Earlier this week, we brought you an epic conversation with anarchist art collective INDECLINE, who have collaborated with Sleater-Kinney, Cursive, Deaf Club, Rise Against and many more indie luminaries. In addition to chatting us up, INDECLINE shared a list of essential reads for those currently fighting fascism or are curious about the war being waged across the globe.
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The Bad Penny is embarrassed to admit that we only discovered INDECLINE, an American Anarchist art collective whose work has had tremendous impact on the underground and even the mainstream, for more than 20 years. We caught wind of the group, whose members wish to remain anonymous, after they collaborated with Cursive for their video “The Avalanche of Our Demise,” which the Tim Kasher-led indie-rock band released last month. Upon further investigation into INDECLINE, it became obvious that they would be a boon to On Tyranny, for they would certainly introduce new ideas and perspectives in the series we launched roughly a year ago.
And boy did they ever. Formed in 2001, the decentralized group of musicians, graffiti artists and others have fearlessly devoted themselves to bringing attention to the evils of capitalism, the death of democracy in America – and, on a more positive note, how we can build a better society. INDECLINE’s most prominent works of public art include statues of Donald Trump in the buff, glued to sidewalks; and their “Ku Klux Klowns” installation that served as a response to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
We could expound a great deal further on INDECLINE’s history and accomplishments, but much of that information is covered in the longest, boldest and most informative installment in our On Tyranny series. So, without further ado, here is the epic conversation
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Little did The Bad Penny expect that a feature called “The 20 Best Scandinavian Melodic Death Metal Bands of All Time” that we published five days ago would become the most popular post in the history of this 15-year-old website in its entire existence. But that’s exactly what the headbangers ordered, and it’s spurring us to run some spinoff articles about bands made the cut on the list but that we’ve never had the pleasure of interviewing.
Reaching out to the bands on the list that aren’t as popular as your In Flames, Amon Amarth and Dark Tranquillity, we were reminded that Gothenburg is the historic city that birthed more than just three MDM bands. Nightrage guitarist Marios Iliopoulos said he was both flattered to be recognized and that their artistic output is just as strong as many of the other bands included on the rundown.
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When The Bad Penny embarked on its On Tyranny project more than a year ago, we initially interviewed artists residing in countries controlled by authoritarian regimes in order to learn how they are still able to pursue their vocation despite fears of retaliation including censorship, imprisonment and even death. We conversed with musicians in Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Hungary.
About six months later, the Trump regime began deploying military forces into U.S. cities, deported U.S. citizens without due process to countries they had never resided nor visited, and ordered masked “authorities” with no visible identification to kidnap and disappear people with no criminal records off the street. Thus, we turned our focus to how U.S.-based musicians are coping with previously unimaginable atrocities and how Authoritarian America is damaging the careers and personal lives of artists and dissenters.
Today we bring you a different perspective on the growing power of autocracy as the governing force across the world via a short-and-sweet interview with grindcore band Rotten Sound from Finland. While the vast majority of artists we’ve interviewed for On Tyranny have expressed fear, disgust and despair over the direction that the U.S. – and, by extension, the world – is headed, The Bad Penny was surprised to learn that some artists are not worried about being persecuted for their stances, whether they be creative or “political” (whatever that term actually means anymore).
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The newest print edition of The Big Takeover – for which its publisher, editor, and perhaps the best person on earth, Jack Rabid, has graciously allowed me to contribute for 23 years – is now available for purchase. If you believe in punk rock and for which it stands, buy it. Among my 10 contributions is a challenging interview with Tortoise. I’ll note my other submissions in the coming days but won’t be reproducing them here. Buy the damn mag; it’s 170 pages long, a work of art in its own right and only costs seven bucks.
Go to the On Tyranny archive for more installments in the series.
“Every day could be one’s last, whether because of repression sparked by even a single misplaced word of dissent, or because of the indiscriminate bombings.”
-Malota’s Max D’Ospina
With its canals and bistros and overall sense of tranquillity, Venice, Italy, is arguably one of the most picturesque, luxurious places on Earth – which makes it no wonder that it’s also one of the most popular tourist destinations anywhere. Dig a little deeper under the surface, and you’ll find that it also has to offer – perhaps conflictingly to some, but not necessarily musically erudite readers of The Bad Penny – a heavy psych-rock band very much worth its (Italian sea) salt.
Said group is Malota, a quartet whose new album, Scapegoat, dropped in mid-October via Go Down Records. While their mesmerizing record is worth not just perusing but purchasing, when we had the opportunity to interview the immensely talented troupe, we forewent conducting a typical banal back and forth about Scapegoat. Instead, we picked the brain of Max D’Ospina (bass, piano, didjeridoo, vocals) about fascism, a toxic political ideology that Italy defeated less than a century ago and that is currently corroding what little remains of democracy in America.
It used to be said that “history repeats itself.” Wisely, and fortunately, historians have amended that aphorism to say “history does not repeat itself exactly, but it rhymes.” Perhaps we can learn something from what D’Ospina had to share about the horrors that happened in his homeland, which he bravely shared with us.
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