“The only way you’re going to make up for it is [if you] vote in the fall and … make sure that this cancer doesn’t … metastasize any further in the American political system,” rock musician Art d’Ecco tells The Bad Penny in a recent interview. Doing his own part, the anti-war artist from Vancouver just released “How Real Is Real?,” the third single off his upcoming album Scheele’s Green, due Oct. 23 on Paper Bag Records.
Continue readingTop 10 Best Russian Bands, According to Native Son The Collector of Malist and Crimson Crown
Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, Lists, Videos with tags Below the Sun, Crimson Crown, Грай, Сруб, Хрен, Elderwind, Grima, Malist, Olhava, Veter Daemonaz on 10/07/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Bet you probably didn’t guess when we launched this series unofficially dubbed The Bad Penny Passport that our search for the best bands in countries around the world would include Russia, did you? We didn’t either. But thanks to one of our dearest friends, The Collector – mastermind behind badass black-metal projects Malist and Crimson Crown – we’re able to do just that, bringing you his list of recommended Russian bands we can virtually guarantee will not ring a bell (to you, at least).
In one of our more treasured entries in this series, we hand over the reins to The Collector – who remains anonymous for obvious reasons – to inform us about what he considers to be the greatest heavy bands spanning the country that spans more than 6.6 million miles and boasts a population of anywhere from 143 to 146 million citizens, depending on whether you consider Crimea to be part of it.
Continue readingSpacemoth’s ‘Inward Eye’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Spacemoth on 10/07/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
By and large, Spacemoth’s Inward Eye is an autobiographical affair that multi-faceted artist Maryam Qudus created in tandem with digitally archiving her family’s home movies using a VCR that she left running repeatedly in her abode. While that might drive just about anyone nuts, Qudus exhibits no signs of erratic behavior on Inward Eye, a chill record in the vein of late-career Flaming Lips.
Continue readingGreen Lung’s ‘Necropolitan’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Green Lung on 10/07/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Whereas most artists put blood, sweat and tears into ensuring that their records bear a consistent sound, theme, story line—or all three—Green Lung torched that handbook well before creating Necropolitan. If you thought Black Sabbath threw curveballs with “Changes,” “FX” and “Laguna Sunrise” on Vol. 4, you’ll be agog by what’s in store when you listen to Green Lung’s fourth album for the first time.
Continue reading15 Albums David Bowie Said Shaped Him as an Artist
Posted in Lists with tags Daevid Allen, David Bowie, Electrosoniks, John Lee Hooker, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Little Richard, Scott Walker and the Walker Brothers, Steve Reich, the Velvet Underground, Tucker Zimmerman on 10/07/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
David Bowie never named a single album that he considered to be his favorite, according to Vanity Fair. However, a 2003 edition of the same publication did publish a Bowie top albums list and albums that influenced David Bowie. The lengthy article name-checked 25 albums considered to be Bowie influences; we’ve narrowed down the list to 15.
Continue readingOn Tyranny: Top 10 Must-See Moments From Tom Morello’s ‘Power to the People’ Revolutionary Rally
Posted in Features, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos on 10/06/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
After the record-breaking turnouts that participated in the peaceful No Kings protests over the past year and change, ICE has adopted a new strategy of unlawfully detaining people of color – and dissenters who oppose the Trump regime’s draconian tactics. Due to their cowardly methods of “disappearing” hundreds upon thousands of men, women and children – many, if not most of whom, are legally allowed to be in the U.S. – we’ve become inured to the fact that unchecked authority, rampant lawlessness and a chilling grip of fear that the vast majority of us living here feel.
In response, ex-Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello – widely considered to be one of the greatest virtuosos of the past three decades – took it upon himself to amass a diverse set of musicians for a Woodstock-esque concert extravaganza. Named after the John Lennon hit from 1971, Power to the People took place Saturday in Columbia, Missouri – specifically, at Merriweather Post Pavilion, which has a capacity of approximately 19,000 attendees.
The entire event aired just one time on MS NOW on Saturday. But alas, clips of the historic galvanizing event are scattered across the Internet. Here are our top 10 favorite moments from Tom Morello’s “Power to the People” daylong event:
1. “This Land Is Your Land” jam by various artists
‘Don’t Have a Gun’: A Definitive Account of Nirvana’s Hit Song ‘Come as You Are”
Posted in Essays with tags Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Kurt Cobain, Nirvana on 10/06/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Last time around, we rolled out a rather comprehensive history of Nirvana’s biggest hit song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” This time, we trace the lineage of the second single from Nirvana’s Nevermind – an aquatic, forlorn song that incorporates guns and early video special effects.
With a dreary mood that put even most major grunge songs to shame, “Come as You Are” is a downbeat tune that doesn’t exactly qualify musically as a ballad but had the sad thematic content to make it one of sorts. Like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” before it, “Come as You Are” also contains unsavory references, some of which are downright eerie decades after Kurt Cobain used a gun to commit suicide.
At the time of his death, Cobain apparently had heroin in his system; bleach, which is used in the injection process of the drug, also makes a (perhaps prescient) appearance in the words he sang on this tune.
Read The Bad Penny‘s full reflection on the song courtesy of AllMusic.
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’: A Definitive Account of Nirvana’s Blistering, Biggest Hit
Posted in Essays, Interviews, Videos with tags Chris Novoselic, Dave Grohl, grunge, Kurt Cobain on 10/05/2026 by Kurt OrzeckDespite a litany of posthumous releases – pricey box sets, “super deluxe edition” reissues, unreleased songs and more – “Smells Like Teen Spirit” will always remain Nirvana’s most enduring song. Not only did it reach the top spot on countless charts in dozens of countries, it became so ubiquitous in mainstream culture that it cemented Nirvana as one of the greatest rock bands ever and legitimized alternative music as the quintessential music genre of the 1990s.
Read more of my thesis on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on AllMusic.
Spread Joy’s ‘III’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews on 10/05/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Spread Joy have ponied up another 16-or-so-minute release called—wait for it—III (Feel It). And with COVID now years removed, what does the increasingly punk-ified band choose to do with their captive audience, at a time when ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have invaded their home city, prospects of the future look bleaker than ever in recent memory, and bands can barely afford to tour, much less exist?
Well, they return to having fun and letting loose, of course. Hold your tongue before spitting at this writer for making what could be interpreted as a disparaging comment; my intent is to congratulate Spread Joy for staying true to their original goal, which was to provide an escape from the misery of the pandemic—and now, one could argue, the misery of the Great American Project or even human civilization itself. Put simply, they are the musical embodiment of an Irish funeral.
Read the full review via Treble.
