Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State newsletter! When I walked into the office today, the first thing Usman said to me was “you look really tired.” You may have seen this on our social media, but Sunday morning I flew out to Denver to buy a record collection and immediately drove it all the way back to Raleigh by myself. It was nice to spend a good chunk of solitary time like that, but I am pretty tired! Despite all my waking hours being devoted to driving, I still got together a newsletter for all you freaks. And if anyone reading this is sitting on records they want to sell us, get in touch! Denver is my current record for longest distance traveled for a collection, but I’m happy to beat it or just log more miles here in the eastern half of the US.

Barren Soil: self-titled cassette (self-released) Barren Soil is from Vancouver, but those of you with an eye for graphic design will notice the Celtic knots and other medieval imagery and realize that Barren Soil draws musical inspiration from the 80s UK crust and stenchcore scenes. Crust and stench are two styles I didn’t have a taste for in my younger days, but I’ve come to love them in recent years, and Barren Soil carves out an interesting niche within that universe. They bring together elements of faster crust a la Doom or Extreme Noise Terror with heavy, mid-paced parts in the vein of Amebix or Axegrinder, sometimes alternating between those styles and tempos within the same song. The production is heavy and huge-sounding, with guttural vocals that are on the nose for the style yet highly effective. While tracks like “Illusions of Progress” flirt with a straightforward crust sound, others like “Throne and Altar” lean more toward thrash metal with complex riffing and more interesting rhythmic dynamics. There’s even an ultra-short Heresy-style thrasher, “Earn the Dirt.” And then there are the crushing, mid-paced stench parts, which are peppered throughout the tape but come to a head with the epic closing track, “Commodified Neurons.” With powerful production, great songwriting, and a fresh-sounding style, Barren Soil captures something special on this tape.

Zorn’s Southern / Midwestern tour starts TOMORROW, Friday, Feb 25, 2022 in Richmond Virginia! They’re making a big loop through the South and Midwest, so if you’re in those parts of the country, check the flyer for dates! If you need info about a particular show, consult your local punk oracle or maybe hit up the band’s Instagram (@zorn_philly) if that doesn’t work.

I’m jealous of anyone who was at Zorn’s gig in New York last week… judging by the short videos I saw on Instagram, it seems like it was a wild night. No doubt there are more of them in store for this tour, and I’m particularly looking forward to Saturday’s North Carolina gig.

Zorn fans may also want to know that the band has completed their debut LP for Sorry State! We’re going to do our best to get it into your hands and ears as soon as possible.

This week Social Napalm Records revealed the artwork for Savageheads’ debut LP, Service to Your Country, which Sorry State will exclusively distribute! The vinyl is in stock now and the jackets are at the printer, so hopefully we’ll have this available for you soon! Sorry State will be the spot to grab Service to Your Country (that goes for wholesale copies too if you do a shop or distro), and in Social Napalm’s words:

No pre-orders.

No limited versions.

1100 black vinyl only.

More news on this soon!

You may remember me being super into the debut single from Australia’s Romero back in 2020. It was one of my favorite records of that year, two perfect sides of power pop. Now Romero is back with their debut album, and our buddies at Feel It Records are putting it out here in the states! Better yet, they’ve allotted us a chunk of the limited cream-colored vinyl, and it’s up on Sorry State’s site for preorder now. The street date on the album is April 8, but Feel It is hopeful the vinyl will be in at least a little before that. Sam at Feel It was kind enough to hook me up with an advance test pressing of the record, and I can confirm it lives up to expectations!

If you’d like a taste, check out the band’s video for the title track, “Turn It On!”

If you preordered the indie exclusive variant of the new Superchunk album with the Ron Liberti art print, we just received our stock from Merge today (thanks Dave!) and we’re shipping them out right away. It looks like we might get them all shipped out this evening, but there might be a few stragglers that don’t go out until Friday. Regardless, we’re on it!

This week’s edition of Hardcore Knockouts pairs up two Japanese heavy hitters. Like most of you, I voted for Gauze, but as usual I’m happy to live in a world where I don’t have to choose.

Cast your vote in the next edition of Hardcore Knockouts on our Instagram stories next Tuesday!

My pick from Sorry State’s Discogs listings this week is by krautrock group GAM. GAM was helmed by Günter Schickert, and this LP features a “live studio rehearsal jam session” recorded in Günter’s studio in 1976. I’m a big fan of Schickert’s work… it’s zoned-out yet texturally rich in all the right ways. This GAM LP is solid and I own a copy, but my favorite Schickert LP is his debut, 1976’s Samtvogel. Check that one out if you’re a fan of the spacey end of krautrock.

Remember, you can always combine your order from Sorry State’s Discogs site with your order from our webstore and save on shipping!

1. Rudimentary Peni: Death Church 12” (Sealed Records)
2. Axe Rash: Contemporary Ass 7” (Not for the Weak Records)
3. Golpe: La Colpe É Solo Tua 12” (Sorry State Records)
4. Insect Warfare: World Extermination 12” (Iron Lung Records)
5. Necro Heads: Mindless (Kill Enemy Records)
6. Torso: Sono Pronto A Morire 12” (Sorry State Records)
7. Alienator: demo cassette (self-released)
8. Thatcher’s Snatch: S/T 7” (Hardcore Victim Records)
9. Chain Whip: Two Step to Hell 12” (Neon Taste Records)
10. Personal Damage: Ambush EP cassette (1753 Recordings)

Here’s your weekly roundup of the best sellers at Sorry State for the past 30 days! Rudimentary Peni’s reign continues, with the rest of the charts populated by a good cross-section of the stuff we’ve been hyping.

We just got in copies of the new SSRI 7” on Repressed Records. The label describes their sound eloquently: “SSRI are/were a relatively short lived Sydney Hardcore Punk band that blur the imaginary line between “straight ahead” and “outsider” HC. Or to put it another way, you can imagine they have an appreciation for both Negative Approach and No Trend.” Note also that this release is extremely limited, so don’t sleep!

We also just got in the Demo 7” from Germany’s Suspect, who plays the early 80s-style USHC we all love here at SSR.

BDR just reissued recordings by long lost St Louis proto-punk band the Welders, and we have copies in stock now.

We stocked Supreme Echo’s reissue of 80s Canadian band Kradle a couple of months ago and it flew out the door. Thankfully, we could get a restock and they’re in now.

Speaking of restocks, we also restocked the reissue of the first Cock Sparrer 12” that y’all keep snapping up and the Suicidal Tendencies demo collection among a heap of other recent reissues.