Staff Picks

I’m Molly, Danny’s wife, a book artist and bookbinder also known as Made with Magick on Instagram. I hand-bind journals in my home studio and believe deeply in the power of the words we choose to write and keep. My work is rooted in the idea that the arts are essential to the human condition and that everyone deserves a seat at the table. I carry that into my teaching as the bookbinding instructor at the Durham Arts Council, where I try to create a space that feels welcoming, curious, and a little bit magical. Whimsy shows up in everything I do: unexpected details, playful structures, small moments of surprise, and it spills into how I move through daily life, too. Living with someone who works at a record store means music is never just background; it’s part of the texture of our home. Records come in and out constantly, stacked on tables, spinning while I’m in the studio. Some pass through. Some stick. Comfort to Me by Amyl and the Sniffers is one that stayed and is currently on constant rotation. A hyper-fixation, if you will.

When I’m preparing for my classes at the Durham Arts Council, I spend a lot of time thinking about how things are constructed, how materials hold together, how tension and structure create meaning. This record hit me in that same tactile, immediate way. The first listen felt physical, like pulling a clean print or locking a text block into a case. It’s loud and fast, but it’s also incredibly intentional. Nothing feels accidental.

Amy Taylor’s voice reminds me of a sharp blade cutting into a book board, decisive, expressive, and full of force. On “Guided by Angels,” there’s this relentless forward motion, but what gets me is the clarity inside the chaos. It feels like working quickly but confidently. When your hands know what they’re doing before your brain catches up. There’s conviction there, a kind of instinctual trust that I recognize from being deep in the flow while in the studio.

“Security” hits differently; it’s tighter, almost claustrophobic. The repetition feels like stitching the same pattern over and over, building tension with each pass of the needle. It mirrors that feeling of being watched, contained, or assessed, and the music reinforces it with this rigid, driving structure.

“Choices” feels deceptively simple at first, but it’s one of the sharpest moments on the record. There’s a bluntness to it, lyrically and musically, that reminds me of stripping a book down to its essentials. No extra flourishes, just structure doing exactly what it needs to do. The repetition in the chorus lands like a mantra, but not a comforting one. More like a reminder you can’t ignore. It circles around autonomy and consequence in a way that feels both personal and confrontational. In the studio, it makes me think about decision-making. How every cut, every fold, every material choice leaves a mark. There’s no undoing it, only working with what you’ve committed to. That same sense of accountability pulses through the track.

Then there’s “Hertz,” which feels like pure momentum, like when everything in the studio is working at once and you’re just trying to keep up with the pace of your own ideas. It kicks in with this driving rhythm that almost feels impatient, like it can’t wait to get moving. The guitars have this bright, buzzing edge that reminds me of tools hitting the table, paper shifting, thread pulling through signatures, everything happening at once but somehow still in sync. It’s loose, a little wild, but still grounded. The energy doesn’t scatter; it channels forward, the way a good work session sometimes does when you’re deep in it and suddenly hours have passed without you noticing. There’s also something joyful about it, fast and scrappy, but confident in its stride.

“Don’t Fence Me In” picks up that same momentum but widens the space around it. The groove feels more open, almost like the band steps back just enough to let the song stretch its arms. It makes me think about the moment when you finish binding a book and finally open it for the first time; after all that pressure, clamping, measuring, and aligning. The structure is there, holding everything together, but now it’s allowed to move. The chorus has that feeling of release, like the music is pushing outward instead of barreling straight ahead. It still has the grit and punch you expect from Amyl and the Sniffers, but there’s also this sense of breath and expansion that gives the record dimension.

“Knifey” is where the album really stretches. It’s darker, heavier, and gives itself more space. For me, it feels like shifting from quick edition work into something slower and more deliberate, where every decision carries more weight. The repetition becomes meditative instead of frantic, like scoring paper again and again until it folds exactly how you want it to.

What really stays with me is the balance. In both my teaching and my own work, I’m always holding space for structure and play, something strong enough to last, but open enough to invite curiosity and connection. Comfort to Me lives in that same space. It’s aggressive, yes, but also thoughtful and strangely generous. It leaves room for humor, for unpredictability, for a little bit of chaos alongside control, which, honestly, is where the most interesting work (and life) tends to happen.

Over time, this record has become a kind of bridge between our worlds. He hears it through the lens of the shop: pressings, scenes, where it fits in punk lineage. I hear it through form and process: rhythm, texture, how it’s built and held together. Somewhere in that overlap is where it sticks: a record that feels as handmade and immediate as the journals I bind in my studio.

Comfort to Me doesn’t just make noise; it makes an impact. Raw, deliberate, and full of life, it’s a record that feels crafted as much as it feels unleashed, and one that’s earned a permanent place both on our turntable and in my creative orbit.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. This past week I’ve been enjoying the Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery album The Dynamic Duo. A great pairing of guitar and organ. Nothing crazy going on here, but a solid listen all the way through. I always love a good instrumental album. The first track, Down By The Riverside, always kinda catches me off guard to start it off cause it’s 10 minutes long and I catch myself around the 7-minute mark being like, “oh shit, this is still the first song.” My favorite track on here would probably be 13 (Death March). It’s just got a really cool rhythm and vibe to it. There are some pretty funny notes on the inside of the jacket. For Jimmy Smith’s description, it reads, “An animal whose attack of his prey, the Hammond Organ, results in entire submission.” I just don’t know if those are the words I would use to describe his playing. It certainly might’ve grabbed someone’s attention back in the day. This record also doubles as a Christmas album if you need it to, cause they do a cover of Baby, It’s Cold Outside, which kinda seems to come out of left field for me. You can usually find this album for pretty cheap, so if you come across a good copy under $10, why not snag it?

Hey! What’s up Sorry Staters? To use the cliché phrase, it’s been a rollercoaster of a few days, but that doesn’t match the lows and highs of emotions running through Sorry State Towers. I’ll leave Daniel to tell that tale in his own time. Suffice to say, it’s been a week. And Mo Salah is leaving Liverpool. Too much to handle at once. With that in mind, it has been difficult (for me) to think straight, let alone write about a record in detail, but of course I’ve still been listening to stuff. However, this week it will have to be a short hello, this is cool, and goodbye from me.

I mentioned last week about seeking records with a bit more going on in the lyrics and attitude department. I’ve been needing music with some politics and protest in it. A compilation came through the store recently that I have been enjoying, and I would like to recommend it to you. It’s titled Who? What? Why? When? Where?

Released in 1984 on the Mortahate Records label, it’s an interesting collection of anarcho-punk bands, eighteen in all, from around the U.K. The label was set up and run by the band Conflict, and they head the collection with a track called Cruise, a song about the anti-cruise missile sentiment felt by many at the time. The rest of the album follows similar anti-government themes, along with animal rights issues and socialist causes. I recognized a few of the names of the other seventeen bands. Not exactly household names, a lot of them, but to you guys reading, you’ll know many of them. Poison Girls are on there for example. I’ve been digging them over the last few years since discovering their records. They have an interesting story and are worthy of investigation for those unaware. Check out their album Chappaquiddick Bridge from 1980 that was released on Crass Records.

If the mention of Crass Records catches your attention, then I think you’d be right at home with this compilation. It has a similar tone and vibe to the sort of compilations that Crass was releasing themselves. The couple of volumes of DIY and punk sounds that the label compiled from submissions from unsigned artists around the U.K. are worth seeking out. There’s plenty of gems on those. Isn’t that the great thing about compilations? Getting to hear and discover bands and artists that you might not have heard otherwise, and getting a kick-ass selection of tunes to play and enjoy. Finding original singles, if the tune even saw a proper release, can be tough and expensive, so having a reasonably priced comp is the way to go. This one has an inner sleeve with lyrics and art, plus some basic information about the bands and where they are from. The copy I have been playing is a bit of a beater, but plays just fine. A nice copy shouldn’t set you back too much though, depending on where you see one. It’s worth snagging if you are looking to expand your knowledge on the anarcho scene from the period and are looking for tunes you might not be familiar with. Click the link here for a listen.

Okay, that’s all I got for you right now. Thank you for reading and for all your continued support. We love you guys and love hooking you up with good shit. May that continue for many more years.

Cheers – Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

I guess I’ll just dive right into my staff pick this week. In last week’s newsletter, I talked about the new Disintegrators tape and a new crop of bands emerging out of the Richmond scene. One of the other bands I mentioned was Massacre System. Now, perhaps I’m a bit biased choosing Massacre System for my staff pick, because Usman and I released their new cassette on our label Bunker Punks. But now that Sorry State has distro copies of the tape up for sale on the webstore, I hoped all you readers would indulge me while I give some attention to our label’s new release!

Massacre System’s vocalist Terrence is an old friend who relocated to Richmond from North Carolina a few years back. I remember Terry sent us the recording when it was finished, just as a friendly gesture to give it a listen. Several months back, Usman and I cranked the recording in the record store while we were working together, and it just sounded explosive coming out of the speakers. I was totally blown away.

The band definitely plays Discharge-inspired hardcore. Each song is stitched together with layers of hissing, turbulent noise. But once the music kicked in, one thing that struck me immediately is how powerful, yet clear and crispy the recording sounds. Definitely leaning more toward Disfear’s Soul Scars than Disclose from a production standpoint, if ya know what I mean.

This tape just sounds crushing. It feels like getting pummeled and beaten repeatedly. 4 songs, all short bursts of fury. Sammie, the drummer who plays in tons of other bands, brings that totally swingy groove to the Dis-beat. But then the last track, “War Crime Technology,” starts with a mid-paced military march tom-roll groove, only to suddenly launch unexpectedly into some Heresy/Ripcord-esque speedy thrash. I’ve known Terrence for years, and when I first heard their vocals, I was kinda like… Damn dude, I didn’t know you had it in ya!! Terrence’s unhinged, maniacal, rabid dog-style barking approach to the vocals reminds me of Joe from Urchin a little bit. Desperate howls shouted into the void, echoing down the halls of the asylum.

What’s extra cool about Massacre System is the combination of people that make up the band. A few of the members are a bit older, Richmond scene veterans who have played in many, many bands. Then a few of the people are a bit younger, punks who have been active in the scene for a while, but feel like fresh faces. Paul, one of the two guitarists, recorded and mixed this Massacre System recording. He’s also been doing a bunch of great recordings for other bands in the Richmond scene. Then the other guitar player Charlotte did the cover artwork for the cassette. So, it’s like the whole band is a totally self-contained DIY unit. All made in-house, baby. So rad.

I could continue to gush about Massacre System, but I’ll keep it brief this week. Stoked to see my friends making killer stuff. Hardcore rules. That is all. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Last week I was on a house call, looking at a collection. It was a fairly standard, if slightly boring, collection, but there were a handful of classic rock titles that would sell well for us. What I usually do on a house call is put the more valuable records together in a stack so that I can look at their condition more closely and pay the seller a better price for those titles, but as I started going through my “good stuff” stack on this buy, pretty much every record was scratched up. Which was weird because the jackets were in perfectly fine shape… I’ll never understand how that happens. Do some people wipe their LPs with sandpaper before each play? I ended up passing on the collection, but I noticed a copy of this LP that didn’t look too bad, so I gave them a few bucks for it and took it home for myself:

The Velvet Underground: Loaded 12” (Cotillion, 1970)

When I gave them the money, they thanked me and asked, “what is that record?” They did not know who the Velvet Underground were, LOL. Which is probably a good thing, because this LP avoided the sandpaper treatment the rest of their records got. After clearing the dust off with Sorry State’s VPI machine, it sounds fantastic.

I don’t think I’ve ever owned a copy of Loaded, but when I took it home and played it, none of it was unfamiliar to me. I guess I just absorbed all these songs through the cool music zeitgeist, hearing them on bootlegs, compilations, through cover songs, in DJ sets, or wherever else it is you hear non-mainstream music. It’s crazy how a record can be part of your consciousness like that without ever having deliberately listened to it.

I don’t think I really listened to the Velvet Underground until well into my adulthood (probably my 30s, TBH), but once I listened closely, I recognized right away how deeply they had shaped so much of the music I loved. If I had to summarize the Velvet Underground’s historical significance to someone who knew nothing about them, I’d say they were the first band to bring together the worlds of rock and roll and fine art. To many people, this is probably a bad thing. Usman always says he hates art, which is an absurd statement, but what I take him to mean is that he hates the culture around fine art: museums, galleries, dealers, institutions of higher education, etc. I understand hating that world, but also that world is a big part of who I am. Starting in the 10th grade, I attended a magnet school for the arts, and the teachers there indoctrinated us into the art world’s ways of seeing, interpreting, and interacting with the world. I was discovering punk rock at the same time, so my connections to the art world go just as deep as my connections to punk. Actually, for me, the two are inextricably linked. My peers in my hometown were all listening to whatever horrid post-grunge was on the radio, but the cool older kids at my magnet school were listening to underground punk. I saw listening to cool music as part of the same maturation process that would (hopefully) make me a “real” artist.

I’d be curious if any readers pop up with examples of earlier rock and roll / fine art crossover than the Velvets’ first album. The obvious candidate would be the Beatles, but I’d argue they’re not precisely the same thing. John Lennon went to art school, and it’s clear he absorbed many of the same things I did when I went to art school half a century later. But, for me, the Beatles made music that was art_ful_, but not really art per se. They elevated pop music above the level of disposable trash / popular culture where it had (arguably) previously resided, but even something as daring as “Tomorrow Never Knows” goes down relatively smooth. It’s not “Venus in Furs” or “Black Angel’s Death Song,” much less “European Son.” The Velvets challenged their listeners aggressively, in the same way that the most daring modern painters and sculptors did. They felt no responsibility to keep your toe tapping. They were doing something else entirely. And the path they opened up is walked by so many of my all-time favorites, from the Stooges to Can to PiL to Siouxsie and the Banshees to Wire and all the bands they influenced. Any time I listen to music that has one foot in rocking and one foot in this other (higher?) artistic impulse, I feel like the Velvets are right there.

Back to Loaded, though, where you don’t really hear any of that. By this point in the group’s history, they had fired Andy Warhol as their manager, Nico was long gone, John Cale was out, and Mo Tucker was on a leave of absence from the band for maternity leave. Guitarist Sterling Morrison and guitarist / vocalist / songwriter Lou Reed were the only holdovers from the band’s early artistic peak. I’ve read enough books about Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground to know Lou Reed’s connections to the art world and the avant-garde run plenty deep, but by the time they made Loaded, he didn’t seem interested in exploring that in the Velvet Underground. Famously, they titled the record Loaded because they thought it was loaded with hits, and indeed it’s a tight, snappy collection of rock and roll songs that doesn’t sound, on the surface at least, all that different from what was happening in the mainstream in 1970. If anything, it might have sounded a few years out of date. I mean, Fun House also came out in 1970!

But despite it’s conventionality, Loaded still sounds like a great record to me. It also reveals part of the secret sauce that made the Velvet Underground’s early records so special. They weren’t just a collision of fine art and rock and roll… they were a collision of fine art and fucking great, top-shelf rock and roll. I can’t imagine John Cale’s screeching viola or Nico’s deadpan vocals would have sounded 1/10th as brilliant if they weren’t delivered within the context of Lou Reed’s songwriting. I guess it makes sense that, at this point in his career, Lou Reed would want to dispense with all the artsy-fartsy crap and place the focus squarely on what a brilliant songwriter he was. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more tightly packed string of classic melodies than the first three songs on this album: “Who Loves the Sun,” “Sweet Jane,” and “Rock & Roll.” His lyrics remain daring, particularly on character sketch songs like “New Age.” And I love the loose, exciting little touches he injects into his songs (the kids might call it yolo), like the silly falsetto when he sings “fine, FINE music” in “Rock & Roll” (a trick he probably picked up writing novelty songs for Pickwick Records early in his career). Lou was a genuine artist and craftsman who understood how pop songs work and how they might channel something deep and significant, much the same way a painting, novel, or film can.

I feel silly writing about the Velvet Underground because they’re one of the most obsessively documented and dissected bands in the history of popular music. There are countless people who know more about them and have thought about them more deeply than I have. But whereas I have a hard time hearing records by obsessively deconstructed bands like the Beatles or the Stones with fresh ears (to where I can’t imagine feeling compelled to put on one of their records ever again), the Velvets’ records remain vital to me, even an arguably lesser one like Loaded.

What is up fellow Sorry Staters! It has been a busy one at the warehouse getting all of your preorders out the door. I hope everyone is enjoying their week and some new music! This is going to be a short one for me today, as it has been a busy week, not just at Sorry State but at home as well. I have been mostly listening to a lot of free jazz this week. Most people don’t listen to free jazz to calm down and relax, but if I can get into a mental groove with the sometimes repetitive nature of the genre, I can just zone out and take my mind someone else. One player who has really caught my attention recently is Albert Ayler and his album with Don Cherry, Vibrations. Constructive, wild and groove is just there for me in this record. The sax is loud and in the forefront, which is what I love in a free jazz record. The squeals and squeaks just keep pushing, making this record one of my favorites from Albert Ayler. If you ever see any of his stuff in the wild, pick it up! Side note, more and more used stuff is getting listed on the site. I know some folks were really going in on the CDs when we were first listing them, but Daniel and I have picked it back up and have been listing a bunch more, so be sure it check them out! Until next week!

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. We’ve been going through all the seasons at once here in North Carolina recently. I’m ready for the warmer weather to finally prevail. Anyways, I recently came across an album I was unfamiliar with by an artist I love, so I had to scoop it up when I saw it: Dawg Jazz / Dawg Grass by David Grisman. The cover initially caught my eye cause it’s a cool ass picture of a dog with sunglasses on in a jazz club. How could I pass that up? When I flipped it around to check out any info on the back, I was greeted with an equally cool photo of the same dog dressed like a cowboy sitting on a bale of hay, and it was then I realized this is kinda a two albums in one kinda deal. Jazz on one side, bluegrass on the other. David Grisman has kinda created his own unique sound, or “dawg music” as he puts it: bluegrass with lots of different elements mixed up into it, so I was curious about the jazz side. There’s lots of great players on here: Tony Rice, Jerry Douglass, Earl Scruggs, Stephane Grappelli… a real stacked roster. Any time Tony Rice is playing guitar on a record, you can sign me up. To be honest, the jazz side isn’t too much different from your regular Grisman album… definitely still bluegrass-y, but a little more straight lined. My favorite on this side would probably be the second track, Steppin’ With Stephane. I probably lean more towards the Dawg Grass side of this record, though, cause it’s just classic David Grisman Quartet firing on all cylinders. The track Swamp Dawg on this one is a really cool standout track to me as it’s a bit slower and has more of a laid-back tone to it. I also really like the second to last track Happy Birthday, Bill Monroe. The father of bluegrass definitely deserves his own birthday track. Overall, this is a pretty cool album, and I’m glad I randomly came across it. Always a happy surprise to discover something new from an artist you’re a fan of!

Greetings friends. Big thank you as always for taking the time to read our newsletter. Daniel works so hard each time putting this together and it’s gratifying that you guys read it and especially cool when we receive your enthusiastic thumbs up over anything that we have talked about. We’re all music evangelists here at Sorry State, just trying to pass on good tips and steer you towards cool shit and also learn ourselves. I still have a hunger for new to me sounds and try to listen to something I haven’t heard every single day. Working at a dope record spot certainly helps in that pursuit. Being able to pass on that excitement and joy to people every day is truly gratifying. It sounds corny, but one of the best things about working here is when we can link someone up with a record that means a lot to them and that brings them joy. Whether it’s new or old music, an original pressing or a reissue, it is so cool to know that person’s day just got better because we had the record they had been looking for. Of course, equaling satisfying is turning someone on to a record that they hadn’t heard before or known about. Whether that’s from a conversation or from just having it playing on the turntable, it’s cool when it happens.

I still try to keep that fire of inquisitiveness burning inside me, even as I approach official old git status. Since working here at Sorry State, my musical horizons have greatly expanded. I’m continually being exposed to new music obviously, but also to so many old bands and records that I either missed completely or didn’t pay attention to much at the time. It’s been a great education to be honest. Always keep learning, kids. He’s a fool the fellow who reckons he knows everything or knows enough. To that point, my “pick” for you guys this go-around is the band The Proletariat, a Massachusetts punk band who were around during the first half of the 1980s.

Daniel, last week in the newsletter, had talked about his struggles with trying to find a record to play due to his mood, etc. I can relate to that. I find myself looking at my thousands of records some days and thinking nothing is speaking to me. I always figure it out and slap something on. For me, one reason why some music isn’t doing it for me currently is that it’s too poppy or lighthearted and not speaking to the times. With so much heavy shit going on in the world and especially here in America under the current junta, I’ve been feeling the need for music with a bit more going on lyric-wise. Protest music, hip-hop, and punk have been getting more turntable time of late. Anything really that has some bite in the lyrics and some sort of political edge. Hopefully it goes without saying, but the political messages I seek are of the left, socialistic, democratic and progressive nature and not the neo-Nazi claptrap of the Christian Right and the rest of the knuckle dragging neanderthals that inhabit that end of the spectrum. Anyway, a few weeks back here at the store, we received an order from one of our distros and included was a repress of the first record by The Proletariat called Soma Holiday, originally released in 1983 on Radiobeat Records. I think Jeff and I played it as I wasn’t familiar. I liked it immediately.

The band is thrown into the whole Boston punk and hardcore scene from that period and is known by most because of their inclusion on the classic compilation album, This Is Boston, Not L.A. They also appear on the follow-up EP, Unsafe At Any Speed, which was released later that same year in 1982. Their name recognition was given a further boost that year when they were finalists at the Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble, a battle of the bands competition hosted by Boston radio station WBCN. Although not exactly a hardcore punk band, their music was more post-punk in sound and had more in common with the groups coming out of the U.K. at the time. They claim not to have been influenced by the likes of The Fall, Gang Of Four, Crass etc., but they share similar aesthetics. The Marxist leaning political lyrics, the steady, militaristic-like drumming that’s almost danceable juxtaposed with angular, biting guitar strokes. It’s all there.

I was going to buy the reissue, but it sold out quickly here with us. You guys already know what’s up. Then, a short while later, a used collection came our way and, lo-and-behold, an original copy of Soma Holiday was in there. A nice one too, with the printed inner. Apparently, on the very, very first release, the record jacket did not have the song titles on the rear. That was possibly a mistake, as the track listing was added to future copies. I’m unsure whether they just switched jackets and the actual vinyl is the same or whether there was another pressing. It looks like the same. So, maybe not a true original copy but it will do for me. Daniel told me he preferred the band’s second record, Indifference, released on Homestead Records that came out a couple of years after the first. It is similar in vibe to the first and was recorded at Radiobeat studios again and with the same producers as the first album. However, that year of recording, 1984, saw the end of the band’s first lineup. Frontman Richard Brown quit, as did drummer Tom McKnight. The band continued with Laurel Bowman on vocals and Steve Welch on drums, and their contribution is heard on a couple of songs on the finished album. Certainly, the addition of the female voice adds another element to the group’s sound. This new lineup didn’t last long. They played a couple of gigs in 1985, and that was it. The album was received favorably by critics at the time and was given a boost by having Roger Miller from Mission of Burma playing piano on an updated version of the song An Uneasy Peace. The earlier version of that song had been included on another compilation album called the International P.E.A.C.E. Benefit Compilation.

I am not sure yet whether I agree with Daniel about preferring the second album over the first. I need to listen to them both a few more times, but at this point in time I am enjoying Soma Holiday perhaps just a tad more than Indifference. The jacket art is more interesting on the second I will say. There’s not a lot about the first one to give you much of a clue as to what to expect, other than the song titles themselves. Perhaps the reason they were added to the back jacket after that very first pressing? They are both good records, though, and worthy of your investigation if you are not already aware. Like I said, I’m a Johnny-come-lately to the party, and no doubt many of you reading already have these records. Still, for those of you like me, finding out about them for the first time, who are needing some weight in their music lyric-wise, these are good ones to check out. I mentioned I had been on a Clash kick recently, and you can hear their influence on The Proletariat. That’s a good thing. The band do cite The Clash as a group that informed them both musically and politically, and I like that they took that baton and brought that modus operandi into what they were doing.

Okay, back to work. I’m neck-deep in used records that need pricing and cleaning. Lots of classic rock-type stuff that will hit the floor in due course. Our locals know the scoop. We do our best to make the staples available at reasonable prices. We’re not looking to shake you down on a Doobie Brothers record, but we might want good money for an OG Nervous Breakdown. There’s plenty of quality records here from a dollar to a grand. We cater to all budgets. As you know, high price doesn’t always equal high quality, but good taste is free, and if you have that and $5 in your pocket, you’ll find something to enjoy.

Cheers – Dom

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

I’ve been reading a lot lately. There hasn’t been shit going on here and I’ve been struggling to get out of my head, and there’s nothing like a good book for taking me some place else. I just finished Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees’ recently released memoir, and while I don’t think I’ll write an entire staff pick about it, I really enjoyed it. Budgie is an interesting dude… very thoughtful. And, needless to say, he has some unique life experiences that I’m very much interested in reading about. I highly recommend the book, though there isn’t a ton about the Banshees’ actual music in it. It seems like the music came easily to them, for the most part; it was the personalities and everything else that they struggled with. And boy, did they struggle! Anyway…

After finishing Budgie’s book, I launched straight into this new book on Voïvoid: Always Moving: The Strange Multiverse of Voïvod by Jeff Wagner. I heard about the book when Wagner was interviewed on one of the spinoff podcasts from You Don’t Know Mojack, but I’ve actually read one of his books before: Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal. Kind of a weird book for me to pick up as I’m not into a lot of progressive metal (and I can’t remember what spurred me to read it), but I enjoyed the book and I was eager to read Walker’s thoughts on Voïvod, whom I’ve always liked. Particularly since, as his interview with Brant from Mojack revealed, he’s a Voïvod superfan who has spent a lot of time listening to and thinking about them and also had a massive collection of Voïvod clippings and ephemera. Sadly, they mentioned in the interview that Wagner recently went through a devastating house fire in which much of this collection was destroyed… so heartbreaking. All the more reason to order a copy of Always Moving directly from his website, which I did. I believe Jeff himself mailed it out, and it was at my house in just a few days.

Walker self-published Always Moving, which I applaud, though it means that you can’t get it on Amazon, which I think is still where almost everyone buys their books these days. God bless him for standing up to that behemoth… it certainly means he’ll sell fewer copies, but fuck Amazon always and forever. Though Always Moving is self-published, it’s extremely well-done. The layout and print quality are great, and it’s free of the copy-editing issues that plague most self-published books (and that drive me bananas while I’m reading). It’s clear Walker wrote the Voïvod book he wanted to write, though I wonder if a publisher would have assigned him an editor that might have tightened things up a little. Maybe I’m reading into this because I know Walker is a fan of progressive metal, but he can be wordy. Most of the book is oral history-style, but the interview passages are broken up by sections of Walker’s writing, in which he typically soliloquizes about Voïvod’s music. Sometimes his prose can get a bit overwrought. (I’m one to talk… I know.) I get it… you can only say “this rips” or “this is great” so many times, but I think perhaps there’s some of the progressive musician’s attitude of “why play one note when seven will do?” at work here. Also, the book is organized around Voïvod’s album releases, and the chapter structures can feel repetitive after a while. Most chapters start by setting the scene and having the band members talk about how they were transitioning from the previous album, some details about writing and recording, then Walker waxes rhapsodic about the album, then you get quotes from a bunch of (primarily European progressive metal) musicians about how great the album is. That’s great if you want to pick up the book and read a chapter or two, but when you're plowing through it in one shot like I’m doing, it can feel familiar. I wonder if a good editor might have offered suggestions about how to organize the book to avoid that? Even so, all things told, it’s an excellent book, chock-full of analysis of Voïvod’s music and career, and overflowing with tasty little nuggets of info. (Like, for instance… did you know that Voïvod’s drummer Away eventually joined Men Without Hats?!?!?!)

The book has me listening to Voïvod for the first time in a while. Surprisingly, though, it’s been the early stuff that has caught my ear this time. Like many people, I always saw the trilogy of Killing Technology, Dimension Hatröss, and Nothingface as Voïvod’s creative peak, and I’ve spent way more time with those albums than any of their others. I also went through a period a few years ago of listening to their sixth album Angel Rat quite a lot. For some reason, though, I had it in my head that their first two albums, 1984’s War and Pain and 1986’s Rrröööaaarrr were not worth listening to. I remembered them being derivative, sloppily executed, and poorly produced, but now that I’ve re-listened, I can’t imagine where I got that impression… these albums rip! War and Pain in particular has been in constant rotation. The style is total punk-metal, hovering in the region between Venom and Slayer, and not only is the playing on point, but I really like the production too… it has a similar feel to a lot of 80s punk and hardcore classics done in cheap studios on small budgets for independent labels. (They mention in the book that it was recorded in a studio used primarily for radio jingles.) As I always say, that’s my favorite shit. If you have a band that sounds great, just mic ‘em up and put ‘em to tape with nothing fancy production-wise. And while the music isn’t as unique as where Voïvod would end up, I think there’s more than enough personality in their playing (particularly in Piggy’s riffing) to separate them from the then-emerging thrash pack. Rrröööaaarrr is a slightly tougher listen… the production is a little weird, and it has this odd, kind of stilted vibe, but I’ve been connecting with that record too. You can hear so much influence from Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing in it, though it’s very much put through the Voïvod filter.

I haven’t sat down and listened to any of the albums in that key trilogy since I started reading, but I’ve been watching videos and listening to songs here and there to refresh my memory. And, honestly, I’m not digging that stuff as much. Maybe I’m just not in the mood, but right now those records sound kind of cold and clinical to me… which I realize is a big part of what Voïvod is all about… that distant, sci-fi-informed vibe is basically their brand, but right now I’m connecting with the raw energy of the early stuff. Another thing I’m noticing is that I think I don’t like Away’s drumming very much. When I listen to extreme music, I want to hear the drummer beat the fuck out of their kit, but Away is kind of a tapper… it’s not as bad on those first two records when they’re clearly trying to be as extreme and as heavy as their peers, but as they de-emphasize speed and heaviness, it seems like Away’s drumming gets markedly less aggressive. Leave that shit in Men Without Hats!

As for Angel Rat, after reading that chapter and watching the video for “Clouds in My House” (which I’d never seen), I’m convinced all the people who hated on Angel Ratwhen it came out were reacting to that video and not the actual record. I played Angel Rat a ton when it got reissued on vinyl for the first time for Record Store Day in 2022, and I remember being flummoxed about why people disliked the record as much as they did. Yeah, it has a little of that 90s alt rock in the sound, but way less (and less awkwardly!) than most other 80s metal bands who were trying to adapt to new world grunge order (not that Angel Rat was a reaction to that… it came out in 1991, a few months before Nirvana broke). Angel Rat still very much sounds like Voïvod, and while the riffs are more concise, they’re still Voïvod as fuck. “Clouds in My House” is a perfect example… that main riff is killer! However, when I watch the video where the bands are dressed in Seinfeld puffy shirt-type pirate costumes, it doesn’t go down nearly as smoothly. They just look lame. That must really suck, to spend a ton of money on a video and watch it back and be like, “fuck, we look like dorks.”

We’ll see if I dig into Voïvod’s later discography as I finish up the book. I never followed the band post-_Angel Rat, except for their 2018 album The Wake, which I picked up used at some point because I had heard so many people raving about how great it is. I also need to find myself a copy of Rrröööaaarrr_, which I inexplicably don’t own… what the fuck? I swear I had that record at some point, but god knows what happened to it. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like a bank-breaker, so with a little patience I should be able to plug this shameful hole in my collection.

What’s up sorry state readers!?! My pick for this week is the mighty Cross: Human Spirit12” from New York, out on Roachleg records. Goddamn, does this record absolutely smoke. I’m an absolute sucker for anything that gives even a slight hit of the ripping fast sound that Out Cold gave us, so this is right up my alley. Each hit on the snare on this LP sounds like gunshots going off… love it. Go pick this up and get your speed fix on and run headfirst into a brick wall!!! While you’re at it pick up the other new Roachleg release, Pura Manía: La Banda Es La Ley. This record is killer and looks cool as hell. You definitely want it. Thanks for reading, till next time!

Hello fellow Sorry Staters! Back at it again with another week and another pick! This week is not really a pick ,but talking about a live show experience! I hope everyone has been picking up a lot of cool shit recently, as we have been getting in new stuff non-stop. If you haven’t already, go check out our new preorder page on the site. We have been putting up a lot of cool stuff for everyone to check out. Some of my favorites are the Ween reissues of Quebec and White Pepper as well as the new Këkht Aräkh.

This past weekend I went to a show at a local place called the Cat’s Cradle to see Violent Magic Orchestra and Full Body 2. I had FB2 as my pick a few months back and was really excited to see that they were touring with Nothing as an opening band. I have seen Nothing a few times, so I did not stay to see them. Honestly, most folks were there to see FB2. Violent Magic Orchestra opened the show, and after watching their Boiler Room set that came out a few weeks ago I was super hyped to see them. Imagine black metal vocals over gabber and hard house music. Yeah, it’s pretty wild stuff. Full Body 2 was the highlight of the evening. This was the loudest show I’ve heard in my life. They set up really quickly and just blasted into the set. There were tons of lights in the background that went with the music and it looked and sounded amazing. Screeching waves of shoegaze like My Bloody Valentine, but in my opinion they improve on the sound MBV coined. I grabbed a really great collection LP on YEAR0001 Records. If you are into shoegaze or electronic music, please check this band out.