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What’s up Sorry Staters?
I haven’t been talking much about what’s going on in Jeff world lately. After a long absence, Public Acid is finally getting our shit together and has some plans coming up. In May, we’ll be playing a couple gigs in Canada with Sacrifice from Japan. I’m so pumped. Crest of Black is an 80s Japanese cult metal classic, but the reissues of the band’s 90s albums Total Steel and Tears have been on heavy rotation for me over the last few years. Then just a few days ago, Warthog announced the show we’ll be playing with them at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC on June 12th. No doubt this will be a fun gig, indeed. Hope to see some of you mofos there.
I’m not sure if I’ve discussed this in the newsletter, but I feel like I’ve talked ad nauseam about this mythical show that happened in Richmond around June of last year. It was a house show with no touring band and no headliner. Just 4 brand new Virginia local bands, all of which were playing their first show ever. Which to me, is such a cool idea. I’m still kickin’ myself for missing that gig. All of these new bands are killer, raging hardcore bands. The Richmond crew planning this gig just felt like an exciting way to give the scene a shot in the arm by debuting a surge of new activity all at once.
Since that gig, those 4 bands have all continued to play gigs. Slowly but surely, they’ve all started releasing their demo tapes. One of the new bands in this Richmond crop is called Massacre System, and Usman and I just released their demo tape on Bunker Punks! Call me biased, but this tape fucking kicks ass. Surely Sorry State will have copies available soon, so be on the lookout for that!
And now for my staff pick, I wanted to talk about yet another one of these new Richmond bands, which is Disintegrators. It’s funny, someone filmed every single band at that mythical gig from last June I was talking about and uploaded the footage on YouTube. I remember clicking the Disintegrators video, and the footage is so dark that you can’t even see who’s playing haha. But I remember thinking that the music really stood out and impressed me. Come to find out the band is made up of a bunch of people I’ve met hanging out at gigs when I visit Richmond.
Sorry State already has a stack of copies of this brand new Disintegrators cassette in stock! And hooooly shit this thing rips. The tape has a pretty raw-sounding recording. It could be recorded straight to a 4-track; I’m not sure. The tape has 4 songs, most of which are 1-minute-flat bursts of just fist-in-the-air, raging hardcore punk. It’s stylistically D-beaty… I guess. But seriously, I kinda hate to even say that. Even with the recording sounding pretty dark and gritty, Disintegrators don’t sound crusty to me at all. The catchy, jangly-ness of the riffs cut through in a way that feels… I dunno, “rockin” I guess. Makes me think of a lot of Swedish hardcore bands with big riffage like Axe Rash, or even other contemporary bands like The Hell or Bootlicker. Honestly, Disintegrators feels more aligned with that wave of Boston bands like Bloodkrow Butcher to my ears, where it’s raw, but it’s still hard as nails, and it’s still tuneful enough to bop your head and sing along to.
The drumming is absolutely killer on this recording, as expected. Sammi, the drummer, plays in like 17 other bands in Richmond (including Massacre System haha). Good drummers are always in high demand. But just the way the drums are recorded—like super dry with that “THUH-WHACK” sounding snare drum. Lo-fi, but still punchy and powerful. I love it. The drums have a ton of groove and swing, which really adds to the catchiness of the songwriting. On the 2nd track “No Control,” the drums just announce themselves with this super long snare roll before the band kicks in. Then the third track starts with just solo drums, playing a beat where you can really hear that in-the-pocket grooviness I’m talking about.
Speaking of the third track, “Erased” might be my favorite song on the tape. Just the way vocalist Ashley places the word “erased” rhythmically during the chorus is super catchy. Her vocals are super gnarly sounding, deep and raspy, and delivered with concise intensity. But still, the way the vocals carry the music underneath gives this hookiness that really grabs the listener’s ear. The last track, “State Decay,” is this unexpected stompy mid-tempo banger. Follow me here: the way the band drops out for that break at the end of the chorus, and then just solo kick and snare brings the beat back in, and then it’s just a floor tom beat and bass with the guitar feeding back… aaaand then the guitar does this little lead section and the vocals declaratively shout “STATE DECAY” before it kicks back into the main riff? Fuck man, that’s the stuff. The song feels like UK82 käng boot punk jamboree. I can envision the Richmond slam crew careening side-to-side in the pit already.
Sorry State has already sold a few of these tapes, and I have a feeling we might sell out by the time this newsletter comes out. So, if you missed out, then apologies in advance. But if you heed my words, do yourself a favor and grab a copy of this cassette if it’s still available! Exciting to hear new bands coming out making the type o’ hardcore I wanna hear. It’s a beautiful thang. The band hasn’t even existed for a year yet, and I’m already excited for a Disintegrators 7”. Life is short. So get on it, punks! As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff