Archive for James Joyce

What You Readin’ For?: Geeking Out Over James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ With Lo-Fi Musician/Brainiac Tommy Oeffling

Posted in Exclusives, Features, Interviews, Videos, What You Readin' For? with tags , , on 11/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

“I can’t call myself a musician yet.”

So says lo-fi rock musician Tom Oeffling, who just put out his eighth album – Neighbors (22TWENTY) – roughly two weeks ago and stands as one of the most humble and smartest musicians with whom The Bad Penny has had the good fortune of connecting.

The Chicago artist’s new album is based on the indisputably greatest book ever to come out of Ireland – and, in the opinion of yours truly, contemporary times – James Joyce’s Ulysses. In this interview, we probe Oeffling’s brilliant mind about the impact the tome had on him, how he structured his new album around it – and the friggin’ challenge of getting through the most difficult book ever written.

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