The Bad Penny (beta)

If you want to get properly schooled in the history of post-punk and industrial music – and the music industry machinery that has both helped and harmed it over the decades – don’t read a music blog or turn to some know-it-all bottom-feeding on social media for information. Instead, seek out a revered guru like Martin Atkins, he of Pigface, Ministry, Killing Joke, Public Image Ltd and Nine Inch Nails note.

Atkins is a prolific author of books concerning the music industry; the studies coordinator on the very subject at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois; and owner and operator of the Museum of Post Punk and Industrial Music in Chicago. If you’re more inclined to enjoy Atkins making music instead of reading his tomes, look no further than The Howler: An English Breakfast, a record he issued on vinyl for the first time about three weeks ago.