Interview With J.B Rivera of Railer & Combat Shock
I met Benji at the Dead Heat/Terror show in Zurich. He and his brother Daniel (what's up killer!? - i miss you guys!) were touring with the Dead Heat guys and I spent most of my time with those two and Josh (Outsider) drinking beers and talking shit mostly. Nicer guys, you will not meet and i'm stoked he took time to do the interview.
What's up my dude?! Fill us in on Railer/ Combat Shock.
What’s up mate! Let me tell you about our little corner of the Southern California coast and what’s going on with our bands.
Both bands are from the 805 area which has dudes coming from Santa Barbara, Ventura, Oxnard and surrounding areas.
Railer has been around for a couple of years and came about from the demise of its previous incarnation called Blasting Concept. Same band different singers. Rock n roll/blue oyster cult/B’LAST loving freaks. Band is comprised of Jared - The Head Grem in Charge, Calvin on lead, Jeff on Rhythm guitar, and Ben on bass (who also plays in legendary Stalag 13).
Combat Shock came about because Anthony -Singer of CS/Lead Axe for Dead Heat - wanted to front a nasty gutter ass D-beat style band. We kinda just combined 1/2 DH, 1/2Railer. Ben from Railer plays lead on here, Anthony growls, Chris plays bass (DH vox), and Mike on guitar - he plays bass in a few other notable bands like Initiate, Full Circle, DPrive, Omega Point and Vince, who also plays in Omega Point, Sheer, and Souvenirs is an integral part to CS and to a lot of 805 bands as a recording guy. He is our sixth member, third guitar, and also our recording engineer.
If you had to introduce extraterrestrials to music using only five records, what records do you choose?
Railer:
B’last - The Power of Expression (1986) & It’s in My Blood (1987)
Annihilation Time - S/T, II, III
RKL - Riches to Rags & Rock n Roll Nightmare
B. O. C - Agents of Fortune
Gang Green - Another Wasted Night
Other influences:
Toes, occultism, Stoned Age, and Partying
Combat Shock:
Discharge - Hear Nothing Say Nothing
GISM - Detestation - other random shit from comps they’ve been on
Broken Bones - Bone Crusher
Dr. Know - Plug In Jesus
Other influences:
War, cholos, Govt/military/Religion, Budweiser, horror movies, raw hot dogs.
Have Railer or Combat Shock got plans to release anything on vinyl? (please say yes!)
We do!
Both bands are going to have a track on the upcoming Nardcore 4 Life compilation thats coming out in the summer. It’s featuring current Nardcore (adjacent) bands. Indecision Records is going to be putting it out. DH and Downpresser will also have a track on there.
Railer is putting out a tape on @HeavyCreamZine.
Combat Shock is putting out a tape on @CriminalizedSFV
I’m stoked on both of them and the people who are putting it out for us.
As always, putting something on wax is in the future.
There seems to be a thriving DIY / punk / crossover scene coming out of California. Is there a competitive vibe between the bands, or having met you and the Dead Heat guys, is it more of a family?
I feel like music in California is at its strongest right now and one of the reasons is because people genuinely care about the music and the bands in this hardcore punk “thing” of ours. A few years ago it was a little quiet, but that’s the nature of things. It’s all cyclical. There’s a lot of mixed shows and collaboration from different scenes and that’s what makes it rad.
Amongst our friends, everybody fills in for someone or pitches in if somebody can’t make a show. There’s no ego and I would say that all the bands that we all play in have a deep bench of support for fill ins. A and B teams baby!
It’s all Love and it’s all family in the end.
What's 2020 got in store for you?
Shiiiiiiiiieeeeettttt... make out alive from this damned Corona Virus... raging, guzzling, putting out more music, playing more shows, trynna put together some generator beach shows when it starts to warm up... you gotta come out my dude! Hopefully going back out to Eurolandia with the clique and hopefully seeing you! Much love hermano.