Most bands write about love, pain, or politics but for their album released earlier this year, Dog Whistle, hardcore trio Show Me The Body decided to focus on something much closer to home—the corrosion of New York.

Eerie basslines building into guitar drills, thudding drums, and barked vocals illustrate the band’s swan song to what they’ve called a “dying city.” In a guide to their hometown for the Guardian newspaper, frontman Cashwan Pratt explained why he thinks it’s R.I.P. for N.Y.C.: “I can’t really write love songs currently because the city is changing so hard, and it’s happening in ways that are really sad…the punches the city throws at you are not human punches, they’re corporate punches. Shutting down stations people use, cops going hard on certain days to fill their quotas.”

As the most compact city in the country, New York’s density is a double-edged sword. People flock to the five boroughs for a taste of the big city but that appetite can quickly turn into greed. Unstable work, escalating cost of living, and the difficulties of striving making rent are putting out the creative flames that have made the city what it is today.

We asked Show Me The Body to put together a playlist about their artistic community, Corpus. “The first Corpus project began because we gained nightly access to a recording studio for two months in the winter of 2016,” explained the band in an email. “Space and time are expensive in New York so we invited all our friends to come as well. We made the first Corpus mixtape, a completely collaborative project, within this time period.

Since then, Corpus has hosted a community boxing match, produced a season of YouTube-hosted television, and released projects by locally active New York artists DreamCrusher, TrippJones, and Dog Breath. “The goal of this work is to empower our selves, and the youth around us, to stay alive and tell the truth. This playlist represents Corpus. Corpus is our community. All the artists we included are part of or in proximity to Corpus. Some are people we admire, some are our friends, and many are both.”

Show me the body is on tour this fall and plays Death Match tonight.