The Bad Penny (beta)

Major labels suuuck. This we know. But sometimes they get bruised by the little guys – let’s call them “Davids” – who manage to land a clean blow on the Goliaths. Scarsdale, New York’s Too Much Joy accomplished this feat when they regained the rights from Warner Bros. to their second LP, Son of Sam I Am – and that motivated the four lifelong friends who comprise the band to start recording and even play shows again in earnest.

The circumstances also gave Too Much Joy the opportunity to commiserate with how much the U.S. had changed for the worse when they got together in 2000. It’s a dialogue they continue to have now, and which they let The Bad Penny take part in as part of our ongoing series On Tyranny, in which musicians talk about the direct damage that Authoritarian America is having on their artistic careers and personal lives. If Too Much Joy can defeat Warner Bros., can’t the 75 million Americans who didn’t vote for Trump take him down too?

Enjoy this lively conversation with Too Much Joy vocalist Tim Quirk and singer/bassist Sandy Smallens, which took place exactly a month ago, and then hear from many more artists like The Locust, Brett Bradford from Scratch Acid, Bobby Conn, Deaf Club, Carcass, Moonspell and 50 more artists in the On Tyranny archive.

May these discussions motivate you to learn about the horrors happening in this country, spur you into action, realize that you are not alone, and get involved in the thousands of communities fighting fascism before it is too late.

Go here to Too Much Joy’s Bandcamp page for much more on the band. And stay tuned for the next print edition of The Big Takeover to read my feature story on them.

This entry was posted on 11/21/2025 at 11:55 am and is filed under Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags authoritarianism, fascism, On Tyranny, Too Much Joy, trump, tyranny. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.