Archive for the Interviews Category

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On Tyranny: Metal Band Malevich ‘Had a String of Shows Canceled for Some of Our [Pro-Palestinian] Activism’

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , , , , on 09/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

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Last night, The Bad Penny had the distinct pleasure of catching up with one-half of Atlanta’s blackened post-death metal band Malevich: drummer/vocalist Sasha Schilbrack-Cole and guitarist Josh McIntyre. We talked a bit about Under a Gilded Sun, their new album, which hit the streets and the Interwebs late last month. But the bulk of our conversation revolved around how Authoritarian America is impacting musicians, as we had planned for the interview to be part of The Bad Penny‘s ongoing series On Tyranny.

Little did we know that we’d be speaking to two individuals whose intellectual capacity is as profound as their crushingly righteous music. Enjoy perhaps the best installment yet in The Bad Penny‘s On Tyranny series by watching the entire video above or on YouTube, or reading an abridged version of the conversation after the jump.

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Pet Sounds #68: Temple of Love Open Their Hearts to Fulci the Cat

Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags , , , , , , on 09/28/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Lest you think Austin, Texas, is only comprised of psych-rock bands these days, The Bad Penny brings you Temple of Love, a goth-rock/dark-wave band whose debut, Songs of Love and Despair, drops November 7 on Reptile House. Fans of The Black Angels and Killing Joke, take note.

Husband-and-wife duo Steve Colca and Suzy Bravo incepted Temple of Love way back in 2018, intending it to be a “pet” recording project all their own. But the two musicians – who hail from touted doom bands Destroyer of Light and Witchcryer, respectively – decided to aim for loftier ambitions after their 2019 demo earned them heaps of praise.

Consisting of guitarist/vocalist Colca, vocalist Bravo, drummer Patrick Pascucci and bassist Joseph Maniscalco, there’s also an honorary member of the band: Colca and Bravo’s beloved black cat, Fulci. We’ll have plenty more to say about Temple of Love and their maiden release in the future, but first, let’s give the hat-wearin’, snow-bearin’, self-brushin’ Fulci some affection and attention.

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Reggae-Metal Mashers Aurorawave Amped to Play First Show Since New LP Release Tonight in Boise

Posted in Interviews on 09/28/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

When The Bad Penny caught up with Aurorawave frontman Nathan Aurora on Wednesday, ahead of the metal-reggae band’s gig at The Shredder tonight, he was in the zone. The previous week, he achieved a lifelong dream by playing Louder Than Life Festival, now the biggest rock event in the States, and that was just a month after his band released their second full-length, Monument. Featuring members of Underoath and Emmure, the record is doing well on the charts and providing Aurorawave with plenty of wind in their sails as they tour behind it.

We caught up with Aurora as his L.A.-based band was cruising into Denver, and what turned into a short Q+A a about Aurorawave’s show tonight in Boise swelled into a larger conversation about the birth of the band, its personality and mission, and even what drives Aurora as a musician and human being. So here we go …

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Guerilla Toss, Pals of Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Ready to Go Ape in Boise Tonight

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , , , , , , , on 09/27/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

After a kinda middling summer concert-wise in Boise, the next month is chock-full with super shows, and The Bad Penny will do its best to both inform you about can’t-miss and encourage you to attend them. One is happening tonight at Shrine Social Club, which will host Sub Pop art-rock quintet Guerilla Toss, along with Vancouver, British Columbia’s alt-punks Still Depths and Evan Zuri.

Guerilla Toss’ set will perform selections from their fifth record, You’re Weird Now, which dropped Sept. 12 and features contributions by Stephen Malkmus of Pavement (who produced the album) and Ben Katzman, who came in third on Season 46 of Survivor. Bet you didn’t have that latter guest appearance on your bingo card.

Guerilla Toss singer Kassie Carlson did The Bad Penny the favor of touching base with us during their long drive from Portland to the City of Trees. Our conversation went a little something like this:

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Pet Sounds #67: Miracle Blood Draw Love From Their Guinea Pigs, Cats

Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags on 09/27/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Noise punks Miracle Blood are road dogs – but it’s cats (and two guinea pigs who sadly passed away) that are the Boston-area band’s animal spirits. Guitarist/vocalist Andrew Wong, bassist Garrett Young and drummer Anthony Bollitier, in a rare break between playing gigs, were game to talk about their love for their furry friends as part of The Bad Penny‘s ongoing Pet Sounds series.

Miracle Blood’s latest album, Hello Hell, came out in November via esteemed label Nefarious Industries. But it’s their past releases that are littered – pun very much intended – with references to creatures of various sorts. There’s their August 2022 song “Pomeranian,” and then three double-single releases from 2019 on which animals are featured on their pastel covers: “Roses”/”Nurses,” “Swollen/Sentinel” and “Bloom/Polite and Calm.”

We chatted up Miracle Blood about their animal fixation, and here’s what they had to say. Or purr.

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Exclusive News: SUMAC and Moor Mother Plotting Second Collaborative LP

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, News with tags , , , on 09/26/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

SUMAC and Moor Mother, whose collaborative record The Film is one of the most universally acclaimed metal releases of the year, are already planning a follow-up effort, SUMAC frontman Aaron Turner confirmed to The Bad Penny on Thursday.

In response to The Bad Penny noting the widespread positive reaction that SUMAC and Moor Mother received for The Film, Turner replied: “I was very pleased that it got such a warm reception. It felt like a very challenging record. I was confident in what we produced but had no expectation in terms of how it was going to be received. We’re definitely talking with her about more shows upcoming in the near future, and then a little further down the road, to make another record together. I hope that happens.”

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White Reaper Frontman Reveals Which Songs on New LP Brought Him ‘Joy’ and ‘Trouble’

Posted in Interviews with tags , on 09/26/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

White Reaper frontman Tony Esposito candidly comments on each song featured on the Kentucky garage-rock band’s fifth full-length, Only Slightly Empty, in my feature story for FLOOD.

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Pet Sounds #66: Sangre de Muérdago Frontman Lives in Paradise With His Dogs

Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags , , on 09/25/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Back in mid-July, we introduced you to Sangre de Muérdago, 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.

We also exclusively debuted “O Abismo,” the first single from Sangre de Muérdago’s full-length album O Xardín, which came out 13 days ago. The band is led by Pablo Caamiña Ursusson, who handled almost too many roles to count on O Xardín. In addition to providing vocals, he also played classical guitar, hurdy-gurdy, music box, pandero cuadrado de Peñaparda, bells, pandeireta, shaker, and steel string guitar.

Another fact about Ursusson, and probably the reason you clicked on this article: He has some of the most gorgeous dogs you’ll see (at least today). We chatted up our favorite Galician musician about his pets and how much they mean to him.

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On Tyranny: Brett Bradford of Scratch Acid, Suckling Hopes MAGA ‘Will Eat Itself’

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags , , , , , , , , , 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

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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.

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Exclusive: Ivy Readying Second LP With Songs Featuring Adam Schlesinger

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, News with tags , , on 09/25/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Ivy are in the process of piecing together a second collection of songs featuring their late band member Adam Schlesinger, the band told The Bad Penny in an interview on Thursday.

“[We have a] second record [featuring Schlesinger] that is basically done – recorded, mastered, everything,” Ivy guitarist/keyboardist Andy Chase revealed to The Bad Penny. “We have [yet] to figure out when it would be the right time [to release it].”

The news comes roughly three weeks after Ivy issued Traces of You, the indie-pop band’s first album in 14 years. The album consists of 10 songs Schlesinger made with Chase and vocalist Dominique Durand from 1995 to 2012—essentially the duration of the band’s career.

Chase and Durand reunited to complete the compositions along with backing keyboardist and guitarist Bruce Driscoll, who played a pivotal role on Traces of You with his writing, mixing, production, and engineering contributions (additional players included guitarist Jody Porter and percussionist Brian Young from Fountains of Wayne).

Schlesinger was one of the first well-known American cultural figures to die from COVID shortly after the pandemic hit. The universally beloved musician was better known as the frontman of Fountains of Wayne and the stockpile of awards the profusely prolific producer/writer amassed for his work in the TV and film industry: three Emmys, one GRAMMY, and an ASCAP Pop Music Award; to boot, he notched Oscar, Tony, and Golden Globe nominations.

Bar/None Records released Traces of You on September 5.

Go to Ivy’s Bandcamp page to buy a copy of the record.

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