As this photo attests, hardcore will soon qualify for membership in the AARP. H.R. from Bad Brains is almost 60! Everyone ages, but convictions from those formative years don’t necessarily go away. That phenomenon heavily informs Invisible, the new, long-in-the-works EP from Philadelphia hardcore band Paint It Black. “This isn’t about avoiding adulthood; it’s about redesigning it so that it doesn’t clash so violently with our most deeply held beliefs,” says the band. “It’s about the compromises we refuse to make, but also about the subtle negotiations between ideals/aspirations and the day-to-day pragmatics.”
“Invisible,” the album’s closing track, makes that clear from the opening line, as frontman Dan Yemin shouts, “I gotta problem with the way you think!” Yemin, of Lifetime and Kid Dynamite fame, is a hardcore lifer, but also also nicely balances punk life with adult reality: He has a Ph.D. and is a practicing psychologist in Philly, yet still spends a great deal of his free time shouting at punk clubs (or winning gold medals for swimming).
Stream “Invisible” below. The EP comes out March 31. Now, how about some new music from Lifetime, eh?