I want AI to consume the world; I want people to bathe in it, to roll around in it. I want AI music, AI movies, and AI literature—I can't get enough of AI, I'm telling you! The more AI comes in and cleans up all of our poor grammar, production and mixing errors, slurs in speech, sloppy chords, etc., the better off we'll be, you'll see. Then you're going to remember all this and think to yourself, "My goodness, that old, stale fart El Maestro Castro was totally right about all of it!" I can't even wait until robots are cooking my food (hey, at least I know they won't farmer-blow in my cheesesteak if I give them a weird look!). I even want robots chauffeuring my ass around every week to the comic book and record stores! I want to be carted around to shows, especially the downtown ones that are a nightmare to park at! AI will be our best pals; it'll really "get me." I bet it won't look at me all cockeyed when I want it to high-five m...

Shock Treatment: So Mr. Burner, what drove you to want to make music yourself as opposed to going to the local rock ‘n’ roll hot spots and doing some band recruiting? Jacket Burner: To be honest with you that decision mostly came from being a loner. I don’t have many friends (please weep for me). I guess I’ve moved around a lot in life so I’m well used to being isolated and doing my own thing. Plus having to explain songs to a bunch of other people sounds like absolute torture. Fuck that. Musicians are fuckin weirdos mostly from what I gather (myself included) Shock Treatment: Being a few years into this musical project, are you starting to feel the itch to play these songs live at all?   Jacket Burner: I’d love to play live but it would be a logistical nightmare for me. Where I live is all farmers and stupid feeble old ladies. Nobody even knows what punk rock is in this town! I think it would be a great show tho. Maximum intensity + maximum rock n roll action / posturing. If there...

Photo by Leah Wilhelmina  Interview conducted with singer/guitarist Daan Proto Shock Treatment: Who is currently in The Protos and what does everyone do in the band? Daan: The Protos is Guus, Sid & me (Daan). Guus plays guitar, Sid is on drums and adds backing vocals here and there, and I sing and play guitar. Two guitars and a drum kit is what it’s always been, and we’re pretty sure it’s what it’ll always be. Apart from the music, we all put in some work getting shows, but to be honest we’re not that good at it. Usually people send us a message on Instagram or email, and if we’re available and we like it, we go for it. Shock Treatment: How did you guys all meet and decide to play music together? Daan: I met Sid and Guus at punk shows in Amsterdam/Haarlem. At that time we were playing in Achterlicht (Guus), The Covids (Sid), and Burlers (me), and there were plenty of shows where we’d run into each other. Around that same time I went through a break-up, wrote some songs about it...

What a pleasant surprise this is! One of the coolest bands of the 1990's have returned with a brand new 7" from Chaputa Records! The Seattle trio that were infamous for their rowdy, lo-fi, blown out rock n roll have emerged from their, according to my calculations, 28 year hibernation! This band released both of their LP's on the infamous Rip Off Records back in 1994 and 1997. And everyone knows you can't be some square stumbling off the street corner to be on this label! Label honcho Greg Lowery has vision and high standards for god's sake! After all, Rip Off Records #001 was a Statics 7"! The band also released a grip of other great 7"'s on killer labels like Super Electro, Dead Beat, Estrus, Empty and Wallabies.   Now fast forward almost three decades later and The Statics are ready to pick up where they left off? Let's hope so because the world desperately needs a rock n roll band of this caliber to ease our many sorrows. You'd think after...

  Do you know what what the hell a lithophone is? Because I sure as hell didn't, I had to look the shit up! I thought for a moment these guys made it up! But when I consulted old man Googles, he told me it's an ancient instrument made of rocks that produces sounds when struck. That's what it is, an instrument that knuckle dragging savages used to play. And that name is very fitting when it pertains to these Boston Barbarians! Lithophones  consists of members of the Wongs and The Tampoffs so you know what you're in for now, don't you?! demos by LITHOPHONES Lithophones are a four piece garage punk outfit from Beantown U.S.A. and these guys channel the mean, sweaty punk rock that these ears yearn to hear. Think Rip Off Records, think Teengenerate, The Brides, The Problematics, think all that cool 90's shit that went away and you so desperately wish it would come back in full force. Well stop pulling on those nasty wishbones and blowing up those dandelion fields bec...

  The Etters are Sjerrie guitar/vocals Leona bass/vocals and Keet drums/vocals Interview conducted with Sjerrie (AKA Jerry Hormone) Shock Treatment: Hello Jerry! Thanks for doing my interview! Let’s start by telling me how you all met and decided to form the band? Jerry: I was going through a debilitating midlife crisis. A shrink told me I had two options: 1) Buy a Harley-Davidson or B) start a stoopid punk band with two life loving, energetic females in their early twenties. Harley’s are expensive, so that’s where Loena and Keet came in and now we’re here, playing sooper stoopid punk and I'm doing a lot better. The ETTERS maken je hartstikke DOOD! by The ETTERS Shock Treatment: What bands influenced The Etters sound the most? Jerry: All that fine fine 90’s lo-fi Rip Off Records kind of punk. Loli and the Chones, most of all Shock Treatment: If your grandmother asked you what The Etters sound like, how would you describe it to her? Jerry: It’s stoopid and catchy and you can leave y...

The year was 2005, and I just got this comp on CD called Let's Have Goddamn Fun! New York City 2005 . It was a FANTASTIC comp mind you, but one of the bands that really stood out to me was The Little Killers. With a name like that, you really have no idea what the hell you're getting, right? But what I did get was this hot shit rock n' roll that shot fire like a blowtorch out of my speakers! This three piece band was formed in 2001, in New York City by former Sea Monkeys singer/guitarist Andy Maltz, ex-Kings of The Fucking Sea bass player Sara Nelson and drummer Kari Boden. To an outsider, someone that's never set foot in New York City mind you, The Little Killers seemed to capture all my wildest dreams of that town. They somehow sonically conveyed all the excitement, sleaze and swagger I always projected on to "the city that never sleeps." Musically, The Little Killers fit well right between contemporaries like The Humpers and The New Bomb Turks. As far as in...

Sweet, sweet mother of all things musical and rhythmic, you have heard my desperate pleas! I shall never deny thee for the rest of my days! The ground has opened up in the Netherlands and from the bowels of the underworld, this band was spat forth for this world to marvel. For what I hear before me is one of the most ferocious, bile spewing garage punk bands I have ever heard in my lowly existence. The Etters are mean, they're nasty, and they hate everything there is to do about Christmas! I feel like my soul is not yet worthy to receive a gift such as this band. A Dutch punk rock trio with songs that are as catchy as they are dangerous, sweaty and rude. So what if it's sung entirely in Dutch! I can still feel the attitude you fuckers! I know The Etters are mocking me in that foreign tongue of theirs, I know I'm being spat upon and you know what?? I love it! Fury is a universal language and I hear what The Etters are hurling out, loud and clear, believe you me! I feel it in...

  The Drags Now who in their right mind would put these two mammoth bands against each other, right? I mean, you'd have to be some sort of cruel sadist of some type to do something like that. It's like telling someone they could either have water or oxygen! Besides there would be no real winner if you think about it. It'd be like Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla or Superman Vs Bizarro. We'd just be left with a planet of destruction with the only loser being us. I was lucky enough to be around when both of these bands were at their beginning, and experience them go thru primary 1st stage propulsion, then go into booster separation and achieve orbital status in the heavens above.  Teengenerate  I know everyone who knows even a tiny morsel about underground rock n roll knows about the mighty Teengenerate from Tokyo, Japan and the majestic Drags from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Even though not everyone was around then these bands were demolishing venues and leaving audiences shell sh...

Tough Age play honest and melodic pop songs, I would like to elaborate on the “honest” part for just a moment. Theatrics in music are great and fun, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes you want to listen to something that you can emotionally connect with. Jarrett and his band seem like they’re in the same station in life as a lot of us are. They’re not singing about sipping Dom Perignon and dancing with strippers on a private yacht. That kind of silly garbage I can’t and most importantly don’t want to relate to. What I find refreshing is a man with real song writing talents picking up a guitar, turning it up loud, and singing about what he knows best: his own life and what he feels and thinks as he stumbles through it. That is honesty, charm and charisma and it spills out onto Tough Age records and on to the interview below. This interview originally appeared in Audio Ammunition on October 17th, 2014 Interview by J Castro Shock Treatment: I first want to start off by saying thank you ...