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A few weeks ago I was on the 185 Miles South podcast talking about Italian hardcore. The idea behind the segment was that it would be a “starter pack,” a concise introduction to the scene pitched at people who know little or nothing about it, which of course means there were plenty of killer bands and records I didn’t get to talk about. Case in point, Peggio Punx. I know little about the band’s history, other than that they were from Alessandro in the northwest part of Italy (the region where most of the best-known Italian bands were from), that they existed for at least a few years before they released their first record, and that they put out three EPs in the 80s.

Their first, 1983’s Disastro Sonoro, is a gem of 80s Italian hardcore. The most striking aspect of Disastro Sonoro is the near-total absence of distortion on the guitar, which immediately sets Peggio Punx apart from their peers in the Italian hardcore scene. Peggio Punx didn’t avoid distortion because they didn’t want to be as aggressive or as intense as the other hardcore bands; rather, the guitarist achieves that intensity by simply playing harder and faster, their right hand sounding like it’s in danger of buzzsawing right through the instrument. Rather than the strumming bleeding into a unified roar, each blistering note feels like a cut from a razor-sharp switchblade. Along with the unique guitar sound, the songwriting is memorably punky, the songs brimming with vocal hooks like the “ahh-ahh” parts in “Pubblicita” and the chanted chorus of “Scemo,” and the drummer has some tricks up is his sleeve too, with lightning-fast tom work that sticks in your head as firmly as any guitar or vocal hook. If you dig what you heard in the Italian hardcore starter pack, Disastro Sonoro is essential listening in my book.

1984’s La Città È Quieta... ...Ombre Parlano replicates Disastro Sonoro’s formula with six raging hardcore tunes, but for me it’s not quite as strong, mostly owing to a murkier mix. The drums and vocals are super loud—usually a good thing on a fast hardcore record—but the guitar is nearly inaudible in places, which is frustrating because you can hear just as many cool licks as Disastro Sonoro. The bass sound is robust, though, and reveals the bass player was just as furious as the guitarist. A standout on this EP, though, is the b-side opener “Solitudine,” which features more of the crazy tom work we heard on Disastro Sonoro, but even more over the top. Don’t get me wrong… La Città È Quieta... is still a rager, but it’s just a little less distinctive and striking when compared to its predecessor.

Peggio Punx’ last record of the 80s was the 12” EP Ci Stanno Uccidendo Al Suono Della Nostra Musica!! E.P.. Like most of their peers, Peggio Punx reworked their sound when they made the jump to big vinyl, attempting to do something more varied and musical than the flat-out assault of their earlier EPs. Ci Stanno Uccidendo features more variation in tempo, rhythm (including some funky and reggae-influenced grooves), and texture, though there are still glimmers of the manic quality that made Disastro Sonoro so great. As with La Città È Quieta…, it’s hampered by an odd mix that puts the booming drums front and center, and the more conventional distorted guitar sound isn’t as good a match for the guitarist’s riffing style. Ci Stanno Uccidendo is an OK record, and it’s still hardcore punk, but to me, Peggio Punx’s transition into their second era isn’t as successful as some of the other 80s Italian hardcore bands’. Whereas Indigesti, for instance, was able to leave their old sound behind on their debut LP, Osservati Dall’Inganno, and create something that sounded totally fresh and nearly as exciting, Ci Stanno Uccidendo just kind of waters down what made their previous records so great.

So yeah, one fucking great record, one excellent one, and one pretty good one… while perhaps not enough to get Peggio Punx into the God tier, it’s a respectable showing even in a country where the bar for hardcore was extremely high. Incidentally, until I just looked at Discogs, I did not know Peggio Punx released two full-lengths: 1990’s Cattivi Maestri and 1992’s Alterazione Della Struttura. If anyone knows about those two, please hit me up… I’d love to hear this band broke the pattern of diminishing returns and delivered a late-career ripper.

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

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

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

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

Hello and thanks for reading.

I have not found myself in the mood for writing the last week, so I apologize for the state of my staff pick. It feels like it’s been a minute since we’ve had a consistent newsletter, but there’s a bunch of great records in stock and I wanted to mention a few. I also need to go back and talk about a previous staff pick cos I learned some integral information since then. But more importantly, I need to talk about hurricane Helene first. I think most readers know about this hurricane and the devastation it has caused in the southeastern United States. I’ve had some friends from overseas hit me up cos they hear North Carolina, but we are lucky enough to have been a few hours north of the floods. I don’t want to get into how the US can afford to send billions to Israel to fund a full-on ethnic cleansing, but can’t afford adequate relief efforts to these communities that are suffering complete and total loss right now. I wanted to drop this link to our friends at RUMAH. If you are able to send some funds to help with supplies and essential items, you can find a number of trustworthy places via that link. If you live in the triangle, it’s also got information on how you can help by volunteering. If you’re in Raleigh, be sure to come out to the Halloween cover show! All the money from the door will be used in relief efforts. There is also a benefit on the 14th at Kings and Neptunes. I’m sure there will be more benefits to follow. Let’s stand together and look out for each other. The systems in place fail us, but we are not powerless without them. They need us; we don’t need them.

Last week we traveled north to bear witness to the mighty MOB 47. These guys are old. I guess Christoffer, the bassist, ain’t quite as old since he is a newer member. I think Åke said he was 62, shit. I’m not tryna talk shit by talking about their age, but give praise that they are still full-on rocking at this point in their lives. So sick. Naturally, I am a huge fan of MOB 47. I was very excited to see them. But of course, I wondered how well they would actually perform at this age. I didn’t wanna get my hopes up, but man, they were so damn good. I really didn’t expect it. After the gig we hung late at Patrick’s house, where I proceeded to grill the fuck out of Åke about MOB 47 and of course, DISCARD. I don’t want to spend too much time writing about it, but I asked Åke about the two different DISCARD sessions and where the songs were used. And most importantly, I asked him about DISCARD’s logo that rips off DISCHARGE. I was talking to him and said I knew about the art in Really Fast Vol 3, but said from my understanding they didn’t have a DISCHARGE rip-off logo until the 1990 7”. Åke corrected me and explained how they did it—in the ‘80s. I wanted to explain this cos I was so wrong when I previously wrote about DISCARD. It’s probably cheesy and unimportant to most, but it’s super significant they had done something like this so early on. Thinking back now, I wish I had asked him and Chrille even more questions, haha.

There are some reissues we have in stock I wanted to mention, cos I consider them essential. SWANKYS Very Best Of Hero has just been released by General Speech in the USA! I don’t think this band needs an introduction, and this record has been dying for a reissue for decades now. General Speech has added an additional insert that includes the history of SWANKYS. While it is brief, it is awesome to read. I didn’t quite understand the history of GAI and SWANKYS, so I really appreciated it. If you didn’t know, SWANKYS and GAI were the same band, just under different names at different times. They were initially forced to change their name to GAI, as SWANKYS had been banned at clubs due to extreme performances. General Speech did an absolutely amazing job on the reissue, down to the actual sound of the record. The packaging is almost identical to the original. It’s super nice and slick—in a good way. There are just some subtle, and tasteful, changes to denote it is a reissue. I know General Speech has more reissues lined up after this and I really can’t wait. I think this record is essential for every collection, so grab one if you have not!

I also wanted to mention this reissue I have been playing the hell out of, We Can’t Help It If We’re From Florida. The artwork and title of this compilation is hilariously awesome. Especially cos the bands fucking rip. To me, this is a whole new world. I’ve heard of two of the bands before, but never heard any of these songs. It’s funny to me they chose 10" format for this reissue. I know the original was a 7", but this one has bonus tracks so obviously it could not fit on the original format. From my understanding, these days all 10"s are just 12"s cut down to size. 12"s sell better than 7"s, and I think 10"s sell the worst. To me, I don’t care about the size, as long as it’s good. Again, this record is all new to me. I think all the bands are super cool. Maybe MORBID OPERA is one I wouldn’t jam so much, haha. I know I heard ROACH MOTEL before cos we had some 7"s come through the shop, but hearing em again on this compilation really made em stick out to me. HATED YOUTH obviously rip so fucking hard, shit. I had no idea. I’ve seen the name around forever, but my ignorant ass never checked them out. Now I need to find one of those 7"s previously released on Burrito Records. I think these compilation tracks are a different session from what was released on that 7"? I actually picked one of these 10"s up from my buddy Chris a few weeks ago cos I wasn’t sure if we’d get distro copies. He told me to check it out, and I instantly grabbed one, haha. If you don’t know shit like me, check this compilation out and you’re gunna one grab one. If you already have the original, maybe you’ll be tempted to grab it for the bonus tracks, haha. Alright, I think that sums it up for me today. Free Palestine.

Hi everyone. Thanks for clicking on our newsletter. Hopefully things are well with you. As you can imagine, we are still trying to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and the terrible flood damage that our brothers and sisters here in the mountains of western North Carolina (and other places) endured last weekend. I’m sure you have seen the pictures and videos. It’s just terrible. So very sad. Our hearts go out to the residents of Asheville, Boone and all the other communities whose lives have been forever changed by this catastrophic weather event.

We all need to come together now and help in whatever way we can. Of course, the quickest and easiest way to help is to donate funds. As a former American Red Cross worker, I can vouch for the good work they do in disaster responses as one option for a donation, but there are many other charities and organizations that are out there helping, and I encourage and urge you to find one that works for you.

By the time you read this, I will have been a part of a twelve-hour marathon DJ event here in Raleigh that was organized to raise funds for the Kamala Harris campaign and to help with voter registration, but was tweaked in the aftermath of the storm to include raising funds and accepting donations of needed items for those affected by the storm. As I write before the event, I will assume that all went well, and that we raised a lot of money. Fingers crossed. If nothing else, though, I hope we provided a good time and much needed fun and a break from all the gloom and doom.

Back in the world of records and music, here at the store we are continuing to do our best to keep the bins filled with as many great records as possible. We have bought some good collections recently, filled with lots of cool and interesting records, and I have been enjoying learning about records I was unfamiliar with and nerding out on all the details. Often when going through collections we have bought, there are records that aren’t in the best of shape and not really fit for sale. It obviously doesn’t matter when the records are perennial bargain bin fodder to begin with, but it can sometimes be a bummer when you find a good record but beat to crap. I like to do my best to resurrect the ones that still have life in them. Sometimes a couple of passes on the vacuum cleaner can make all the difference. Also, I can still value a record if at least the key tracks play decently. As a DJ, you can get lucky that way. The money track plays fine whereas the rest has skips, pops, etc. Of course, sometimes the reverse is the case, and the only good cut will have a massive scratch over it. Anyway, I have been checking out some of these beaters and one that I thought was cool is a record that came out in 1967 on World Pacific Records by an artist known as Kali Bahlu. The album is titled Cosmic Rememberance.

It’s a real trip. The record is just four long tracks and isn’t easily classified, but is based on Indian sounding sitar music mixed with spoken word poetry and psychedelic elements. It’s the only record the female singer is credited with and not much is really known about her. The record label World Pacific had Ravi Shankar on their roster and released an album by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, so it kinda makes sense. Other label mates included Chet Baker, who was releasing Mariachi Jazz records. Ms. Bahlu has been described as a kindergarten teacher reciting verse to a class of hippies coming down from an acid trip. That’s just about right. LoL.

Her voice could be a little annoying to some ears, and that is the main “instrument” being heard over the gentle sitar and tabla backing. The poetry is a mix of space cadet wonderings and cosmic consciousness. You’ll either be charmed or annoyed by it. I’m not sure how many listens one would give this record over the course of owning it, but I enjoyed giving it a couple of turns on the ol’ rekkid player. The “best” track is probably the fourth and last called A Cosmic Telephone Call From The Angel Liesle And The Buddha. How’s that for a title? The forest children were definitely taken on a journey of cosmic remembrance.

The record comes in a great painted slightly psychedelic cover featuring Kali Bahlu and some of her pals and cosmic children. Inside the gatefold we get an essay from the artist explaining her thoughts regarding the album and a nice full-size photo of her looking very 60s girl cool.

I’m certainly curious about what else she did as an artist and what her story was after this record and before it. I shall try to find out, but for now we shall just have to leave it there. If mystical sixties hippie shit does it for you, then keep an eye out for this one next time you are digging through the bargain bins. Although having said that, it seems that folks will pay over $20 for a decent copy of this record, but it has been reissued and with a couple of bonus cuts, apparently. Click here for a sample.

Take away? Apparently, the Buddha drinks coffee.

Cheers everyone - Dom

What’s up Sorry Staters?

Once again, it feels like it’s been a while since I’ve checked in. We’re well into October now, and I always love this time of year. The weather starts getting a bit cooler, and as Halloween approaches, I get excited to binge trashy horror movies. We’ll be decorating the storefront here at Sorry State to get into the spirit. There’s also gonna be a Halloween cover show on the 31st, which I’m excited about. It’s gonna be a benefit gig, with all proceeds going toward support for disaster relief in Western North Carolina.

Before that gig though, I wanna reiterate that The Ejaculators are coming to play Raleigh on October 20th along with Meat House and DE()T at RUMAH. Should be a killer gig. Don’t miss it!

Also, I think this is the first time I’m announcing that BLOODSTAINS from Southern California are coming to play Raleigh as well! Along with support from Norfolk’s ragers RECKONING FORCE, and also semi-locals SHAVED APE and MEAT HOUSE. At King’s on November 10th! A rager for the season, I feel sure.

What else have I been doing since the last time I wrote for the newsletter? I suppose I haven’t even talked about Public Acid and Invertebrates’ Midwest tour surrounding Unlawful Assembly fest in Milwaukee. It was a short run of shows, but MAN, did we have a blast. I would hop in a van and travel with the combination of mofos in those 2 bands any day. Between duckpin bowling in Indianapolis while goofing off and talking like Fonzie, getting extra cheesy at the Mars Castle, and my first experience with reluctant hospitality and excessive taxidermy at the Third Man Records’ green room… there was more tomfoolery than most HCPMF’s would be able to handle.

So, let’s talk about Cicada. I was obviously previously familiar with this band because they’re based out Richmond. I often run into the dudes in the band at shows and stuff. I’ve seen Cicada play in Richmond several times and always thought they were great. But on this Midwest tour, Public Acid gigged with them in Chicago, and also at the fest in Milwaukee. Firstly, we played together at The Empty Bottle in Chicago. The sound was excellent, and granted, it had been quite a while since the last time I saw Cicada, but fuck… they just blew me away. They opened with a cover of “Easy Targets” by Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers and fuckin’ nailed it. My jaw hit the floor. The crowd just totally exploded with energy. Then during their set at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee, the guitar player Brendan had a moment where he played alone, spiraling on this long, drawn-out guitar riff which was an extended rendition of the opening track on the band’s demo tape. With like total command of the crowd, I just watched all these kids creepy crawl over/dogpile onto one another in this mess of anxious, violent, anticipatory energy. It was so raging and insane. I just stood there after they finished playing, just going, “Holy shit.” And experiencing Cicada live on this trip was all before I’d even heard their new EP.

Cicada has a new 7” entitled Wicked Dream, appropriately released on the Unlawful Assembly label. Sorry State always tries to stock as many copies of the new releases on Unlawful Assembly as we can, but they often can only afford to give us a handful of copies. I half expect this new EP to be sold out by the time this edition of the newsletter comes out. The primary recorded output by Cicada I’ve digested over the last year or so is the band’s demo… ya know, which clocks in at under 4 minutes of music total. The cassette I have is pretty lo-fi from a recording standpoint. It totally works for them and still sounds totally raging. But after seeing Cicada in Chicago and experiencing how powerful the band sounded, I personally hoped the recording on their new 7” would do them more justice. Admittedly, the recording on this new record is still pretty raw. But I would say it’s a sonic facelift compared to the cassette. And granted, Cicada having a super modern, slick sounding record would probably sound totally weird and out of place.

How do I describe Cicada’s music to one of you readers who might be unfamiliar? I mentioned CCM earlier, which I think is a fairly detectable influence. The way I feel about Cicada when I hear them is that they draw from some of the MOST weirdo, outsider bands within outsider music, and blend those reference points into a potent and effective Molotov cocktail. How appropriate that a label based out of Milwaukee put out the band’s record, because surely whoever writes the riffs in this band must be a fan of Die Kreuzen. Like, MUST be. Then, the singer Jordan has this vomitous but burly low-pitched growl that for sure makes me think of United Mutation. But beyond these 80s hardcore comparisons, I think there is something unique and special about what Cicada is doing in the current landscape of hardcore punk. It feels true to form, but also completely fresh and out of left field. It’s chaotic, frantic, and dissonant. But still, there’s something about the way the band stitches musical ideas together that feels clever. It’s intelligent, while managing to definitely NOT be prog-y in any way. These songs still go for the throat in the most maniacal of fashion, but also, the band is playing their asses off. It doesn’t feel like the band is throwing riffs at the wall in a noisy mess and seeing what sticks. In fact, the conviction and intention with which these songs are put together makes me kinda… jealous, I guess? Maybe if you’re the type of hardcore listener whose platonic ideal is Agnostic Front, then Cicada will surely not be the band for you. But for me, this band is ticking ALL the boxes. Dare I say, best current hardcore band in America? Honestly, I might.

Enough gushing. But if you’re able to get your hands on a copy of this 7”, whether from Sorry State or elsewhere, I give it my highest possible recommendation.

That’s all I’ve got this round. As always, thanks for reading.

‘Til next week,

-Jeff

Hugh Mundell: Africa Must Be Free By 1983 LP (1978, Message Records)

I’m not well-versed in reggae’s history, but I’ve been listening to a lot of it lately, a trend sparked by discovering this Hugh Mundell LP this summer.

I may have told this story before, but reggae first hit me when I was still in high school. Aside from the Bob Marley tunes you soak up just from being an American, the first experience with reggae I can remember is buying a compilation CD called Dub Chill Out from a big store called Planet Music in Virginia Beach, the same place where I bought my first Minor Threat and Black Flag CDs. I can’t remember how I figured out that dub reggae was something I should be interested in, nor can I remember why I bought that CD. My guess is that it was cheap… as a broke teenager, I was always trying to make my music dollar stretch a little further. While I had little money to spend on music, I had a pretty bumping sound system in my car. My first car was a tiny Dodge Ram pickup, and for my birthday one year, my dad outfitted it with a powerful amp and two huge speakers that sat behind the driver’s seat. It was super loud, especially in the truck’s tiny cabin, and my parents said they could always hear my stereo from half a mile away when I was driving home. Dub Chill Out, while having nothing on the surface to distinguish it, had a phenomenal track listing, and the mastering was huge and bass-y. From the moment I popped in the CD and cranked it in my car, I was in love. I still love bathing in loud bass frequencies (something I also appreciate about Sabbath and the handful of doom metal records I really love). I got a really great dose of that a few weeks ago when legendary dub producer Scientist played in Raleigh, the colossal PA at the Lincoln Theater submerging me in pulsating low end.

After Dub Chill Out, every couple of years I’d find another reggae record to fall in love with. There was Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Return of the Super Ape, King Tubby’s The Roots of Dub, Augustus Pablo’s East of the River Nile, U-Roy’s Dread in a Babylon, Culture’s Two Sevens Clash… but it has usually been one reggae record at a time for me, each of them happened upon in an unexpected, seemingly random way. Whenever I tried to explore the genre more systematically, I’d either encounter too much stuff I don’t really like, or I’d feel like I was experiencing diminishing returns, the new releases never offering the same buzz as whatever recent discovery ignited my interest. Maybe my brain only has space for one reggae record at a time, and I need to recharge my batteries and approach the sound with fresh ears every couple of years. I can’t think of another genre where I have a similar listening pattern.

Hugh Mundell entered my life in a similarly random way. One night I was thinking about how I love so much music from the late 70s, that there’s something about the production techniques and/or technologies that were in vogue at that time that just sends me to my happy place. While I know that certain eras of music interest me more than others, I typically explore music through the framework of artists or genre, researching artists’ discographies or checking out best of lists around a certain genre. I made a deliberate choice to explore records by year, thinking maybe I’d hear something from an unexpected genre that had that late 70s patina that I seem to like so much. I remember I was looking at a list of someone’s favorite records of 1978 (I can’t seem to find this list again), and Africa Must Be Free by 1983 stood out as something I was unfamiliar with but looked interesting. I dialed it up on streaming and it blew me away from the first track.

First, there’s that voice. Mundell’s vocals on Africa Must Be Free By 1983 are thin, reedy, almost pre-pubescent. He sounds so vulnerable here, the dry, reverb-less sound revealing every little crack in his voice. He sounds so young—he was 15 or 16 when he recorded this—that I tend to compare him to a young, Jackson 5-era Michael Jackson. Generally, it’s instruments rather than vocals that pull me into a record, but there’s something special about Mundell’s voice here. The second thing that struck me about this album was its production. While this is definitely roots reggae and not dub, the sound is spacious yet heavy on the low end, rich and powerful at the bottom, but with a ton of space in the higher frequencies for the many instrumental hooks on the record (note: Augustus Pablo contributes piano and organ). As I mentioned, I’d gone looking for something to listen to that had that late 70s patina I love so much, and the slightly lo-fi production values of Africa Must Be Free are pretty much exactly what was looking for. Finally, the lyrics on the album hit me pretty hard, too. While some of the song titles seem conventional, if not cliche (“Let’s All Unite,” “Jah Will Provide”), there’s a specificity to many of the lyrics that sets my mind racing. I love the track “My Mind,” which finds Mundell (by the way, I don’t know if he’s the lyricist or not) following the stream of consciousness from family, to love, to war in a way that reminds me so much of my teenage years, when I couldn’t seem to figure out how life’s big issues and small concerns related, if at all. And of course there’s the title track, which is fascinating. Why does this 1978 album posit a precise 5-year deadline for Africa’s liberation? The verses explain a prophecy that the biblical Judgment Day will happen in that year, but listening to the album 36 years later, it’s tragic that, despite Mundell’s pleading, Africa was barely different in 1984 than it was in 1983. There was no Judgment Day, and if there were material or political gains for its oppressed peoples during that time, they were marginal at best. Things probably have improved little in the decades since either. Mundell’s earnestness reminds me of the evangelical Christian kids I rode the bus with in school, who were similarly convinced, with all the clear-eyed certainty of youth, that the Judgment Day would arrive during their own lifetime.

Reading about the record, I learned Mundell was murdered on October 14, 1983, when he was only twenty-one years old. I’m kind of glad I didn’t learn about Mundell’s story until after I heard the album, though. That story is so intense that it must be hard to hear the music through it, especially an album that is so thoroughly laced with tragedy (but also, I must say, with hope). Certainly the fact that Mundell’s was murdered in the album’s titular year is an arresting coincidence. Though the Biblical Judgment Day didn’t happen, perhaps Mundell’s personal one did.

Of course, I started looking for a vinyl copy of Africa Must Be Free by 1983 by the time I finished with my first complete play through. As with most classic reggae records, it’s been repressed many times by many labels, which I imagine is a symptom of Jamaica’s dysfunctional and corrupt music industry. Grey-market reissues of reggae records abound, and they vary widely in quality. I added a bunch of different versions to my want list and started waiting for a copy that spoke to me. I also checked the reggae section of every record store I’ve set foot in since I heard the record, where I found a few of Mundell’s other records (which are good, but lack the magic of his debut). I saw one gratuitously overpriced older pressing of Africa Must Be Free at Mills Record Company in Kansas City, literally locked in the store’s fortress-like rare bins. (It’s a tangent I don’t want to get into here… but what a weird fucking place that was.) Then, a couple of weeks ago, Usman was ordering a record from Japan and asked if I wanted to get anything from the same seller to save on shipping. Lo-and-behold, they had an older Jamaican pressing in G+ condition for a very good price, and knowing that Japanese sellers typically grade conservatively, I took the risk. This copy isn’t pretty, and I suspect the pressing didn’t sound that great in the first place (a common issue with Jamaican vinyl), but it gets the job done and, despite its shortcomings, feels more appropriate to have in my collection than a squeaky clean reissue.

Thanks for reading! I hope some of y’all enjoy this record. Until next time…

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

Hello and thanks for reading.

Surprise, I am writing about yet another Swedish band. There are still a few other recent releases from Sweden I have been jamming, but I am going to pace myself and just go one at a time. This week it’s PX-30 from Uppsala. I should have done some proper nerding before writing but unfortunately, I did not. I say that cos PX-30 has the same guitarist from HERÄTYS. That has significance to me cos I think HERÄTYS is one of the greatest contemporary bands ever to exist. I guess I should say that my definition of a contemporary band would be one who formed in 2000 or after. If you don’t know them, you can check out their 12” here. Or maybe I should call it an LP? I don’t know. It’s two different recording sessions, one on each side. My friends and I always debate which side is better, haha. My last conclusion was that the B side obviously had way better sound/production, while I still found the songs on the A side to be more memorable. Maybe that will change one day, though. Those B side riffs are really kicking around my head after this latest listen. They have a few other 7"s, and luckily for you these records are not hard to find if you’re just now hearing how excellent this band is.

Anyway, PX-30 has been on my radar since they dropped a digital version of this LP all the way back in May of last year. Insane it was that long between the recording and the record actually coming out. I think a big hold up was the artwork, but man if you ask me this super captivating, unique, thought-provoking and complex artwork they came through with in the end was definitely worth the wait! The sound of HERÄTYS can be found in PX-30 in a sense, but the bands don’t really sound the same. The riffs are unbelievably catchy and played locked-tight with the drums that are grooving hard as fuck. They have a tendency for songs to evolve into breakdowns or mid-tempo parts. Typically, this is a formula I really do not like, but every now and again there is a band like PX-30 who pulls me in deep enough for me to forget my standards on breakdowns.

The vocalist of PX-30 is named Martin, and we became friends when we played in Uppsala on our European tour in 2022. I remember when we met. He said something like, “Probably no one is going to come to the gig. I’m sorry. I will be sure you get 100 euros, though.” If I remember right, it was a bad time for a gig cos everyone was at a fest or on holiday or something. I guess we had planned that tour a little too late in the summer. I can’t remember when it was exactly, but in almost every city they told us to tour earlier in the summer next time cos so many people were away on holiday. There were a few gigs, like Uppsala, where we played totally alone. I didn’t give a fuck, though. I think I’ve mentioned before how I hold Uppsala in high regard. I guess it dates back to BOMBANFALL for me, but when I first became obsessed with Uppsala, I did not know who they were. My introduction was via Your Own Jailer, a killer label operated by Jan Jutila, who released and also played on some essential records throughout the 90s. I’ve gushed over this guy before, and I am way off topic.

So back to Uppsala, I think we played there cos we could not get a gig in Stockholm, but obviously I was very happy to visit this place that was so legendary in my mind. Yeah, we played alone, but holy shit there were like 80 people there or some shit by the time we played. After the gig, we drove to Stockholm to sleep with a mate, so we didn’t really spend much time with Martin. But I thought it was a pleasure to meet, and we kept in touch after. When I let him know of our plans for touring in Sweden again, he insisted we play Uppsala again, as it was not on the initial itinerary. Obviously, I wanted to do this, and I insisted the PX-30 play. I was so happy that in the end we played there with both GEFYR and PX-30. I can’t express how happy and grateful I am to have shared a stage with both of these bands.

This time after the gig, we hung out hard with Martin at his flat. We had a lot of good laughs, some drinks, and snacks. I learned that PX-30 is actually a paint marker that people use for graffiti. I’m sure that was obvious to others, especially with the band’s logo choice, haha. But my noob ass does not know shit. Martin gave us some PX-30 hand-dubbed promo cassettes before we parted ways at the end of tour. He also gave me a PX-30 marker that will remain un-opened, and I will cherish it until the day comes that I materialize our memories and bond of friendship in an act of vandalism. Fuck, I really have not talked about much of anything again and I need get to work. Buy this record; you won’t be disappointed. Cheers and thanks for reading. Thanks to everyone for your support. If you’re reading this Martin, Hi :)

Hi Sorry Staters, I hope you are doing well? Thanks for clicking on our newsletter again this week. It’s been quite the few weeks since we last graced your inboxes. We had a busy weekend at the store during the Hopscotch festival and hooked many of you up with some of the great records that Lord Daniel brought back from Denver. Not content with that, he hit the road again last week for an out of state record buy and came home with a nice haul full of all sorts of goodies. We’ll be working on that collection next week, and you’ll start seeing the highlights appear soon. Not that you need to wait to pay us a visit. Our bins are packed with great records right now and there are plenty more waiting to take their place.

This week I want to highlight a record that I am embarrassed to say had been sitting on my shelf here at the store for weeks without getting a spin. It was personally dropped off to me one day when I wasn’t working, and I feel bad for forgetting about it and not giving it any attention since then. Not that I would ever talk about a record out of guilt of not listening to it or because we are trying to hype it or something. This one is good, and I have been enjoying it.

It’s the second album from Silver Scrolls titled Mind Lines and released by Three Lobed Recordings.

Fans of local North Carolina heroes Polvo are probably already hip to Silver Scrolls as the band is made up of two members of that highly influential group. Namely singer and guitarist Dave Brylawski and drummer Brian Quast. In Silver Scrolls they are assisted by unofficial third member Greg Elkins, who besides mixing and engineering the recording is credited with organ and other incidental sonics. Brian Q also takes on bass duties and adds vocals and additional guitar. It’s a collaboration similar to their first album from 2020 called Music For Walking.

I am not a big fan of some of the genre tags that Polvo got lumped with. Honestly, nothing sounds more unappealing to me music wise than “Math Rock.” And “Post Rock” is not much better. No offense to any bands who fall into those categories. It’s my ignorance and lack of sophisticated taste that makes me feel that way. That being said, I’m not a complete luddite and can appreciate music with a progressive bent.

Looking across the internet, I found Silver Scrolls being tagged as Indie Rock, Pysch Rock, Post Rock and even Classic Rock, but thankfully no one seems to say you need a calculator and protractor to listen to Mind Lines. There are a lot of rock genres on the record. Not so that you would automatically classify it as one or the other, but rather if you enjoy listening to a variety of guitar-based music then you’ll recognize and appreciate and (one would hope) enjoy those on display here. It’s all done subtly though, and doesn’t bash you over the head with anything too obvious. Some songs have a classic kind of verse, chorus structure, verging on being catchy pop songs and the others have a more soundtrack kind of vibe. Then in other songs they rock harder. To my ears at least. For an old fart like myself, I can hear elements of Neil Young, Tortoise, Lou Barlow, 80s Alternative, Sub Pop, right through to more recent instrumental groups like Budos Band. It’s these, sorta, and a whole lot more. Call it what you want, but just don’t call it the M word Rock. One thing’s for sure, it’s American music. Sounds from the last fifty or so years filtered through the minds of the players and carefully arranged in a new but familiar fashion. And I would say done in an authentic to them way. These aren’t two dudes who think they’re in The Family Stone or playing Civil War Reenactment dress up as their favorite bygone musical style. It’s just them with no pretense playing some good tunes and riffs. Plus, they have a song called Indoor Cat. Nice one chaps.

Kudos to all involved in the recording, mastering and manufacturing process too. My “Mental Clarity Red” vinyl sounds great. I’ll post a link here for you to take a listen and in the meantime bug Daniel and the band to drop off a copy or two for the store so you guys can grab one. Hopefully they haven’t sold out already. Thank you BQ for bringing me a copy.

A quick addition to mention before I go. We just got in the first vinyl pressing of the 2003 album called Boomslang from Johnny Marr & The Healers. This great album was the first real steps Johnny made towards establishing himself as a solo artist. It only came out on CD at the time and the project didn’t last too long. They played a few shows, and I was able to catch the New York appearances. The album is like a lost 90s Brit Pop album that, had it come out five or six years before 2003, would easily be held in much higher regard. Perhaps now with 90s Manchester nostalgia peaking and Johnny’s solo career in full steam more people will get hip to this record.

The deluxe reissue comes with a second disc of extra tracks that were recorded at the time but didn’t make the cut for the album or were used as single B-sides. There’s no filler there (other than the chunk of vinyl debris that was in my copy and scratched my record as I removed it). If you are a fan of Johnny’s guitar playing, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

Okay, back to work. These records won’t price and clean themselves. Cheers and thank you as always for your support.

-Dom

A+P: S/T 12” (Jupiter Records, 1981)

My pick for this week is the self-titled LP from the German band A+P, originally released in 1981. I picked up this LP a few years ago from the great Double Decker Records in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Given the paucity of information available about this record online, I can’t imagine I knew much of anything about it before picking it up, but I feel like I had seen it on some German punk discography or another. Maybe it was a total blind buy, but regardless of why I bought it, I think it was a pretty good score as I’ve returned to this LP many times over the years and always enjoy it when I throw it on. The music here—there 16 songs, so there’s quite a lot of it—is eclectic, but all pretty punk, ranging from snotty, post-Sex Pistols Europunk to more experimental moments that clearly take influence from Public Image, Ltd. Like a lot of music from 1981, it sits on the bubble between the initial punk explosion and the fully formed hardcore that would take over pretty much everything in the coming year or two. A+P sounds like they have all the youthful aggression and snottiness they need to be a hardcore band, but they don’t have that template available to them yet, so all those feelings come out in their music in interesting and idiosyncratic ways.

Unfortunately, I have very little information to share about A+P. Maybe a German-speaker could find more info, but about all I could find is that the band is from a town called Starnberg in Bavaria in the far southern part of Germany, south of Munich. To many Americans, Germany is just Germany, but anyone who has traveled around the country (even someone like me who’s mostly just spent time there on DIY punk tours) knows Germany is a massive country with many culturally distinct regions. Navigating those differences is daunting to a dumb, monolingual American like myself, and while Germany produced a massive amount of punk vinyl in the 80s, rarely can I connect the dots and understand how the different bands relate to one another (if they even do). Each band seems like an island, and it’s hard for me to hear common threads that run through the punk from different regions in Germany the way I can for the US, the UK, or even Sweden and Japan. Some quick research tells me Bavaria has a history of punk bands from the early band the Pack (a great band featuring, oddly, a member from Amon Düül II… their killer LP has been reissued several times and isn’t too hard to find) to full-bore hardcore like Vorkriegsphase. A+P’s LP came out in 1981, the mid-way point between the Pack’s LP in 1978 and Vorkriegsphase’s EP and LP in 1983, but I couldn’t tell you how or if they’re related.

One thing I find interesting about A+P’s LP is how well-produced it is. The recording is great for what it is, with a straightforward and unadorned sound (I think there’s only one guitar track), but rich, clear tones and a mix that gives each instrument space. Also curious is the LP’s unique gatefold sleeve. I’ve never seen anything exactly like it. Not only is it a gatefold, but also the gatefold folds out a second time to a huge 24-inch square, sort of like a poster sleeve, but there are still pockets for the vinyl and insert, the latter a half-size booklet in a classic punk cut-and-paste style. The inside of the gatefold is a classic-looking punk collage, while the fold-out reveals well-done black and white portraits of the four band members, all of whom look very young. This made me wonder if the band members were rich kids whose parents splurged for a quality studio and spared no expense on the printing, but the LP is on a label called Jupiter Records. I hadn’t heard of Jupiter before, but a quick look at their Discogs page makes me think they were a big label, starting in 1973 and releasing hundreds of records, mostly German pop music that looks like it would be of zero interest to anyone reading this. By 1981, when the A+P LP came out, they were distributed by TELDEC, a huge German label. It’s wild that an A&R person would have taken a chance on this raw, unpolished punk band, but even crazier that they apparently spared no expense on the packaging.

A+P released a 5-song follow-up EP in 1982 on a different label, Soilant Records. There’s a song on the EP called “Soilant,” so perhaps the label was connected to the band… certainly Soilant’s other releases have a punkier look to them than Jupiter’s, judging by their Discogs page. A+P’s EP has a bigger, tougher, hardcore-influenced sound, and it goes for a few bucks on Discogs, so who knows if I’ll ever connect with a physical copy of that one. The EP was bootlegged in the early 90s and A+P’s LP has been reissued many times over the years… maybe one of those reissues has liner notes that can shed more light on the band’s story? If anyone has knowledge to share, I’d love to hear it.

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