Fresh off two special performances late last week at Fridays on the Plaza festival in Cheyenne, Wyoming and the Underground Music Showcase festival in their hometown of Denver, Moonpool are busting out two brand-new videos exclusively on The Bad Penny. The clips are for the two songs featured on Syzygy, a new EP the alt-rock/post-punk band released exactly one week ago.
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Solidarity is hardly a new concept to Mawiza, an indigenous metal/folk group born and bred in sacred Mapuche Nation lands in Chile. In 1861-’83, the military staged campaigns and an occupation of the Araucanía Region in central Chile under the Orwellian-sounding “Pacification of Araucanía.” The indigenous community had to band together if they wanted a chance to survive the military incursion. Nevertheless, the brutal invasion paved the way for notorious, U.S.-backed Augusto Pinochet’s military coup about 100 years later.
Formed in 2014, Mawiza’s stated goal — beyond concocting an entirely original sound that fuses metal with Mapuche folk music — is “to preserve ancestral roots, rescue indigenous moral values and to promote biodiversity conservation, guided by the indigenous worldview and struggle.” (Read more about the band and its mission in an interview with Mawiza vocalist and rhythm guitarist Awka, as part of our ongoing series On Tyranny.)
As Mawiza’s career progressed, the band found that another critical issue is inherent in indigenous communities valiantly attempting to preserve their culture and land: the environment. Fortuitously, the band drew attention and, subsequently, ardent support, from a band more than 7,000 miles away that is considered metal royalty across the globe: Gojira. In its lyrics for songs ranging from “Global Warming” to “Toxic Garbage Island” to the entirety of 2005’s From Mars to Sirius, the French progressive-metal band makes it a top priority to educate their fans about eco-awareness.
Mawiza and Gojira bonded even more closely when the latter band took the former one under their wing and performed together live. Cementing their friendship and admiration for each other, Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier traveled to the Mapuche community to record his featured spot on “Ti Inan Paw-Pawkan,” the first single from Mawiza’s new album ÜL, which Season of Mist issued 12 days ago.
Around the same time, The Bad Penny communicated exclusively with Awka to learn more about “Ti Inan Paw-Pawkan” and how it came about.
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Hailing from Galicia, Spain, Sangre de Muérdago is the best Galician Folk band you’ve never heard of. Now, Sangre de Muérdago is the only Galician Folk band you have heard of.
The group uses Galician lyrics and a litany of instruments used in the Galician tradition to reflect on nature, mysticism and other themes.
“O Abismo” is the first single from Sangre de Muérdago’s upcoming full-length, O Xardín, due September 12. Keep an eye out for the release of the album’s second single on August 8, and a third one a week before the album release. The Bad Penny is proud to exclusively premiere “O Abismo” and its accompanying video today.
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Private eyes are stereotyped for sticking close to, but not scaring off, their target until the person reaches their ultimate destination. Similarly, The Bad Penny continues to monitor the activity of supergloom as the shoegazing LA newcomers inch closer to realizing their first full-length record.
Earlier this year–on April Fools Day, to be precise–we introduced you to supergloom around the time they released “sideFX,” the first single from their still-untitled debut. The heady, cleverly named song exemplified what would become their maiden release. We touched base with supergloom toward the end of April, at which point they let The Bad Penny exclusively unveil a new song, “Kingfisher.”
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It appears that Kyuss, the early stoner-rock band co-founded by guitarist/vocalist Josh Homme (also of Queens of the Stone Age), may be finally ready to reassemble his earlier project. Somewhere in the Palm Desert region, surely. Sitting in a circle, of course. That way, the group can maximally aerate the moon by channeling unholy reservoirs of toxins into the tractor bea- …
… Huh? What’s that now? Well, huh to you too, big man. Huh to you too.
Read much more from my FLOOD feature on the eternal desert rock hounds. Meanwhile, in related news, The Bad Penny recently caught up with Oliveri, to chat about: You guessed it, all things Oliveri. That includes reminiscing on his days with Kyuss. Stay tuned for that big mug of slow joe coming from somewhere in … eh, let’s play it safe and keep it at “future” for now.
Saunter over to New Noise to hear a new song by Depth Beneath Us ahead of the band’s upcoming LP release on Aug. 1. Also, read insights on the song and LP, both called Descent, courtesy of Depth Beneath Us guitarist Matt Rockman.
Wipes are declaring Don’t Tell My Parents with the new LP that the noise-punk band will issue through Hex Records on Friday. But The Bad Penny is telling everyone we know about the righteously rambunctious by exclusively presenting a stream of the entire album today.
Not to be confused with Wipers, the influential Portland post-punk band that both Nirvana and the Melvins covered, the rather similar-sounding Wipes are still in their toddler years and hail from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Wipes carry the heavily distorted torch previously held by Wipers but are even more committed to making exuberant, off-kilter noise.
The band released new cuts “Social Mask” and “Stone Eater” earlier this year. Now, check out Don’t Tell My Parents in its entirety:
Continue readingNoise punks Miracle Blood are ready to bring the ruckus with an ambitious tour starting July 11 in Buffalo, NY, running through August 2 in Washington DC.
The Beantown badasses are also on the docket for the fifth edition of the ultra-underground Caterwaul Fest in Minneapolis on May 26. In between Caterwaul and the onset of their summer trek, the band will hit up Portsmouth, New Hampshire (June 13); Troy, New York (June 24); and Boston (June 28).
Miracle Blood certainly aren’t allergic to playing live, and this new jaunt will be their most extensive one to date.
“Play new material in front of crowds to kind of see what’s landing right and what maybe needs a little bit more work,” cofounder/guitarist/vocalist Andrew Wong told The Bad Penny.
With so many upcoming engagements, it’s patently obvious that Miracle Blood–who tout themselves as “gnarly noise-punk for the weird at heart”–are on fi-yah. If noise-punk isn’t your jam, give Miracle Blood a shot nonetheless, as they meld their music with mathcore as well.
Expect scenes like this to unfold frequently during Miracle Blood’s upcoming gigs:
The expression “bold debut” gets thrown around an awful lot, but debut records don’t come much boldererer than Cocaine Culture’s self-titled LP. Due Friday on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, the tempestuous record is all wrath and fury, leaving nothing standing in its wake. The Bad Penny has the unique privilege of bringing you the record in full today, in streaming form.
In celebration of the stream, we touched base with the band to discuss their filthy foray into full-length-dom.
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Supergloom and The Bad Penny are getting super wicked excited about the upcoming release of their debut album, due this fall, and today we have the good fortune to unveil a new song, “Kingfisher,” from what is shaping up to be a dizzyingly delicious record.
The Bad Penny (beta) 