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“It doesn’t matter how hard you fuckin’ work/Get anywhere they still don’t know your worth!” This is the frustrating missive that opens the crashing, melodic punk ripper “Respect,” the new single from Minneapolis trio Heart to Gold. It’s outfitted with all those things that make Midwestern American punk a unique and beloved phenomenon, but with an acerbic, direct confrontationalism that places it squarely in 2022’s done-with-all-of-this-bullshit culture.

It’s hard and bouncy like a proper Hüsker Dü banger, with vivid major-key crunch and bright chording, but updated with singer and guitarist Grant Whiteoak’s furious, pitch-perfect howl: “I wanna bathe in the blood of those who deny that we all just really want the same thing the whole damn time!”

Whiteoak says the track is about the struggle of individualized and atomized struggle. “If you’re a musician or somebody seeking acceptance or inner peace, you have to accept that we’re all after the same thing,” he says. “Support one another to the best of your ability!”

Emerging from their communities in the towns of Fridley and Columbia Heights in the Twin Cities, Heart to Gold is a project of three friends committed to their scenes, their hometowns, and the strength of the collective over the individual. They make earnest, anthemic guitar music that pulls from the best bits of emo punk, power pop, and garage rock while championing the hometown pride of hardcore and hip hop.