Olga sings in the relocated Soviet punk band Svetlanas.  When asked how it was she got into punk rock this was her response.  If you have no idea what she’s talking about, don’t worry.  Neither do we.

Dustin Stroud sings and plays guitar in Austin punk act Say Hello To The Angels.  Here’s the story on how he got into Punk Rock and how it helped shape his life.

Fisher Price: MY First Punk Rock Experience!

I would be lying to you if I said it was my first time. Like when we get busted doing something we’re not suppose to… “I swear to god, it was my first time… or… This has never happened to me before.”

Because, I think the first time I heard Punk Rock was The Sex Pistols or the Ramones, probably in the late 70’s as a child, when nothing was more intense or more hardcore than the theme to Star Wars! I also clearly remember hearing GBH Blasting out of my brother’s Jambox. We would strap it to one of our Huffy Bike Handlebars, when he would come to visit from far away Tampa, Florida. It was super hot in Texas, but I still had a mullet until I was 14 years old. I guarantee whatever he was playing (definitely Dead Kenedys, Too Drunk to Fuck, Police Truck, and Holiday In Cambodia), it wasn’t more important to me at the time than Kiss, Metallica, or Guns and Roses (I said Mullet).

But The first time I heard it and it mattered, the first time this relentless sound we call punk rock really mattered, and the first time my head went whip cracked and took notice (like the first time you saw a girl and said… “Wait a minute… WHAT is this, I like it?!”) I was riding in the back seat of my friend Mike Parson’s Ford LTD (The old ones that were still made of Detroit American Steel and got 8 miles to the gallon). (And) I couldn’t really tell you what I was actually listening to at the time in my life, because when Mike Parsons pushed that tape into the player and it went “CHUNK!” I was really born for the first time, that day. Myage, by the Descendents, from TWO THINGS AT ONCE, came out of the speakers and hit me like a bucket of cold water in the face.

In the first bars of the bass and drum intro, I saw and heard everything that would shape me and lead me through the next 20 years of my life, slagging out like some ancestral memory from my caveman brain! I can’t explain this without sounding cheesy, but my life was absolutely changed that day. All the way from one Suburb (Suburban HOME!!!!) to the next, and to the next, to one mall, and then to another, we listened to that tape (I’m still listening to it today, and it is as sacred to me as the Beatles or Bach and still more relevant than ever!). Those Descendent records took me through my first devastating break up with my first real girlfriend (SHE DON’T NEED NO ONE!), to my wife and happy marriage today (IF YOU DON’T GET SICK OF ME!) Those records are like a Batman Decoder Ring for my life. I’m not fully certain I could have become an adult without the lessons on I DON’T WANT TO GROW UP. When that tape finally came out of the tape deck, the Mullet was gone, I was in a band, and on my way to RIDE THE WILD, HERE IN MY VAN! Thank you Milo, Bill, Ray, Tony, Carl, Stephen, Frank, and Doug. You are the reason! These are the ALL-O-GISTICS!

Terry plays guitar and sings in The Jukebox Romantics.  Here’s the story of how he got into Punk Rock and how it shaped him and his future.

In 4th grade, I was given a cassette tape from a classmate after school. He told me to go home and listen to it and that it was something “fast, fun and out of control.” Turns out it was Blink 182’s first demo “Buddha.” Until that day my musical tastes were pretty much limited to radio pop music, Meat Loaf, Springsteen, and Billy Joel. For the first time ever I felt that the music and a band was talking to me and shared a lot of the same feelings.

A year later I was lucky enough to attend my first concert. A different friend had an extra ticket to No Doubt & Weezer out on Long Island. The sites, sounds, and smells hooked me right off the bat. On that day I fell in love with live music, specifically Punk and Ska, and playing live looked like the most fun ever. Soon after I went directly to the closest music store, “Nobody Beats The Wiz,” (apparently everybody winded up “beating” them) and picked up Pennyswise’ “Unknown Road” and NOFX’s “So Long.” These records represented freethinking, energy, and FUN!

From then on I grabbed all the records I could and went to all the shows I could. I grew up right outside of NYC so local shows and bigger shows were only a short train ride away. Started my first real band at 14 “Foul Mouth.” Playing live was my goal. The music was short, fast, shitty and 85% covers. We played our first show within a couple months of practicing in a basement and that was it. The punk ideals, music, and brotherhood hooked me. Performing in front of people was unpredictable and fun. It still gives me the same feeling today.

Why Punk Rock? Because when it comes down to it, in its essence, to me it represents FUN.

-Terry, The Jukebox Romantics

Lauren West sings in New York punk act American Pinup.  Here’s the story of how she got into Punk Rock and how it shaped her and her future.

My mom got me into punk rock. I know it sounds unusual, but it’s the truth. As a kid, I would listen to her stories of hanging out at CBGB’s and seeing bands like the Ramones and Siouxsie and the Banshees in utter awe. I can even remember crawling into the back of her closet as a toddler and examining the clothes covered in safety pins she had tucked away for safe keeping. I remember thinking it all just seemed really, really fun. Punk was always more about fun for me than it was about rebellion. I loved the idea of a close-knit, counter-cultural community where you could dye your hair crazy colors and dance like an idiot and play songs made up of three power chords and not be judged. What appealed to me most was the notion that you could carve out your own subculture within punk and do it on your own terms. And I think, even from a young age, I saw mainstream music and culture as little bit lazy, like you were just consuming things other people decided you should like, instead of putting more effort into developing your own taste, and thus, getting more out of it. This may have been a symptom of growing up in the ‘90s, but I think my mother’s history as a punk rocker egged me on.
 
I started listening to bands like Green Day and The Bouncing Souls when I was around ten, through lots of older cousins and hand-me-down records. I started looking for bands that no one else I knew listened to. I quickly branched out to all kinds of alternative music, from rockabilly to grunge and beyond. There was a good deal of solitude that came with this before I hit high school; I’m pretty sure most of my classmates in my small parochial thought being into punk meant you worshipped the devil. I didn’t really find a community until I discovered the local underground music scene in my area as a teenager, which was overflowing with talented and passionate people. That’s when I started playing guitar and decided to start a band. It took a long time for that band part to happen, partially because of my own lack of confidence starting out and partially because punk, let’s face it, can be a boys’ club. I definitely had to fight my way into a few jam sessions.
 
I think people who can claim that punk, on some level, shaped them as a person take its definition for granted, and rightfully so. Facing that challenge of being taken seriously as a musician by the males around me who also played music not only made me a more assertive person, but also a better songwriter, and I owe a lot of gratitude to these roots for that. The punk community has fostered what I consider to be some of my biggest strengths, while also giving me this wonderful sense of kinship, and that’s something you don’t turn your back on. Those days of going to shows every weekend and jamming in my friends’ basements were thoroughly formative for me, and to this day the sound of feedback is weirdly comforting. I think it’s something you can’t quite put into words, but we all know.

Altercation Records new band New Red Scare has announced that their new full length “Waiting For A Spark” will hit the streets on March 12th. On that same evening a CD release party will be held at Headhunters in Austin Texas as a prelude to a week of drunken revelry during their tour down to South By South West.

Altercation Co-Owner and Funny Man JT Habersaat had this to say; “Look out America, New Red Scare is upon us, and the Whiskey Revolution is about to begin, so lock up your Womens & Kids cuz it’s gonna be a wild wild ride!”

New Red Scare will be touring this March, including a stop at the must go to punk party during SX. the Altercation Punk Rock BBQ @ Vortex in Austin Texas on Sat March 16th stay tuned for more info and tour dates.

Austin’s Say Hello To The Angels have announced there will be another new full length (the 3rd one in 24 months) released on March 12th of 2013 through Altercation Records.

This new full length “Stay Awake” comes on the heels of the band’s 2012 acoustic release “Break Your Sword.”

Label rep. Travis Myers said,

“These guy’s are not only one of the most exciting and talented bands on the scene at the moment, but they are tireless when it comes to making music, most bands can’t produce a single record in two years, Say Hello To The Angels have produced three top quality albums, that any label would be proud of”…”And STAY AWAKE is probably their best work to date, but I’ll leave that up to the fans to decide…Can’t wait to hear what they come up with next!”

Say Hello To The Angels will be having a CD release show at Headhunters in Austin Texas on March 12th along with label mates New Red Scare, if your heading down to South By this year be sure to make it to the show.