Slothrust leader Leah Wellbaum talks predatory consumerism, loss of agency in an increasingly digital world, and her brief music journalism career ahead of the duo’s sixth album, What They Grow in the Garden.
Continue readingSlothrust Leader Leah Wellbaum: ‘Our Agency Has Been So Sneakily Taken Away … by Rapidly Emerging Technology’
Posted in Interviews with tags Leah Wellbaum, Slothrust on 09/17/2026 by Kurt OrzeckThe 10 Best German Heavy Bands, According to Native Black-Metal Sons Der Weg einer Freiheit (Exclusive)
Posted in Exclusives, Features, Interviews, Lists with tags A Secret Revealed, Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Heisskalt, Heretoir, Imperium Dekadenz, Lantlôs, Lunar Aurora, Nagelfar, Nocte Obducta, Zerre on 09/17/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
As musically gifted as they are hyper-intelligent, as hyper-intelligent as they are kind, and as kind as they are wise, there was no better band to approach than atmospheric black-metal masters Der Weg einer Freiheit for The Bad Penny Passport‘s stop in Germany. That’s the name we’re calling our latest series, in which we check in with musicians in countries across the globe to get the real deal on the best bands their homelands have to offers. We’re blown away by your positive reception of the series, dear readers; we surmise it’s because you’re refreshed to be getting listening recommendations from musicians instead of Spotify, the algorithm or AI.
On Friday, Der Weg einer Freiheit released an instrumental version of Innern, the studio album they released last year, and we’ll bring you an interview with vocalist/guitarist Nikita Kamprad and bassist Alan Noruspur post-haste. But before we do, we’re gifting to you a list of Germany’s top 10 metal bands that Kamprad – one of our best comrades, and who we’ve interviewed before – in turn gifted to us. (Der Weg deserve a lofty place on the list, but Kamprad is too humble to have put his own band on it.)
Without further ado, here’s his list, with generously ample descriptions of the featured bands and explanations as to why they deserve to be on it.
Continue readingExclusive Lyric Video Premiere: Sehore’s ‘IA’ Is a Master Class in How to Avoid Getting Trapped in the Algorithm
Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, Videos with tags experimental music, Sehore on 09/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Familiarize yourself with Spanish experimental art-pop endeavor Sehore, and you will undoubtedly have encountered the most artistically and intellectually challenging musical act in quite some time. Sehore won the Silver Medal for the song “Pesadilla” (“nightmare” in English) and the Bronze Medal for “Bla bla bla (cha cha cha)” (we’ll leave that translation to you) at the Global Music Awards 2025.
With compositions written and performed in extremely complex time signatures, Sehore started last year with the release of its first two albums: Ladencia in January and Husfikbur in September. The group’s project’s album, Ptkbdglmnr (due November 20), is led by the first single “IA.” Sehore describes it as follows: “The rhythmic figures shift between different internal groupings of five (3+2, 2+3, 4+1, etc.), creating a fragmented and unstable pulse that mirrors the theme and is built on the diminished scale. The track alternates consonance and dissonance, using kitsch elements and miniature structures.”
Continue reading‘Indietronica’ Artist Josaleigh Pollett Speaks Up About Her Contemplative New Album, ‘If I Let It Quiet’
Posted in Interviews with tags Crowd Shy, Ekko Astral, Jordan Watko, Josaleigh Pollett, Limbeck, Queens of the Stone Age, Robb MacLean, Seth Anderson, Sharon Van Etten on 09/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
If you’re a fan of electronic indie-pop – or heartfelt, folk-spirited music in general – and you aren’t familiar with Josaleigh Pollett, you’re missing out. The Salt Lake City musician stands out in the sprawling singer/songwriter community due to her musical talent, thoughtfulness, and penchant for learning. Don’t believe us? St. Vincent, Torres, Deep Sea Diver and DeVotchKa – with whom she has shared bills – would back up our backing of Pollett.
Pollett’s new album, the exquisitely named (and performed) If I Let It Quiet, features four singles – “Radio Player,” “The Witness,” “Like a River” and “Bed of Quiet” – and came out in late July. We caught up with the artist shortly before its release and, due quite frankly to our own flakiness, are finally delivering the lovely conversation we had with the artist today.
(Note: Pollett had performances planned for October 15 at Seeker Coffee in Old Ford, North Carolina; and the following day at The Hideaway in Johnson City, Tennessee.)
Continue readingThe Stooges, Death, New York Dolls and Patti Smith Set the Table for Punk: A Brief History Lesson
Posted in Essays with tags Death, Iggy Pop, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, the Stooges on 09/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
“Punk” music didn’t start in 1976 or 1977, with Ramones’ self-titled album or Leave Home, which came out in those years, respectively. Sex Pistols didn’t launch the genre with the four singles and album (Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols) the British band released in those same years.
The same goes for The Clash’s self-titled debut, released in 1977; The Damned’s Damned Damned Damned and Music for Pleasure, both issued in 1977; or albums by the Buzzcocks, Black Flag or MC5. Rather, the seeds of punk – a term coined by the godfather of rock-music journalism, Lester Bangs – were planted many years earlier, not by bands but by an attitude and a sound that cropped up in scattered pockets of the Western world.
Continue readingThe 10 Best Bay Area Bands, According to Death-Thrash Hometown Heroes Absolute Darkness (Exclusive)
Posted in Exclusives, Interviews, Lists, Videos with tags Absolute Darkness, Cartilage, Death Angel, Deathgrave, Exodus, Metallica, Plague Ritual, Testament, thrash, Vio-lence on 09/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
It’s always cool to get positive feedback from readers, especially those of you who keep tabs on what some lame-ass AI tool referred to as “the iconoclastic website The Bad Penny.” Hell, we’ll take it – and much more importantly, we’ll take your liking of this consummately non-mainstream and non-corporate hub for news, interviews, games, reviews and more about rad bands that mostly lurk underground.
Aaaaaanyway, it’s even more flattering to get kind words from musicians; after all, none of us would be on this website, writing and reading any of the posts, engaging in discussions and finding fulfillment in music in general were it not for those who actually make it. All of which is to say that the new series with the loose title The Bad Penny Passport is attracting so much excitement from artists that it feels like getting blindsided by a tsunami. And that enthusiasm is showing in the bands’ submissions, none better exemplified by this golden treasure of a contribution from Bay Area death thrashers Absolute Darkness.
The band began 10 years ago fueled in part by their love of death metal but also thrash metal, the genre du jour in their San Francisco hometown. Now, the band consisting of guitarist/lead vocalist Ron Dorn, lead guitarist/backup vocalist Douglas Vetter Guitars, bassist Orson Sojo and drummer Scott Russell are readying their second album, Witness to a Dying World, for an October 23 release. There’s more on that below; but first, let’s get schooled by Absolute Darkness and what they believe to be the 10 best Bay Area bands of all time.
Continue readingPet Sounds #94: Tiger Bear Wolf’s Frontman Shares the Touching Tale of His Sorely Missed Wonder Dog, Robo
Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags Ernest Jenning, Health, Pet Sounds, Tiger Bear Wolf on 09/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
“The moral of the story is:
Say yes to every dog.”
-Jon Moore of Tiger Bear Wolf
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It would be sacrilege, blasphemous, a crime worthy of punishment by death were The Bad Penny not to rabidly pursue a band named Tiger Bear Wolf to participate in our ongoing – and, thanks to our rad readership, very popular – Pet Sounds series. In keeping with that thought, we chased down the post-hardcore math-rock band from Greensboro, North Carolina – and wouldn’t you know it, they were immediately into the idea.
Tiger Bear Wolf consists of four human beings – Jonathan Moore (guitar, vocals), Noah Howard (guitar, vocals), Matt Bostick (bass) and Lawrence Holdsworth (drums) – who recently released a self-titled album 17 years in the making. (Yes, you read that right.) In a story that will pull at your heartstrings, the pink-cheeked punks found themselves on a roll after putting out their first two records in 2002 and 2005. But Tiger Bear Wolf’s third effort was not the charm. Hard drives containing the songs intended to be on that next record went awry, and the band wasn’t able to recover the material until much later.
A source of solace and comfort for Moore during those trying years when the Tiger Bear Wolf recordings were lost was, no doubt, his dog Robo. You might want to keep a box of issues handy for this very special installment of Pet Sounds, as Robo is no longer with us and the rare photos that Moore so generously shared with us are rather breathtaking. Either way, here is the story of Robo the dog, unwavering companion to the frontman of the band Tiger Bear Wolf.
Continue readingCheetah Chrome, Guitarist for Rocket From the Tombs and Dead Boys, Dead at 71
Posted in In Memorium, News with tags Cheetah Chrome, Cherie Currie, Dead Boys, Rocket From the Tombs, The Runaways on 09/14/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Cheetah Chrome, guitarist for revered underground punk bands Rocket From the Tombs and Dead Boys, has died, his PR company announced Monday night.
The punk-rock underground legend, whose real name was Eugene Richard O’Connor, died Sunday in Nashville at age 71, according to Reprobate Media.
Continue readingQueer Artist Logan Lynn Reflects on ‘Incredibly Meaningful’ Boise Screening of Award-Winning Documentary
Posted in Interviews with tags Logan Lynn on 09/14/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Twenty years into Logan Lynn’s career as an artist and activist, the Portland resident trekked to Boise last week to screen his increasingly feted documentary The Pain and the Power. Presented by rock band Portugal. The Man’s KNIK Records’ PortuGAY Division, the film is touted as “a personal portrait tracing a 30-year career forged at the intersection of queerness, faith, addiction, trauma and self-reinvention.”
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