With his new memoir The Royal We out now, I spoke with Roddy Bottum of Faith No More, Imperial Teen and Man on Man fame about coming out in the early ’90s, provoking MAGA and more. Read my FLOOD feature and my Bad Penny story in which he recalled a bizarre incident involving his paranoid ex-girlfriend Courtney Love.
Hello, Bad Penny readers. Surely you are familiar with and have probably read some installments of our ongoing On Tyranny series, which focuses on how Authoritarian America is damaging artists, their careers and their personal lives. This writer has been somewhat surprised at how tame and mild some of the editions are in this series, which is closing in on 65 installments.
This is not one of those installments.
Today’s entry comes courtesy of Morgan Y. Evans, who resides in Orange County, California, and whose Walking Bombs project is a solo and collaborative vehicle for Evans, writer Morgan Ywain Vink-Lainas Evans, and other compatriots of theirs. Yesterday, Walking Bombs issued a new single, a lo-fi version of the song “Barbaric Balconies,” which you can purchase for a buck and a half on Bandcamp here.
Much of Walking Bombs’ material conveys Evans’ rage against the machine, for lack of a better phrase, so what he shared with us for On Tyranny didn’t exactly come out of left field. We edited Evans’ submission a bit to make it a smoother read but left the artist’s message fully intact, as one of the core missions of this website is to defend and fight for freedom of speech, arguably the most important right in a democratic society. Just be forewarned that much of what follows is, as the kids say, “NSFW.”
That said, it’s real, unrestrained and from the heart. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that the rage expressed in this missive of sorts should be awakened in the hearts of each of us who are gravely concerned that democracy – which has already left the building, if you haven’t noticed – might never come back. As The Bad Penny says on the On Tyranny index page and often reiterates in entries, thank you to Evans and others for mustering the courage to speak out and inspire others to do the same when we realistically may lose the right to do so in the blink of an eye.
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“I don’t think I’ve ever played a solo drum show.”
-Jim White, one of the most revered indie-rock drummers ever
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Jim White, he of the Dirty Three, and Nick Cave and Cat Power collaborative note, is perhaps the most quintessential music mensch in the last 30 years. (An extremely critical point: White was never a member of the Bad Seeds, despite his affiliations with Cave.) To say that the drummer and percussionist is well respected is to say that PJ Harvey, another icon who has tapped White, can be a bit shy or antisocial at times. Other White collaborators include Mark Kozelek, Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile, Smog, Bonnie Prince Billy, Nina Nastasia … we could easily use up the word count for this article if we were to list all the musicians with whom White has rubbed elbows in studios and on stages.
But here’s what’s even more remarkable than all the facts spelled out above: During his impressively long career, White has never released an album of his own material until now. We went into our interview with him thinking that masochism or a complete and utter lack of self-respect and self-worth must be at the root of that bizarre wrinkle in White’s resume. But what we found instead was something that lessened our cynicism and upped our hope for humankind, if only just a little, and if only for a temporary period of time: Jim White is, simply put, a really good guy who appears to have determined that his purpose in life is to help others and serve where he believes he can be most useful.
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Bad Penny readers met Dan Timlin, the folk-punk connoisseur who performs as the artist Truculent and also owns and operates record label Strange Mono, when he participated in a stand-out installment of our On Tyranny series almost exactly a month ago. We had a heavy discussion about the current state of affairs in the U.S. – and, at least from our own part, learned a hell of a lot from it.
Much to our delight, Timlin was up for talking with us again, this time about a much lighter (and softer … and more loving) subject: his three cats and one dog. Just as Timlin didn’t disappoint with his insightful remarks about Authoritarian America, he also exceeded our expectations in wanting to know about his animals and the critical role they play in his life.
So, without further ado, here is Dan Timlin’s installment of Pet Sounds. Enjoy!
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“Due to rocket and drone attacks, we often have no electricity, and this is a very important factor even for simple life, let alone music.”
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Blocking out or at least trying to gain some distance from atrocities taking place either next door (c.f. the remarkable film Zone of Interest) or overseas (c.f. just about every nationalist in every country in the world) is often referred to as an act of self-preservation. Oh, what privilege comes with such a moral justification. It’s as if people who think that way are able to perform a Jedi mind trick on themselves.
Ukraine’s Tria Prima aren’t able to enjoy such a luxury; inexorably, their death metal blitzkriegs are laced not only with doom and synth elements but also an underlying fury that gives voice to a population that Russia unjustly invaded more than three years ago and has barraged with bombs and unspeakable acts of violence ever since.
While having that context is critical for understanding Tria Prima – which features former members of Drudkh, Lucifugum and other core members of Ukraine’s metal underground – it by no means mitigates or undercuts the strength of the band’s ruthless brand of extreme metal. Released yesterday, The Mortificatio, Tria Prima’s latest bloody bouquet succeeds their Three Primes of Alchemy EP not just in chronology but in sheer metal potency as well. The band is on such a tear, they’re already planning to drop the follow-up to The Mortificatio in the second half of 2026.
Yesterday, The Bad Penny caught up with Serhii D. D. Bondar – who handles bass, backing vocals, keyboards, songwriting and more for Tria Prima – to get some further insight on their furious debut.
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Among the long list of musicians who sadly passed away this year, one in particular who has not received as widespread a tribute as he deserved is At the Gates frontman Tomas Lindberg. Kind-hearted, philosophical and unparalleled in his vocal strength, one of the men behind perhaps the most influential melodic death-metal record of all time – Slaughter of the Soul – is sorely missed by those who knew him, had the good fortune of speaking with him or were even lucky enough to shake his hand. (We can attest to that fact, having interviewed Lindberg in July 2024.)
The Bad Penny recently brought you reflections on Lindberg’s life, friendship to his peers and towering importance in the metal community from Moonspell vocalist Fernando Riberio, and ex-Amon Amarth drummer and current Fimbul Winter lead guitarist Fredrik Andersson. Today we bring you another loving tribute to Gothenburg, Sweden’s fallen hero courtesy of Shame Embury, bassist for Napalm Death and mastermind of his own project Dark Sky Burial. (Expect to hear more about the latter band ’round these parts in the near future).
Here is what Embury told The Bad Penny about Lindberg in an interview conducted yesterday:
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For all the talk about the upheaval in the music industry – a topic of discussion that started 25 years ago and hasn’t abated since – the monopolistic industry is still riddled with some of the same unsavory practices and behaviors that have persisted in it for decades. That includes major label incursions, which fertilize egocentrism in young, wanna-be musicians who, for the most part, are lucky if their careers last more than a few years.
The Bad Penny was reminded once again this year that, while indie labels are struggling to stay afloat and quality musicians are working as hard as they can and trying to develop fresh ways to establish themselves, the industry still encompasses shiftless, entitled, 401k-backed major label signees as well. Those execs are the people who not only don’t know how good they’ve got it, they seem to believe they can always deny responsibility when something goes wrong and the blame lies squarely in their lap.
[Case in point: Read heretofore unpublished interviews with New York industrial-metal Black Satellite and try to locate any valuable insights, cleverness or deep thoughts.]
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Just this morning, [PIAS] announced the Jan. 30 release of a deluxe box version of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s first album, released 20 years ago. It’ll come with a heaping helping of unreleased tracks, records, BRMC’s original Howl studio album and many more accoutrements.
To commemorate the affair, here’s a cover story I wrote on the band for Amplifier‘s May/June 2002 issue.
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Palm Ghosts’ Joseph Lekkas was all smiles when The Bad Penny caught up with him a little under a year ago. We connected with the bassist/singer in his residence via video conference call, and he was surrounded by his trio of devastatingly adorable dachshunds. Additionally, his long-running Nashville band, Palm Ghosts, were giddily on the verge of releasing new songs.
Fast-forward to roughly a month ago, when we checked in again with Lekkas and Palm Ghosts bandmate Benjamin Douglas (vocals, guitar, keyboards). We immediately noticed that they were burned out emotionally – and likely spiritually and physically as well – thanks to the terror that the Evil Empire Trump Administration is inflicting on the American public.
The Shrine in Boise is on fire this week, having hosted tastemaker-appetizing performances by the likes of Greet Death, Brian Jonestown Massacre and Bass Drum of Death in the last three nights alone. The venue aims to continue its hot streak with another must-see gig this evening, featuring Mexico City-based post-punk quintet Diles Que No Me Maten with local band Chief Broom of Boise’s own Mishap Records handling opening duties.
Chief Broom frontman Shadrach Tuck (also of Trauma Kit and owner of Mishap) and drummer Max Voulelis (also of Porcelain Tongue) imparted their excitement for the gig to The Bad Penny on Sunday night.
Diles Que No Me Maten “came through [Boise] last fall, and the whole band couldn’t make it, so I ended up doing an acoustic, stripped-down version of the set,” Tuck recalled. “It was just guitar, vocals, cello and pedal steel. It was fun. We kind of became friends after that show.”
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