In 2020, David Kelling, the singer for the San Francisco punk band Culture Abuse, was accused of sexual misconduct with an underage girl. With permission, Kelling’s bandmates shared the girl’s story and announced the immediate end of the band. They also apologized for their role in it: “We are well aware that this does not fix the pain caused but we are hoping it’s a first step… We have experienced David’s erratic behavior before, but we always took it as an immense passion for this band and David’s ultimate goals in the music. Some people can say that this was our way of allowing David’s behavior to continue but we looked at it as a support system to help a person change.”

It’s always hard to know what to do with a story like that, but Kelling’s old bandmates are continuing on without him. Four former Culture Abuse members quietly started a new band called M.U.T.T. without Kelling, and they released their debut album Bad To The Bone in 2022. I missed that LP when it came out, but M.U.T.T. are now getting ready to release a new EP called Dirty Deeds, which they recorded with Deafheaven/Jeff Rosenstock collaborator Jack Shirley. I have to say that I’m pretty into their new song.

I liked Culture Abuse a whole lot, but I didn’t seek out new music from the band’s former members. Even if Kelling’s ex-bandmates don’t deserve any blame for his actions, the bad vibes linger. A couple of days ago, though, the hardcore website No Echo shared “SF Is Killing Me,” the first single from the Dirty Deeds EP, and I hit play before I realized what the band was. The song hooked me right away. It’s the kind of dirty, melodic hardcore-adjacent alt-rock that I really like. It sounds like Culture Abuse, and it also brings bands like Drug Church and Militarie Gun to mind. You can check out the song’s video, directed by Bite The Hand’s Timmy Lodhi, below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Damaged”
02 “SF Is Killing Me”
03 “Downtown Boy”
04 “Breaking The Law”
05 “Dirty Deeds”

The Dirty Deeds EP is out 2/23 on Quiet Panic.