The honorable Thad Collis, guitarist and vocalist for surging doom-metal squad Cosmic Reaper from Charlotte, North Carolina, blasts the oligarchy and warns that the metal underground will not be spared in Authoritarian America if we all don’t act immediately to stop the Trump regime. The band’s new album, Bleed the Wicked, Drown the Damned (Heavy Psych Sounds), is already a contender for best metal album of the year. Buy it here. Check out The Bad Penny‘s 42-part On Tyranny series, launched roughly around March, here.
Archive for the On Tyranny Category
On Tyranny: MyVeronica’s Mia Lin Says ‘True Meaning of Punk’ Is ‘To Speak Out’
Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags Mia Lin, MyVeronica on 10/03/2025 by Kurt OrzeckMia Lin of L.A. DIY guitar band MyVeronica engages in a stimulating conversation about the impetus of real punk-rock artists meeting the moment and calling out authoritarianism and discrimination when they see it. We caught up earlier this week, following the early August release of Farewell Skylines, their split EP with Friend’s House.
Continue readingOn Tyranny: David Cross Scolds ‘Heroes’ Louis CK, Bill Burr for Playing Saudi Arabia Comedy Fest
Posted in Comedy, Features, News, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags Bill Burr, David Cross, Louis CK on 10/02/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Well, at least someone in the now-ludicrously successful world of comedy is standing up for human rights. David Cross, in a Monday newsletter to his fans, expressed disappointment that many of his peers are performing for the “depraved, awful people” attending the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, whose authoritarian leadership mandates observance of Sharia law and carries out mass executions despite condemnation by international human-rights groups.
Notably, Cross pointed out the hypocrisy of comedians who regularly bemoan so-called “cancel culture” for participating in a comedy festival staged by a royal family that bans free speech in the country they rule. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman infamously directed the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in October 2018.
The Riyadh Comedy Festival began Friday and concludes a week from today. Other participants include Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari, Jimmy Carr, Russell Peters, Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Tom Segura, Andrew Schulz, Bobby Lee, Sam Morril, Jo Koy, Gabriel Iglesias and Kevin Hart, among others.
Burr said on his Monday Morning Podcast that at least the festival’s attendees were “happy,” and called performing at the festival “one of the top three best experiences I’ve had,” according to Rolling Stone.
Continue readingOn Tyranny: Donald Trump Is More Insane Than the Craziest Musicians Ever, From Elvis to Kanye
Posted in Essays, Features, Lists, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags Captain Beefheart, Daniel Johnston, Donald Trump, Elvis, GG Allin, Kanye West, Keith Moon, Lil Wayne, Roky Erickson, Syd Barrett on 10/01/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Consider the following:
1. Michael “Pras” Michel, one-third of the Fugees, was convicted in April 2023 on 10 counts related to falsifying business records. Donald Trump was convicted in May 2024 on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
2. Syd Barrett, guitarist and co-founder of Pink Floyd, allegedly took LSD every morning and locked his girlfriend in a room for three days. Donald is allegedly sending individuals who may or may not be documented U.S. citizens to gulags in El Salvador and is publicly urging Americans to not take Tylenol.
3. Keith Moon, drummer of The Who, admitted to accidentally running over his friend and bodyguard with his car. Moon, who was allegedly drunk at the time of the incident, publicly apologized for the tragedy. Donald Trump proudly and remorselessly declared that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
Continue readingOn Tyranny: Weakened Friends’ Secret to Battling MAGA? Community Involvement
Posted in Features, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags authoritarianism, Donald Trump, MAGA, On Tyranny, tyranny, Weakened Friends on 09/28/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
“As someone who is a queer individual, my safety came from a lot of people dying and protesting and fighting for my rights to feel safe. … I’m willing to have a boot on my neck for the people that I love and care about. I’m here for the fight.”
–Sonia Sturino
—
Only about 69,500 people live in Portland, Maine, which is one of the least-populous states in the U.S. (and is the only one in the Lower 48 to share a border with just one other state). But let’s drop the Cliff Clavin act and get to the most salient fact of interest to you, dear reader of The Bad Penny: Portland is home to one of the most red-hot indie-rock bands in the Northeast: Weakened Friends.
Led by impossible-not-to-love married multi-instrumentalists Sonia Sturino (who has a green card) and Annie Hoffman, this year marks the 10th anniversary since Weakened Friends cranked out their first release: The crunchy, power-chord song “Won Yet,” which proved from the git-go that the group had the sharpest of ears for melody, harmony and chorus. In a mere 12 days, the sumptuous songsmiths will unveil Feels Like Hell on the inimitable Don Giovanni records.
When The Bad Penny caught wind of the topics that Weakened Friends address on their third record – resisting the temptation to succumb to “deep nihilism in the face of global capitalism” and instead refuse self-censorship and embrace the freedom to speak out, we quickly invited them to participate in our ongoing On Tyranny series – and both Sturino and Hoffman merrily obliged.
We staged a video chat with them about three weeks ago, as we all hunkered down in our kitchens (theirs is far more decorative than mine) to share our thoughts and feelings about the state of the U.S., and the impact Authoritarian American is having on musicians.
Continue readingOn Tyranny: Brett Bradford of Scratch Acid, Suckling Hopes MAGA ‘Will Eat Itself’
Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags authoritarianism, Brett Bradford, David Yow, Donald Trump, MAGA, Scratch Acid, Suckling, the Jesus Lizard, trump, tyranny on 09/25/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
“Some who voted for [Trump] are not necessarily bad or gullible people. If that’s the case, they should very well now regret their decision and do what they can to right the wrong. They helped put the fox in the henhouse and should help to get rid of it.”
–Brett Bradford
—
Recently, yours truly had the distinct honor of conducting an extraordinarily in-depth and all-encompassing interview with one of the most crucial figures in ’80s underground music and foundational guitarists in noise rock: Brett Bradford, formerly of Scratch Acid and now a member of indie-rock quartet Suckling.
The extensive feature will appear on Post-Trash on October 7, but in the meantime, we’re bringing you, separately, his thoughts on Authoritarian America as part of The Bad Penny‘s increasingly critical series called On Tyranny. Here is that portion of the interview, followed by some additional thoughts that Bradford later shared.
Continue reading
The Bad Penny (beta) 