Archive for Stress Positions

The Bad Penny’s Top 50 Best LPs of 2025, Pt. 1: Sharon Van Etten, Spy, Turnstile, Swans, Cloakroom

Posted in Album Reviews, Lists, Reviews with tags , , , , , , , , , on 11/23/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

A lot of fucked-up up shit happened in the U.S. this year. Way, way too much of it. For many of us Americans who actually carry values in our hearts instead of bloviating about them or slapping bumper stickers on our monster trucks, it was almost too much to bear.

Fortunately, 2025 also saw the release of a staggering number of stellar records, which made the year a little more … well, bearable. Hence, for the first time ever, The Bad Penny is deviating from its usual annual tradition of limiting out favorite listens to just 10 and breaking them into a five-part series containing 10 records per installment.

What follows is the first batch.

41. Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory (Jagjaguwar)

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Stress Positions Frontman ‘Voice[s] Thoughts Fully and Without Fear’

Posted in Interviews with tags on 08/20/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re now living in a critical juncture in human history with a clear delineation between the cowardly and the brave, between those turning a blind eye to atrocities and those who are standing up to be counted, and those who lack moral character and those who don’t. Among those fighting the good fight are Stress Positions, a hardcore-punk band from Chicago that refuses to deviate from their crusade for justice and equality five years into a dizzying blur of a career. Read my full interview with the band on Post-Trash.