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What’s up Sorry Staters?
How long has it even been since I’ve written one of these? It feels like the crew over here at Sorry State got back into the swing of things with writing for the newsletter for a minute. But looking back now, I guess the last time was already back in July. Scarecrow went on tour and that certainly slowed us down again. Whoops! So it’s almost a month later… But hey, we’re back baby! Speaking of which, I can’t express enough how amazing it was touring with Vidro. I felt spoiled getting to see them absolutely RIP every night. Also though, it really felt like Scarecrow and Vidro made strong friendships in the 9 or so days we spent in a boiling hot van with no A/C together haha. All the gigs in the different cities we visited were great, and everyone who booked the shows and put us up took such good care of us. So rad getting to reconnect with outta-town friends in all the cities we went to.
Some other stuff that’s happened: The day after we said goodbye to Vidro, the Scarecrow crew rolled down to Richmond, and Public Acid played a gig with Appendix. Appendix totally ripped, NY tourist t-shirts and all haha. We came back home for not even a week, and then Scarecrow drove out to Charlotte to play a Thrasher event. We missed the skate event, which I was super bummed about. Someone told us later that at the Mooresville skate park, Andrew Reynolds busted out a huge backside flip while Poison Idea was playing. I could cry. But it’s all good. We got to hang out with the fuckin’ homies in Tozcos! It was officially my birthday when the clock struck midnight on Sunday, and we all went and drank cerveza in a cemetery. True 45 Grave hours. It was indeed “party time.”
Things are gonna be kinda quiet and back to regular routine for a couple weeks. In late September, Meat House will head out to Milwaukee for Unlawful Assembly fest. Woohoo, busy busy busy!
Anyway, enough about my bullshit. Y’all paid any attention to this Мир reissue that just came out on Beach Impediment? Don’t let the name fool you. Even with that Russian character in the name, this band was actually based out of Roanoke, VA. I’d honestly never heard anything about this band before. Apparently, with that spelling, Мир is actually pronounced sorta like “mere”. From what I understand, the band was active in the early-to-mid 80s. The recording contained on this LP was recorded in 1984, and has been remastered from the original reels. I think the band was fairly short-lived, breaking up as early as 1985. It’s cool to discover this recording because it’s another missing piece of the 80s southern hardcore story.
As expected from the mighty Beach Impediment, the packaging looks excellent. The insert is designed with a collage of flyers from shows that Мир played in the 80s. It seems like they were on the bill for some killer shows, having played with big names like Battalion of Saints and Scream. To my surprise, there’s actually several flyers of gigs Мир played with COC, which is super cool! There’s even a flyer from when Мир played The Brewery here in Raleigh. And funny enough, when I listen to this recording, there’s many sonic and stylistic elements of Мир’s sound that remind me of early COC and other NC hardcore bands. The drummer even kinda looks like Reed Mullin! Weirdly, even as soon as the first song kicks in, the raspy, youthful vocals along with the jangly, loose riffing kinda reminds me of Subculture.
While they are clearly a hardcore punk band, there’s some disparate influences going on with Мир’s music. It’s not straight ahead fast hardcore punk the whole time. There’s some slower numbers with super active, spider-walking bass lines. When I was listening to it in the store with Dom, he commented that he heard some definite 60s influences. Which I wouldn’t have necessarily noticed, but I think he’s onto something. On the back cover photo, the singer is wearing a frilly white shirt with what I imagine is a brown suede vest on top, along with a quaffed, shaggy haircut. All this to say that his style appears like he’d fit right in with a photo of a band featured on a Pebbles or Nuggets comp. The guitar also is heavily effected; there’s moments where the reverb almost sounds like he was trying to infuse some surf rock tone into the mix. There’s this one kinda schizophrenic song, where the band alternates between this stripped-down melodic section, but then launches into ripping fast hardcore. That track almost reminds me of that one self-referential song on the Neon Christ 7”. Super cool.
If you’re like me, you’ve had a hankering for plunging even deeper into the undiscovered, obscure gems of 80s USHC. This LP will scratch that itch. This Мир recording definitely deserved to be heard by all the HCPMF’s out there. Do yourself a favor and check this bad boi out. I promise it’s worth your time! Or at least I hope you dig it as much as I do.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got this week. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week, or at least I assume,
-Jeff