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Archive for fascism

On Tyranny: Gunshy’s Matt Arbogast Shares No Kings 2 Dispatch From Protest’s Chicago Hotbed

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags Asian Man Records, authoritarianism, Clash, fascism, Gunshy, Joe Strummer, Matt Arbogast, No Kings, No Kings 2, On Tyranny, tyranny on 10/20/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

“This is what Joe Strummer prepared us for.”
-The Gunshy’s Matt Arbogast

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Yesterday, The Bad Penny had the privilege of catching up with alt-folk artist Matt Arbogast of the Gunshy a day after he participated in No Kings 2 in his hometown of Chicago, the epicenter of the latest round of anti-Trump, anti-fascist protests. We were initially scheduled to only speak about his project’s new record, Hurricane Umbrellas, which will hit stores on Dec. 5.

Indeed, we dug into the record, and we’ll bring you those parts of the interview in the coming weeks. But with No Kings 2 on the brain, we’re first delivering Arbogast’s first-hand account of the protest in which he and his family participated on Saturday – a protest that amassed 7 million participants nationwide, making it the largest social mobilization in American history.

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On Tyranny: Kenny Loggins Says Trump in ‘Danger’ Over ‘No Kings 2’ Poop-Bomb AI Video

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags authoritarianism, fascism, Kenny Loggins, On Tyranny, trump on 10/20/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Bravo, Kenny Loggins. Three words yours truly never thought he’d put into print. Find out why here.

On Tyranny archive here.

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On Tyranny: Sound Off on No Kings 2: A Communiqué About Community

Posted in Sound Off with tags authoritarianism, community, fascism, No Kings, On Tyranny, protest, tyranny on 10/18/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

This article was originally published in 2009 but, on what could be one of the most consequential days in America in the 21st century, if not in the entire history of the nation, it is now back online for your reading — and, hopefully, galvanizing — pleasure. Find your local No Kings rally here and, for the sake of free speech and freedom itself, please attend. Need further convincing? Read my 43-part series called On Tyranny, in which artists of every stripe tell me how they are being damaged and fear even more atrocious reprisals if the Trump regime and the right-wing scourge plaguing our country continues to run roughshod, unchecked, over the Constitution we have so woefully taken for granted for far too long.

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Week four of the IndiePit Blog is coming to a close. And what a month it has been. From interviews galore to liberal doses of commentary throughout to some wacky features, hopefully the content has been as much a treat to read as it has been to write.

If you’ve noticed, each week has closed with an installment of a series called “Sound Off” – in which, like the back end of a newspaper’s op-ed section, some closing thoughts on the week are provided.

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On Tyranny: As No Kings Rallies Near, Here Are Music’s Top 20 ‘Kings,’ From B.B. to Gizzard

Posted in Features, Lists, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags Acid King, authoritarianism, Donald Trump, fascism, King Buffalo, King Buzzo, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, King Princess, King Woman, No Kings on 10/16/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

The second and potentially attendance record-shattering No Kings protests are rapidly arriving in less than 48 hours at an estimated 2,500 cities across the U.S., intended to demonstrate that Americans are more opposed to the Trump regime than ever before. For no real reason other than giddiness, we decided to express our excitement in utterly esoteric fashion by ranking the 20 best musicians and bands with “King” in their name.

Here goes:

(Note: Musicians nicknamed the “King” of a certain music genre are disqualified. And no, we didn’t forget Kings of Leon. They suck.)

1. Nat King Cole

2. B.B. King

3. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

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On Tyranny: Deaf Club Guitarist Denounces Trumpists for Taking ‘Pride’ in Racism, Sexism

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags ACxDC, authoritarianism, Brian Amalfitano, Deaf Club, fascism on 10/16/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

In the latest installment of On Tyranny, Brian Amalfitano (Deaf Club, ACxDC) criticizes the right wing in America for abusing free speech to further their racist, sexist, anti-immigrant and fascist aims—including, shockingly, in quarters of the punk-rock underground. Amalfitano also provides insight into Deaf Club‘s newly released album, We Demand a Permanent State of Happiness (Southern Lord), what nihilism means in the guitarist’s point of view and how it might take longer than a generation to undo the catastrophic damage that the Trump regime continues to inflict upon America.

Following our Wednesday night conversation, Amalfitano touched base again with The Bad Penny to share sentiments expressed by a hero of his and of this website, Kurt Cobain: “If any of you, in any way, hate homosexuals, people of a different color or women, please do this one favor for us — leave us the fuck alone.”

Additionally, Newsweek reported Thursday that the Trump administration indeed may double it’s “bailout” of Argentina to $40 billion, while the cost of extending the Obamacare subsidies that is apparently at the heart of the U.S. government shutdown would amount to about $35 billion for the next fiscal year. (Meanwhile, the same Congressional budget resolution has already granted $29 billion in new funding for ICE, swelling its budget to a size greater than the national military of all but 15 to 20 countries.)

Check out The Bad Penny‘s 43-part On Tyranny series, which The Bad Penny launched in the spring, here. Recent installments include interviews with Cosmic Reaper, MyVeronica, Planet on a Chain, Necrofier, Cheap Perfume, Bobby Conn and many more.

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On Tyranny: Cosmic Reaper’s Frontman Says ‘This Is a Class War … We Can Take the Power Back’

Posted in Features, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags authoritarianism, Cosmic Reaper, Donald Trump, fascism, On Tyranny on 10/15/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

The honorable Thad Collis, guitarist and vocalist for surging doom-metal squad Cosmic Reaper from Charlotte, North Carolina, blasts the oligarchy and warns that the metal underground will not be spared in Authoritarian America if we all don’t act immediately to stop the Trump regime. The band’s new album, Bleed the Wicked, Drown the Damned (Heavy Psych Sounds), is already a contender for best metal album of the year. Buy it here. Check out The Bad Penny‘s 42-part On Tyranny series, launched roughly around March, here.

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On Tyranny: Planet on a Chain Vocalist Says ‘A Lot of People Are Willing to Fight Hate in This Nation’

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags authoritarianism, Donald Trump, fascism, MAGA, On Tyranny, Planet on a Chain on 10/01/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

In the latest installment of The Bad Penny‘s series On Tyranny, we enjoy a comfortable conversation with Planet on a Chain vocalist Dave Ackerman about terrifying topics like Authoritarian America, censorship, and why it’s imperative for the punk-rock community to fight fascism immediately.

We also discuss Planet on a Chain’s bracing new album, Ritual Routine, which drops Friday on Revelation Records. Order a copy here and check out the Oakland punks’ Bandcamp page here.

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On Tyranny: Feminist Punk Band Cheap Perfume Declares ‘White Supremacy Is Not Punk Rock’

Posted in Features, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags authoritarianism, Cheap Perfume, Christian Donaldson, fascism, feminism, Jane No, MAGA, On Tyranny, punk rock, Stephanie Byrne on 09/30/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Cheap Perfume don’t know how to talk cheap. Ahead of their new album dropping Friday, feminist punk quartet Cheap Perfume discuss Authoritarian America with rock journalist Kurt Orzeck as part of his ongoing series On Tyranny. Vocalist Stephanie Byrne and guitarist/co-vocalist Jane No open up about threats they’ve received, how the LGBTQ+ community is under attack and needs to band together now more than ever, and how they “implore artists to just say ‘fuck that’ to self-censorship.”

Preorder Cheap Perfume’s Don’t Care. Didn’t Ask, which comes out Friday on Snappy Little Numbers, here.

Check out the archive of The Bad Penny‘s ever-growing and increasingly popular On Tyranny series here.

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On Tyranny: Metal Band Malevich ‘Had a String of Shows Canceled for Some of Our [Pro-Palestinian] Activism’

Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags authoritarianism, Donald Trump, fascism, MAGA, Malevich, On Tyranny, Palestine on 09/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

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Last night, The Bad Penny had the distinct pleasure of catching up with one-half of Atlanta’s blackened post-death metal band Malevich: drummer/vocalist Sasha Schilbrack-Cole and guitarist Josh McIntyre. We talked a bit about Under a Gilded Sun, their new album, which hit the streets and the Interwebs late last month. But the bulk of our conversation revolved around how Authoritarian America is impacting musicians, as we had planned for the interview to be part of The Bad Penny‘s ongoing series On Tyranny.

Little did we know that we’d be speaking to two individuals whose intellectual capacity is as profound as their crushingly righteous music. Enjoy perhaps the best installment yet in The Bad Penny‘s On Tyranny series by watching the entire video above or on YouTube, or reading an abridged version of the conversation after the jump.

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On Tyranny: Ex-U.S. Navy Captain-Turned-Psych-Rock Musician Jeremy Moore Warns of Fascism

Posted in Features, On Tyranny, On Tyranny with tags authoritarianism, dictator, Donald Trump, fascism, Jeremy Moore, On Tyranny, trump, tyranny, Zabus on 09/24/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Jeremy Moore, originator of Washington, D.C., avant-garde/psychedelic-rock collective Zabus, takes part in The Bad Penny‘s “On Tyranny” series to talk with music journalist Kurt Orzeck about the relationship between authoritarianism and societal inaction, and how his time serving as a U.S. Navy captain gives him a unique perspective on the rise of fascism in the U.S.