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Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State newsletter! Things are bumping along here, with a steady stream of new releases coming in to keep us occupied. That Personal Damage tape has been dominating my playlist for the past several weeks, and I’m stoked to turn a few people onto it hopefully. We also have the usual slate of staff picks, descriptions, and other new release updates, so let’s get to it.
January 27 2022
Personal Damage: Ambush cassette (1753 Recordings) This new LA-area band is back with their second tape, the first of which was turned into a flexi last year. Personal Damage knocked me out the first time I heard them, and I think this new tape might be even better than the first one. Personal Damage’s style is in that “snotty punk at hardcore speeds” mode I associate with current bands like Chain Whip and White Stains, but a bit less hardcore and more punk rock than those bands. The band that always comes to mind when I listen to Personal Damage is the Circle Jerks. Like the Jerks, Personal Damage’s songs are compact (ranging from thirty seconds to about a minute and a half), but pack that small space with a lot of melody and tight arrangements that make the songs sound explosive. Again, like the Jerks, Personal Damage isn’t afraid to get a little poppy when the moment requires, as they do on the (very unexpected) cover of Peter Tosh’s “Stepping Razor” that closes out Ambush. If you like it short, fast, and catchier than omicron—Angry Samoans and early Gang Green are two more solid reference points—get on this train quick.
Coming Soon
We have a few things that are on the horizon for the Sorry State label, but not quite ready for a full-on announcement, so here’s a quick tease. We have about half of a fresh pressing of Golpe’s album in-house now, but we’re waiting for more poster inserts to be printed before we can put them up for sale. There are two versions, both on color vinyl and one limited to 100 copies, so watch for that to go on sale soon. We also have test pressings for a couple of upcoming releases for Invalid and Hüstler. Hopefully we can get those approved for a late winter / early spring release. And besides that we have a few tape releases that are at the duplicator or just ready to be sent off. It’s looking like 2022 will be Sorry State’s busiest year yet as a label, so I hope all of you are down to come along on the journey.
Usman is back to Italy again with this week’s edition of Hardcore Knockouts. I must admit that this pairing stymied me… I just couldn’t choose and didn’t even cast a vote. Sorry, Usman.
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 the What Glory 7” by Thisclose. Thisclose is one of those bands that sounds ridiculous when you first hear them, but at some point it clicks and you realize the songs are good, the riffs are cool, and that they’re better off for finding their own take on the classic d-beat formula. I’ve never liked Grave New World—I just find the songs repetitive and annoying—but I dig Thisclose.
Remember, you can always combine your order from Sorry State’s Discogs site with your order from our webstore and save on shipping!
- Torso: Sono Pronto A Morire 12” (Sorry State)
- Reckoning Force: Broken State 12” (Not for the Weak)
- Tempter: S/T 12” (Quality Control HQ)
- Game: Legerdemain 12” (Quality Control HQ)
- Karma Sutra: Be Cruel with Your Past... 12” (Sealed Records)
- Home Front: Think of the Lie 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
- Dissekerad: Inre Strid 12” (Desolate Records)
- Guerra Final: S/T 7” (Desolate Records)
- Asylum: Is This the Price? 7” (Sealed Records)
- Fragment: Mind Convulsion 7” (Desolate Records)
Here is our list of top sellers at Sorry State for the past 30 days. It’s crazy that Torso keeps selling years after it came out. Aside from that, the charts represent a pretty good cross-section of what we’re carrying at the moment. As always, congrats on your good taste, everyone!
Not for the Weak Records just dropped off their new release at Sorry State HQ this morning: a new 7” from Swedish punks Axe Rash. This is a co-release with Denmark’s Adult Crash Records, so you know it’s good. More on this one later, for sure.
Iron Lung dropped FOUR new releases on us today as well. My pick from the litter is this killer hardcore punk 12” from New York’s La Milagrosa, but the others are no slouch either: a tape from Italy’s Comunione, a 12” from Iceland’s Born, and a new cassette album from Grand Invincible. We also restocked a few older Iron Lung titles, including Insect Warfare’s World Extermination.
Scat Records continues its Spike in Vain reissue campaign with a reissue of the band’s obscure debut cassette, Jesus Was Born in a Mobile Home. We also restocked Spike in Vain’s classic album Disease Is Relative. Get that if you haven’t already, but if you’ve already worn out that weird hardcore classic, grab the cassette to hear more from this brilliant group.
Denver’s Convulse Records has a couple of new titles for us: a 7” from Texas’s Discreet and a cassette from Oakland’s Ultras.
Symphony of Destruction Records from France has three new titles for us. Prospexx and Kold Front bring us some excellent cold wave (remember, Symphony of Destruction is the label that introduced us to Riki!) as well as the new album from long-running LA melodic punk band Generacion Suicida.
Speaking of LA, new label No Norms Records brings us the debut cassette from LA metal punks S.O.H. I love that cover art, and the music ain’t too shabby either.
Check the Featured Releases section below for the full description, but the excellent Raleigh zine What Goes On has a new issue out now!
And finally, Dirt Cult Records has a new release, an album of cool hybrid oi! / post-punk from Schedule 1.