Archive for Ripple Music

See Florida’s Face-Flattening Fearsome Foursome Florist Say Adios to Their Stomping Ground, Crowbar

Posted in Interviews, Videos with tags , , , , on 07/27/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

One chapter ends and another one begins.

Florist – a band from Tampa, Florida – left desert-doom devourers speechless after releasing their first album, Contact, in 2023. They’ve been on a roll since then and just signed two weeks ago to Ripple Music, perhaps the fastest-growing heavy-metal record label on the planet. But while Florist’s prospects are bright – Ripple is reissuing their Adrift EP on August 21 – the band was bittersweet when The Bad Penny caught up with them on Friday.

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Favorite Films: Fireball Ministry’s Emily Burton Digs ‘Jackie Brown’ ‘Aliens,’ ‘Big Trouble in Little Lebowski’ … and a Pick You’d Never Guess

Posted in Favorite Films, Features, Interviews, Videos with tags , , , , , , , , , on 07/25/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

It was only a month ago that Fireball Ministry co-founder and guitar virtuoso Emily Burton graciously set aside some of her busy schedule to talk about her and all the current developments that are making her beam at the status of her influential, 27-year-old stoner rock band. (Read all about her successful litigation here.)

When we checked in with her for part two of our conversation, she was in much better spirits and game for talking about some of her movies of all time. For those who don’t live in the loop, musicians have extraordinarily long stretches between †venues, affording them some time to cozy up in a band, rewrite and rewrite and rewrite once again the band’s set list. Burton prefers the latter.

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Ripple Music Prez Details All ‘Beneath the Desert Floor’ Heavy-Psych LPs, Hints at New Fireball Ministry Album

Posted in Interviews, Lists, News with tags , , , , , , , , , on 06/28/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

Earlier this week, we brought you a long-overdue but hugely rewarding interview with Fireball Ministry co-founder and guitar virtuoso Emily Burton. The conversation revolved mostly around the desert-rock band’s big win in regaining the rights to their record The Second Great Awakening, which they then recently reissued in conjunction with their current label, Ripple Music (based in San Ramon, California).

Today, we focus on the series in which the reissue is part of: Beneath the Desert Floor, a program that Ripple Music President/CEO Todd Severin launched in January 2024. Best of all, said discussion revolves around an interview with – can you believe it? – Severin himself. Join us as one of most important figures in the world of heavy psych comments on each installment of the treasured series.

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Video Interview: Fireball Ministry Fought for Their (Album) Rights – and Scored a Big Victory

Posted in Interviews, News, Videos with tags , , on 06/24/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

The track record of musicians suing the record labels that employed them is pretty dismal. The reason is obvious: Artists generally aren’t very wealthy. Meanwhile, the companies that hire creators for their services – and not uncommonly have a sick fetish for screwing them over when the relationship sours – have more money than they know what to do with.

That’s why it’s such a cause for celebration when artists defeat their employers, which are typically corporate controlled, in David-beats-Goliath fashion. One of the most heartwarming examples of an underdog band scoring a major court victory over their former label recently transpired when pioneering stoner-rock squad Fireball Ministry won back the rights to what is largely considered their best record, 2003’s The Second Great Awakening.

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26 Free Bandcamp Downloads #13 (Steroid Edition): Multiple DLs From Gottlieb, Nequient, Thou, Malevich

Posted in Lists, MP3s with tags , , , , , , , , , on 05/30/2026 by Kurt Orzeck

We injected steroids into the 13th and latest installment of our Bandcamp Freebies series. Let us explain: Whereas the installments typically feature one pay-what-you-want single, EP or LP by each of the 10 bands featured in them, this time we’re providing between two to 11 downloads per artist. But because one post can only swell so much before it becomes unwieldy, we’re only spotlighting five great artists this time around. Nonetheless, this is still the meatiest edition in the series, so let’s not waste any more time and get to it.

(Note: If you’re financially capable of supporting any of these artists and/or labels, please consider doing so.)

1. Gottlieb

Of all the artists who have participated in our On Tyranny series, anarcho-punk band Gottlieb proved themselves to be hyper-informed about the threat of fascism and the importance of staving off its spread in the U.S. Their motto is “Get active or get out of punk,” and we couldn’t agree more.

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