Sometimes we forget how big of a sound just three musicians can make. Skyjoggers remind us of the boundless possibilities of psychedelic music with the thought-provokingly titled 12021: Post-Electric Apocalypse. Read my full review at Treble.
Skyjoggers’ ‘12021: Post-Electric Apocalypse’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Skyjoggers on 01/16/2026 by Kurt OrzeckVeil of Sound Shares Bad Penny’s Favorite LPs, Gigs, More From 2025
Posted in Lists with tags Agriculture, Chat Pile, Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo, Cloakroom, Deafheaven, Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Messa on 01/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
The Bad Penny‘s friends at Veil of Sound have assembled a nifty 2025 recap that encompasses the records, concerts and other highlights that the German website’s 10 contributors enjoyed the most last year. Check it out here.
10 Best Free Bandcamp Downloads #8: Gridfailure, Glorious Depravity, Be Nothing
Posted in Lists, MP3s with tags Be Nothing, Count Your Lucky Stars, Death Obvious, Glorious Depravity, Gob Psychic, Gridfailure, Hiding Places, Living Houf, Living Hour, Saddest Landscape on 01/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
1. Be Nothing – Be All the Nothing You Can Be EP (September 2023)
“This follow up to the trio’s 2020 self-titled album offers more of their signature riff heavy, sarcastic punk,” label Strange Mono said in a statement.
2. Gridfailure – Live Improv at the Kingsland – Brooklyn, NYC – 09/07/2024 (March 2025)
“Entire improvisational set from The Kingsland (RIP) in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY on September 7th, 2024,” label Strange Mono said.
Continue readingPet Sounds #77: The Truth About Thrill Jockey Publicity Director Mike Boyd’s Cats And Dogs
Posted in Features, Interviews, Pet Sounds with tags cats, dogs, Genital Shame, Mike Boyd, Pet Sounds, Stander, Thrill Jockey on 01/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
The eminently likable Mike Boyd isn’t just the Director of Publicity at arguably Chicago’s strongest indie-rock label, Thrill Jockey, founded in 1992. Nor is he only the vocalist/guitarist for heavy trio Stander. He also plays guitar at live performances by experimental black metal band Genital Shame. Oh, and he two cats and a dog to boot.
Drilling into the nuts and bolts, Nikola is a gray and white tabby, whereas Mugen is an orange tabby.
“They’re brothers, and they’ll be turning 14 this year,” Boyd told The Bad Penny. “My dog, Saoirse, is a pit bull, and I am unsure about her actual age. But. based on the estimates from when I rescued her, I would guess she’s about 9 years old.
Without further ado, let’s take a gander at Boyd’s three adorable amigos.
Continue readingEugene S. Robinson: The Outsider of All Outsiders
Posted in Interviews with tags Buñuel, Eugene S. Robinson, Oxbow, Whipping Boy on 01/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
In early September, we presented part of an extensive interview with Eugene S. Robinson, one of the most uncompromising, forthright and no-bullshit rock musicians around. That piece mostly revolved around his decision to leave the United States for Spain; if you want to know the reasons why, go here.
But today, Post-Trash published the conversation in virtually its entirety, covering Robinson’s plethora of music projects, his strict adherence to a set of principles and practices, and how he envisions his future unfolding. Read the lengthy interview with Robinson – whose credits include Buñuel, Oxbow and Whipping Boy – here.
Fucked Up’s ‘Year of the Goat’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Fucked Up on 01/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
In my second album review for leading U.K. music outlet The Line of Best Fit, I examine Grass Can Move Stones Part One: Year of the Goat, the recently released record by Canada’s Fucked Up that capped off the hardcore punks’ near-decade-long Zodiac Series. Read my full review here.
Fucked Up’s ‘Year of the Dog’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Fucked Up on 01/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
In my first album review for leading U.K. music outlet The Line of Best Fit, I reevaluate Year of the Dog, the 2006 record by Canada’s Fucked Up, which kicked off the hardcore punks’ near-decade-long Zodiac Series. Read my full review here.
Happy Birthday, Dave Grohl!
Posted in Comedy with tags Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters, Mondo Generator, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Scream, Sound City Players, Them Crooked Vultures on 01/14/2026 by Kurt Orzeck“Don’t tell me how to make a record. I was in Nirvana. I was in the greatest rock and roll band of the ’90s. We changed the course of rock music. … Give me a carton of Marlboros. Fuck you, man, I was in Nirvana, you asshole. I’m on RCA, dammit. Don’t you know who I am? I’m a millionaire.”
–Dave Grohl of Nirvana (and Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age, and Them Crooked Vultures, and Mondo Generator, and Sound City Players, and Backbeat Band, and Scream).
Shearling’s Elizabeth A. Carver Finds Glimmers of Hope in America’s Decline
Posted in Interviews, Videos with tags Elizabeth A. Carver, Shadrach Tuck, Shearling on 01/14/2026 by Kurt OrzeckPraise be the wind
And the filth on it’s back
Paint the inside of my hallow body in holy mural
Like a gunshot wound crater
Like a Rothko
Like a fox pissing in a ditch
Her lungs inundated
She will try to cut the back of the wind she rides
Singing out…
Elizabeth A. Carver’s “I Commit to You God”
Consider for a moment how many songs and albums musicians create every single day or every single year. To put a twist on an the oft-used idiom, “finding a needle in a haystack” is almost laughable compared to finding musical gems in today’s infinite galaxy of songs (largely because the vast majority of them can be streamed or purchased for free).
But to cop from another cliché, great music can still bubble to the surface, if it’s remarkably captivating, if the artist takes pride in their craft and if they work hard enough chiseling it to perfect. Oh, and there’s that small matter of working hard too. Even amid the Internet Apocalypse, which continues to be sold to us as a means allowing every musician of however negligible quality to “make it big,” there are still glimmers of hope that transcend the terrible, trendy trappings of the modern era and give us hope that maybe, just maybe, every facet of creative endeavors isn’t rigged.
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