When shows started happening again in summer 2021, my first one back was a guerrilla hardcore punk gig in Richmond, held in an outdoor location remote enough that people were lighting off fireworks in the pit without worrying that they were going to get it all shut down. The Richmond-via-Raleigh band Public Acid headlined that show and played an absolutely insane set, and I owe them my allegiance forever. I'm delighted to report that their new record captures some of that intensity.

This is nothing new for Public Acid, whose 2024 LP Deadly Struggle was one of my favorite hardcore albums of the year. Their new record Pay No More is a sloppy, chaotic basement-punk attack. There's nothing routine about it. I guess you could analyze it, looking for influences from Japanese or Scandinavian hardcore or whatever. But I'd recommend experiencing it as a raw, primal blurt. You can do that below.

There's another new release today that should scratch a similar itch, too.…