In the span of two weeks, I received these slabs o’ wax with amazingly surprising levels of loving detail. The effort which has gone into the creation of these collections of music is absolutely phenomenal. Hand-screening jackets, stamping labels, numbering … it’s all a serious labor of love resulting in something that really defines what we like about vinyl.
Honestly, these are the purest, most tangible bit of music one can put their hands on in a digtal age such as ours. Live music may be more immediate, but it’s ephemeral. Once a show’s over, it’s done. No matter of documentation — be it visual, auditory, or otherwise — will recapture the pure raw experience of a live performance.
However, the ability to put your hands on something that was made by someone else’s hands is the most revelatory aspect of vinyl. It’s why I buy these pieces of plastic, throw them on the turntable, and evangelize to you people. Pretty fucking great, really.
No Tomorrow‘s “Nuclear Exposure” 7-inch on Sorry State is a modern take on hardcore. It seems that bands are either playing classic, throwback hardcore, or melding styles. Wilmington, North Carolina’s No Tomorrow works pretty standard tough-guy hardcore in terms of instrumentation, but tosses in some classic metal fretwork to keep things interesting. Vocally, it’s more crust than anything. It never gets fast enough anywhere to be categorized as grind, but the guttural intonations certainly edge that way.
“Burning Inside” is the track I want to hear live. It’s short enough to keep things interesting, and it leaves you wanting more. I can hear that intro and outro played up to double the length of the song, and just imagining the pit freakouts it would bring gives me goosebumps.
Limited to 300 hand-numbered copies on black vinyl, with hand-screened covers from the Sorry State store.