Shock Treatment: So Gabriele, tell me about how you first got into punk music? Gabriele: When I was young, I started out listening to hard rock, then moved on to heavy metal and thrash metal. Around the age of 18, I met Marco Sigismondi: he sang in a local hardcore punk band called Digos Goat and also ran a fanzine called Road To Ruin. That really opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know: the DIY hardcore punk scene—black-and-white covers, self-published zines, fixed prices for records and fanzines—a completely different way of doing things that I wasn’t familiar with, partly because I was born and live in a small town in central-southern Italy. But hardcore punk made its way there too, albeit a little late, and from that moment on, things were never the same. Shock Treatment: So What made you decide to want to start the record label instead of playing in a band? Gabriele: Because back then, as a kid, I didn’t play any musical instruments and it had never even crossed my mind; some of m...

Photo by Edward Scotland Interview conducted with Quick Romance vocalist Matilda Scotland! Shock Treatment: Let’s kick things off by telling me about your first practice as a band? Did you all more or less have a sound in mind or did your current style evolve over time? Matilda: At the very start I was pretty shy around Gabe, Hayden and Ollie cos I only knew them vaguely, through school or mutual friends. Our first band practice was sorta tentative, definitely a little awkward. But fun! Thankfully, it took very little time before we were all getting on like a house on fire. They’re nice boys, my bandmates. That means a lot when you’re a teenage girl DESPERATE for people to take you seriously enough to join a band with you. We all had a vague idea of what we wanted to sound like from the offset, yeah! It’s definitely evolved since we started - I hope it will continue to! That’d be cool. Shock Treatment: Quick Romance is a pretty young band, is that fair to say? You’ve listed Fatal M...

In case you don’t know Vinyl Dog Records, here is the quick history: it was a Southern California label from the mid-90s to the mid-2010s, run by the head stitch himself, Michael Lohrman. (Aside from running the label, he fronts one of the absolute best active punk bands in the land! With the killer news that Michael is officially reactivating the label, I’m here doing a retrospective of my top 10 Vinyl Dog records. While the original catalog wasn't huge, I realized I’ve owned pretty much all of it. And yes, that includes the elusive U.S. Bombs 2x7" and the Exploding Fuck Dolls 7". I let them go for cash when times were tight years ago, and man, do I regret it today. Here's to a long, prosperous second coming for Vinyl Dog Records—because the world needs all the punk rock it can get right now! 10. Sensitive Side - Moon Kids 7" EP VD-019 (2011) You get a value packed 6 songs of pretty great anxiety riddled, abrasive, yet melodic post punk here on this one. As far...

Before I listen to any record, before I crack open my old Boba Fett wallet and shell out a few bucks for an LP, 7", or whatever, I think to myself: Would Rick Beato like this? That's not a bad way to live your life, I'm telling you. The guy is smart and knows music! He uses words like "dissonance" and "ato nality" when he's reviewing records. At this point, I've done probably close to 100 or so record reviews and I've never used those words in any of them. So clearly, my self-diagnosis i s that I'm lacking something people often refer to as "smarts." Would I use any of those words when reviewi ng a record called Pig Vomit Sessions ? The answer to that is no, probably not. In fact, I 'm pretty sure if Rick Beato were standing here right now, as I'm listening to Pig Vomit Sessions , he'd probably shriek and shrivel up like the Witch-k ing of Angmar in The Return of the King after getting stabbed in the face Pig Vom...

Adult Learners an exciting new band from Boston. Judging from the movies that I've seen that take place in Boston like Good Will Hunting and The Town (which, to be fares, is really all I have to judge that city on) Boston residents don't seem to be very kind, they're a little rough around the edges if you know what I mean. But the folks in Adult Learners seem like a jolly, good hearted bunch. I wonder how a band like this fairs in a town like that? Hopefully once the people of Beantown hear this 7", it will change their chilly demeanor and warm the hearts of many of its residents. This S/T 7" also happens to be the band's debut, which is always exciting. It contains five songs that are so catchy and memorable, they're like little colorful, rubber bouncy balls ricocheting around the inside walls of your skull. These tunes all clock in at under two minutes, which is perfect! Songs of this nature rarely do well in an epic Jethro Tull type of length.  - Adult...

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 ...

This band is imbedded in a dark, dank domain, where mechanical demons dream. A realm where blood and oil carve the landscape in metal like rivers through solid rock. Cold sharp wiring wraps around your flesh and pierces it, binds it to itself until it consumes every part of you. Not just the physical flesh, but your mind and soul as well. It will absorb you in every way possible until you and it are one. And once that happens, you are forever bound to it, a nightmare that lasts an eternity. This is the dimension where L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation reside. It is as much of a state of mind as you allow it. It is as powerful an entity as you give it permission and it is difficult to resist it's calling.  L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation – Machine Hallucinations PRESALE by L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation are a New York City collective of musicians, visual artists, DJ/'s and activists that churn out music that sounds as if...

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...

Just when I start to feel my age and start looking to see if the Vans I'm buying have the "Comfy Cush" soles. It's right around this time when I'm starting to settle into middle age and start thinking to myself, maybe I should learn to barbeque something? I also start to get an urge in the back of my mind to dive a little bit deeper into World War II. Then a record like this comes out and sets me back 25 years! To say things like The Riffs are back to top form, haven't missed a step or, haven't lost their way, would be total trash. When I first heard about this record coming out, there was no doubt in by mind that it'd be as solid as a brick through a window. This band never did take a wrong turn or stumble one bit during their initial run from 1999 to roughly 2003 or so. The Riffs are one of the best American Punk bands of all time and to even suggest otherwise would be blasphemous speech. This isn't the kind of band that'd release some throwa...

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...