News

Hello Sorry Staters! We have seen some great weather and sun and I think we have finally gotten rid of the snow for this winter season. I hope everyone can go outside and get some sun on their face and enjoy some great weather! We have been restocking a lot of great records for ya’ll this past week, including one of my favorites, the Prison Affair EPs and the split with Research Reactor Corporation! After reading Daniel’s pick last week talking about about watching old videos of Headbanger’s Ball on YouTube, I thought it would be fun to chat about some skate videos that bridged the gap between me listening to christian punk in my early formative years to watching skate videos on the weekend and discovering bands like the Sonic Youth and The Sundays.

One of my favorite videos that I always go back to watch even in my early 40s is “Welcome To Hell” by the mighty Toy Machine Skateboards. The video starts out with an animation of the Toy Machine logo laughing in slow motion and sounding very creepy, and I know as a 16 year old watching this video with friends I thought “oh hell yes, this is going to kick ass.” Out of nowhere Lard starting playing the background and the video blasts into non stop back to back clips of the Toy Machine skate team flying off of ramps and rails. I was hooked by not only how fucking cool skateboarding looked, but the power of the music behind the scenes.

The soundtrack of this video included so many great bands and songs that I had never heard before. It was my first introduction to bands like Sonic Youth, The Sundays and Lard. It was the first time I had ever heard Black Sabbath outside of hearing it or seeing it on MTV. Even though I could not skateboard, I was obsessed with the culture and the music scene that pushed all the music that I still love today.

Hello Sorry Staters! We have been busy putting together Subculture pre orders (if you got a shirt they turned out so good!) and (finally) sending out our Alvilda preorders in the world after too long of a wait. After a terrible start to the new year, I have wanted nothing but positive things in my life. This includes music. I have turned my efforts to educate myself on music from other countries and other time periods. This week I have been checking out a lot of Japanese city pop. If this music doesn’t fill you with some type of joy and makes you look forward to warmer days, I don’t know what will.

One album that really caught my attention as I was digging through tons of reddit threads and different compilations for some starting points was an album called Sons Of 1973 by the band Satellite Lovers.

This record encapsulates the “Shibuya-kei” or Shibuya style. The music is a dreamy, slow-tempo, funky style that was popular is in Japan in the 90s. The vocals are very reminiscent of Sheryl Crow, but backed by a funkier dream pop band.

The record never got any traction in the 90s and never got popular, but apparently this album was uploaded to youtube a couple years ago and has completely blown up since then. This record was never released in the US and also never on vinyl.

Here’s hoping for a reissue soon! If you have made it this far thank you for reading about not punk and following my journey of diving into music I have never heard of. Cheers! Until next week!

What’s up fellow sorry staters? Another week, another pick! As some of you have picked up on, I have been busy listing some really great used 7"s, so check back this week as I will be listing daily! So often the week just goes by so quick and I realize that I have not really checked out anything new this week. So I have been keeping myself busy listening to things I know. Some killer 90s death metal has been played a lot this week in the warehouse and has put me in the mood to revisit one of my favorite classic 90s death metal bands: Cannibal Corpse.

I am more of a fan of Corpsegrinder’s vocals than Chris Barnes (sorry to all the die hard early Cannibal Corpse fans!) and one of my favorite Cannibal Corpse albums is Gallery Of Suicide. Right off the rip you get one of the best Cannibal Corpse songs, “I Will Kill You.” It’s a non-stop slaughter from start to finish, both lyrically and sonically of course, the only way that Cannibal Corpse knows how to do it! The cover art, like all other Cannibal Corpse releases, is gruesome and besides Tomb Of The Mutilated, one of the grossest and best covers the band has put out.

We still have some really nice and clean used Cannibal Corpse CDs and some rare NESI vinyl pressings in the store as well!

Hello Sorry Staters! New week, new pick. We have seen some cold weather here the past few weeks, and it seems to be totally out of the norm from what we usually see in North Carolina. I hope everyone is staying warm and staying positive since the orange goblin got sworn in. One thing we can all do is help lift each other up and work through this disaster as best we know how. For me it’s music and reading!

I picked up Weird Music That Goes On Forever: A Punk’s Guide To Loving Jazz a few months ago when I started on my journey of digging into all things jazz music. It’s a good starting point for someone that isn’t well versed in different players and jazz labels. The book breaks down all the greats, from Charles Mingus to Coltrane and Lee Morgan. Each part is a mini biography for each artist and breaks down some albums from each artist to start with. So check this book out if you want to expand your knowledge of Jazz! There is also some great art work sprinkled in by Raleigh’s own Brian Walsby!

Hello Sorry Staters! Short and sweet one from me this week. I just wanted to pick a used record to highlight how many hidden gems we have in our used section, not only in the store, but online as well. If you ever need a suggestion for what genre to dig more into, you always go to Dominic at the Sorry State brick and mortar store. I have recently been exploring free and avant-garde jazz and was handed a record with 3 players on it I never heard of before.

Wally Shoup/Chris Corsano/Paul Flaherty—Bounced Check is the record he handed me and said this might be up your alley. This recorded was recorded live at gallery 1412 in Seattle, WA in 2005. I was used to listening to older players such as Cecil Taylor or Archie Shepp. So digging into a new free jazz record was new and very refreshing, opening up a world of new players to deep dive into. One of the big stand outs on this record is the drumming performance by Chris Corsano. His drumming on this record is out there, chaotic but planned in a way that tunes in just right with Shoup and Flaherty’s sax playing. I encourage anyone that is into free jazz to check out these players, and as always give me recommendations!

We are adding used records and CDs every day and I encourage you to buy something you think looks cool or sounds like something you might like. We have tons of really killer used stuff for sale, so check it out! Until next week!

Happy New Year Sorry Staters! What a wild ride 2024 was. I hope everyone had a great year! For me, I always like to reflect and think about the new experiences I went through during the year, whether it be new foods, new places I traveled or, most importantly, new music that I have listened to. I am grateful that working at a record store/label offers the opportunity to listen to stuff that I would never find on my own. Also, working with an eclectic group of folks helps too! My list is quite like my brain at any given moment—all over the place—but I would not have it any other way. This list is in no particular order and if you haven’t checked any of these out, I hope you do!

Chat Pile – Cool World
This record was so hyped when it came out, and it definitely lived up to it. This noise rock band from Oklahoma City continued where they left off with 2022’s God’s Country. From the start, the tracks are just heavy riff after heavy riff with punishing vocals, which cover the horrors of modern human suffering.

Dan Spencer – Return To Your Dark Master
Black metal influenced country music. What more could you ask for? Dan Spencer has been blowing up this tour non stop and for a very good reason. This record rules and has some fun songs about vampires and other evil shit.

Zorn – Endless Funeral
Evil, dark metal-punk from Philly, PA on Sorry State. My favorite Sorry State Records release this year by far. I unfortunately have not seen them live, but I hear they put on one hell of a live show.

The Dogs – Total Dog Shit
This record caught me by surprise one day while randomly clicking on records to listen to on Bandcamp. The Dogs are a drum machine backed oi/punk band from the UK and as you guessed it all the tracks are about dogs. This record is super fun and super catchy.

Poison Ruin – Confrere
This record quickly became one that I play consistently play at work when it came out. This record is has tons of catchy hooks and medieval imagery just makes it that much more fun.

The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
It would surprise me if this record was not on many people’s end-of-year list. It took Robert Smith a long time, but he finally released this masterpiece of an album this year. I can’t say anything you didn’t already know about this record. It’s quintessential Cure from beginning to end. The record is beautiful and melancholic. It almost plays out like a dream sequence to a movie you have seen a thousand times before. If I had to put my list in order, this would easily be at number one.

Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
London, UK based ambient jazz that will make your brain tingle. I went back to this record a lot over this year when I need something to listen to help clear my mind and to get my mental creative juices flowing. The music throughout the record seems to go in and out of consciousness with really great highs and really great lows. One of my favorite modern jazz records of this year.

SIKM – Now I Must Comply
Everything about this album I love. It’s infectious and full of great riffs, and the cover art by Jeff Polen is one of my favorites of the year. You can hear the French oi influences on this one, which made it a top record for me. It was hard to pick my favorite oi album this year, and it was hard not to have a list full of them.

Chain Cult – Harm Reduction
Dark, gothic influenced punk done so very very well. This band never seems to disappoint from release to release. This record has some heavy T.S.O.L. vibes, which is probably why I love it so much. I’m a sucker for anything dark, fast and heavy as you can tell with my previous pick of the new Zorn record. If you are living under a rock and have not checked this out yet, please do so.

Hello Fellow Sorry Staters! It’s been a week or two since I have written a blurb on what I have been listening to. Between family vacations and being sick I have not had a whole lot of listening time to check out new stuff, so I figured this week I would just chat about something familiar to me and something you may not know about.

In the early 90s I went to church. A lot of church. Every Sunday morning and Sunday night and let’s not forgot youth group on Wednesdays! Since then, I have grown out of religion as a whole. Being the natural rebellious teenager I was, I always tried to seek out something different. My other brother was playing in bands with friends in high school and he would always let me in on what he was listening to. My parents were also selective about what music we could listen to, so when I discovered Tooth and Nail records, I thought I hit a gold mine. I bought everything that label put out for years. One band stood out to me so much because they differed from bands like Mxpx and Slick Shoes that were out on the label at that time. They were called Ninety Pound Wuss.

Like a lot of the bands on Tooth and Nail at the time, they were from the Seattle area but more specifically they were from Port Angeles, Washington and formed in 1994. Their first full length was 19 tracks of pure non stop thrashy fast punk with some sprinkles of poppy riffs to round it out. Lyrically, the record was about the persecution they faced being hardcore punk in the christian music scene, which at the time I could totally relate to. They only made 3 records, all equally good, but after the first record they started leaning toward post-punk and started to sound like the Blood Brothers.

I unfortunately only saw them once when they toured in the early 2000s at the Christian club in my hometown called “His Place” (lol), and from what I remember it was just me and about 5 of my friends that they played to. I wanted to talk about them in my pick this week because their records are very expensive and very hard to find. I still have my original cassette tape and CD and recently got a call from my brothers and they found a copy of the self titled record and plan to give it to me for my birthday this weekend!

If you are curious about the world of mixing religion and punk rock, check out these bands: Officer Negative, Headnoise, Crashdog, Overcome and No Innocent Victim. Cheers! Until next week!

If you’re a 40-year-old millennial like me, the Interstellar soundtrack might hit a little different than most. Hans Zimmer’s score taps into a sound that mirrors our generation’s own journey—one that blends nostalgia with the awe and anxiety of growing up in an age of constant change. As kids, we grew up on the cinematic epics of the 80s and 90s, such as E.T., Star Wars and Back to the Future, just to name a few. And now, as adults, Interstellar speaks to the complexity of the world that we find ourselves in today.

Zimmer’s composition is more than just background music to a sci-fi movie; it’s a rich, emotional landscape that draws from the vastness of space while speaking to the intimacy of human connection. His decision to build the score around the powerful, resonant tones of a church organ was a stroke of genius. It evokes both the grandeur of the cosmos and the spirituality of time and memory, as if reminding us that no matter how far we travel, we’re still bound by the love and the forces that make us human.

Then there’s “Mountains,” a track that takes the listener to the edge of their seat with its ticking, pulsating rhythm, mimicking the relentless march of time, a theme that hits hard for anyone, like me, in their 40s. The passage of time, both in the film and in real life, feels like something both vast and inescapable. Zimmer uses time signatures that feel like they’re stretching and compressing, just like the plot of Interstellar, and it evokes a very real sense of urgency and existential questioning.

One of the most poignant aspects of the score is how it reflects the generational concerns that have been simmering for millennials. We’re a generation that has been both optimistic and burdened by the realities of a rapidly changing world with climate concerns, technological leaps, and economic instability looming large. Just like the film’s characters, we’re asking the big questions here: What will the future hold? What kind of world are we leaving behind? Zimmer’s score echoes those anxieties while offering a bit of catharsis at the same time. What interesting questions to ponder as we go into the election in a few weeks.

In many ways, Interstellar is the perfect soundtrack for a generation that grew up looking to the stars and is now navigating the complicated, grounded realities of adulthood. Whether you’re a cinephile, a vinyl collector, or someone who just loves getting lost in an epic score, this album is a must-have. Zimmer has given us a score that doesn’t just accompany a film—it’s a sonic journey that mirrors the experience of grappling with time, love and what it means to leave a legacy.

Alright fellow Sorry Staters! It’s finally starting to feel like fall outside and if you’re anything like me, when the world starts to get a little bit darker earlier and the leaves start to fall, you’re probably in the market for something more than just background noise. Something to get completely lost in. Something to match the season changing. And let me tell you, Dummy by Portishead is not just an album; it’s an experience. It’s like stepping into a smoky, dimly lit room where the air is thick and time doesn’t matter. Have you ever found yourself in that space where the world feels surreal, and all you want is to melt into the vibe? This is the soundtrack for that. Trust me.

Now, let’s get real. I wouldn’t recommend putting this record on for just casual listening. No, this is the type of record I recommend for when you’re ready to feel something. When you’ve smoked a little, or let’s be honest, a lot, and you’re in that headspace where every sound feels like it’s crawling into your mind, Dummy will take you there and beyond. Beth Gibbons’ voice? It’s ghostly and seductive, like she’s pulling you into some other dimension, whispering the truths you didn’t know you needed to hear. And the beats? Oh, man. They’re dark, minimal, and just twisted enough to mess with your head in the best way.

Tracks like “Sour Times” have this eerie, seductive pull, perfect for when you’re staring at the ceiling, thinking about every decision you’ve ever made. And “Roads?” That song will have you contemplating the meaning of life, feeling every note as it’s unraveling some deep truth of the universe. The whole album is one trippy ride, where the sounds are as important as the silences in between, and it all washes over you like a dream you don’t want to wake from.

This album has that ‘90s trip-hop aesthetic down, but it still sounds fresh like it exists in its own little bubble of time. It’s the perfect companion for late-night smoking sessions, staring at the stars or just zoning out in your own thoughts. Every track has its own mood, its own atmosphere and if you let it, Dummy will take you on a journey, no questions asked.

So, roll one up, dim the lights and let Portishead guide you through their dark hypnotic world. Trust me, this album will alter your brain chemistry. Don’t just listen—feel it—and you can thank me later.

Hello Sorry Staters! Another week, another pick from yours truly. This week has been busy with incoming preorders and tons of other new releases for you! I also stay busy by making sure that we have new used stuff going out daily. Still listing CDs, so if you are into metal we have a ton of great stuff for you.

One of the new releases that we received recently was Timmy Vulgar’s Genetic Armageddon. Boy oh boy was this one hell of a ride. The A side is an avant-garde electronic psychedelic fever dream. Full of spacey guitars and off beat drums mixed with some synth that sounds like a clan of aliens talking from another planet. It’s a fun ride if you like free jazz.

Side B is another story. It comes off as a poor man’s Bob Dylan, but for me, that’s a really good thing. Lyrically, it’s a depressing song about running out of booze. You can definitely tell it was recorded in a bedroom and for me, that just makes it so much better. You can feel the pain of him running out of booze. We all have been there, right?

This EP is not to be missed. It’s all over the place in the best way and I love it. Do yourself a favor and buy this record. It has two great songs on it that will not necessarily be in your head, but I guarantee you will not forget them.

Hello Fellow Sorry Staters! This week I have been busy working on organizing the chaos of all the pre orders that we have active right now. So many amazing records are up for preorder right now! A few of my favorites are Chain Cult: Harm Reduction 12” on LVEUM and the new Alvilda: C’est Déjà L’heure 12” on Static Shock Records. Go check them out!

This week my listening has been very focused on a genre that I really knew nothing about. One thing I have challenged myself with this year is learning different genres of music that I normally would not have naturally put on to listen to. This week’s genre is funk. I’ve always just put funk into the box of what someone would think about funk commercially. You know, like James Brown or Funkadelic. I wanted to dig deeper and find those super nasty bass guitar hooks and hard-hitting drums with the constant grunts of Ugh! I have come across a few good playlists on Spotify, but recently saw this record at the store and picked it up just from the description on the back alone. The compilation album is called “Tighten Up Tighter: A Choice Collection of Funk 45s” on Pure Records based out of New York. There are some really good, hard-hitting tracks like The Soul Diggers’ Soul Dig Part 1 and Brother Williams’ Cold Sweat.

As I take this journey to learn even more about funk, I know there are some readers that have some great suggestions for tracks I need to check out. If you even have a suggestion for a great playlist or compilation record, please write in and let me know! Thanks again for reading this week and make sure to check out the site, we are always listing new items for ya’ll almost daily! Until next time!

I have recently been going back to the music I listened to in the late 90s. One way I would find new bands is by looking at thank-you notes in other albums I had or borrowed from friends, or I would just find a record label that I loved. In this case, it was Asian Man records. Around this time Asian Man records was putting out some amazing artists like The Broadways, Slapstick, and Link 80 to name a few. I found this band through my love and obsession with the band Alkaline Trio. When I get obsessive over a band, I frantically research and find everything out about the members and, importantly what projects they previously played in. Tuesday became my second obsession due to my love for Dan Andriano’s vocal and bass playing style in Alkaline Trio.

The band Tuesday did not come out with many records at all. Looking back as I write this, it was only a demo, an EP called Early Summer and a full length called Freewheelin’. But to me Freewheelin’ was my entry point into the early 90s/late 00s emo and punk scene. Dan’s voice on this album was raw and gritty and like nothing I had ever heard from an emo band coming out of the scene I was in at the time. If I ever get asked what a good example of putting emotion behind the vocals sounds like, I will always reference this album. Lyrically, this album touches on your typical topics of sadness, losing love, and other typical emo song subjects.

So when the record and EP both came in the store from a recent collection buy, I knew that my high school self would kick me if I did not buy them. If you like Alkaline Trio and did not know about Tuesday, please go check them out. As always, check out the used section on the website, you never know what may pop up. I am still going through and listing that huge CD collection we bought a month or so ago. As always, thank you to everyone who reads these for all of your support!