Staff Picks

The other day it occurred to me that I haven’t given an update on my mental health in some time. Earlier this year, my staff picks were focused primarily on my mental state as I used my writing to try and make sense of a very tough time I went through. I was feeling financial stress, grief, and all kinds of other emotions that all seemed to catch up with me at once, leaving me incapacitated for several weeks. I wrote pretty frankly about what I was experiencing, and many people wrote in to express their sympathy, offer help, and just let me know they were thinking of me. I can’t emphasize enough how much I appreciate that. There are still a few emails I haven’t replied to, and I feel terrible about that. I hope no one thinks I’m an asshole when I don’t get back to them… I just get more email than I can reasonably reply to. Often, it’s the emails that are most important that wait the longest for a reply, since I want to find clear headspace to respond thoughtfully, yet I never seem to prioritize actually making time to do that. So, I guess if I didn’t get back to you, you should probably take that as a compliment and not an offense, LOL.

As for how things are going now, I have to say I’m doing pretty well. My biggest stressor was definitely the process of buying our storefront from our landlord, and once we completed that transaction in early July, I felt a giant weight lift from my shoulders. Around that same time, I also started a new medication regimen that has been working well for me. I had struggled for years with side effects from the various meds I was on, and a few months after I stopped taking the main one, Lexapro (which I did, stupidly, with no medical supervision / advice and no tapering-off period), my anxiety and depression completely overwhelmed me. The new meds have me feeling a lot better. The side effects of the Lexapro have lessened and I have more energy. I’ve even gotten into a consistent sleep and work routine, which is something I’ve struggled to establish for most of my adult life. I still have my struggles, but I feel like I’m out of the very dark space I was in earlier this year.

I don’t know how obvious it is to a newsletter reader or a Sorry State shopper, but I’ve been really focused on work since we closed on the storefront in July. That’s partly because the meds have made it easier to focus on work, but mostly it’s because I felt like I had to. So many people asked if our expenses would go down after buying the store, but it’s actually the opposite. Our landlord hadn’t raised our rent in years and we were still paying 2010 prices. The monthly payment on the store’s mortgage is almost double what our monthly rent payment was, and when you add in the far more expensive insurance policy we had to buy, HOA dues for our building, and property tax, the fixed monthly expenses for the shop are nearly triple what they were. Alongside expenses going up, I had also put a lot of bills to the side while we were scrounging money to pay the down payment, and now we have to dig ourselves out of that financial hole. Fortunately, most of the people we owe money to are punks and have been extraordinarily patient. But owing money to people you consider friends is even worse than owing money to a bank, and those debts weigh heavily on me.

Another thing that’s helped me deal with financial stress lately is that, for the first time ever, Sorry State has a bookkeeper who is not me. My therapist had been recommending that I hire a bookkeeper for some time, but I resisted, partly because I thought it would be too much work to train someone to do it, and partly because I was scared I was doing something wrong and it would be a giant pain in the ass to fix it. However, a couple months ago I learned my friend Stephanie is a bookkeeper and she kindly agreed to help us out. She’s been really amazing. Not only has she taken a lot of really tedious work off my plate, but also having regular meetings where we talk about finances helps relieve much of the stress. In the past, when I’ve been stressed about money, it’s all fallen on my shoulders because I didn’t feel like I had anyone I felt like I could talk to. Stephanie has given us some great ideas about things we could do better, but the biggest impact is from having someone to talk things through with and to tell me my ideas and decisions are not wrong or crazy.

Focusing on work and making some much-needed changes to how we do things at Sorry State has yielded promising results so far, but it’s also a really challenging time in the record world. I don’t know if you’ve noticed our subtle pleas to sell us used records, but collections have not been coming in as frequently lately as they have in the past. It seems like every day new businesses are opening that sell vinyl, existing businesses are expanding into vinyl, and many (most?) record collectors also double as dealers or side hustlers, so there’s just a lot more competition when it comes to sourcing good used stuff. Since we’re getting in less used stuff, the proportion of used versus new stock we sell in the shop has been changing. As I’m sure you’re aware, profit margins are slim on new records, so selling more new records and fewer used records changes the math that makes Sorry State work, making everything just a little bit harder. I think Sorry State will be around for a long time—those of you who read this every week and rely on us to keep you up to date on the punk world will keep us running, and we are extremely lucky and grateful for that—but I have a feeling we’ll see a lot of these newer record shops close in the coming months and years. It’s already starting, but I think there’s a lot more to come.

On that depressing note, let’s get to the record I wanted to write about this week:

D.I.: S/T (aka Team Goon) 12” (Revenge Records, 1983)

People who know me probably assumed I already owned D.I.’s first 12”, and I definitely did at some point. I can’t remember why I sold it, but I have a feeling the thought process went something like this: Horse Bites, Dog Cries is D.I.’s shining moment, and this first 12” EP is basically just a slow wind-up. Nowadays, though, I feel differently. I still hail Horse Bites, Dog Cries as a seminal piece of the Rikk Agnew canon (alongside All By Myself, Only Theatre of Pain, and the first Adolescents album), but nowadays it sounds a little slick and pop-punk-ish to me. It’s like the most ripping pop-punk ever, but it’s still kind of pop-punk.

I think a big part of me turning that corner on D.I. was watching Suburbia in the theater a while back. They did a screening at the Alamo here in town and a big group of punks all went together… it was sick. Of course I’d seen Suburbia before, but this time around D.I.’s appearance in that movie, where they do “Richard Hung Himself,” hit differently. It’s so dark and menacing… it made me appreciate the grittiness of the early material, particularly the death-rock leaning tracks from this EP: “Richard Hung Himself,” “Venus De Milo,” and “Purgatory.” “Guns” (which they re-recorded for Horse Bites) and “Reagan Der Fuhrer” still feel like fetal versions of Horse Bites, but the other three songs are something else entirely. I really wish D.I. had an entire record in that style.

Another reason I might have ditched my previous copy of this record is because I confused the original release with subsequent reissues, which drastically change the track listing. Generally, having more tracks is a good thing, but the later versions of D.I. (which, according to Discogs at least, were retitled Team Goon) totally reimagine the track listing, and not for the better. A cover of Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part II?” I’ll go to a baseball game if I want to hear that song. Their cover of Devo’s “Uncontrollable Urge” is alright, but the other two bonus tracks, “Nuclear Funeral” and “The Saint,” are very Horse Bites, Dog Cries-esque, but not as good. It probably would have been fine if they put all the bonus tracks after the EP’s original running order, but they put three of the bonus tracks before the EP (starting the record with the Gary Glitter song… who OK’d that?) and the Devo cover at the end of the record. So weird. I guess I’d rather have heard these songs than not, but I think the way they were added waters down the aspects of this EP I’m feeling most these days.

Thankfully this bad boy is back in my collection, and I’m glad to have a new appreciation for it. I’d be bummed about having to re-buy it (for, I’m sure, way more than I paid the first time), but honestly it was kind of fun. Maybe I should sell all my records and slowly buy them all back again. Or maybe you should sell your records to us and slowly buy them back again, LOL.

This week I’m choosing The Meat Puppets album Huevos as my staff pick. This record usually gets a lot of play in the summer with songs about rain, fresh fruit and paradise. It’s a nice record to put on for a hot day and imagine a place with these things. Even with summer being over, the heat lingered long enough for me to get a few more plays in before things start to cool off.

I think this is the last Meat Puppets album that I like In their catalog. The record between Up On The Sun and Huevos and everything after just never hooked me like their earlier releases and Huevos. And while this record has a similar straightforward energetic, psychedelic looseness like Up On The Sun, it has more of a rock n roll edge to it since apparently the band was going through a heavy period of ZZ Top worship and it’s very clear that’s kind of what they were going for. Overall the record is a fun listen from start to finish and good for just about any time of the year, but best on a hot day when there’s little to no relief but the cool blue cover and songs about rain and fruit to take your mind off the heat.

The Meat Puppets have been one of my favorite bands for almost 20 years and while this album isn’t really my most liked album of theirs, it feels like it deserves more recognition. Check it out if you think this might be your thing and thanks for reading.

Howdy folks! Glad to have you here for another newsletter. We hope we find you all well. I received a bit of a shock when I stepped out of the house today and felt the 60-degree temperature. It’s been a while since we’ve been below the mid 70s. And it’s raining. Should be perfect for my camping experience at the music festival I plan to attend next week. Ha ha.

So, the other day here at the store I was helping a customer find a 7-inch single that we showed having in inventory and in doing so flicked through a couple of boxes of assorted 45s until we found the one we were looking for. We have a lot of cheap and cool singles here and I pulled out a few that I didn’t know to play later. Once it slowed down and I was on top of my work, I began throwing them on. I love singles and it’s always fun checking out a stack. There were one or two out of the selection I pulled that I liked a lot. As I had picked them just based on the covers and names, it was gratifying to know my intuition is right some of the time. My favorite of the bunch is one I’d like to recommend to you today.

Rikki And The Last Days Of Earth – City Of The Damned b/w Victimized. DJM Records

This English group formed in late 1976 and released this single in November of 1977 after signing with DJM Records that summer. An earlier version of the title track had been self-released by the band earlier in the year. The group was fronted by Rikki Sylvan, who wrote and produced most of their material. A full album titled Four Minute Warning came out the following year in 1978. Their sound pre-dates a lot of what was to come in the New Wave and New Romantic era of the late 70s and early 80s. Sylvan sings in an almost operatic style, which for some might not be their cup of tea. It’s somewhere between the drama of David Bowie and Jello Biafra. Musically, the band reminds me of some of the early Japan and Ultravox records. They seem to have been roundly hated and dismissed by the music industry at the time, though. I had a hard time finding a positive review. Not sure exactly why, because I think the music is decent enough, and not so widely out of step with the times. After reading their Wikipedia page however, I think it might be because the band members came from middle class and even upper-class families and this probably wasn’t cool for punk, which was considered to be a working class movement by the music press. Ironic, as a lot of those same journalists were most likely middle class themselves. The British class system and the weird reverse snobbism that comes out of it is something else and hard to explain to many in the rest of the world, although I guess every country and culture has its own version. I can’t say for sure that’s the reason for the negative press, but it might have been. Either that or one of the band members shagged someone’s girlfriend or pissed someone off. Who knows?

The B-side tune, Victimized, is my favorite. It’s a fast, punky tune with good lyrics that are relatable now as they were then or at any time. At just over two minutes it doesn’t out stay it’s welcome. I checked out the full album online and thought there were several songs that sounded good. Just like the single, the album can be found cheaply. I found a copy on Discogs for $11. Those original reviewers might think I overpaid. You might listen to them and agree. I still contend there’s enough going on with them worthy of your investigation if you dig the art-rock and progressive end of the pop spectrum. Don’t worry about their class. Plenty of “cool” and influential artists came from privileged backgrounds. No need to name names. It’s not where you’re from but where you’re at, right? Or something like that. Take a listen here and see whether you agree with the perceived opinion or with those that saw the band at the time and liked them and with folks like me who are hearing them almost fifty years later and like them too. Anyway, what does it matter? Music hits us all differently. We like what we like, and it would be a very dull world if we all liked and listened to the same stuff. Variety is the spice of life and all that. Enough of the blather. Just my opinion and more to say that you can find plenty to enjoy without it costing a fortune and that “what it goes for on Discogs” isn’t really a true barometer of quality.

Okay, back to work and looking forward to Iron Lung later tonight.

Cheers - Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Gloomy ass day here today. I kinda like it tho. So long as it doesn’t mess up my hair haha. Gives me the feeling that Fall will be right around the corner. I went to go see the Iron Lung show here in Raleigh last night. Gotta say, it was a pretty good show! I don’t intend to say that with a ton of surprise underneath, but the energy level around punk and hardcore shows in Raleigh has felt pretty depleted lately. Really enjoyed Hologram’s set. Nice to see a good chunk of people fill up some space and even dance and buck wile a lil bit.

So, for my staff pick today, I’ve got something that’s relatively new to me. But before that, I don’t how much we’ve made it clear here in the Sorry State newsletter, but WE WANT TO BUY YOUR USED RECORDS. If anyone is looking to sell all or part of a collection, particularly if it’s heavy on punk & metal, you should reach out to us. It doesn’t matter if you’re near Raleigh or many miles away. Recently, we got this dude to ship us 5 huge, well-packed boxes of his old records. Lots of cool stuff in there. One record in particular, which I decided to set aside for myself on a whim, was this LP by an old Japanese punk band called Skin.

Are any of our readers familiar with this band? After a little research, I learned that this band was active in the late 70s/early 80s and only released 2 LPs, along with a couple singles. This record I’m talking about Zun-Zun is actually the band’s second LP from 1981. Something about the presentation really caught my attention, with the obi and dayglo colors really standing out. At first, because the record looked obviously fresh and new, I wasn’t sure if the record was an old band or something more contemporary with a retro aesthetic. Turns out, this is the Record Shop Base reissue from 2021, a label I mainly know from selling kick ass records on Discogs and putting out more garage kinda stuff like The Baby Shakes.

It's cool that these Skin records got reissued, because as far as I can tell, they had an initial printing in Japan in the early 80s and then were never repressed. And looking at the members of the band on Discogs, kinda seems like no one went on to be in any other bands. Kinda weird to be a little blip on Japanese culture and then just disappear. Listening to Zun-Zun, what struck me immediately is how amazing the production sounds. Like suuuuper crisp, loud, punchy recording. Beautiful guitar tones. Also, the band is just tight as hell, incredibly competent players. Most of the songs are super upbeat, high-energy, fun, sing-along melodic and rockin’ punk tunes that don’t overstay their welcome. Most songs are under 3 minutes, and with them being so tuneful and easy on the ears, it makes the record super accessible. I mean, for example the first song’s sentiment is “JUST GO!” in a quick and exciting 1.5-minute opener. I was hooked immediately. Just well-written melodies, cool riffing, kinda funny unexpected instrumentation, woodblock, synths, tons of great layering in the production, lots of ear candy, great “oohs and aahs” backup vocals. Great stuff. They mostly sing in Japanese, but they have that thing a lot of Japanese punk bands do where part of the hook is in English, like “I’m a Fashion Boy!” or “You drive me mad and crazy, babe!” or “I love S-E-X, EXCITEMENT!” Hahaha, killer. Very edgy for the time, I’m sure.

To my ears, while the band was surely informed by early English punk and probably the first couple Ramones records, the super approachable melodic songwriting and brightly colored presentation makes me feel like this band leans a little more toward new wave. Maybe I’m wrong? I would love to know from punks in Japan contextually whether Skin records are considered all-time classics, or they’re more like kinda lame “even your mom likes Skin” type of band. ‘Cause I’m just lovin’ it. But I think about other early Japanese punk bands I know like Anarchy, who even with their grittier aesthetic basically just sound like The Clash, and even covered them on that first LP. Then there’s a band like The Plastics, who were like a quirkier and weirdo new wave kinda band. To me, Skin falls somewhere right in the middle. But funny enough, it looks like one of the dudes from The Plastics produced both of Skin’s albums and contributed some guest keyboards. Pretty cool little cowinky-dink.

Zun-Zun was originally released on a label called King Records in Japan. Seems like this is almost like a major label, or at least is not just a punk label. Looks like all kindsa music came out on King Records, like jazz vocal, easy listening, city pop, but then also like early Japanese punk rock. Not unlike how Anarchy was on Invitation Records, I suppose. But doing a little further research, Skin appeared on a Japanese Battle of The Bands music contest TV show, not unlike Star Search or something, and that’s how they got their record deal? Or that’s what I’m guessing. Amazingly, the footage from that episode is on YouTube, you can watch that here. Unfortunately, the audio becomes unsynced at some point in the video. Skin is only in the first half of the video, unless you care to see the other bands they competed against. Looks like in this episode, Skin was up against other two bands, one of which was like a pseudo-mod 60s revival band, and the other was like a lame balladeering band in matching pink shirts with neckties. No contest, if you ask me. Looks like the song Skin won the contest with ended up being their first single. Guess I’ll need to track that down eventually.

Anyway, thanks for indulging my completely unqualified history lesson haha. I’ve been really enjoying this discovery. Just about every song on this Skin record kicks ass. Check it out if you’ve never heard it.

That’s all I’ve got this week. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has been enjoying their September. A couple weeks ago I was flipping through some of the new records we had put out and stumbled across some of these R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders records. I was familiar, and fond, of Crumb’s artwork, but I honestly didn’t know he put out some records as well. I grabbed Vol. 2 and threw it on and was definitely digging it. It pretty much sounds exactly like how you’d think his music would sound: ragtime style tunes dipped in cartoonish psychedelics. The only song I was really familiar with going into it was the first track, Alabama Jubilee, which has been covered by various bluegrass and country artists I’m a fan of. Fine Artiste Blues is definitely the big ear-worm on this album for me. I also really like the song Persian Rug, and Mysterious Mose is growing on me as we approach Halloween. Overall it’s just a very fun and kooky album. I need to watch the 1994 documentary about Crumb. They were showing it at the Alamo here in Raleigh a couple of months ago and I was gonna go, but ended up being out of town.

Hello and thanks for reading. If you happen to pay attention to the stuff I’ve written about over the years, it probably comes as no surprise that KOHTI TUHOA’s new LP is my pick this week. Funny enough though, it took me three listens to really dig into this record. KOHTI TUHOA is the kind of band who actually does something different on every record. And that says a lot, cos this is their seventh record. Of course there are consistencies between every record, like fast and groovy hardcore played in the traditional Finnish style. They started with much more raw production back in 2014. When Pelon neljäs valtakuntacame around in 2017, they began to move away from that rawness and into “better” production. (That record has some of my favorite artwork.) And I absolutely love the artwork on this new record. I’ve written about KOHTI TUHOA before, and surely I mentioned how I overlooked the band due to the covers being paintings that don’t look decidedly punk. How foolish of me. I was getting ready to say that KOHTI TUHOA had started to explore the heavier side of things with palm muting parts that you could two-step to. But then I realized they haven’t done a record since 2020 and I just know this evolution of sound from seeing them so many times over the last handful of years, haha. So, I think this is the first record where we get that heavy palm muting shit. The intro track is kinda nuts; it sounds like there is like a horn you’d hear on an ISENGARD record and then it leads into some inspirational type shit you’d hear in a movie montage, but then it bursts into that heavy palm muting groove. I feel like if you gave me a record with two-step beats with palm muting, I would hate it, but somehow KOHTI TUHOA makes it work and it doesn’t come off cheesy or jocky. Aside from the stuff you’d expect to hear, and this heavy aspect of the record, there is more stuff happening I’d not heard them do before. “Rikottu luottamus” is not a hardcore song in any sense. It is melodic with stammering drums for the entirety of the verses. This took a few listens to grow on me for sure. I genuinely appreciate that they do things I love, but simultaneously challenge what I like with parts I would never suspect cos they don’t “fit” with what I have in mind. “Myrkkyä” has a total anarcho vibe. Scratchy guitar with more stammering drums that vary in rhythm, but still straightforward. This song was totally unexpected, and it is killer. “Ikuinen syöveri” sounds like it has influence from like MUSTA PARAATI. Less synth-oriented, of course, but it has that vibe. And finally, “Eliitin psykopatia: Älä luovuta.” This one is out there for sure, but a great track to end the record on. It doesn’t even sound like “music” in the first half. The drums are not like beating, but accenting with quick build-ups and rolls here and there, with a general sound of falling apart—like you’d hear after a band’s grand finale encore or whatever. And there’s fuckin horns on it, too. Haha. After falling apart for three minutes, it transitions into some fist bumping, headbanging hardcore played with a straight beat. It comes in mean and hard. I know there is only one preview track available online, but I think this is a killer record, probably the best record I have heard this year. If you haven’t heard that song, you can check it out here. And then, you can pre-order your copy from us after :) Alright, thank you for reading and thanks for your support.

What’s up everyone? Thanks for checking in on the newsletter. It means a lot to us and is always appreciated. Best wishes and love to you all.

I tend to write these entries based on current mood and/or when a certain record comes through the store. This past week or so there have a bunch of records that have had my attention and taken my lunch money and are all currently doing heavy rotation on the turntable.

Firstly, Professor Daniel, whilst working with me at the store the weekend before last, played the Australian X’s 1985 album At Home With You. I can’t recall having heard it before, although I do love the group’s debut, Aspirations, from five or so years earlier. Both albums have been kept in print by a variety of labels, and currently here at the store we have the Dirt Cult Records version of At Home With You. I really liked this second album; it has a bunch of good songs. Some venture into the art rock end of post punk and there’s even a ballad that initially made me ask, is this Pink Floyd? It isn’t, so don’t let that worry you. I believe Daniel’s favorite track was the very last song called She’s Gone (actually, it was “Half Way Round The World” —Daniel). The album was produced by the legendary Lobby Loyde, of Coloured Balls fame. As with their reissue of Aspirations, Dirt Cult choose to use alternative album art, but this reissue sounds good and comes with an insert of liner notes and won’t set you back as much as an import copy or original.

If you missed out on the first grip of copies that we got of the Beast Of Beast and Smog Marines albums, then you should try and snag one now as we just restocked. People have been rightly excited about these two reissues. They’re done well and finally bring to full exposure some great music that has remained unknown and unheard of by most up to now. If you have even a passing interest in the L.A. scene circa late 1970s-early 1980s, you owe it to yourself to give these recordings a listen. They both get thrown into the Death Rock genre, and that fits, but both bands offer a lot more musically and are worthy of your investigation.

I feel like a prize chump for not knowing more about Orquesta Akokan. They’re a fabulous contemporary Afro-Cuban band that blends classic mambo, salsa and boogaloo Latin rhythms and records for the Daptone Label. Couldn’t be more up my proverbial Calle. They’ve been around for almost ten years now. We have their terrific debut in stock, along with the group’s brand-new album, America! I can’t believe I don’t have these records in my collection already. The group has a couple more albums under their belt which I’ll be checking out also. It’s exciting to discover new-to-you music and these guys are playing 21st century mambo that sounds both classic and fresh simultaneously. I love it.

I’m going to keep in the tropics for my next three recommendations. Jamaica specifically and reggae music. Strictly speaking a couple of these records were not recorded there, but they’re still by Jamaicans in the reggae and dub genre. So that counts.

First up, I was delighted to be able to bring in a couple of copies of the last album that the great Lee “Scratch” Perry featured on before his passing. The album is credited to him along with Peter Harris and Fritz Catlin and is titled Mercy. It was released in 2025 on the UK label Dash The Henge. I hadn’t seen a copy in US shops and was happy to see it pop up on one of our distro’s available titles. I always try to wait until I get an actual copy of a record to listen to an album for the first time, so I can get to things a bit late. I was a little unsure of what to expect from this record. There have been some less than stellar Lee Perry-involved albums, unfortunately, over the years, where producers shove a mic in front of Scratch and record whatever he says and then add it to lack luster productions and milk as much as they can from the sessions. I’m happy to report that this album is nothing like those, and is in fact very good. There is a bit of a concept behind the record, going back to a first meeting between Scratch and Peter Harris in 2006. Harris was producing a film called Higher Powers, which was concerned with death and passing to the other side. Lee Perry briefly features in the film. Later in 2015 the pair got back together to record music as a potential soundtrack and several songs were recorded and over the next couple of years and more lyrics were captured. From these pieces, Harris added layers of sounds and mixing desk magic to form the songs that make up the finished album. Fritz Catlin, from 23 Skidoo fame, adds drums, percussion, melodica and other production touches to songs. I say it’s a great job done by all involved. It’s not a 70s Black Ark era sounding record, but it’s also not one of the more techno leaning albums Perry has made. You can tell it’s a UK dub album. Think somewhere between records released on the On-U Sound label and The Orb and you’ll be in the general ballpark for how it sounds. There’s a small nod to previous Lee Perry greatness in the first track Row Fisherman/Whale Song, which lifts from his legendary cut for The Congos on their classic Heart Of The Congos album. I’ve played the album three times since yesterday and each time more layers have been revealed. I am very happy to have finally heard it and have a copy. If you are a fan of Lee Perry and enjoy dub music and have not yet heard this one, dial it up and give it a listen.

Next up, Studio One Dub Plate Special, a mighty reissue from Soul Jazz Records. This one is part of the label’s Studio One reissues of releases that comprise rare dub plates that initially appeared as one-sided etched 12-inches available exclusively in their London store. The set later saw a very limited pressing as a 7-inch boxset for Record Store Day in 2018. That box is hard to get now. Thankfully, all ten dubs have been made available on an LP, and I am very glad to get myself a copy. There’s one in the store for someone else, and we’ll hopefully be able to restock it again in the future. It’s brilliant. Great stuff from the likes of Cedric Brooks, Jacob Miller, Brentford All Stars and more. Essential for reggae lovers and collectors of Studio One recordings, especially as these cuts were unreleased at the time. If you own just one Soul Jazz reissue, you’ll know the quality level is high, and you could buy this one blind. But money doesn’t come easy, so go check it out first. I think you’ll like it though. I mean? What’s not to like?

Lastly, before I sign off, the third of the reggae triple play. We got in a 7-inch single from the legend Sugar Minott called I’m Still Here. It’s on the Daptone label, so that fits in with the label mates Orquesta Akokan, who we talked about earlier. This single is a cover of song made famous by The Notations and is produced by key Daptone man Victor “Ticklah” Axelrod. I like it. Comes with a nice version on the flip.

Okay, deadline approaches and UPS just dropped a load of boxes that need attending to. Back to it. Thanks for reading and hopefully we’ve steered you towards something you’ll enjoy. Take care and see you here next time.

Cheers- Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Sorry I didn’t have anything to say last week. I know y’all missed me. Maybe not haha. Honestly, I feel like I don’t have much to say this week either. I don’t know why, exactly. Brain feels fried. Energy is low. Motivation is waning. Emotions are up n’ down. Wish I could be more tuned in, focused, passionate, and feel hyped on stuff to talk about. In a moment of feeling stuck in the non-stoked gutter, I finally listened to a bunch of hardcore 7”s for the first time in a while the other night. I was like, “Oh thank gawd YEP, I still looooove this shit!!” Haven’t felt super fired up lately. Maybe that’s on me. But alas I won’t say any more on that. TMI, I know. I’m just gonna freestyle some thoughts:

New Rat Cage is out. A record I’ve felt genuine anticipation about. And big surprise, the lads delivered. While perhaps Swedish käng punk was the primary influence behind the initial several Rat Cage records, these days, I think Bry’s songwriting is a beast all its own. Feels more signature and unique to me as time goes on. Even the way the first song kicks off with the groovy intro, only to break into a sort of spoken declaration before kicking in… it feels powerful. Makes the listener pay attention. Dare I say, “anthemic”? The last song “Not Asking For Much” is about as close to NWOBHM as you might ever expect Rat Cage to get. It’s giving a bunch of lads with pints of lager at the pub, pumping their fist, and shouting along to chorus in unison. It’s great.

Let’s see, what else? That Hävittäjät on Active-8 was a pleasant surprise. As the label’s description says, I feel like I’ve been seeing this band’s name for the last decade or so. Raw, grimy, disgusting sounding Finnish style hardcore by way of Australia. For not actually being from Finland, if you’re into Yleiset Syyt and other more recent ripping ass bands in that style, this is probably up your alley. Somehow, this band’s execution feels more ramshackle, but in the best way possible. I mean that as a total compliment. Unhinged and ripping.

We’ve got the new tape from Raw Heads in stock! This band is comprised of members who you might recognize amongst Sorry State’s family tree, including a few dudes from The Hell and Woodstock 99, as well as Keith from Meat House and White Stains on vocals. Keith released this tape on his relatively new label called Poison Vision. On his site, he sells his own releases, along with (if I do say so myself) a refined selection of distro titles from the finest current punk & hardcore bands. Then also, like bootleg horror movie t-shirts, all kindsa cool shit. I really love the whole vibe Keith is cultivating. Totally fits with his art style and taste. Blood-soaked demon—Giallo knife slashing—backslash grind in a pool on an extra wide skateboard shredding—15 bandanas on your boots—as many studded cuffs as you can fit—Mad Marc Rude—slam low creepy crawl style like the dude in Another State of Mind—kinda vibe. It’s cool as shit. Right up my alley. The Raw Heads tape only has 3 songs on it. 2 rippers sandwiching an instrumental slammer. But apparently it’s a promo, so maybe there’s an LP on the horizon. The songs sound killer, great riffs, some sorta rocked out parts, but not in a metallic way at all. Raw, go-for-the-throat 80s style hardcore. Keith’s vocals sound as demented and snarling as ever. Public Acid played with Raw Heads in Cleveland, and they opened with “Superficial Love” by TSOL. It was killer.

Few more things. Very excited about the new Kohti Tuhoa. What I’ve heard so far sounds rad. Pagan lute-playing imagery and all. Also, checked out a few tracks from the upcoming records on General Speech. Really looking forward to the new Early Grave LP. 15-song hardcore LP? Damn, not quite as many as Die Kreuzen, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen band be so bold as to put that many tracks on a full length. I salute them. So yeah, some cool stuff to look forward to on the horizon.

Like I said, very unfocused this round. Would love to hear some thoughts from people on new punk and hardcore stuff coming out. Also, would love to be turned onto some new stuff I haven’t heard yet. Preferably some new ripping hardcore recorded by punks under 30. Tell me wassup!

As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

I’m swamped this week, so I’ll keep my staff pick short. It’s a record I first heard many years ago, but has re-entered my world from a few different directions lately:

Legionaire’s Disease Band: Rather See You Dead (Than With Wool on Your Head) 7” (Lunar Lab Records, 1979)

I can’t remember whether I first heard Legionaire’s Disease Band on Bloodstains Across Texas or Killed by Death #12, but the a-side of this single is a song I associate with my initial dive into the deep end of KBD-style punk. For me, the seminal Killed by Death-style songs are usually totally over the top, to the point where they can sometimes be a bit goofy. I’m thinking of songs like the Nubs’ “Job,” the Mad’s “I Hate Music” (RIP Screaming Mad George!), the Freeze’s “I Hate Tourists,” and Freestone’s “Bummer Bitch.” While I wouldn’t say “Rather See You Dead” flirts with goofiness, the song’s chorus—an apparently wordless, vomit-like scream—is definitely over the top. While that scream is the highlight, the song’s main riff is badass too. It’s basically the as Zero Boys’ “Civlization’s Dying” (which came out two years after this) with some chunky palm muting steering it more toward Dead Boys / (Detroit) Dogs-type menace. The b-side rips too. While it doesn’t have the over-the-top quality of “Rather See You Dead,” it’s similarly heavy and nasty-sounding.

There are few original Killed by Death-type records I’ve ever hoped to own. I’ve lucked into a handful of things over the years—Public Disturbance’s S&M, the second single by the Eat—but I’ve never really pursued KBD originals the way I seek out original hardcore records. I just assume almost those records are astronomically expensive, so when I walked into Vinyl Conflict earlier this summer and saw a copy of Rather See You Dead on the wall for $50, I assumed it was a reissue. Actually, it was, kind of… a minty copy of the second pressing from 1979. The original self-released pressing (which came out earlier in ’79) is pretty expensive (current Discogs median: $160.92), but the second pressing goes for a fraction of that. To me, that seems silly. Yes, it’s on a different label, but to me a record that came out the same year as the first pressing is still an original, and I can assure you my copy sounds great. I can’t imagine upgrading to a first press would bring much additional joy into my life.

I’d been rocking my new-to-me copy of “Rather See You Dead” for a few weeks when Zack from the 185 Miles South podcast asked me to be a guest on an episode discussing his top 100 punk records of the 1970s. The episode hasn’t aired yet, so you’ll have to wait to see his full list. Hopefully, though, Zack won’t mind me telling you he ranked “Rather See You Dead” quite high. When he talked about the record during our discussion, he was clearly smitten with it, which made me stoked to listen to it even more. Zack’s analysis of music is so detailed and thoughtful that it often prompts me to hear records I’ve known for a long time in a different, fresh way.

While the episode on Zack’s 100 favorite punk records of the 70s hasn’t aired yet, he also covered Legionaire’s Disease Band in a feature called Six No Skips that appears on the 185 Miles South Substack (there’s also an audio version of the feature on their Patreon feed… behind the dreaded paywall (bwah ha ha ha ha)). You can read Six No Skips #4 here, and be sure to make it to the part where Legionaire’s Disease Band’s singer fakes his own death as part of a scheme to promote the record. What a wild man.

If you haven’t heard this single, check out the a-side here and the b-side here.

Until next week…

Hello fellow Sorry Staters! As you read in the last newsletter, I am leaving Sorry State to work at a nonprofit reuse art space called The Scrap Exchange, which is located a city over from us in Durham, NC. I am still planning on plugging away listing records one day a week, so I am not fully leaving, but going down to super short hours. Punk music has been a part of my life since I was in middle school and being able to work at a record store was almost a dream job of mine. I was in a really shitty job situation after I got laid off due to covid. I needed a job that would allow me to go to therapy and really reframe a lot of the bad shit that happened to me over the past couple of years. Being able to work with the Sorry State crew has helped gain my confidence back and has really helped my mental health overall. So, to Daniel and everyone else at Sorry State, Thank you! Thank you for holding space, introducing me to new bands, allowing me to just be myself.

I had to think really hard what I wanted my pick to be this week. (Hopefully it will not be my last.) I can only name a few albums that are no skip for me and to be quite honest I’m not sure if I have had this record as my pick but fuck it, if I did I am going to do it again! Formed from the ashes of ska punk pioneers Slapstick, The Broadways’ first and only LP called “Broken Star” was one of those “shaped my political beliefs” records for me. The vocals, much like Jeff Ott from Fifteen, are not for everyone, but the album is fun, melodic and has some really catchy hooks that just make the record as a whole really good for that late 90s sound that was happening with Asian Man Records, Fat Wreck and others that I’ve talked about a billion times over the years.

Thanks again to the folks that have read what I had to say over the years. It means a lot! And thanks again to the Sorry State crew!

Hello and thanks for reading. I don’t have anything in particular I wanted to write about today, so I am going through some new arrivals briefly.

We’ve got this ICE & THE ICED 7” reissue in stock now. This record was originally released in 1981. I don’t think it’s very good. It’s like decent, yeah – kinda boring to me. The best song is probably the slow one; it kinda reminds me of MISFITS. If you’re a collector, you’ll probably still want this record as the original is expensive as hell. No Good Records actually reissued this in a low quantity 5 years ago, and this is the second time they’ve pressed it. ICE & THE ICED formed in 1979 and they were from Pordenone, the same city as TAMPAX and HITLER SS. You could say those bands were like prolific when it comes to Italian punk, haha. Ado Scaini was the vocalist of TAMPAX. Pictured above.) He did a lot for punk in Pordenone, hosting Tequila, a radio show on a free local station that began in 1976. I am using a translator, so I hope that’s correct. Tequila eventually grew to be a venue with a rehearsal room by 1979. It was a place of great importance for the counterculture/punk movement. I guess all I mean to say ICE & THE ICED were from this original scene, and it adds to the significance of their record. I don’t really know much about Italian hardcore. Of course there is a good list of bands I love, but I have ignorantly never looked into how the bands were related, where they were from, etc.

Anyways, let’s move onto this new one on Active-8, HÄVITTÄJÄT. I don’t think this record is on bandcamp but you can find it on youtube. HÄVITTÄJÄT has been around for nearly 15 years now, that’s kinda wild. I’d still think they are a bit obscure and/or underrated. While everything about them seems Finnish, they are actually from Australia. They do have an 80s formula, but something about the execution reminds me of 90s Finnish hardcore, maybe just cos it has a heavier sound. Anyways, this record is good. Check it out.

I was quite interested in this new FEROCIOUS X 7” on Distort Reality. I saw them live like last year, and holy shit they were insanely good. I am always a skeptic with bands this fast and how they can deliver it live. They can certainly deliver the goods. It is legit crazy FEROCIOUS X has been a band for over two decades now. Distort Reality released their 2002 demo Våga Tänka Själv on 7” the year after it came out. And just like that 7”, Med Vilken Ratt is also single sided. I don’t buy a lot of 7”s these days; I have too many. I wasn’t sure if this one would pass my “should I buy this?” test or not. I hate single sided 7”s, haha, so it didn’t have a great start. The music is good. It’s fast as hell and raw. The recording itself is not very good quality. The record is also cut kinda quiet. I would find this recording better suited for a cassette, but then again tapes are almost double what they cost to manufacture before the pandemic. I did read this 7” was released in conjunction with an upcoming west coast tour and I think that’s cool. (Maybe that tour happened already? I am so outta the loop.) Anyways, the record is great, and the most ideal way to commemorate an international tour.

Alright, I need to wrap this up but before I go; I saw we had this CONFLICT reissue in stock and I wanted to check it out. It kinda surprised me to see this was reissued, cos I feel like their records are not hard to find. But then again, it’s nice to have a new copy of a record that hasn’t been played to shit. It seems cool in theory that this reissue is cut on a 12”, as I’d assume the sound would be killer. I looked at the label’s website to get some info. It looked hilarious, similar to a merchandizer who promotes like foam dance parties or something. I can see the EP appears on each side of the 12”; you can hear the original mix on one side, and the other side has an unreleased mix. Both have been remastered. The copies are shrink-wrapped and kinda expensive, so I didn’t break the seal to hear what it sounds like. It looks like the label licensed this from Cherry Red. The label has reissued classics like COCKNEY REJECTS and CONFLICT, as well as their 2000s records. You can also find other bands like Bo Diddley and Jefferson Airplane in the label’s catalogue. Haha, wtf? OK before I go, there is this story a friend of mine told me a few years back. I can’t remember when he said it was, but I think it was the mid-2000’s where he had a chance to join CONFLICT on some dates of their US tour. He was telling me how much he loved CONFLICT, and how much of an inspiration and an impact the band had on him. And then he went on to tell me, on one point in the tour we he walked into the bathroom to find Colin hiding, eating a slice of pepperoni pizza. Hahah…that’s it for today then. Cheers and thanks for reading.

What I listened to while writing:

KIROUS (Finland, 1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPIgqcDTfyc

COLLAPSE SOCIETY (Japan, 1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EP6x09XqRA

UNDER THREAT (Brazil, 1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwfOvEwWW6s

FEROCIOUS X (Japan, 2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUqwuUH4ap

Before I get into my staff pick for this week, an addendum to my pick from last week, when I wrote about the Hungarian punk band Nagy Feró És A Bikini. A couple of actual Hungarian punks wrote in and shared some interesting info with me. First, I have to correct an error they both pointed out. I linked to a Bikini 7” and said it was the one Jonah held up on What Are You Listening To?, but it turns out I linked to the wrong record. The record Jonah actually held up was this single, which features two album tracks from the record I wrote about last week. I know this because one of the Hungarian punks who wrote in, Dini, is the person who gave Jonah the record! Small world. The record I linked to by mistake is a very rare 7” featuring two Bikini songs with alternate vocal tracks where the lyrics are in English. This 7” is very rare… no one knows how many exist, but it is certainly very few. Viktor who wrote in called it “a Hungarian punk holy grail,” so don’t hold your breath waiting for a copy.

Both Dini and Viktor recommended several Hungarian bands for me to check out, but Dini also told me about his appearance on the long-running Canadian punk radio show Equalizing Distort in 2015. I was really intrigued when I saw his setlist for the show, but when I started playing it I was surprised to hear that, in addition to the songs, there’s also a lengthy interview with Dini about punk in Hungary. I had planned to let the radio show play in the background while I worked, but the interview was so interesting that I had to stop it and save the rest for a time when I can listen with full attention. If you didn’t already know, every episode of Equalizing Distort is preserved for posterity on the Internet Archive. Links to larger files on the Internet Archive can be finicky, and I couldn’t get the embedded player at the link above to work. However, if you go to the file’s page on the archive, click the link on the right side that says “VBR MP3,” and wait a good long while, you will (hopefully) be rewarded. Enjoy!

Now for today’s staff pick, which is another record I picked up while I was in Greece this summer:

Deus Ex Macina: Motorpsycho LP (Hitch-Hyke Records, 1991)

This is one of several records I bought on the suggestion of the owner of Art Rat Records. I’m thankful for the recommendation, because I’m not sure Motorpsycho would have stood out to me otherwise. Not that it doesn’t look cool, but the 1991 date, the longer song lengths (only one track under three minutes) and all the biker imagery (the back cover features the slogan “Body is the Motor / Rider is the Soul”) aren’t typically signals that something is going to be in my wheelhouse.

So, I was somewhat skeptical when I eventually threw this on the turntable, but it knocked me out immediately. First of all, it doesn’t sound at all like what I would have expected. Not that I knew what to expect from early 90s Greek biker punk, but I wouldn’t have expected this. The record starts with a tough-sounding mid-paced groove and a total skate rock riff. As the song develops I get a surfy vibe, particularly when the guitars ring out and the bass and drums keep charging forward at that head-nodding tempo. The vocals take a loooong time to kick in, and when they do they’re pretty minimal. After a couple of songs, I realized what it reminded me of: Agent Orange’s Living in Darkness. Not as surfy, not as California-sounding, but there’s something very similar there. As the record keeps spinning it just gets more and more exciting, particularly when they do that thing I love where the guitarist repeats a short rhythmic figure while the bass player does something more stretched-out and melodic underneath it.

I didn’t know anything about the band or the record and I had no idea what I was going to say in my staff pick, but when I did a little research on Deus Ex Macina, some things clicked together. As it turns out, Deus Ex Macina was started by two members of the band Αδιέξοδο (Adiexodo), whose album I also picked up while I was in Athens. I wrote about the Adiexodo album in a staff pick back in July. The Deus Ex Macina record is very different from the Adiexodo album, which is roughly recorded, rather primitively played, and has a tough, even thuggish, vibe. But there are some similarities too. When I wrote about Adiexodo, I pointed out how the guitarist is very rhythmically oriented, while the bass player is busier and more melodic, which is exactly what struck me about Deus Ex Macina. It’s very cool that a band like Adiexodo, who had a very primitive charm, found a way to develop that allowed to lean into their strengths without feeling watered down.

Looking at Discogs, Deus Ex Macina has a substantial discography with releases all the way up to mid-2010s. I haven’t yet explored, but if I pick up anything else maybe I’ll cover it in a future staff pick.