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...