Raw, catchy but moshy hardcore from Pittsburgh.

Our take: Another smashing demo from Pittsburgh’s fertile punk scene. Lawson from Illiterates plays guitar in Stiff Prick, and the band shares an aesthetic sensibility with Illiterates and Speed Plans, with a rough-and-ready early 80s-inspired sound that isn’t afraid to dabble in the thrash-and-mosh dynamics of rougher Youth Crew hardcore like Youth of Today and Side by Side. While the music is traditional, straightforward hardcore, the lyrics are more interesting. Stiff Prick’s vocalist and lyricist Babs avoids cliche, writing about topics mental health (“Borderline”) and romantic relationships (“Abusers,” “Red Flags”) that feel more concrete than the abstractions that plague a lot of hardcore lyrics. I also love that “Red Flags” starts with the line “Girl trust your intuition,” addressing women even though they are typically a minority at hardcore gigs, frequently ignored and marginalized. Hardcore punk always hits harder when it has something to say, and that’s the case here.