Houston “dirtgaze” trio Shallowater ruminate on our intolerable times with some of the quietest and slowest music—as well as the most deafening, distortion-filled cacophony—you’ll hear in 2025. Read my FLOOD review.
Archive for the Reviews Category
Shallowater’s ‘God’s Gonna Give You a Million Dollars’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Shallowater on 09/22/2025 by Kurt OrzeckFrom the Vault: Deafheaven’s 2017 Tour Setlists and First-Ever Show in Boise – An Analysis
Posted in Concert Reviews, Essays, Reviews with tags Bosse-de-Nage, Deafheaven, George Clarke, Mogwai, Shiv Mehra, Treefort, Treefort Music Fest on 09/22/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Deafheaven’s setlist from their show at Mardi Gras in Boise on 3.25.17
When Deafheaven played their first show in Boise on March 25 – at Mardi Gras, a venue typically reserved for wedding functions – they provided the five-day Treefort Music Fest with its only dose of shoe-gazing black metal. Continue reading
Pharaoh Overlord’s ‘Louhi’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Pharaoh Overlord on 09/11/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Consisting of two 19-minute-plus songs that lumber, stomp, and trudge along from start to finish, Pharaoh Overlord’s Louhi is one of those rare records that makes you reflect, “How did someone come up with the idea to make music like this?” Check out my review of the record on Post-Trash.
Ganser’s ‘Animal Hospital’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Ganser on 09/09/2025 by Kurt OrzeckGanser’s Alicia Gaines (bass, vocals) Brian Cundiff (drums) and Sophie Sputnik (vocals, synth, guitar) tap into the artistic wisdom they’ve cultivated together for a decade – not gimmickry, not for a damn minute – to come up with sinister, seductive sounds that serve as the audio equivalent of a red light district or an opium den: irresistible, illicit temptations that even the strongest-willed among us aren’t strong enough to resist. Read my full review on Spectrum Culture.
Ivy’s ‘Traces of You’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Adam Schlesinger, Ivy on 09/08/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Completing songs written during sessions with late bandmate Adam Schlesinger, this collection hearkens back to the airy spirit that made Ivy such a delight at a time when it was hip to be hopeless. Read my full review on FLOOD.
Jobber’s ‘Jobber to the Stars’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Jobber, pro wrestling, WWE on 09/03/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
With its 11 catchy grunge-pop tunes each referencing pro-wrestling culture, Brooklyn band Jobber’s full-length debut, Jobber to the Stars, prioritizes fun in its escapist return to the slacker-rock charm of the ’90s. Read my FLOOD review here.
Cass McCombs’ ‘Interior Live Oak’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Cass McCombs on 09/02/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Reaching the pinnacle of his songwriting acuity, the vignettes Cass McCombs paints with his voice and guitar on his 13th album, Interior Live Oak, evoke a conversation between Thoreau and Nick Cave. Read my full review on FLOOD.
At Boise Gig, Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst Recalls Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch Doing Him a Solid
Posted in Concert Reviews, News, Reviews with tags Bright Eyes, Built to Spill, Commander Venus, Conor Oberst, Doug Martsch, Saintseneca, The Poison Oak Project, trans, Treefort Music Hall on 09/01/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Bright Eyes commander Conor Oberst shared a heartfelt and formative memory with the crowd that packed the Treefort Music Hall to see his ensemble perform tonight.
About halfway through Bright Eyes‘ 20-song set, Oberst recalled that his prior band Commander Venus opened for their idols, Built to Spill, when the latter band performed in Oberst’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. He noted that he was only 14 years old at the time.
Oberst then recounted that when Bright Eyes played to an empty Neurolux in Boise when they were starting out, he received a note from that city’s hometown hero, Built to Spill leader Doug Martsch, on which he had written his home phone number an invitation for Oberst’s band to crash at his house for the night.
Continue readingAnciients, Now Touring the U.S., Are the Must-See Metal Band of the Moment
Posted in Concert Reviews, Reviews with tags Anciients, Dawn of Ouroboros, Nott, The Shredder on 08/31/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Keeping this quick, because The Bad Penny doesn’t typically run a review of a show previously previewed on the site: By any means necessary, catch Anciients on their current tour of the U.S., the Vancouver band’s first in eight years. Their gig in Boise on Friday night at the Shredder was pitch-perfect. When the band finished their 10-song set, it took awhile for the attendees to leave, as they struggled to locate their jaws, which had dropped off their faces and onto the floor during Anciients’ unrelenting, uncompromising, unpretentious and unimaginably spot-on set.
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