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Hey there everyone and thanks for clicking on us this week. How was your week? Good, I hope.
The world keeps turning and the wheels are spinning fast here at Sorry State Industries. You will have read about some of the exciting new releases that are either here or on their way elsewhere in the Newsletter and certainly make sure you subscribe to get these regular updates. There is always something cool to check out.
For me personally, this week has been a pretty good one. Compared to others more recently. I’m sure I’ll return to my more typical not good weeks, but for now things are okay. A big moment this week was discovering that the mixer my DJ partner and I use for our show has a built-in function called a “Mic Gate” which is supposed to help filter out unwanted sounds being picked up by the microphone. What it did for us was clip our speech and cause dropouts. Not what you want when trying to talk on air. It’s been very frustrating for us and has been messing with my head these past months as I thought it was me who just couldn’t enunciate or talk properly. Discovering that was huge and now hopefully we just need to get our levels right and we’ll be able to present a much better sounding show. Fingers crossed. Progress, at least.
My record listening this week has been all over the map as usual, but there were a couple of things that I have been jamming more than once and digging and would like to share with you if I may? You’ll have to forgive me for not getting into proper reviews and artist profiles on these picks but as those of you who read here regularly will know, I’m not the world’s best writer and am not going to try to compete with the professionals out there. I love music though and talking about records, which is why I love being part of the Sorry State family. Being in the store and interacting with our friends and customers is what I love. Geeking out on record trivia and sharing the rush of pleasure you get from music with people is the absolute best. Putting great records into appreciative hands is what we are all about here.
Okay, so here we go. A week or so ago, I had a CD compilation playing on repeat in the car. The collection is called Beyond The Calico Wall. It’s a fab collection of 60s Garage and Psych put together by Erik Lindgren, a Boston area musician and historian on his great Arf! Arf! Label. His label specialized in high quality reissues of forgotten and obscure psych and garage. If you are into this era of music and see an Arf! Arf! Release, you can buy with confidence. Anyway, I have had this comp for years and hadn’t played it in ages, but was happy to become reacquainted with it. In particular, for a track from a group with the spectacular moniker The Spontaneous Generation called Up In My Mind, which is a cool fuzz ripper. Buying a copy of that 45 on the open market is out of my budget even if a copy was available. The group were out of Atlanta, and this was their only single on the Fevre label. The b-side has a good cover of The Who’s Pictures Of Lily. The single came out in 1968. If you find one, major score.
Also, from 1968 and on the collection is a track called Psiship by a group called Cosmic Rock Show that originally appeared on the Blitz label. That’s a cool one. They were possibly from Minneapolis. A comment on discogs described the record as being a precursor to Suicide’s 1977 record Rocket U.S.A. I can see that.
Another cool ripper is the comp opener from Park Avenue Playground. Their 1969 track, The Trip, appeared on the USA label and will set you back a few hundred bucks if one is offered for sale. It has a great guitar riff and some interesting sounds going on. They were from Lansing, IL and recorded the song in a studio in Madison, Wisconsin. Apparently copies of the record were lost in a flood and that is why they are so scarce.
The collection ends with the only track that isn’t an actual 60s recording. Demons Of Negativity and their song Resurrection was cut in the 80s by compiler Erik Lindgren and his musician friends. It’s a cool tune though and finishes the collection well.
After jamming the CD over and over, I somehow still felt the need to buy a vinyl version of the compilation because you know? I needed these tracks on vinyl and would never find some of these records as originals and might feel the need to spin them at a gig or something. Ha! That’s my logic and rationale for buying many records. However, if you don’t own this collection and are into psych and garage there isn’t much better bang for your buck than this one and most of you will just need one copy. The CD though has extra tracks.
Alright, I need to get out of here and leave you to it. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time. Cheers everyone - Dom