Pet Sounds #58: Sally Anne Morgan’s ‘Circle’ of Friends Includes Sheep, Chickens, Cats

Posted in Interviews with tags on 07/31/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Anyone silly enough to believe that artists only live in cities in the U.S., we bring you Exhibit A in refutation of that erroneous claim: exceptional music talent Sally Anne Morgan. The thoroughly relatable musician and artist refers to her music as “psychedelic Appalachian folk drone,” which might seem tough to understand – until the moment she begins to play.

Signed to one of the most respected indie labels of the past 30 years, Morgan has a home at Thrill Jockey Records that is almost as comfortable as the 3-acre pasture she shares with her husband in North Carolina. While it’s true that The Bad Penny has mostly interviewed urban-dwelling artists about their animals for our ongoing Pet Sounds series, we had the pleasure of learning how a musician surrounded by animals at all times finds their creations inevitably impacted by nature and the creatures that dwell in it.

Earlier this year, we caught up with Morgan ahead of the release of her tranquil, meditative and soothing new album Second Circle the Horizon before it came out late last month. What follows is a condensed version of our invigorating conversation.

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Far Caspian Guru Admits: ‘I Wish I’d Called the Band Something Else’

Posted in Interviews with tags on 07/31/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

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.

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Hollywood Vampires’ 17 Songs, Ranked

Posted in Comedy, Lists with tags , , , , , , 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.”

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Rock ‘N’ Roll Rebus #4

Posted in Fun And Games with tags , 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

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Exclusive Video Premieres: Moonpool’s ‘Like You Do,’ ‘Aim’

Posted in Exclusives, Videos with tags 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.

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Exclusive: Mawiza Reveal Origin of Eco-Themed Collabo With Gojira Frontman

Posted in Exclusives, Features, Interviews, On Tyranny with tags , , 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.

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Poll: Can Punk-Rock Fans Back ICE Detentions?

Posted in News, Polls with tags , , , on 07/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Opinion | What do masked ICE agents have to hide?

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Pet Sounds #57: BC Camplight Talks About His Buddy Canine

Posted in Interviews with tags , on 07/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Welcome to the debut installment of the ongoing Pet Sounds series on The Bad Penny, after it migrated here from a previous website. In this special edition, alt-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brian James Christinzio – a.k.a. BC Camplight – provides us with startling reflects on trauma, along with extremely well-considered insights into life as a pet owner.

For those familiar with BC Camplight – who was born in New Jersey but now resides in Manchester – it actually comes as no surprise that he took so much time and care with his responses to our questions about his relationship with Frank, his 9-year-old “Jug” (a Jack Russell and Pug mix). Similar clarity, delivered with both heart and precision, is the tie that binds the songs on BC Camplight’s new album, A Sober Conversation, which arrived late last month.

Throughout the record, the multi-hyphenate musician fearlessly opens up about recently getting sober while also working through childhood trauma. Clearly, his pet helped him build up the courage, and provided him with support during the trying two-year period leading up to the release of A Sober Conversation. That BC Camplight maintains a somewhat subdued but ultimately sunny mood throughout the record is a testament to how gracefully he must treat his adoring buddy, Jug.

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5 Reminders About Punk Rock’s Core Principles

Posted in Essays, Features, On Tyranny with tags on 07/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Say 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.

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Månegarm Celebrate 30 Years; Frontman ‘Can’t Picture Life’ Without Band

Posted in Interviews with tags 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.”

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