Review: Sorry Mom Celebrates Hopeless Records Signing with Carnival Celebration
“WHO’S WEARING THE CARNY SHIRTS? I GOT FIVE!” — yelled Juno Moreno, lead singer and guitarist of Sorry Mom, in the side courtyard of TV Eye in Ridgewood, New York, which was adorned in a carnival-like fashion for their 16 plus event. Sorry Mom’s family and roadies were bustling around putting up red and white striped triangle flag garlands, putting out faux popcorn bucket centerpieces with red balloons emerging from crumbled up yellow streamers created by Juno’s mother, and setting up games to be played by attendees such as a fishbowl toss, a bean bag toss, and a ‘guess how many’ pills in a jar table. In order to play these games, Sorry Mom raffle tickets were given out by the side entrance to the concert-goers. The Sorry Mom carnival included other festive staples such as tarot readings, a face painting station, balloon animal artists, and staying true to DIY punk tradition, a zine table, where magazines were provided for the purpose of being cut out. Juno is absolutely “buckwild” for carnivals making it the most ideal theme for celebrating Sorry Mom signing with Hopeless Records.
It was twenty minutes until the doors opened and I was brought into the greenroom. In the corner, a circus performer was getting ready in the bathroom with the door wide open applying the white face paint and the typical exaggerated jester makeup. Juno began to apply a more toned down version of clown makeup with black liner and oblong gems using their iphone camera as a mirror.
Drummer Tayrn Gangi and Juno discussed how Hopeless Records made an impression on them ever since they were kids. They recall seeing the logo plastered all over Alternative Press magazine and all around Warped Tour.
“I knew them growing up and it feels like some childhood part of me is fulfilled because I'm on this label now,” Tayrn said.
Sorry Mom talked to a couple different labels, but according to Juno, “Hopeless Records was on our list as a dream label.” They were in contact with someone named Josh, who initially wanted to sign them to his private label, but after learning he had a connection with Hopeless Records, Sorry Mom pleaded with him to put them in touch.
The first Sorry Mom single to be released under Hopeless Records is “But I’m a Quarterback,” a queer anthem inspired in its marketing packaging by 90s cult classic movie “But I’m a Cheerleader,” and released alongside a “queer-coded football” music video that manages to unintentionally resemble the Vikings vs. Huntington game from “Bottoms.”
“All of its visuals were inspired by ‘But I’m a Cheerleader,’ which actually ended up working out because right after the song came out, the movie started trending on Amazon Prime for no reason. So, it's just the age of the lesbian,” Juno said.
This path wasn’t one they had expected. They originally began as a cover band at a Connecticut college, and never imagined a career in music considering Taryn was planning on attending law school and Juno was about to begin a tattoo apprenticeship following graduation.
“Juno one day was just like, ‘hey I wrote some originals if you guys want to hear them. We could play them.’ And then they sat down and played some of the best songs that I've ever heard,” Taryn said.
After growing as a band and playing these new originals, Sorry Mom decided collectively to record these tracks to finish off their college experience in a studio in Boston, but they never realized just how popular one of the songs would become. The day they dropped the EP Juno Goes to the Big House, the band posted a video promoting the viral song “I Fucked Yr Mom.”
“I checked the Spotify numbers and I was like, why do we have like 10,000 streams? I was like, oh, it's glitching. We probably have 10 streams because I sent it to my mom and I sent it to my family and they probably listened to it 10 times between the five of them,” Taryn said.
This explosive popularity resulted in a shoutout from Megan Fox during an interview with Machine Gun Kelly on MTV posted on TikTok. The actress recalled a time where they were listening to Sorry Mom in the car and believed that the band could “pop off” if they were to have a good producer.
“I get goosebumps because I keep forgetting it happened,” Taryn said. “When people bring it up I'm like wait, that was actually pretty cool. The girl from Transformers liked our band, which was really sick.”
TV Eye’s main stage room had posters taped to the walls with an array of Sorry Mom-coded designs. The construction sheets bore the words “I Hate Sorry Mom” with what appeared to be made with DIY stamps, “Football Tight End” decorated with drawings of dainty panties with a red heart in the center, and “Votes For Women” within a banned circle symbol. The audience filed in just prior to 9:00 p.m. for Sorry Mom to take the stage. The front was filled with teenagers, some dressed befitting the carnival theme.
“Not to paint with a broad brush, but a lot of our fans are high school girls. That's who I write a lot of music for,” Juno said. “So I wanted to make sure that at least as many of those younger people as possible could be included.”
The red curtains opened up to Juno taking the stage wearing a teal polka dot smock strumming on their Fender Strat plastered with stickers, to Taryn wearing striped pants and a white ruffle collar behind a glittering silver drum kit, and to their touring bassist, who resembled a mime with their black-and-white clown makeup paired with a black beret. They began to play their set list and in time Sorry Mom started playing “Like a Body,” which showed me that even though these songs are intended for a teenage audience, they are able to resonate with those of all ages. The lyrics express feelings that have presented themselves not just in my adult life, but I assume in many others.
“I don't know what I'm supposed to do / But I know this ain't it / Maybe this is just dying / But it used to feel like being born / I feel like a child / But baby I'm so tired.”
The lyrics seem to have echoed in my mind before I heard them sung under those blinding stage lights. They can suggest that we all share the same emotions no matter our stories as we are bound by the same undercurrent of feelings. When a band captures these raw, unvarnished emotions, it offers us a brief reprieve. Even if we are alone in our experience, the artist has walked the same path, felt the same unease.
To pull the introspective listener back into reality, Sorry Mom provided brief intermissions by introducing not one but two circus performances by Kieth Nelson from the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, which captivated the audience. The first performance involved a pool rack triangle, a rope and a filled wine glass where he spun it around in a number of ways without spilling a single drop. This was shortly followed by a bar trick once featured on The Late Late Show with James Cordon, involving a wooden spoon held in his mouth which wine glasses were stacked on top of.
Sorry Mom’s set continued with a large mosh pit forming front and center and after a few songs it was paused by a kick pedal malfunction, allowing Kieth to be brought back on stage. The second performance undoubtedly raised the stakes by featuring sword swallowing, concluding with a 24-inch steel sword. Juno watched from the side of the stage jumping up-and-down absolutely flabbergasted, as we all were.
“I think that circus performance is just like such a cool ancient performance tradition,” Juno said.
Sorry Mom’s debut show with Hopeless Records set an undeniably high bar for any upcoming album releases under the label. It's almost unimaginable what they will create next, but maybe the few Sorry Mom raffle tickets I have left in my pocket may be of use.
