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What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. This beautiful weather we’ve been having here in Raleigh has put me in the mood to listen to some pretty music, and what better time to bust out this Cher record Dominic introduced me to a couple weeks ago. All I Really Want to Do is Cher’s debut solo studio album from 1965, when she was only twenty years old. It’s full of a lot of great covers like C.C. Rider and He Thinks I Still Care, but my favorite on here has to be her cover of Don’t Think Twice. I pretty much love any version of this song, but this one has grown to be one of my favorites since I heard it. Cher has such a great voice and I feel like it shines on this debut. The best part about this record is I got it out of the bargain bin, as it doesn’t command too high of a price. So many of my favorite records have just come from bargain bins and it blows me away when people kinda just skip that whole section of the store when they come in. One of my favorite things to do before I started working here at Sorry State was to come in and just dig around in the bins and see what I could find and I’d always walk away with some great stuff and spend less than $20. It makes it a lot easier tho when you have a coworker like Dom to point you in the right direction of the good shit. Anyway I’m gonna enjoy these blue skies, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Hi Sorry State readers! Hope everyone is having a good week. We are busy AF here at SSR headquarters, so thank you for your patience and continued support! I usually have a fair amount of energy, but the last two weeks or so have kicked my ass. I think I may finally be getting old. Or maybe it’s just pollen season.

Either way, we have gotten so many new records lately! It’s super fun and also overwhelming when you want to dig into some new music and don’t know where the hell to start. But spoiler alert, I did start. So here we go…

Although this isn’t my staff pick, I want to quickly mention an album I listened to this week that I really like. When I was sifting through our new stock, Jeff handed me the debut record by Camera Silens called Réalité, and I gave it a spin. It’s the 1985 debut from the band. It’s French. It’s oi! punk, I guess. Those are the only bullet points I can come up with for now, as it’s new to me. But it’s really good and the bass lines are the sickest. Their song Suicide has been stuck in my head. It’s got such an infectious chorus, and wouldn’t you know, the bass riffs are the sickest.

On to my staff pick. I will give Jeff credit for this one too because he was listening to this band one day and really liked it. I probably asked what it was, and he likely told me. But that happens a lot here at Sorry State, and there are a lot of bands floating around in my head that are waiting to be listened to. Anyway, that band happened to be Legal Weapon. And I know that because we recently received the reissue of their first album, Death of Innocence. I guess I was meant to listen to it because it was an immediate yes.

Legal Weapon is one of the LA punk pioneers, forming in 1980 and led by the fabulous Kat Arthur. There have been lineup changes along the way, but the lineup on this particular album is special as they added Steve Soto and Frank Agnew of the Adolescents on bass and rhythm guitar. I mean, enough said.

This album sounds like a blend of hard rock, classic punk, and melodic hardcore. Kat Arthur’s vocals are extraordinary and really the focal point for me. They’re strong and smoky, but really versatile too. She’s a killer punk singer, but she could have easily fronted any type of rock band of the time and skyrocketed into fame. Who knows? I think their later stuff does shift more toward hard rock, but we’re here to talk Death of Innocence.

Looping back to the versatility of Kat’s vocals for a minute. I am even reminded a little bit of Siouxsie Sioux. A good example of this is on the title track, Death of Innocence. Such a dynamic track. It’s melodic and also really gritty, with darker and more dramatic vocals.

Another great track that’s more on brand for a punk album is Daddy’s Gone Mad. It’s fast and furious, with gritty hooks and high-pitched riffs. Likewise, War Babies is another killer track. That one is angrier and more anthemic. Waiting in Line is my favorite song on the album. It’s rather simple, but I love the tempo changes on this one and how the vocals shift from playful to threatening. It’s a slower track, but it’s also really powerful.

That all said, there isn’t a bad song or even a mediocre song on the album. It kept me engaged from start to finish, and my attention span is pretty short. I don’t really know how well known this album is, but for how good it is, I imagine it’s tragically underrated.

By the way, this is the album’s first reissue with fully remastered audio. It’s limited to 500 copies on color vinyl. Plus, you get a bad ass and rather sizable poster featuring an unpublished photo of Kat Arthur. The poster did not come with the original album, so this is a really cool bonus! Oh, and even though you don’t see it in my picture, it does have a hype sticker on the poly bag it comes with.

Give it a try. You’ll like it, I promise. Thanks so much for reading and see ya next week!

-Angela

SALVAJE PUNK caught my ear with a burning intensity on their debut cassette. I’ve been anticipating what they would do next, and I am so happy they went straight to 12” with 10 blistering tracks. In true Toxic State fashion, the entire packaging is screen printed. The fold-out poster is so sick. It is something that deserves to be hung up immediately. The LP looks like two songs are from the demo, alongside 8 brand new songs on a new recording session. When I said blistering earlier, I really mean it. This band plays with an intensity only bands like NO SECURITY can achieve. To me, their sound is somewhere in between them and like FORÇA MACABRA. UNCURBED might be another decent comparison, but SALVAJE PUNK pushes it into another zone of intensity. Hearing an LP like this is refreshing cos I feel like there are not really any bands playing with this 90s hardcore thrash style, especially in the USA. Check this shit out if you haven’t yet, and grab a copy! Cheers everyone, and thanks for the support!

What’s up Sorry Staters?

How do I even start? I feel overwhelmed by all the choices of new releases to listen to this week. I’ll take a total left turn:

I know what you’re all thinking, “Here we go again. Jeff’s gonna rant about ANOTHER new wave record and convince us that we should care about it.” Yeah, so what? Cease rolling your eyes, please! I don’t know what’s wrong with me. The other night I was jamming “Kiss Me Deadly” by Lita Ford at like 2am and just loving it… But that’s besides the point. I’ll get back to being interested in hardcore again eventually (I hope haha).

Every now and then, I decide to raid our bargain bin new arrivals to try and find cheap records to check out. Recently, Sorry State purchased a collection that was chock full of new wave type stuff. Some pricier stuff like The Smiths and Echo & The Bunnymen, but then tons of cheaper stuff like Culture Club, Thompson Twins, The Motels, etc. One of the records in this stack of stuff we deemed appropriate for the bargain bin was Desperate, the first album by Divinyls. Now, I’m sure most people are familiar with the mega-hit “I Touch Myself” and don’t know much about the band beyond that song. Personally, I always thought of Divinyls as more or less a “one hit wonder”-type band. Do you wanna know how that infamous Divinyls song first came onto my radar? There was a Wayne’s World skit on Saturday live where Wayne and Garth count down their all-time Top 10 babes haha. After Garth’s Mom wins the top 3 spot, Wayne reveals that number 2 on the list is Kim Basinger. The two proceed to sing “I don’t want anybody else, when I think about Kim Basinger, I touch myself!” This memory is cemented into my young brain, but at the time, I had no idea this was a real song, let alone who sang it.

All that aside, did you know that the Divinyls’ mega-hit wasn’t released until their 4th studio album in 1991? And not only that, but that they had records released as far back as 10 years prior? Welp, neither did I. I think they were quite renowned and loved in Australia even as far back as 1982. I fear overemphasizing how great I think this first Divinyls album is, but I’ve been listening to it obsessively. I have a tendency toward feeling excited about dusting off an undiscovered gem. Then I wear out it out, listening to it repeatedly until I can’t stand it anymore. Jah bless me, I think that’s what I’m going through as we speak. For all intents and purposes, I think of “I Touch Myself” as a totally corny novelty song.

So whatever, let’s talk about Desperate! I’m pretty sure the track listing for the US pressing of this album that I have is different from the original Australian release. It must be that they re-worked the record to be front-loaded with bangers, because I swear the A-side of this record is damn-near perfect. Sure, it’s still pop, but the songs have so much more grit and it’s so much more rockin’ than what I had previously associated with this band. For 1982, Desperate has beautiful, clear and powerful sounding production.

Divinyls open the record with a ripper “Boys In Town,” an octane-fueled, driving, fast hi-hat banger with this stressful, anxious rock’n’roll tension. It’s got punk elements, but even without an obvious big radio-friendly chorus, it’s so damn catchy. “Only Lonely” has all these lush, arpeggiated guitar riffs that remind me of (and totally precedes) the UK indie/brit-pop sound. Kinda like something off of Creation Records. The vocal performance has this sassy, almost retro 60s feel to it. The 3rd song “Science Fiction” makes a jarring shift in tone, being the most notably quirky, overtly new wave sounding song. Chrissy hits these eccentric falsetto notes. Between her performance, wiggly synth sounds, and awkward herky-jerky rhythms, this track sounds not unlike Missing Persons or something in that vein. “Siren” breaks into an up-tempo, lighthearted feel, making a nice blend of male and female call-and-response vocals. The sentiment is totally teenage dream type scenario with “never let you go” type lyrics. Super just repetitive and catchy. Any use of elementary counting or the alphabet always cracks me up. At one point, both singers sing in unison: “I’ll never A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T YOU go!” Very clever haha. Then the closing track on the B-side, “Elsie,” is the slow and dramatic number. Kinda sad actually, the refrain being, “Life can be lonely, life can be oh so sad.”

What strikes me more than anything is how damn charismatic and captivating Chrissy Amphlett’s voice is. Funny enough, being named Chrissy, I feel like she does kinda resemble Chrissy Hinde a bit with those bangs. But not so much in her vibe or the way she sings. Amphlett’s approach is raspy, full of attitude, and like the title says, desperate. Before hearing this record, her demeanor in my mind was more sort of sultry and playful, but now she comes across as more frantic, intense and full of rage. Apparently, Chrissy was directly influenced by the antics of a native Australian, Angus Young of AC/DC. That’s part of the reason why she wore a schoolgirl’s outfit. There’s live footage of her going wild, moving her body like she’s possessed. She would like smear lipstick all over herself and drench herself in water, pouting her lips and holding that lightsaber glowing mic stand with fists clenched and elbows up. So badass.

Did I really need to go through and review each song on the A-side of this record to try and convince you it’s any good? Probably not. I dunno man, I’m way into it. Maybe one day I’ll get to the B-side, but for now I just keep lifting the needle and playing the A-side over and over. I probably should take a Xanax or something.

Just watch this video and tell me it doesn’t rip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnOXYcO4zjg

Anyway, thanks for indulging me. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Hey there Sorry Staters! Thanks for checking out the ol’ newsletter. As always, we humbly appreciate your support.

Another massive week here at the SSR compound. Jeff literally got buried in boxes this past Monday and tons of new stuff and restocks came our way. If you follow our social media, you will have seen some news about those already and, of course, Doctor D and my learned colleagues will no doubt be giving you some great information right here in the newsletter.

As for me? Well, like everyone here at SSR I am a big fan of the band Sial from Singapore and we just got in their most recent single Sangkar. It’s a good one. Biting, politically charged, female fronted hardcore punk. Perhaps not my normal proverbial cup of tea, but in similar fashion to our own Scarecrow, these guys add a little something extra to the HC template. I’m still in the early days of listening, but so far, my favorite track is the title one. I love the laugh towards the end of the song. Give these guys a listen if you aren’t already a fan.

The new full length from Personal Damage: Atrophy & Entropy is still getting plenty of turntable action chez-moi and if you haven’t snagged yourself one yet what are you waiting for? Get one asap. Again, possibly too early to state a favorite track, but I am liking the song Garbage Juice quite a bit and gave it a spin on Worldy this week.

Talking of great L.A. punk, if you haven’t picked up a copy of the Legal Weapon: Death Of Innocence reissue yet, get on it. Another fine recommendation from Jeff. He played me some of their stuff a while back and until now copies of the album had been pretty hard to find and naturally expensive. We recently hooked up a good friend here at SSR with an original copy, but I was excited to see that Radiation had reissued the album. I think they did a decent job. Nice yellow vinyl and a cool poster of an unreleased photo of singer Kat Arthur. Plus, the price is too cheap to argue with. It’ll be the best $20 you’ll spend. Go for it.

As anyone who has a record store or buys and sells used records can tell you, it’s often feast or famine. Fortunately for us, currently we are still working through some large collections. We’ve mentioned the cool jazz stuff, the great 70s prog and electronic collection, but I am not sure whether I told you about a nice New Wave collection that Daniel scored. Nothing too crazy, just clean copies of 80s classics and also-rans. I was having some fun looking up some of the more obscure records and checking them out. There was also one in there that I almost can’t believe I hadn’t heard before, but have been enjoying none the less. It’s the self-titled debut album from Dirty Looks on Stiff Records from 1980.

They were from Staten Island, New York and formed in 1977 and were spotted playing at CBGBs by Squeeze bassist John Bentley, who set the wheels in motion for the band, resulting in them being signed to Stiff Records/Epic and recording their debut album in England. Their sound fits perfectly with the rest of the Stiff Records roster. Power pop with an edge. If you are a fan of Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, the Stiff Records world and bands like Squeeze and dare I say early Police, then there is lots to like here. Plenty of pop hooks, driving beats and a sound that draws on pop and garage sounds of the 1960s and adds a little late 1970s punk edge. Not too much mind, but enough to not make them lame. Certainly, the tag that a lot of “power pop” groups get labeled with. Correctly or not.

The band released a second LP on Stiff and recorded demos for an unreleased third. At the time, the debut sold well for Epic in the US, apparently the best-selling Stiff release at the time with over 100,000 copies sold. They also had a couple of rotation hits on the early MTV, which helped the cause. Talking of videos, the band filmed a three-song set in the streets of New York in front of the Epic offices on 52nd Street on the back of a flatbed truck unannounced to promote the release of their debut album. The event caused quite the disturbance and resulted in an arrest but a fun, cool fifteen-minute film. Worth checking out.

Here’s a link to watch them perform the song Let Go.

People talk fondly of seeing the band back in the day and they gained a lot of fans as part of the In The Son Of Stiff tour that played over sixty gigs in eleven European countries in 1980. However, despite the moderate success, their name is seldom mentioned these days outside of their fanbase and the power pop world. Or maybe I am wrong, and everyone knows these guys and I am just forty years late to the party. Very possible. If, however, you are in the same boat as me and Dirty Looks are new to you too, then give them a play and pick up the record next time you see one. It shouldn’t cost you more than $10 tops. The UK and US pressings have different covers and I think I prefer the color one of the US version.

Also, if looking up the group, there is another band with the same name who are a hard rock band from Erie, Pennsylvania who enjoyed a multiple album career from the mid 1980s through the early 2000s.

I’ll leave you with one more link, the last song on the album called Drop That Tan, which I like. It almost has a slight rockabilly influence to it, although I doubt that was the intention. Good, fun stuff and I’m glad to have heard them and to have discovered them all these years later. Not earth changing but with enough spirit of rock ‘n roll to make them worthy in my opinion.

Thanks for reading. Cheers and see you next time.

-Dom

Brian Johnson: The Lives of Brian (Dey Street Books, 2022, audiobook)

My journal tells me I struggle with insomnia every spring, and this year is no different. I’m not sure if the cause is the change to daylight savings time, the pollen, the changing weather, the excitement of winter being over, or something else entirely, but when my head hits my pillow this time of year, it’s like my brain gets a signal to wake up and start racing. Honestly, it sucks. I empathize with people who struggle with insomnia long term, because not feeling rested is a drag, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Often, rather than letting my monkey brain chase its tail until sunrise, I’ll try to quiet my mind with an audiobook. Usually I go for something dry, like a history of some time and place that’s far away from my current concerns. Lately, however, I’ve been listening to rock biographies. I listened to Ronnie James Dio’s autobiography a few months ago, then Bob Spitz’s massive tome on Led Zeppelin, which was one of the better rock books I’ve ever read. And earlier this week I finished The Lives of Brian, the recently released memoir by AC/DC singer Brian Johnson.

Although I’ve listened to and read so many of them, I don’t devour rock books the way I used to. Somewhere along the line, I realized my favorite parts of these books were the human stories they told rather than the musical ones, and then I had the further realization that all kinds of human beings, not just musicians, write their stories. In fact—and this may be hard to believe—some of those humans are even better than musicians at writing their autobiographies! Not being a massive AC/DC fan (though I do like them), I wouldn’t have been interested in Brian Johnson’s memoirs, but a while back on the You Don’t Know Mojack podcast (which I still listen to every week), Brant mentioned the book was fantastic and that it was devoted almost entirely to Johnson’s life before he joined AC/DC. So, late one night I downloaded a sample of the audiobook, which Johnson reads himself, and was sold.

While his bandmates in AC/DC are Aussies, Johnson was born and raised in Newcastle in the northeast of England. Johnson’s mother was Italian, and his parents met while his father served in the British army in World War II. Brian paints a detailed picture of life in postwar Newcastle, where (like all of Britain) the war’s effects continued to be felt well into the 60s, particularly on council estates like the one where Brian grew up. It would be easy to draw this world as a caricature, but Brian’s way with a story is apparent from the jump, as he portrays the people in his life with remarkable empathy and the unpretentious wit that has served him so well as a lyricist. Perhaps it’s Johnson’s Italian heritage, which made him an outsider on the insular, homogenous council estate, that gives him the perspective to see the world around him so clearly. Regardless of the cause, Brian deserves the credit for his vivid and powerful writing. And it’s his, too… from what I’ve read, Johnson wrote The Lives of Brian himself, longhand no less, without help from a ghost writer.

While The Lives of Brian is light on AC/DC content, there’s a lot about music in the book. Johnson didn’t join AC/DC until he was 32 years old, and he was obsessed with music from the time he was a young boy, when he was playing in the street and heard a teenage girl playing a Little Richard record in her living room. He was so entranced that he knocked on the stranger’s door and asked her to play the record again. Eventually, Brian started playing in bands himself. One of the most remarkable stories in the book is when Brian needs to buy a PA system so his band can play bigger gigs, and he covers the expense by joining the army’s reserve force. He heard from a friend that recruits to the Parachute Battalion received a substantial bonus upon completing training, so he signed on and started jumping out of planes in pursuit of his dreams. Talk about commitment!

Before Johnson got the call from AC/DC, he was in a glam rock group called Geordie that had a few minor hits and even appeared on Top of the Pops. Johnson goes into detail about his time in Geordie, and the story comes alive thanks to Johnson’s account of the sub-mainstream music industry they inhabited. It was a world full of shady labels, shifty promoters, future superstars, and talentless hacks, all rubbing elbows and getting into epic drama. Johnson quit his job as an apprentice engineer—which could have been a lifelong career—to pursue Geordie, but after the group failed to build on its initial success, they fell apart, leaving Brian, the father of two young children, to move back in with his parents and start life over from scratch. He starts a successful business fitting cars with then-fashionable vinyl roofs, but he finds himself unable to walk away from music and soon he’s formed Geordie II, which hones Johnson’s live chops as they play (mostly cover tunes) in pubs and working men’s clubs around Newcastle.

Ultimately, though, it’s not what happened that makes The Lives of Brian so great; it’s Johnson himself. Having lived for 32 years and experienced his fair share of adversity before joining AC/DC, who hit their commercial peak just as he entered the band, Johnson has perspective and wisdom. His view of his difficulties early in his life are tempered by the unfathomable success he experienced with AC/DC—he knows those struggles prepared him for the gig—but he’s also aware of how lucky he is… at so many points in his journey, a different choice would have led him into very different circumstances. Johnson doesn’t view himself as a genius, and he isn’t entitled in the least… the only trait he credits for his success is persistence. The sentence “Never give up” appears many times in the book. This sense of hope for the future and gratitude for the past makes The Lives of Brian an utter pleasure.

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has been enjoying the first week of spring. This week I was struggling a little with my staff pick, maybe cause I was just listening to a lot of bluegrass in my free time (I’m not gonna bore y’all again with that quite yet) and in the store me and Dominic have been listening to a lot of different jazz records and stuff of that nature which I’ve been enjoying a lot, but nothing that jumped out and made me wanna write about it this week. Yesterday, I was working in the store and I realized whatever record I was playing was about to end, so I had to grab something real quick to throw on after. I was doing a scan around the store when the yellow cover of the new People’s Temple 7”, I’m With The… caught my eye. I decided I’d give that a spin since I hadn’t heard it yet and it’s been selling like hot cakes. Man, this thing fucking rips. Fast, loud, in your face hardcore from start to finish. The sign of a great 7” to me is that whenever I finish it, I just wanna flip it back to side A and listen to it all over again, and this record does just that. I don’t know what else to say other than this record is really fun to just blast at high volumes. Give it a listen today, you won’t regret it!

Hi Sorry Stare readers! How are ya? This has been a week of just pure chaos for me in pretty much all major aspects of life. So when life hits me in the head with a brick, I don’t experiment too much with new music. I like to reach for old favorites that take no thought. So this week I thought I’d write about one of my favorite albums of all time.

The Cure’s Wish record is a rather timely choice given it received its very first reissue at the end of last year. Also, they just announced their tour and everyone is going ballistic. Rightfully so, as you never know if this tour will be the last. What a terrible thought. Their last US tour was in 2016, and fortunately I was able to go broke seeing them in Miami two nights in a row to close out their NA tour. Prior to that, I believe the last time they did a real tour in the States was 2004. I’ve seen them a bunch of times, and it never feels much different from the first time. And they’re bringing The Twilight Sad on tour again! I fell in love with the amazing Scottish band when I saw them open for the Cure in 2016.

Anyway, moving on.

If you have Wish on CD or cassette but not vinyl, I highly suggest you buy this remastered reissue. Robert Smith was heavily involved with the remastering, and he certainly takes his time. Rumor had it that the record had been done for four years, as Cure fans have been champing at the bit waiting for it. I have the original European 92’ press (shown in the second photo, and yeah, this is a flex), but I also have the remaster and the picture disc. I know it doesn’t seem necessary. But… it is. Anyway, they all sound excellent.

While I don’t think it’s their best album, Wish is my favorite Cure album. It’s certainly a departure from Disintegration, but it’s no less haunting. Every Cure album takes on a different mood and style. Where Disintegration is overall more atmospheric and abstract in its darkness, Wish kind of just tells it like it is. Songs like Cut, The End, and Apart are downright brutal. But they also let more light in on this album with a few poppy and whimsical tracks like Doing the Unstuck and High.

My favorite song of all time (and not just from The Cure) is From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea. It’s very layered, with brilliant songwriting and masterful changes in structure and arrangement. Personally, I think this song is their finest piece of music. I get a little overwhelmed trying to put it into words.

I could go on and on about The Cure and Wish, but it’s really tough to be succinct when talking about a band you’ve loved for most of your life. But I will stop here. Also, if you’ve never really gotten into the Cure, I highly recommend it. The journey through their discography is anything but boring, and will be well worth it!

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Angela

Hi and thanks for reading. ELECTRIC CHAIR seems to have everyone’s attention, like world-wide. Sorry State was lucky enough to get our own exclusive color of their debut 12”, which I’m sure you have already seen. I actually bought the cassette version of this a while ago cos I really wanted to hear it. It’s funny how long I had this art in my hand until I noticed the missile penis in the left corner. How could I have missed that? Everyone knows I love penises. I enjoyed that for a while after I discovered it, totally over-looking the shitting asshole... wow, this cover is insane. It also kinda looks like it says GWAR if you squint your eyes. Jesse Michaels (from OPIV!) did the back cover. That is so sick, and unexpected. I don’t listen to OPIV much anymore, but they played such an important role in my early years of punk. That probably goes for a lot of people my age though. Me and Rich were wasted one night some months ago coming home from Durham, and we listen to OPIV the whole way home, singing along. OK I have to go… thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone for the support!

What’s going on Sorry Staters? I hope all is good in your world. Mustn’t grumble on my end.

This week, like last, I have been chipping away at this big jazz collection we bought recently. Some of it has already hit the bins and indeed been purchased, but there is plenty more. The nice thing about this collection is that the records are all mostly in great shape and are more accessible reissues instead of being super pricey originals. Don’t get me wrong, we love buying collections of first press heavy hitters as much as the next record store, but sometimes it means great music only ends up in the hands of the few with thick enough wallets. It’s nice getting later pressings of classics and those great twofers that combined cool and often unreleased recordings into a budget priced package. Although some of those generic brown sleeved Blue Note doubles are getting up in value now as folks realize how good the material is even if the cover art is somewhat wanting. Another aspect of this jazz collection is that, similar to another collection we bought, it contains lots of ECM label records from the 70s and 80s and a good amount of other fusion-type records. I used to steer a very wide birth from fusion and anything that looked too complicated and chin scratchy. As a young lad, I wasn’t ready for that end of the jazz spectrum. My entry into the jazz world came via soul, blues and r & b. I liked what became known as Mod Jazz. Late 1950s through the 1960s was the era where I concentrated my initial journeys into jazz. Considering myself more a Vince Noir than a Howard Moon, 70s jazz fusion was akin to prog rock and other “older and boring” music. You wouldn’t have caught me dead waiting around for a bass solo. Now, however, as an older dude, I am of course finding a lot of this sort of music much more appealing, dare I say even damn good.

So, for this week’s pick I would like to select one of the fusion records that was in this collection. It’s fusion although with a twist.

Steve Marcus: Tomorrow Never Knows. Vortex. 1968

This album is an early example of Jazz Rock fusion and might be an easier gateway into jazz for many who are more familiar with guitar sounds and volume and for those that appreciate psychedelic music. Released on the Atlantic Records subsidiary label Vortex, which only lasted for a couple of years between 1968 and 1970, it is the debut album as leader for sax player Steve Marcus. Vortex was set up as a more experimental branch of Atlantic, and I seem to remember reading that Herbie Mann was the A&R head or something. It makes sense, as most of the artists that released a record on the label had at some point been or were still working as a sideman for Herbie Mann and his band. Hence, you have debuts from Chick Corea, Sonny Sharrock and Keith Jarrett to name three.

I first became introduced to this record in the early 00s whilst in New York. At this point I was gobbling up as much music as I could and was already collecting Herbie Mann records, so when I saw his name as producer on the back of the jacket I was already sold. Material-wise, it’s covers of two great Beatles tunes, the title track and Rain, a version of The Byrds’ Eight Miles High, Donovan’s Mellow Yellow and a song each by Graham Gouldman and Gary Burton. The latter name being another artist that was making a name for himself combining jazz and rock together. Burton plays the vibes, an instrument I love, and I always investigate any of his records or sessions he sits in on. My Gary Burton pick would be his Good Vibes album that contains the monster cut Vibrafinger. In fact, that whole first side is killer. We were playing a copy we have here at the store and John Scott caught the opening to the song Las Vegas Tango and recognized it from a hip-hop sample. The drummer on the session was Bernard Purdie, so you can best believe the beats are on point and the guitarist was Eric Gale who absolutely shreds on the tune Boston Marathon. Snag a copy next time you see one. In the meantime, here’s a link.

Back to TNK. From first listen I was blown away by how good this album is and some twenty years later it still entertains and thrills. John Scott and I gave the copy we have here a spin yesterday, and it sounded great. I remember once waking up the festival goers at Shakori Hills a few years back by playing the album in full one morning. I am part of the Vinyl Lounge collective of DJs that spin records during the festival. I apparently hit a chord that one morning as several people wandered up to the booth that day and asked who it was that had been playing as they had been digging it. I was glad to have started their day so well.

On release, the record was greeted with praise from some quarters and hailed as an avant-garde triumph, whilst other critics dismissed it as lightweight and a sell-out. I don’t get the latter. Sure, the songs are rock and pop in origin, but the interpretation is anything but lightweight, in my opinion. 1968 wasn’t exactly early as far as out-there sounds were concerned and Miles Davis would soon to be bringing rock influences into jazz when he dropped Bitches Brew. Maybe if Steve Marcus wasn’t a white kid from the Bronx the album might have been viewed differently and taken more seriously by the jazz purists. But that’s conjecture and a whole other discussion.

Uncredited on the album sleeve, the musicians on the record all show up and put in a shift. Most notably, guitarist Larry Coryell, who brings the psychedelic rock vibes to the party. Bass and drums are filled by Chris Hills and Bob Moses, respectively. I’m also a big fan of Larry Coryell. His early albums on Vanguard from the late 60s through mid 70s are all worthy of checking out and are mostly cheap and easy to find. Something else which I love. Common records that out-punch their weight.

Steve Marcus cut another two albums for Vortex over the next two years after Tomorrow Never Knows: Count’s Rock Band and The Lord’s Prayer. Like their predecessor, both albums feature extended jazz workouts of rock songs. This time the tunes come from Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Simon & Garfunkel, The Troggs and The Beatles again. I like both of these records too, but they are not quite as good from beginning to end as the TNK. The high points are good, though, and worth the price of admission. The good thing is right now the price of entry isn’t too steep and you could probably scoop up all three of these records for less than $50, which in a world where new release albums by lame pop stars regularly retail for more than that, isn’t too bad. Here’s a link for you to check the record out. Enjoy.

Finally, before I sign off, as I have been in a jazz mood this week, I thought it would be a good idea to finally watch the concert film Jazz On A Summer’s Day, which was filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island and features a whole host of jazz, blues and gospel legends. I have seen clips from the film over the years, but had not sat and watched it from start to finish. It’s a beautifully put together film. No narration, just the stage announcer from time to time. In between performance footage, the film has great shots of the audience and musicians watching and listening. In addition, the film captures footage of the 1958 America’s Cup yacht races along with artsy shots of the water and life around Newport. There’s a great scene showing Chico Hamilton and his band practicing in their rented room in what looked like a sweat box. They’re all shirtless and sweat dripping off their faces, but deadly serious about getting the performance right. Later in the film, we see them on stage and witness the efforts of the rehearsal pay off.

Performance highlights are many. Mahalia Jackson particularly knocks them dead, but for me, I adored the performance by Anita O’Day. Talk about class and beauty personified. Her stage presence is undeniable, and her performance is playful and groovy, with great interaction with the band and audience. A true star. Look here.

Okay, that’s my lot for this week. Have a great weekend, enjoy your music, and come in and say hello if you are in town. Cheers – Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

I know all you readers out there are stoked that your pre-orders for all the new releases on Sealed and La Vida are finally here! They’ll soon be on their way from your local mail carrier and directly onto your turntables. We appreciate your patience on those! I don’t know what it is about this week, but I’m feeling more sapped of energy than I usually do. Certainly, we’re busy here at Sorry State, but it’s not as if I’ve been slammed with other stuff going on (at least not yet haha). I haven’t even really been listening to that much music. I mean, OBVIOUSLY, I’ve been spinning the new Electric Chair on repeat, but that’s more like a religious experience than casual record listening.

Ya know what’ll make me feel more positive? The uplifting sounds of BL’AST! Let’s talk about Bl’ast! for a second: I feel like most people I talk to about this band think of them as this dirgey take on hardcore, and maybe they’re not everyone’s cup o’ tea. Which I guess I understand, but I always thought they were so killer. What happens when you take a bunch of Santa Cruz skate rats and have them condense and refine the most essential elements of Black Flag? You get Bl’ast! I mean right down to the guitar players using clear lucite Dan Armstrong guitars. You might say, “Man, these guys must reeeeally like Black Flag.” On the contrary, I think they ONLY like Black Flag haha. In a way, if all the sonic juices of Flag were strained and funneled through some cheese cloth, Bl’ast’s resulting liquid would be the sweetest and purest nectar. That said, I think Bl’ast’s take on this sound is more-so through the lens of mean skateboarders with a more gnarly and muscular approach to playing. Black Flag in some ways was much more “artsy”. That’s not to say Bl’ast! were non-intellectual, but whereas Black Flag grew their hair out, started getting into sensitive poetry, and went in different musical directions, Bl’ast always remained the most “core”. You might say their sound was incorruptible. And maybe because of that singular identity, it seemed like the band could only do one thing. But they did it better than anyone. The band is clearly borrowing musical ideas most certainly from Damaged, and maybe even a little bit of My War. And like I said before, by the time Black Flag got to their 3rd record, they went in a more experimental direction. And beyond that, certain moments in Flag’s catalog I find questionable.

The first Bl’ast record, Power of Expression, is an all-time classic. And then, It’s In My Blood is maybe evolving that initial statement they made on the first album and cranking it up a notch. But where do you go from there? Some acoustic interludes? Introduction of a horn section? No way, josé. You get MORE riffs. MORE heavy. MORE cacophonous. MORE intense. You get MANIC. Southern Lord just reissued Bl’ast’s 3rd album Manic Ride. I feel like this record gets much less attention than the first 2 records. If you can imagine the band pushing their sound even to the next degree, that’s what you get on this 3rd album. The band does incorporate some brief spurts of harsh noise and even some Sabbath-esque drawn-out doomy passages. So yeah, I guess they are trying some new stuff on this record. But they still lean into those powerful riffs with ferocity. The production is insane. So huge and over the top, but still somehow raw? The spidery, single-note riffs are even more… well I guess “manic”, and just all over the place than on the band’s previous records. Because of the technicality, the band sounds more metallic in certain moments. The manic ride is not exactly joyous, it’s a pure wave of adrenaline that is unrelenting. Like when you approach the crest of the first drop of a rollercoaster, but that anxious feeling as the pit grows in your stomach never really fades until the record drags into the dead wax.

Southern Lord sent us copies of this reissue on beautiful red vinyl, so grab one if you wanna take the ride. Also, come on… that has got to be the SICKEST inside gatefold design on any record I’ve ever seen. So rad! Let the world end, but not before I go out and shred.

Hmmm, yeah that’s all I’ve got to say about that. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

I’ve been immersing myself in the world of 80s North Carolina hardcore for the last few weeks, so it’s time to bust out a post I’ve been thinking about for a long time. As is my duty as a North Carolinian, I am a huge fan of Corrosion of Conformity. I’ll assume you are already familiar with CoC’s legendary first two albums, Eye for an Eye and Animosity… if you aren’t, then you should remedy that ASAP. Today, though, I’m going to write about the CoC tracks that didn’t appear on those albums. CoC, for all their ambition, seemed to have a chaotic way of working, and as a result their studio albums often didn’t contain the definitive versions of their songs. I always heard from old heads that the band was at the height of their powers around 1986, after they had recorded Animosity, but before they brought in Simon Bob Sinister as vocalist for Technocracy. It’s likely they played the definitive versions of many of these songs onstage at the Brewery in Raleigh or in Los Angeles or Oklahoma City or god knows where… CoC toured a lot during that period. Sadly, I wasn’t around to experience that, but I can give you a quick rundown of a couple of CoC’s “lost” studio sessions.

While I want to focus your attention on the non-album tracks recorded by the Animosity lineup of Mike Dean, Reed Mullin, and Woody Weatherman, any discussion of CoC’s non-album tracks would be remiss not to include their earliest recordings, which went to the North Carolina compilations No Core (cassette-only, 1982) and Why Are We Here? (7”, 1983). These recordings capture the band before they landed on their trademark sound and are straightforward hardcore punk with little of the metal influence you hear on Eye for an Eye and Animosity. They’re killer for what they are and every fan of CoC’s hardcore era should be familiar with these tracks. However, only someone who loves 80s US hardcore to the exclusion of all other styles of music would insist these tracks are CoC’s best work.

The next tracks I want to point your attention toward also appeared on compilations, a running theme in this piece. In 1988, a year after Technocracy came out, Caroline released a 12” EP called Six Songs with Mike Singing: 1985. Six Songs compiled CoC’s contributions to 1985’s Thrasher magazine compilation LP, Skate Rock Volume 3: Wild Riders of Boards and the Fartblossom Records compilation Empty Skulls Vol 2: The Wound Deepens, released in 1986. While the information on the back cover of Six Songs with Mike Singing is minimal, it appears CoC recorded all six tracks at the same session, which found the Animosity lineup running through a short set of songs from much earlier in the band’s run. For me, the version of “Eye for an Eye” here tops the album version, the chorus more anthemic despite Mike’s wild vocal style, and “Center of the World” and “Citizen” are far more precise than the embryonic versions that appeared on the No Core tape. “What(?)” and “Negative Outlook” from Eye for an Eye also get the Animosity lineup treatment (one right after the other, just like how they appeared on the original album), but the real surprise is “Not for Me.” “Not for Me” isn’t a CoC song… it was originally performed by the Raleigh hardcore band No Labels, which Reed and Woody played in before the band broke up in 1983. There’s no sign on Six Songs that “Not for Me” isn’t a CoC song, even though No Labels guitarist Ricky Hicks says he wrote both the music and lyrics. Proper accreditation aside, the song is scorching, and fits well with the other stripped-down hardcore songs CoC recorded at this session.

In 1987, CoC released the Technocracy EP, their first and last recording with former Ugly Americans singer Simon Bob Sinister on vocals. After the highs of Eye for an Eye and Animosity, I think the band disappointed some fans with Technocracy, which found Simon Bob struggling to find his way into CoC’s manic and intricate new songs. If people who bought Technocracy when it came out suspected that Simon Bob wasn’t a great fit for these songs, that was confirmed in 1992, when Relativity released an expanded CD version of Technocracy with additional tracks from a studio session in which the Animosity lineup ran through all three of the new songs on Technocracy. (The actual Technocracy EP featured a new version of “Hungry Child” from Animosity, whereas they re-recorded “Intervention” during the session with Mike on vocals.)

For my money, these Technocracy bonus tracks are CoC’s single best studio recording. The band sounds so ridiculously locked in here, abandoning the rigid timing of conventional hardcore in favor of an elastic sound where beats get stretched way out or condensed a la later Black Flag or Bl’ast, the band lunging forward and rearing back like a heaving, unified organism. The songs take on a proggy complexity, frequently shifting tempo and rhythm, but you hardly notice how intricate they are because the band plays them with such grace and power. The instrumental performances on Technocracy are similar, but don’t have the same spark. But while the instrumental performances are comparable, the vocal performances on this earlier session are a stark contrast. It’s clear Mike Dean was meant to sing these songs.

I’m no Simon Bob hater, though. While he seems to have struggled on Technocracy, a “lost” studio session from 1988 shows how the band adapted to his more conventional and melodic style. Mike Dean left CoC in 1987, replaced by Phil Swisher on bass, and this lineup of Reed Mullin / Woody Weatherman / Phil Swisher / Simon Bob recorded at least four songs, only one of which came out officially. “Bound” appeared on the compilation Rat Music for Rat People Vol III, but three others—“Fingers with Teeth,” “The Line of Fire,” and “Teacher”—seem to be available only via unofficial versions on the tape trading circuit. While these tracks still find CoC with a locked-in playing style full of ornate but perfectly executed rhythmic shifts, they’re less metal than the music they had been writing for the past several years. Simon Bob had also found his voice as CoC’s singer, imbuing these songs (particularly “Teacher” and “The Line of Fire”) with big, anthemic choruses. These songs remind me of 80s skate rock, pop songs played with the drive and intensity to fuel an intense skateboarding session. From what I’ve read, CoC had an entire set of similar material, but the four tracks I mentioned above are the only ones I’ve heard recordings of.

After Simon Bob quit the band in 1988, CoC brought in vocalist Karl Agell and rhythm guitarist Pepper Keenan, and this lineup released Blind in 1991. While early demos from the Blind period have moments that remind people of the band’s earlier eras, CoC had more or less completely switched gears. Mike Dean had been the principal songwriter during his time in the band, and the new lineup’s southern rock-influenced metal had little to do with the earlier iterations of the band. I know some people follow CoC into the Blind era and beyond, but I just can’t do it. It sounds like redneck music to me.

If you want to hear the non-album tracks I wrote about here, you have a few options. Six Songs with Mike Singing appears as bonus tracks on CD and digital versions of Eye for an Eye, and the CD and digital versions of Technocracy also feature the sessions with Mike Dean on vocals. If you want these tracks on vinyl, Caroline’s original 1988 12” EP of Six Songs with Mike Singing is your only option for those tracks. While that record has never been repressed, a patient person should be able to find a copy without spending too much money. As for the Technocracy songs with Mike singing, they are on Metal Blade’s latest white vinyl pressing of Technocracy, which is distinguishable from the original version by the cover’s updated color scheme. The original version of Technocracy featured the same music on both sides (why don’t more one-sided records do that?), so the reissue replaces the redundant side with the Mike Dean versions. As for the 1988 demo tracks, those remain unreleased, but you can look them up on YouTube if you want to check them out.