From the Vault: Fine Print – Sunny Day Real Estate Frontman Jeremy Enigk’s OK Bear
Posted in Essays, Interviews with tags Jeremy Enigk, Sunny Day Real Estate on 09/23/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Isn’t Jeremy Enigk adorable? Cute as a bear, the softhearted might even say.
In the off-chance you’ve never heard of him before – or the even offer-chance (?) that you’ve never heard of Sunny Day Real Estate, the recently reunited post-rock pioneers – Enigk doesn’t look like this anymore. He’s all grown up now. In fact, the sweet-sounding singer/songwriter is actually celebrating his 35th birthday on Thursday, as the stalkers among us are probably well aware.
Since the above photograph was snapped, Enigk has put out a backpack’s worth of albums. But his recently released solo effort, OK Bear, actually marks the first time he’s slapped an image of himself onto a cover.
Why? Well, it’s funny you ask, because we just asked Enigk during his recent IndiePit interview, the first part of which we posted last week (you might wanna read that article before going forward with this one, since in it he provided all the 411 on OK Bear). In addition to what you read prior, we also chatted with him in detail about the album imagery and beyond.
Continue readingPet Sounds #65: Friendship Commanders’ Cats Are a Boxer and a Drummer … Sort Of
Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags Bear, Buick Audra, cats, Friendship Commanders, Jerry Roe on 09/23/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
If Nashville band Friendship Commanders sounds familiar, it could be because you’ve visited this website before (and if that’s the case, we’re very grateful). We met the melodic post-metal doomsters in May and interviewed one-half of the band, Buick Audra, about her new solo endeavor. During the conversation, we learned about the guitarist/vocalist’s affinity for cats, and tucked away that knowledge for future use as part of The Bad Penny‘s Pet Sounds series.
Well, now is the time we’ve decided to use that card and crown Friendship Commanders as the 65th participant in our ongoing series (which launched less than a year ago, if you can believe it). The timing of this installment is even more appropriate, as the band – which also features Audra’s partner, drummer/percussionist/bassist/synth player Jerry Roe – is releasing a new album, titled BEAR, on Oct. 10 through Magnetic Eye Records.
While a couple of weeks stand between Friendship Commanders and the celebration of their bottom-heavy beast of a record, today we introduce you to two of the band’s biggest, and by far furriest, supporters.
Continue readingFrom the Vault: The Rising – The Hero and the Victor
Posted in Interviews with tags Alan Lomax, David M. Mendoza, The Hero And The Victor on 09/23/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Alan Lomax, who passed away at age 87 in 2002, will likely go down in the books – or the Kindles, or whatever – as one of the most important figures in music history. The late, great ethnomusicologist captured the essence of countless cultures as they manifest themselves in sound. He created “field recordings” – the primal beat of humanity itself; and compiled “oral histories,” the narrative counterweights.
But beyond Lomax, it’s rare to find points where anthropology – at least in the academic sense – and music meet.
Enter David M. Mendoza, a cultural anthropologist, elementary-school teacher – oh, and rock-band frontman – who is as eager to talk about music as he is ancient Mayans who predicted that the world would eventually be overcome by galactic drift.
Continue readingJulia, Julia’s ‘Sugaring a Strawberry’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Julia & the Squeezettes, Julia Julia, Julia Kugel, Soft Palms, The Coathangers on 09/23/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
The Coathangers’ Julia Kugel treats each note of her second solo album as a delicate item to be savored and appreciated from a state of mindfulness. Read my FLOOD review here.
Pet Sounds #64: Emo Musician Andrea Neuenfeldt Derives Emotional Support From Her Kitties
Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags Andrea Neuenfeld, MK Naomi, Unseemlier on 09/22/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
On a cool, mid-May evening in Malden, Massachusetts, all seems calm in the quaint city located about 15 outside Boston (when rush-hour traffic isn’t choking Route 99, that is). But vocalist/bassist Andrea Neuenfeldt is stressed out, finding it impossible to be patient as new releases from her two principal projects are about to be released. In one month, soft pop-punks Unseemlier will unveil their debut LP, I Have a Screw Loose, Somewhere, two years after the Boston quartet joined forces. Exactly one week later, Neuenfeldt’s other band, emo-pop trio MK Naomi, will release their first EP, Dream Hiss. (That band describes itself as an “emo-pop hallucination … named for the covert CIA bioweapons program that ran from the 1950s-‘70s.)
While many musicians often know each other well enough to lower the temperature when one of them spazzes out, Neuenfeldt is at a disadvantage. For one thing, she’s just starting to get to know her new collaborators in the two projects. She’s even more of an odd-woman-out in Unseemlier, as her three bandmates are childhood friends who know how to talk one other off the proverbial ledge when their anxiety level skyrockets.
“It’s like sitting on pins and needles,” Neuenfeldt tells The Bad Penny, noting that Unseemlier is also booked to play FEST 23 in Gainesville, Florida, in October. “I’m very impatient — but I also like wanting to be super-respectful, because other people have [to deal with real] life shit.”
Fortunately, Neuenfeldt has special companions to scratch her itch while she longs to get onstage at this very moment. Those sources of emotional support for the musician are her three cats: Rufus, Wolfgang and Arnold.
Continue readingFrom the Vault: Previews of LPs From Taken by Trees, Black Heart Procession, Suckers
Posted in News with tags Ben Neill, eyehategod, Suckers, Taken by Trees on 09/22/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
This’d make a strong episode of “Frontline” or “Now”: Victoria Bergsman, who records under the name Taken by Trees, journeyed all the way to Pakistan to record her new album, East of Eden. Her goal was to find artistic inspiration in a challenging, unusual area, and she seems to have pulled it off, becoming one of the few Western women to record in the region. Look for the album via Rough Trade on September 8. …
Major bummer: New Black Heart Procession album coming October 6 on Temporary Residence Ltd. We love these San Diegans, which means we’ll be having to suffer gladly through another slate of their lovely, dreary death marches. “Rats,” the first single from Six, is already crushing our spirits; talk about a band you hate to love. …
Continue readingShame’s ‘Cutthroat’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Shame on 09/22/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
UK rockers Shame don’t mince words on their fourth studio album, pairing their infectious proto-punk grooves with nakedly hedonistic lyrics. Read my FLOOD review.
Shallowater’s ‘God’s Gonna Give You a Million Dollars’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Shallowater on 09/22/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Houston “dirtgaze” trio Shallowater ruminate on our intolerable times with some of the quietest and slowest music—as well as the most deafening, distortion-filled cacophony—you’ll hear in 2025. Read my FLOOD review.
From the Vault: Deafheaven’s 2017 Tour Setlists and First-Ever Show in Boise – An Analysis
Posted in Concert Reviews, Essays, Reviews with tags Bosse-de-Nage, Deafheaven, George Clarke, Mogwai, Shiv Mehra, Treefort, Treefort Music Fest on 09/22/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Deafheaven’s setlist from their show at Mardi Gras in Boise on 3.25.17
When Deafheaven played their first show in Boise on March 25 – at Mardi Gras, a venue typically reserved for wedding functions – they provided the five-day Treefort Music Fest with its only dose of shoe-gazing black metal. Continue reading
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