News

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has had a nice week. Last week here in Raleigh we had two great shows: one with Meat House, Shaved Ape, and Bloodstains which was a bunch of fun, and the other show featured Ultimate Disaster and SLANT all the way from South Korea who tore the roof off the building. Always a good week when you get to go to two ragers. Anyways, it feels like forever since I’ve written anything, especially about music cause last month I was just writing about movies to celebrate Halloween. It’s only right that I come back with a banger, Rupa’s Disco Jazz, put out by the Numero Group. Daniel had mentioned this record way earlier this year and I remember checking it out when he did and thought to myself “man this is amazing!” I’m focusing on the 7” release today which features Moja Bhari Moja on the A-side and East West Shuffle on the B-side. The album was originally released in 1982 in India and features a variety of different players. There’s a quote on the back that says, “The first objective of this album was to create vibrant, new dance music with universal appeal” and I think they definitely achieved their goal. If this record starts playing and you’re not at least bopping your head along to it, you must be a real stick in the mud. I am especially a fan of the B-side; it has this bounce to the beat that’s very infectious. It’s got everything: some groove, funk, a killer bass line, and sarod and tablas! What more could you ask for? Definitely give this one a spin if you haven’t checked it out yet.

What’s up Sorry State readers? Another month has flown by. Halloween is this Thursday and I’ll be driving up to Baltimore for two nights of Billy Strings and company performing the music of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and to say I’m excited would be an understatement. Not only is it one of my favorite movies, but it also has one of my favorite soundtracks for a movie and ‘ol Billy always puts on a hell of a show for Halloween. My girlfriend and I will be dressing up as Ash and Linda from Evil Dead and I’m excited to see other people’s costumes. Since the month is almost over, I guess this will be my last write up about a movie and this one isn’t even really a horror movie. It’s probably the least Halloween-y one I’ve written about, but I still think it’s worth mentioning. Continuing from last week with the theme of psychological terror, this week I’m writing about the 1971 Australian film Wake in Fright directed by Ted Kotcheff and written by Evan Jones. Like some of the other movies I’ve talked about this month, I caught this one probably a month or two ago here at the Alamo in Raleigh and instantly loved it. I had never heard about it before going to see it, but the description for it sounded very appealing and I trust Raleigh Alamo’s Weird Wednesday picks. This film follows a young Australian school teacher who, because of a financial bond he signed with the government, must teach for two years at a small school in the outback. He plans to go visit his girlfriend in Sydney for the holiday so he heads to the nearby town of Bundanyabba (AKA The Yabba) so he can catch a flight there. When he arrives, he heads to a local pub where he meets a police officer who befriends him over a couple of pints. The officer then takes him somewhere where a room full of people are illegally gambling on a game that’s essentially just flipping a coin. Our main character joins in and happens to find some luck and win a couple games, probably making more in those games than he had all year teaching. He sees his way to financial freedom and paying off his bond in one fell swoop, put in all that money he made and let it ride. He loses it all in two rounds. The ultimate gambling sin: never wager what you can’t afford to lose. Now penniless and stuck in The Yabba, he turns to the people of the town and the bottle. The rest of the movie is watching this seemingly put together man unravel in the heat and exhaustion of this mining town and its wild inhabitants. Drink all day, drink all night. If you’re hungover in the morning, keep drinking. Very similar to The Lighthouse, which I wrote about last week. Maybe it says more about me that movies like these freak me out the most. This story actually seems not that far-fetched.=; maybe it could even happen to YOU! Okay maybe not, but all I’m saying is if I was all alone in the middle of the outback, there may be some overlap (maybe minus the kangaroo hunts.)

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone had a good week. Man, this month is flying by! I can’t believe Halloween is just around the corner. Time waits for no one. Continuing on with the theme of horror movies this month, the film I’m writing about today is probably my favorite genre of horror, psychological horror. While I love watching a good slasher, what really gets my gears going is watching something that really fucks with your head. Often when me and my girlfriend are sitting on the couch trying to figure out what to watch, she’ll say “can we watch something made after 2000?” Fine, we can’t always live in the past. At least this movie is in black and white and takes place in the 1800s, so we got that going for the old time feel. Today I’ll be writing about The Lighthouse (2019) starring Robert Pattinson and William Dafoe. I actually really enjoy Robert Pattinson as an actor. For the longest time I only knew him as the dude from Twilight, so I didn’t think much of him until I saw Good Time (2017) and really loved how he played his role in that. I’ve been a fan since. Pattinson’s character Winslow is set to begin his month long stint of keeper at an isolated lighthouse while under the supervision of Thomas Wake (Dafoe’s character), a former (and drunken) sailor. Basically, this whole movie is just Wake breaking the spirit and psyche of Winslow. You watch these men slowly lose their sanity and descend into madness as they hunker down in a lighthouse getting drunk off kerosene and having visions of sex with mermaids. Or was it a vision? This movie does such a great job of mixing reality with the delusions of a young man and it becomes hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. Who’s telling the truth and who’s already gone so far off the deep end there’s no coming back. Both actors do a fantastic job of displaying the madness of their characters and make you question everything. I think this is easily one of the best films to come out in the last decade. If you haven’t already seen it and are looking for a different kind of horror this season other than bloody violence, definitely give this one a watch.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. I can’t believe how fast the weather switched up here in Raleigh. I actually got a little chilly this past week leaving work! I think one night it even got down to the 40s in the middle of the night. I’m not complaining though. It feels good to be throwing on a sweater again. Continuing on with our theme for the spooky season, I’ll be writing about another horror movie this week. Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of seeing Maniac Cop (1988) on the big screen at the Alamo here in Raleigh and had a blast. Written by Larry Cohen and directed by William Lustig, this is a slasher film about a murderous zombie cop who returns from the dead to wreak havoc on the sleazy and gritty streets of 80s New York. Wow, a movie about an evil cop who can’t stop murdering innocent people, how did they come up with that idea?! Surely nothing like that ever happens in real life. When word gets around town that there’s a maniac cop going around killing people, a panic and distrust of the police consumes the civilians. Hell, one lady just shoots a random cop that pulls her over, fearing she may become the latest victim. My favorite piece of dialogue in the movie comes from a scene of a news report about the killer. They’re interviewing people on the street and one guy delivers this golden line, “Ya know, cops like killing people. That’s why they’re cops.” This is when our faithful hero makes his entrance, the always groovy Bruce Campbell. He plays a character named Jack who is a policeman cheating on his wife. His wife starts growing suspicious of Jack being out late and taking night shifts and starts suspecting that he may be the maniac cop. She follows him one night to a hotel room only to find him in bed with a fellow female officer. She storms out of the hotel room and is immediately killed by the real maniac cop. Jack is then arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife while the real killer is still out there. The rest of the movie follows Jack trying to prove his innocence and find the real killer. I won’t spoil the second half of the movie in case you haven’t seen it and this sounds like it could be up your alley. It’s a fun slasher to watch this Halloween season and has some merit to it. It’s always cool when a movie that seems like a half-baked idea can end up delivering a message that (unfortunately) still rings true to this day.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. It’s finally October! Everyone’s favorite month! The leaves all change and the air becomes crisp again. The NC state fair comes to town, pumpkin carving, and of course, watching a bunch of horror movies. Much like my music listening habits, I tend to enjoy “older” movies. Not to say I don’t like new movies and haven’t loved a bunch of new stuff that’s come out, but specifically movies from the 60s to the 80s just do a little something extra for me. Maybe it’s the way it’s shot, the film, the costumes, the music, whatever it is, it clicks with me. Especially for horror movies. I get it, with all the technology we have nowadays you can create some truly insane stuff and have it look realistic. But what’s the fun in that? I wanna see some practical effects! I wanna watch someone get killed in the goofiest looking way possible. We’re lucky here in Raleigh to have some great theaters that do a lot of really cool showings, The Rialto has Grindhouse Club, which usually has a showing on Tuesday nights, and The Alamo Drafthouse here does Terror Tuesday and Weird Wednesday, which I’m always a fan of. If you live in the area and it sounds like it may interest you, I’d definitely check it out. The movie I’m writing about today was shown for Terror Tuesday, but honestly could almost fit the criteria for Weird Wednesday better. I’m talking about the 1982 film Basketcase, directed by Frank Henenlotter. The movie starts off with a doctor getting his face ripped by a shadowy creature that we don’t get a good look at. What could it be? It’s a weird little deformed blob of a conjoined twin with psychic powers that was cut off at birth from his brother of course. How could you not guess that? At the heart of it, this movie is about two brothers with some form of weird twin telepathy getting revenge on the doctors that performed the surgery to separate them all those years ago. One brother just happens to secretly carry the other freakazoid brother around in a basket and feeds him dozens of hamburgers at a time. There are some truly bizarre acting choices in this movie, but one of my favorite scenes is when the main character Duane gets 80s movie drunk and explains the entire story of him and his brother to his sex worker neighbor who then has her underwear stolen from the freak brother. This is a very goofy movie, but honestly weirdly kinda pulls off some sentimentality with the whole brothers aspect they roll with and in the end is a pretty enjoyable watch. If you’re a fan of 80s horror and this one has flown under the radar for you, give it a watch.

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has had a nice week. Continuing on from last week, I’d like to write about the other record I picked up when I was in Seattle, Genclik Ile Elele by Mustafa Ozkent. While I was flipping through records in the store, I was greeted by a cover of a monkey in a sweater sitting in front of some audio equipment. It didn’t really matter what music was on it; I was gonna get it. Luckily for me, this album is full of psychedelic Turkish heat. It sounds like it could be the soundtrack to the sickest 70s spy B-movie that never was. This thing is ripe for the picking for samples. There are just so many cool moments on it. The drums on this record just keep it moving and grooving the entire time. Dom informed me this used to be a secret weapon for DJs back in the day before it became more well known and I can see why. My favorite track on here might be the final track, Ayaş Yollarinda. It feels like a huge crescendo to end this banger of an album with a particularly sick solo on the organ about halfway through the track. Add a little dash of psychedelic Turkish funk to your next listening session.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone had a nice August. I can’t believe summer has already come and gone by in the blink of an eye. A couple of weeks ago I made my yearly pilgrimage out to Seattle to visit my dad and spend some time in the city and enjoy all the nature that surrounds it. While exploring the city, I came across a bunch of different record stores. It’s always interesting to see the different types of record shops when visiting somewhere. Sometimes you’ll come across a bunch of stores that just sell brand new records and nothing really interesting. Luckily, I found Wall of Sound Records on this trip. A small shop on a corner caught my eye and I saw some records through the windows, so I figured I might as well check it out. I’m glad I did. They had a really great selection for a smaller store, especially their International/World section. I could tell the owner definitely made it a point to have a stacked section and knew what he was doing, as it was full of tons of cool reissues of hard to find records. I wasn’t even necessarily planning on buying any records cause flying with them can be stressful, but there was some stuff that was too good to pass up. While flipping through, I saw a record that caught my attention, The Roots Of Chicha (Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru). I held it up, and the owner said, “that’s a really good one” and that’s all I needed to hear. I’ve been listening to a lot of psychedelic cumbia on YouTube on random playlists and mixes, so I was happy to find some on vinyl. The whole thing is full of bangers and it’s always nice to have a compilation so you get a taste of a bunch of different artists. Of all the songs on here, though, I think the three tracks by Los Mirlos are my favorite: Sonido Amazonico, El Milagro Verde, Muchachita del Oriente and La Danza de los Mirlos. The whole album is amazing and full of groovy, fun tunes, so I highly recommend checking it out if that appeals to you. I also picked up another really cool record while there, but I may save that for the coming weeks to write about.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a nice week. If you live anywhere along the east coast, I’m sure you’ve been dealing with all this rain the last couple weeks, especially this past week with big Debby rolling through. I had the pleasure of waking up the other day and walking into my kitchen to be greeted by a water bubble forming on my wall due to a leak in my gutter. While it’s annoying to deal with, I know a lot of people had to deal with a lot worse with this storm than I did, so if that applies to you, you have my sympathy. This leads me to the record I’d like to talk about today: Whiskey Before Breakfast by the great Norman Blake. That title sounds more and more appealing the more problems that come my way. This album was released in 1977 on Rounder Records and features 14 acoustic tracks. When an album opens up with the lyrics “I got high, Lord I got in jail,” you know you’re off to a good start. This album also features a healthy amount of instrumental tracks such as Under the Double Eagle, Salt River, Arkansas Traveler and a couple more with some real nice pickin going down on them. Good thinking music. Me and Dom both share a love for the track Old Grey Mare, which, as you could maybe gather, is a song about an old grey mare. We’re usually big fans of any old bluegrass/folk song about an animal, train, or even the local paper boy (poor Jimmy Brown.) Anyway, this is a great album start to finish. Next time you need some good country picking in your life, why not turn to ol Norman Blake.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone had a nice week. The day I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived (well a few weeks ago now), Billy Strings has released live music on vinyl. Woohoo! Aptly titled Live Vol. 1, I knew it had to be imminent, but I was excited when this was officially announced back in May and time has flown by since then and here we are. I always tell people Billy’s albums are great, but the live experience is where it’s at. No song is ever the same twice and the energy at a show can be electric and I’ve found that’s translated pretty well to this record. The record consists of all original music, except for one cover, which happens to be one of my favorites. Reuben’s Train is a traditional song that originated in the southern region of Appalachia in the late 1800s (the history for a lot of these old traditional songs can be a little shoddy.) This particular live version comes from the show at the famous Ryman Auditorium in Nashville this past February 25th, which I was lucky enough to be in attendance. He starts off with his own original Fire Line, which leads directly into this ripping Reuben’s Train, all in all clocking in at about 19 minutes. The mother church was rocking during this and I remember how clear you could hear the bass thumping in there; you could feel it shaking the pews under you. It’s so amazing to see someone performing a song that’s probably 150+ years old, and taking it to new levels and having a whole venue packed out singing along and dancing to it. I remember getting into the Grateful Dead and discovering the live stuff and listening to shows and thinking to myself “damn that would be so cool to actually be at one of these shows that’s now a live album and get to experience it again” and now I’ve been given that with this performance. I can’t wait to dust off this record when I’m old and gray and throw it on and have the memories come rushing back. Here’s to hoping I’m at some of the shows when Vol. 2 is recorded!

(The picture above was taken at the aforementioned performance of Reuben’s Train at the Ryman)

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer. I’m sure all the Scarecrow members’ write ups will be a lot more interesting and entertaining than mine from their European excursions, as me and Dom held down the fort back in Raleigh. Not much was happening in Raleigh other than it was hot as hell, but a couple weeks back I got to go to a pretty cool show at the Pour House downtown. I hadn’t heard anything about it till the day of the show, but it was a band from Saint Petersburg, Russia called Messer Chups and they play surf rock with a sort of horror theme going on, like the soundtrack for a weird 60s midnight movie. I had never heard of them, but it sounded like a pretty interesting show and what else was I gonna do on a Tuesday night? I ended up going with a friend of mine and it was a fun show. We both agreed it would make great spy/detective music, maybe cause they played the Pink Panther theme. After the show, I went over to the merch booth to pick up their latest record to support a touring band. The name of the album is Dark Side of Paradise and it came on a cool white and blue swirl vinyl. It’s a pretty fun listen. If surfy songs about Dracula and witches and black leather sound appealing to you, then this will be right up your alley. My favorite track on here is probably the cover of Nights in White Satin, which was pretty cool.

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend and got to relax a lil bit. I was able to go to the beach with some friends and hang out there for Sunday and Monday which was nice. It feels like summer is in full swing now and what better way to celebrate than listening to some dumb novelty music? I picked up The Big Itch Vol. 3 a couple months ago when I was in Oxford, Mississippi at End Of All Music, which is a really great spot to check out if you ever find yourself down that way. While I was flipping through records there, this one jumped out at me for two reasons:

1. The cool wrestling pictures on the cover

2. I thought it was called The Big Bitch Vol. 3 until after I bought it and was laughing about it and my girlfriend pointed out that it actually said Itch.

It was $10 so I figured why not? It was worth it for the cover alone. With songs like Wombat Twist, Cave Man Hop, Discombobulated, I was bound to get some enjoyment out of it. It’s a fun record to just throw on every now and then whenever you wanna hear some stuff that sounds like twice rejected Cramps songs. Move over Monster Mash and make room for the new king of Halloween bangers, The Graveyard Cha Cha.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. To everyone’s dismay, today I’ll be writing about the good ol Grateful Dead. This cool looking bootleg titled Cowboy’s Dead! came into the store and I had to check it out cause I had never seen it before. I’ve always been a fan and really respected the art of bootlegging, whether it be media, clothing or any medium, especially when it’s a real fan of the source material putting a lot of love into it. It’s cool to see people be such a fan of something that they take it upon themselves to get it out to the public. In true bootleg fashion, this record includes some minor errors such as incorrect tracks listed, like Deep River Blues being listed instead of Deep Elem Blues (a pretty honest mistake to be fair) and incorrect lyrics printed on the back, but I feel stuff like that only adds more character and charm. This recording comes to us from a show at Harpur College on 5/2/70, one of my favorite eras for the band. The first side features the aforementioned Deep Elem Blues, followed by Candyman which leads right into a very nice version of Cumberland Blues and ends with Cosmic Charlie. The second side is really what sells me on this record, with a ripping That’s It For The Other One that’s sure to melt the faces of any fans of 60s Dead, clocking in around 25 minutes. I’m just happy the universe dropped this one right in front of me cause if it wasn’t for that, I would have no idea this release existed.