Angelo Badalamenti. Chris Isaak. Julee Cruise. To David Lynch fans, music is as integral to films like “Blue Velvet,” “Wild at Heart” and “Twin Peaks” as Nitrous Oxide was to Frank Booth. Continue reading
Bad Penny Exclusive: The New Loud Pick Their Favorite David Lynch Films
Posted in Exclusives, Features with tags the New Loud on 06/28/2010 by Kurt OrzeckWordle’d: At The Gates, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity Albums
Posted in Features, Wordle'd with tags At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames on 06/18/2010 by Kurt OrzeckAt this time 15 years ago, At the Gates were in the middle of putting to tape one of the most critical chapters in all of melodic death metal: Slaughter of the Soul. Continue reading
Chambers’ Old Love: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Chambers on 06/17/2010 by Kurt OrzeckSilversun Pickups Bassist: ‘I Don’t Feel Like My Life Has Changed’
Posted in Interviews with tags Against Me!, Snow Patrol, the Silversun Pickups on 06/17/2010 by Kurt OrzeckHere’s something hot off the press: My recent interview with Nikki Monniger, bassist for the Silversun Pickups. She spoke with me about touring with Against Me! and Snow Patrol, playing a gig on St. Patrick’s Day a few years back – and how life hasn’t really changed for her, despite the band’s huge (and hugely unanticipated) success.
The piece just went up on the Sarasota Herald-Tribune site – right here.
Crossword Puzzle: James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’
Posted in Features, Fun And Games, What You Readin' For? on 06/16/2010 by Kurt OrzeckWarning: You won’t find any music-related content in this post. But in observance of Bloomsday, let’s momentarily stray from convention. Continue reading
Cheap Trick’s Bun E. Carlos On Recording With Steve Albini, Why Band Re-Cut In Color
Posted in Interviews with tags Bun E. Carlos, Cheap Trick, Dan the Automator, Rick Nielsen, Steve Albini, X-ecutioners on 06/15/2010 by Kurt OrzeckNaturally, yesterday’s post about Geronimo! – a new band out of Rockford, Illinois – brought back fond memories of the city’s principal rock export: Cheap Trick. Seems like a good-enough time to dust off a years-old interview with Bun E. Carlos. Continue reading
Memento: Geronimo! And Baby Jingles
Posted in Features, Mementos with tags Geronimo! on 06/14/2010 by Kurt OrzeckMemo to Cheap Trick: You’re not the only worthy band from Rockford, Illinois. In fact, sooner than later, you might have some serious competition. Continue reading
B-52s’ Fred Schneider: ‘It’s Better To Make Up Stuff For Interviews Than Tell The Truth’
Posted in Interviews with tags B-52s, Bebel Gilberto, CSS, Foo Fighters, Fred Schneider, Lady Gaga, Ladytron, Peaches, The Superions on 06/09/2010 by Kurt OrzeckSo the B-52s, Lady Gaga and an alien named Mel Moron walk into a cosmic cantina …
Welcome to Fred Schneider’s universe. In an interview conducted with the Bad Penny, he also spoke – at times humorously, at times seriously – about bloody Christmas songs, shoplifting a ham, avoiding cancer and, maybe equally important, avoiding the tour bus. Continue reading
Bad Penny MP3s: Best Of 2010, Part II – Trans Am, Damien Jurado, Masakari, Versus, More
Posted in Lists, MP3s with tags Bodycop, Caddywhompus, Casiokids, Child Bite, Damien Jurado, Double Dagger, Extra Life, Field Music, Futurebirds, Jews and Catholics, Masakari, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Rifoki, Trans Am, Versus on 06/07/2010 by Kurt OrzeckWith 2010 about to reach halftime, here’s the second roundup of choicest cuts the Bad Penny has offered so far this year. Continue reading
The Creature – Volume 6, Issue 2: Rainer Maria, A Minor Forest, Scared Of Chaka
Posted in The Creature with tags A Minor Forest, Rainer Maria, Scared of Chaka, the Klezmatics, Transglobal Underground on 06/06/2010 by Kurt Orzeck
Here is my sixth issue of The Creature, published in the fall of 1998 at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.
This was one of the darker editions of the magazine, overtly influenced by David Lynch. Other recurring themes included cars, fear, wrestling, post-structuralism, catastrophe and clarity. Continue reading


















