The Bad Penny (beta)

It was only a month ago that we introduced you to Merry Brigade.

In Merry Brigade’s first video interview, Love revealed 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.

Now, they’ve paid The Bad Penny a second visit to bequeath us with the premiere of their new song, “Work Smoothly.”

Joe Love is vocalist/guitarist of the brand-new, badass Boston band, which is intent on freshening 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.

The time to wait to hear what Merry Brigade have in store for lovers of heart-on-sleeve, powerful rock that calls to mind the luminosity of Failure’s Ken Andrews and even departed Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell at times.

Listen for yourself:

For more on the young, inspiring band that is Merry Brigade, take heed of a thought-provoking conversation between band frontman Joe Love and yours truly: “Joe Love Took Tips From Soundgarden, David Foster Wallace for His Aspiring (and Inspiring) New Band.” The exchange marked Love’s first video interview, for those of you keeping score at home.

And don’t sleep on Merry Brigades’ Bandcamp, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Spotify profiles either. Scroll and be merry.

This entry was posted on 06/20/2026 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Exclusives with tags Joe Love, Merry Brigade. 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.