With his latest LP Autofiction out now, Far Caspian’s Joel Johnston discusses the headspace he was in as the project came together—as well as when he initiated the project in 2014. Read my interview with him via FLOOD.
Far Caspian Guru Admits: ‘I Wish I’d Called the Band Something Else’
Posted in Interviews with tags Far Caspian on 07/31/2025 by Kurt OrzeckHollywood Vampires’ 17 Songs, Ranked
Posted in Comedy, Lists with tags Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Hollywood Vampires, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp, Tommy Henriksen, Warlock on 07/31/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Congratulations to Alice Cooper for cranking out the first album in a half-century with the original lineup of his band last week! As expected, The Revenge of Alice Cooper is a rollicking (or should we say “ROlliCKing”?!) good time. Album highlights include “Crap That Gets in the Way of Your Dreams” and “Intergalactic Vagabond Blues.”
But, sadly, the reunited band’s got nothing on the crowning achievement in Coop’s career (which, fun fact, got rolling in 1964, three years before Ozzy’s). That feat of cosmic — oops, “intergalactic” — magnificence is, of course, Hollywood Vampires.
In case you’ve been living in a cave, or better yet a mansion, Hollywood Vampires co-stars Johnny Depp and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry along with studio musician Tommy Henriksen, the guy who, of course, famously played bass for German power-metal band Warlock from 1987 to 1988). The “supergroup” — and, honest to God, has that term ever been used more loosely? — assembled in 2012. In what must be a shock to the “King of Shock Rock” himself, they’ve never broken up.
In honor of … I dunno, whatever … here’s a list of all the original songs Hollywood Vampires have composed in their 13 years of existence, over the course of two studio albums, ranked below from “best” to “worst.”
Continue readingRock ‘N’ Roll Rebus #4
Posted in Fun And Games with tags game, rebus on 07/30/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Find the solution here, in the opening of the first sentence.
For previous rebuses (rebi? Reba?), give these a go:
Rock ‘N’ Roll Rebus #3
Rock ‘N’ Roll Rebus #2
Rock ‘N’ Roll Rebus #1
Exclusive Video Premieres: Moonpool’s ‘Like You Do,’ ‘Aim’
Posted in Exclusives, Videos with tags Moonpool on 07/30/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Fresh off two special performances late last week at Fridays on the Plaza festival in Cheyenne, Wyoming and the Underground Music Showcase festival in their hometown of Denver, Moonpool are busting out two brand-new videos exclusively on The Bad Penny. The clips are for the two songs featured on Syzygy, a new EP the alt-rock/post-punk band released exactly one week ago.
Continue readingExclusive: Mawiza Reveal Origin of Eco-Themed Collabo With Gojira Frontman
Posted in Exclusives, Features, Interviews, On Tyranny with tags environment, Gojira, Mawiza on 07/30/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Solidarity is hardly a new concept to Mawiza, an indigenous metal/folk group born and bred in sacred Mapuche Nation lands in Chile. In 1861-’83, the military staged campaigns and an occupation of the Araucanía Region in central Chile under the Orwellian-sounding “Pacification of Araucanía.” The indigenous community had to band together if they wanted a chance to survive the military incursion. Nevertheless, the brutal invasion paved the way for notorious, U.S.-backed Augusto Pinochet’s military coup about 100 years later.
Formed in 2014, Mawiza’s stated goal — beyond concocting an entirely original sound that fuses metal with Mapuche folk music — is “to preserve ancestral roots, rescue indigenous moral values and to promote biodiversity conservation, guided by the indigenous worldview and struggle.” (Read more about the band and its mission in an interview with Mawiza vocalist and rhythm guitarist Awka, as part of our ongoing series On Tyranny.)
As Mawiza’s career progressed, the band found that another critical issue is inherent in indigenous communities valiantly attempting to preserve their culture and land: the environment. Fortuitously, the band drew attention and, subsequently, ardent support, from a band more than 7,000 miles away that is considered metal royalty across the globe: Gojira. In its lyrics for songs ranging from “Global Warming” to “Toxic Garbage Island” to the entirety of 2005’s From Mars to Sirius, the French progressive-metal band makes it a top priority to educate their fans about eco-awareness.
Mawiza and Gojira bonded even more closely when the latter band took the former one under their wing and performed together live. Cementing their friendship and admiration for each other, Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier traveled to the Mapuche community to record his featured spot on “Ti Inan Paw-Pawkan,” the first single from Mawiza’s new album ÜL, which Season of Mist issued 12 days ago.
Around the same time, The Bad Penny communicated exclusively with Awka to learn more about “Ti Inan Paw-Pawkan” and how it came about.
Continue readingPoll: Can Punk-Rock Fans Back ICE Detentions?
Posted in News, Polls with tags authoritarianism, ICE, immigration, racism on 07/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Pet Sounds #57: BC Camplight Talks About His Buddy Canine
Posted in Interviews with tags BC Camplight, Pet Sounds on 07/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
5 Reminders About Punk Rock’s Core Principles
Posted in Essays, Features, On Tyranny with tags punk rock on 07/29/2025 by Kurt OrzeckSay what you will about the new identity of punk rock and the renewing of marriage vows between punk rock and corporate enterprise, here are a few reminders about what still lies at the heart of the movement:
1. Subservience, complacency and inaction in the face of authoritarianism, now the governing force in the United States — and its myriad and once-unimaginable horrors — is not punk rock.
2. Engaging in pay-to-play schemes that pads the pockets of music venue owners and managers, magazine editors and publishers, agents and promoters and publicists, and other industry types who profit off musicians, is not punk rock.
3. Propagating, platforming or even permitting racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and all related forms of hate and discrimination is not punk rock.
4. Increasing one’s personal gain at the expense of punk-rock bands and fans, whether it be through inflated ticket prices, ad revenue largesse and opportunistic financial benefits is not punk rock.
5. Taking advantage of or profiting unjustly off sincere, well-intentioned and therefore often vulnerable people who support punk-rock ethics is not punk-rock.
Cool? Cool.
Månegarm Celebrate 30 Years; Frontman ‘Can’t Picture Life’ Without Band
Posted in Interviews with tags Månegarm on 07/28/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
The general consensus among historians is that the Vikings, led by King Cnut the Great and subsequently his sons, ruled England from 1016 to 1042 during a relatively peaceful reign after the Dane brutally mutilated Anglo-Saxon hostages. Hey, no one’s perfect.
Månegarm–the Swedish band named after a mythological Norse wolf–have “ruled” in the Viking black/folk‐metal sense of the term for an even three decades as of this year. And they just dropped a hefty bag of silver, their 11th studio record, to represent the spoils that the technically proficient band has gathered over the course of its formidable existence.
“Thirty fucking years. That’s strange, man,” says vocalist/bassist Erik Grawsiö, pondering the seemingly unexpected achievement aloud. “When I think back to those days, I get a great big smile on my face. It was a great time in my life. I was 16, 17. Once the first lineup was complete, to make a long story short, we got together, played our first song, and it was fucking great.”
Continue readingBask on Pouring Their Souls Into Hopeful LP After Hurricane Helene
Posted in Interviews with tags Bask, Hurricane Helene on 07/28/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Self-help charlatans, fitness freaks, and corporate advertisers will have you believe that “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” But those blustering boobs typically omit a rather critical part of the equation: Often times, the most trying challenges in life befall us when we least expect it, before we have the time to steel ourselves in preparation for such trials and tribulations. It’s why sucker punches are strictly prohibited in every imaginable form of a so-called “fair fight.”
Psych-rock outfit Bask learned this lesson by facing a challenge that no one should have to face: a devastating natural disaster—specifically, the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in almost two decades. Hurricane Helene obliterated the band’s rehearsal space when it ripped through their hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, in September of last year. Fortunately, the band members didn’t suffer devastating physical injuries that threatened to put a halt to their careers, as kindred spirits Baroness experienced in an unforgettably devastating bus crash in 2012.
Bask certainly had their work cut out for themselves as they tried bouncing back from their own horrific twist of fate. The band relied on charitable donations from a GoFundMe campaign they launched to replace gear and rehearsal space furniture they lost in the flood. But during a March check-in with Bask, longtime friends Zeb Camp (guitar/vocals) and Scott Middleton (drums) already had perspective on overcoming what could quaintly be referred to as an “adversity.”
“We can’t complain too much,” Middleton said at the time. “A lot of people had it way worse than us.”
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