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Hello Sorry Staters! We have been busy putting together Subculture pre orders (if you got a shirt they turned out so good!) and (finally) sending out our Alvilda preorders in the world after too long of a wait. After a terrible start to the new year, I have wanted nothing but positive things in my life. This includes music. I have turned my efforts to educate myself on music from other countries and other time periods. This week I have been checking out a lot of Japanese city pop. If this music doesn’t fill you with some type of joy and makes you look forward to warmer days, I don’t know what will.

One album that really caught my attention as I was digging through tons of reddit threads and different compilations for some starting points was an album called Sons Of 1973 by the band Satellite Lovers.

This record encapsulates the “Shibuya-kei” or Shibuya style. The music is a dreamy, slow-tempo, funky style that was popular is in Japan in the 90s. The vocals are very reminiscent of Sheryl Crow, but backed by a funkier dream pop band.

The record never got any traction in the 90s and never got popular, but apparently this album was uploaded to youtube a couple years ago and has completely blown up since then. This record was never released in the US and also never on vinyl.

Here’s hoping for a reissue soon! If you have made it this far thank you for reading about not punk and following my journey of diving into music I have never heard of. Cheers! Until next week!

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. Billy Strings just wrapped up a six night run up in the mountains of Asheville spread across two weekends and it was an absolute barn burner. No songs repeats over the six nights either, which I have big respect for. I had the pleasure of attending the first three nights and had a ball. I’m sure everyone reading this is aware of the hurricane that struck the area a few months back and completely destroyed certain parts, so it was nice to spend some time up there and support local businesses as best as we could. If you’re familiar with Asheville, you know that’s easy to do as it’s full of incredible restaurants of all types. We stayed right in the middle of downtown, so it was nice to just walk to and from everywhere and we got lucky with 70 degree weather all weekend. Anyways, the shows were incredible. It’s no secret Billy loves Asheville and NC as a whole, as they play here all the time throughout the year. I think bluegrass and folk music is so ingrained in the history of NC that you can just feel it in the air. As Billy put it, “you can walk down the street here and everyone knows who Doc Watson is.” I always appreciate at NC shows how he pays respect to the legends that came before him by playing lots of old timey traditionals and folk standards. This time I caught a song I’ve been wanting to hear forever and finally got it as the encore the first night, Salty Dog Blues. A folk song dating back to the early 1900s that’s been covered by countless artists like Misssissippi John Hurt, Lead Belly, Doc Watson, Flatt and Scruggs… the list goes on. It’s debated what the song is really about: “let me be your salty dog or I won’t be your little man at all.” I always heard it as a guy being like “I wanna be your man, but I also may be a bit of a dirty dawg.” It’s just a funny, tongue-in-cheek song and different lines and lyrics have been added in throughout the years, depending on which dirty dawg may be singing it. There were some pretty great lines from this version such as

“I like gravy, I like grits, I like girls with great big teeth”
“Two old men laying in the grass, one’s got a finger in the other man’s ear”
“I met a girl and she was willin, now I’m taking penicillin”

I think y’all may get the gist of it now. I’ve really worn my girlfriend out with that grits line. To wrap it all up, it was a great weekend full of incredible music and it was awesome to see the streets of Asheville full of life and happiness again after a historic and unimaginable natural disaster and the hard months that followed. Thanks Bill!

Hi and thanks for reading. I saw we had this reissue of ANTI-CIMEX’s s/t 12” in stock and I wanted to write about it a bit. I’m sure everyone knows this record, aka Criminal Trap. This specific reissue was done by Nada Nada Discos / Spicoli Discos over a decade ago now, and that’s why I wanted to mention it. I think you can still pick up all the CIMEX 12”s on that label Back on Black, but to be honest I have never checked those reissues out. I’m guessing they are kept in print? I am not sure.

I remember when this reissue of their self-titled came out, er really when they were reissuing every CIMEX record. It was a huge deal, at least to me, haha. I think it was the first time any of this shit was ever being properly reissued, especially in the replica-type format. Shit man, I remember riding my bike up to the record shop back in Indy, Vibes Music, to order the Victims of a Bombraid and Raped Ass reissues off the computer there. My silly ass didn’t have internet at home, and I definitely did not have a smart phone back then. I was so excited I bought five copies of each Raped Ass cover variant, haha. Whoever fulfilled my order probably thought I was an idiot, but I made a lot of friends happy over the years with those copies. All these reissues done by Nada Nada Discos / Spicoli Discos were super-duper nice, easily the best CIMEX reissues out there in my opinion. I think the 7” reissues they did were actually getting a bit hard to find, but luckily there was the box set reissue that came out a few years ago as well.

Anyway, I remember picking up this reissue of their self-titled and it is killing me right now that I can’t find it. I guess I sold it? I remember the cover being so nice. Just like how they did the foil printing on Victims of a Bombraid reissue (that the most recent box set reissue painfully lacked.) While the 7”s were more like replicas of originals, the 12”s they did added bonus shit. Inside the s/t I remember reading some liner notes from Charlie (drummer of ANTI-CIMEX) about the record. He confirmed “Make My Day” is a Clint Eastwood reference, haha. Maybe that didn’t seem as cheesy back then, but damn it just makes me think of my dad now or something, haha. And I remember him saying they re-recorded “Set Me Free” cos they didn’t like the sound on Victims of a Bombraid or something like that. Which is nuts to think about, cos that record rules.

I would say the s/t 12” captures CIMEX in their prime. I think their demos rip unbelievably hard, and obviously, nothing can beat Raped Ass (except for maybe GBG 1982…), but you hear how damn good they’ve gotten at their instruments when it comes to the s/t. Victims of a Bombraid is an absolutely killer EP, but following up Raped Ass is no easy task. The sound is still powerful, but in a different sense. The songwriting is more pulled-back and they have more of a heaviness to them. Really, I don’t think there is anything that sounds like it at the time. It’s like the perfect example of proper kång. Anyway, on the 12” I feel like they deliver this extra ferociousness Victims of a Bombraid was kinda missing. While they still have that heavier sound, they picked up the pace a bit and added some new elements to the mix. Namely, some proper guitar leads, a rocked-out mid-tempo track, and a whole new mofo to deliver some extra percussion. While today I would probably think seeing a guy on stage solely beating the shit outta stuff would be cheesy, ANTI-CIMEX delivered it with pure originality.

I’m guessing everyone has this record who is reading this? If you don’t - you need a copy, and this Nada Nada / Spicoli Discos reissue we have in stock is the one you want. Since I am on the topic of CIMEX, and I also wanted to mention quickly this demos 12” we have in stock. We’ve had these for a minute, and they’ve been recently marked down. If you don’t have this record, now is the time to scoop it for cheap. I think some people were turned off by the cover. Or obviously, do you really need yet another ANTI-CIMEX demos reissue? In this case, the answer is yes. I wrote about it when we initially stocked it, so you can read about why I think this is easily the BEST demos reissue if you want. Alright, I think that sums it up for this week. Thanks for reading.

Hey there Sorry Staters! Thanks for checking us out this week. We hope we find you well? It’s been another full and exciting week here at Sorry State. We continued to put more of the great records from our recent big collection purchase into your hands. Folks have been loving all these nice clean promo copies, especially all the copies still in the shrink with the hype stickers. You’d need a time machine to go back and find fresher looking copies. Still plenty more being added to the shop bins and our online stores.

This week saw the delivery of test pressings for the second Fugitive Bubble record, and we are all buzzing. It sounds great. Nice job, guys. Judging by responses from customers hearing it in the store, we think it should be a hit with a lot of you out there. Fingers crossed.

I was happy to finally get my hands on a copy of the Alvilda record, which has proved to be a hot nugget. Congratulations to the band and their label Static Shock on the hit. If you are still needing a copy for yourself, I believe we have secured more, and they should be with us soon. Keep an eye out and click on the notification update button by the record description on our webstore so you don’t miss out.

My personal listening has again been taken up with checking out more of the jazz albums we purchased in that big collection. This week I added a box of Pablo Jazz titles to our inventory, and although these 70s era jazz dates aren’t considered as desirable as some others, there is plenty of gold to be mined in these records. I am a huge Dizzy Gillespie fan and he cut some great progressive records for Pablo. He was an originator of the fusion of jazz with Afro-Cuban sounds and thirty-plus years later, he was still ahead of the curve. I have long been aware of how hip and funky Dizzy was in the 70s. His records on Perception are terrific, but for whatever reason I hadn’t heard all these later 1970s recordings. I’d highly recommend checking out one called Bahiana and another titled Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods. Both are terrific and feature wonderful playing from Dizzy and the assembled musicians. John Scott and I played one in the store that featured Dizzy alongside Lalo Schifrin, the wonderful pianist and composer from Argentina who has a resume as long as both my arms, but will be recognized as being the composer of soundtracks to films such as Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Enter The Dragon and for the original theme to TV show Starsky And Hutch. He has a ton of good records that typically incorporate Latin rhythms and styles, and he often gets funky. The one we listened to is called Free Ride and it was cut in early 1977. Worth checking out.

A lot of the best stuff we get at the store comes from the discerning taste of you, our friends, who will occasionally sell or trade with us. This week several interesting pieces came to us this way, and I thought I would stray from my jazz picks and talk about one record I had to pluck from a collection I was processing. It’s a repress of a record called Yes It Is, by Rockin’ Horse, that was originally released in the UK back in 1971 on Philips. This repress was done by a Spanish label a few years back. I can’t comment on how legit or not it may be, but they did a decent enough job, and it sounds fine. No extra bells and whistles, just a close repro of the original.

I was aware of this record from a CD reissue about twenty years ago and because by that time I was a fan of the main players and artists behind the album, namely Jimmy Campbell and Billy Kinsley. Both are from Liverpool and are rightfully considered legendary among those who dig 60s Merseybeat, Pop and Psych. Billy Kinsley is best known for being a member of the Merseybeats and then with band mate Tony Crane in The Merseys, who had a hit with the song Sorrow, later covered by David Bowie. Jimmy Campbell began with the beat group The Kirkbys, named after their locale in Merseyside. They put out a cracking song called It’s A Crime that demands top dollar on the collector’s circuit. I made do with a repro at DJ gigs in the past and always enjoyed spinning it out. Campbell later formed a psych group called The 23rd Turnoff, again a nod to their hometown. When driving up north on the M-6, Liverpool was the 23rd turnoff. Get it? Anyway, they released a nice pop-sike single called Michael Angelo that should have been a hit and a whole bunch of other songs that didn’t see the light of day until years later. There are a few different LP, CD and 7” EPs out there that gather up all these recordings. I have a CD which is cool, but it would be nice to pick up one or two of these other versions as there are improved fidelity and alternates on one or two songs.

Jimmy and Billy formed Rockin’ Horse in 1971 and put a band together to record just this one album. Label Philips also issued two singles. The group was purely a studio creation. Kinsley had been working for Apple Records, recording with Jackie Lomax and George Harrison, and was keeping busy recording cover versions of hit songs for the popular Top Of The Pops budget series of albums. The idea behind Rockin’ Horse was to say goodbye to the mop top sixties and usher in a more rocking seventies.

The album has been described as a continuation of the sound of Abbey Road and Let It Be by The Beatles and a missing link between Badfinger, The Aerovons and the power pop sounds of later 1970s groups. It certainly has that vibe, and if that’s what floats your boat you’ll find plenty to like here. I know the term power pop can turn some people off, but there is enough pedigree and good songwriting to make this an enjoyable listen. I’m obviously biased to begin with, having known and liked the artists previously, and am not afraid to say I like The Beatles and Badfinger and the like. But it really is a decent record. Naturally, it sunk without trace on release and its creators had already moved on to other ventures. Jimmy and Billy were part of the backing band for Chuck Berry’s European tour and then began working on their separate projects. Kinsley formed Liverpool Express and had success, particularly in South America.

Campbell released more solo albums. He had previously recorded an acoustic folk record at the tail end of the 60s for the Fontana label and after Rockin’ Horse had a couple of good ones on Vertigo and again Philips. I remember whilst working in the store in New York a guy selling us a box of sealed copies of Jimmy’s album Half Baked, which was cool. I like the song Green Eyed American Actress from that record, which has a bit more of a groove to it compared to the more folky and pop sounds of the rest of the album.

Whilst looking online for information about Rockin’ Horse. I discovered that an unreleased song called Lonely Norman had been issued as a reissue single recently. It’s a good tune and features Eddy Grant of The Equals on lead guitar. I shall have to find myself a copy of that at some point, I think. Meanwhile, there is plenty to enjoy for me on the album. Opener Biggest Gossip In Town is a great Beatlesque pop song. Closer Julian The Hooligan is a cool rocking one, and the love song Don’t You Think I Ever Cry is terrific also. Honestly, there isn’t a duff tune on the whole record. Jimmy Campbell writes most of the songs, with Billy Kinsley penning the remaining, making it an all-original song affair.

I’ve added a few YouTube links to some tunes for you to check them out. It doesn’t appear that the whole album is available, although I could be wrong. Regardless, these four songs should give you all you need to know and a decent taste of what to find on the rest of the album should you care.

Thanks for reading and a big thank you to Jordan who sold us his copy. I’m going to have to snag this copy, but it seems like the reissues are cheap and easy to find, although an original might set you back a little more.

Cheers - Dom

Morton Feldman: Rothko Chapel / For Frank O'Hara LP (Columbia Odyssey, 1976)

In his last few staff picks, Dominic has been telling you about the big collection we bought a few weeks ago. Last week, after we picked at it for several weeks, it was finally time to box up the less exciting stuff and move it to storage so it wouldn’t be in our way at the warehouse. As I was getting everything together and making a last sweep for good stuff for the store, I unboxed the 4 or 5 boxes of classical records that no one had really paid any attention to. While most of the collection was works by classical and early 20th century composers, I found a couple of minimalist bangers I couldn’t help bringing home. I’m always on the hunt for pleasant, relaxing music to play at home in the evening, so these records have gotten quite a lot of play.

Morton Feldman first came on my radar when I read an excellent book about John Cage a decade ago. Reading a book about John Cage is probably the best way for someone like me to appreciate him, as so many of his innovations were conceptual rather than strictly musical. Cage did for music what painters like Picasso did for visual art, questioning the medium’s fundamental assumptions in order to create something genuinely new. Cage’s contributions to music included his pieces for “prepared piano” (he would stick various items on and between the strings inside a piano to disrupt its normal ways of making sound, decades before Sonic Youth did similar things with their electric guitars) and his embrace of the idea of randomness in composition. Rather than viewing the composer’s intention as the soul of music, Cage relied on the I Ching to generate musical ideas, questioning the notion that the composer’s mind was the source of musical beauty. Morton Feldman was a frequently recurring character in the John Cage book, as the two were close friends who frequently bounced ideas off one another. I remember learning in the book that the two men initially bonded over their love for turn-of-the-20th-century French pianist and composer Erik Satie. Satie’s stark, slow-moving, and meditative compositions clearly pointed the way toward 20th-century minimalism. If you like slow, meditative music, do yourself a favor and pick up the next Satie record you see in a classical dollar bin. His “Gymnopédies” are particularly lovely.

“Rothko Chapel,” the piece that takes up the entire a-side of this LP, is a piece of music Feldman composed for the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. I’ve never been to the Rothko Chapel (though I’d very much like to), but I’ve spent a good amount of time in a similar space, the Rothko room at the Tate Modern in London. You might be familiar with Rothko’s most famous paintings, which are large canvases featuring fuzzy-edged squares of color, sometimes contrasting, sometimes closely complementary. It’s the kind of thing someone allergic to modern art would look at and say, “I could have painted these sloppy-ass squares,” but I love his work, particularly the darker, earthier pieces he did later in his life (Rothko died by suicide in 1970). When I visited the Rothko room at the Tate, the experience was powerful partially because it was so different from the usual museum experience. Usually galleries are big, open spaces with white walls and crisp lighting meant to reveal the subtleties in the works on display. This can make being in a museum an anxious experience, because it can sometimes feel like you’re on display yourself, being silently judged by the other people in the space. In contrast, the Rothko room is so dim that it allows you to disappear into anonymity, to let go of that self-consciousness and lose yourself in the painting. The paintings themselves invite that with their saturated fields of violet, crimson, and black. You can hardly see them until your eyes adjust to the light; if you want to get the full experience, you need to put in the time to let your body physically acclimate to the space. When that finally happens, you notice your heart rate is slower, the world is quieter, and your experience of the paintings is more intense. From what I understand, the Rothko Chapel in Houston cultivates a similar experience. While it’s called a chapel, the space is non-denominational and not affiliated with any religion. The Chapel is a space meant to foster empathy and understanding, and is sometimes used for conferences devoted to weighty subjects like peace, justice, and human rights that can be highly charged.

Even without the accompaniment of Rothko’s paintings, Feldman’s piece evokes that same feeling. The slow-moving piano figures recall Satie’s work, but as the piece develops, a chorus joins in. While the choral melodies are as earthy as the colors in Rothko’s paintings, the human voices singing in close harmony get me in the feels, evoking the same choked-up feeling I get from a massive church choir, but it’s not ecstatic feeling… it’s deliberate, measured, even cerebral. It makes you feel like if we can just slow down and really listen, we can make the world a better place. Like many of you, lately I’ve been beset by the feeling that the world is crumbling around me, so brief moments of hope like this are even more valuable.

Misanthropic Minds / Häpeä: Split 7” (Sewercide Records) The latest release on Canada’s Sewercide records is this international hardcore punk split EP matching one band each from the chilly northern latitudes of the North American and European continents. Misanthropic Minds is up first, and they’ve only grown more feral since 2021’s Welcome to the Homeland EP, delivering three more blasts of hardcore venom soaked in fuzz and static. The squealing guitar sound might make you think of Urban Waste (particularly on “Falling / Failing”), while the unhinged energy recalls the H100’s at their most primal. There’s literally no letup in tempo on MM’s side of this split… it’s just fast, fast, fast, with the only variation provided by the occasional rhythmic accent. This is hardcore for the hardcore, with no easy on-ramp and no concessions to the uninitiated. Oulu, Finland’s Häpeä is a perfect match for MM, with a similarly fried and aggressive sound. Thanks to the Finnish-language lyrics, occasional gang vocals, and strange intervals in the riffing, Häpeä’s sound is distinctively Finnish, with something about them that reminds me of Kaaos, but put through the ultra-hardcore meat grinder. As with Misanthropic Minds, there’s a minimalist streak in the composition (I love how the “chorus” part of the first song, “Myrkky,” doesn’t even have any lyrics) that puts the focus squarely on the wild energy of the performance. And unlike MM, Häpeä tosses a mid-paced bone to the moshers with “Kello Käy,” whose hooky riffing and gang vocals make the Kaaos comparison feel even more apt. If you like your hardcore punk wicked fast, ultra-primitive, and flying off the rails, both sides of this split are mandatory listening.

Hello and thanks for reading. Today I will write about this fairly recent TST reissue we’ve had in stock for a little bit. I feel like TST is a band that is not well known outside of Sweden, unless you are one of those Swedish punk/hardcore fanatics. They were from a relatively small town named Västerås, which this EP Vås Punx is named after. There were not a lot of bands there, but the city is only 60 miles from Stockholm. When I compare them to bands like MOB 47, TST doesn’t really come off like a råpunk band, but they quickly developed much more hardcore tendencies after their first 7”. I would say their 1983 s/t LP was probably the prime of their hardcore shit. All that material was recorded in 1982, and it is furious. There are a few different recording sessions on the LP, and you still get a serious taste of the band’s ’77 sound. TST started all the way back in 1977, while Vås Punx didn’t come out until 1981. They recorded a demo and broke up for a while before releasing that 7”. I read that they used two songs from the demo, but I am not sure if it was literally the same tracks or just the same songs re-recorded. They only pressed 300 copies of this 7”, and oh baby, it’ll cost you a paycheck for an original!!

If you aren’t familiar with all this stuff, I’ll say my favorite TST material is easily No Teenage Future. This record was recorded in 1981 and released on a 12” between the 7” and the s/t LP. I wish I could find a full rip on YouTube cos it RULES. It’s the perfect blend of punk and hardcore with those anthemic choruses that get your blood boiling. Ah, here we go, I found something. If I pasted this right—it’s a playlist. The kinda silly video with the cool pics that starts the playlist was done by this Swedish label Birdnest Records, who released a TST compilation some years ago. That double disc reissue would be a discography, but it’s missing Sweden, a 12” they released in 1984. I haven’t listened to it in a long time, but I don’t remember liking it very much. Oh shit, they have a 1988 LP too, haha, I never knew that. Anyway, since I have that comp on Birdsnest, I was on the fence about scooping up this Vås Punx reissue. The comp has great sound, but man, nothing beats a repro-reissue. I’m a sucker, but I have other reasoning as well, haha. The comp does sandwich these tracks between others, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Besides that, this 7” reissue added some cool photos of the band I have never seen before. I wish either reissue added a bit of a band biography or interview or something, cos it would be super cool to read some more about them. The Vås Punx reissue has some brief liner notes, though. Ah yes, if you aren’t familiar with this EP you can jam it here. Alright, that’s all for this week. Cheers and thanks for reading everyone.

Greetings all in Sorry State Newsletter land. It’s Super Bowl Sunday as I write, not that I have much interest in that, other than perhaps the halftime show. Earlier today I was left feeling flat as the Reds got knocked out of the F.A. Cup by Plymouth Argyle. Good on them for having their day. The prospect of giant-killing has always made the F.A. Cup a compelling competition. There’s not much like it. So, for Liverpool another chance at the quadruple has ended for this season. LoL. Still three more trophies to play for, and even if you don’t win anything, surely it’s better to be in with a chance than none. Unless you revel in misery, of course, which some do, but most of us who support a team want them to win.

Anyway, back to the Superbowl halftime show, which will have featured Kendrick Lamar performing. We sold a few copies of his new one over the weekend and I took a listen. I like the Spanish/Latin influences on it. I had a chuckle with some customers in the store, talking about how this will hopefully drive the Maga crowd mad as now that they are fully out as racists and hate Spanish-speaking people, they won’t be able to like any of it. Hell, they can’t like anything now. No Taco Tuesday for Maga now. No anything that can’t be claimed to be completely “white.” That doesn’t leave an awful lot left, does it? Certainly, music wise, the Maga record shelves will have to be very bare going forward as 99.99% of all music we enjoy has roots or influences or is played on instruments that came from people of color. Enjoy your a cappella barber shop quartet music you fuckers, because there’s not much else left for you.

For the rest of us who aren’t asshats and can appreciate people of all colors, creeds, religions and nationalities and who find that diversity enriches rather than dilutes, let’s continue and talk about some music. I spent another week adding more records to our system that we scored from the collection I mentioned last week. There is still much more great stuff to add, but so far, we have been delighting our local shoppers with the quality and the array of titles hitting the bins. This past weekend, Jeff put together some of the Rock and Metal highlights and backed them up with tons of solid copies of so many classics. It was like a field day for our shoppers, and I was psyched to see people so excited about their pick-ups. Look out for more next Friday. I expect a lot of the Jazz, Blues, Reggae and Soundtracks will feature.

I’ve been enjoying checking out so many records from this collection that I was unfamiliar with and refreshing my memory on those I was aware of. For my pick this week, it’s a combination of the two: an artist that I have loved for many years and a couple of records by him I didn’t have. I’m referring to the jazz legend Cal Tjader. Master of the vibraphone and a decent drummer also, he is best known as being the most famous non-Latino Latin musician. Born to Swedish parents in St. Louis and raised in the Bay Area of California, he spent thirty-odd years as a successful musician before passing away suddenly in 1982 from a heart attack whilst touring the Philippines. He was only 56.

His resume is long and includes his beginnings with Dave Brubeck, being a part of George Shearing’s band and embracing the Latin Jazz sound that was exploding in the early 1950s. During his time in New York, he met up with the likes of Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo and soon after formed his own group, The Cal Tjader Modern Mambo Quintet and began a long run of releasing quality albums on the Fantasy label. These records all feature top notch Afro-Cuban musician talent and really cook in places. The 1960s saw Cal switch to Verve Records, where he enjoyed his most successful period. The album Soul Source from 1964 was huge and was probably my first exposure to his music years later. The title track was a cover of a Dizzy Gillespie tune and where the term “Salsa” was coined to describe the new Latin sound.

I can’t rave about how good Cal Tjader is enough and always pick up any record that has his name on it. For a while, you could pick these up cheaply and easily, but that’s getting a little tougher now for certain titles. These records are known for being cheap heat. Records that punch way above their weight. I would add the likes of Herbie Mann and Ramsey Lewis into this camp, too. Artists that were popular and sold loads of records, but always kept the quality high, especially when it came to picking the musicians who played on their albums.

After all the success of the Fantasy Records period, a time that also saw Cal help save the Monterey Music Festival, which obviously a few years later hosted Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Otis Redding and Janis Joplin for those famous shows, and then the Verve Records era where he really took off, Tjader joined fellow musicians Gary McFarland and Gabor Szabo to found Skye Records. That label only lasted a few years, but put out great records by all three of them and others, particularly the awesome soft-psych gem by Wendy & Bonnie. Come the mid-1970s and Tjader found himself back on Fantasy and there released some tasty Jazz-Funk albums. The two I picked were from that time. One called Amazonas from 1976 and the other titled At Grace Cathedral released the following year in 1977.

Amazonas features terrific playing from the Brazilian group assembled for the session by producer Airto Moreira and of course great work from Cal himself on vibes and marimba. George Duke is also on hand to help with arrangements and song writing duties. So, there is pedigree a plenty. The album was recorded in L.A., but has a strong Latin and South American feel, is funky in places and sounds great. I’m digging the cut Mindoro the most.

At Grace Cathedral is a live album recorded at the San Francisco church in May 1976 and was a benefit for the hungry. Cal was a replacement for the intended Vince Guaraldi who, like Tjader would later, had just recently passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack. Vince and Cal were close friends, and the recording is dedicated to Guaraldi, who played there himself years earlier. The album is a good one and starts strongly with I Showed Them, followed by a Milt Jackson tune called Bluesology and then on side two opens with a nice medley from Black Orpheus, a nod to Vince Guaraldi, who released Jazz Impressions Of Black Orpheus back in 1962, also on Fantasy Records. As with Amazonas, the musicians playing on this date are all outstanding. Long time Tjader associate Pancho Sanchez excels on the congas and Lonnie Hewitt adds some nice electric keyboards. Rob Fisher plays bass and Pete Riso is on drums.

Are either of these albums the essential Cal Tjader? Perhaps not. Those ones from the 1950s and 1960s are probably the place to start, but for lovers of good Latin inspired 70s fusion, these are highly enjoyable records to check out. Give ‘em a listen if that is your bag.

Okay, deadline approaching… I need to cut things off here. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you around these parts next time or even better in the store itself.

Cheers - Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

I’m feeling a little fried at the moment. Why? Shit, definitely has nothing to do with the Super Bowl. I honestly forgot that was even happening while I was at work on Sunday. I couldn’t even tell you which teams were playing. Seriously. Maybe I’m worn out because I overdid it on the beer and vegan cheese dip while at my friend’s birthday party the other night while homies were doing karaoke renditions of “Freak on a Leash” by Korn? Yeah, that’s gotta be it. I’ve also been working on getting details together for Public Acid’s European tour later this year. More to announce on that front in the weeks to come.

Also, attention NC locals reading this: There are a couple of cool punk gigs coming up in Raleigh, so mark your calendars! I’ll announce the full lineups and get Daniel to include the flyers for these in the next week or two. Here’s what I’ve got cookin’:

-April 2nd- PAPRIKA (NOLA) @ The Pour House
-April 24th- JAIL (DETROIT) @ Neptunes

My staff pick this week is kind of a funny one that caught me by surprise. This past weekend, I happened to quickly pop into a local shop just down the street from where I live called Nice Price Books. Nice Price is a long running store here in Raleigh that sells used books, records, VHS, and other knick knacks. Every now and then, I’ll wander in there and find some cool punk records. I always think to myself, “Huh, I wonder who sold these?” Because I imagine judging by the records, it must be someone I know personally unloading stuff from their personal collection. Who knows?

Anyway, I was lucky enough to grab the Official Bootleg double 7” by Poison Idea. You’re probably thinking, “Geez, Jeff talking about Poison Idea once again! Who woulda thought?” I know, I know. While I do have a sizable chunk of the Poison Idea discography crossed off already in my personal collection, I’ve never stumbled across this double single—or just never bothered to order a copy off of the internet. I always thought the packaging looked cool with what I always refer to as the “Kings of Punk skull” repurposed on a red background. The records also come housed in a cool gatefold 7” sleeve. This super nice copy was mad cheap at Nice Price, so I was stoked to find it. For those unfamiliar, this release came out in 1991 around the Feel The Darkness era. It’s a funny collection, with PI’s take on cover tunes like “We Got The Beat” by The Go-Go’s and “Harder They Come” by Jimmy Cliff. Now, how often will I revisit the saloon blues rendition of “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” on a regular basis? Shit, I dunno, probably never! Kinda funny, but at least these cover tunes are an entertaining listen, if nothing else.

“Plastic Bomb” is also on one of the 4 sides, the only original tune by Poison Idea. To which I was like, yeah cool whatever, I’ve heard this song a million times. I threw the 7” on the turntable, and that all-too familiar piano intro kicks in—but within a few moments, I was like wait a minute… this is different. In all my years loving Poison Idea, I had no idea that this version of “Plastic Bomb” is basically like an alternate mix version. In the intro, the guitar is way more up front and playing a different melody. Even in between the verses, the little lead sections are totally different. Most importantly, the melodic solo that happens after the 2nd “whoa-oh” chorus has this guitar harmony that I’ve NEVER heard before. My mind was blown. I posted a clip of this on my Instagram story, and one of my buddies was like, “Yeah dude, you’ve ain’t never heard Poison Lizzy before?” Haha. Then on the other hand, I had several other people that reacted just like me, like “Wow, I gotta go back and check this out!” It’s funny when you’re so familiar with how a song sounds on a particular recording that when any type of alteration from your expectations makes you do a neck-breaking double take. Now hearing this badass Iron Maiden-esque guitar shred version of “Plastic Bomb”… dare I say, better than the album version?

If you’re interested, I imagine this version of “Plastic Bomb” is available to listen to on the internet. Or perhaps it’s also been included as a bonus track on one of the many Feel The Darkness reissues in recent years? I definitely recommend experiencing this version of the song, especially if you’ve become all too comfortable with the proper album version over the last 30+ years. Anyway, that’s all I have to discuss this week. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Clinton Heylin: Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry (1996, St. Martin's Griffin)

It’s been a while since I’ve updated you on what I’ve been reading, but the winter lull in punk gigs has me tearing through books. Right now I’m reading one about John Peel that has me listening to recordings of his old radio programs (this book also introduced me to the John Peel wiki, an amazing resource), and perhaps I’ll have more to say about that in a future installment. For now, though, I wanted to share some thoughts on this book about the bootleg record industry I read a few weeks ago.

As someone who was a teenage music fanatic when Napster et al. completely upended the record industry in the late 90s, I’ve long been interested in intellectual property and copyright. I learned more about the topic during my years in academia, where I studied the 18th century Anglophone world. The rapid expansion of printing technology during this period prompted some of the first attempts to articulate and codify intellectual property law. Also, part of my duties as a first-year English teacher included giving students lessons on the basic principles of copyright. Of course, running Sorry State I also bump against this topic with some frequency, and it continues to interest me. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I dove in with some eagerness.

Right off the bat, Heylin’s book brought several aspects of the bootleg world into clearer focus for me. He distinguishes between three different manifestations of the bootleg trade: counterfeit releases (unauthorized reproductions meant to pass for, or at least closely mimic, the original item), proper bootlegs (collections of live material and/or unreleased studio sessions, compiled and sold by independent manufacturers), and “protection gap” releases (which I’ll get into below). Heylin spends relatively little time on the counterfeit release trade, for a couple of reasons. First, he’s very interested in the quasi-artistic choices bootleggers make as part of their process (sourcing and compiling material, creating artwork and packaging, etc.), while counterfeiters merely seek to mirror another release as closely as possible. Second, from what Heylin says, the counterfeit record industry in the United States was (is?) controlled almost entirely by the mafia, which limits his access to the key players. Certainly no mobster worth their salt is going to squeal to some nobody music writer.

Heylin does, however, gain access to many of the 70s’ and 80s’ most prolific and notorious bootlegers, most of whom agree to go on the record (albeit under pseudonyms). As one might expect, many folks involved in this illicit trade are real characters, and their shenanigans make for great stories. There are plenty of entertaining anecdotes about sourcing studio outtakes from on-the-take record company and recording studio execs, getting corrupt sound guys to wire recording devices straight into the soundboard, and how the bootleggers got their wares manufactured without ringing any alarm bells. Speaking of the latter, there’s a great story about one enterprising bootlegger who, during a crackdown at the LA pressing plants, repurposed a bunch of old farm equipment into a DIY record pressing machine. The jockeying for position among the bootleggers is an interesting tale, mostly because it was a free-for-all with no rules. If someone came out with a successful title, others would rip it off within a matter of weeks, if not days. Often they’d mix and match previously released material from older bootlegs with things they’d source themselves, creating a dense knot of provenance that no fan hoping to find the best version of their favorite artist’s studio outtakes or live set could hope to unwind. When one bootlegger came up with an interesting marketing idea like distinctive artwork or a label name and logo, their competition made sure it didn’t remain an advantage for long. One of the most visible and notorious bootleg labels was called “Trade Mark of Quality,” but so many people used the name and logo that it was anything but.

One thing that surprised me about Heylin’s book is that most of the bootleggers insist what they were doing was perfectly legal. Certainly there’s an element of feigned innocence here, but on many occasions these issues were litigated in the courts, and sometimes the bootleggers came out on top. Part of this is because of the intricacies of copyright law. Even in the United States, which has the most stringent intellectual property laws in the world, the ability to copyright an audio recording was not definitively established until very late in the 1970s. Before that, U.S. copyright law recognized the copyright on a musical composition (lyrics and music / melody), but not an individual recording of that music. (A couple of months ago I was reading Joey Ramone’s brother Mickey Leigh’s book, and there’s a story about the band hiring him to transcribe the music on the first Ramones album for the copyright office… of course none of the actual Ramones could read and write music.) I found the US’s late adoption of recording copyrights shocking, but other countries lagged much further behind, making way for the protection gap releases I referred to above.

Before a few different international conventions solidified international copyright law in the 60s and 70s, each country had its own unique approach to copyright law. Even when countries signed on to these international copyright treaties (which most European nations did), works that predated the treaty weren’t automatically grandfathered in, meaning they were still subjected to the older laws. For instance, in Germany a recording was only eligible for copyright protection if the performer was German or the performance took place in Germany, so a recording of a Pink Floyd show in the US or the UK fair game for German bootleggers. Each country implemented their laws in different ways, so you had a situation where it might be perfectly legal to commercially release a live concert recording in one country, but not in another. Bootleggers were quick to exploit this loophole (the “protection gap”), manufacturing their releases in countries like Germany and Italy that had looser copyright restrictions and (legally) importing the finished product to markets like the UK and the US. Of course, the recording industry worked tirelessly to close these loopholes, but as the iron curtain became more permeable through the 80s, plants in countries like Yugoslavia and Hungary operated completely outside the umbrella of western copyright law. When that line dried up, the bootleggers found manufacturers in Asia. It’s been a decades-long game of cat and mouse.

Heylin, like the bootleggers themselves, is skeptical the law affords record companies the level of control they seek over products relating to their artists, and reading this book made me realize that many of what I took as basic assumptions of music copyright are not as intuitive as I thought. Why should a record company own the copyright on a live concert recording that I made using my equipment at an event that I paid to attend? As Heylin explains, the record companies would have us believe they own that recording and the rights to reproduce it, but the legal reasoning they rely on is shaky, and there are many examples of it not holding up in court.

By the way, I should note this book came out in 1996, so it’s quite out of date in some respects. Heylin does a lot of hand-wringing about how the CD changed the bootleg industry, but the file-sharing revolution that happened just a year or two later totally changed the terms of that debate. Still, Heylin’s examination of the history of copyright law and the bootleg trade is well-researched and authoritative.

If you’re interested in bootlegs and/or copyright, this is a great read. Heylin’s book is dense but lively, and I’ve hardly scratched the surface of all it offers here. It also got me spinning punk’s most infamous and notorious bootleg, the Sex Pistols’ Spunk. Sadly, I don’t have Spunk on vinyl (shame!), but you shouldn’t be surprised to see me do a thorough analysis of it in a future installment.

Cicada: Wicked Dream 7” (Unlawful Assembly Records) Jeff Young has already proclaimed Cicada the best hardcore band in America, and who am I to argue? For me, Cicada stands head and shoulders above so many contemporary bands because they’re so in tune with the ugliest, weirdest, most underground aspects of classic hardcore punk while still determinedly progressive, dead-set on pushing the limits of their own sound and the genre as a whole. Wicked Dream is crammed with ideas, and while five of its nine songs don’t even reach the one-minute mark, each one feels like it contains a symphony worth of music. Cicada doesn’t give ideas room to breathe and they don’t milk riffs; they get in, make their point (or ten of their points) and get the fuck out, usually within the space of seconds rather than minutes. While you hear nods to the pillars of outsider hardcore—G.I.S.M., Die Kreuzen, Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers—Cicada is on their own trip. The main riff in the first track, “Epiphany,” strikes an uncanny balance between the tightest, most agile hardcore and woozy psychedelia, while the 51-second “Suicide Fuel” launches from another dense, agitated riff, hurling itself through some insanely brief metallic lead guitar runs and into a thrilling bass-and-drums break. The musique concrete / noise piece at the end of side A and the more metal-influenced “Much Worse” might remind you of their fellow Richmonders Public Acid for brief a moment, but it’s quickly followed up by the title track, whose ethereal lead guitar and quirky but mosh-able mid-paced riff make it one of Wicked Dream’s most memorable tracks. And there’s plenty more excitement before the free jazz pig-pile at the end of the ninth track, “Desperation Ceremony.” Despite Wicked Dream’s density, it doesn’t feel like some kind of academic math-core exercise. I love following all these little threads in their music, but Cicada weaves them into a cohesive tapestry that’s just as enthralling from a wider perspective. You can disengage with this record on a micro-level, just letting the vibes wash over you, and you’ll enjoy it just as much. Wicked Dream is just a phenomenal record, and if you want your hardcore punk to deliver all the genre’s trademark speed and intensity while still serving up something new, you’ll agree this is the cream of contemporary hardcore’s crop.