The HIRS Collective

The HIRS Collective
Also known as	+HIRS+ (early)
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genres	Queercore grindcore
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 gained notoriety for their many collaborations with prestigious guest musicians, their abrasive grindcore sound, and their outspoken anarchist and queer liberationist politics. They are currently signed to Get Better Records, of which Pup is co-owner.

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.

• headlined 2012 Riot Fest alongside Refused, The Promise Ring, August Burns Red, Off!, and BoySetsFire
• 2013 Philly Ladyfest
• favorite of Marissa Paternoster in 2013
• performed at First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia in April 2014 with Perfect Pussy and Yamantaka // Sonic Titan.
• • first two 100 Songs albums were released on SRA Records
  • also released "a slew of tapes, 7-inches, and even a minidisc"
  • group considers itself a collective but mainly consists of JP and Esem, who are semi-anonymous
  • formed in Philadelphia in 2011
  • developed a following "in extreme music circles but also, and more importantly for the band, in the burgeoning queer punk scene."
  • toured in Philadelphia, Australia, and the West Coast
  • JP: "I've been calling it a collective as of recently because we're not the only people that make this shit happen in the band. And sometimes we're not the only people who make the music."
• 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
• • toured the West Coast and opened for Melt-Banana
  • "The Second 100 Songs LP compiles the last batch of songs the band released on various limited releases, and actually features one hundred and one songs"
  • album includes Nirvana cover
  • released May 12, 2015 on SRA, whose other artists included Flag of Democracy and Trophy Wife
• • appeared on Get Better's A Benefit Comp To Help Pay Medical Bills For Those Activists Fighting Against Fascism & Racism
  • produced in wake of Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
  • featured alongside Cayetana, Potty Mouth, Screaming Females, Sadie Dupuis, Worriers, Palehound, Mannequin Pussy, and Joe Jack Talcum
  • proceeds benefitted two Defend C-Ville fundraising efforts as well as relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey in Houston
• • SRA Records re-released The First 100 Songs
  • SRA owner BJ Howze signed the band after seeing them practice at his rehearsal studio, knew the members from a previous band
• by release of How to Stop Street Harassment EP in 2017, their lineup had grown beyond Pup and Essem and the group had renamed themselves The HIRS Collective

2018–2020: Friends. Lovers. Favorites.

• tour with Screaming Females and Thou in April 2018
• • FLF announcement
  • EP remix was called You Can Remix Us
• • Friends. Lovers. Favorites. released with the out-of-print You Can't Kill Us EP, as well as remixes of those songs by Moor Mother, Kilbourne, and others.
  • band's first full-length album
  • the group has "expanded past the two piece guitar, vocals, drum machine, and giant wall of amps lineup that defined their sound and image"
  • announced split album with Thou, tour with them and Screaming Females in April
• • Friends. Lovers. Favorites. is the band's proper debut album
  • album features Shirley Manson, Laura Jane Grace, Marissa Paternoster, RVIVR's Erica Freas, G.L.O.S.S.'s Sadie Switchblade, Martin Sorrondeguy, Alice Bag; "truly ties together a long history of queer punk"
• performed at Empath's album release show in West Philadelphia in 2019
• • formerly known as +HIRS+
  • formed in 2011 by vocalist/blast-beatsmith Jenna Pup and guitarist Esem
• October 2019 concert with The Body and Stinking Lizaveta at Philadelphia's Kung Fu Necktie venue

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

• Covid Covers Vol. 1 featured covers of Garbage, Björk, and Enkephalin, accompanied by Paternoster; released August 26, 2020
• "Two years ago, the band followed up a string of 7″ singles and cassettes with their debut album Friends. Lovers. Favorites."
• posted to Instagram in 2020 looking for vocalists to record unreleased tracks
• Third 100 Songs announcement
  • announcement of double album The Third 100 Songs and single " Love,"
  • album has new material as well as songs from past splits, comps, and other releases
  • Jenna Pup co-owns Get Better Records
  • album features members of Screaming Females, War on Women, Thou, RVIVR/Latterman, Moor Mother
• • performed with Pissed Jeans in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in Nov 2021
• • We're Still Here announcement and eponymous single
  • album was self-produced
  • features contributions from My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero, Soul Glo's Pierce Jordan, Thursday's Geoff Rickly, Touché Amoré's Jeremy Bolm, Screaming Females' Marissa Patternoster, Fucked Up's Damian Abraham, The Locust's Justin Pearson, The Body's Chip King, and Garbage's Shirley Manson
• • We're Still Here also features members of Converge and Full of Hell
• • "We're Still Here" release
  • album also features members of Melt-Banana, released digitally on December 25, 2022
• We're Still Here release (The Fader and NME)
• • We're Still Here also features Gouge Away
  • "Sweet Like Candy" single release; features Maha Shami of D.C. screamo band NØ MAN, Bryan Funck of Thou, and Jessica Joy Mills of Less Than Jake
• • "Trust The Process" single release; features My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero and Rosie Richeson of hardcore punk band Night Witch
  • album features: La Dispute, Paint It Black
• • music video for "XOXOXOXOXOX" ft. Melt-Banana
  • US tour for Spring 2023
• • We're Still Here features more than 35 guest artists over 17 tracks
  • US tour kicked off in Washington, D.C. in March 2023
  • album features Converge's Nate Newton, who had praised the group's music and was recruited via Instagram
  • "The organizing of everything was the most difficult part but everything else was pretty simple. On this record, myself and Scott wrote pretty much half of the songs, and getting the layout of the songs was pretty simple."
  • Full of Hell's Dylan Walker, Anti-Flag's Chris Barker
  • album was recorded in Esem's studio and at Permanent Hearing Damage Studio in Philly
  • JP: "We did either close to or over sixty hours of mixing - only mixing, not including recording."
• performed at 2023 New Friends Fest in Toronto, alongside Pg. 99, Gulfer, Joie De Vivre, and Stay Inside
• • "Active since 2011, the collective has amassed over 50 releases"
  • "From modern metal auteurs Thou, The Body, and Full of Hell, to hardcore heads Soul Glo, Damian Abraham, and Escuela Grind, to genre-benders Ghösh, poet Lora Mathis, and actual living legends like Shirley Manson, Melt-Banana, and Justin Pearson"
  • Pinkwash featured on album
• • " 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). "
  • "We're Still Here which features 35 guest musicians"
  • "The group formed in 2011, and its first notable unique musical approach was to release 100-song albums (they've put out three such albums, though the majority of those tracks clock in at under a minute). But after Jenna was recovering from surgery while the band was working on a 2015 split with Peeple Watchin', the duo decided to invite friends to make the process more comfortable. And from there on, HIRS Collective was open for collaborative business."
  • "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 (Jenna particularly freaked out about having Japanese noise rock act Melt-Banana on the new LP) 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."

Other projects

Frontwoman Jenna Pup has co-run Get Better Records since 2010. She has a pop punk solo project, Jenna and the Pups, which released a split album with HIRS in 2018. In 2021, she collaborated with the YouTube channel Two Minutes to Late Night on a metal cover of Prince's "I Would Die 4 U", appearing alongside featured artists including Lamb of God's Randy Blythe, Gorilla Biscuits's Walter Schreifels, Most Precious Blood's Rachel Rosen, Gouge Away's Christina Michelle, and War on Women's Shawna Potter.

• She and Mannequin Pussy's Marisa Dabice appeared on two episodes of the punk and mental health podcast Scream Therapy.

Musical style and ideology

The HIRS Collective are most commonly identified as

• grindcore, as well as
• punk rock,
• hardcore punk,
• powerviolence,
• and thrash.

However, frontwoman Jenna Pup has distanced the group from the grindcore and pornogrind genres, saying in 2015, "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," and that pornogrind "shouldn't even have a fucking subgenre! If anybody's ever, like, 'I really love pornogrind', just stop talking to that person!". NPR's Lars Gotrich agreed that "To simply call HIRS' extreme coalescence 'grindcore' does the band a bit of an injustice", and noted 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".

• "queer thrash punk"
• • "political grind"
  • most songs are 30 seconds or less
  • "Sample from a movie. Heavy blastbeats. Fast and pounding guitar riffs. Screamed, mostly unintelligible vocals. Repeat."
  • JP: "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."
  • "The idea of the ethics… I don't know, it's a word 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."
  • "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."
  • "We never did [get booked with pornogrind bands]. Those are the people… it shouldn't even have a fucking subgenre! If anybody's ever, like, "I really love pornogrind" just stop talking to that person!"
  • "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."
• • "Philadelphia trans/queer grind thrash hellraisers +HIRS+"
  • "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
• • "grindcore-ish queer punk"
• • "they play very loud, very aggressive music. 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."
  • "Hard to Get" has a "a jagged, Blood Brothers-style skree"
  • "To simply call HIRS' extreme coalescence "grindcore" does the band a bit of an injustice. During their 30-second songs, there are 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. Like a dive bar's midnight mystery cocktail chased with a Schlitz tallboy, it is a ruthless mixture, only made more brutal interspersed by this album's special guests."
• • comparison to G.L.O.S.S.
  • grindcore
• • "Queercore’s resident supergroup, the grindcore-inspired HIRS Collective, actually have no solidified members."
• • "has since grown from a two-person grindcore project into a queer DIY punk collective"
  • "the Collective is still the same thrashy, cacophonous, militantly queer band"
  • 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
  • band's live show is "primal scream therapy for transfeminine rage"
• the group "make frantic, intense, chaotic hardcore, and they do it from a ferociously pro-queer and trans perspective"
• • "Love," is "about us celebrating our existence and being excited to share love" according to Pup and is "an absolutely ferocious blast of grindcore that manages to feel crisp, accessible, and tuneful without sacrificing any of the genre's usual brutality" according to BrooklynVegan
• "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."
  • "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."
  • "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"
  • "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."
• • "Beastie Boys-inspired video"
• • "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"
  • "The songs shimmer with rage, joy, despair, humour, and hope as the Collective explores mental health, living in a capitalist society, the importance of being there for each other, and much more."
  • 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
  • "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."
  • album closer “Bringing Light and Replenishments” features choir, piano, and cello
  • "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."
  • "Judgement Night" references and samples Onyx and Biohazard's tittle track from the 1993 soundtrack album of the same name
  • "Trust the Process" video pays tribute to the Beastie Boys' "So What'cha Want" video
  • Pup had recently (March 2023) been listening to the Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Logic, and Bo Burnham
• • "diverse blend of grindcore, powerviolence, and hardcore"
  • "their traditional unrelenting queerness, abrasive sound, and absolutely stacked with features"
  • 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."
  • 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"
  • "overdriven guitars, blast beat drums, and fry-heavy screams"
  • We're Still Here brings "increasingly vicious riffs and diatribes to their signature sound."
  • "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.”"
  • "XOXOXOXOXOX" is "abstract, minimalist, bubblegum cybergrind"
  • "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."
• • hardcore punk
  • "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. 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 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."
  • ""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 "JP" Pup – vocals, drum machine
• Scott "Esem" – guitar

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

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Title	Label
2018	Friends. Lovers. Favorites.	SRA/Get Better
2023	We're Still Here	Get Better

EPs

Year	Title	Label
2013	REMIXXXES10"
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
2020	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

Cassette tapes

Year	Title	Label	Ref
2012	Nunmilk	Human Beard
2013	Gaytheism	One Brick Today

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

Singles

Year	Song	Album	Label
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)

(source notes)

• Bastard Tapes released a compilation of HIRS' 2011 singles and splits on the label
• • self-released split cassette with Slothspring
  • "Philly’s +HIRS+, pioneers of feminist and queer thrash/grindcore"
  • "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.”
  • "the LP also comes with a copy of YØU CAN’T KILL US and the brilliantly titled YØU CAN REMIX US, which features the EP’s five tracks remixed and reimagined by women musicians."
  • "HIRS will be out on the road until late May"
• • recorded five-song flexi disc EP for a cover issue of New Noise Magazine in June 2018
  • featuring members of RVIVR, Screaming Females, War On Women, Night Witch and Thou