The HIRS Collective | |
---|---|
Also known as | +HIRS+ (early) |
Origin | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Genres | |
Years active | 2011–present |
Labels |
|
Spinoffs | Jenna and the Pups |
Members |
|
The HIRS Collective, formerly known as simply +HIRS+ (pronounced "heers"), [1] is an American queer punk musical collective based in Philadelphia. Founded in 2011 by vocalist Jenna Pup and guitarist Esem, they have amassed over 50 releases, [2] including two studio albums for Get Better Records, Friends. Lovers. Favorites. (2018) and We're Still Here (2023). Both albums drew media attention for their extensive high-profile featured artists, including Garbage's Shirley Manson, Screaming Females' Marissa Paternoster, and My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero. The group has also been noted for their fluid lineup, short, abrasive songs, and radical queer/trans-minded politics. [3] They have been branded "Queercore's resident supergroup" by Alternative Press. [4]
The HIRS Collective, originally known as +HIRS+, was formed in 2011 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by vocalist Jenna "JP" Pup and guitarist Scott "Esem". [5] [1] (The group's members are semi-anonymous and do not use last names.) [5] [6] Their name is derived from the eponymous third-person neopronoun, commonly used by non-binary people. [1]
During the group's first few years, they issued a string of limited-release splits, 7" singles, EPs, cassette tapes, lathes, and a MiniDisc, as well as the 2012 compilation album The First 100 Songs. [5] [7] [8] [9] [10] Earlier that year, HIRS appeared at Two Piece Fest with Trophy Wife [11] and were a headlining act at Riot Fest, alongside Refused, The Promise Ring, August Burns Red, Off!, and BoySetsFire. [12] They also joined the 2013 Philadelphia Ladyfest with acts including Screaming Females, U.S. Girls, Aye Nako, Priests, and Black Wine, [13] [14] [15] and performed at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia in April 2014 with Perfect Pussy and Yamantaka // Sonic Titan. [16] During the month of October, the group released a series of daily covers of acts including System of a Down and God Is My Co-Pilot. These were subsequently included on a split cassette with the band Slothspring, which Impose Magazine named one of the "Best Splits, Compilations & Collaborations of 2014". [17] [18]
The band came to the attention of SRA Records, which had also issued releases by Flag of Democracy and Trophy Wife and whose owner, BJ Howze, knew the members of HIRS from a previous band. [19] [7] SRA re-released The First 100 Songs in 2014, and released the group's follow-up compilation, The Second 100 Songs, on May 12, 2015. [7] [5] [19] During this time, the group toured in Philadelphia, Australia, and the West Coast, developing a following in both extreme music circles and in the queer punk scene. [5]
While recording a 2015 split with the group Peeple Watchin', the band brought in additional musicians due to Pup recovering from surgery, which led to the group taking a more collaborative approach going forward. [6] Pup and Esem began characterizing HIRS as a collective rather than a traditional band, [5] and by their 2017 EP How to Stop Street Harassment, the lineup had expanded beyond the original duo and they had renamed themselves The HIRS Collective. [20]
In April 2017, the HIRS Collective performed at Get Better Records's 4th annual Get Better Fest alongside Soul Glo, Amanda X, Thin Lips, Pinkwash, and Radiator Hospital, which benefitted the Trans Assistance Project, Youth Emergency Services, and Women Against Abuse. [21] [22] They also appeared on the label's compilation album A Benefit Comp To Help Pay Medical Bills For Those Activists Fighting Against Fascism & Racism alongside Cayetana, Potty Mouth, Screaming Females, Sadie Dupuis, Worriers, Palehound, Mannequin Pussy, and Joe Jack Talcum. Produced in the wake of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the album's proceeds benefitted two "Defend C-Ville" fundraising efforts as well as relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey in Houston. [23]
In February 2018, the HIRS Collective announced the release of their first full-length album, entitled Friends. Lovers. Favorites.. [24] [25] [26] [10] Released April 20 via SRA and Get Better, [24] [25] [8] the album was noted for its long list of high profile guest artists, which included Garbage's Shirley Manson, Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace, Screaming Females' Marissa Paternoster, Soul Glo's Pierce Jordan, RVIVR's Erica Freas, G.L.O.S.S.'s Sadie Switchblade, Limp Wrist's Martin Sorrondeguy, and The Bags' Alice Bag, [24] [25] [26] a lineup that NPR wrote "truly ties together a long history of queer punk". [26] Pup noted that, in contrast to prior releases that were written and recorded quickly, Friends. Lovers. Favorites. took around four years to assemble. [8] The album was released with the group's out-of-print 2016 EP You Can't Kill Us, as well as a remix project titled You Can't Remix Us featuring mixes by Moor Mother, Kilbourne, and Lilium Kobayashi [24] [25] [27] [8]
The album's release coincided with HIRS supporting Screaming Females on tour alongside Thou, [28] [25] as well as a split album with the latter, I Have Become Your Pupil. In June, they recorded a five-song flexi disc EP, Coming Out of the Coffin, for a cover issue of New Noise Magazine , which featured Paternoster, RVIVR's Mattie Jo Canino, War On Women's Shawna Potter, Night Witch's Rosie Richeson, and Thou's Bryan Funck. [29] The following month, they supported Paint It Black at a show in Asbury Park alongside Screaming Females and Bacchae. [30] In 2019, they performed at Empath's album release show in West Philadelphia [31] and with The Body and Stinking Lizaveta at Philadelphia's Kung Fu Necktie venue, [32] and were ranked by Kerrang! as one of the "50 Best American Hardcore Bands Right Now". [33]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the HIRS Collective released on August 26 Covid Covers Vol. 1, a four-song EP composed of covers of Garbage, Björk, and Enkephalin, which featured Paternoster and Dr. Mace. [34] [10] Later in the year, they posted to Instagram looking for vocalists to record unreleased demos. [35]
In April 2021, the band announced a new 100 Songs compilation, The Third 100 Songs, alongside the single "Love,". [36] [37] [38] A double album combining new material with songs from past recordings, [36] the album was released on June 25 via Get Better and saw Paternoster, Moor Mother, Funck, Potter, and Canino return as collaborators. [36] [37] In November, they performed with Pissed Jeans in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. [39]
In October 2022, the HIRS Collective announced a second full-length album for Get Better, We're Still Here, with an eponymous lead single featuring Shirley Manson and AC Sapphire. [40] [41] [42] [43] A second single, "Sweet Like Candy", was released in December and featured Thou's Bryan Funck, Maha Shami of screamo band NØ MAN, and former Less Than Jake saxophonist Jessica Joy Mills. [44] "Trust the Process", featuring Night Witch's Rosie Richeson and My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero, was released in January, [45] and a music video for "XOXOXOXOXOX" featuring Melt-Banana premiered the following month. [46] The album's other guest artists, totaling 35 over 17 tracks, [47] [6] included a returning Paternoster and Jordan as well as Geoff Rickly (Thursday), Jeremy Bolm (Touché Amoré), Damian Abraham (Fucked Up), Justin Pearson (The Locust), Nate Newton (Converge), Anthony Green (Circa Survive, Saosin), Dan Yemin (Paint It Black, Lifetime), Christina Michelle (Gouge Away), Jordan Deyer (La Dispute), Chris Barker (Anti-Flag), Chip King (The Body), Dylan Walker (Full of Hell), Derek Zanetti (The Homeless Gospel Choir), and Pinkwash. [40] [41] [42] [43] [47] [2] HIRS self-produced the album, recording at Esem's studio as well as Permanent Hearing Damage Studio in Philadelphia. [40] [47]
The album was released digitally on December 25, 2022 [48] with a full physical release via Get Better on March 24, 2023. [40] [41] [42] [43] That same month, the group launched a Spring 2023 tour with a show in Washington, D.C.. [46] [47] They were also announced to join Toronto's New Friends Fest in August 2023, alongside Pg. 99, Gulfer, Joie De Vivre, and Stay Inside. [49] [50]
Frontwoman Jenna Pup co-founded and co-owns Get Better Records. [37] [38] [36] She has a pop punk solo project, Jenna and the Pups, which has released two albums as well as a 2018 split album with HIRS. [51] In 2021, Pup was featured on a metal cover of Prince's "I Would Die 4 U" by the YouTube channel Two Minutes to Late Night alongside Lamb of God's Randy Blythe, Gorilla Biscuits's Walter Schreifels, Most Precious Blood's Rachel Rosen, and many others. [52] [53]
The HIRS Collective are most commonly identified as grindcore, [5] [54] [1] [36] [41] [3] as well as punk rock, [41] [45] [1] [55] [44] hardcore punk, [33] [10] [56] [57] [3] [6] powerviolence, [9] [58] [57] [3] thrash, [16] [1] [7] [17] [59] and metalcore. [33] In the tradition of these genres, their songs are typically abrasive and short in length, with many ranging from less than 30 seconds to under a minute; [5] [6] [59] [18] frontwoman Jenna Pup has said "If something needs to be longer, we’ll make it longer, but it seems we’re able to get our points across quickly." [8] Many songs make use of samples, from sources as varied as Stranger Things , Angelica Ross's Her Story monologue, The Powerpuff Girls , The Crying Game , and an emergency broadcast recorded during the George Floyd protests; [1] [47] Pup has said that the samples are used to complement her vocals and help explain the song to listeners. [5] Vice described a typical HIRS song in 2015 as: "Sample from a movie. Heavy blastbeats. Fast and pounding guitar riffs. Screamed, mostly unintelligible vocals. Repeat." [5]
Pup has disagreed with the group's classification as grindcore, saying, "I understand, there's blastbeats and people want to call it grind and all these other genres, but we've always just agreed that any band that we're ever in is a punk band." [5] NPR's Lars Gotrich similarly wrote that "To simply call HIRS' extreme coalescence 'grindcore' does the band a bit of an injustice", noting that their album Friends. Lovers. Favorites. included "sludgy punk spitballs shot from Iron Lung and His Hero Is Gone, the euphoric digital-grind of Melt-Banana, Nasum's death-metal-grooved grind and hints of Converge's chaotic hardcore roots", as well as Blood Brothers-esque screeching on "Hard to Get". [26] Tiny Mix Tapes described the album as "pop music", comparing its brighter production to that of early 2000s Relapse Records albums, and noted that the group had "moved from the frenetic-burst approach of their countless early EPs" and embraced pop music's "emphasis on movement and emotional response bound together in a joyful, sweaty room". [60] Noel Gardner of The Quietus saw the album as having the vocals of Converge, the guitar and bass of Nails, and the drums of Napalm Death. [9]
For We're Still Here, the group's signature heavy sound incorporated the wide-ranging styles of the album's guest artists, with songs drawing from heavy metal, stadium rock, crust punk, digital hardcore, noise rock, screamo, bubblegum, and cybergrind, [44] [47] [48] [2] [61] while closing track "Bringing Light and Replenishments" features a choir, piano, and cello. [47] Alternative Press described the band's song "Trust the Process" as having "panic chords that recall early Botch and Converge" and Frank Iero's vocals on the song as resembling those of Glassjaw, Antioch Arrow, and Pg.99. [57] The album also paid tribute to the group members' love of hip hop; [3] [47] the music video for "Trust the Process" is an homage to that of the Beastie Boys' 1992 single "So What'cha Want", [45] [47] [61] while the song "Judgement Night" samples Onyx and Biohazard's title track from the 1993 Judgement Night soundtrack and features 808 drops. [47] [3] Jenna Pup said that she had sought to make "a Hot Topic sampler-meets-hip-hop record where every single song has a feature", and noted at the time of the album's release that she was listening to music by Wu-Tang Clan, Logic, and Bo Burnham. [47]
Punknews.org compared the group's sound and philosophy to that of G.L.O.S.S., although noting that HIRS had a louder, harsher sound and less of a traditional band structure. [54] The group has also drawn sonic comparison to Pig Destroyer, Municipal Waste, and early Liturgy. [62]
Pup and guitarist Esem typically split core songwriting duties, with guest collaborators adding their own touches after the fact. [6] [47] Esem said of this process: "It's almost like there's a framework — the body and the muscles — and then there's like the clothing. And then to make the whole outfit work, so-and-so might put like a cute little hat on." [6] Pup noted that a song on We're Still Here marked the duo's first time collaborating with another songwriter. [47] She also said that, while obtaining features for the album was a relatively simple process, "the mixing and the mastering and putting all the things where they needed to be and figuring out the sequence of the record and how it's going to flow – those were the difficult parts. We did either close to or over sixty hours of mixing – only mixing, not including recording." [47]
The HIRS Collective are intensely politically outspoken, most prominently on the topic of transgender rights and other LGBTQ issues. (Jenna Pup is a trans woman while guitarist Esem identifies as queer.) [6] They are aligned with queer anarchist, [9] [60] feminist, [17] anti-police, [59] and anti-authoritarian [59] principles, and self-identify as "a collective of freaks and faggots that will never stop existing". [7] Their lyrics have addressed topics including misogyny, [60] religion and sexuality, [59] transphobic violence, [60] [5] capitalism, [47] [2] racism and gentrification, [9] mental health, [47] suicidal ideation, [60] overmedication, [61] and the need for self-care. [9] Their 2016 EP You Can't Kill Us was written while Pup was in a dark mental place and references her battles with suicidal ideation, [6] while its follow-up, 2017's How To Stop Street Harassment, depicts trans women taking up arms in response to street harassment and rape culture. [20] [25] [9] Such heavy subject matter is often counterbalanced by a ribald sense of humor (such as the song "MAGICal WANDerful", themed to Pup's Hitachi Magic Wand) [1] [60] and by positive sentiments of love, joy, survival, and finding strength in community. [25] [26] [36] [48] [2] [60] [8]
The HIRS Collective embraces the label of "punk" as an ethos more than a genre, interpreting it as being "trying to be better people and burn the bridges of all the awful people and make sure to leave them behind." [5] [8] Pup has said that, while the group "started off with so much angst and aggression and anger", over time they chose to emphasize compassion for humanity a focus on the positive over the negative. [6] The group's logo, a hand with sharp, hot pink fingernails brandishing a pocketknife, represents support for aggressive self-defense of the marginalized, with Pup explaining, "Violence is not the only answer, but we support it when necessary". [8]
The website Them described the group's live show as "primal scream therapy for transfeminine rage". [1] Their live setup typically consists of Pup and Esem performing over backing tracks, [6] and they are known to blast the music of Britney Spears in between songs. [60] In keeping with their political ethos, the group strives for inclusivity in their live performances, including playing at all-ages shows, performing with marginalized artists, taking a sliding scale approach to ticket prices and merch sales, and inviting marginalized concertgoers to move to the front of the crowd at shows, as well as donating concert profits to local causes. [8] They also make a point of performing in places unwelcoming to trans people. [6]
The HIRS Collective has no solidified members. [4] According to WXPN, by the time of Friends. Lovers. Favorites. (2018), the group had "[expanded] past the two piece guitar, vocals, drum machine, and giant wall of amps lineup that defined their sound and image" at their inception and had become "purposely nebulous in size". [25]
The two known core members of the group are: [6]
Additionally, Get Better Records head Alex Lichtenauer is an occasional live drummer for the group. [25]
Title | Album details |
---|---|
Friends. Lovers. Favorites. | Released: April 20, 2018 Label: SRA/Get Better Format: CD, Digital |
We're Still Here | Released: March 24, 2023 Label: Get Better Format: CD, Digital |
Year | Title | Label | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | Worship | Self-released | |
2012 | Dimebag | ||
Vagaytion/Gaycation | |||
2013 | Remixxxes | ||
Shut Down the Machine | Maybe It's Art | ||
Antichristmas * Happy Holigays | Bastard Tapes | ||
2014 | Madonna | Behind The Mountain | |
2015 | The Sexxxy Flexxxi | Get Better | |
2016 | Build Your Own Bro Smasher | ||
You Can't Kill Us | |||
2017 | How To Stop Street Harassment | ||
2018 | Coming Out of the Coffin | Get Better | Produced as a flexi disc for an issue of New Noise Magazine [29] |
2020 | Friends. Lovers. Favorites. MMXVI Demos | Self-released | |
Covid Covers Vol. 1 | |||
2021 | CovidSixNine Live 2020 |
Year | Title | Label |
---|---|---|
2012 | The First 100 Songs | SRA |
2015 | The Second 100 Songs | |
2021 | The Third 100 Songs | Get Better |
Year | Song | Album | Label |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | "23:15 3.19.14" | non-album single | Bastard Tapes |
2016 | "Say Her Name" | The Third 100 Songs | Get Better |
2017 | "MAGICal/WANDerful" | ||
2021 | "Love," | ||
"Affection & Care." | |||
"Staying Alive" (ft. Stephen Inman) | |||
2022 | "We're Still Here" (ft.Shirley Manson, AC Sapphire) | We're Still Here | |
"Sweet Like Candy" (ft. Nø Man, Thou, Jessica Joy Mills) | |||
2023 | "Trust The Process" (ft. Frank Iero, Rosie Richeson) | ||
"XOXOXOXOXOX" (ft. Melt-Banana) |
Year | Song | Director |
---|---|---|
2018 | "Pedazos" | Riley Luce |
"Outnumbered" | The HIRS Collective | |
"Demagogues" | Dawn Riddle | |
"Assigned Cop at Birth" | The HIRS Collective | |
"It's Ok to Be Sick" | Rosemary Engstrom | |
2021 | "Love," | The HIRS Collective |
"Staying Alive" | Stephen Inman | |
2022 | "We're Still Here" | The HIRS Collective |
"Sweet Like Candy" | ||
2023 | "Trust The Process" | |
"XOXOXOXOXOX" |
Year | Title | Label | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | Nunmilk | Human Beard | |
2013 | Gaytheism | One Brick Today | [65] |
2017 | Trans Girl Takeover 2017 Tour Tape | Self-released |
Year | Title | Split with | Label |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | +HIRS+ / Towers | Towers | self-released |
Involuntary Splits | The Immaculates | ||
Maradona / +HIRS+ | Maradona | Bastard Tapes | |
2012 | Live From Motel Hell | Drums Like Machine Guns | |
Dlmg/+HIRS+ | |||
Shit Weather / Hirs | Shit Weather | ||
+HIRS+ // Tooth Decay | Tooth Decay | ||
Hulk Smash / +HIRS+ | Hulk Smash | ||
+HIRS+ / Nimbus Terrifix | Nimbus Terrifix | ||
2013 | Destroy the Scene | Bros Fall Back | |
+HIRS+/Bubonic Bear | Bubonic Bear | ||
Hirvana / Very Ape | APE! | ||
2014 | Water Torture / +HIRS+ | Water Torture | Nice Dream |
Cocaine Breath / +HIRS+ Split 2" | Cocaine Breath | Bastard Tapes | |
The HIRS Collective/Peeple Watchin' Split | Peeple Watchin' | ||
Needle Breaker | Deceiver | ||
Shit Split | Heavy Medical | ||
+HIRS+/Heavy Medical Split | |||
Sloth Esteem | The Slothspring | Self-released | |
2016 | Split | Lifes | Get Better |
2017 | Hiromanticstates | Romantic States | |
Happy Holidays from the Hirs Collective and Toxic Womb | Toxic Womb | ||
2018 | Split w/ Godstomper | Godstomper | |
I Have Become Your Pupil | Thou | ||
Jenna and the Pups/The HIRS Collective Split | Jenna and the Pups | ||
Love Ya Like A Sister | Night Witch | ||
2020 | There's Good in All of Us | Thou | |
2022 | Cowboy Wisdom | Jenna and the Pups, Hank V | Sisters in Christ |
Queercore is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically society's disapproval of the LGBT community. Queercore expresses itself in a DIY style through magazines, music, writing and film.
Screamo is an subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics". San Diego–based bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow pioneered the genre in the early 1990s, and it was developed in the late 1990s mainly by bands from the East Coast of the United States such as Pg. 99, Orchid, Saetia, and I Hate Myself. Screamo is strongly influenced by hardcore punk and characterized by the use of screamed vocals. Lyrical themes usually include emotional pain, death, romance, and human rights. The term "screamo" has frequently been mistaken as referring to any music with screaming.
Hüsker Dü was an American punk rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continuous members were guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart. They first gained notability as a hardcore punk band, and later crossed over into alternative rock. Mould and Hart were the band's principal songwriters, with Hart's higher-pitched vocals and Mould's baritone taking the lead in alternating songs.
Scream is an American hardcore punk band from Washington, D.C.; they originally formed in the suburb of Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia. Scream originally formed in 1981 within the vanguard of the Washington Hardcore explosion. In 2009, the band reunited, and as of January 2012 were on tour in Europe. As of 2017, the band was still touring in both America and the United Kingdom.
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term "post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Initially taking inspiration from post-punk and noise rock, post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. Dischord Records became a major nexus of post-hardcore during this period.
I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love is the debut studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance, released on July 23, 2002 by Eyeball Records. Produced by Thursday vocalist Geoff Rickly, it was recorded at Nada Recording Studio in New Windsor, New York, in May 2002. In the band's 2006 documentary Life on the Murder Scene, the band describes the painful conditions lead singer Gerard Way was in during the recording of the album due to a toothache, causing the album’s recording to take longer than planned.
"Because the Night" is a rock song from 1977 written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith that appears on the Patti Smith Group album Easter, which was released in 1978. On March 2, 1978, the song was released as a single, and was commercially successful, reaching No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and No. 5 in the United Kingdom, which helped propel Easter to mainstream success.
Murphy's Law is an influential American hardcore punk band from New York City, formed in 1982. While vocalist Jimmy Drescher remains the only founding member of the band, the line-up has consisted of numerous musicians who have performed with a diverse selection of musical acts across multiple genres, such as Skinnerbox, Danzig, The Bouncing Souls, Mucky Pup, Dog Eat Dog, Hanoi Rocks, Agnostic Front, Warzone, Cro-Mags, D Generation, New York Dolls, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, The Slackers, Thursday, Skavoovie and the Epitones, White Trash and Glen Campbell.
Mischief Brew was an American folk punk band from Philadelphia consisting of vocalist and guitarist Erik Petersen, bassist Shawn St. Clair, and drummers Christopher Petersen and Christopher Kulp. The band played DIY folk punk and anarcho-punk music; it incorporated styles including American folk, Celtic folk, Gypsy-punk, and swing with lyrics influenced by the labour movement, protest music, and punk culture.
Heartbreak in Stereo is the only studio album by the American rock band Pencey Prep.
Daniel Philip Carter is a British musician and radio DJ. He is the former singer and guitarist for hardcore punk band Hexes, the former bassist for A, the former lead guitarist for alternative rock band Bloodhound Gang and current guitarist for metal group Krokodil. Carter is also the host of BBC Radio 1's Rock Show.
Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune with various hardcore punk and/or heavy metal subgenres, most often metalcore and post-hardcore. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metalcore and chiptune. The genre originated in the early 2000s and peaked around the late 2000s with bands like Horse the Band, Karate High School and Sky Eats Airplane pioneering the genre.
Marissa Paternoster is an American artist, singer and guitarist active in New Jersey's New Brunswick music scene. She is the former lead singer and guitarist of the band Screaming Females, and continues to perform in the solo project Noun.
Death Spells was an American digital hardcore band formed in 2012. The group was composed of My Chemical Romance rhythm guitarist Frank Iero and keyboardist James Dewees, both of whom were also previously members of hardcore punk band Leathermouth.
PUP is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 2010, originally under the name Topanga. PUP's debut album PUP was released on October 8, 2013, on Royal Mountain Records. In December 2013, PUP signed with SideOneDummy Records and re-released their debut album in the United States on April 8, 2014. The group was in the studio in late 2015 recording their second album The Dream Is Over which was released on May 27, 2016, through SideOneDummy. The band's third album, titled Morbid Stuff, was released on April 5, 2019. This Place Sucks Ass, a six-track EP, was released on October 27, 2020. Their fourth album, The Unraveling of PUPTheBand, was released on April 1, 2022.
Beatdown hardcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk with prominent elements of heavy metal. Beatdown hardcore features aggressive vocals, gang vocals, heavy guitar riffs and breakdowns and lyrics discussing unity, brotherhood, volatile interpersonal relationships and machismo. The genre has its origins in late 1980s New York hardcore bands such as Breakdown, Killing Time and Madball, and was pioneered in the mid-1990s by bands like Bulldoze, Terror Zone and Neglect. The definition of the genre has expanded over time to incorporate artists increasingly indebted to metal, notably Xibalba, Sunami and Knocked Loose.
Get Better Records is an American independent record label based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Annachristie Marie Sadler, known professionally as AC Sapphire, is an American singer-songwriter based in Portland, Oregon. She has shared the stage with artists including First Aid Kit, Amos Lee, Langhorne Slim, and Victoria Williams and collaborated with Kyle Craft, Hoots & Hellmouth, Sharon Little, and Shirley Manson.
Better Lovers is an American hardcore punk band from Buffalo, New York. Formed in 2023 after the dissolution of Every Time I Die, the group consists of vocalist Greg Puciato, guitarists Jordan Buckley and Will Putney, bassist Stephen Micciche, and drummer Clayton Holyoak. The band is signed to SharpTone Records and released their debut EP, God Made Me an Animal, in 2023. Often labeled a supergroup, the band features members formerly of Every Time I Die and The Dillinger Escape Plan (Puciato), as well as a current member of Fit For An Autopsy (Putney).