Archive for J Mascis

From the Vault: Lou Barlow Opens Up About Opening For Dinosaur Jr.

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , on 09/20/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

It is no longer possible to be antisocial. Because, if you could, Lou Barlow wouldn’t be on Twitter.

That’s right, the guy who couldn’t get out of his own head for most of his life is now having trouble getting back into it.

In an age when everyone’s modus operandi seems to be spilling their thoughts onto social-networking sites as frequently and quickly as possible, it seems that introspection has gone out the window. And Barlow, indie rock’s prince of pondering, agrees.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about that,” he recently told IndiePit, replying with an amusing choice of words. “The time that I would spend in the past – just writing in a journal, let’s say – I now spend going on Facebook and doing 10 blurbs to people. Everything becomes, ‘Oh yeah, I gotta keep in touch with this person.’

“I like that I’m able to connect with people now and it doesn’t have to be on the phone – which I have a real hard time with,” he told us via telephone, “but at the same time, I was realizing, ‘Wow, you know, I haven’t really sat down to do a lot of journals,’ where I was just writing stuff off the top of my head that I can use later or that just helps me sort through. But after a year of touring, I think there will be plenty of isolation. I have to reclaim that part of my life.”

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2024 New Releases Calendar

Posted in Latest New Releases Schedule, New Releases with tags , , , , , , , , , on 12/31/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Excited about the new year? Dreading it? Either way, a litany of new releases confirmed for 2024 should delight you at least a little bit. Pay extra attention to the entries in bold — those are the releases that The Bad Penny is most looking forward to hearing.

January 5

Babys – Live at the Bottom Line, 1979 (Omnivore)
Children’s Hour – Going Home (Drag City)
Jordsjuk – Siste Skanse single (Indie) 
Kevin Burt & Big Medicine – Thank You, Brother Bill; Tribute to Bill Withers (Gulf Coast)
Morgue Terror – s/t (self-release)
Oddeven – Darkness (Eclipse)
Pile – Hot Air Balloon EP (Exploding in Sound)
Sprints – Letter to Self (City Slang)
Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend (Slumberland)

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Revising History: Mike Watt On John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, More

Posted in Features, Revising History with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 10/08/2010 by Kurt Orzeck

Now this is quite the honor: Mike Watt, one of the most respected musicians ever to lurk in the underground, has anted up – all jazz-style – for the second installment in the Bad Penny’s brand-new series, Revising History. Continue reading