punk this week: invertebrates, billiam, public acid + 14 more
MR. [REDACTED], Paper Jam, Kohti Tuhoa, SIKM, Acid Test, Nisemono, and so many more heaters landed this week.
Hey, it’s Punk This Week. This punk and rock'n'roll recommendations column documents big weeks sometimes, and this one’s a doozy. Invertebrates and Public Acid’s respective hardcore classic 7" drops are finally here after getting the split tour 12" treatment earlier this year. Ragdoll has dropped another essential tape, Billiam reaches new heights, MR. [REDACTED] follow their unbelievable 2025 tape, and Paper Jam get the K pressing. Kohti Tuhoa and SIKM have some essential ones, too! A wild week.
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see/saw is an independent operation. I used to have a full-time career as a corporate music journalist; now I do contract freelance work for money and keep up this punk newsletter because I love this music. Back when my job included engaging with broadly popular music as the full emphasis, this is what I was dreaming about. Shout out everybody who subscribes, shares it, tells their friends about it, says nice stuff, and so on. It helps stave off the burnout. Now have a nice weekend with some genuinely wild new records.
Invertebrates: Accosted [Beach Impediment]
Invertebrates’ Accosted is as tightly wound as a seven-song hardcore 7” can get, and somehow, a new best for the Richmond band that put out an all-timer with Sick to Survive. The individual performances are unbelievable—the rapidfire guitar on “One for the Road,” that speedball percussion that always sounds like it’s about to trip off a cliff on “Detached Aggression,” the solo in the title track—in service of a record that feels oddly limitless. “Derelict Destiny” has that shout-along “it’s too late for me” chorus that just has to feel exceptional to scream in the pit.
Invertebrates sprint, pivot, gallop, and scream through so many distinct possibilities—sudden shifts that blend together beautifully. Accosted will impress upon you, again and again, that the fix is in. The music’s claustrophobic and sweaty; street punk with stellar hooks and hardcore relentlessness. If you listen real close (and you should), you can hear someone say “that’s the one” at the end of the 52-second obliterator “Poison Path.” It definitely was.
