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Doppelgängers: Dave Grohl and Reggie Watts
Posted in Doppelgängers, Features with tags Dave Grohl, Reggie Watts on 11/29/2025 by Kurt OrzeckPet Sounds #73: Something Is Waiting’s Guitarist/Bassist Has Three Cats That Aren’t Also Aliens (We’re Pretty Sure)
Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags Pet Sounds, Something Is Waiting, William T. Fay on 11/27/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
rom the Jesus Lizard to Shellac to Local H to Rod Blagojevich, Chicago has produced some of the fiercest bands of the past 30 years. On fire right now is Something Is Waiting, who released a thoroughly raucous live record, Livelick, roughly a year ago via Learning Curve Records, which appears stronger than ever in its 25th year as a label.
As we’ve come to discover over the 13 months since The Bad Penny launched Pet Sounds, the most seemingly intimidating musicians tend to have the biggest hearts, especially toward cats (and dogs too, but it appears that cats have the edge). The latest example we’ve come across is Something Is Waiting guitarist/bassist William T. Fay, who has three cats: Sega (16 years old), Ripley (8) and Newt (7).
All three cats are domestic shorthairs; Sega is a calico, Ripley a quarter-trash-bag/ raccoon and Newt a tortoiseshell. We recently clawed at Fay for more info on his beloved buddies, and here’s how our conversation went.
Continue readingOn Tyranny: Transcending Obscurity Works Around Trump’s Tariffs With Innovative Move
Posted in Features, News, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags tariffs, Transcending Obscurity, trump on 11/24/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
It doesn’t take an economic genius to know that Donald Trump’s deranged obsession with tariffs – a fixed charge on an imported good that citizens of the country importing the good ultimately bear the cost of paying – is wreaking havoc on America’s economy. Not to mention the economies of many other countries across the world.
The policy is so plainly dumb and illegal – it’s the U.S. Congress that authorizes tariffs, not the executive branch – that it appears likely even the U.S. Supreme Court, which has failed to rein in Trump to the severe, perhaps irreversible detriment to our country – is going to strike down Trump’s unilateral move, which appears to be the only be the only kind he can make due to, you know, that whole separation of powers thing. (Hence the reason why this post is part of our On Tyranny series.)
Anyway, one of The Bad Penny‘s favorite record labels – Mumbai, India-based underground extreme metal specialists Transcending Obscurity – declared Monday that they’re executing a workaround to Trump’s moronic policy.
Continue readingOn Tyranny: Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum Laments Trans Exodus From US, Loves Zohran Mamdani, Details Witnessing ICE Brutality
Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags authoritarianism, Faith No More, fascism, ICE, On Tyranny, police brutality, Roddy Bottum, trans, tyranny, Zohran Mamdani on 11/22/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
“I feel, like, not so complacent, but enthused, honestly, in a great way. I feel good. It’s my job. I’m an artist, and that’s kind of what I need to do. I need to provoke and I need to demand answers and I need to challenge things.”
-Roddy Bottum
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With his new memoir The Royal We out now, I recently spoke with Roddy Bottum of Faith No More, Imperial Teen and Man on Man fame about a very wide range of topics. Read some of them in my FLOOD feature and my Bad Penny story (in which he recalled a bizarre incident involving his paranoid ex-girlfriend Courtney Love).
In this part of the interview, part of The Bad Penny‘s On Tyranny series, Bottum shares his first-hand accounts about the shameful and horrific acts occurring in the United States: the exodus of trans people leaving out of well-justified fear; and ICE attacks on immigrants, demonstrators and U.S. citizens.
But Bottum also discusses what he sees as a silver lining: The recent election of Democratic-Socialist Zohran Mamdani as the youngest-ever and first Muslim mayor of New York City. Here’s that portion of our wide-ranging conversation:
Continue readingPet Sounds #72: Sorry, Dudes and Dudettes – Your Dog Probably Doesn’t Appreciate You Playing Metal or Punk
Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags dogs, Pet Sounds on 11/22/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Taking a break from our normal routine of chatting with musicians and our pets, we shifted the focus of Pet Sounds to whether your dog likes the same music you do. If you’re into soft indie-rock or meditative sounds, you’re probably in the clear; if you think your pooch wants to head-bang or mosh along with you to metal or punk, brace yourself for some bad news.
The Bad Penny recently spoke with Natalia Shahmetova, CEO & founder of a new app called “Woofz,” about this subject. Try not to get upset, fans of heavy music, but Shahmetova disclosed that: “Small or anxious dogs settle with acoustic, soft indie and warm tones. In our playlists, we use tempo as the guiding principle: music that fits the dog’s natural energy level tends to work best.”
Read our full interview after the jump.
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