While Matt Jencik is listed first in this collaborative duo’s billing, one could easily mistake Never Die for a proper studio effort by Madeline Elizabeth Johnston’s Midwife. Muted, melancholic, sometimes meandering and always mysterious, hers is a tranquilizing sound. Read my review of Never Die on Treble.
Fyr, the new EP by superbly skillful Swedes GAUPA, is a downright infuriating listen. Well, to this embarrassed rock critic, at least. How does a band capable of writing and executing a record, even if it is just a short-player, without the slightest blemish, scratch or scuff? Read my review of the EP for Veil of Sound.
St. Louis’ progressive/blackened sludge metal band The Lion’s Daughter were adamant that their farewell performance would barely resemble the inescapably dire mood that characterizes most bands’ sayonara shows. Read my New Noise feature that reveals intimidating frontman Rick Giordano’s surprising soft spot for animal rescue.
Haggus is the band leading the charge for “mincecore,” a form of “grindcore,” to be accepted by the punk underground community. But founder Hambone doesn’t mince words when it comes to Nazis, racists, bigots, sexists and other propagators of hate. To paraphrase the admirable musician, they can all fuck off.
Three weeks ago, shortly after the Oakland band released its new album Destination Extinction on Tankcrimes, Hambone spoke in great length with The Bad Penny about Haggus, the band’s history, his views on punk music, and just about every other issue under the sun.
Buckle up, kiddos. You’re able to hear the straight dope from a wicked talented musician who has no tolerance for dopes.
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If there’s one thing we’ve to come to expect from a studio album by black-metal duo Austere, it’s that it’ll be a no-nonsense affair that eschews humor in favor of maintaining a laser-like focus on cerebral, emotional, and even spiritual growth. In our recent exchange with the Australian duo–consisting of Tim Yatras (drums/keyboards/vocals) and Mitchell Keepin (guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals)–we discovered that, as human beings, they as direct as their no–frills music.
The symmetry between art and the personality of the artist who created it is not to be confused with what corporate suits call “on brand.” Those shysters insist that artists, in order to make a living, must prove their artistic mettle in tandem with their ability to socialize and hock their wares–honest advertising be damned.
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You people can’t seem to read a full article these days unless it’s a Top 10 list. So The Bad Penny is jumping on the bandwagon from time to time and see if ours are as riveting as “Top 10 Substitutes for Mayonnaise,” “Top 10 Best Bob Seger Songs,” “Top 10 Ways to Sneeze Politely in Public,” etc.
Here’s our second one. We think. The first was abut clubs. We’re too lazy busy to comb through our labyrinthian archives to see if we’ve posted an edition during the sordid history of this website.
Top 10 Best Meats
2. Meatwound
3. Meatballs
One might regard as pretentious Agriculture’s belief that they warrant a genre of their own, which they call “ecstatic black metal.” But try finding another band that alternates between enormous riffs that grab hold like the Sarlacc Pit in Return of the Jedi and refuse to let go. Read my Treble review of “Bodhidharma,” a single selected from Agriculture’s forthcoming The Spiritual Sound.
Hear the entirety of a dusted-off Pygmy Lush album the band hadn’t previously released, read about their theories on the JFK assassination, and learn why every “UFO sighting” isn’t to be believed in my FLOOD interview with the recently reunited experimental hardcore punk posse.
Try finding another band that alternates between enormous riffs that grab hold like the Sarlacc Pit in Return of the Jedi and refuse to let go. Read my Treble review of Agriculture’s new song, “Bodhidharma.”
Hailing from Galicia, Spain, Sangre de Muérdago is the best Galician Folk band you’ve never heard of. Now, Sangre de Muérdago is the only Galician Folk band you have heard of.
The group uses Galician lyrics and a litany of instruments used in the Galician tradition to reflect on nature, mysticism and other themes.
“O Abismo” is the first single from Sangre de Muérdago’s upcoming full-length, O Xardín, due September 12. Keep an eye out for the release of the album’s second single on August 8, and a third one a week before the album release. The Bad Penny is proud to exclusively premiere “O Abismo” and its accompanying video today.
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