The Bad Penny (beta)

Flipside Fest’s Fall Festivities Fizzle for 2024

Posted in News with tags Flipside Festival, Treefort on 04/29/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

In another setback for the struggling music scene in Boise, Idaho, the promoter of Flipside Fest announced today that they have canceled this year’s installment of the event.

The promoters behind the festival, The Duck Club, said the multi-stage, multi-day event will happen again next year. Nevertheless, the cancellation of Flipside Fest 2024 is the latest black eye for concert organizers in Boise, following one of the most lackluster Treefort Fest events in recent memory.

“Don’t worry, Flipside friends: We will be back!” read a post on the website for promoter The Duck Club. “You may be asking, ‘Why is Flipside taking a year off?’ To put it simply: the Duck Club team needs a bit of a summer break.”

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Drahla’s ‘Angeltape’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Captured Tracks, Drahla on 04/27/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

Drahla’s sophomore album, released via Captured Tracks, sees the Leeds-based trio overcoming grief over instrumental flourishes that recall yesteryear while artfully resisting the lure of entering a time machine. Read more of my album review on FLOOD.

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Congrats To Tim Heidecker For Joining Bloodshot

Posted in Comedy, News with tags Bloodshot Records, Tim Heidecker on 04/24/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

Rat’s off to ya too for the new record you’re putting out later this year. Best see a doctor first, though, Tim (not Dr. San)!

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High On Fire’s ‘Cometh The Storm’: Two Cent Review

Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags High on Fire, Matt Pike on 04/22/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

After a relatively long wait, Matt Pike’s sludge-metal outfit High on Fire return with their most adventurous, pigeonhole-smashing, and idiosyncratic release to date. Here is my FLOOD review.

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Boise’s Music Scene Just Can’t Get It Together

Posted in Essays with tags boise, music, music-news, News, rock on 04/15/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

Over roughly the past decade, the most popular conversational topic among music fans living in Boise is how the city’s live-music scene continues to build in size and strength, attracting more national acts to perform here than ever before. Locals begrudgingly admit the growth is due to the influx of fresh transplants and the economic boon those newcomers have bequeathed to a city, even if it might forever be referred to as a merely “up-and-coming” place.

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Sleater-Kinney Talk ‘Recommitting’ To Band After Restful Hiatus

Posted in Interviews with tags Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, Sleater-Kinney on 04/15/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

It’s been a minute since I spoke with two musicians less enthusiastic about participating in an interview, but Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein nevertheless shared some insights on their new record and the state of their band for my new FLOOD feature.

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New Kids On The Block: Forever Young

Posted in Interviews with tags Donnie Wahlberg, New Kids on the Block on 03/31/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

Grab a copy of the latest issue of Music Connection or go here to read my latest cover story, in which I interviewed two New Kids on the Block about their new album. Yup, you read that right.

New Kids On the Block Are Still Kids

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The Giving Tree(fort): Boise’s Bountiful Fest

Posted in News with tags a place to bury strangers, Ex Everything, French Cassettes, So Pitted, Treefort Music Fest on 03/29/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

Last weekend, Boise’s annual Treefort Music Fest featured one of its weakest rosters of artists in the history of the event. But neither the anemic bill nor the dicey weather deterred local music lovers from checking out live sets across the modest city.

Read the most comprehensive history yet of Treefort Music Fest in the just-released April edition of Boise Lifestyle, one of the last glossy magazines left in Idaho. (Or peruse the online version of the story here.) Also, don’t miss New Noise Magazine profiles of 2024 Treefort participants A Place to Bury Strangers, Ex Everything, So Pitted, Sistemas Inestables and French Cassettes.

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Royale Lynn: ‘Music Truly Saves People’

Posted in Interviews with tags Epitaph Records, Royale Lynn on 03/29/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

Check out my latest Signing Story for Music Connection — this one on country-rock newcomer Royale Lynn — right here.

Signing Story: Royale Lynn

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Chile’s Sistemas Inestables Keep Treefort Approach Simple

Posted in Interviews with tags Sistemas Inestables, Treefort Music Fest on 03/26/2024 by Kurt Orzeck

Treefort Music Fest will forever be entwined with Sistemas Inestables, a band from Chile that found refuge in the U.S. Get to know the group and its mellifluous blend of electronic-heavy post-rock in this rare interview published by New Noise.