Interview conducted with Hillary Burton and Kevin McGovern Shock Treatment: Let's start off by telling me how you two met and decided to collaborate for The Trouble Seekers? Kevin: I think we met in person back in the summer of 2014 at a honeychain show in LA somewhere. I was writing for the Long Beach Independent and doing Fear and Loathing in Long Beach. I had recently done an interview with Kim from the Muffs and found out she was producing honeychain’s full length. I checked out the Futura EP and loved it. I got in touch with Hillary and checked out their show. It was phenomenal. Once we started talking we discovered we liked a lot of the same bands and sounds. Back in 2022, I was looking to do something different after the Prostitutes Shapeshift 7” and asked Hillary if she’d be interested in doing guest vocals on a song. She said she was down , I literally wrote Cruel Summer that night. We really liked working together, bouncing ideas off each other, so we decided to keep goi...

Shock Treatment: Let's start off with a roll call! Who’s all in Criminal Kids and what does everyone do? RYAN - I’m Ryan. I bitch, I moan, I light up every room I’ve ever walked into and I just so happen to play guitar and sing in this band. I probably couldn’t do a backflip so don’t ask me to. CHRIS - My name is Chris, I play bass in Criminal Kids. I also like to watch Ryan light up those rooms he enters. Sometimes I participate in society. BOB -I’m Bob. I play the other guitar that Ryan doesn’t play. I also, don’t think Ryan could do a backflip. Criminal Kids by Criminal Kids Shock Treatment: The band is currently based in Chicago yeah? Is there a good rock ‘n’ roll scene out there? What are some other Chicago bands you guys like playing with? RYAN - Yes! The city that gave you Lincoln logs, Chess Records and the first self sustaining nuclear reaction. That depends how on the nose you want to be with the definition of Rock N Roll. In the literal sense? Not at all. Not personally...

Photo of Grant by Rockaway Photography Interview conducted with DSA vocalist Grant Peligroso  Shock Treatment: Let's start off with a roll call! Who’s all currently in D.S.A. and what does everyone do in the band? Grant: If you come and see us play you are likely to see me (Grant) on vocals with Chas on Guitar, Marty on bass and Harry on drums. We sometimes have other members come back and stand in, so you could also see Mike or Jack on drums and Wonder Boy on bass. Side Effects by DSA Shock Treatment: What’s the band’s origin story? How did you all meet and decide to play music together? Grant: Originally we met through skateboarding and music was our creative outlet during the winter months and/or when the weather was bad. Photo of Harry by Rockaway Photography Shock Treatment: On your Bandcamp page, you describe yourselves as skate punk. What do you think is the bond between punk rock and skateboarding that has been pretty much unbreakable for decades? Grant: We describe ourse...

What do you do when the shadows are out to get you? When the very walls come alive and attempt to subdue you physically, mentally, and spiritually. When the floor begins to open up and attempts to swallow you whole like an enormous beast with an unquenchable appetite. Nowhere to run, no one to call out to for help. These lifeless lands that were once kissed by innocence and sunshine; now, all that still resides draws strength and stimulus from something else. Something far more malignant. This is where Credit Card has established its habitation. This is where this record was birthed, for better or worse. Devil's Night / Dead Internet by CREDIT CARD Detroit's Credit Card has so much going for it on so many levels. On one hand, you can compare its sound to gloomy industrial bands like Front 242, with some hints of Honey's Dead -era Jesus and Mary Chain and a dash of Depeche Mode thrown in for melancholy that comes around every now and again. But there are deeper caverns in th...

Photo by Stefan Scott Shock Treatment: Let’s start out by telling me who is currently in Gossip Collar and what does everyone do in the band? Victoria: vocals, guitar Tom: guitar Mark: bass Caleb: drums (our original drummer was Megan) Shock Treatment: How does the songwriting process work for your band? How is a Gossip Collar song usually born? Does it start with a lyric, a hook, a mood? Victoria: There are different approaches, and that keeps it interesting. we all contribute. usually the music comes first and then I figure out how to sing over it but it has happened the other way around where I have some lyrics in my head and then we put the chords beneath. I kinda believe the songs exist in a parallel universe and it’s our job to tap into them. Some core principles- keep it simple, keep it dark, make sure it’s music we want to dance to. For lyrics I take a lot of inspiration from the past - like old texts and myths like roman poets and shit like that. spinning silk for parasites b...

Listening to this record is like watching the person at a party who always says the exact wrong thing to the wrong person. All you can do is cringe and shudder from a distance, watching it unfold like a slow-motion car crash. You don’t want to get too close for fear of getting sucked into their negative vortex of awkwardness. Useless Eaters is the person who stands too close to your face, talks too loudly, and gets so animated that bits of their dinner jettison from their mouth—landing in places you won't discover until you're undressing later that night. You see all this, you feel the discomfort, and yet you're magnetically drawn to it. At least I am, for whatever reason. I'm not a student of the psyche, so I lack the understanding to properly explain this phenomenon. Useless Eaters are indeed the Andy Kaufman's of the world—the ones who just don't give a shit about your approval. Sorry, but at the same time... Music For Clout by USELESS EATERS Useless Eaters n...

How, how, how could I have missed a record like this?! How could I have let a juggernaut such as this go completely past me without my acknowledgment? Not an eye blink, not a head nod, nothing! It's like having a comet come from the sky and take out a huge chunk of the Earth, and here I am finding out about it all a couple of months later! Is it my age? Is it my newfound lackadaisical attitude that seems to have settled in with my old age? Wow, well no matter—the important thing is that I did catch it eventually. It is now a part of my life and for that, I am grateful. Future by PUBLIC HOUSE Public House projects strength through rock 'n' roll music. Frontman Wolfgang Buckley (Stiff Richards) comes at us again with a baseball bat in one hand and a flaming Molotov cocktail in the other. If you are a fan of Stiff Richards, you'll definitely be on board for this as well. Public House seems to have a meaner trajectory than Stiff Richards, though. I am a huge fan of Stiff Ri...

Can you send a bigger or better signal out into the zeitgeist than this record to usher in a new era for Vinyl Dog Records?! The answer to this question is absolutely not! VD is back, baby, and it burns like the very first day! Aside from releasing two of the best punk LPs of the 1990s, Vinyl Dog quietly spat out some of the best 7"s as well (see my Vinyl Dog retrospective!). The label went dormant for a few years, but apparently, all engines are lit and it's full speed ahead! This is one of two new releases the label has in store for us; the other is a reissue of Stitches frontman (and VD patient zero, Michael Lohrman's) old, pre-Stitches band called FRI. But this 7" here you can file under fresh and crisp! Despite being a newer band, the Nü-Viles sound like they got down and dirty with their influences. It's throat-cutting time, and this band learned the art of the blade from some of the SoCal greats! The Nu-Viles 'A Taste Of..The New Wave' 7" by Th...

Just the fact that bands like BOTOX are still out there surviving, doing what they can to fight for an existence, delights me. There's a real connection that I feel with rock 'n' roll—punk rock in particular, punk rock like BOTOX makes, to put an even finer point on it. Aggressive, scrappy, and stripped-down, late '70s punk music is a mortal wound to a world that's becoming more and more accepting of artificial art. It's an airhorn right in the ear to those who are tying themselves up and lying down in front of the tracks that humanless creations are laying down. Tracks that will go on forever and take us on a journey to places that are perfect, peaceful, and complacent. Places that are sterile, uninspired, and utterly vapid. A place where we can shut off our feelings and emotions. A land where passion and fervor have no place and will be quickly extinguished if detected. BOTOX is the real deal, folks, and they're right here, right now, right in front of you...

Photo by Don Denton  Shock Treatment: Let’s start off by telling me who’s currently in the band and what does everyone do to earn their keep? Ty: I am Ty Stranglehold. I do the yelling. We also have Rayce and Tyrone on guitar, Donnie on drums and Silent Mike on bass. Shock Treatment: How did you all meet and decide to form the mighty Knife Manual? Ty: We are all members of a skateboard crew called Teem Shitty. Rayce, Tyrone and original bass player Dan had already been jamming and I found myself looking for a new band to sing for. Tyrone started on drums but really wanted to play guitar, so he suggested we try his roommate Donnie get behind the kit. He ruled and it clicked instantly. This was in 2019. By the end of 2024 Dan bowed out and our old pal Mike had just moved back from the UK and was looking for a band, so we asked him. Now we're locked in and moving forward. Step 1. EP by Knife Manual    Shock Treatment: What bands do you feel primarily added to the Knife Manua...