The Bad Penny (beta)

Earlier this week, The Bad Penny caught up with Joe Love, vocalist/guitarist of brand-new, badass Boston band Merry Brigade, who freshen up grunge-era alt-rock with a modern sound. The quartet — which also features Dave Holmes (guitar/backing vocals), Kevin Delprete (bass) and Ben Chase (drummer) — self-released their debut EP, DDD, in mid-March. After taking that first step, Merry Brigade are moving full-steam ahead, with their first full-length slated to come out later this year and a second LP — which the band is already toiling away at — poised to materialize in 2027.

In Merry Brigade’s first video interview, Love reveals how the group’s trials and tribulations with their previous projects strengthened their new musical undertaking, what he learned from Soundgarden (his favorite band) and author David Foster Wallace, and how delicately he treats his lyrics.

For more on the young, inspiring band that is Merry Brigade — and whose “life is sad” motto must be sarcastic, given their rousing rock appeal — check them out on Bandcamp, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Spotify.

This entry was posted on 05/02/2026 at 11:53 am and is filed under Interviews, The Visionaries, Videos with tags David Foster Wallace, Joe Love, Merry Brigade, Soundgarden. 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.