Mike Patton Word Search: A Tribute to the 40-Year Music Maestro

Posted in Fun And Games with tags , on 11/13/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Do you know this man? You sure as hell ought to. Mike Patton, 57, is one of the most prolific musicians, record label owners, voice actors, film composers and producers in the underground.

It’d be inaccurate and a disservice to the music genius to qualify the last word in the last sentence as “underground rock”; the limitlessly adventurous–or, perhaps better put, creatively restless–virtuoso dabbles with virtually every music genre. A short list includes avant-garde, alt-metal, alt-rock, art pop, contemporary classical, funk metal, grindcore, heavy metal, indie rock, L.A. punk, noise-rock, ska-punk, sound collage, trip-hop and all varieties of experimental music.

More extensive than that seemingly never-ending list is the number of other artists and bands with whom one of California’s most prolific and peculiar wisenheimers has collaborated over the years. We won’t name them here, or list them in the tags for this article, because it’d spoil The Bad Penny‘s latest word search, a game doubling as a tribute to Michael Allen Patton in celebration of his 40 years making music.

Enjoy this, because–even though Patton hasn’t enjoyed The Bad Penny interviewing him, as evidenced here and here, and in another feature we’ll excavate from our archives sometime down the line–we still “care a lot” about our favorite acerbic, iconoclastic, contrarian oddball musician.

Twenty Patton-related clues are hidden in this puzzle:

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Snooper’s ‘Worldwide’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags , , on 11/12/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Snooper have all the support they need to be taken seriously, with Third Man Records serving as chaperone for the band and its second record, as Jack White’s label did with their first two years ago. That said, the operators of the label appear to have removed the training wheels from Snooper’s bike this time around, letting them embrace their id on the band’s second record in defiance of the dreaded-slash-silly “sophomore curse.” Read my Post-Trash review here.

Mastodon Guitarist Brent Hinds’ Top 10 Freakouts

Posted in Lists, Videos with tags , on 11/10/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

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On Tyranny: Rocksteady Blokes Big Special Get Hammered While Hammering Out Views on MAGA, Farage and Autocracy

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , on 11/10/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Less than three weeks ago, The Bad Penny connected with our favorite new rocksteady/punk band Big Special, who famously played their first headlining gig at Dublin Castle in 2023 and haven’t looked back since. Now playing for crowds running as high as 2,300 attendees and the like at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, they’re still pushing their second album, the consummately wryly titled National Average, which came out July 4.

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Recipe: Swedish Meat Ball Manifesto

Posted in Fun And Games with tags on 11/10/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

No food left? No money with which to more of, said, food? When all seems lost, there’s always …

… Meat Ball Manifesto.

Last year, I dished up a recipe on Eddie Spaghetti Carbonara to warm applause from the man himself. Here’s a new platter, presented \\ just in time for dinner tonight (West Coast time, that is). Continue reading

Wode’s ‘Uncrossing the Keys’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags , on 11/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

With Uncrossing the Keys, Wode proved they wanted to make a daring pivot, at risk of alienating black-metal purists, by benching those two trademark qualities of theirs in favor of a far more eclectic listen—an objective at which they succeed handily. On Uncrossing the Keys, Wode finally makes good use of the huge asset of which they didn’t take full advantage in the past: three guitars. Rather than mostly playing in unison, this time around, vocalist M. Czerwoniuk and his fellow axemen—T. Horrocks (who also plays drums and keys) and backing vocalist D. Shaw—engage in intricate interplay for the bulk of the record. The Pittsburgh metalheads’ coal-black alchemy results in an album with more melody than all Wode’s previous albums combined. And that’s really saying something, considering that their debut was one of my favorite albums of 2016. Read my full Treble review.

Erosion’s ‘Invasive Species’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags , , , , on 11/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Not a second is wasted on this essential entry into the collection of every fan of heavy music who doesn’t like Disturbed and Korn. With that notion in mind, it’s no surprise that one of the most persnickety-yet-always-correct individuals in this sludgy underworld, Aaron Turner, gave Erosion his sign of approval by putting out Maximum Suffering seven years ago. Invasive Species comes courtesy of Canadian underground grindcore label Mechanized Apparatus Revolt, and boy did they luck out scoring this release. Get it here and thank us later — if your head hasn’t exploded by the time you’re done listening to it. Here’s my full Post-Trash review.

On Tyranny: Charlie Nieland on How LGBTQ+ Artists Can Push Back Against ICE, MAGA

Posted in Interviews, News, On Tyranny, Sound Off, Videos with tags , , on 11/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Songwriter/producer Charlie Nieland–whose works regularly deal with his emotional, romantic and artistic struggles deserves–miraculously makes his art all that much more enriching for his students, classmates and the land as well. But when The Bad Penny caught word that had become more politically active as of late, we redoubled our efforts to interview him about how American Authoritarianism is already impacting artist communities, whether they know it or not.

Much to our delight, Charlie agreed to take part in The Bad Penny‘s latest episode of our “On Going” series.

Listen to our compelling conversation, become part of the effort to save and strengthen democracy across the world – and pick up Charlie’s latest works, Shame; and the just-released Stories From the Borderlines:

Here’s a taste of a new Charlie track:

Hope over to his Bandcamp page to dig deeper into him.

Furthermore, check out The Bad Penny‘s ongoing On Tyranny series, which we launched in the spring, here. Recent installments include interviews with Moonspell, The Grasshopper Lies HeavyDeaf ClubCosmic ReaperTed HearneTerzij de HordeChairmakerMyVeronicathe GunshyPlanet on a ChainNecrofierCheap PerfumeBobby ConnTruculentSpiritiste and many more.

The Bad Penny Interview: Jesus Lizard Vocalist David Yow

Posted in Sound Off on 11/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

[With Jesus Lizard vocalist David Yow having moved to Portugal, now seems as good a time as any to roll out the most incisive and insightful interview among the handful I did with him. Previously out of print and conducted roughly 21 years ago, here’s a toast to the only rock star who always does have a can of beer in his hand.]

As many of you have probably gathered and/or heard, a lot of the talk following this weekend’s Pitchfork fest has regarded the almost-night-capping Friday performance by the Jesus Lizard. If it hadn’t been for Built to Spill’s closing billing that evening, you would’ve expected the Liz to have left crowdmembers stumbling home with loose teeth shaking in their mouths and broken toes slapping around in their shoes.

The informed among us are well aware that those lovable ’90s crank-rock cretins called the Lizard have propagated a lethal dose of gratuitous grime, grit and glib glee over the masses since they recently re-collected themselves for redux performances. From the band’s confidants, we’ve heard reports that theirs was a solid show, one that should place David Yow and the gang on a secure path laid toward redemptive riches as the Liz re-arouses its fanbase for a series of widely unexpected reunion gigs throughout this year (and beyond? And a new album while we’re at it? Are we pressing buttons or just our luck?).

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Best New Music Vidoes (October 2025): Imogen Heap, Slowthrust, Rattboys, Matt Pond PA

Posted in Lists, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , on 11/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

1. Imogen Heap‘s “I AM __.”

2. Slowthrust‘s “Midnight Slay”

3. Infinity Dream‘s “Lost Embrace”

4. Ratboys‘ “Light Night Mountains All That”

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