The Bad Penny (beta)

The Grief Abides: A Very Long-Awaited Conversation With Mastodon

Posted in Interviews with tags Bill Kelliher, Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Geezer Butler, Josh Homme, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age, Randy Blythe, Troy Sanders on 08/21/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Well folks, here it is: My interview with Mastodon (drummer Brann Dailor), 22 years in the waiting since I first saw them perform at the Knitting Factory on February 20, 2024, many months before the release of their second album, Leviathan. Not only is this feature probably my biggest story of the year, it’s kind of the ultimate Bad Penny read, as Dailor shares anecdotes involving many of my all-time favorite musicians: Dave Grohl, Randy Blythe and Lamb of God, System of a Down and more.

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New Releases 8.21.26: Black Marble, Street Tombs, Weezer, Untitled With Drums, Fen, Lambchop, My Pet Fossil, Wild Pink

Posted in Lists, New Releases, News with tags Black Marble, Fen, Giraffe, Lambchop, My Pet Fossil, Sondre Lerche, Street Tombs, Untitled With Drums, Weezer, Wild Pink on 08/21/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

2BYG – WYW remix feat. Tahjaee single (Def Jam)
Accursed Womb – Hymns of Blasphemous Fornication (Nespithe)
Siavash Amini & Eugene Thacker – Songs for Sad Poets Vol. III (American Dreams)
Argul – Soledad & Orgullo (Personal)
Azatoth – Carnal Lust of Blasphemy (Extremely Rotten)
Black Marble – Life in Small Spaces (Sacred Bones)
Mark Ciani – Utopia (self-release)
Destin Conrad – Roadrunner (Above Ground/ Empire)
The Cramps – Greatest Gravy (unreleased 1977 album produced by Alex Chilton) (Vengeance)
Cutthroat – Purge EP (M-Theory)
Deathgrave – Hell Is Evil (Tankcrimes)
Dream Phases – Little Blue Magnolia single (self-release)
Enhypen – Sin: Bliss EP
Feeders – Dark Days
Fen – Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth (Prophecy)

Brandon Flowers – Thrasher (Island)
Foglights – Nous Deux EP (Skep Wax/ Slumberland)
French Film – Yours + Five (Solid Brass)
From Ashes to New – Die for You (feat. Neoni) single (Better Noise)
Riviera Gaz (feat. Steve Shelley) – Catacroma (Vampire Blues)
GB – Herzsprung (Posh Isolation)
Ghost Hounds – Justified
Giraffe – Towering Inferno With Bongo Drums (Org Music/ Aquarium Drunkard)
Hey, Nothing – Hound (Music Soup/ Interscope)
Sawyer Hill – Everybody’s Home, Nobody’s Happy (AWAL)
Paris Jackson – Happiest Day of My Life (Republic)
Jamie James – Steppin’ Back 2009 (Oglio)
Lexi Jayde – Lover Girl (Columbia)
Coco Jones – Love Me Through single (High Standardz/ Def Jam)
Korpse – Forbid EP (Unique Leader)
Lambchop – Punching the Clown (Merge)

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Ultra Lights’ ‘Pleasure’s All Yours’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Chunklet, Henry Owings, Ultra Lights on 08/21/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Pleasure’s All Yours was crafted by a band from Atlanta that either doesn’t give a shit or is three sheets to the wind; the jury’s still out on that one. Either way, Ultra Lights are the real deal; we dare you to deny that claim after giving this, their first record, a full spin. Fans of Superchunk, Les Savy Fav and Sparta, take note.

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10 Best Free Bandcamp Downloads #18: Fake Dust, Cvinger, Negativa, Tenebra, Why Bother?, Nott, Alienator, 2 Slices

Posted in Lists, MP3s with tags 2 Slices, Alienator, Órbita, Cvinger, Fake Dust, Feral, Negativa, Nott, Tenebra, Why Bother? on 08/20/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Welcome to the 18th installment of The Bad Penny‘s Bandcamp Freebie series, in which we handpick our favorite free songs on the platform and dish them up for your consumption. Are we gonna get out of this thing alive, dear readers? Let’s not think of that, shall we, even though I just asked you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we entreat you with our latest batch of free music of the highest quality. (And the lowest price.) Not as many full-lengths time around as in recent editions past. But we think you’ll survive. All 10 titles featured here free. And yes, you ARE welcome.

(Note: If you’re financially capable of supporting any of these artists and/or labels, please consider doing so.)

1. Fake Dust’s Demo 2022 and Tour Promo

Portland’s power-violence grindcore goons Fake Dust are still getting their sea legs; they came together in 2020 but just put out their first full-length, Decrepitizing Din of the Cerebral Psyopticon, in May via esteemed label Iron Lung Records and Headsplit Records. But like a nice attendant working at an ice cream store, the quartet has granted us free samples of their music in the form of these two (albeit very short) releases.

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What You Readin’ For?: Melvins’ Buzz Osborne Recommended John Fante’s ‘Dreams From Bunker Hill’ to mr.phylzzz Frontman, Who Attests That It’s a Worthy Read

Posted in Features, What You Readin' For? with tags Amphetamine Reptile, Buzz Osborne, Chris Jacob, Danny Sein, Dreams From Bunker Hill, John Fante, King Dunn, Melvins, mr.phylzzz on 08/20/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

It’s been a minute since we’ve published an installment in our series What You Readin’ For, in which musicians discuss and recommend good reads to fans of their music and this website. The latest pick comes courtesy of Clinton Jacob, who handles vocals and guitars for self-described trashy grunge band mr.phylzzz from Chicago. The duo of Jacob and drummer Danny Sein are putting out their newest album, Fear the Lord, September 4 on Amphetamine Reptile, one of the most important noise-rock labels ever. (Fun fact: mr.phylzzz and Buzz Osborne‘s Melvins are the only two active bands left on Amphetamine Reptile’s roster.)

Get a taste of Fear the Lord in the video at the bottom of this post, but before you scroll down, read Jacob’s pitch for John Fante’s tragicomedy Dreams From Bunker Hill, available for purchase on HarperCollins’ website:

I read a lot, but if there’s one book this year that has held my attention more than doom-scrolling my life away, it’s Dreams from Bunker Hill by John Fante.

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The David Bowie Line in ‘Heroes’ Was Written About Two Real People Against the Berlin Wall

Posted in News with tags Brian Eno, David Bowie, Tony Visconti on 08/20/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

David Bowie made “Heroes” in 1977 with co-writer and electronic-music pioneer Brian Eno and co-producer Tony Visconti, both of whom regularly collaborated with him throughout his 54-year career. Bowie had moved to West Berlin to escape cocaine addiction and the madness of the L.A. years. He was living austerely: a Spartan life, as he described it, for a person of his means. He worked at Hansa because it felt dangerous and alive in equal measure. His closest collaborator, producer Tony Visconti, described it as a stark, scary place with exciting nightlife. It is widely believed that such an environment was what Bowie required in order to write new music, given his mental and emotional state at the time.

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Cornelius Breaks the Rules Yet Again – to Winning Results – with Surprise LP

Posted in News on 08/20/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Fresh off playing a co-headlining set in Tokyo with another legendary idiosyncratic group, Sparks, Cornelius (real name Keigo Oyamada) is finally turning his sights again to his illustrious music career even though he’s engaged in loads of admirable endeavors over the years. Cornelius’ new album – which marks his eighth studio effort – is called Refractions, a title that appears curious at face value but speaks to the changing sounds that permeate the album.

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Wild Pink’s ‘Still Coming Down’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Wild Pink' on 08/20/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

After documenting his recovery from cancer on 2024’s Dulling the Horns, Wild Pink’s John Ross returns with an album that reassures us that healing is always within our grasp.

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Hulder’s ‘Verbolgen’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Hulder on 08/19/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Whatever hang-up Hulder homes in on throughout Verbolgen, her response is an unwavering middle finger throughout seven of the record’s songs (the other two are instrumentals). “I stand unbowed” is her refrain over the course of “In Blood and in Earth,” which explicitly lays out two options in the face of adversity: “fall upon your knees” or “face the dawn as it glows.” Similar sentiments are located in the last album track with vocals, “View from Nemeton,” in which the Belgian-born artist evokes Prometheus Bound—knowingly or not—when she screams: “The eagle’s beak has ripped my corpse/ Here I shall remain.”

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Best New Music Videos (July 2026): Cor de Lux, Insomnium, Body Stuff, Elephant Stone, Thao, Smirk, hijss

Posted in Lists, Videos with tags Body Stuff, Brendan Angelides, Cor de Lux, Elephant Stone, Emma Ruth Rundle, hijss, Insomnium, Serj Tankian, Smirk, Thao on 08/19/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Is it August already? Wait … it’s almost September, you say? Someone’s been sleeping under a rock – and I’ve got moss growing on me to prove it:

Anyway, I’m not gonna make you good people suffer the consequences of my hibernation and misdeeds. Will leave that type of sick, immortal behavior to Trump.

With that said, here are the best videos that came out last month:

1. Cor de Lux’s “The Deli”