The Bad Penny (beta)

(I don’t typically break the third wall on The Bad Penny, because my grandmother taught me it was rude to use the word “I,” it creates distance with the reader, and the goal of this website is to focus on bands and not a hack journalist like me. But in this instance, as Mastodon are responsible for deeply enriching my love of heavy music – and because I don’t want to suggest the opinion I’m about to set forth is held by anyone other than myself – I’m breaking my rule.)

Mastodon are the most important heavy band of the 21st century. (Queens of the Stone Age ceded the throne with their softer, but no less righteous, “Matador trilogy.”) When I first saw them in concert – at Knitting Factory Hollywood in February 2004, in support of their Remission debut – the 300-person venue seemed on the verge of spontaneous combustion during their entire set. There was no need – or ability – to cut a rug; the floor was shaking with such force that those of us who didn’t intend to jump up and down in place didn’t have the option to do so.