@ – Autosmile LP (4AD) Amakiya – Archetype (Spaceflight) Angèle – Instinct (GGL) Antania – The Unholy 33 (Agronauta) Ashe – The Girl of Your Dreams (Atlantic) Avalanches – No Bad Memories (featuring Mike Patton, Panda Bear) (Interscope/Capitol) Badvril – Lethal (Share It Must) James Barrett – Now That I’ve Seen the Light (OK Sweet) Billboard Style – Pull of the Moon (Good English) Body Stuff – 5 (The Chain) • The Visionaries: Curran Reynolds (ex-Today Is the Day) Talks About Spreading Love With Body Stuff Band in Rare Chat
“When I was young, I was broke and moving around a lot, discovered drugs and alcohol at an early age and went hard down that rabbit hole – but I’ve always had hope and inspiration,” musician/publicist/renaissance man Curran Reynolds opens up in a rare interview about his life.
“I’ve experienced some very dark times and some challenges for sure,” he continues. “But one thread that’s carried me through my whole life [is] knowing the joy of creation, working on projects and creating something out of nothing. That’s always been in me.”
Being a doom band doesn’t require one to have a doom-and-gloom outlook on life, and yesterday afternoon, Austin’s The Well proved that fact during a phone interview in anticipation of their concert at Boise’s Neurolux tonight.
“We are surrounded by desert, open space, and then beautiful cliffs and mountains in the distance,” bassist Lisa Alley as the trio traversed their way through Utah en route to a gig in Salt Lake City. “Hawkwind would be a good soundtrack to this.”
This is a special year for instrumental post-rock behemoths Caspian. Not only does it mark 20 years since the recording of the Massachusetts band’s debut, The Four Trees, but today sees the release of a new album (released on Wax Bodega) that they named after themselves. More than five years in the making, the sixth album by Caspian – featuring Philip Jamieson (guitar and synth), Calvin Joss (guitar), Jonny Ashburn (guitar), Jani Zubkovs (bass) and Justin Forrest (drums) – marks the longest stretch between studio releases in the band’s career.
Here’s a taste from Caspian’s new release:
The Bad Penny recently touched base to pick the brains of Caspian – born and bred in Beverly, Massachusetts – on what they consider to be the top 10 bands hailing from their home state. (The band member that vouched for each act is listed in parenthesis.) Conspicuously absent from the list is Converge, but we’ll let that slide since they ranked Mission of Burma above Aerosmith.
(For their own part, Caspian came in at #5 on The Bad Penny‘s recently crafted list of best instrumental bands.)
The organizers of Treefort Music Fest, Boise’s biggest annual music event announced the initial lineup on Thursday, and it’s a promising and diverse crop of artists. The extravaganza will take place from March 31 through April 4.
The Rat Utopia Experiment, a female-fronted “circus” punk-rock band from Tacoma, Washington, are storming into Boise this evening with a vengeance. They’ll be holing up at The Shredder for what is sure to be an overstimulating performance, and it’s basically a given that the band will bust out performances of the two songs from their June 7-inch, “Lobotomize Me” and “Three-Banded Armadillo.”
Fronted by lead vocalist Phia Lane, the outlandish outfit – which paints their faces to aptly resemble clowns – also features bassist/vocalist Francis Green, guitarists Maddox Mullins and Drix Drixolle, and drummer Christian Montemayor. The Bad Penny checked in with the band on Thursday as they drove en route to Boise.
After metal’s materialist excesses of the ‘80s, a backlash in the form of “folk metal” emerged the following decade. Agalloch’s The Mantle was its apex, epitomizing metal musicians’ retreat to forests and reconnections with nature.
Nick Drake’s debut album Five Leaves Left is as close to a synesthetic experience as music can offer. Each of the 10 gentle songs acts as the soundtrack to a leaf falling off a tree and swaying back and forth as it descends to the ground.
Didn’t think you’d ever read a story about bands from Lithuania, did ya? Didn’t realize that Lithuania boasts some killer metal outfits, did ya? Didn’t think there’d be more worth listening to than fingers you have on one hand, did ya?
Well, that’swhy The Bad Penny is here. To bring you stories you wouldn’t have guessed existed but that turn out to be both informative and entertaining.
Blackened hardcore phenoms Erdve recently did us the honor of compiling a list of the best metal bands from their country as part of The Bad PennyPassport series, in which we virtually trot around the globe and touch base with musicians to learn about the best heavy musical talent in their homeland.
Music enthusiasts who think very highly of themselves may tell you that they can predict an artist will become a superstar based on their first album alone. With a few stray exceptions over the years, that’s basically hogwash spewed by a charlatan who wants to pump up their own ego so they can elevate their reputation.
