Archive for the Exclusives Category

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Exclusive Lyric Video Premiere: Sehore’s ‘IA’ Is a Master Class in How to Avoid Getting Trapped in the Algorithm

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, Videos with tags , on 09/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Familiarize yourself with Spanish experimental art-pop endeavor Sehore, and you will undoubtedly have encountered the most artistically and intellectually challenging musical act in quite some time. Sehore won the Silver Medal for the song “Pesadilla” (“nightmare” in English) and the Bronze Medal for “Bla bla bla (cha cha cha)” (we’ll leave that translation to you) at the Global Music Awards 2025.

With compositions written and performed in extremely complex time signatures, Sehore started last year with the release of its first two albums: Ladencia in January and Husfikbur in September. The group’s project’s album, Ptkbdglmnr (due November 20), is led by the first single “IA.” Sehore describes it as follows: “The rhythmic figures shift between different internal groupings of five (3+2, 2+3, 4+1, etc.), creating a fragmented and unstable pulse that mirrors the theme and is built on the diminished scale. The track alternates consonance and dissonance, using kitsch elements and miniature structures.”

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10 Best Bay Area Bands, According to Death-Thrash Hometown Heroes Absolute Darkness (Exclusive)

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, Lists, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , , on 09/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

It’s always cool to get positive feedback from readers, especially those of you who keep tabs on what some lame-ass AI tool referred to as “the iconoclastic website The Bad Penny.” Hell, we’ll take it – and much more importantly, we’ll take your liking of this consummately non-mainstream and non-corporate hub for news, interviews, games, reviews and more about rad bands that mostly lurk underground.

Aaaaaanyway, it’s even more flattering to get kind words from musicians; after all, none of us would be on this website, writing and reading any of the posts, engaging in discussions and finding fulfillment in music in general were it not for those who actually make it. All of which is to say that the new series with the loose title The Bad Penny Passport is attracting so much excitement from artists that it feels like getting blindsided by a tsunami. And that enthusiasm is showing in the bands’ submissions, none better exemplified by this golden treasure of a contribution from Bay Area death thrashers Absolute Darkness.

The band began 10 years ago fueled in part by their love of death metal but also thrash metal, the genre du jour in their San Francisco hometown. Now, the band consisting of guitarist/lead vocalist Ron Dorn, lead guitarist/backup vocalist Douglas Vetter Guitars, bassist Orson Sojo and drummer Scott Russell are readying their second album, Witness to a Dying World, for an October 23 release. There’s more on that below; but first, let’s get schooled by Absolute Darkness and what they believe to be the 10 best Bay Area bands of all time.

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The 10 Best Swiss Bands, According to Native Dark-Jazz-Grind-Doom Experimentalists Convulsif (Exclusive)

Posted in Exclusives, Lists, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , , on 09/14/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Ever since we got our ears on Anatomy of Rage, the fourth studio album by Switzerland experimental brain scramblers Convulsif, we’ve listened over and over again trying to wrap our heads around its brilliance. (We almost covered every part of the human anatomy in that last sentence.) An offshoot of bassist Loïc Grobéty’s far-out Convulsif Bigband, Convulsif continue to – for lack of a better phrase, even though it’s over-used – push the boundaries of dark jazz, grind, doom, drone and noise. We’re already anticipating Convulsif’s next album, when they’re to incorporate remaining music genres smooth jazz, blue-eyed soul and neo-classical.

Convulsif’s music is badass in its own right, as you’ll discover on Anatomy of Rage or the quartet’s Bandcamp page. But much to our delight and humility, the gentlemen – Christian Müller (bass, clarinet and voice); Jamasp Jhabvala (violin); Loïc Grobéty (bass); and Maxime Hänsenberger (drums) – graciously decided to participate in The Bad Penny‘s latest series, in which we ask musicians from non-U.S. countries what they consider to be their own homeland’s top music offerings. Why embark upon this globetrotting adventure? Because fuck Spotify.

So, without further ado, say hello to Convulsif and the bands they hand-selected as Switzerland’s crème de la crème (fun fact: The Swiss use that turn of phrase the same way the French do!).

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The 10 Best Swiss Bands, Per Convulsif

The Swiss music that has influenced us is very often pioneering. With Convulsif, we continue to offer the kind of avant-garde rock music that is our country’s trademark.

1. Voice Crack

We’ll start with the Swiss avant-garde scene and this duo. They come from a free jazz background and have continually evolved their sound and sound systems. They have released many collaborative albums.

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Like David Yow, Unsane’s Chris Spencer Almost Filled the Role of Vocalist for Punk Legends Flipper (Exclusive)

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, News with tags , , , , on 09/13/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
David Yow of the Jesus Lizard (photo credit: Josh Pelta-Heller for Phawker)

David Yow’s could very well lingering in obscurity without his iconic tenure as the frontman of the Jesus Lizard (and Scratch Acid) before that. But he’s also sprinkled in some bizarre side projects along the way, including his abstract-art “music” album Tonight You Look Like a Spider, released in June 2013 on Joyful Noise; a stint as the vocalist for L.A. underground rock trio Qui that culminated in their 2007 album Love’s Miracle; and guest appearances at concerts by Shellac, Melvins, the Dicks, Girls Against Boys and Cop Shoot Cop.

But one of the most notable excursions Yow – who self-deported from the U.S. for Portugal during the Trump regime – took in his equally florid and flatulent career was when he took on the role of vocalist for influential punk band and one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite groups, Flipper. After forming in 1979 and taking a decade-long break from 1994 to 2004, Yow filled in for ailing singer Bruce Loose during shows in 2015. Four years later, Yow reprised his role as substitute vocalist for Flipper’s 40th Anniversary Tour in 2019; at that point, Yow was effectively a member of the band, which advertised their shows as “Flipper with David Yow.”

But little do fans know – if any – that Yow wasn’t a shoe-in for Flipper’s replacement vocalist. Chris Spencer, frontman of Unsane – another hugely influential noise-rock band from decades past, along with the Jesus Lizard – recently revealed in an interview with this writer: “I was really a big Flipper fan, despite them having 30-plus members over the years. The ethos of that band was just great.”

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The 10 Best Icelandic Metal Bands, According to the Country’s Own Folk-Metal Act Hrafnablót (Exclusive)

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, Lists with tags , , , , , , , , , on 08/27/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

As The Bad Penny tours the world, asking musicians in every country we “visit” to name their top 10 bands – usually of the heavy-music variety – we are consistently surprised by the selflessness and passion with which said musicians vouch for their fellow citizens. Thus far, the most striking example of this reassuring phenomenon – a poignant reminder of the positivity of patriotism versus the nastiness of nationalism – comes in the form of Hrafnablót, a brand-new, self-described “sorcerous” folk‑metal band hailing from Iceland.

Pity the fool who thinks of Iceland as a barren country with a frozen music landscape. Much to the contrary, Iceland has a red-hot metal scene, which most of us in other parts of the world are ignorant about only due to geographical location and a lack of sufficient curiosity about countries other than the one in which they reside. Enlighten yourself with this stunning list of bands masterfully compiled by Þórgnýr Einar Albertsson, bassist and backing vocalist for Hrafnablót.

But before you do, check out Hrafnablót’s recently released video for “Heljarhlíð,” the latest single from their debut album, Guðlaugar Saga, due September 11. Pre-order the tantalizing album on their Bandcamp page … you may very well agree with us that Hrafnablót deserve placement on the very list that Þórgnýr so graciously made for us.

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Iceland’s heavy music scene is relatively small and tight-knit, but pretty varied. The bands below range from early death metal to atmospheric black metal, folk metal and shamelessly colourful power metal. What connects them is that each developed a real identity rather than sounding like a smaller Icelandic version of somebody else.

Sólstafir

Sólstafir’s journey from raw black metal into post-metal and beyond is one of the clearest success stories in Icelandic metal. Records such as Köld, Svartir Sandar and Ótta gave them a sound that became internationally recognizable while being unmistakably Icelandic. Bands from here are constantly described through weather and landscape clichés. With Sólstafir, that language actually makes sense. 

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Exclusive: Slothrust Bring on Second Guitarist, Turning One of L.A.’s Best Rock Bands Into a Foursome

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, News with tags , , , , on 08/26/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Excitement is building as the release date for the sixth studio album by red-hot Boston rock band Slothrust nears. But there’s some additional news that, while not as seismic as the unveiling of What They Grow in the Garden will be on September 18, band leader Leah Wellbaum (vocals, guitar) exclusively told The Bad Penny that Slothrust is now a foursome.

“We’re both multi-instrumentalists,” Wellbaum said during a video interview on Monday, referring to herself and drummer Will Gorin writing and recording music together in the studio. “He played bass on this last record [2021’s Parallel Timeline]. And it’s been really fun seeing him step into other instrumental roles.

“He’s obviously an incredible drummer and also a really great guitarist,” Wellbaum continued. “It was really fun to see what he would do, what he did on the bass to play with himself and to interact with the music that he was so involved in crafting. And because we both play all the band instruments, it’s fun to be able to explore as a two-piece in that way. That being said, it’s really nice to be able to perform with more people.”

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The 10 Best Chilean Bands, According to Guitarist for Santiago-Based Noisy Punk-Rock Squad Niño Nuclear (Exclusive)

Posted in Exclusives, Features, Interviews, Lists, The Visionaries, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , , on 08/26/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Well, try this one on for size: Five days ago, we published the Venezuela installment of The Bad Penny‘s new series in which we touch base with a seasoned musician from a non-U.S. country to get real-life recommendations (as opposed to artificially generated ones from Spotify) about the best bands in that artist’s homeland. Diego Ramirez, frontman of heavy garage-rock band Joudy, cultivated the list for that edition of the series, and one of the artists he deemed exceptional is another heavy garage-rock band Niño Nuclear. (If you don’t know about Ramirez’s harrowing escape from Venezuela due to rampant violence, be sure to read the story and watch the accompanying video interview in this edition of The Bad Penny’s On Tyranny series.)

While Niño Nuclear relocated to Santiago, Chile, in 2019, the band left an indelible mark on the country where they were born – but are thriving even more so now. After hearing Ramirez talk glowingly about the members of the group – including guitarist/bassist Frank Pereira; Mechu and Julio, who both provide vocals and play guitar; bassist Fernando and drummer Leo – we thought what better musician to enlighten us about the top 10 best bands in Chile for the latest edition in our series.

Here are los seleciónes de Señor Frank:

1. Paracaidistas

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On Tyranny: Calculus Was ‘Scared’ to Cover Politics; Now He’s Liberated With New LP (Exclusive)

Posted in Exclusives, Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , on 08/25/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

After many periods of reflection and deliberation, The Calculus went through a transformation resulting in him wanting to focus more on the world around him – and political matters in particular, as they now infiltrate every aspect of our lives.

“I came to realize that anything is right or left,” he continued. “It’s all division and distraction from looking at people that are hoarding money while everyone’s suffering. We have a guillotine, it’s time to start chopping heads. Things need to be changed from up top in order for things to start getting better.”

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Exclusive Video Premiere: Be Decent’s ‘Come Sweetly’

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, Videos with tags , on 08/25/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Last month, we had the distinct pleasure to exclusively premiere a new video by Be Decent, an instructively named neo-ska quartet from Brooklyn, in anticipation of the September 18 release date for their debut record, Now’s the Time. That video was for another instructively titled song, “You Better Work.”

Well, lightning does indeed strike twice, as we’re getting double the pleasure and double the fun with a second exclusive video premiere, this time for another prized selection from Now’s the Time: “Come Sweetly.”

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The 10 Best Venezuelan Heavy Bands, According to the Country’s Most Badass Garage-Rock Guitarist

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, Lists with tags , , , , , , , , , on 08/21/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Do you remember Joudy, the Venezuelan band that has more courage than all of us put together as demonstrated by the escape they pulled off from their homeland to New York in order to escape drug cartel violence? No? Then shame on you for not reading every installment in The Bad Penny‘s ongoing On Tyranny series, which provides musicians with a space where they can talk about the threats that fascism poses to artists. (The Joudy installment is here.)

Apparently Diego Ramirez, frontman of the three-piece, enjoyed our conversation so much that he return for a second round of talks with The Bad Penny. This time, we covered an entirely different topic, which you’ve probably pieced together by now. A few weeks ago, we started touching base with musicians in countries around the world to ask them what heavy bands they consider to be the bee’s knees in their respective countries.

The series has quickly become one of the most popular in the 16-year history of this website, so in light of the positive reception, we’re gonna keep trotting around the globe (figuratively) to confer with native musicians about what great bands us foreigners aren’t paying enough attention to in their homelands. As a bonus, this project is doubling up as a rebuttal to Spotify and algorithms telling us what we should listen to; The Bad Penny continues to value recommendations that come from human beings as opposed to AI.

Without further ado, what follows is Ramirez’s list of the best heavy bands hailing from Venezuela. (Ramirez is clearly a guy who goes the extra mile, because he also notated what he considers to be each band’s best record.)

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