Rick Smith is having a good year. The drummer's main squeeze, Torche, recently dropped the best album of its career, Harmonicraft. Now his other band, Post Teens, has a strong contender for 2012's best EP in the form of The Heat. Cramming six songs into seven inches of vinyl, The Heat offers plenty of bang for the buck.

It's also both thoroughly retro and thoroughly contemporary. Post Teens deal in back-to-basics hardcore with a slightly poppy edge. They play amped up punk that splits the difference between Dead Boys and Circle Jerks. Or they could be a nice palate cleanser to OFF!'s more abrasive songwriting. It's probably just the Smith connection, but there's a little bit of noise thrown in too, almost turning the band into a punkier Torche. Point is, shit rocks.

Shit's also short. None of the songs surpass the 70-second mark. Post Teens strip their tunes to the bare essentials and then grind them to dust. "The Heat" kicks ass, "Fear God" kicks ass," "Polyamory" kicks ass. The one drawback to this approach is that I'm not sure Post Teens can sustain a full-length (then again, OFF! pretty much blows up that theory…). Granted, the band would have to take on a more serious work schedule, as of opposed to just being a super group side project for fun, but I'd still love to see what Post Teens could accomplish over the course of a long-player.

But that's a worry for the future, and who knows, we could all be dead by then. For now, Post Teens have another ripping, roaring, rocking 7" for the masses. Enjoy.