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This week I thought I had a pretty good plan for my staff pick, but as the week wore on, my plan crumbled. However, I’m going to go with it anyway. It just won’t be as tidy as I’d envisioned.

Earlier this week we got in a nice collection of ’77-era UK punk singles at Sorry State. I am a sucker for singles from this era, and whenever they come in, I’m always looking to fill holes. There were a few in this collection I needed, including the final single from Menace, The Young Ones. Menace flies under the radar for many people (Jeff was just telling me he’s pretty sure he’s never listened to them), probably because they never released an album during their initial 1976-1979 run. They only put out four singles during that time, with a fifth, The Young Ones, released after the band split. I’m not sure how I discovered Menace—it may have been just buying old UK 7”s I didn’t already know—but I’ve always kept an eye out for their records.

I was prepared to write about how Menace wasn’t all that great, but I like them anyway. That was the first part of my plan for this staff pick to fall apart. Scarecrow had a gig in Charlotte on Thursday, and since I was the only one who wanted to come home after the show, I ended up driving to the gig by myself, which meant about five hours alone in the car. While I was driving, I decided I’d refresh my memory of Menace. I dialed up G.L.C. (R.I.P.) on Apple Music, which compiles all five singles from the band’s original era. Pretty much as soon as I hit play, I thought to myself, “what was I thinking? Menace fucking RULES!”

In my head, I’d written off Menace as an unremarkable oi! band. Listening back it’s easy to see why I might have done that, since they share some characteristics with the skinhead set, mostly a penchant for singalong terrace chant choruses on tracks like “Carry No Banners.” However, Menace isn’t as dunderheaded as, say, the 4 Skins. The band began in 1976, and as with Cock Sparrer, you can hear an earlier era of rock and roll peeking around the edges of their sound. The title track of their first single, “Screwed Up,” is a perfect example. It has this Stones-y swagger that’s a bit like the early Cock Sparrer stuff or Slaughter & the Dogs. Ditto for “Executioner,” with its infectious, Who-inspired stuttering chorus. As each track started, I’d think to myself, “oh yeah, THIS one!” and start singing along to every word. The only mediocre track, in my opinion, is the a-side to the single I just got, their cover of the Cliff Richard song “The Young Ones” (which punks know better as the theme song from the 80s British TV show The Young Ones). This band was too damn good to give over precious vinyl space to a novelty cover tune.

Which brings me to the other part of my plan that got blown. My staff pick was going celebrate the fact that I now owned original copies of all five Menace singles, but it turns out I don’t own GLC. Shit! I could have sworn I had that already.

Looking at Discogs, I noticed GLC is on Small Wonder Records. “I have a lot of records on Small Wonder,” I think to myself. Clicking through to Small Wonder’s discography, I see I have about half the records the label released during their original run. So, once I complete my Menace discography (which has now leapt forward on my list of priorities), I may have to take a stab at getting all the original Small Wonder releases. Which reminds me that another single I picked up in this batch helps me toward my goal of getting every No Future Records release. But that’s a staff pick for another day…

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope wherever you’re reading this, the fall weather has come around like it has here in Raleigh. With it being October and Halloween approaching, I wanted to switch things up and write about a movie this week for my staff pick. When it comes to horror, I like the older, campy stuff like the Evil Dead series or psychological thrillers like The Shining. The movie I’d like to talk about today is a bit of both, the 2018 psychedelic action-horror film, Mandy, directed by Panos Cosmatos and starring Nicolas Cage and Andrea Riseborough. I love when movies are completely out of left field and this movie is exactly that. It’s hard to describe why I like this movie so much, but I can start with the fact that it’s different from any other movie I’ve seen before. Nicolas Cage is fully unleashed in this one in the best way possible, and when his performance is on point, he’s one of my favorite actors. I don’t want to spoil too much of the movie here, but I want to talk about at least the first part of it, so if you want to go into this movie completely blind, stop reading here.

The film takes place in 1983 near the Shadow Mountains of the Mojave Desert in California. The main character, Red (Nicolas Cage), works as a logger and shares a (really cool) cabin in the middle of the woods with his girlfriend, Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), who works as a gas station cashier but in her free time is also an artist and author. Between the conversations the two have and Mandy’s writings, you can tell they’re both a little out there and seem to have been through a fair share of shit in their lives. One day when Mandy is out on a walk, a van full of some very strange looking individuals drives by her and she catches the attention of the man sitting in the passenger seat, who happens to be Jeremiah, the leader of the cult these people are a part of. Side note but the cinematography and some of the shots and the effects they use on them are so well done and this scene, paired with the incredible and haunting score, is one of my favorite examples. It really fills you with a sense of dread and anxiety. It later cuts to a scene of Jeremiah telling one of his loyal disciples that he “needs” the girl he saw today on the side of the road. That night, a couple of the members drive out in the van to an empty field and one of them gets out and blows an ancient looking ocarina which fills the air with red smoke and summons the Black Skulls, a demonic biker gang. One of the cult members offers up a human sacrifice and a jar full of highly potent liquid LSD, in exchange for capturing Mandy and bringing her to the leader. A member of the Black Skulls accepts the offer, and the scene is set from there. I’m gonna stop talking about it there and let you watch the movie if you want to find out what happens, but if this sounds like it may be interesting to you and up your alley, I promise you won’t be disappointed. It definitely might not be for everyone, but if you love a weird, original, and creative movie, I highly recommend it.

Hello there all you lovely Sorry Staters. How’s it going? Thanks for clicking on our newsletter and supporting us. I missed you last week as I was off sick unfortunately and feeling like complete crap. I do not do well when I get sick with flu symptoms and can barely function. Things might have been more bearable had I been able to binge watch TV and stream music etc, but last week my internet went out and couldn’t get repaired until just this past Tuesday. It was a combination of the passing hurricane and other factors that led to the delay in my being reconnected. Not to cry like a baby over first world problems, but man it sucks not having the internet. Especially when you are sick at home. It’s probably not a good thing that we rely on it so much, but that’s where we are at. Anyway, I tried amusing myself with playing records, but when you are lying sick on the couch covered in blankets and cats, getting up every fifteen minutes or so to flip a record doesn’t work. Of course, I could read a book and did try, but when I’m sick, I find it hard to concentrate and either kept having to reread the same page or nodded off. After a day or two like this, I couldn’t stand it and needed to watch a movie or something.

So, I searched my last remaining DVD archives and pulled out the collection of James Bond movies that I have. I used to have tons of DVDs and CDs, but most are now gone. Thankfully, I hung on to these classic Bond films. I have all the films starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore plus my personal favorite On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which was the one-off starring George Lazenby. I f’king love everything about James Bond. Growing up when I did, the Bond films were easily one of the biggest movie series ever and each new one was a cinematic event. The older 1960s films were shown regularly on TV each year around the holidays and my Dad and I would always enjoy watching them. As a child I was a veracious reader and read all the Ian Fleming penned Bond novels. Just like the rest of the world, I had Bond fever. How could you not? To anyone of a certain age these films are almost part of our DNA now.

My Bond marathon included watching the extras that each DVD had, and I was surprised that there were a couple of mini documentaries that I hadn’t watched. Some interesting information about the making of the films and the people behind them. I also get a kick from watching the period TV and cinema ads and trailers. Takes you back.

One of the documentaries focused on the music made for the films and all those great title songs. The Bond music is great and a big part of the appeal of the films. Hard to pick a favorite really and not something I would want to be forced to do. Obviously the Monty Norman penned 007 theme is killer and all the John Barry composed music is such a part of the experience, but what made each new Bond film special were the opening titles created by Maurice Binder along with the new title song. Shirley Bassey belting out Goldfinger. Unforgettable. Nancy Sinatra singing You Only Live Twice, perhaps my favorite. Paul McCartney and Wings doing Live And Let Die, awesome.

I mentioned perhaps one my favorite of the films is On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and part of the reason is the great soundtrack. The music for the ski chase scene is so good. As to is the title theme, although with this film they didn’t use a star vocal. However, Louis Armstrong sings We Have All The Time In The World, and it is used during the film. Composer John Barry states that song was his favorite too, and in no small part because it was Louis Armstrong singing and what a huge honor that was for him to have him sing a song he wrote. OHMSS also stars Diana Rigg, fresh from her stint on the classic TV spy show The Avengers. She’s great in the film and drives a nice Mercury Cougar convertible in several scenes. The car buffs amongst us always get a kick out of the cool ass cars used in Bond films.

Talking of cool cars brings me to the last of the films I watched during this recent marathon. The Spy Who Loved Me from 1977 featured a beautiful white Lotus Esprit that also doubled as a submarine in the film. Pretty cool. I have a particular fondness for this Bond film as it was the first one that I went to the cinema to see when it came out. I can remember very vividly going to the local community center in my hometown that screened films with my Dad and watching it. I didn’t have many opportunities to do cool and fun stuff with him, so this memory is a cherished one. As I was watching the film last week, I paid closer attention to the music. This score was produced by Marvin Hamlisch who gives it a sophisticated disco vibe. I didn’t care too much for the theme song, Nobody Does It Better sung by Carly Simon, although I have warmed to it over the years, but I did really enjoy the updated 007 theme titled Bond 77, that incorporates those funky disco sounds. As a piece of music, it worked well and made me pull my soundtrack LP to jam it a couple of times. For me, the best part of the soundtrack.

Not really a staff pick from me, but more a statement of love for everything James Bond and spy theme related. Over the years, I have collected the film soundtracks, but in addition, I love finding any of the knock-off records that came out in the wake of the movie success. There are tons of albums recorded by known and unknown artists all covering the Bond music in a host of different styles. There are some particularly good jazz ones out there. I probably have a good two dozen of these type of albums. Some better than others but all with something to offer. I’m always on the lookout for a new one. The most recent addition was one done by Johnny Pearson called Impressions Of James Bond that has him playing the 007 theme on piano in a jazzy style. I liked it. You can find this record in a variety of different covers and all cheaply. Most of these records aren’t expensive when you find them, and I have found most in thrift stores and record store bargain bins.

Thanks for the brief indulgence and keep an eye out for those Bond soundtracks next time you are out digging. There really is some great music to be found on them. See you next time.

-Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

So, the season of the witch is upon us… I dunno if any of you fiends and ghouls are like me, but every time October rolls around, I start getting really excited. October is always my favorite month of the year. The air starts getting cooler, Spirit Halloween has opened its doors down the street, and all I want to do with my time is watch trashy horror flicks on VHS.

For all the grainy, lowbrow Grindhouse films I binge, there are a few more classy, high budget gore romps that make their way into my list of films to watch every year. I kicked off the 1st of the month with Dario Argento’s classic Demons. When I posted about this movie on social media, I jokingly referred to it as the “Negazione of zombie flicks.” Daniel even commented and asked me why I described it that way, to which I responded, “Uh, cuz it’s Italian and it rules!” Hahaha. But of course, the movie is similarly intense and unhinged. While Demons was directed by Lamberto Bava, Argento produced the movie and surely provided some strong credentials for the movie’s notoriety. I’m sure many people are familiar with Argento’s artsy and moody take on horror in films like Suspiria and Inferno. Demons is definitely a more old-fashioned, fun-filled escapade, but beautifully shot and cleverly done. Real quickly, the plot basically revolves around a couple of teenagers who, along with another colorful collection of characters, are given tickets to a free screening for a movie. The audience slowly begins to realize that a mysterious metal mask, which they see in person in the lobby of theater AND depicted in the film, that transforms the characters in the movie into demons is doing the exact same to all people trapped inside this movie theater. And then chaos ensues. It’s great!

One of the main things I wanted to mention about the movie, though, is that in addition to film’s sparse synth-based score, there’s a killer heavy metal soundtrack! A deep cut by Motley Crue plays in one of the early scenes. Funny enough, there are these punker characters that appear mid-way through the movie, cruising the city streets while snorting drugs out of a soda can through a bendy straw. While they’re driving around, “White Wedding” by Billy Idol is playing on the car stereo. Only the most badass tunes are acceptable for these delinquents! Haha. There’s a killer scene where one of the main dudes comes out blazing into the aisles of the movie theater riding a motorcycle while wielding a katana to slice up demons, and “Fast As a Shark” by Accept plays in the background. It’s so sick. “Fast As a Shark” is the ripping opening track on Restless And Wild, which is my personal favorite Accept record. While not listed on the soundtrack, a sleeper banger “Night Danger” by the Danish metal band Pretty Maids plays during the scene where the hostages are tearing apart the theater trying to escape. There’s some Saxon, some Scorpions, tons of fun and heavy rippers to accompany the bloody entertainment contained within.

Hopefully, me talking about horror and heavy metal isn’t too boring for any of you Sorry State readers out there. Expect more spooky-themed musings in the weeks to come as we countdown to Halloween. That’s all I’ve got this week. As always, Thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

7 Seconds: Old School LP (Headhunter Records, 1991)

The other day Angela, Jeff, and I were working at the warehouse together. Angela was listening to this new Operation Ivy bootleg LP we got in, and between that and Jeff pricing a stack of used Casualties records, the conversation turned to music we were into as teenagers. Before I knew it, Angela was blasting Less Than Jake for like an hour straight. Less Than Jake was my favorite band for a couple of years when I was in high school. I listened to Pezcore incessantly, and I would have thought I could still sing along with every word. It turns out that I remembered some parts, but most of it seemed only vaguely familiar to me. I guess it was like 30 years ago at this point! Still, it choked me up a little to remember so many nights of driving to the beach with my best friend Billy, blasting “My Very Own Flag” and “Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts” and singing along at the top of our lungs, stopping at the Waffle House at like 4AM and driving home as the sun rose, still jacked on shitty coffee.

I always say that 7 Seconds is a band I’m glad I discovered when I was younger, because their sunny melodies and somewhat naïve politics would grate on my ears hard if I heard them for the first time as a full-grown adult. Somewhere in the punk network at my high school, someone passed me a dubbed tape of Walk Together, Rock Together, and I just loved it. At the time I was listening to a lot of Minor Threat and a lot of Screeching Weasel, and 7 Seconds seemed to fit in the sweet spot between them, with some of SW’s goofy poppiness and some of Minor Threat’s speed and aggression. I always kept an eye out for 7 Seconds records when I was shopping, but after picking up Soulforce Revolution and Ourselves, I realized there were some 7 Seconds records I didn’t want to own (nowadays I think those albums have their merits). I needed a more strategic approach.

I entered college in 1997, just as computers and the internet became ubiquitous. By my second year of college, I still didn’t own a computer, but both of my roommates did, and whenever one or the other of them wasn’t at home, I was on one of their computers reading about punk and scoring things on ebay that I still tell tales about today. Once I realized 7 Seconds had a bunch of records before Walk Together, Rock Together, I set about chasing it all down. The Crew was easy to get and pretty mind-blowing when when I did. It was rougher, faster, and punker than Walk Together, but just as easy to sing along with. Two compilations of earlier material were even more exciting. Alt.music.hardcore (talk about a dated title!) collected the songs from their early 7”s, and if The Crew turned up the rawness and aggressive knobs from Walk Together, these earlier recordings cranked them even further. Of course today I own all those original 7”s, but I still blast Alt.music.hardcore with surprising regularity.

And then there’s my staff pick from this week, Old School. The recordings that make up Old School were meant for 7 Seconds’ debut LP, which was supposed to be called United We Stand, but it never came out. A few of these tracks came out on a 7” titled Blasts from the Past, but they scrapped most of the songs from this session and re-recorded them for The Crew and other records. I did some quick googling, but I wasn’t able to find any info about why they scrapped these sessions. Does anyone know if there’s somewhere I can hear that story? Why hasn’t anyone made a book or a movie about 7 Seconds yet? Get on that, punk nostalgia industrial complex!

Making your way through the 7 Seconds’ discography is all about how the band balances their impulses toward hardcore aggression and big pop melodies, and for me Old School is where they achieve the perfect balance. Only a handful of tracks have blatant, Sham 69-style singalong choruses with lots of whoa-oh-type singing, and even those are backloaded onto the end of the record (“Red and Black,” “Clenched Fists, Black Eyes”). The more straightforward hardcore songs that make up the rest of the album benefit from the band’s songwriting chops, but the emphasis is on getting across that feeling of pissed-off rambunctiousness. “Wasted Life (Ain’t No Crime)” sounds like it might have drawn some musical inspiration from early Minor Threat, and tracks like “War in the Head” and “You Lose” are just perfect early 80s US hardcore.

The song that was doing it for me as I blasted this while driving around this week, though, was “Diehard.” “Action’s being taken cause of this / you fucked with us, and now we’re fucking PISSED!” Maybe I’m a little too far from my Less Than Jake fanboy days to sing along with those songs, but driving around this week yelling along to “Diehard,” I felt like I’d been transported right back to 1998, when I was a dumb-ass teenager hearing this stuff for the first time.

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has had a good week. On Tuesdays when I come into work, I like to flip through the 7” section and see what catches my eye. This week a copy of Vatican Commandos’ Just A Frisbee caught my attention when I noticed on the hype sticker it referred to the band as “Darien, Connecticut hardcore punk legends.” This piqued my interest cause Darien is the town I was born in and where I spent the first couple years of my life, so I decided to check it out. To give a little back history, Vatican Commandos were formed in Darien and were active from ’82-’85 (until a reunion show 25 years later in 2010). Just A Frisbee is the second EP released by the band and even features cover art from a then eighteen-year-old Rob Zombie. I threw it on the record player and was almost immediately hooked. The first song, (We’re) Tipping Cows, is self-explanatory. It’s a song about sneaking up on sleeping cows and tipping them over and it’s fucking awesome. This album features some pretty sweet drums and really catchy basslines and riffs. It’s just a lot of fun to listen to, and knowing it was made by a group of dudes from where I grew up makes it even more enjoyable. Snag a copy of this first reissue of the EP in almost 40 years.

Hey Sorry State readers! I hope you’re doing well. I don’t get out much, but I just read that we’re supposed to get some tropical cyclone type shit here in Raleigh? I hope I’m wrong because it sounds a bit dramatic to me. Time will tell.

On to the music. I’m doing something different this week. When I was listing albums on our Discogs site, I was sifting through some boxes of records and I came across Tegan and Sara’s Hey I’m Just Like You. Side note: this album is available to buy from our Discogs site. It’s a damn fine looking and sounding copy with the printed lyric sleeve, just saying. Moving on…

Anyway, I can’t say I know a ton from Tegan and Sara, but I like a few albums, and this is one of them. It’s their NINTH studio album. With this one, I think the sister duo made a really smart and timely move by re-recording demos of songs they had written back when they were teenagers and admittedly had a Kurt Cobain shrine. I have a Kurt Cobain shrine too. I call it “my record collection” and it’s one expensive fucking shrine.

So on this album, you can certainly hear their teenage hearts starting to realize that life can be kind of shit, but they aren’t quite at the point where they know life can be really shit. It’s cool to hear these coming of age songs re-recorded through the lens of experience and wisdom the band has acquired over a couple decades. I imagine it’s like going back and reading your teenage diary and making it sound less cringe. The thing about Tegan and Sara is that I always longed for a much more angsty sound, but angsty doesn’t always have to sound angry. That’s something that took me a long time to realize.

It’s interesting to listen now to the music they made as teens, knowing that they were holding in so much about their sexuality and how they felt about it. On songs like Don’t Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie), they figure out that the cliche things your parents tell you when you’re young to make you feel better may not actually apply to you. Sara wrote that particular song in the late 90s when she was 15 and going through a period of self-hatred. If that wasn’t a theme of adolescence in the 90s, I don’t know what was. But, good news, I guess revisiting that period of time captured in those songs (while re-recording these demos) was actually really healing for Sara. I don’t know anything about writing music, but when I forced myself to read my high school diaries, it was not therapeutic whatsoever. It was more like “holy shit, you’re the same person, but just… older.”

Please Help Me is a favorite track on this album. Call me crazy or call me 100% correct, but I’d be very surprised if Taylor Swift didn’t listen to a lot of Tegan and Sara as she was doing the indie girl transition. Hold My Breath Until I Die is another good one. It has an unexpected, yet subtle, Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac feel to it. It may be the most mature sounding track on the record.

Yes, the music sounds like teenagers wrote it, because teenagers wrote it. Even if it’s been re-recorded. I think it’s a pretty brave thing to do to go back 20 years and work with that music again, because they weren’t just making their old music sound better. They were also revisiting the pain and confusion embedded in that music. Hot damn, is this a case study or a staff pick? Told you I was going down a different road today. It’s called Existential Crisis Avenue.

All in all, it’s a pretty cohesive poppy record with some nice synthy choruses. It’s a pleasant listen, and oddly nostalgic. Which makes no sense because this wasn’t my vibe growing up. If my mom didn’t bust into my room with a worried look on her face before telling me to “turn that crap down,” it wasn’t on my playlist. However, one nice thing about getting older is going back to music you discarded or overlooked, and discovering you kinda like it now.

But really, someone should buy it on our Discogs. It’s looks and plays great. It’s aesthetically pleasing (which is what drew me in in the first place) with its high contrast black and white art work, and matte textured jacket. I will also write you a special note when I fill your order.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

-Angela

What’s up Sorry Staters?

At first, I thought I might write about that new Krigshoder tape this week. Goddeyum that shit rips!! But instead, I decided to go a different route. Last weekend, me, Usman and our buddy Eric hit the road to go meet up with our good homies the Hardy Boys. Also, we had the first ever Fatal band practice. It was a blast for sure.

The usual scenario hangin’ out over at the Hardy’s crib is to pound beers and blast record after record. At some point, someone threw on this new Black Flag live record. Live At “The On Broadway” 23 July 1982 is such a killer moment captured in Black Flag’s history as a band. Not unlike the My War ’82 demos, this gig in 1982 is a rare snapshot of the brief period that Chuck Biscuits was playing in Black Flag. Henry even has a corny moment where he introduces Biscuits, saying something like, “You remember him from a little band called DOA!?” or something like that haha. As far as I can remember, I’ve never heard the opening song of the setlist “No Martyrs” before. It’s definitely a faster-pace hardcore song in the scheme of the Black Flag catalog. It’s killer. But even when they break into Black Flag classics like “Depression” or “Jealous Again”, the band is just playing with this insane power and ferocity. They maybe never sounded tighter. Henry is also doing some improvisations on the vocals that are super cool. But then when they play early versions of songs from My War, they just sound so fucked up and pissed. His banter in between songs is hilarious, like when he complains about the audience untying his shoes. Then when they go into an early version of “Scream,” Henry goes, “You wanna know what happened to me? Listen to this song.” And then he’s just making the most demented sounding screams of agony you’ve ever heard. They’re just on fire, dude. I’m like, damn are they okay? Clearly not. So yeah, needless to say, I absolutely had to bring a copy of this live record home. And now, Sorry State has copies for all ya filthy animals out there!

Anyway, that’s all I’ve gotta this week. What a killer moment in the Black Flag chronology. I wish this lineup had recorded a proper record, but it’s rad there’s a document to look back on. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

999: S/T LP (1978, United Artists Records)

For the past few weeks, I’ve been spending time visiting parts of my record collection I haven’t touched in years. What’s been getting me into these nooks and cranniesis something I like to think of as “playing records,” sort of the way little kids play with toys. This is something I used to be weirdly ashamed of, which would complicated the joy I get from it. However, I remember reading this book by Questlove of the Roots called Creative Quest a few years ago, and it advocated for something like this. I don’t know much about Questlove’s music, but something about Creative Quest caught my eye and made me want to read it… perhaps it was my inference that the book combined popular psychology (a semi-guilty pleasure of mine) with music, which is pretty much exactly what it did. In the book, Questlove advocated spending time just fiddling around with things—reorganizing his iTunes library, editing tags in his music files, rearranging his vinyl and CDs, etc.—without pressuring yourself to create or to get anything from the process except the intrinsic joy. There’s some invisible voice inside my head that says “it should be all about the music, MAN!” and that this sort of administrative work is, at best, a chore, and at worst something that distracts you from engaging with the music itself. However, with Questlove’s permission I’ve allowed myself to “play records” with no pressure to even listen to music. I’ve really enjoyed it, and it’s led me into interesting and under-appreciated parts of my collection.

A big project I’ve been engaged with for the past several months is reorganizing my vinyl. People often ask me how many records I have. I can’t tell you an exact number, but it’s around 4,000. While that’s a huge number for your average person, I think it’s a pretty slim and tidy collection by record store owner / music fanatic standards. I know plenty of people who have a lot more records than I do. Despite the relative tidiness of my collection, it long ago outgrew the shelving I have in my living room, which is where I like to keep my LPs. Once the shelves in the living room filled up, I put a couple of shelves I acquired with a collection in another room, and over the past few years I’ve filled those as well. The records in my living room are alphabetized and entered into my Discogs collection, but the records in the other room are not on Discogs and are alphabetized among themselves, sort of like a whole second record collection in the other room. The big project is to fold those records into my main collection and get them entered into Discogs, shelved, and alphabetized. It’s a big job, particularly when my day job often entails doing very similar tasks at work all day.

Another part of that reorganization project is re-sleeving all of my LPs. This is some nerdy ass shit. Previously, my LPs were in whatever polybag (or not) they came with, which seemed fine for a long time. Then a few years ago I bought a collection where everything was in these crazy nice 5mil crystal clear polypropylene sleeves from Sleeve City, what they call the “ultimate outer 5.0.” There was an extra bag of these sleeves in the collection, so I took them home and put a few of my most valuable and/or treasured records in them, and I was blown away. They made the records look beautiful. After I saw that, I took the sleeves off all the records in that collection and took them home. I decided I wanted to put all of my LPs in these sleeves, but when I ordered a batch from Sleeve City, my order sat unfulfilled for a couple of months until they finally canceled it. I checked the Sleeve City website every couple of weeks, but they were always on back-order. Of course, today, as I go to grab a link for this piece, they’re back in stock. However, I’ve moved on.

Giving up the Ultimate Outer 5.0 ghost, I searched other vendors for something similar. I knew I wanted the crystal clear polypropylene sleeves (rather than the slightly cloudier polyethylene sleeves we use at the shop), but no one sold them any thicker than 2 mil, and all the ones I tried at that weight had problems with seams splitting, particularly with gatefold or oversized LPs. Eventually I found a 2mil polypropylene sleeve I could live with from a company called Clear Bags, and I’m about 3/4 of the way through the re-sleeving process. Even though they’re not precisely what I wanted, they still look fantastic. Having my LPs in uniform plastic sleeves makes them look tidy on my shelves, and with these super clear polypropylene sleeves I can actually read the records’ spines. And when you pull the record off the shelf, it looks nearly as good as it does in the Ultimate Outer 5.0.

Re-sleeving my records has reminded me about a lot of records I’ve had for years but haven’t listened to in ages. It’s also brought to my attention several embarrassing gaps in my collection that I’ve been working to fill. How did I not have Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables on vinyl? Or Generic Flipper? Or Millions of Dead Cops? I’ve plugged those holes, but there are a lot of other common records I’m still after. Hit me up if you want to sell me copies of the first two UK Subs LPs, Zen Arcade, Black Flag’s In My Head… I could go on. I’ve also been having an intense internal struggle over whether I should splurge on a copy of Frankenchrist with the poster, or whether I should settle for a copy without one. It’s not like I’m going to hang that thing up.

Another thing I’ve been doing when I decide to “play records” is work on my digital music library. I have a shitload of music on my phone, but my digital music collection is totally separate from my physical music collection. I think this is because I use my phone to explore new music, while I reserve physical copies for records I want to go back to. Usually when I’m walking or driving and listening to music on my phone, I want to hear something new, but sometimes you just want to blast a classic on a long drive, and my digital music collection didn’t have many of my favorite records in it. So, I started the long process of getting a digital copy of everything in my physical collection into my digital library. It took an afternoon to get through all the numbers and A’s, but getting these titles on my phone has gotten me to listen to things I haven’t heard in ages. The first Acid Reflux EP rules! Absolut’s Hell’s Highest Power melted my fucking brain the other day. I also put on 999’s first album for the first time in many years.

I love 999, and I have a lot of their records. However, at some point I decided that High Energy Plan was my favorite, and that’s the one I always threw on when I wanted to hear 999. High Energy Plan is one of those mongrel records they used to make for overseas markets, compiling some (but not all) of the tracks from the band’s second album, Separates, with a couple of tracks from non-album singles. Usually these mongrel albums pale in comparison to the originals, but High Energy Plan is a back-to-front ripper, and it’s nice that it pops up often in the US, typically for $10-$15. Whenever I find a cheap copy in another store, I always buy it to re-sell at Sorry State to someone who likes the Buzzcocks or the Undertones.

Back to 999, though. It’s really good! There isn’t a dud on the record, and the hits are plenty. “Emergency” is a fucking belter that No Love used to experiment with covering, though we never performed it at a gig. “No Pity” is a high-energy rave-up a la the Damned’s first era, and “Me and My Desire” has a coy, sultry vibe that you don’t hear on too many punk records. I always got the impression that 999 had a pre-punk past, and I hear a lot of David Bowie and other glam / art rock in a track like “Me and My Desire.”

I remember picking up this LP at Amoeba on Haight Street in the early 2000s. I was on a cross-country trip with my ex-wife, and she was patient enough to let me visit a lot of record stores. I remember we were listening to lots of 999 on the long drives, and I had a premonition that I would find this album somewhere on that trip. That was a long shot since 999 has never been pressed in the US, but there it was waiting for me at Amoeba. I had a similar thing happen with Naked Raygun. I had every Naked Raygun LP except Basement Screams, and I was convinced I would find a copy in Chicago. Indeed, it was sitting there waiting for me at Reckless. I remember the $50 price tag stung a bit, but I rationalized it was OK to pay extra for a copy with local provenance. Looking at the Discogs prices now, I guess it turned out to be an OK deal.

OK, that’s enough for this week. What a long, rambling staff pick! Hopefully you gleaned something useful, and if nothing else, don’t feel guilty playing with your records!

What’s up Sorry State Readers, I hope everyone has had a nice week. Today I’m gonna be writing about an album Daniel has already written about, which is probably much more in depth than what I’m about to write, but I figured I’d give it a shot since it was just reissued on vinyl for the first time since its original release and I’ve been listening to it on repeat since I got it. The first time I heard The Third World War was a couple months ago. Daniel was showing me something on his computer and he had this album playing. I think the track Tears was playing and I remember thinking, “Man, this is really good,” so I took note of what it was and added it on Apple Music. I honestly only listened to a couple tracks from it during this time and mostly just listened to Tears cause it was so catchy and would get stuck in my head. There isn’t a ton of info about the band online other than what’s posted in their artist bio on Discogs, and Daniel has already covered that and more info about the band if you wanna check that out, so I won’t go into detail about the history of the band here. Anyways, I was stoked last week when copies of this arrived at the store. I had no idea it was getting a reissue. I bought a copy immediately and gave it a spin at work and was honestly blown away by it after listening to the entire album. It had so many different styles and sounds on it, and I loved them all. Songs like Boys have such an infectious sound to them that just gets lodged in your brain and I love the lead singer Tracy Crazy’s raspy shrieks throughout the song. So many of the bass lines and riffs on here just sound so awesome and I just wanna listen to them over and over. I think everyone could find something they like about this album. I played it for a couple different friends and each one had a different favorite song. It’s always such a pleasant surprise to find an album you really enjoy the whole way through and can just sit down and listen to it from start to finish. Some of my favorite tracks on here are Li, Tears, and Boys. Snag a copy of this while you can, as I’m pretty sure this repress was limited to only 500 copies.

Hey Sorry State fam! How are you? Hope all is well!

I’ve been super stoked on the Yambag Strength in Nightmares 7” record. We’ve got something quite exciting here. I was born and raised in Akron (near Cleveland Ohio) and I’m always excited to hear new music from the area. Historically, Cleveland’s hardcore scene isn’t that prominent in the grand scheme of things. But, it certainly has a reputation for being angry, chaotic, and nihilistic. Let me tell ya, Cleveland has a special way of breaking your spirit, and it’s only natural that their hardcore music would reflect that. Sounds nice, eh? Oh! There’s this super interesting documentary called Destroy Cleveland that captures the madness of the scene from the 80s to the early 2000s. But in true Cleveland fashion, you will likely never be able to watch it. Unless you have a bootleg of the rare screening from years ago. Basically, it’s just hard as hell to find.

With all that said, I haven’t been really hyped on a Cleveland release until now. Enter Yambag. Strength in Nightmares is one of my favorite releases of this year, period. Some of the fastest, most exhilarating shit I’ve heard in a long time. It’s seven tracks in a little over eight minutes, and that eight minutes flies by so fast.

This record is pure chaos. I could have summed up my staff pick with that sentence alone and felt pretty satisfied that I covered everything, but I will continue. Every track is rambunctious and noisy, but it’s also really well-done and even kind of fun at times. The second side is my favorite part of the EP. The extra snotty vocals, catchier beats, and the bass on their rendition of the song Lowlife is absolutely killer. It’s easily my top track and a great closer to the record. Capture the Flag is a close second. And what kind of Clevo style hardcore would it be without the singer’s random “blechhh” noises? That simple sound of disgust really put that Cleveland stamp on it.

Anyway, if you like your hardcore chaotic and fast as fuck, then this one is for you. It’s every bit as angry as early Clevo style hardcore but it has a catchier beat to it and not quite as soul crushing.

Now for the bad news. I’m sorry to report it sold out before I could get this up! (note from Daniel: a restock is on the way!) But I still really wanted to talk about it as it will surely make my list of top releases this year. I’ve linked the EP below so you can take a listen and hopefully snag you a copy!

Thanks for reading! See ya next week!

-Angela

https://convulserecords.bandcamp.com/album/strength-in-nightmares

Hey there Sorry State gang, what’s happening? Another eventful week in the books and hopefully you all had a good one.

I’ll admit right off the bat that I got a little emotional on Monday. It marked the end of an era in history and made me feel homesick, something that I don’t tend to feel having lived outside of the UK for so long now. Although not officially so, I consider myself partly American, as I have been here more than half my life. Speaking to my mum, I could tell she was feeling the sadness. My sister ended up going to London during the week and took some amazing pictures of the sights there and she also went to Windsor on Monday and was amongst the crowd lining the route as the Queen’s hearse drove past.

Last week I spoke about the great new release of Charles Stepney music called Step On Step and this week I was able to play some tracks from that collection along with some of his other key productions and arrangements on the Face Radio show I do with my partner Matt. It felt good to be spinning records that day and to work out my emotions through the music. I think we had a good show, and it was very pleasing to get a thumbs up a couple of days later from no other than the daughters of Charles Stepney. That was cool.

Although it might appear that I only listen to cocktail jazz in my space-age bachelor pad, I do still listen to loud rock ‘n roll. This past week it was cool getting yet another version of The Heartbreakers L.A.M.F. to compare with my others, and I’ve been blasting that. This new one sounds good, and if you don’t have any version already in your collection, it’s worth picking up. However, that record is not “new” to me, and I needed something else. What better place to look than in the racks here at Sorry State. We had a UK pressing of Circle Jerks Wild In The Streets that somehow hadn’t been snagged, so I thought I would grab that. Not to be, as a customer beat me to it. No problem, there’s a nice reissue out with bonus live cuts and a cool booklet. Let’s find something else. Jeff had just listed a copy of China White’s Danger Zone EP and recommended it. I wasn’t familiar with the record from these California punks that came out in 1981. Gave it a few listens, and it was hitting the spot. Our Jeff knows his onions. Great, into my hold pile it went but only to see another smart customer spotted it on our webstore and bought it. Good for them, a canny choice.

So, two choices down and onto the next. Third times the charm, as they say. A while back, one of our good friends here at Sorry State had told me about the band Annihilation Time and how good their cover of Thin Lizzy’s Bad Reputation was. We had a copy here, and I put it aside along with two of their LPs. I’ll admit my hold pile here fills up, and over the weeks since putting those Annihilation Time records aside a few other more pressing purchases came up. So, fast forward to this week and needing that rock kick, it was time to break ‘em out. I blasted both albums plus the single in the store, and they hit the spot. Not trying to be a poseur I won’t tell you all about the band and their history like I know all about them, but I can tell you they formed in Southern California in the early 00s and have had a couple of line-up changes since their beginning. Their second LP simply tilted Annihilation Time II is considered a classic now and I can see that. It has shades of psychedelic music in with the mix of 80s HC and 70s punk. I like it and will probably buy a copy at some point but for me the first LP was the one I needed to buy first. I like the songs and directness of it all. Good stuff.

I’m late to this party so won’t blather on too much more. You are probably hipper to these guys than I am. I still haven’t heard the third LP they made for Tee Pee Records, but it’s on my list of things to look out for and play. Thanks to Mike for turning me on to them. Investigate if not familiar. Okay, that’s all I got for you. Go play some records and we’ll see you here next week.

Cheers - Dom