Cheap Perfume Detonates a Glittering Explosion of Riot Grrrl Energy

Colorado-based feminist punk powerhouse Cheap Perfume has announced their third album, Don’t Care. Didn’t Ask.--a title as blunt and confrontational as the music itself. In a world increasingly desensitized to injustice, Cheap Perfume tears through the apathy with a defiant scream. Don’t Care. Didn’t Ask. isn’t just another protest record; it’s a volatile, glitter-soaked middle finger to capitalism, fascism, and systemic rot. Set for release on October 3rd via Snappy Little Numbers, the album is a tightly-wound grenade of “riot grrrl euphoria”–loud, messy, radical, and real.

From the first few seconds of the lead single “Down to Riot,” Cheap Perfume makes it abundantly clear that they’re not here to play nice, and they never were. The track is a fiery call to arms, driven by searing guitar riffs and shout-along gang vocal chants made to echo through sweaty venues and liberation marches alike.

The follow-up single, “Woke Mind Virus,” is a seething response to the right-wing weaponization of progressive language, flipping the insult on its head and reclaiming it with punk venom, sharp wit, and unapologetic defiance. Cheap Perfume flips a weaponized insult into a badge of honor, confronting the absurdity of vilifying progressive values with pointed clarity. They challenge the twisted logic behind right-wing rhetoric, asking, “What kind of person demonizes empathy? What kind of person thinks it’s weak to have compassion?” This track is a reminder that being “woke” isn’t a curse; it’s a conscious choice to care in a world that rewards cruelty.

I loved this entire album, but one of the standout tracks for me, despite not yet being released, is “Dead If I Do.” It’s a powerful exploration of what it means to live in a world that is fundamentally hostile to women. Cheap Perfume lays bare the harsh realities of womanhood, dissecting how gender supremacy fuels both violence and dehumanization. The song gives voice to the impossible double-bind of existing in a patriarchal society: be too loud, too quiet, too sexual, too reserved–no matter what you do, you’re still a target. “Dead If I Do” perfectly captures the fear, fury, and resilience of simply living as a woman.

Don’t Care. Didn’t Ask. seamlessly blends rage with revelry. Jane No and Stephanie Byrne trade lead lines like revolutionaries passing a bullhorn, while bassist Geoff Brent and drummer David “Hott Dave” Grimm drive an urgent, unrelenting rhythm section that fuels the fire of resistance. Lyrically, the record is exemplary in direct action through art–unflinchingly calling out systems of oppression, demanding solidarity, and doing it all while sounding like they’re throwing the best party in the world.

Don’t Care. Didn’t Ask. is truly the embodiment of a manifesto, a warning shot, and a celebration of resistance all rolled into one. In a time where the stakes are higher than ever, Cheap Perfume has delivered their most vital work yet: furious, fiercely feminist, and absolutely unignorable.

Catch Cheap Perfume on tour this October across Colorado, rallying the resistance with Don’t Care. Didn’t Ask. and igniting mosh pits like a band of fearless revolutionaries leading the charge.