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Hi Sorry State readers! Hope everyone is having a good week! In Sorry State land we’ve just been busy prepping for our Scarecrow comrades (i.e. half of Sorry State!) to go on their European tour very soon. How cool is that?
Anyway, my pick this week is the newly released No Knuckle S/T. The album was actually made last spring and is finally seeing the light of day. The band recorded these songs on 1/2 inch tape on an 8 track-tape machine, mixed down to 1/4 inch tape on a two channel reel-to-reel deck. The result of that laborious effort is something really fucking cool and different.
Where to begin? This album is a conundrum of garage rock, punk rock, noise rock, rock-rock, all the rocks. I guess you could just say post-punk, but with elements of everything but the kitchen sink. There’s a lot going on here, and that’s what I grew to love about the record. The opening track, The Ladder, is pretty standard late 70s post-punk but with some unexpected elements of late 60s/70s style rock. I wasn’t sold on this track at first, to be honest. Call me crazy, but there were moments when I felt like I was about to board The Crystal Ship, and that’s just not my journey. But then a standout melodic punk style bass line comes out of nowhere and reignites my curiosity. It feels like you’re being pulled in at least two to three different musical directions, and that’s just during the first song.
The second track, Advertisement, is what made me stick around. Easily my favorite track on the album. It’s fast and urgent, it’s tightly wound, and the vocals become more unhinged. Not to mention that I love a song that doesn’t just crap out at the end or fade into nothingness, and this song doesn’t do that. So don’t sleep on the last 15 seconds of Advertisement. It follows all the way through and it’s a good primer for the next track. No Knuckle keeps up that same energy on Sanitation. Fast and tight drum beats, razor sharp guitar, and melodic bass all serve as the perfect backdrop for the vocalist to continue to go off the rails.
Halo is a really interesting track worth mentioning because I didn’t like it much at first, and now it’s my second favorite of the bunch. Things start off a little strange with some Jim Morrison-esque vocals. I still had no interest in taking a ride on The Crystal Ship or lighting anyone’s fire. But, when the vocals shift back to the more erratic punk style, I decided that the vocal changes were actually pretty great and only added more depth and intrigue to the song. And that diverse vocal style is always perfectly paced with whatever’s going on around him.
The second side is a bit more streamlined and the contrasts between sub-genres of rock aren’t as sharp. Taken together, the whole album is a rollercoaster ride that doesn’t give you time to catch your breath. Non-stop, unyielding energy and guts. It actually gave me a little bit of anxiety! Nevertheless, It’s obvious that No Knuckle gave everything they had on this record, and their technical skill does not go unnoticed. A really ambitious effort that paid off, in my opinion.
Stand out tracks for me are Advertisement, Halo, and Sanitation. Take a listen below.
See ya next time!
Angela