If you’ve enjoyed The Bad Penny‘s ongoing On Tyranny series, be sure to pick up the latest edition of underground music’s best magazine. Publisher, editor and perhaps the best person on earth Jack Rabid graciously allowed me once again to write one of the three coveted opinion essays that lead off the 160-page edition. My second commentary is a kindred spirit of the first, and both digs deep into the sums up lessons learned from On Tyranny. If you believe in punk rock and for which it stands, buy the newest issue of The Big Takeover.
Enjoy my lengthy conversation with Jeff Mueller, one of the four captains steering iconic Louisville band June of 44. From start to finish, you will learn the history of June of 44 and get a deep understanding of the band’s ethos and spirit. You’ll learn why reuniting was a transcendent experience in which the band members discovered new meaning in and appreciation for songs they had written decades prior. You’ll discover that a group of musicians who appeared stoic and even intimidating in their heyday are empathetic to the core. And you might enjoy a laugh or two — surprising for a band whose concerts were considered to be serious, chuckle-free engagements back in the day.
Sonny Rollins, widely considered to be one of the greatest saxophonists of all time, has died, according to a Sunday post on his Facebook page. He was 95 years old.
“It is with deep sorrow and profound love that we announce the passing of Sonny Rollins,” read a statement posted on the page at approximately 10 p.m. ET. “The Saxophone Colossus died this afternoon at his home in Woodstock, NY, at the age of 95.”
The post continued with a 2009 quote from Rollins, a jazz tenor saxophonist known as a jazz music purveyor and improvisational extraordinaire.
“I think when the creative person ends, he continues in the next existence,” the Rollins quote read. “I’m a person who believes this life isn’t the be-all and end-all of everything. A spiritual person doesn’t feel like that.”
It appeared that Montreal’s post-punk squad Cola tried to pull a fast one when they formed in 2020. After all, properly capitalizing all the letters in their name would’ve clearly indicated it was an acronym and not a synonym for soda—which, in all fairness, would’ve been equally bland. On this, their third record, the trio finally come clean by confirming through its title that their handle is, in fact, a phrase used in the titillating field of economics and employment contracts.
As the only remaining original member of Queens of the Stone Age, Josh Homme is synonymous with the band that boasts substantial critical repute, commercial success, and peer respect. But as QOTSA proceeds deeper into their 30th year, they’re preparing for two of their highest-profile tours yet this summer, with Foo Fighters in the U.S. and System of a Down in Europe, respectively. Since QOTSA’s inception, fans of heavy rock have always regarded Homme as the leader of the group, due to his authorship of the vast majority of its songs and his role as the project’s mainstay member as its cast rotated routinely over the years.
Indeed, Homme’s imposing presence and distinct appearance as a 6’4” red-haired front man adds to his band’s singularly striking presence in the rock universe. But not only are there well-founded doubts that QOTSA may not have lasted as long as it were it not for the other musicians who have membership in the band on their resumes, Homme’s ever-growing list of collaborations with the creme de la creme of mainstream music has boosted his prominence even higher than his often unconventional take on rock music alone would have accomplished.
When Led Zeppelin’s founding drummer, John Bonham, died due to an alcohol overdose in 1980, the classic-rock band broke up, and its three surviving members vowed to never reunite. Guitarist Jimmy Page, vocalist Robert Plant, and bassist John Paul Jones did so informally a few times, mostly for tribute events.
But it wasn’t until a 2007 concert celebrating the life of music executive Ahmet Ertegun – who signed Led Zeppelin to his Atlantic Records – that Page, Plant, and Jones played a full set for the first time in almost three decades. The show was so historic, and demand to attend it was so high (with 20 million ticket requests tallied), that Led Zeppelin set a new Guinness World Record.
Led Zeppelin’s 12 Years of Dominance
Few rock bands in history boast combined talents that can measure up to those of Plant, Page, Jones, and Bonham — or even enter the debate as to whether they could. Moreover, few music-group lineups that broke through to the mainstream maintained such a strong original lineup for as long as Led Zeppelin did.
The four musicians congealed the band in London in 1968, with Page having already achieved enormous attention for the guitar mastery he strutted in another influential British blues-rock band, the Yardbirds. (That group featured two other guitarists considered to be among the best of all time: Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck.) Led Zeppelin eclipsed another band of fellow British blues enthusiasts, Cream, in the hard-rock sphere on the strength of their first two releases, 1969’s Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II.
Both those releases came out courtesy Atlantic, a record label that President Herb Abramsonco-founded in October 1947 with Vice President Ertegun in New York City. Atlantic executives in November 1968 hammered out a five-year recording contract with manager Peter Grant — “the man who led Led Zeppelin,” according to Led Zeppelin biographer Dave Lewis — that gave the band a great deal of artistic control.
While Page and Plant took center stage at Led Zeppelin concerts, where the band solidified their fanbase, Bonham — along with the Who’s Keith Moon and Ginger Baker of Cream — broke out as one of the best rock drummers ever. Bonham’s hard-hitting style and extended drum solos during Led Zeppelin concerts garnered him the nickname “The Beast.”
Also similar to Moon, Bonham developed a reputation as a wild man, which helped congeal another nickname for him: “Bonzo.” In October 1980, the heavy-drinking drummer died from alcohol-related health issues. The remaining members of Led Zeppelin made Bonham’s importance clear by breaking up the band instead of tapping another drummer to fill his empty seat.
“We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were,” the surviving Led Zeppelin members said in a press release following Bonham’s death.
Subsequent years saw Led Zeppelin continue to gain popularity, thanks to both reissues and other posthumous releases. Additionally, hard-rock drummers both young and old — ranging from Nirvana’s Dave Grohl to Rush’s Neal Peart — continued to cite Bonham as having a significant influence on their own playing style.
Led Zeppelin Reunited to the Delight of Fans? Not Quite …
Led Zeppelin fans clamored for reunion performances in the band’s aftermath, and the band occasionally regrouped for concert appearances that punctuated those cries with crescendos. The first occurred in July 1985, when Page, Plant, and Jones reconvened to perform at the benefit concerts known as Live Aid organized by British music legends Bob Geldof and Midge Ure.
After failed attempts to record new music, Page, Plant, and Jones came together again in May 1988 for a concert that took place at New York’s Madison Square Garden that celebrated the 40th anniversary of Atlantic’s founding. “[Ertegun] was very keen for Jimmy, Robert, and Jones to appear,” Lewis wrote in his 1991 book Led Zeppelin: A Celebration.
Some non-publicized performances — and, most prominently, Page and Plant re-teaming for a world tour and live album featuring Led Zeppelin covers — ensued. But in December 2007, Led Zeppelin’s surviving members again showed their loyalty to Ertegun by re-forming for a full set paying tribute to the industry executive after his death a year before at age 83.
A Led Zeppelin Celebration Concert Is Held at Long Last
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In the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001, radio station conglomerate Clear Channel Communications banned a slew of unlikely songs from the airwaves, including Simon & Garfunkel‘s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” John Lennon‘s “Imagine,” Led Zeppelin‘s “Stairway to Heaven,” and many more. Another band that fell victim to the reactionary crackdown on free speech during a terrifying time in America was Green Day and their song “Brain Stew.”
The spirit of punk rock is to scream truth to power, no matter what the cost. Bands of that ilk tend to gravitate to the underground and indie record labels, where they can fully exercise their creative freedom and execute their vision without fear of corporate interference. Green Day is one of the rare – and undeniably most popular – punk-rock bands that, despite their fearless and sometimes controversial outspokenness, have spent the majority of their career on a major label (the Warner Bros. Records-owned Reprise).
Released just a few months after the more metal-leaning Love Is Not Enough, Converge course-correct by balancing the scales with hardcore on their second LP of 2026.
“If you find it making you feel sexy, aloof and a touch sensitive, get your loose ass off your couch and come enjoy some music made for the soul.”
-Gozu frontman Marc Gaffne
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Sixteen years after their formation in Boston, stoner-doom metal band Gozu are finally swinging through Boise tonight for the first time ever. The Metal Blade maniacs are riding a wave of momentum after last month’s release of the band’s sixth album, which is named – you guessed it – VI. Distinguished by copious amounts of guitar-leading, ’70s-sounding riffs, Gozu relish grooves. And even though much of their material is of the doom variety, the band is all about having fun, especially when playing live.
Guitarist/vocalist Marc Gaffne indicated as such when he touched base with The Bad Penny today to get us – and you – wicked psyched for what Gozu have in store for their show at the Shredder tonight.
“Some dude came up to Jon while he had his shirt off and started licking him. I think the guy was yelling about doing it, so we were like, ‘OK, don’t talk about it, be about it,’ and he did it. It was insane.”
-Restless Spirit, recalling one of their crazier shows.
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Desert rock, stoner metal, prog and psych rock … Restless Spirit touch almost all the heavy-music bases on the self-titled album they released last month through Magnetic Eye. For further proof, Boise metalheads have the chance to witness the trio from Long Island up close and personal at The Shredder tonight.
As Restless Spirit’s recent interview with The Bad Penny indicates, guitarist/vocalist Paul Aloisio, drummer Jon Gusman and bassist Marc Morello don’t put up with bullshit. That comes through in both communicating with the band members and their honest and direct music, which isn’t fueled by anger as much as authenticity.
What follows is our full interview with the band ahead of their gig tonight.
The Bad Penny (beta) 