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Mastodon Guitarist Brent Hinds’ Top 10 Freakouts
Posted in Lists, Videos with tags Brent Hinds, Mastodon on 11/10/2025 by Kurt OrzeckRecipe: Swedish Meat Ball Manifesto
Posted in Fun And Games with tags Meat Beat Manifesto 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 black metal, Wode 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 3 Inches of Blood, Aaron Turner, Erosion, Jaime Hooper, Mechanized Apparatus Revolt 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 Charlie Nieland, homophobia, On Tryranny on 11/09/2025 by Kurt OrzeckSongwriter/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 Heavy, Deaf Club, Cosmic Reaper, Ted Hearne, Terzij de Horde, Chairmaker, MyVeronica, the Gunshy, Planet on a Chain, Necrofier, Cheap Perfume, Bobby Conn, Truculent, Spiritiste 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?).
Continue readingBest New Music Vidoes (October 2025): Imogen Heap, Slowthrust, Rattboys, Matt Pond PA
Posted in Lists, Videos with tags Black Cross Hotel, Das Kope, EVRO, Geologist, Imogen Heap, Infinity Dream, PinkPantheress, Ratboys, Slowthrust on 11/09/2025 by Kurt Orzeck1. Imogen Heap‘s “I AM __.”
2. Slowthrust‘s “Midnight Slay”
3. Infinity Dream‘s “Lost Embrace”
4. Ratboys‘ “Light Night Mountains All That”
Psycroptic Say They Left Prosthetic for Metal Blade to Be With Friends Black Dahlia Murder, Cannibal Corpse, Revocation, Goatwhore
Posted in Interviews with tags Black Dahlia Murder, Cannibal Corpse, goatwhore, Metal Blade, Prosthetic, Psycroptic, Revocation on 10/27/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
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’s ‘Spiritual Sound’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Agriculture, ecstatic black metal on 10/27/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
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.
The Bad Penny (beta) 