The second and potentially attendance record-shattering No Kings protests are rapidly arriving in less than 48 hours at an estimated 2,500 cities across the U.S., intended to demonstrate that Americans are more opposed to the Trump regime than ever before. For no real reason other than giddiness, we decided to express our excitement in utterly esoteric fashion by ranking the 20 best musicians and bands with “King” in their name.
Here goes:
(Note: Musicians nicknamed the “King” of a certain music genre are disqualified. And no, we didn’t forget Kings of Leon. They suck.)
Treefort Music Fest organizers on Thursday announced the first wave of music talent confirmed to participate in the 2026 installment of Boise’s biggest and best music festival, and it’s a doozy.
The headliners for each night of the four-day music blowout will be flipturn (Thursday), Magdalena Bay (Friday), Geese (Saturday) and Father John Misty (Sunday). Hannibal Buress and Joe Pera will anchor the festival’s comedy lineup.
Phoenix, Arizona’s sludge-doom destroyers Goya have been bringing the heat of a thousand suns to the world of American metal for almost 15 years, and if you want to challenge that statement, tonight’s your chances. They return to Boise for what is bound to be a barnburner of a show with like-minded Denver pals In the Company of Serpents.
Goya will stage their gig in support of In the Dawn of November, released in June via Blues Funeral Recordings, while the opening act will dip into their new LP, A Crack in Everything, which theyissued the following month (and which features a guest spot by Goya frontman Jeffrey Owens).
In the latest installment of On Tyranny, Brian Amalfitano (Deaf Club, ACxDC) criticizes the right wing in America for abusing free speech to further their racist, sexist, anti-immigrant and fascist aims—including, shockingly, in quarters of the punk-rock underground. Amalfitano also provides insight into Deaf Club‘s newly released album, We Demand a Permanent State of Happiness (Southern Lord), what nihilism means in the guitarist’s point of view and how it might take longer than a generation to undo the catastrophic damage that the Trump regime continues to inflict upon America.
Following our Wednesday night conversation, Amalfitano touched base again with The Bad Penny to share sentiments expressed by a hero of his and of this website, Kurt Cobain: “If any of you, in any way, hate homosexuals, people of a different color or women, please do this one favor for us — leave us the fuck alone.”
Additionally, Newsweek reported Thursday that the Trump administration indeed may double it’s “bailout” of Argentina to $40 billion, while the cost of extending the Obamacare subsidies that is apparently at the heart of the U.S. government shutdown would amount to about $35 billion for the next fiscal year. (Meanwhile, the same Congressional budget resolution has already granted $29 billion in new funding for ICE, swelling its budget to a size greater than the national military of all but 15 to 20 countries.)
The honorable Thad Collis, guitarist and vocalist for surging doom-metal squad Cosmic Reaper from Charlotte, North Carolina, blasts the oligarchy and warns that the metal underground will not be spared in Authoritarian America if we all don’t act immediately to stop the Trump regime. The band’s new album, Bleed the Wicked, Drown the Damned (Heavy Psych Sounds), is already a contender for best metal album of the year. Buy it here. Check out The Bad Penny‘s 42-part On Tyranny series, launched roughly around March, here.
This writer’s interpretation of Bitchin Bajas’ Inland See is that, by using wordplay in its title, the essence of the record is a gentle but assured suggestion to look inside yourself, accept who you are—foibles and all—and arrive at a place of acceptance where the sensation is akin to floating, without moving any of your muscles, above a warm and serene body of water. From there, you re-enter the earthly womb and become reborn: not as an entirely new person, but as the person you are and were always meant to be. Don’t you see? Read my review of Bitchin Bajas’ Inland See on Treble.
Read the interview to end all interviews with woefully underrated Brett Bradford, guitarist for Scratch Acid and frontman for Suckling. Check out previously unpublished photos of Bradford with his Scratch Acid bandmates, including David Yow, in my extensive feature for Post-Trash.
Irk are here to remind us of that fact, to pester us with the truth that fear-inducing art forms make us feel alive more than any other varieties. Art can make us laugh, but that reaction quickly dissipates. Art can thrill us, but only the duration of the piece of work ends. Art can make us weep, remind us of what love and sex feel like, but that affecting manipulation ends seconds after the observer of art concludes their experience with it. Read my full review Irk’s Seeing House on Post-Trash.
Mia Lin of L.A. DIY guitar band MyVeronica engages in a stimulating conversation about the impetus of real punk-rock artists meeting the moment and calling out authoritarianism and discrimination when they see it. We caught up earlier this week, following the early August release of Farewell Skylines, their split EP with Friend’s House.
To enter the genteel, childlike and joyous world of Jonathan Richman is, in many ways, to embrace the essence of the music-listening experience: true escapism in a world crafted by a master creator of art and fantasy. Formerly of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, the singer/songwriter returns to Boise tonight after gracing Treefort Music Fest with a buoyant and jovial set on a sunny afternoon in March 2017.
Richman returns to the City of Trees tonight to perform at Shrine Social Club to embark upon a fall tour in support of his album Only Frozen Sky Anyway, released July 4 via Blue Arrow Records. The Bad Penny recently caught up with the legend to talk about why he “votes yes” on Boise, the favorite concerts he’s ever attended – and why, surprisingly, he doesn’t think now is the right time for hope.
The Bad Penny (beta) 