Archive for Swans

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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Big Takeover #96: Michael Gira and Todd Trainer Interviews, Bernie/AOC Rally Coverage, More

Posted in Album Reviews, Essays, Features, Interviews, Reviews with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 06/05/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

The special 45th anniversary edition of The Big Takeover, one of the oldest and last-surviving punk-rock magazines, is now available here. The special issue features more contributions from yours truly than every before–and they’re exclusively featured in the magazine:

• a deep conversation with Michael Gira of Swans
• my second feature with drummer Todd Trainer, stemming from the first interview he gave after the passing of his beloved Shellac bandmate Steve Albini
• a dispatch from a “Fighting Oligarchy” event in Idaho that featured Built to Spill, Bernie Sanders and AOC (and drew national attention)
• my reviews of new releases by Airport 77s, Dez Dare, Librarians With Hickeys, Mdou Moctar, mssv, Onsetter, Pleasure Pill, Plight, Royal Chant and Unstable Shapes