Psycroptic signed to Metal Blade Records after their deal with Prosthetic Records ended and the tech-death metal band became free agents. Psycroptic bassist Todd Stern told Music Connection the Australian act picked Metal Blade in part so they could rub elbows with their amigos Black Dahlia Murder, Cannibal Corpse, Revocation, Goatwhore and The Red Chord.
Agriculture, the self-categorized “ecstatic black metal” outfit, returns with a second album that is called The Spiritual Sound and is just as singular and spectacular as their debut. Read my FLOOD review.
“It’s just too much,” kindhearted musician Nic Pugh says on Monday, Oct. 27, in the latest installment of The Bad Penny‘s increasingly popular “On Tyranny” series. In it, musicians open up about how they are damaged, targeted and made to feel unwelcome in Authoritarian America.
While mostly disconnected from politics in the past, the artist behind indie-electronic pop project Midniter explains how he arrived at the decision to speak his mind about Authoritarian America. It’s no easy task, with Trump and Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone” theory of controlling the U.S. media now in its 10th month.
“Right now, I don’t feel like there’s necessarily a benefit for me having an interview other than the fact that I just feel I need to do it,” the queer indie electronic artist/singer/songwriter notes. Pugh’s efforts to raise awareness about social issues goes beyond making music; he founded SugarTank! Records with Nic Holman, who are in the riot-grrrl-inspired quartet Dreamboat. The label’s primary goal is to support and celebrate LGBTQ+ artists and allies in the artists’ hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Continue reading
For a band that titled arguably its best album For Your Own Special Sweetheart (1994), Jawbox may themselves be the sweetest post-hardcore band of the ’90s.
On the fateful Friday night of Nov. 22 in 1996, excitement for the weekend got into the heads of three students – including yours truly – and ousted any semblance of logic as punishment. When we learned that the J. Robbins-led Jawbox had plans to play a gig at Mabel’s in Champaign, a city located two hours south of Chicago.
Continue reading
It’s a crisp, autumn afternoon in a quasi-rural area in America’s Pacific Northwest, and something feels off. No, it’s not that we were apparently, miraculously spared from the apocalyptic fires and resulting ash that typically choke us out for weeks practically every year as a result of climate change. Nor is it that Trump and his MAGA minions are tying up the remaining ends that will cement America’s transition from a democracy into a country ruled by a king (and, if we’re being generous, equally megalomaniacal and sadistic billionaire oligarchs).
Rather, what’s stuck in this writer’s craw today is the gaping maw – expected in the mainstream, because Ozzy was more tabloid fodder than musician in his twilight years – but shameful in the metal world, where former social studies teacher Lindberg’s impact on underground metal was if not as seismic than still immeasurable than Osbourne’s role in bringing metal to the masses. Needless to say, the deaths of each metal vocalist powerhouse was saddening and unsettling, but it bears noting that they epitomized different factions of the music genre that – attendance size aside – are standing, more or less, on equal ground.
Continue reading
“It was something new,” label founder Karim Khan said. “[Everything] caught me by surprise. And from [that] record, I discovered bands like Eyehategod”
—
In last week’s chapter of Inside the Label, we put our high beams on Bloodshot Records, a ‘print founded 15 years ago by two people whose combined previous record label experiences amounted to basically nothing. Nan Warshaw and Rob Miller’s labor was one of love, derived from a sheer and uncompromising appreciation for independent music (rowdy, beer-soaked independent music, in particular).
But while neither Warshaw nor Miller had worked at a label before, they had at least served some time in the industry: Warshaw with promoting artists and shows, and Miller with music production.
Continue reading
What do Cat Power, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Stephen Malkmus, Marianne Faithfull, Phosphorescent, Warren Ellis, Mark Kozelek, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Courtney Barnett, Mick Turner, Kurt Vile, Joan as Police Woman, Smog, Nina Nastasia, Matt Sweeney, Martha Wainwright, Simon Joyner, Xylouris White, Joan Jett, New Buffalo, and Kurt Vile have in common? The answer is the gentleman pictured above: Jim White, arguably the most sought-after drummer in the history of underground music.
Best known for incepting Dirty Three some 33 years ago with fellow Aussies Ellis (violin) and Turner (guitar), White is no less in demand now – at the ripe age of 63 – than at practically any other point in his illustrious career. And now, at very long last (more than three decades), the kit master is finally issuing his own records along with producer Guy Picciotto of Fugazi.
Continue reading
It’s not uncommon for an actor to form or join a band – after all, it takes a certain gene to drive a person to be at the center of attention as much as they possibly can. But this past summer, when we caught up with vocalist Robbie Smith of sasscore squad Heavy Heavy Low Low, we learned that the inverse isn’t necessarily as common.
Sure, he enjoys fronting the band from San Jose, California, and writing and recording their songs – which are so unhinged and berserk that even Guantanamo Bay couldn’t restrain or temper them. Nonetheless, Smith also enjoys stepping away from the physical intensity of the band’s concerts to focus on an artistic endeavor he may value even more than crafting music: filmmaking.
Continue reading
[This interview was originally published on IndiePit in 2009. Go here for our far more recent conversation with vocalist Sean Z. in 2023 right here.]
—
It’s the phone call that every musician with loft aspirations dreams of getting.
“We leave in two days, and we can practice for one day. Can you go on a U.S. tour with us?”
It was late 2007, and Sean Z. (for “Zatorsky”) didn’t need more than a minute to mull over his decision. Dropping everything, he lunged at the chance to join Dååth as their new lead vocalist – even though he had been told it was only to be a temporary gig.
“I quit my job, I quit my life, I quit my band and went on the road, man.”
And that’s where he’s been, more or less, ever since.
Continue reading
The Bad Penny (beta) 