The Bad Penny (beta)

With the transformation of the United States of America from a democracy into an autocratic, tyrannical form of government all but fully complete, those who oppose such efforts have good reason to fear not only what lies ahead but what is happening right now. American artists should be even more gravely concerned from what history has taught us about how tyrannical regimes systematically target them because artists’ tendency to criticize authority, poses existential threats to the ruling class (or so they fear).

Indeed, the war against artists has begun. The Trump regime is already disappearing and departing dissenters à la Chile under Pinochet – and their targets are not just confined to immigrants, be they “criminals” or otherwise. In an effort to help American musicians survive what Napoleonic, Putinesque and even Maoist methods the Trump administration will or might employ to crush free speech and opposition, The Bad Penny has started touching base with bands who lived or are currently living under a despot. We’re calling the series On Tyranny in honor of historian Timothy Snyder’s mandatory reading guide of the same name. Borrow a copy from the library or buy one on TimothySnyder.org.

The Bad Penny commends all musicians and other individuals who courageously choose to participate in our On Tyranny series.

On Tyranny installments:

• Kuwaiti Metal Artist Abzy Calls Hate ‘A Black Hole’

• Bad Bunny Bypasses US on Tour Due to ICE Raids

• Ultra-Rich Corporate CEO Stands With Bad Bunny in Super Bowl Flap

• Relaxed Rocksteady Blokes Big Special Get Hammered While Hammering Out Views on MAGA, Farage and Autocracy

• Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum Laments Trans Exodus From US, Loves Zohran Mamdani, Details Witnessing ICE Brutality

• Brett Bradford of Scratch Acid, Suckling Hopes MAGA ‘Will Eat Itself’

• Brokedowns Guitarist Says ‘Even Right-Wingers Can’t Abide ICE Brutalizing’ His Laborer Co-Workers in Chicago

• Built to Spill Bassist on ‘Solidarity’ at ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ Rally with Bernie Sanders, AOC

• Carcass Frontman Jeff Walker: ‘Democracy Doesn’t Work’

• Cellista: ‘Creating and Existing Under Trump’s America Is My Act of Radical Resistance’

• Scotland Grindcore Artist Chairmaker Channels Anger Over Fascism Toward Helping Immigrants

• Feminist Punk Band Cheap Perfume Declares ‘White Supremacy Is Not Punk Rock’

• Bobby Conn Doesn’t Mince Words About ‘Con Man’ Donald Trump

• Cosmic Reaper’s Frontman Says ‘This Is a Class War … We Can Take the Power Back’

• Malist Maestro Fights Russian Monarchs With New Project Crimson Crown

• David Cross Scolds ‘Heroes’ Louis CK, Bill Burr for Playing Saudi Arabia Comedy Fest

• Deaf Club Guitarist Denounces Trumpists for Taking ‘Pride’ in Racism, Sexism

• Singer/Songwriter Robert Deeble Claims ‘Faith-Based Social Justice Work Has Been Lost,’ Creating Power Vacuum for Autocrats

• Dusk Sees Hope for Metal in Homeland of Saudi Arabia

• Steve Earle: ‘It’s Very Dangerous To Be Ignorant Of Islam’

• Donald Trump Is More Insane Than the Craziest Musicians Ever, From Elvis to Kanye

• Elway Frontman Tim Browne Says ‘Keeping Optimistic Against All Odds Is Your Obligation as a Person Who Wants a Better World’

• Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum Laments Trans Exodus From US, Loves Zohran Mamdani, Details Witnessing ICE Brutality

• Grasshopper Lies Heavy Guitarist/Vocalist Preps for ‘Dealing With the Fallout of New American Fascism’ Till He Dies

• Gunshy’s Matt Arbogast Shares No Kings 2 Dispatch From Protest’s Chicago Hotbed

• Haggus Frontman Blasts Punk Bands’ Silence on Gaza, ICE

• Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ted Hearne Says ‘We Need to Identify With the Farm Worker’ for America to Survive

• ‘The American Experiment Is Over,’ Singer for LA Punks Jacob the Horse Declares

• Jesus Lizard Vocalist David YowDitches US for Portugal

• Inspired Musician Audrey Keelin of Artists United for a Free Palestine Discusses Relief Efforts

• ‘People in America Have Blinders On,’ Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe Says

• ‘You’re Telling My Kids They Can’t Read This Book?’ Author Andrew Laties Rails Against Book Bans

• John Lennon and Yoko Ono Were Wrong; Karma Does Not Exist

• Locust’s Bobby Bray Says Bands Have ‘Responsibility’ to Tour Red States, Recalls Yeah Yeah Yeahs Solidarity

• Kenny Loggins Says Trump in ‘Danger’ Over ‘No Kings 2’ Poop-Bomb AI Video

• With Authoritarian Takeover Now Complete in U.S., ‘We’re Just Focusing on Survival,’ Queer Artist Nic Pugh of Midniter Says

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

• Moscow Metal Band Malist Voices Opposition to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

• Malist Creator ‘Exhausted’ By Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine

• Mark Mallman Says ‘Suffering Artists’ Are a Myth, Making Art Isn’t a ‘Job’

• As U.S. Citizens Get Disappeared and Terrorized, Chile’s Mawiza Reflects

• Metallica Teaches Trump Foe Gavin Newsom a Lesson – Fight Fire With Fire

• Poll: Are You Afraid of Attending Concerts as the Military Patrols US Cities?

• Moonspell Vocalist Says Colonialism Caused Gaza Crisis but That Democracy Can Be Restored After Fascist Rule

• Ex-U.S. Navy Captain-Turned-Psych-Rock Musician Jeremy Moore Warns of Fascism

• Morrissey Cancels US Shows Due to ‘Credible Threat’

• Musicians Living Under Authoritarian Rule Speak Out

• MyVeronica’s Mia Lin Says ‘True Meaning of Punk’ Is ‘Speaking Out’

• Necrofier Frontman Wonders ‘Is It Going to Be Like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’?’

• Charlie Nieland on How LGBTQ+ Artists Can Push Back Against ICE, MAGA

• Nightrage Guitarist Scolds Complicit Public for ‘Looking the Other Way’ as Democracy Dies

• Sound Off on No Kings 2: A Communiqué About Community

• Faith In Metal: Orphaned Land Push For Peace In The Middle East

• Orchestra Gold’s Erich Huffaker Talks Impacts of Authoritarianism on Artists

• On Tyranny: Palm Ghosts Say ‘7 Million People on the Street Doesn’t Even Make a Dent’

• Planet on a Chain Vocalist Says ‘A Lot of People Are Willing to Fight Hate in This Nation’

• POWAMOV’s Son Brave, Shango $upreme Urge End to Authoritarians’ Favorite Weapon: Violence

• Russia Sentences 5 Members of Pussy Riot to Prison

• 10 Great Protest Records by Refused, Lamb of God, PJ Harvey, Divide and Dissolve, More

• Eugene S. Robinson (Buñuel, Ex-Oxbow) Leaving US for Spain, Says ‘I’ve Had It

• Finland’s Rotten Sound Don’t Fear Crackdown on Dissent Because ‘We Live in a Democratic Country’

• Australian Punk Project Schkeuditzer Kreuz Says Authoritarian America Would Ban Band From Playing New Song Live

• Hungarian Black-Metallers Sear Bliss Lost ‘Freedom’ In Orbán’s Autocracy

• POWAMOV’s Son Brave, Shango $upreme Urge End to Authoritarians’ Favorite Weapon: Violence

• Justin Sinkovich Focuses on ‘Discipline’ Amid ‘Stressful Times’ as Some Friends Leave US

• POWAMOV’s Son Brave, Shango $upreme Urge End to Authoritarians’ Favorite Weapon: Violence

• ‘Being Trans in Louisiana, My Very Existence Is Political. Just Merely Existing Is Resistance,’ Spiritiste Singer Says

• Black-Metal/Hardcore Band Terzij de Horde Say ‘Gaza Is Waking People Up’ to Authoritarian Creep in Netherlands

• Canada’s Theo Vandenhoff Wonders If Touring Authoritarian America Is ‘Even Worth It’

• Thy Catafalque Mastermind Talks About Meaning of Life, Living Under Dictator Viktor Orbán

• Too Much Joy Discuss the Existential Ruin That MAGA Has Inflicted Upon Us

• Tortoise Wasn’t ‘Sure Any Business Would Survive Donald Trump’s Ineptitude and Destruction’

• Transcending Obscurity Works Around Trump’s Tariffs With Innovative Move

• Ukrianian Band Tria Prima Fighting Russian Aggression with Art Instead of Armaments

• Have Trivium Abandoned Their Support for Social Justice?

• Truculent Frontman Warns MAGA Might Ban Concerts Altogether

• Musician Joe Turmes, No Kings Organizer, Says What You Can Do to Help Resist Fascism

• Off-Duty Cop Reportedly Pepper-Sprays Teen at Turnstile Concert

• Punk Legends UK Subs Denied Entry Into US Due to Alleged Trump Criticism

• Walking Bombs Goes Off (for Good Reason), Says Nazis Need to Be Afraid to Be in Public

• Weakened Friends’ Secret to Battling MAGA? Community Involvement

• Jesus Lizard Vocalist David Yow Ditches US for Portugal

• Frank Zappa Predicts the Rise of Fascism in the US on CNN in 1986

• Thalia Zedek Suggests ‘Artists Should Boycott Playing the United States’

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Glossary (h/t Merriam-Webster)

• Authoritarianism: blind submission to authority; a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people

• Autocracy: government in which one person possesses unlimited power

• Despotism: oppressive absolute power and authority exerted by government; a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power

• Dictatorship: a form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in a dictator or a small clique

• Fascism: a populist political philosophy that exalts nation and often race above the individual, associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader; characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition

• Kleptocracy: a government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed

• Oligarchy: a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes

• Tyranny: oppressive power exerted by government; a government in which absolute power is vested in a single ruler; a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force (such as a police state)