Show Me the Body is a sludgy trio of NYC natives who, with only two EPs, have become fixtures of the city’s underground scene. In 2016, they capture the increasingly alarming state of a New York that is rapidly attempting to eradicate the chaos they favor. Like their friends Ratking, who are fellow members of Letter Racer collective, SMTB’s sound is as diverse as their environment, pulling from blues, hip-hop, hardcore, and post-punk. “In some ways, Show Me the Body is our way of community organizing, of getting people together,” vocalist Julian Cashwan Pratt told The Guardian. “Even if there’s not one message shared, there’s at least a commonly felt veracity, a commonly felt aggression and feeling and spirit.”

“Body War” is the band’s latest homage to the city, four minutes of discordant and grating noise. Banjo-playing Pratt spews guttural verses like “I go so far, push so hard/ Just to live under this monolith” against sharp stomping by drummer Noah Cohen-Corbett and shredding from Harlan Steed, the band’s wizard of a bassist. At a recent show, the first whiff of Steed’s opening bass line threw the crowd into a frenzy. As audience members climbed onstage only to immediately toss themselves back into the pit (or else be pushed back by Pratt), SMTB’s faces each sneered into savage expressions, seemingly unfazed by the mania.