OK Buddy hail from Lehigh Valley, PA, and you can definitely hear their home state in their urgent, intensely hearty approach to punk — specifically the influence of shout-along post-hardcore heroes Title Fight from an hour to the north, which is even stronger here than it is with One Step Closer. The band plays hard-charging, harmonically dense power-chord rock, and Lukas Hill tops it off with some real gritty, throat-shredding vocals. Does it sound too much like Title Fight? Some Stereogum contributors would argue as much, but these songs are dynamic enough to override my aversion to the burly, scratchy Hot Water Music vocal style.

At No Echo, Hill weighed in on the title track:

Simply put, it’s a song about hardcore. On the last EP it was “Corners,” on this one it’s “Strays.” There were no hardcore kids where I grew up, at least not at my high school. I didn’t know anyone that listened to hardcore. All I knew was that I didn’t want to listen to what anyone else listened to. I didn’t identify with any of it. Everything I listened to, I found on my own.

It took a long time but I eventually stumbled into hardcore in my early 20s. I went to shows by myself for years, and even then I felt more at home than anywhere else. I inevitably started meeting people, making friends and what not. It became my favorite place to be. It became a home to me like it did for so many others. No matter where I go, I can find a home in hardcore. That’s what the song is about.

OK, OK Buddy! Stream Strays below.