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What’s up Sorry Staters?
After unloading my thoughts and feelings about returning home post-travel in last week’s newsletter, I feel kinda funny writing a follow up this week. It’s as if I’ve been tricked into a false sense of comfort and regularity. As I’m writing this, I’m thinking about how this time next week, I’ll already be on the road with Public Acid. Along with our friends in Invertebrates, we’ll be embarking on our full-US tour. Of course I’m excited, but I feel severely underprepared. I’ll miss writing for these Sorry State updates while I’m gone, but hopefully I’ll be able to stay connected on a weekly basis by staying glued to the newsletter as a reader rather than a contributor.
Below, I’ve included a list of the dates and cities that we’ll be playing:
July 14 - CHARLOTTE NC
July 15 - BIRMINGHAM AL
July 16 - NEW ORLEANS LA
July 17 - HOUSTON TX
July 18 - AUSTIN TX
July 19 - SAN ANTONIO TX
July 20 - EL PASO TX
July 21 - ALBUQUERQUE NM
July 22 - PHOENIX AZ
July 23 - SANTA ANA CA
July 24 - LOS ANGELES CA
July 25 - OAKLAND CA
July 27 - PORTLAND OR
July 28 - OLYMPIA WA
July 29 - MISSOULA MT
July 31 - SALT LAKE CITY UT
August 1 - DENVER CO
August 2 - OMAHA NE
August 3 - MINNEAPOLIS MN
August 4 - MILWAUKEE WI
August 5 - DETROIT MI
August 6 - CLEVELAND OH
August 7 - WASHINGTON DC
August 8 - RICHMOND VA
Hope to see some of you readers there! It’s gonna be a long ride, but some of these places I haven’t visited since before the pandemic. Haven’t swung down across Texas in many years. And for some of these cities, it’ll be my first time ever!
Anyway, enough about me. Let’s talk music! But in a roundabout way, the needle I’m threading here is somewhat relevant: Every time I’m getting ready to go on tour, I always think about road trip music. Killer tunes to keep everyone in the van happy. I feel like with Public Acid in particular, it’s almost like an unspoken rule in the van that we never actually listen to hardcore. Which for me sometimes is totally bogus. I guess you hear raging fast punk at the gigs and hardcore isn’t always the type of music you want to endure while in the van for like 9 hours or whatever. How do you choose what to play? Especially on a tour of the US, one might romanticize Route 66 type jams. Like “Ramblin’ Man” by the Allman Brothers. On the heavier side, I lean toward Judas Priest’s “Riding on The Wind” or Motorhead’s “Riding With The Driver” or Girlschool’s “Midnight Ride.” “Jailbreak” by Thin Lizzy always feels like a great first song to play as you crank the engine and are perhaps indeed fleeing trouble from the night before. Just kidding… maybe.
I think I always tend to wanna blast poppy, melodic tunes while driving. Just stuff that puts me in a good mood. Like Ramones or Buzzcocks. Protex, The Boys, and even delve further into more power pop territory. Nikki and the Corvettes, “Drive My Car” by Nasty Facts -- both road-relevant! Just bangers. Sometimes, you might have a late-night drive and need to wind down with some Chin Chin or Dolly Mixture. And as far as more current bands, Cœur À L'Index certainly scratches that itch. And did you know that they just released a new single on La Vida Es Un Mus? I don’t know if I’ve talked about this in the newsletter before, but it feels like during the period where the Alvilda LP was exploding last year (fuck me, a couple years ago??), maybe Cœur À L'Index got overshadowed a little bit?
Maybe I shouldn’t compare those two records… but I mean, come on! The two records came out around the same, and they’re both sweet sounding, melodic vintage sounding indie pop tunes sung in French. And honestly, as much as I loved the Alvilda record, I feel like Adieu Minette by Cœur À L'Index might be the better record for my taste. Call me crazy if you want. Go back and revisit if you haven’t done so in a while. Adieu Minette feels maybe less on the nose in its directness, more adrift, with more variation in tone and mood. This new single is quite the same, with opposing moods being split across each side of the record: “Fatigueé” being more soft and delicate, and “Mes Héros” being the more up-tempo banger on the flip side. For my money, “Mes Héros” is the track I walk away after listening, thinking like “Hell yeah, what a great song.” My only complaint is damn, only 2 new songs to keep us occupied for the time being? I wish there was more for me to sink my teeth into. Oh well, guess I’ll have to squeeze them into a playlist for a long, moonlit drive.
Anyway, I won’t get into a long-winded assessment of this record. If you liked the Cœur À L'Index LP, then you should probably grab this single. The record is still in the pre-order stage via Sorry State and they’re moving fast.
See you guys when I get back from tour!
-Jeff