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On Tyranny: Leetham, Queer Pop Artist Who Grew Up Mormon, Mocks MAGA for Getting ‘Star Wars’ Canon Backward

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , , on 07/18/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Vibrant SLC newcomer Leetham wants to be taken seriously – but only by people who also know how to throw down on the dance floor. Raised in a Mormon household and now embraced by the queer community with which he proudly associates himself, he’s furious that intolerance is driving trans kids to suicide. He’s also mystified as to why young MAGA don’t seem to grok that the Dark Side were the villains in Star Wars. Yeah, folks, it’s worse than we thought out there.

Catch Leetham in concert soon when he opens for another ascendant pop newbie, Zee Machine – and in the meantime, savor his recently released, four-track, must-get EP, KINK, for all its worth.

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Favorite Films: Tim and Eric Turn Vancouver Psych Squad Meltt Into a Puddle of Laughter

Posted in Favorite Films, Features, Interviews, Lists with tags , , , , , , , , , on 07/18/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Last we checked in with Meltt – Vancouver’s greatest psych-rock band this side of Black Mountain – we tried to channel their excitement over playing Boise’s Treefort Music Fest shortly before they graced the annual event three years ago. Fast-forward to 2026, and the duders were once again in good spirits, still giddy over the release of their fourth full-length, Pathways (Nettwerk), last month.

As much as we recommend you snag Meltt’s new release, when they graciously granted The Bad Penny the chance to catch up with them for a second time, we all agreed to mix it up and rope the band into our consistent-ish ongoing Saturday series, the self-explanatory Favorite Films. Each band member generously participated in the exercise – and, wouldn’t ya know it, The Bad Penny would’ve raved about many of the same flicks were the tables turned.

But, of course, this story is not us. It’s about Meltt, Pathways and movie recommendations that might inspire you to take a hop, a skip and a jump during your weekend. Scratch that: These selections might prompt you to pick up a chainsaw, commune with an octopus underwater or reminisce about Star Lanes (RIP) instead.

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On Tyranny: Belgian Music Magazine Editor Creates Benefit Comp to Fund Ukrainians Amid Russian Horrors

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , , , on 07/17/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Before Russia unleashed its shocking, abhorrent, genocidal and unlawful invasion into Ukraine in February 2022, Bernard Van Isacker – Chief Editor of Side-Line – didn’t have designs on focusing his music publication on current affairs and events per se. “But it did happen,” Isacker, a Belgian citizen, confided in a candid interview with The Bad Penny on Friday, July 17. “I had witnessed something I never imagined … [would be] possible in a democratic country. Tyranny can hit quite close sometimes. You’d never imagine this would be possible in a democratic country, but it happens,” Isacker continued. “And it happened to me. [Not to mention] a lot of crap being published online about myself.”

In response, Isacker spearheaded an initiative to help the people of Ukraine. Specifically, a pay-what-you-want-compilation called United 1 – The Freya Files, a various-artists dark-wave compendium issued by Side-Line. The collection just came out today.The track list is below:

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On Tyranny: Garage-Rock Band Joudy Escaped Venezuela Cartel Violence, Found Asylum in US – but Still Live in Fear. Here Is Their Story.

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , , , , on 06/29/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Imagine your dream is to be a rock star – an aspiration that’s probably occurred to many readers of this website. Now imagine that you work as hard as you possibly can, exhausting all your drive and motivation, squeezing every drop of your creativity and spending every moment at your disposal to make your dream come true.

And it does, because there is still some justice in this world, and because perseverance and the human spirit can lead to extraordinary outcomes. You’ve established your heavy-psych/garage-rock band in your homeland of Venezuela, you’re continuing to put in the hard work, you’re gaining traction, you’re building a fanbase. And then – without any time to prepare or redraw the plan for your future that you’ve had all along – you’re upended by external factors that are totally out of your control, and threaten your life, the lives of those you love, and your lifelong ambitions. Marauding gangs of drug dealers and thugs with no regard for human life are willing, ready and able to extinguish yours without a second thought and the simple pull of a trigger or slice of a blade.

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Favorite Films: Dez Dare Digs Nicolas Cage, Mia Goth, ‘Moon,’ ‘Midsommar,’ ‘Ex Machina’ (and Puppets)

Posted in Favorite Films, Features, Interviews, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , , on 06/27/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

As we trudge through an cultural era of moribundity that will hopefully reach a conclusion some day, we rely more heavily on those of us who, while aware of the enshitification of the world, refuse to let it pop their bubble. One of the essential artists who lives his life in this regard is Darren Smallman, who goes by the name Dez Dare when performing his heartwarmingly zany, zest-for-life music with the reckless abandon of someone who refuses to let reality get him down.

Beginning in March, Dez started slipping out one song a month digitally, with the compiled result called These Days Are Wild & Blind and available now on Bandcamp.

Because we’ve interviewed Dez multiple times before about his music, we decided to rope him into our Favorite Films series this time around. Still, we’d be doing both him and you a disservice if we didn’t precede Dez’s film picks with this video for his new song “You Woke Up on My Side of Time.” (Pro tip: Never say no to puppets.)

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The Visionaries: Lux Says ‘Joy’ Propelled Him to Make Post-Black Metal Split Release With Kindred Spirit Sadness

Posted in Features, Interviews, The Visionaries with tags , , , on 06/25/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

The greatest embarrassment a music journalist can experience isn’t accidentally misquoting what an artist said in an interview. It’s not asking a thoroughly banal question during an interview and not realizing how dumb it was until after the conversation concluded. It isn’t even rocking out at a concert, hard, for everyone to see, because the line between critic and fan can be so paper thin.

No, the real, deep-seated — even primal — despondency that courses through a music journalist’s body, shakes them to the core and compels them to reevaluate whether their opinion actually has any value whatsoever comes when the purportedly professional scribe “discovers” an exceptional musical talent, only to realize that thousands, or tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people caught onto the musician or band long before the supposedly intrepid journalist stumbled across them.

No one seemed to notice, but yours truly felt utterly ashamed in December after stumbling across blackgaze phenom Sadness and thinking the artist’s career was nascent. Turns out Damián Antón Ojeda (a.k.a. Elisa) launched the one-person project all the way back in 2013 and has released piles upon piles of records between then and now. Sadness also has a rabid fanbase, as evidenced by the 3,400 people who viewed our conversation on YouTube.

After sulking in self-pity for a spell, a new way of coping with the Sadness oversight arose. As Ojeda/Elisa frequently collaborates with other musicians who must be talented in their own right if Sadness chose to join forces with them, it made sense to start exploring some of those comrades. The experiment proved to be a success right away; after spinning a split EP called Dusk Garden that came out in October, we became introduced to the other participant, a musician from the Scottish Borders, south of Edinburgh, who goes by the name Lux and, like Sadness, has an affinity for post-black metal.

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On Tyranny: Low Co-Founder Foresaw Tyranny Taking Hold in the US a Decade Ago, Widower Alan Sparhawk Says

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , on 06/25/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Any fan of indie pop worth their salt is familiar with Low, the legendary band that almost single-handedly created the indie subgenre known as “slowcore.” And any music lover who is familiar with Low, which reached its conclusion in 2022 after the heart-wrenching death of co-founder Mimi Parker, knows that her widower husband, Alan Sparhawk, launched the singular project together in 1993.

More than three decades later, Americans are stuck with Donald Trump ambivalently tanking the United States in every conceivable way, as ambivalently as he did with the litany of business ventures he bankrupted and otherwise destroyed over the course of decades. As a result, the (admittedly justified) shouting and anger dominating the public discourse is increasing in volume exponentially.

So what better time to check in with the soft-spoken Sparhawk, arguably one of the greatest musicians of our time who knows the value of, and is an expert in, taking a calm and measured approach to his art and his life. Don’t confuse his demeanor with being content about the state of the country, which is declining so rapidly that comparisons to the fall of the Roman Empire must be taken seriously. In fact, Sparhawk – as we learned when we interviewed him this very morning – is as heartbroken, disappointed and shocked as the vast majority of Americans.

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On Tyranny: Black-Metal Band Qasu Says Release of Anti-ICE Song the Day After Renée Good’s Murder Was ‘Chilling’

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , , , , on 06/23/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Is it redundant to say that black-metal bands don’t fuck around writ large? If that question is bouncing around in your brain, try to shake it out of your ear – or at least save yourself a punishing amount of embarrassment, and maybe even your life, by never posing that question to Qasu. Well, at least when they’re not draped in cloaks. The British/American trio refer to their harrowing sound as “ancient future black metal,” the most badass name for the subgenre of another subgenre.

If the above pic doesn’t make it abundantly clear, Qasu take their music very seriously. That fact is evident over the entire duration of A Bleak King Cometh, Qasu’s recently released debut LP created by Aldous Daniken (the trio’s so-called “instrumentation” pro), Rahsaan Sagan (voice and electronics) and Nikhil Talwalkar (drums). The tour-de-force is distributed in North America by Season of Mist, and released as a collaboration effort between Phantom Limb and Apocalyptic Witchcraft.

As with their music, Qasu appear to be equally serious about politics – that is, if the term still has any meaning given the existentially terrifying times in which we live. Mega props go to Qasu for speaking their mind about today’s unprecedented social ills, and refusing to self-censor or obey Trump America’s fascist authority figures in advance. And while we’re at it, shame on the artists, entertainers and Hollywood executives who aren’t addressing the most important debate of our lifetimes: what is right and what is wrong, not what is left or what is right. Their cowardly calculations to not stand up for their neighbors and defend civil rights are making it all the more difficult for those of us fighting the good fight.

When we came across Qasu earlier this year, we knew right away that the band gets its. And yet, for all the seriousness with which Qasu treat their music and beliefs, we discovered Daniken to be a ye olde merry jolly good fellow. (That’s how they talk in the United Kingdom, right?) Lucky for us, he carved out some time to speak with The Bad Penny for our ongoing series called On Tyranny. And now we bring you our conversation with Daniken (which we didn’t videotape this time around).

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On Tyranny: Swiss Grunge-Jazz Band District Five Warns MAGA Propaganda Is Corrupting Mainstream Entertainment

Posted in Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , on 06/21/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Ten years ago, four multi-instrumentalists from Zürich, Switzerland, came together to form the we-dare-you-to-try-to-categorize-because-you-will-fail band District Five. “Intriguing” is probably the word that encapsulates the band, but in reality, District Five require – and are worthy of – much longer descriptions. This is one of those rare bands that can’t be figured out cerebrally; instead, District Five’s goal is to penetrate your heart and soul, making you remember what it’s like to feel the a human being again in an increasingly anti-human world.

Paul Amereller (drums, percussion), Tapiwa Svosve (vocals, synth, sax), Vojko Huter (vocals, guitar, synth) and Xaver Rüegg (bass) have reached a new pinnacle of musical proficiency and prowess with GLUT, the new District Five full-length that dropped in late May. (It’d be a cardinal sin not to mention that the esteemed Saul Williams appears on one of the songs.) Proving their enormous talents aren’t limited to just playing music, the band attached a manifesto of sorts to GLUT, and while The Bad Penny typically steers clear from quoting promotional materials, the missive is not only profound but explains the new District Five album and why the band is so well-suited for On Tyranny.

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Favorite Films: Martin Atkins (Ministry, Pigface) ‘Bedazzles’ Us by Picking a Comedy With Dudley Moore, Peter Cook

Posted in Favorite Films, Features, Interviews with tags , , , , , , , , on 06/20/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

If you want to get properly schooled in the history of post-punk and industrial music – and the music industry machinery that has both helped and harmed it over the decades – don’t read a music blog or turn to some know-it-all bottom-feeding on social media for information. Instead, seek out a revered guru like Martin Atkins, he of Pigface, Ministry, Killing Joke, Public Image Ltd and Nine Inch Nails note.

Atkins is a prolific author of books concerning the music industry; the studies coordinator on the very subject at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois; and owner and operator of the Museum of Post Punk and Industrial Music in Chicago. If you’re more inclined to enjoy Atkins making music instead of reading his tomes, look no further than The Howler: An English Breakfast, a record he issued on vinyl for the first time about three weeks ago.

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