm Death Peel Sessions are among the most extreme sound recordings I have ever heard. It’s like they took the very concept of “music” and attempted to turn it on its head at every level, to deliver the ultimate auditory nightmare. Both sessions feature the same lineup that recorded From Enslavement to Obliteration, and while I love that record (and the underrated follow-up EP, Mentally Murdered), the Peel Sessions are even better. There’s something perverse about forcing the BBC’s engineers to record these sounds, but, lord bless them, they did it, and by my estimation they did it with all of the skill and attention to detail they would have given a symphony for a Sunday morning classical program. I know there are records heavier / uglier / noisier / more intense in the power electronics world, but an arsenal of effects boxes and directly manipulating tape are performance-enhancing drugs. If you’re looking for the craziest thing human beings have ever created with guitars, drums, and vocals, this may be it.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Somewhere, lurking in the streets of Cleveland, there stand 3 pillars of true punk wisdom. You may find these figures claiming their usual spot at Now That’s Class talking mad shit or already day-drunk at a backyard barbeque. The band’s namesake alone, a reference to Limp Bizkit’s finest hour, only further captures the intensity of what lies within…

Alright, all kidding aside, I love this EP. Woodstock ’99 features a couple of my buddies from good ol’ NC. The band is made up of 3 out of 4 people that were in Cement Shoes. But after relocating to Cleveland, it seems like my dudes not only cranked up the “no fucks given” attitude in their music, but also in their whole vibe and lifestyle. I gotta say, it is pretty refreshing to feel like a punk record is not so serious for once.

Each song, both literally and figuratively, is a unique artisan dish of deep-fried redneck cuisine. Even with their silly, aloof and often contemptuous disposition, this record still fuckin’ RIPS. I find myself flipping between cracking up and being like “Damn, this is killer.” My boy Trev’s vocals sound like a demon, taunting you with menace that makes you feel simultaneously secure, like you’re in on the joke, but also really nervous, like something bad is about to happen. But once again, what the fuck is up with punk bands only pressing 100 copies these days? You should snag one while you have the chance.

To quote the masters themselves: “Popeye’s chicken is fucking awesome,” and you know what? So is this EP.

Thanks for reading. ‘Til next week,

-Jeff

The Muffs: Big Mouth / Do The Robot 7” - I’ve been waiting for an excuse to write about The Muffs but I haven’t owned any of their records until now (but ya know it was the 90s, not a lot of Muffs vinyl out there)! I unfortunately wasn’t introduced to the Muffs until after Kim Shattuck had passed. Once I heard their first self-titled album, I fell in love and wondered how they had flown under my radar for so long. Then I felt kind of annoyed that so many of my peers were fans and no one told me! Anyway, the more I listen to this band, the more I think Kim Shattuck has such a natural talent for melody and song structure. I have listened to that first album so many times in the past two years I could probably recite all the tunes from memory. Strangely enough, I always find a new way to appreciate them after so many listens. It’s melodic, angsty and loud… kinda like if Green Day was a bit more garagey and took themselves a little less seriously. This single I picked up the other day has a great track from their first record called “Big Mouth” on the A-side and a cover of The Saints’ “Do The Robot” on the B-side. “Big Mouth” is a classic Muffs song that is rockin’ and melodic about betrayal and vengeance (so classic). I had never heard the Saints cover until I picked up this single. It’s cool for sure, but “Big Mouth” is definitely the stronger track. I love The Muffs!

Various: WGH Authentic Virginia Gold 12” - I don’t have a lot to say about this one. I picked this up cheap recently at Vinyl Conflict because I was intrigued by the title and the cover. I thought it was a collection of Virginia surf bands, which would be awesome! But instead it is a collection of some of the top hits played at a Norfolk, VA radio station. It’s chock full of classics like Strawberry Alarm Clock, James Brown, The Association, etc. This seems to be a very limited press on cool rainbow sunburst vinyl. The vinyl is pretty beat and skips every now and then, but I have been enjoying revisiting some classics and educating myself on some artists I had never heard. Very glad I picked it up!

Hey there, all of you in Sorry State Land. How was your week? This was another crazy one, right? We had two holidays to celebrate, 4/20 and Earth Day. Try to plant a tree for every one you smoke. We had the trial verdict come in for the George Floyd murderer-correct one but hardly a celebration of “justice served” as a man is still dead. Then in the middle of all that we had the news of the European Super League and that bombshell and the potential death of competitive football to deal with. If any of you follow the footie, you will know that this was massive. I have been a Liverpool FC supporter for close to fifty years and was close to saying fuck it and never following sport again. Thankfully the backlash was so severe that within forty-eight hours the plan died the death it deserved. Most of you probably have no idea what the hell I am talking about. Although the Beautiful Game is very popular in the US, so maybe you do? If that is the case, then you understand the magnitude of what happened. But this is a music newsletter and not a sports journal, so let’s talk about records instead, shall we?

I’m going to make my entry short and mention just one record this week, that album being Motherlight by Bobak, Jons, Malone, originally released in 1969 on the UK label Morgan Blue Town. More commonly known as just Motherlight instead of the artists, who sound more like a law firm than a musical act. You are certainly forgiven for never having heard of it or seeing a copy as only in the last twenty years or so has it been widely discovered. Old school psych collectors would exchange original copies for decent money, as they were pretty rare and just did not show up. In the late 80s a couple of different reissues popped up, which was the first chance for the wider record buying public to get a copy, but it wasn’t until the early 00s and in the last decade that official and widely available versions became available.

I remember my old boss in the New York store I worked at had an original copy and always spoke highly of the record and so when a copy of one of the 80s reissues came through, I bought it. We later stocked a CD version which sold very well. Over the years, I have really grown to like the record. I wouldn’t say it is the most mind-blowing psych-prog record ever but in its just over thirty minutes run time it certainly doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. It has a unique ambiance to it with a slightly ominous tone. Music and vocals are almost muted, and nobody gets carried away with over-the-top solos or screaming. The setup is pretty much keyboards, guitars and rhythm section with some studio magic sprinkled on top.

So, who were these solicitors posing as a rock group? They were actually three accomplished multi-instrumentalists who worked mostly as studio engineers and session guys. Wil Malone had graduated from his 60s psych band The Orange Bicycle and was the chief songwriter and composer. He played keyboards, lead guitar and supplied the vocals. The year after Motherlight was released, he released a solo LP of mostly acoustic folk. Jons was really Andy Johns, the younger brother of Glynn Johns who was already an established producer and engineer. Andy followed in the family footsteps and went on to become a name himself within the industry. Mike Bobak, a graduate from a couple of different London based bands in the 60s was also a staff engineer at Morgan Blue Town Studios and like Johns went on to have a successful career working as a producer and engineer.

The sound of Motherlight, if I had to name drop a few other bands names to give you an idea was somewhere between Pink Floyd, Procol Harem, Kaleidoscope, Mighty Baby and the types of one-offs that Apple Records seemed to sign and record during their heyday. Highlights are the title cut, the incredible On A Meadow Lea and House Of Many Windows. The trio of musicians used their knowledge of studio tricks to really produce something special and different. Coming out as it did at the fag-end of the 60s, it combines psychedelic elements with more progressive sounds and also some of the back-to-roots rural folky feelings that bands were introducing into their music. Recorded mostly on studio down time, the record was released with little fanfare and promotion and the “band” had no plans to perform live. As a result, as good as it is, it duly disappeared from public view and remained mostly unknown for the best part of twenty years. As I mentioned up top, there have been some reissues since then and we just got in a few copies of a current pressing at Sorry State. I highly recommend lovers of this era of British psychedelic and progressive music to investigate and grab themselves a copy. I would be shocked if you were disappointed. I’ll leave a link to On A Meadow Lea for you to check out.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy. Until next time, friends.

-Dom

I think I ended up on Relapse’s mailing list after buying the Detestation re-issue. I was sitting at work early one morning and got an e-mail announcing they had just released the pre-order for a Zouo re-issue and I was totally caught off guard, haha. I guess they did G.I.S.M. so I shouldn’t be surprised if they get a bit more “obscure” with a Japanese release. I always assume everyone who reads my Staff Pick knows all the same shit as I do when it comes to music, but maybe I am really wrong. Sometimes I wonder if the bands I feature on Hardcore Knockouts are more obscure than I think, based on the low amount of total votes cast on certain Knockouts. That said, I will give my take on Zouo even though you probably already know this shit. To me, Zouo is a very popular band, legendary even. They have influenced a tremendous amount of bands internationally from the mid ‘80s onward into today. They really pushed the boundaries pretty early in the game of extreme/harsh sonic elements in hardcore punk. G.I.S.M. is a band that sounds similar to Zouo in the same kinda “bunchafuckeduppeople” way, and predates Zouo, but G.I.S.M. has such a definitive metal approach to things while Zouo does not really at all. I consider Zouo a band for punks while metal-heads may like G.I.S.M. and not Zouo, if that makes sense.

I remember when I got the Frustration 7", a re-issue on Crust War that includes Zouo’s two tracks from the Unlawful Assembly 12". I was bummed it only had two songs, but at the time I didn’t understand the tracks were taken from a compilation, and the band only had four other studio-recorded songs released! Regardless of the number of songs, I was instantly obsessed. They are actually pretty long songs too, yet they don’t get boring to me. When I read the lyrics, I became even more obsessed. They are written in a such a cold, fucked up manner. Not in the dismissive, apathetic way that some people write, though. The words illustrate the vocalist’s deep contemplation and understanding of society and the way humans have been conditioned to treat each other. I got the Final Agony 7" re-issue on Crust War around that same time, too. I don’t think I had ever heard proper rips of the EP, so going into it I really didn’t know what to expect. And man... the fold-out poster really fucks me up, it is SO insanely cool. Relapse sized that down and it is featured on the back cover of the re-issue. They also include an insert that has all the lyrics and a pretty cool collage of artwork/pics of band. I do wish overall the Relapse re-issue had more stuff, like cool info/history of the band. But it is certainly a solid release, and it sounds damn good. All Zouo’s studio output was released in 1984 originally. The recording on Final Agony seems pretty “lo-fi” compared to the compilation tracks, but I think it’s kind of an illusion which I will do my best to explain.

On the compilation tracks, I think the band experimented more with presenting a “sonic atmosphere” that is not just fast-paced hardcore punk. On the comp tracks and EP, the vocals have varying effects on them and they are pushed to the front of the mix. But again, on the compilation tracks, there are additional elements of noise/sound effects that overwhelm the entire recording at times. It really fits into the song’s composition, and that pushes the band into the “pioneering” category, in my opinion. Back to the EP tracks; I feel like the band relied on their Discharge roots just a bit more with their song writing. But not just the writing, even the recording process... this is what I meant by the “lo-fi illusion” I mentioned above. I read the guitarist recorded 3 separate guitar tracks, each one to be panned in a different fashion on the sound spectrum. It gives the entire recording an extra layer of fuzz, really pulling off that Hear Nothing wall of sound. When you can hear the drums playing alone, they actually sound like they were done with very nice production. It’s just the guitar tracks (and vocals at times) that really take over most of the sounds you hear, which makes the whole recording sound a bit more “lo-fi” with all the fuzz that’s going on.

Alright, I will wrap this up. The first side of the disc is their complete 6 tracks of studio-output. The back side is all live recordings. I think most, if not all, of the live stuff was previously released on the 2012 Black Lodge CD/DVD box set and also A Roar Agitating Violent Age 12" (which was released in 2011 on Crust War like the 7" re-issues.) The Relapse Bandcamp page actually has a shit ton of extra live recordings that were not released on the LP. Like I mentioned when I began, I think this re-issue could have been more exciting, but overall it was done well. I can only compare to the re-issue 7"s I have, and I think the sound on this re-issue is excellent! (You can ask Rich to compare it to his original Final Agony EP...) The 7" re-issues from 10 years ago did a really really good job on the packaging, and I had hoped the Relapse re-issue would be a bit more exciting but it’s definitely solid, minimal in a punk way. If you don’t have those EP re-issues I mentioned, I’d grab this 12". The 7"s re-sale now for upwards of $30, so if you don’t already have em and wanna get more Zouo in yer life this is the way to go! kk thanks for reading, ‘til next time..

Cocaine and Rhinestones

I think it’s time. I’ve alluded to this, and I’ve tortured my coworkers with it, so it’s only fitting I expose myself in the newsletter.

I fucking love country music.

It started out innocent enough: going to bluegrass shows with friends in high school, picking up a few bargain bin country records because of their cover art in college. Now, country is probably the most represented genre in my collection. I attribute it to most country records being under $3 and the podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones.

You may know Tyler Mahan Coe from his other show, Your Favorite Band Sucks, or through his outlaw country singer father, David Allen Coe (he doesn’t associate with or talk about his father, don’t worry). But Cocaine and Rhinestones is better than all of that. It is easily the best podcast I’ve listened to in years. Before you write it off—because who wants to listen to a podcast about country music, right?—this podcast is a must listen for anyone interested in the 20th century music industry. Sure, it’s focused on country artists, but it’s rich with information about how the industry worked back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. TMC’s deep dives into specifics like the careers of songwriters and producers, as well as following the rocky road a lot of artists had working with record companies, shed a new light on the (few) country records I had before listening to this podcast. This show has made digging through the country section at record stores so much more entertaining. I now have context to put behind the cowboy hats and beehive hairdos I flipped past without a second thought before.

The show first aired in 2017 and promptly stopped after season 1. Devastating. I felt like I was JUST getting into it and then there were no more episodes to consume! But a few days ago the podcast feed was resurrected and Tyler Mahan Coe has started publishing season 2! Seems like perfect timing to hopefully introduce y’all to this rabbit hole. All the episodes are fascinating in their own ways, but I suggest listening to the three-part series on Jeannie C Riley’s “Harper Valley PTA.” It’s incredibly in depth about the career of a “one hit wonder” and the people that were behind the scenes making the song so successful. And, honestly, that song is punk as fuck if you look at the context.

Relapse Records’ first bold step into the Japanese hardcore reissue game was certainly fraught with controversy. From unobtainable limited versions to pre-order website crashes to that whole swastika debacle (good band name, btw), the label was swallowing shit well before anyone had actually seen or heard its “Detestation” repress in real life. It just didn’t seem fair for such a seemingly well-meaning product. I mean, it’s a legit vinyl issue of Japan’s most notorious and heralded hardcore LP—one that hasn’t been in regular circulation since the mid-1980s (and even that’s stretching it). Y’all ease up a bit!

Sure, Relapse’s 2020 G.I.S.M. update wasn’t perfect. The higher-contrast art with fake, glued-on obi strip was baffling as hell, and the quieter, darker mix fell a little flat, too. But you know what? WHO CARES?! It’s a solid-enough reissue of a stone-cold classic, PLUS you don’t have to worry about Sakevi beating down your bootleg-buying door with a gol’dern baseball bat for owning it. A win/win, I’d say!

Assuming Relapse’s intentions stay true, I’m 1,000 percent on board for this new wave of artist-authorized East Asian cult punk repackagings. And up next: ZOUO!

I totally get following “Detestation” with a Zouo compilation because that’s exactly how Japanese hardcore trickles down. First, you hear G.I.S.M. and your world is changed. What IS this alien sound? It’s so psychotic! So demonic! I’ve never heard anything like this! Wait… IS there anything else like this? Is that even possible? Then somebody more in-the-know hips you to Zouo and the worldchanging starts all over again.

With a smaller catalog and a less-storied past, it makes sense you gotta dig past Tokyo’s G.I.S.M. to get to Osaka’s Zouo. But once you get there, OH MAN. We’re talking HardcoreHeavyMetalMayhem at its finest. Riffs and grunts and Satan, what more do you need? Zouo is basically Venom with mohawks, and I can think of few things more appealing than that.

The band’s lone ep, “The Final Agony,” is a true monster of hardcore… hellish, bizarre and—most importantly—HEADBANGABLE. It’s perfect. Unfortunately, it’s also pretty difficult to track down. There was a 2011 reissue on Crust War that’s become outlandishly pricy ($40+), and a 1984 AA Records original is gonna set you back at least 10 times that IF you can even find a copy.

Being a shithead record gremlin, you know I had to get that AA original, but the sucker whitewhale’d me for a LOOONG time, including a fruitless and heartbreaking Turkish money order I’d rather not get into. But, hey, I was FINALLY able to secure my own little 7” slice of Hell this past winter. It was a sweaty purchase, no doubt, but one I’ll never regret. After all, “The Final Agony” is one of the best 7”s ever made.

And because I’m lucky enough to sit here with a 1984 original AND this new 12”, I can do the A/B legwork for you and say RELAPSE NAILED IT. “Agony Remains” sounds GREAT. It’s very faithful to the original: crunchy, cacophonous, and grimy as fuck. It’s mid-fi heretical thrash at its most mid-fi and heretical.

The A-side gives you all four tracks from “The Final Agony” plus Zouo’s weirdly raging contributions from the “Hardcore Unlawful Assembly” compilation. As much as I appreciate faithful reproductions from head to toe, these six tracks flow together so well and sound so good together, any gripes I could find with Relapse’s faux-distressed cover art or barebones insert sheet are pretty much moot. At the end of the day, I’m just stoked these all-timer tracks are finally available to the mass market. The fact that you can walk into a record store and pick up an officially licensed, sweet-sounding Zouo reissue is fucking awesome, and the thought of some 12-year-old kid stumbling onto “Bloody Master” on Spotify warms the cockles of my drying, pre-middle-aged heart.

Oh yeah, the B-side compiles a buncha iffy-sounding live tracks that I’d put squarely in “For Fans Only” territory. Swing by my tent if you’re ever in the neighborhood.

The Fall: Live at St. Helens Technical College 1981 (2021, Castle Face Records)

This is MY staff pick section for the newsletter at MY record store, and if I want to go full Fall nerd mode on you, then there ain’t shit you can do about it except keep scrolling!

The impetus for this descent into Fall nerd mode is a new release from Castle Face Records (home of the Oh Sees and a lot of other stuff): Live at St. Helens Technical College 1981. As a Fall fan, I dutifully bought this record and listened to it, and it set my mind reeling. I plan to give you the skinny on this record below, but there’s a lot I want to say generally about the Fall and Fall live recordings. I’m going to dip my toe into these waters for this staff pick, and if it seems interesting, I’ll wade out a little further.

One great thing about the Fall is that they always seemed to approach their songs as works in progress. This is something I first understood when I spent some time with the essential The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 6-CD box set that came out in 2005. By the time I heard that box I was pretty familiar with the first dozen studio albums by the Fall (and the associated singles), and I noticed the Peel Sessions versions of songs were often very different from the “official” studio recordings. Any deep Fall head should be able to point out some key Peel Sessions tracks. I’m partial to their session from March 31, 1981. Not only does it capture one of my favorite eras of the band, but also the faster, tougher-sounding Peel Session version of “Lie Dream of Casino Soul” blows away the version released as a single that year.

You can hit the Fall message boards if you want to get into the weeds about the best versions of particular songs, but my takeaway is that the Fall’s approach to studio recordings was scattershot and arbitrary. Whereas a band like Iron Maiden does extensive pre-production before they go into the studio then integrates the finished songs into a highly choreographed stage show, this wasn’t the case for the Fall. Some Fall albums capture the band ripping through a batch of songs that are well rehearsed and fleshed out from a songwriting standpoint (like This Nation’s Saving Grace), while others (I’m looking at you, Room to Live), feature a tired-sounding band trying their best to get through songs despite not having really found the groove. Sometimes, as with the Peel Sessions version of “Lie Dream,” we can find a version of a song that’s way better than what the record company got.

The “Peel Sessions versus studio versions” debate is key to Fall fandom, but it’s possible to go even deeper than that, and that’s where the live albums and bootlegs come in. The big variable here is fidelity, as some recordings come from soundboards, while others run the gamut from terrible to very good audience recordings. When you dig into these, you learn that, besides there being a pretty big difference between the Fall on a good night and the Fall on a bad night, they often didn’t “finish” a song before wheeling it out in front of an audience. Fall live albums and bootlegs are full of alternate arrangements, fragments, castoffs, and embryonic versions. You can take a trainspotting approach to these differences, but I contend that often these differences reveal things in the music you wouldn’t hear or appreciate otherwise.

TL;DR version: the Fall was never the same band two days in a row. This makes the world of Fall bootlegs very exciting.

There’s plenty more to say, but I’ll leave that for when I return to this topic. For now, let’s get back to the record at hand. Castle Face Label owner / Oh Sees frontman John Dwyer describes Live at St. Helens Technical College 1981 as a “bootleg soundboard recording,” but when you hold the thing in your hands, the vibe is pretty luxe. Unlike the parade of horrible packaging adorning the never-ending series of Fall live albums on labels like Cog Sinister and Hip Priest, Castle Face has put together a very nice product. They dug up beautiful black and white photographs from the actual gig and presented them as an eye-catching gatefold, even springing for a little pocket to hold the 7” EP that contains the last two songs of the set (and that 7” also has a picture sleeve that matches the rest of the package). It feels prestigious, and it will look very nice filed alongside the rest of my extensive Fall vinyl library.

When you drop the needle, the album starts off promising with a track called “Blob ’59.” This is one of those weird little fragments I mentioned above that are exciting to find on a Fall bootleg. While there is a track with a similar title on Grotesque, the version on Live at St Helens is essentially an embryonic version of “Lie Dream of Casino Soul.” If you listen, you can hear that song’s main guitar riff just taking shape and toward the end Mark rattles off a few lyrics that would make it into the song’s more familiar versions (which they would record mere weeks after the gig captured here). Score!

After that, you get something I don’t expect when I approach a Fall live record: a well-rehearsed, confident version of the band playing a set of classic songs that hew pretty close to their album versions. The recording even sounds fantastic, with a beefy drum sound and all the instruments sounding great. The lineup is the five-piece Slates lineup, and the set list features tracks from Slates and Hex Enduction Hour along with a few from Grotesque and a couple of older songs, “Rowche Rumble” and “Muzorewi’s Daughter.” It’s hard to imagine a better set list… “Leave the Capitol,” “City Hobgoblins,” and “Prole Art Threat…” fuck! While there are always more songs I would add, what they string together here is god tier.

That’s the good. Here are the inevitable quibbles. A few months after this gig, mercurial percussionist Karl Burns rejoined the band. The drummer on this record, Paul Hanley, stayed on as well, giving birth to the legendary two-drummer lineup that would record Hex Enduction Hour, my favorite Fall album. The Hex Enduction Hour songs on this record sound great, but the two-drummer versions on Hex (and later live albums like Fall in a Hole) are superior. This reminds me of an analysis of Black Flag I once heard (but can’t remember where): Damaged is a bunch of songs written for one guitar and played with two, while My War is a record written for two guitars and recorded with one. Both Hex Enduction Hour and Damaged are records where there’s almost too much going on, with so much sound crammed in that it feels unstable, accentuating the menace present in the songs themselves.

My other quibble is the recording. On one hand, it sounds fantastic… like I said, all the instruments and the mix sound great, and in that respect it’s a lot like the quickly produced but sonically precise recordings bands got when they went to Maida Vale to record a Peel Session. On the other hand, soundboard recordings, when they don’t have any mics capturing the audience or the ambient room sound, can sound flat and sterile, and that is arguably the case here. This is a cliche, but I think the Fall were in dialogue with the audience when they played live. Since their arrangements were always a bit half-formed and fuzzy, they had a lot of room to respond to the energy of a particular room or crowd (can you imagine the Fall playing along to a click track?). You can’t hear much of the crowd here, and it’s a bit like eavesdropping on someone talking on the phone where you can only hear one half of the conversation.

So, that’s more than you ever wanted to know about Live at St. Helens Technical College 1981. I have a few Fall live albums in my collection and I’m not averse to adding more, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be returning to this topic.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

This week, I chose a record that is a bit different from the usual punk and hardcore I gush about. I’ve touched on this concept in previous newsletters, but there seems to be an era as the 70s transitioned into the 80s where earnest rock ’n’ roll became super unfashionable and almost more like gimmicky pastiche. I remember someone saying to me once that Valley of the Dolls by Generation X was the last sincere rock ’n’ roll record. But I think that if there’s one band that flew the flag for traditional, glam-influenced and heartfelt rock ’n’ roll on into the mid-80s, then it’s Hanoi Rocks.

For the longest time, mainly because of their association with Motley Crue, I assumed Hanoi Rocks sounded like a cheesy and sleazy heavy metal band. And while I’m sure some influences from their contemporaries couldn’t help but creep into their songwriting, Hanoi Rocks have way more in common with 70s bands like Mott The Hoople or Slade. I’m not sure how much success Hanoi Rocks had while they were around, but they released a string of solid albums between 1981 and their disbandment in 1985.

Sorry for the long exposition there, but I’m finally getting to my point: There are moments musically on a lot of those Hanoi Rocks records that I think are cool, but I don’t think the records ever fully grabbed me enough to get super into them. I remember a friend telling me once that the singer Michael Monroe’s first solo record is better than any Hanoi Rocks record. I bought a beautiful copy of that solo record a while back (a Japanese pressing with the obi!). Lately, I’ve been revisiting my copy of Michael Monroe’s solo debut, and I just can’t get enough.

Nights Are So Long, released in 1987, is like the perfect blend of softness and edge. There are moments that are sweet and intimate, but if you poked fun at him singing about love, Michael Monroe could definitely still kick your ass. The lyrical content of the record exhibits bad boy behavior, but the trashiness comes across as more fun and innocent rather than cringey and misogynistic. I would not say that Monroe’s lyrics on this record are the most unique or poetic sentiments by any means. Still, I find that if I can dive into listening to this record with all pretenses suspended, I totally buy into the hooks and find myself singing along. The record is beautifully recorded with perfectly overdriven, lush and pure sounding guitars. And as the platter continues to spin, pretty much every song is great, each with their own charm and huge, hooky chorus. My favorite track “Shake Some Action” by the title alone leads you to believe it will be a cheeky and possibly suggestive song like “Cherry Pie” by Warrant, when really, it’s a melodic, melancholic yet hopeful lamentation. I also don’t really think that Michael Monroe is the most naturally gifted singer in the world, but he approaches his vocals with so much conviction and attitude that I can’t help but be charmed by it. It’s clear that Monroe is a fan and has diverse taste. While the glam classics of the 70s are a clear influence, you can still definitely hear early punk affecting Monroe’s style. He even covers “High School” by the MC5 on this LP.

As far as I know, Hanoi Rocks were Finland’s biggest export in terms of producing a well-known rock band. I think the success of Hanoi Rocks is directly responsible for Finnish hardcore punk bands moving toward a more rockin’ sound. The most notable example is members of Riistetyt transforming into Holy Dolls and Pyhät Nuket.

I think one thing Michael Monroe and Hanoi Rocks gained notoriety for is their outrageous look and presentation in photos on their album covers. At first glance, you might flip past a Hanoi Rocks album in a record store and assume that they sound like Poison or something. You also might be quick to write them off, thinking that they were just tastelessly adopting the fashion of the time. But as a counter to this notion, I recently I saw a video on YouTube of Michael Monroe doing What’s In My Bag at Amoeba Records and he looks EXACTLY THE SAME. To me, this further illustrates that the way the band looked was not a pose and was not indicative of a lack of substance. He also just seems to have a big, friendly and charismatic personality, so of course the way he dresses is a bit eccentric. Plus, in my book, what the hell is wrong with looking cool? Personally, I’ll pass on watching a bunch of dorky schlubs attempting to hack their way through badass rock ‘n’ roll. In this Amoeba video, Monroe, along with Sami Yaffa of Hanoi Rocks, put their deep knowledge and taste on display with album choices that are dominated by blues, soul and early rock ‘n’ roll. Weirdly, Michael Monroe seems to be a big Nazareth fan? I found that pretty funny.

As mentioned above, here’s my favorite track if you wanna check it out...

Thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Hey there all you fine Sorry State friends and family. How has your week treated you?

Mine has been good for the most part, thankfully. I was able to get my first shot of the vaccine on Monday. It was a huge relief and I am very grateful. We are still not completely out of the woods, but there seems to be an end in sight. My arm was pretty sore for a couple of days, though. Good thing I had plenty of great records and music to keep my mind off it. I’ll admit to using some of my stimulus on records and have brought several good ones into the house this week, including decent OG copies of a couple of big hitters and several nice cheap and cheerful platters. Just like the Peanuts cartoon, whenever I feel low, I buy a new record and feel better. I won’t brag about which ones here, but I may pick one or two to talk about at some point.

Between the killer recent collections of used records and all the new releases and reissues that have been flooding into Sorry State, there is too much great music to listen to in any given day. I pretty much am only not listening to music when I sleep. All other hours there is something spinning. It’s the only thing that quiets the noises in my head. Ha ha.

Okay, let’s talk about a couple of records that have been on the turntable this week.

Last week on The Face radio top man and DJ Kurtis Powers played The Chi-Lites version of Inner-City Blues, the Marvin Gaye classic. It sparked a conversation with listeners in the chat forum about other versions and just how many there are. I chimed in with my contribution for a good version coming off of a Music Library record called Persuasive Jazz Album 20. Since it’s Jazz Appreciation month and because in the news we are seeing continued examples of injustice and people still feeling the blues both in the cities and out of them, this record will make a good choice to start off with this week. I wish I could provide information regarding the artists involved, but they are not credited on the release and research doesn’t come up with too much. I can tell you that the Persuasive Jazz series came out on a New York based label called Ebonite, which was itself a part of President Records, a UK based label. That label had The Equals and The Pyramids signed and played a big part in breaking the Miami disco sound in the UK with KC And The Sunshine Band among others. The Ebonite label may or may not have been a tax scam label and specialized in providing incidental music for TV/Film & Radio. Most of their many releases were covers of, or sideways versions o,f current pop, jazz, soul and funk hits. Number twenty has an almost sixteen-minute version of Inner-City Blues along with very cool covers of Show Us A Feeling by Roy Ayers and Ordinary Pain by Stevie Wonder, although titled Ordinary Man here. All three are pretty good cover versions, and the musicianship is first rate. I wish I had more information about this release and the others, but it seems that some change hands for decent money because they have drum breaks or good samples or like this particular one are just good records and perfect for DJs looking for something slightly different. I wish I had a sound clip to link so you can check it out, but if you ever see the distinctive but generic black and white Ebonite sleeves whilst out digging for records, I encourage you to investigate.

Sometime before the shutdown last year I found a good record whist digging, but unfortunately it had quite a bad warp on it. It was a copy of Odetta Sings by Odetta on Polydor from 1970. The other day Doctor D put it in the de-warping machine and was able to fix it and so this past week I have been able to enjoy playing it. The album has Odetta singing songs by Elton John, Randy Newman, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Mick and Keith plus a couple of her own compositions. It was recorded in part at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama with the core house band of musicians that had recently left nearby Fame Studios and also in part at Larabee Sound, which was also a newly opened studio in Hollywood, California. On the L.A. sessions backing is provided by, among others, Carole King, Bernie Leadon, Bob West and Russ Kunkel. In Muscle Shoals the musicians were pretty much the same guys that played on soul hit after soul hit for mostly Atlantic Records artists such as Aretha Franklin, for example. Names like Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, David Hood and Eddie Hinton should be very familiar to anyone who has read the liner notes to any of those great mid to late sixties Atlantic and Fame recordings.

The album also features a host of great singers on backup duties, with Merry Clayton and Clydie King being two of them. The record also has a nice, tasty drum break on the Odetta penned cut Hit Or Miss. That track and Movin’ It On also written by Odetta are kinda the best two cuts on the record and it is a shame that instead of the covers they didn’t just do a full soul album of her own songs. A bit of a missed opportunity considering all the talent on hand. Not that any of the covers are bad, because they are not. The songs are all from top songwriters and performers. The version of No Expectations by The Rolling Stones is given a good interpretation, for instance.

Odetta, full name Odetta Holmes, was literally known as the Voice Of the Civil Rights Movement through her records of American Folk and Blues that she began recording from the mid to late fifties and throughout the sixties. All the sixties folkies were under her influence in some way or other; Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Janis Joplin were fans, as were Harry Belafonte and Mavis Staples. So apparently was Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who called her the Queen of American Folk music. Her legacy and importance cannot be underestimated, and if you are not familiar with her life and work, I as always encourage you to do some digging and pick up some knowledge. The world sadly lost her in 2008 after illness and just a month before she was lined up to perform at President Obama’s inauguration ceremony.

Here’s a link to the song Hit Or Miss for you to check out:

Lastly, before I sign off, a quick mention of a reissue I picked up on the Honest Jon’s label albeit with different cover art than the original. In 2011 they reissued the 1980 album The Return Of Pipecock Jackson by Lee “Scratch” Perry. This was originally released on the Black Star Liner label out of Holland and is notable for containing the very last tracks recorded at the famed Black Ark Studios. For one reason or another an original of this has eluded me over the years. Not because it is rare or expensive, you just rarely see it in record store racks.

Probably because it is a bit of a lost Lee Perry album, coming out as it did at the end of the seventies, which was his most prolific and successful period, and when everything in his world was upside down and chaotic, it wasn’t considered a classic like all the previous albums. The Lee Perry “divine madness” had been present on all his records to some degree, but perhaps on this one it shows a little too much for some? I don’t know.

The story behind the circumstances in which the record was created is told very well in the liner notes written by David Katz, the author of “People Funny Boy: The Genius Of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry,” an essential biography of the artist. I only wish the font used on these liner notes wasn’t so small. You need binoculars to read these things. Also, why did they not use the original cover? Was it a rights issue? Regardless, the cover is a good photo of Perry and the music itself is what counts. As to that? Well, if you are a fan of reggae music and like his style of production and his unique voice and use of language, there is a lot to like. As a document of the very last tracks to come out of his Black Ark Studio, it is essential. I’ll leave with a link to one cut I have been enjoying and leave you to follow the rabbit holes if you so desire.

Take care, everyone. Until next time. Records rule!

-Dom

Hello friends and other readers who maybe we can be friends too in the future,

My Staff Pick is not a record, although there are some records on there... My Staff Pick is a fundraiser to help out protestors who get snatched up in the streets. There is cool shit on there, so check it out and donate some money if you have any to spare. And honestly, it could be you one day who is sitting in jail (or worse) from protest and you are praying that people can bail you out. So for real, take a look and donate some shit. There is a $5 option for a sick ass Public Acid banner I made too. It’ll all be up there for two weeks. I wrote more about the Raffle above that you probably already read where I highlighted the SSR bundle and explained more or less how it works. I hope yer all doing well. ‘Til next time...

There sure were a lotta new SSR drops getting me hyped over the last week… tapes and 7”s and LPs, OH MY. There was so much radical stuff, in fact, that I’ve barely half-digested any of it. Since I don’t feel qualified to critique anything in depth and I’m already prone to long-windedness at the tail end of this already dense staff pick section, here’s a quick rundown of my favorite recent marketplace additions:

Perro de Prenda, “Vol. 1” (B.L.A.P. Tapes) - Reissue of this Austin, TX group’s first cassette from 2019. I never heard this’un back when it was originally released, so I’m real glad B.L.A.P. (remember those individually lettered Rolex cassettes?) rebranded it. There are probably some apt old Latin American hardcore bands I could try and compare the Spanish-speaking Perro de Prenda to, but this tape really has me thinking of Italy’s Attack Punk Records first and foremost. If you dig that kinda oldschool rawdog int’l HC punk sound, look no further. Real ragin’ shit!

CDG, “Unconditional” (Domestic Departure Records) - Daniel’s Fall- and TVPs-dropping description from last week’s newsletter pretty much slammed this “Anglophonic” US post-punker nail on its head. Toss it in the middle of your “Wanna Buy a Bridge?” playlist and see if any fellow pandemic partiers notice.

Vitamin, “Recordings 1981” (Don Giovanni Records) - Speaking of old Rough Trade bangers, it’s hard to mention violin-inclusive post-punk without thinking of The Raincoats. While the one preview track posted for this Boston art-punk troupe’s new archival release definitely bears some resemblance to the almighty strained’n’funky ‘Coats, the rest of this collection treads in more Americanized pools of no wave, Ubu and Talking Heads—all topics touched on in the album’s liner notes. This also kinda makes me think of an earlier, more immediate Thinking Fellers Union Local 282… if THAT means anything to anybody.

Kyoufu Shinbun, “Death Training” (Bitter Lake Recordings) - So I’ve barely scratched barely scratching the surface of this triple-LP monster, but I’m smitten with at least three sides of it so far. If y’all fuck with Japanese DIY, line-in drum machine punk or Boiled Angel, TAKE IMMEDIATE NOTE. Additionally, if you peeped (and enjoyed) that annoyingly awesome Pilgrim Screw tape I championed a few weeks ago, Kyoufu Shinbun is a no-brainer.

The Worst: The Worst of the Worst CD (Parts Unknown Records, 2004)

Here’s a peek behind the SSR curtain: I spend all day Wednesday drafting the Record of the Week and Featured Releases descriptions for the newsletter, then when I wake up on Thursday morning I throw together my staff pick at the last minute. Sometimes I know what my staff pick will be ahead of time, but often what I just scan my “recently listened” pile and see what I feel like writing about.

This week I noticed this CD reissue by New Jersey’s the Worst sitting near my stereo. I listened to a podcast yesterday in which Brian from Night Birds talked at length about the Worst, and that’s close enough to serendipity in my book. So here we are.

The Worst of the Worst compiles four sessions by New Jersey’s the Worst: their self-titled 7” and Expect the Worst 12” (both on legendary New Jersey label Mutha Records), a 6-song “unreleased LP,” and a 1979 live gig from Max’s Kansas City. It’s a lot of music, but it’s all worth hearing.

The Worst was unique in that they played with the big sound and blistering tempos of early 80s hardcore, but their sound was rooted in the nihilistic punk of the Stooges circa Raw Power and the Dead Boys.

As the date on that live set hints, the Worst started early in the game and gigged in the late 70s NYC punk scene (particularly at Max’s) until they were essentially banned and retreated to their home turf of South Jersey. There they joined the scrappy scene around Mutha Records, playing alongside fellow Mutha bands like Fatal Rage and Chronic Sick. Despite jumping scenes, the Worst’s sound stayed the same, and even the unreleased 2nd LP tracks on this CD have that mix of early hardcore speed and power and punk sleaze (though, having lost their original vocalist, they aren’t quite up to par with the released records).

The story of how the Worst got banned in New York is worth repeating. I wouldn’t say it’s the Worst’s claim to fame (the music on their two records is claim enough in my book), but it’s significant. As the tale goes, someone affiliated with the Worst’s camp (in Stuart Schrader’s excellent liner notes for this CD, it’s a roadie; in Brian’s account from the podcast, it’s the guitarist) was hanging out in NYC in a party that included Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. Sid was whining for drugs and the aforementioned Worst affiliate was elected to go score. They completed their task, returning to the party with enough drugs for the entire room, but Sid commandeered the stash, took it all, and overdosed. (This isn’t the overdose that killed Sid; it was one of the earlier ones that almost killed him.) The Worst were already on thin ice with NYC clubs thanks to their singer’s Iggy-inspired antics, and almost killing a punk icon was the straw that broke the camel’s back, making them personae non grata in the NYC scene.

It’s kind of crazy that, aside from a dodgy bootleg in the early 00s, we haven’t seen any vinyl reissues by the Worst. I would love to have vinyl copies of their Mutha releases, both of which are top shelf punk records. The 7” is a little punkier and catchier, and the songs (particularly the anthemic “High Velocity”) stand toe to toe with the Dead Boys’ nastiest recordings. Things get more straightforward on Expect the Worst, which has an FU’s-type punk-informed-hardcore sound, and while this flattens out some of the dynamism in the songwriting, that’s counterbalanced by the more vicious playing style. While this CD’s booklet notes there were 1,000 copies pressed of the Worst’s 7” and 2,500 copies of the 12”, the records are difficult to find and sell for north of $500. I’m skeptical there are 2,500 copies of the LP out there given how infrequently it turns up, but at least that number gives me some hope of laying my hands on one.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

I’m not sure if Daniel drew your attention to what I’m going to talk about in this edition of the newsletter or not, but here we go anyway…

Recently, the team here at Sorry State started doing a bit of housekeeping around the shop. For a good while now, we’ve had a few long boxes of used punk 7”s that have just sat around, either because they weren’t selling at the store or because we just never got around to pricing them (whoops!).

The other day, I dove into dealing with all these records. I brought a few of these 7” boxes to our warehouse location, and I’ve been slowly but surely listing them for sale on our Discogs page. Daniel came up to me at one point and asked if he could flip through the 7”s in the box I was getting ready to look through. Even though most of the records in this box were nothing super crazy or rare, Daniel and I were both surprised and erupted simultaneously, “Man, there’s some cool shit in here!”

One record Daniel pointed out to me was a 7” by this band Fogna. I had never heard of them, but the cover art invoked me with an ominous glow that I could have sworn whispered, “I fuckin’ rule. Listen to me.” And so I did, and of course this record was right up my alley. Fogna only released this one record in 2009. Funny enough, it was initially self-released by the band on CD-R only. Thankfully, it was re-released properly as a 7”, which was limited to 300 copies, and each 100 of those 300 were on a different color vinyl (this copy is on clear, SCORE!).

The record opens by slowly luring you in with goosebump-inducing noise and sudden distant grunts that made me feel like I should prepare for some power electronics or something. I imagined being in a dark club with blacklights flashing while dark figures emerge from a cloud of smoke. But as I was losing patience, waiting damn near 3 minutes for the alluring smoke from the FOGna machine (see what I did there?) to clear, the music finally kicked in. I realized I was in for some killer, but dark and nasty, hardcore.

I hate to make this comparison immediately because it’s almost too obvious, but the atmosphere of the music and particularly the vocals remind me of La Tua Morte Non Aspetta-era Wretched. Have I used this record as a comparison in my staff picks before? Oh well, I don’t care. I really do get that vibe. Everything feels like Groundhog Day right now. And even making that comparison, I wouldn’t say this perceived layer of darkness is exactly goth-sounding, but what can I say? This record makes me feel that slow thump of the heart and spine-tingling sensation of macabre suspense one might find while watching a Vincent Price monologue. I’m kidding, but yeah, this record is a tad spooky. The guitars are chorus-drenched with a sophisticated sense of dissonance, kind of like Die Kreuzen. But the rhythms are more barbaric and evil, almost like proto-black metal or something? This record has a lot going on. And still, I find it all fits together like a tightly wrapped, blood-soaked package.

The production has this cold, austere feeling to it. Not quite like a robot, but sort of… synthetic. And as I kept listening, it occurred to me: those are NOT real drums! So it turns out, Fogna is only two people from Sicily. And side-note—I don’t know if they sing in proper Sicilian language rather than Italian, but the vocals sound a lot like Italian hardcore to me. Does anyone know if these two folks played in any other bands? But anyway, I looked at the credits on the sleeve and it clearly reads: one person plays bass and sings, the other person does guitar and DRUM MACHINE. But honestly, I find this record so captivating and think the music is so cool that this discovery doesn’t even bother me.

I told Daniel I wanted the record, and I brought it home. I’ve listened to it 5 or 6 times already since I’ve been writing this. Another non-expensive gem found and added to the collection. Hell yeah!

Thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

What’s up everyone? How are you? Not sure about where you are but here in Raleigh we went from winter to summer overnight (typical North Carolina weather) and this being the City Of Oaks, we are now knee deep in yellow pollen. Fine if you drive a yellow car and dress in yellow and are not affected with allergies. For the rest of us, it can be a pain. However, what it does signal is that spring is here and the sunshine and warmer weather has me reaching for my Latin, Reggae, Afro, and Brazilian records.

Talking of Brazil, we have started to stock titles from the UK label Mr. Bongo, whose focus is on Brazilian and world music with some jazz, soul, and funk titles also. They reissue rare and out of reach albums but also put out a fantastic compilation series called the Mr. Bongo Record Club which is into its fourth volume now. For those that are seeking rare groovy gems, retro and contemporary, this series is a must. Check them out.

Mr. Bongo have reissued so many great albums over the past few years. One of my earlier staff picks was the Os Brazoes album from Brazil, which they did. An awesome Afro-funk album they have is the Funky Rob Way album by Rob. Originally released in Ghana in 1978 and well worth investigating and one we brought into the store. Check this:

A terrific record that Mr. Bongo has reissued twice now and helped make known is one by Swedish singer Doris: her lone solo album from 1970 called Did You Give The World Some Love Today Baby that appeared on the Swedish Odeon label. It’s a jazzy, groovy pop record at heart, but it has three tracks in particular that DJs, producers, and record collectors all clammer for. Those tracks, Don’t, Beatmaker and You Never Come Closer are golden. I have always had a soft spot for this type of sound. Cool femme vocals over a funky, beat laden arrangement. In the late sixties and early seventies there was a sort of big band renaissance, especially in Europe. If you are familiar with Johnny Harris the British band leader and his work with Lulu, Tom Jones, and Shirley Bassey and particularly his own album Movements from 1970, then you should have an idea of the sound on the Doris album. I first heard a DJ play the cut You Never Come Closer as part of the warm-up for a gig I was attending back in the early 90s. It struck a chord with me instantly, but I didn’t know who it was until a year later when I picked up a compilation and the track was on there. Owning an original of the album was out of the question, so I had to wait until 1998 when it got its first reissue. It has always served me well at DJ gigs. Here’s a link:

April, in case you hadn’t heard, is Jazz Appreciation Month and we are all encouraged to investigate, listen to and read about Jazz. That’s not a problem for me as I listen to Jazz every day. I typically enjoy my morning coffee whilst listening to an album and have a decent sized Jazz collection to pick from each day. At the store we have a pretty good Jazz section too and the other day I was playing a record that I have a copy of already but just enjoy listening to. It’s one by Eddie Harris called Excursions that was released in 1973 on Atlantic. I’m a big fan of records that punch well above their weight, and this is definitely one of those. The sort of record that if it had been recorded by an unknown artist and released on an obscure small label would have collectors forking out big bucks for a copy. I think we sold the copy I was playing in the store for $15. A friend of the store was in shopping and he recognized what I was playing and liked the record too. He bought it as it was an upgrade on his copy. I think we still have another copy in the store for someone. The record is a double and includes material from a few years earlier in addition to the 1973 material. For those unfamiliar with Eddie Harris, briefly, he was born in Chicago and popularized the use of an electrically amplified saxophone, although he also played keyboards. He had a hit with the song Listen Here that appeared on his Electrifying Eddie Harris album from 1967 and later in partnership with Les McCann recorded the live set Swiss Movement at the Montreux Jazz Festival. That album was successful and became one of the best-selling Jazz records ever. On Excursions the sound is funky and in places like on lead track Drunk Man has some weirdness that you don’t typically hear on a jazz record. For the drunk man vocal sound Eddie sang into his horn and amplified electronically his voice through various gadgets. Several of the musicians on the date were young, up-and-coming performers who, although mostly barely past twenty, had already become in demand players. Drummer Leon Chancler stands out. He was only twenty yet had played on countless sessions already by this point, as had piano player Larry Nash who at the time of these recordings was also just twenty yet was already working as musical director for singer Merry Clayton. On the older cuts, names on the musician list include Ron Carter, Melvin Jackson and Billy Higgins to name three you may have heard of. The majority of the older material was taken from the Electrifying sessions, but two cuts date all the way back to 1966. You’d think it would be very inconsistent as a result, but the title of the album is Excursions, and it is meant to be a trip through time and the mind of Eddie Harris, and I think does just that. Highly recommended. Check out Drunk Man:

Lastly, to continue with the Jazz but on a Latin tip, a record by the prolific Quartette Tres Bien and their album called Boss Tres Bien from 1964 on the Norman Records label. This was one of a dozen records the combo cut in the sixties and if you enjoy Ramsey Lewis, Billy Larkin & the Delegates, Afro-Blues Quintet, and Young Holt Unlimited, you will love these guys. It’s accessible music that is both pop and hip at the same time. What we might term Mod Jazz.

All of their records are pretty easy to find and shouldn’t be very expensive, and each has at least one or two really good cuts on it. They mostly recorded for Decca but have one album on Atlantic and the first couple on Norman. This album was their third and first for Decca, but oddly my copy has the cover for the first album and is still on the Norman label. So, they must have had some arrangement to release on both labels. I’m not sure how that came about, but it is interesting. Anyway, money track is the title cut Boss Tres Bien, which has a cool and lush Latin vibe to it. Perfect for sunny days whilst sipping on a refreshing beverage. It’s been a DJ track for me and never fails to get heads nodding and folks in the right mood. Check it out:

Well, there you go. That’s your lot for this week. Plenty for you to investigate and explore. As usual, there is more detailed information available if you are curious. I hope I picked out at least one thing you can dig and groove on. Music is subjective and each of us has our own relationship with it. Time and place, I always say. Music is mood and when the mood of the music meets ours at the right moment and in the right circumstances, it can be so uplifting and magical. As music junkies, we all know that feeling. I have felt it with all the records I talk about and just want other people to experience that also. I humbly hope you will find something to enjoy and I thank you for reading. See you next time.

Cheers - Dom

Okay, anyone that knows me probably predicted I would pick this record as my Staff Pick. But even if you know me well, maybe you didn’t know how much I had been anticipating this release. Nervous SS is a band from Macedonia. It’s actually a solo project, just like Rat Cage. I first heard Nervous SS cos Blagoj from the band hit up the Bunker Punks email praising Scarecrow and asking if we wanted to do a split. Haha, I guess we could’ve been Rat Cage in this case... maybe we fucked up. Jeff and I thought Nervous SS was killer. We had never heard of the band before, but we aren’t super into the idea of split releases with our band. I responded to Blagoj telling him we thought his band ruled but would have to pass on the idea. Instead I proposed another idea to him... soon after, Bunker Punks released a US version of his then-current full length Future Extinction. This LP had just been released on D-Takt & Råpunk Records, so it felt really cool to do a release that D-Takt had originally done. We had just began forming a relationship with Jocke from D-Takt around that time too, cos he had released the European pressing of Scarecrow’s Revenge E.P. As much as I hate the internet, I am so grateful to develop relationships with people overseas as a result.

Okay maybe I’ll talk about the split a bit? I like Rat Cage, but I’m not crazy about them. I have all their records, I think. They go hard, and they go fast. It’s honestly killer shit, but the riffing doesn’t always do it for me. It’s catchy, but not in the ways my ears perk up to. That said, I think this Rat Cage material is the best so far. Some of his songs are so fast and locked-in on this split, I like just can’t… got damn, it rages. Nervous SS.... I wasn’t sure what to expect, aside from Totalitär-esque riffing. Blagoj knows exactly what the fuck he is doing. When the record is over, I am bummed. I’ve listened to it almost every day since I got it, and sometimes I play the Nervous SS side a few times in a row. The artwork on this split is SICK. It’s the same artist Rat Cage has featured for previous releases. It’s cool too cos the covers are printed in like a shiny silver ink. Each band finishes their side with a cover song of a not-so-hardcore band, a nice touch. To me, it’s hard to have a split where both sides are compelling listens. I think this split qualifies and deserves a place in every record collection.

Okay, I’m tired and I have a lot of work to do so I’m gunna stop here, but I wanted mention something else. I can’t remember how I discovered this band, but I’ve had this tape downloaded for a handful of years. When I first heard it I became obsessed. I do not like metal, so this is a big deal for me, haha. Of course I tried to find out more about the band when I found them, but couldn’t find a damn thing! This tape doesn’t even exist on Discogs. I have seen two photos of them online, so I know it is real haha.

I think this band is the same band as Valkyrie, the all-woman metal band from Japan but I’m not 100% certain. I saw the other day someone had uploaded a full rip of the tape! Very cool. Yet another time I like the internet... now I can tell people to check em out, rather than before when I had to play my own download at em haha. I haven’t met a single person yet who knew who this band was prior to me sharing the info, but each person who hears it thinks it rules also! Maybe that’s just cos I’m not friends with any metal-heads... Anyway, if you like metal, or don’t, check it out. Thanks for reading my words. ‘Til nex time...

Weed: A Rare Batch (Classic Jazz Vocals)

Anyone remember way back when I started in October (god has it been that long? I still feel like such a newb here)? My first staff pick was one of my favorite records, “Youth Against Drugs.” As much as I love laughing at that sort of stuff, it is the product of a much darker aspect to American history and current policy. The War on Drugs might not produce the overdramatized warnings like it did when that record came out in 1971 but it’s still the reason our prisons are bursting at the seams, lives are being ruined and lost, an entire industry is being stunted.

I also work for a local CBD company, and have been cannabis-adjacent for most of my professional life and being heavily steeped in this budding (haha that was on purpose) industry is equal parts exciting and fucking FRUSTRATING. I watched my white passing boss rent storefronts and make products with relative ease while black and brown business owners were being raided and stopped by governmental red tape. There are people sitting in North Carolina prisons for selling the same thing you can get at a bougie dispensary on the West Coast. Meanwhile, I’ve spent most of the past two years selling something that is only a few chemicals different from what’s illegal here. My hope for NC (and the rest of the country) to wisen up has waxed and waned over the years but the past few legalization announcements have me a bit hopeful.

I could go on but this is supposed to be about music. I’m patiently waiting for some Discogs purchases that I can’t wait to write about so I dug into my compilations this week as I wait. Thinking about legalization, pulling a shift or two at the CBD store...I guess I was drawn to this record this week. I love this comp so much; couldn’t say no to a joint holdin’ grandma! I didn’t know any of these artists when I purchased this but every single song is so good. I obviously looked up the record label almost immediately; with a name like Stash, I was excited to see what they released. Unfortunately their discography is far from extensive but I’ve definitely added the majority of it to my want list. I’ve linked to a playlist with the tracks so definitely give it a listen if jazz vocals about weed is your thing.

Any Nervous Gender fans in the house? If so, you gotta peep this new mini-doc on YouTube.

Part 4 of an “EASTSIDE PUNKS” series chronicling L.A.’s woefully under-documented OG Hispanic punk presence (Thee Undertakers, The Brat, Stains), this 18-minute go-round drops tons of hot goss on one of the worlds’s finest, most outlandishly dark industrial/synth/punk groups EVER.

I’ve been interested in freaker music for about as long as I can remember, but few records get me as nightmarishly hot and bothered as Nervous Gender’s sole 1981 LP, “Music from Hell.” Such sounds! Such lyrics! And, good God, check that layout!

Over the band’s initial late 70s/early 80s run, a motley hodgepodge of queer Latinx artists, British weirdos, androgynous lesbians, 8-year-old drummers and local scenesters (Screamers, Germs, 45 Grave, Wall of Voodoo, etc.) forced audiences down psychotropic rabbit holes of clinks, clanks and all kindsa gross body stuff. Now, finally, there’s a hi-res pro/am video to shed light on it all!

Takeaway no. 1: Nervous Gender was from Los Angeles, NOT the Bay Area. I always assumed due to the group’s bizarre synthesizer hellscapes and Subterranean Records association that it had to be from somewhere around San Francisco, but duuuuhhhh… I was wrong. Anyway, there’s a lot of cool info, interviews, videos and pics included, so I highly recommend checking the aforeposted YouTube link on your next lunch break.

I would also use this space to link you to a stream for the new MNK PROJECT collection LP on F.O.A.D. Records, but the world has yet to deem the internet worthy of this HYPER RARE Japanese punk HYPERRARITY in any sort of digital format. Excessive capital letter usage aside, I can’t stress the obscureness of MNK Project enough. You ain’t gonna find this band in the Flex! book, and I don’t think the Discogs page that lists its unobtanium sole 7” even existed until last year.

So, before I get too carried away, there IS a promo video for this LP with one song on YouTube HERE. Go ahead and open that in a new tab and let the tune wash over you. I know a lot of folks’ appreciation of Japanese punk starts and stops with Gauze, G.I.SM. and a handful of Burning Spirits bands, but if the words “ADK Records” mean anything to you, PAY ATTENTION: MNK Project is the chronological followup to the band Gaddess (aka Goddess) from the legendary “ADK Omnibus Vol. 1” compilation.

Now, I don’t expect most people to ride my wave, but as far as I’m concerned, that first ADK comp is thee greatest Japanese punk release of all time. It’s raw as hell and exciting from start to finish, and each of the four bands brings a unique flavor of fucked-up-ness to the party: 1. Sodom is totally crunched-out nihilism, 2. Sekinin Tenka blends atonal art with pogo-y punk, 3. Cain churns out a wild’n’warped game-show new wave, and—finally— 4. Gaddess makes seriously unsettling, shrieky and BRUTAL no wave.

It always struck me just how gnarly and mysterious the band sounded… sometimes thrashing… other times sulking… but always PAINED, even when approaching some approximation of catchiness. It’s just really radical (as in “extreme”) sounding music. Then, the group’s insert photo is a happy teenage friend group hugging and smiling in a field! Of course Throbbing Gristle got there first, but props to Gaddess for playing with such polar aural/visual dispositions.

With MNK Project, some small amalgam of former Gaddess members (I have no clue, tbh) gathered to produce a five-song 7” in 1985 that was “allegedly” limited to 100 copies and never distributed. WHAT. A. SHAME. The EP, which comprises the entire A-side of this F.O.A.D. comp, throws an incy bit of sheen on Gaddess’ ominous punk and whateverwave to produce absolutely THRILLING hardcore-adjacent feminine bursts one could see appealing to fans of ADK Records hardpunk, early Sonic Youth or even Brix-era The Fall.

Things continue in this direction with the unreleased (c’mon, this is all pretty much all unreleased) eight tracks that make up the B-side, even getting a little more commercially palatable at times, and NOT in a bad way.

Basically, this record is kinda blowing my mind. I expected to like it, but I didn’t expect to LOVE it like I have. I’ve probably spun this thing 20 times in the past week, which is pretty nuts for my microscopic attention span. Well, actually this kinda skronk may be PERFECT for a microscopic attention span and that’s why it’s sticking so hard? At any rate, GET THIS RECORD. I think I hassled the big man at Sorry State enough to pick up some copies, so keep your eyes peeled. Peace!

Before the days of aux cords and bluetooth connections, I used to listen to NPR when driving. If you’re an NPR listener, you know several times per year normal programming pauses for a pledge drive. I always understood why the pledge drive existed, but I couldn’t help being annoyed that my normal programming got interrupted. What do NPR pledge drives have to do with punk rock? Portland radio station KBOO isn’t an NPR affiliate, but they operate on a similar listener support model, and they also host one of the best punk radio shows you can find, the long-running program Life During Wartime.

You may remember that Life During Wartime put me on the air around a year ago to talk about Sorry State. I had heard about Life During Wartime before that because of the live in studio performances from bands like the Exploding Hearts and Lebenden Toten, but once I was on the show I learned how easy it was to listen to every episode, and I’ve been doing just that ever since. If you’re a podcast listener, they have a feed that you can subscribe to here. If you listen, you’ll hear lots of the music we write about at Sorry State, but you’ll also get to know the deejays (currently show founder Erin along with the Wolfman and Matt C), which is a big part of the joy of being a regular listener.

Back to pledge drives. KBOO had a pledge drive a few weeks ago, but rather than interrupt their normal programming, Life During Wartime created a special episode that’s even bigger and better than usual. I think the episode before they teased they would do a marathon Life During Wartime and I assumed they would just play cool punk records for several hours. Instead, they put together a complete history of Life During Wartime featuring interviews with past deejays and tons of tracks from the live in the studio performances they’ve hosted.

If they had chopped this marathon episode up into 30-60 minute chunks, it would have made an awesome documentary podcast like the Spotify podcast doc on the Clash or the White Stripes podcast documentary that Third Man produced. However, the history of Life During Wartime shows up in your podcast feed as one giant download, seven and a half hours in total. I can’t imagine many of you will listen to it straight through (unless you have a boring job or a long commute), but the podcast app I use allows me to pick up where I left off listening.

As for the story, it’s inspiring. Life During Wartime has accomplished something that’s one of my goals for Sorry State: to create a stable, long-running institution that serves as a platform for punks to be punk. As with long-running zines like Maximumrocknroll and long-running labels, it’s clear that tastes and priorities have changed as Life During Wartime has changed personnel and the world has changed around them, but it’s flexible enough to accommodate that. The history of an institution like Life During Wartime becomes an analog for the history of Portland punk and, of course, punk as a whole. For me, part of being a punk—in fact, one of the best things about being a punk—is contributing to and supporting institutions like Life During Wartime. So I encourage you to listen to the episode, subscribe to the feed and check out future episodes, and kick them some cash for their pledge drive if you’re able.

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Just like always, whenever the middle of the week rolls around, I find myself unsure of what to write about for my staff pick. Rather than talk about a record that Sorry State is distroing, I decided to talk about a few records I’ve picked up for my personal collection.

Whether it’s mentioning our purchases in our weekly newsletter or bragging on social media, I think most of the employees here at the good ol’ SSR are pretty transparent about our record buying. Shamelessly, most of us don’t bat an eye at dropping big bucks on rare punk records. But lately, even with those tempting stimulus checks magically bouncing into our bank accounts, I still haven’t schemed to blow all of my money on super expensive records. Really, my recent purchases have been just the opposite.

I’ve watched a series of videos on YouTube uploaded by Mike over at Analog Attack. In these videos, Mike shows off a large stack punk 7”s he found digging in Japanese stores that are what he refers to as “bargain bin singles.” Maybe these videos inspired me, because I’ve picked up a ton of 7”s and most of them were under 5 bucks! As I’m sitting here listening to them, all I can think is sure, maybe these records are cheap, but damn, they are KILLER.

To start, a couple records I picked up are the first 2 7”s by Bay Area greats Talk Is Poison. My discovery of and obsession with hardcore began in the mid-2000’s, so I missed out on Talk Is Poison during their heyday. But even in their original incarnation, it seems like the band was a blip on the radar, only putting out a couple EP’s in the late 90s. In my old band Stripmines, I remember us being super into Deathreat, so their split EP must have been where I first heard Talk Is Poison. I’ve always thought TIP was a cool band, but over the years, there have been several instances where I’ve seen used copies of these 7”s for sale but never jumped at the opportunity to snag them. Now that it’s 2021 and I finally own these records, I’m revisiting them for the first time in years and feel like I understand how impactful they must have been when they were around. It’s funny though, the song structures and riffs almost sound kind of prog-y to me? Still intense and ripping, though.

The next 2 records I wanna talk about I probably wouldn’t have had any awareness of if it hadn’t been for Usman telling me about them. And speaking of which, some of the info I’m going to ramble about may be stuff Usman’s already dropped knowledge about in his previous staff picks.

I recently added a copy of the Mördare 7” by Swedish ragers Abuse to my collection. Released in 1996 on Crust Records, this 7” is packed tight with 10 songs of dirty d-beat madness. The record was recorded at the legendary D-Takt studios, whose sonic signature I associate with Totalitär, Disclose, and also current bands, namely my recent favorites Herätys. The primary engineer at Studio D-Takt is a dude named Jan Jutila, who also ran Your Own Jailer Records. And now, it’s time for my crude attempt at a smooth segue... By coincidence, another record I scored in the last week was the Don’t Be Numb 7” by Times Square Preachers. Now, while Jan Jutila was a member of TSP on their first 7” Nazi Raus, I’m pretty sure he had left the band and only acted as the recording engineer on this 2nd EP. Like I said before, these records are still cheap. Maybe the reason they’re so cheap is because they were released in the 90s? I don’t know. But to my ears, when you compare Times Square Preachers against other bands I associate with the Swedish hardcore stylings that have become so influential on the current hardcore scene, Don’t Be Numb sounds like a classic record.

I don’t know why I’m talking about these records, other than that I’ve been enjoying them. Maybe all you punk ass record freaks should take another dig through the marked down 7”s in your local record store. I wager some of them will be worth a lot more one day.

Thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Hey there. How are you all doing out there? Did you get fooled or play a prank on someone? Perhaps you feel reading my part of the newsletter is an April Fools? As regular readers of the Sorry State Newsletter know by now, I am not a writer, but hopefully I communicate my passion for music and records with enthusiasm if not professional grade wordsmithery. I treat writing in the newsletter as an honor and am grateful to have the opportunity. It’s a lot of fun, as talking about records is my favorite thing to do. So, thank you for joining us each week. It means a lot.

I was chatting to a friend recently, and we both agreed the record collecting bug got to both of us at a very young age. Luckily, years ago, records were not so expensive and money earned from my paper round and early part-time jobs went a long way. I knew from the beginning that a good chunk of any disposable income I had would go towards records. I have gone without a lot of life’s luxuries over the years and have chosen to buy a record instead of groceries once or twice. It may be an addiction, but unlike regular crack, this black crack leaves you with more than just that one high. When you buy a good record, you get great music to enjoy as many times as you like, you get some information from the liner notes, you maybe get some cool and interesting artwork to look at, and you leave enhanced as a human being after the experience. Plus, you can always sell your records when you need money to buy actual crack. They are a future investment to yourself.

Anyway, records, other than friends and family, animals, and Liverpool FC have been the most important thing in my life. That is why I love working in the store so much. Being surrounded by records at home wasn’t enough. I needed to be surrounded by them at work too.

I have said this a million times: it doesn’t matter how many records you have or think you know about, there is always more that you haven’t seen or heard about. I’m the oldies guy here at Sorry State and have heard, seen, or read about loads of different records over my lifetime, but it never ceases to amaze me how many new things I discover every day. Each time we get in a collection, there is generally something I haven’t heard. That’s just the old stuff, never mind all the new releases. Then I am constantly learning from my colleagues here. They have such a great depth of knowledge on all things punk and metal and lots more besides. Are you all enjoying Usman’s pieces about Scandinavian and Japanese hardcore as much as we are? Talk about passion for music? This guy is the embodiment of passion and commitment to the music. Our 2020 mixtape and accompanying zine that came out so well (if we may say so) is chiefly down to the extra hustle and hard work from Usman. Stand up sir and take a round of applause.

Here’s one example of why I love my job and how it fulfills me in ways far more enriching than mere financial gain. In any given week we get to see all kinds of wonderful and interesting records come through the store. Contrary to popular belief, the staff does not take all the good stuff (we couldn’t afford to), but a big perk is to see, handle, and play them. That being said, when something comes in that is on our personal wants list, we get first dibs and Daniel is very generous with what he charges us. Last week Daniel bought a couple of small collections on a road trip, and in one of them was a record that I have wanted for the longest while.

It’s Brainticket: Cottonwoodhill, a Krautrock Psychedelic album from 1971. Brainticket was formed by a Belgian jazz pianist named Joel Vandroogenbroeck who became inspired by German bands like Can and Amon Duul. Apparently, this new project of his was to be called Cottonwoodhill and the album to be named Brain Ticket, but somehow things got reversed. They released three albums in the 1970s and two more in the early 1980s.

The third album from 1973 called Celestial Ocean is generally regarded as their best. Based upon The Egyptian Book Of The Dead, that record combines cosmic synth sounds with acid folk rock to great effect. If you like Gong, Ashra Temple, Tangerine Dream etc., you’ll be happy.

The second album Psychonaut is also pretty good. Trippy hippy acid folk rock with sitar and flute and other embellishments such as odd percussion and sound effects. Nice and mellow, but it has a few moments where they wig out a little. Overall, the sound is more traditional prog leaning and less psychedelic than the first and not as futuristic and cosmic as the third.

On Cottonwoodhill the lineup is different and the sound much more rooted in 1960s psychedelic rock. Vandroogenbroeck plays organ, which is the lead instrument, and flute. He is joined by drums, bass, and guitar, plus female vocals. Ironically the guitarist Ron Bryer and singer Dawn Muir were British and Vandroogenbroeck was Belgian, plus the band was based mostly in Italy and Switzerland during their time as opposed to being actual Krauts in Germany.

The album consists of two songs on side one along with the first part of Brainticket, and then the whole of side two has the completion of the Brainticket suite. Basically, a repeated Hammond organ vamp with sound effects coming in at various places and Dawn Muir’s vocals, which get more excited and agitated as the tracks build. It’s not for everyone and you won’t need to hear it that often, but it is still pretty cool and groovy.

Even on the album jacket they warn the listener, “After listening to this record your friends won’t know you anymore. Only listen once a day to this record. Your brain might get destroyed!“

Just to ram the message home on the rear of the sleeve we are told, “Listen to the first recording of this LSD/Hashish/Fixy/Jointy sound. Take a trip to your inner light. See the hallucinations of reality rise out of the groove. Join in… you’ve got the brainticket now! Hallelujah!“

Cool, count me in. Apparently this wasn’t met as keenly by the establishment at the time and upon release the record caused controversy, resulting in it being banned from several countries, including the USA. That warning along with the cover art itself was still too much for people back in 1971. Talking of the cover art. All three records have great covers well worth looking at. Celestial Ocean was released with a different cover in Italy than in Germany, and I think it is the better of the two versions. I wanted to own a copy of Cottonwoodhill because I had used it once as the base for a party flyer and I felt like I had cheated because I didn’t own the record, having just a CD. As you can see, it’s a great image and suggests the type of music you would expect. Take a look at the cover for Psychonaut; it’s pretty cool also. I’m glad to have scored a copy of Cottonwoodhill but I wouldn’t mind owning the other two. Here’s a link to the first track called Black Sand to give you an idea.

I’ll leave you to decide whether you want to take the trip and listen to the rest. My advice would be to listen at 4:20. Happy travels. See you on the other side - Dom

I’m not very knowledgeable on The Partisans, UK82, and especially ‘77. So please forgive me if I don’t know what I’m talking about. But, just cos I don’t know much about The Partisans, it does not mean I don’t absolutely love them!!! I first heard them in my teens, but oddly enough it was an EP they had released almost twenty years after their initial releases in 2001. I kind of forgot that’s how I heard them. I really liked the EP at the time. I remember it being really catchy. Not like “hardcore” how everything had to be in my life in that time, cos you know, I was a pissed off young punk with something to prove to everyone and their mother.

Alright, where to start... of course one of the first things I noticed was the $27 price tag. That’s a lot. But the second thing I noticed was the huge, thick booklet inside. The packaging is legit so sick on this release. It caught me off guard hearing a lot of cover songs on the A side, haha especially the Sex Pistols cover. But it was exciting to hear songs I had never heard before and always cool to hear songs I know well but played a bit differently on an earlier recording. If you didn’t know, this demo session has never been released before.

The B side features the entire recording session they did for the Police Story 7". The songs No Future didn’t release for that single, the band later re-recorded for the LP. Following those tracks is a demo session they did before recording the actual session used for the 17 Years of Hell 7". Like i said before, it’s always cool to hear earlier versions of songs you know and love. This record is so damn well done. The sound is good. The booklet is so cool. I haven’t had time to go all the way through it but it’s got so much great shit compiled into it. There are loads of interviews where you will learn cool shit/history of the band, tons of photos, flyers, lyrics, art, etc. It’s all-out.

To me the record is worth the cost, but if yer not super into Partisans then maybe you could pass and not trip about it later. You’ll hear a lot of stuff you’ve never heard before. (I think some songs on the B side were released on CD before but I’m not sure.) I guess there were like 800 copies pressed total of this record? Or maybe 800 black copies, I dunno. But I know, with the licensing agreement, this was the most copies they could press or something like that. Which probably means there will not be a repress. We got over a hundred copies but only have about 30 left as I write this, so do not sleep on this shit if you are thinking about grabbing this. Thanks for reading. I hope everyone is well.

Oh haha, I did want to leave you with a few quotes I’ve liked in my shallow dive into the booklet:

“We all had to learn how to play the instruments. We have had a few bass players in the band, but we have definitely settled on Louise (a bit of sex appeal in the band)”

“The Partisans are two sixteen and two seventeen year olds from Bridgend in Wales. They have been going since 1978. They say the formed because they realised that The Clash were going soft...”

Anton LaVey: The Satanic Mass

Spoken word? Check. Weird chanting? Yes. Organ music? Duh. I love this record so much. Like all weird counter culture kids, I had an innate interest in all things Satan related. I didn’t let my lack of Christian knowledge stop me from delving deep into the world of 1990s Satanic Panic, art history depictions, the origins of the Satanic Church… I soaked it all up. I attribute it to my love of etchings and old woodcuts, black metal, bones, and most things I like now.

I’m not admitting this, but it would be hilarious if one of the first things I ever shoplifted was the Satanic Bible. I sound like a stupid edgy 2000s Hot Topic kid, but that book impacted my adolescence. I love scaring parents as much as the next, but what attracted me to Anton LaVey and the Satanic Church was the autonomy and independence it preached. I could take or leave the rituals and spells. It makes for a great record, though.

The packaging on this 2021 repress is simple but top notch. I love the liner notes; I consider it a success when I learn something new from them. I did not know that LaVey was adept at calliope! I picked up a circus calliope record from Sorry State’s Discogs- it all makes sense. If you’ve never listened to the first satanic mass, I’ve linked to it below, but listening to it on vinyl is a special treat so pick up a copy if you find one. Maybe we’ll find one for the Sorry State bins soon…

Meanwhile, this YouTube rip will do. Hail Satan!

Anybody end up scooping/scoping that GIMMICK 7” our beloved Sorry State dropped last month? Not to rake too much muck, but I’d forgive you if you didn’t check it out at all. The cover is kinda generic, and the band name doesn’t make much of an impression either. It just looks like another new punk record you’d flip or scroll past without giving a second thought. Heck, if it weren’t released by the record store 5 minutes from my house, it’s likely I’d have never heard it. Thankfully, my musical cold shoulder can’t compete with my local pride, and if a Raleigh label is gonna shell out thousands to back some PDX-ers I don’t know from Adam, I suppose I can spare a few minutes and listen to it.

And guess what… THE SHIT FUCKING RIIIPS. Building up steam with some Hunches-esque bendy guitar chords and slowburner poetic woe, it’s apparent in the first 10 seconds we’ve got new cooks in the SSR kitchen. Granted, the label has dipped its toe in all kindsa punk sub-genres through the years, but this one just hits DIFFERENT (oh, and it doesn’t sound like the Hunches at all). I hesitate to use the word “modern” because it can carry bad connotations, but Gimmick sounds pretty hip to me. With elements of Toxic State sewer punk, smartypants La Vida/Iron Lung-core and 11PM delinquent-exuberance, this 7” screams “NEW” into my rapidly degenerating ears. You’ve got your goblin-y singer and your start/stop/boom/bap drum salad and these tough-but-catchy licks all pushing and pulling and ultimately executing a super impressive, highly orchestrated racket.

The recording quality may seem suspiciously crude at first, but you’ll find this isn’t another “modern” (bad connotation implied) take on disingenuous rawness. No, Gimmick has actually made a unique SOUNDING record. The whole thing is gritty, yes, but it’s also DYNAMIC. This is partly because Gimmick’s songwriting is just that: DYNAMIC… duh. They stuff the EP with parts—quiet, loud, fast, slow, busy, crazy, lazy (sorry, I was just jamming Bone Thugs before this)—but its success is also indebted to good, old-fashioned MIXING.

While it’s easy to hit the doodoo button on a Tascam and turn your fine punk band into a finer Raw Punk© band, Gimmick makes phenomenal use of panning, EQ and tasteful, useful overdubbing. It’s very engaging to the listener and kinda reminds me of all the bricks I shit when Scotland’s late/great Anxiety first hit the scene. It’s almost as if they wrote these songs specifically with the recording process in mind. Now, maybe I’m reading too far into things and maybe this IS just another generic-looking hardcore punk record, but I don’t think that’s the case. Nah, Gimmick is really, really, REALLY good, y’all.

While on the topic of blown-to-bits precision, I’m also pretty gaga over the latest 12” EP from Chicago technoise messiah BEAU WANZER. If you’re unfamiliar with BW, dude’s been busting out the world’s best crunchyass analog electro rex since 2013. Sometimes it’s funky and sometimes it’s creepy, but it’s usually both, and it’s ALWAYS nasty. Ask me who my favorite active musician is, and three or four days a week I’m probably gonna drop the Wanz on ya.

The internet says this new “Busted and Bamboozled” came out in 2020, but I swear the above-pictured 12” didn’t complete its trip from Germany’s Ophism label to my NC crib until barely a month ago, so I’m still considering it a new release. Of course, that means nothing now because it’s no-doubt sold out anywhere you’re gonna look, but hey, maybe you’re a fellow Wanz-er and didn’t know there was a new record, so now you know! Or maybe you’re reading this and have never heard of Beau Wanzer but share his affinity for corrosive electro, gurgling monster voices and slasher flicks, SO THERE YA GO, TOO!