Shock Treatment: So Charles, you started off in The Dimestore Haloes in the mid-90s, before moving on to The Cheap Cassettes in the mid-2000s. What inspired the shift from the traditional band setup to going solo with Songs From The Film?" Charles Matthews: Yeah! I took ten years, almost ten years, off from music between the Haloes and the Cheap Cassettes, and I really didn’t do much during that time. Now that I am without a band again, I want to continue making music in whatever way I can, and not stop for so long. I’m getting older, like everybody, and I only have so much time, so I wanted to keep making music in whatever way I can. So it’s kind of like what McCartney did at the end of the Beatles, just with way less talent. Hahahaha. He was burned out after that intense band experience, and so am I. Shock Treatment: What can people expect from Songs From The Film’s music that may differ from your previous projects? CM: I am not writing for a particular band now, so I can do any...

This "First Blood" business came about because I was thinking about how I could still do some kind of interview, but without asking the typical "how did the band start" or "what are your influences" kinds of questions. I've interviewed Nicole Laurenne twice before. The first time was for my first blog, Audio Ammunition , back in 2013, when she was in a great garage band in Phoenix called The Love Me Nots. The second was on my podcast, Born Too Late , a couple of years ago. Since I got a lot of those standard questions out of the way already, I didn't want to ask them all a third time. So, here we are. A series of questions centered around Nicole's "first" musical experiences in life. What's with the title, you ask? Well, first off, it kind of fits, wouldn't you say? The second reason is that I love the 1982 Sly Stallone movie, OK? So there you have it—consume and enjoy! Shock Treatment: What was the first rock 'n’ roll con...

Shock Treatment: Hi there Disket! Thanks for participating in my interview! Tell me about how you all met and decided to combine your rock n roll super powers to form Disket? DISKET: We’ve known each through the music scene in New York and through the bands our members play in. Mary and Claudia from Baby Shakes, Myke from Mala Vista, Roberto from Vaxine and Dani DJs around NYC. Claudia was the first to throw around the idea of jamming together. It was pretty casual at first, we practiced and wrote songs for about a year before we even had a name. Shock Treatment: So Keith Richards has to have a Shepherd's Pie before each performance and Alice Cooper has to watch Kung Fu movies to get into character before he hits the stage. Do any of you have any pre-performance rituals? Running B/W Vamos A Ganar by Disket DISKET: Oh is that what KR gets?!! Then we need Choripan and Cuchifritos before we set one foot on stage! Sometimes we take a dip in the east river before a show, you should try ...

Interview conducted with Orville Neeley (Guitar/Vocals) and TV's Daniel (Bass/Vocals) Shock Treatment: So I’d like to take this to the very beginning of Bad Sports! How did you guys meet and decided to form the band? Orville: Daniel and I met in 2004 at UNT in Denton, Tx. He had another band called The Wrists that I went to see several times. At some point in 2005 Daniel talked about doing a more rock’n’roll style band with Mike from the Wrists and I basically begged him to let me play in the band. As far as I knew, there was nothing like that happening in Denton. I wasn’t yet familiar with the Marked Men, but I would be soon. These were the days of “dance punk”, emo, and grindcore. Most of the shows I saw in my first year in Denton consisted of some such bands and I was pretty sick of it. Lots of Modest Mouse and Franz Ferdinand wannabees around as well. Fast forward to summer of 2007; I had just gotten back from a disastrous first tour with another one of my bands. It looked like...

Photo by Bayu Rizki Maulana Shock Treatment: Tell me about growing up in Indonesia and how Rock n’ Roll music first found you? Andresa Nugraha: I’ve been living all my life in the same city as I was born. I felt like growing up here is hard, because there are not many options you can do, unless you’re from a stable family, especially if you wanna be an artist, so you don’t have to start it the hard way. You’ll get a better percentage of having a decent life by graduating from college and getting a decent job or doing business on your own. I came from a middle class family, both my late parents were civil servants. Unfortunately, they made really bad financial decisions most of the time. So as a kid, I kinda know the ups and downs in life at an early stage. Also, my family isn’t musical. I never got interested in music until I was 12/13, but my sister, Laura (who is 8 years older than me), listened to 90s MTV rock music like Nirvana, Silverchair, Weezer, Incubus, Ozma etc almost eve...

Interview conducted with Nasty Rumours lead vocalist Juli Shock Treatment So the last time I interviewed you guys, it was October of 2015! You guys went from being the scrappy new band to elder statesmen! In those 11 years, how do you feel you guys have become wiser or grown as a band? Juli: Time flies it is crazy. As a band we definitely matured, maybe not so much as people haha. It's been 11 years of fun playing, recording and being on the road. I think we managed to become a decent live band over the years. Dilemma by NASTY RUMOURS Shock Treatment: Last year, you guys released that killer split 7” with Cyanide Pills. The two songs you guys had on there “My Final Heartbeat” and “Bury Me In My Leather Jacket” are great, some of the best Nasty Rumours tunes to date! Did you guys purposely put two songs about death on the record? Juli: It's actually a coincidence and no big concept behind it. My shrinks words not mine haha. "My final heartbeat" didn't make it on t...

Shock Treatment: So Pete, you started out running 702 records back in 1994. You put out some amazing records by The Gain, The Atomiks, The Loudmouths, just to name a few! What got you started doing that? PM: As soon as I could afford to, I moved out of my mom’s house with some friends, and we made it a point to find a pad with a basement so we could have shows. The bands you mentioned all played in that house’s basement, along with 2-3 others, every month we lived there for around five years. One of the bands that came through played me their demo upstairs after their gig while we were sitting on the couch, and said they wanted to put out a 7inch but had no money, and I had $1,000 in my bank account for the first time in my life. That’s essentially how I started making records. Shock Treatment: You had 702 records, and now you run Slovenly Recordings, which I’m a huge fan of as well! What led you to decide to stop with 702 and start again with Slovenly? PM: 702 Records was the label I ...

Photo by Kevin Daniel Shock Treatment: Let’s begin with an introduction! Who is currently in Shop Talk and what does everyone do in the band? Jon: These days, Shop Talk is really just Tristan and me. I play guitar and sing lead, and Tristan plays bass and sings backing vocals. We’ve worked with a few different drummers. Alexander Perrelli plays on the LP, but left after we made the record. Angie Boylan (Sleater-Kinney, Lost Balloons, etc.) played drums with us for most of 2025, and she’s on the Museum of Sex 7-inch. Nathaniel Meek filled in on our recent tour, and he’ll be playing some local gigs as well. The Offering EP by Shop Talk Shock Treatment: What band or musician first made you want to pick up an instrument and start learning to play music or write songs? Tristan: This is going to sound manufactured, but for me it was the Beatles. My dad was a big fan and I grew up listening to them. After I had my first acoustic guitar, I went to Borders and bought a Beatles song book… ya kno...