The HIRS Collective

The HIRS Collective
Also known as	+HIRS+ (early)
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genres	Queercore grindcore powerviolence hardcore thrash
Years active	2011–present
Labels	SRA Get Better
Spinoffs	Jenna and the Pups
Members	Jenna Pup Esem

The HIRS Collective, formerly known as simply +HIRS+ (pronounced "heers"), 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, including two studio albums for Get Better Records, Friends. Lovers. Favorites. (2018) and We're Still Here (2023), both of which drew media attention for their extensive lists of high-profile musical guests, 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 song lengths, and radical queer/trans-minded politics. They have been branded "Queercore's resident supergroup" by Alternative Press.

History

2011–2018: Origins and early releases

The HIRS Collective, originally known as +HIRS+, was formed in 2011 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by vocalist Jenna "JP" Pup and guitarist Scott "Esem". (The group's members are semi-anonymous and do not use last names.) Their name is derived from the eponymous third-person neopronoun, commonly used by non-binary people.

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. Earlier that year, HIRS appeared at Two Piece Fest with Trophy Wife and were a headlining act at Riot Fest, alongside Refused, The Promise Ring, August Burns Red, Off!, and BoySetsFire. They also joined the 2013 Philadelphia Ladyfest with acts including Screaming Females, U.S. Girls, Aye Nako, Priests, and Black Wine, and performed at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia in April 2014 with Perfect Pussy and Yamantaka // Sonic Titan.

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. 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. During this time, the group toured in Philadelphia, Australia, and the West Coast, developing a following "not just in extreme music circles but also, and more importantly for the band, in the burgeoning queer punk scene", according to Vice.

While recording their 2015 split with 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. Pup and Esem began characterizing HIRS as a collective rather than a traditional band, 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.

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. 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.

2018–2020: Friends. Lovers. Favorites.

In February 2018, the HIRS Collective announced the release of their first full-length album, entitled Friends. Lovers. Favorites.. Released April 20 via SRA and Get Better, 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, a lineup that NPR wrote "truly ties together a long history of queer punk". 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

• by this album, 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

The album's release coincided with HIRS supporting Screaming Females on tour alongside Thou, 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. The following month, they supported Paint It Black at a show in Asbury Park alongside Screaming Females and Bacchae. In 2019, they performed at Empath's album release show in West Philadelphia and with The Body and Stinking Lizaveta at Philadelphia's Kung Fu Necktie venue, and were ranked by Kerrang! as one of the "50 Best American Hardcore Bands Right Now".

2020–present: The Third 100 Songs and We're Still Here

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the HIRS Collective released on August 26 Covid Covers Vol. 1, a four-song EP comprised of covers of Garbage, Björk, and Enkephalin, which featured Paternoster and Dr. Mace. Later in the year, they posted to Instagram looking for vocalists to record unreleased demos.

In April 2021, the band announced a new 100 Songs compilation, The Third 100 Songs, alongside the single "Love,". A double album combining new material with songs from past recordings, the album was released on June 25 via Get Better and saw Paternoster, Moor Mother, Funck, Potter, and Canino return as collaborators. In November, they performed with Pissed Jeans in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

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. 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. "Trust the Process", featuring Night Witch's Rosie Richeson and My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero, was released in January, and a music video for "XOXOXOXOXOX" featuring Melt-Banana premiered the following month. The album's other guest artists, totaling 35 over 17 tracks, 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. HIRS self-produced the album, recording at Esem's studio as well as Permanent Hearing Damage Studio in Philadelphia; Jenna Pup told Punknews.org that while obtaining the features was a 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."

The album was released digitally on December 25, 2022 with a full physical release via Get Better on March 24, 2023. That same month, the group launched a Spring 2023 tour with a show in Washington, D.C.. They were also announced to join Toronto's New Friends Fest in August 2023, alongside Pg. 99, Gulfer, Joie De Vivre, and Stay Inside.

Other projects

Frontwoman Jenna Pup co-founded and co-owns Get Better Records. 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. 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.

Artistry and ideology

The HIRS Collective are most commonly identified as grindcore, as well as punk rock, hardcore punk, powerviolence, thrash, and metalcore. In the tradition of these genres, their songs are typically abrasive and short in length, with some being less than 30 seconds. 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." However, frontwoman Jenna Pup has disagreed with the group's classification as grindcore, saying, "I wouldn't even call it grind. It's punk. 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." 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".

(genre/descriptions)

• "queer thrash punk"
• "political grind"
• most songs are 30 seconds or less
• "trans/queer grind thrash hellraisers"
• "grindcore-ish queer punk"
• "molten-hot tech-grind"
• " intensely precise grind-into-powerviolence with tons of bottom end"
• "FRIENDS. LOVERS. FAVORITES., the new album from Philly grind collective HIRS, is pop music, not just popular music. It’s recorded and mixed like an early-2000s Relapse record, loud and bright and sharp. The vocals are intelligible, the guitars irruptive, buoyant, propulsive, chunky. It takes the emotional directness and reliability of mainstream pop and lashes it to the minute-or-less anti-structures of grind"
• "They’ve moved from the frenetic-burst approach of their countless early EPs to something a bit more solid, something that places more emphasis on silence, that hints briefly at a traditional “riff” before diving in another direction. But these moments of solidity are that pop tradition, that emphasis on movement and emotional response bound together in a joyful, sweaty room. It’s no wonder they blast Britney Spears in between songs live."
• "Queercore’s resident supergroup, the grindcore-inspired HIRS Collective"
• "frantic, intense, chaotic hardcore"
• "Love," is "an absolutely ferocious blast of grindcore that manages to feel crisp, accessible, and tuneful without sacrificing any of the genre's usual brutality"
• "experimental hardcore"
• "punk/grindcore"
• "The title track does what The HIRS Collective does best: slam together several metal styles like sour candy — riffs and blast beats blaze by at hyperspeed, but with a moshable groove."
• "a slow and sludgy riff that becomes a metallic mantra of defiance"
• "We're Still Here": "With pummeling blast beats, motivational lyrics, melodic vocals from Manson and earth-shattering breakdowns, the powerviolence-meets-grindcore band are unmatched in terms of energy and aggression."
• "queer punk"
• "Sweet Like Candy" is "a fast, heavy stadium-crust beast-out anthem"
• "powerviolence and extreme hardcore"
• "melds their distinctive, heavy sound with the wide-ranging styles of their collaborators"
• "they go from the digital hardcore hip-hop of Ghösh to the electronic, noisy chaos of Melt-Banana"
• album closer “Bringing Light and Replenishments” features choir, piano, and cello
• "diverse blend of grindcore, powerviolence, and hardcore"
• "overdriven guitars, blast beat drums, and fry-heavy screams"
• We're Still Here brings "increasingly vicious riffs and diatribes to their signature sound."
• "XOXOXOXOXOX" is "abstract, minimalist, bubblegum cybergrind"
• "With 17 tracks that barely clock in at 30 minutes combined, it's a frenetic barrage of grindcore noise blasts. Jenna's throat-scraping screams brawl with Scott's heavy riffs for a combative, clobbering concoction. It's pure snarling energy that never relents."
• majority of songs on 100 Songs albums are under a minute in length

(Comparisons)

• "its vocals, guitar/bass and (albeit programmed) drums tilting towards Converge, Nails and Napalm Death respectively"
• comparison to G.L.O.S.S.
• "Trust the Process" has "panic chords that recall early Botch and Converge, fry screams and frenzied drum patterns"
• Frank Iero's contributions resemble Glassjaw's Daryl Palumbo "with a touch of tongue-in-cheek ‘90s proto-screamo in the vein of Antioch Arrow and Pg.99."

(Samples)

• JP: "There's two reasons we use samples: one, I should never have a microphone, ever. I talk into them like an idiot. So we use samples that go with the song. The sample explains the song. Two, I feel like we're at the point where enough people know what we're about."
• You Can't Kill Us samples Stranger Things, Friends. Lovers. Favorites. samples Angelica Ross's Her Story monologue
• “MAGICal/WANDerful” builds on the vibration patterns of Jenna Pup's Hitachi Magic Wand; is an example of the bands more lighthearted side
• features sample of NPR emergency broadcast Pup recorded during the George Floyd protests, as well as sirens and a burning house
• other samples are from The Powerpuff Girls episode "Twisted Sister" and the film The Crying Game
• "Judgement Night" references and samples Onyx and Biohazard's tittle track from the 1993 soundtrack album of the same name

(live show)

• band's live show is "primal scream therapy for transfeminine rage"
• " The HIRS Collective live setup is just Jenna singing and Scott shredding on guitar over backing tracks (having a Polyphonic Spree-esque, 37-person tour isn't exactly feasible), but it's still an invigorating live experience. And in true punk-rock spirit, the pair thrives on going to the places where trans folks are unwelcome and creating a scene for their fellow outsiders."

(Influences and creative process)

• "While Jenna and Scott still split core songwriting duties, once the base of the tunes are completed, the process begins of figuring out which friends or musical heroes might be willing to add layers of sonic color to the mix."
• ""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. And, like, that looks really great. And sounds really great. And goes with everything else that we're wearing," Scott says."
• "Trust The Process" video was an homage to Beastie Boys' "So What'cha Want" video
• JP on WSH: "I wanted to make a Hot Topic sampler-meets-hip-hop record where every single song has a feature, not just consistently doing the same thing over and over and over again."
• JP: "We write stuff, we send it to each other, and we go from there. We already have so many songs written that we could probably do another LP. We love writing and when we have something we go for it. For the more thought-out albums, like ones that we want to be something more than just an EP or a fun little split, we’ll pick out the songs that we’re really into and we try to have it be half and half with half songs I wrote and half songs Scott wrote. On this record, we actually collaborated for the first time ever on a song. He was having a hard time finishing something and it was the first time beyond adding different drums to something where we collaborated on the actual formation of the song."
• Pup had recently (March 2023) been listening to the Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Logic, and Bo Burnham
• JP: "Many of us love hip-hop and have always wanted to do a record that had a feature on ever track similar to some of the records we grew up listening to. Yet being a DIY group means doing all of the communication ourselves."
• JP: " It was nice to have 808 drops that weren’t just a bass drop for a hardcore breakdown. honestly we can’t wait to have more genre-bending tracks like this more often."

(Lyrics and ideology)

• JP: "The idea of the ethics… I don't know, it's a word ["punk"] that doesn't have the same definition or meaning any more. We're just aggressive, fast, and trying to be better people and burn the bridges of all the awful people and make sure to leave them behind."
• "I think that there are very few bands that have our sound or have the same kind of setup or anything that we do that want to support any kind of queer or trans community. One of my favorite things about playing queer shows rather than a more standard metal show is that nine times out of ten the shows we play are really fucking diverse. We're not just playing with the same sounding bands with the same shitty dudes."
• "proudly refer to themselves as 'A collective of freaks and faggots that will never stop existing'"
• How To Stop Street Harassment focused on topics of street harassment and rape culture
• "Their lyrics are equally explosive and fiercely political, touching on themes such as queer and trans identity, street harassment, and death and loss. While that might sound bleak – and oftentimes it is – this is not about giving up but rather figuring out a way to fight back."
• "The HIRS Collective has a unified purpose: to defend, examine and extol the survival of trans and queer outcasts."
• • "queer trans anarchism"
  • lyrics about trans women taking up arms against street harassers; the necessity of self-care; the institutional sickness of the police force, and anti-black gentrification programmes coupled with the whiteness of punk culture"
• • "militant (trans)gender anarchist politics, dirty sex jokes, thoughts of suicide, and utterly genuine love for a community of friends."
  • "direct confrontation of misogyny and transphobia and murder"
• "an uncompromising platform for trans pride and the struggles that LGBTQ+, POC, women, and other working-class minorities continue to face in our present day."
• "militantly queer"
• "a ferociously pro-queer and trans perspective"
• "Love," is "about us celebrating our existence and being excited to share love" according to Pup
• "But more importantly, the track honors the band's foremost purpose: not only the survival, but the extremely loud joy and visibility of trans and queer outcasts."
• WSH songs "shimmer with rage, joy, despair, humour, and hope", explore themes of "mental health, living in a capitalist society, the importance of being there for each other."
• • "their traditional unrelenting queerness, abrasive sound, and absolutely stacked with features"
  • JP: "Our bodies aren’t eternal, but The Collective can be. We look forward to doing this as long as possible and being able to pass the torch whenever needed."
• • "grinding, stomach-churning, bite-size anthems in response to the injustices of daily life"
  • "In the face of an increasing culture of transphobia and homophobia; ever-present racial violence; and the general untenability of daily life under late capitalism, the HIRS collective assert their presence as “never-ending, infinite.”"
  • "While HIRS frequently works in response to the social and political ills of daily life in the U.S. they avoid the double-edged sword of either preaching to the choir or otherwise reveling in suffering by appealing to communal strength and uplifting one another. Instead, HIRS reach for catharsis by focusing on moments of strength and joy and the simple glorious act of survival."

• "But under that abrasive exterior are lyrical messages of community and acceptance. While oppressed rage has certainly been a driving force on past the HIRS Collective releases, We're Still Here finds Jenna leaning hard into finding joy and celebrating survival in these tough times."
• "We've been doing this band for 12 years now," she continues. "And it started off with so much angst and aggression and anger, which we still have, but when I had the 'We're still here' part in my head... I just don't want to forget about compassion for humanity and speaking more about supporting folks rather than demonizing or canceling or like violence against folks that come after us or whatever. Instead of talking about those people that are so negative, more trying to talk about the positive things and just celebrate that."
• " The two-person core of the group is vocalist Jenna, a trans woman, and guitarist Scott, who identifies as queer (both prefer not to use last names)."
• ""The EP we put out, You Can't Kill Us, I was in... whoof. Sorry, I just got emotional. I was in a really rough place when that happened. And if you go back, there's literally a song where the lyrics are, 'No one's gonna kill me, not even myself. I'm gonna live forever.' And that was me writing it almost as like... I can't be another trans woman that takes her life. And I want to be very clear, I'm not shitting on anyone that dies by suicide. We live in, like, an intense, terrible place that makes it hard for everyone to live, regardless. Obviously, specifically speaking of oppressed folks.""
• ""When we were in Texas folks came up and were like, 'Hey, thanks for, like, coming through here and playing these places that are specifically shitty to trans people.' And like, I would rather play these places than spots that have way more support. Like, I want to play them all, but it's cool to come to those places and be like, 'F—- all of your anti-trans bills! We're going to fill up this place with like all the trans folks, all the allies, all the people that need an outlet and a nice dance party. 'Cause we love to play dance music. It's nice to offer a place that hopefully is safer than others, or, at least, more celebratory. Just like, come and have fun with your freaks.""

Members

The HIRS Collective's lineup has been described as "purposely nebulous in size" and has no solidified members. The two known core members are:

• Jenna Pup (aka JP) – vocals, drum machine
• Scott "Esem" – guitar

Additionally, Get Better Records head Alex Lichtenauer is an occasional live drummer for the group.

Discography

Studio albums

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

EPs

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
2020	Friends. Lovers. Favorites. MMXVI Demos	Self-released
	Covid Covers Vol. 1
2021	CovidSixNine Live 2020

Compilations

Year	Title	Label
2012	The First 100 Songs	SRA
2015	The Second 100 Songs
2021	The Third 100 Songs	Get Better

Singles

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)

Music videos

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"

Cassette tapes

Year	Title	Label	Ref
2012	Nunmilk	Human Beard
2013	Gaytheism	One Brick Today
2017	Trans Girl Takeover 2017 Tour Tape	Self-released

Split recordings

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

(source notes)

• Bastard Tapes released a compilation of HIRS' 2011 singles and splits on the label
• • self-released split cassette with Slothspring
  • "feminist and queer"
  • "took it upon themselves to cover a different track every day for the month of October—no small endeavor, particularly when the artists you’re covering range from experimental pop punk outfit Bad Canoes to System of a Down. The 31-track record (excluding the spooky intro and outro) comes off a split with SLOTHSPRING, who offered up an 18-minute track for balance."
• • "+HIRS+ is a fast and furious NO GODS//NO COPS//NO BROS queer grind/thrash group from Philadelphia. Although often indecipherable, +HIRS+’ lyrics are empowering, anti-authoritarian, infuriated declarations that barely reach the 30-second mark."
  • "+HIRS+ has released the demos from a split with Boston’s Peeple Watchin’ that includes a track with vocals and lyrics from Suzy X. Titled “Little White Dress”, the song is 49 seconds of abrasive grindcore confronting religion, sexuality, and shame"
• • more on Slothspring split
  • "the nightmarishness isn’t purely seasonal for +HIRS+, who are accustomed to making thrash at its most revved-up. All of these tracks span less than a minute in time, some under 30 seconds, and they diverge so much from the originals that +HIRS+ kept the track list under wraps on their Bandcamp with just a few clues so that listeners could guess what they were covering."
  • "In addition to turning the originals entirely on their heads, the band implements a continual transformation of their own sound between and within tracks. On their cover of Body Betrayal‘s “My Gender Is Queer”, +HIRS+ move deftly from a rapid section with throttling drums and piercing vocals to a steadying break in which they voice a couple of softer lines, and then the song escalates until it burns off into a few lengthy, distorted chords. A cover of longtime queercore band God Is My Co-Pilot‘s “In Too Deep//Rubber or Leather” brings a playful dimension to the album with its layering of crunchy, strained vocals over lower spoken ones and squealing guitars. Meanwhile, transitions between all 31 tracks are smooth, some involving a split second of silence and some bridged by similar instrumentation, so that each song feels a bit like an extension of the last. The final track is a cover of “Yr Time Is Up” by witchcore punks Shady Hawkins, who’ll incidentally be playing their last show ever tomorrow—and it’s a loud, riveting interpretation that explodes into a terrifying reverberation of manic sounds that cuts out in a matter of seconds."
• • "The HIRS Collective’s debut LP, Friends. Lovers. Favorites., released April 20 via Get Better Records and SRA Records"
  • "everything the Philadelphia-based collective’s friends, lovers, and favorites have come to expect from them—crushing and concise"
  • "the whole album works in service of a single tenet: dedication to the well-being of their community."
  • "Being a collective rather than a band is just one way that HIRS invite active participation from their community, and this barrier-breaking between artist and audience has long been a vital aspect of punk. Indeed, The HIRS Collective are adamantly punk, but they see this designation as a reflection of their ethos more than a way to classify their music."
  • “We challenge the idea of ‘punk’ as a genre and [see it] more as, hopefully, an ethic,” they explain, “one in which we try to be able to include everyone by trying to always play all-ages shows; invite and support bands, groups, and performers that are made up of other oppressed and marginalized folks; have sliding scale and no-one-turned-away-for-lack-of-funds shows; have sliding scale ideas with merch; invite trans, Black, POC, femme, short, etc. folks to take up space at the front of shows—stuff like that. If we have profit from shows and/or tours, we try to donate that to local folks [and] places in need and be transparent about the money we do or don’t have.”
  • "HIRS’ songs are swift, direct punches to the gut. They have an undeniable gift for brevity, and though some may be tempted to wax poetic about the artistic and political intent behind keeping their music short and their message simple, as per usual, it ain’t that deep. “If something needs to be longer, we’ll make it longer,” they shrug, “but it seems we’re able to get our points across quickly. Also, if you hate us, you don’t have to deal with us too long, and if you love us, we’ll always leave you wanting more. That’s a pretty good feeling.”"
  • "Friends. Lovers. Favorites. may be HIRS’ first full-length, but the collective have already released a slew of splits, singles, and EPs containing literally hundreds of songs—most recently their lauded October 2017 EP, YØU CAN’T KILL US, and its November 2017 follow-up, How To Stop Street Harassment."
  • “We’ve normally written and recorded stuff over the course of maybe a month or a week or even just one day. This took about four years, and it was so involved and hands-on. It also involved so many of our friends, lovers, and favorites—hence the name, duh—so it feels so special to have so many angels we love and care about so much as a part of this record in so many different ways.”
  • "Even their logo—a hand with long, sharp, hot pink fingernails brandishing a pocketknife—makes it clear that righteous violence is a cornerstone of The HIRS Collective’s mission statement."
  • “It’s layered and complex,” they offer. “Violence is not the only answer, but we support it when necessary. When there are trans folks, specifically trans women, specifically trans women of color, being murdered over and over and over again, why would we ever choose to only be passive? People, often cis straight white men, come at us all the time, like, ‘Why are y’all so violent? Why do you want to hurt men?’ and we just want to say, ‘Read between the fucking lines. It’s not all about you. It’s about us and how we are in danger all the time.’ We also support de-escalation, nonviolent communication, accountability processes without excommunication, and more, but we also support violence as a last resort—and as a first, because we are sick of being in danger without being able to respond.”
  • "HIRS will be out on the road until late May"

External links

• The HIRS Collective at Get Better Records
• The HIRS Collective on Bandcamp
• The HIRS Collective discography at Discogs
• The HIRS Collective on Spotify