Welcome to the biggest – and hopefully best – installment of Bad Penny Freebies. These songs – which we test-ran a bunch of times to ensure they qualified. I just tried to make sure they’re solid listens, if not solid-gold hits. They also run the gamut musically more than any Freebies edition. But due to the massive number of free downloads we’re pointing to you this week, we’re gonna have to keep the descriptions short.
After grunge stuck a dagger into the heart of guitar heroics, along came Jack White to defend the value of virtuosity. He laid out his case on Elephant—after all, as only one of two members of the White Stripes, he had to pour every ounce of his creativity into his sole instrument, right? (White later cinematically demonstrated his innovative techniques and “reinvention” of playing guitar in the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud with U2’s The Edge and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.)
Godflesh and Neurosis are heralded as the shamen of post-metal, but heirs to the throne Isis helped evolve the avant garde end of heavy music into a transcendent and even mystical reimagining of the sound. Isis’ Oceanic is almost unanimously regarded as a classic record.
Elder weren’t exactly elder statesmen in the doom-metal body politic upon releasing their third album. But they were staunchly convinced that a little more of everything was needed. More volume. More melody. More prog-rock passages that’d break up the monotony of the hypnotic riffs.
In the late aughts, when the majority of the most innovative and provocative punk bands had stepped out of the pool and toweled off, Toronto’s Fucked Up came running across the backyard out of nowhere and cannonballed into the water with such weight that even those standing at a safe distance got soaked.
What do The Residents, The Go-Betweens, Steve Reich, Sade, Moondog, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sun Ra, Cate Le Bon, The Stranglers and Dizzy Gillespie have in common? Why, they’re all artists responsible for creating songs that have inspired the development of Baltimore band Crying Laughing’s utterly unique experimental jazz-rock-meets-post-punk sound.
The Bad Penny had the good fortune to catch up with drummer Jen Kirby and alto saxophone player/percussionist Christian Best about all things under the sun in a recent interview. The band members discussed their music backgrounds, their chemistry, the Baltimore music scene and much more over the course of our conversation. We staged it in anticipation of Crying Laughing releasing their new full-length, Talking, eight days ago on Hausu Mountain, which is rapidly becoming one of our favorite record labels.
As a bonus, today we bring you a special playlist of songs that have inspired Crying Laughing and that Best assembled exclusively for The Bad Penny. (Thanks again, man!)
Breaking the third wall here a bit, if there still is one …
Over the course of my 30 years as a music journalist, Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters are among the top five bands about which I’ve written the most. I still rank QOTSA as my third-favorite band of all time (Nirvana and the Jesus Lizard will probably forever occupy those #1 and #2 spots, respectively). And I continue to regard Dave Grohl as my ultimate rock idol, it gives me no pleasure to report that the new QOTSA record, Perfecth (due October 30), is – from the few spins I’ve given it thus far – not just the worst record in the band’s catalog, by a long shot, it’s utterly perplexing that the band would even put its name on it.
Our recent, lively conversation with Slothrust leader Leah Wellbaum ahead of their new album What They Grow in the Garden, resulted in a FLOOD interview and an exclusive bit of news that we ran on this website. But we have another leftover from the articles that might supply you with a good read if you’re in need of one.
The book in question is Milk Fed by Melissa Broder, released in February 2021.
Ombra – a thrash unit from Montreal consisting of Giuseppe “G” Criniti on vocals and lead guitar, Marco Sisti on rhythm guitar and his cousin Nico‑Angelo Sisti on drums – just released their first EP, Night Terror, on Monday. But we’ll be damned if these hosers (we’re kidding; these are three bright dudes) don’t know their metal history, especially when it comes to their Canada homeland.
Ombra – not to be mixed up with the Indonesian hardcore-punk band of the same name – live by a simple credo: “We encourage listeners to think freely, explore their minds, and express themselves without compromise,” the band states on its website. Their mesmerizing, pulverizing music is far more complex, however; it’s a stew of old‑school thrash, sludge, groove metal and psychedelic rock that will appeal to fans of Mastodon, Power Trip, High on Fire and Motörhead. It’s almost impossible to believe that only three guys are making Ombra’s music.
Before delving into Ombra’s picks for the best Canadian heavy bands, check out their cosmic, seizure-inducing new video for the psych-metal voyage “Blue Dream,” one of the songs featured on Night Terror.
And now, Ombra’s picks for the best heavy metal bands to come out of Canada.
Rush tops the list because of their impact, influence and pioneering of the heavy-rock scene. Canada’s first arena-scale heavy act: the Zeppelin-weight riffs of “Working Man and the sci-fi crush of 2112 proved a Toronto trio could hang with Sabbath and still invent something no one else was doing. They never stayed in one gear, but when they wanted weight – with Stick It Out,Far Cry and stretches of Clockwork Angels – they delivered drop-tuned, dissonant heaviness without abandoning the virtuosity that made every later Canadian metal band possible. Influence plus longevity plus those genuinely heavy moments is why they sit at number one to us. -G
Spiritbox lands at number two because no Canadian heavy band this decade has moved the needle like they have. Holy Roller and Eternal Blue turned a Victoria act into a global force. Courtney LaPlante’s shift from glass-clear melody to gut-level lows – stacked on Mike Stringer’s precision-groove riffs – gives them both the hooks and the impact that most modern metal chases and misses. They’re the proof that Canadian heaviness didn’t freeze in the thrash and death-metal eras; it just got sharper, louder, and harder to ignore. -G
Actress – Radical Frame (Ninja Tune) Babehoven – I See Them, I See Me (Double Double Whammy) Beabadoobee – Pylon (Double Hit) Beck – Ride Lonesome (Capitol) Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree – In Between Strides (Magnetic Eye) Boy Harsher – Get Mean (Atlantic) Castle Rat – Bestiary (Blues Funeral)
