It seemed inevitable from the moment that Brandi Carlile walked onstage to perform a massive benefit concert in the wake of the ICE-provoked melees that occurred in Minneapolis six months ago that her performance would be historic. Now the soaring singer-songwriter is helping solidify the importance and magnitude of the show by making it available for free on YouTube for all to see.
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A little over three years ago, unparalleled album art illustrator Frank Kozik – best known for being embraced by the stoner-rock community – or, as The New York Times gently worded it, “graphic artist best known for his posters for alternative rock bands.” While The Bad Penny was not in a position at the time to celebrate his and grieve his passing, now feels as good time as any to do so.
To be clear, Kozik’s widow, Sharon Kozik, is in control of his social media accounts. While she hasn’t posted copiously, she did publish the following in January:
“Frank would often tell me stories about what it was like growing up in Spain under Franco’s fascist dictatorship. He moved to America when he was 15 to escape it. Much of his artwork deals with the themes of rebelling against fascism, mocking it. He fully embraced our right of freedom of expression and open political discourse. Regardless of your political beliefs we must keep America free from government tyranny and police snatching people off the street, from their homes, schools.”
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Is it redundant to say that black-metal bands don’t fuck around writ large? If that question is bouncing around in your brain, try to shake it out of your ear – or at least save yourself a punishing amount of embarrassment, and maybe even your life, by never posing that question to Qasu. Well, at least when they’re not draped in cloaks. The British/American trio refer to their harrowing sound as “ancient future black metal,” the most badass name for the subgenre of another subgenre.
If the above pic doesn’t make it abundantly clear, Qasu take their music very seriously. That fact is evident over the entire duration of A Bleak King Cometh, Qasu’s recently released debut LP created by Aldous Daniken (the trio’s so-called “instrumentation” pro), Rahsaan Sagan (voice and electronics) and Nikhil Talwalkar (drums). The tour-de-force is distributed in North America by Season of Mist, and released as a collaboration effort between Phantom Limb and Apocalyptic Witchcraft.
As with their music, Qasu appear to be equally serious about politics – that is, if the term still has any meaning given the existentially terrifying times in which we live. Mega props go to Qasu for speaking their mind about today’s unprecedented social ills, and refusing to self-censor or obey Trump America’s fascist authority figures in advance. And while we’re at it, shame on the artists, entertainers and Hollywood executives who aren’t addressing the most important debate of our lifetimes: what is right and what is wrong, not what is left or what is right. Their cowardly calculations to not stand up for their neighbors and defend civil rights are making it all the more difficult for those of us fighting the good fight.
When we came across Qasu earlier this year, we knew right away that the band gets its. And yet, for all the seriousness with which Qasu treat their music and beliefs, we discovered Daniken to be a ye olde merry jolly good fellow. (That’s how they talk in the United Kingdom, right?) Lucky for us, he carved out some time to speak with The Bad Penny for our ongoing series called On Tyranny. And now we bring you our conversation with Daniken (which we didn’t videotape this time around).
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If you’ve enjoyed The Bad Penny‘s ongoing On Tyranny series, be sure to pick up the latest edition of The Big Takeover, underground music’s best magazine. Publisher, editor and perhaps the best person on earth Jack Rabid graciously allowed me once again to write one of the three coveted opinion essays that lead off the 160-page edition. My second commentary is a kindred spirit of the first, and both digs deep into the sums up lessons learned from On Tyranny. If you believe in punk rock and for which it stands, buy the newest issue of The Big Takeover.
Gifts come in all shapes and sizes. But The Bad Penny has never received nor published any piece of writing as remotely profound, thoroughly researched, detailed, brilliant, educational and exceptional as a dissertation-style thought piece/ intellectual analysis of this website’s On Tyranny series that Berlin-based American singer/songwriter Chad Randall Matheny, a.k.a. Emperor X, recently sent us. In his comprehensive analysis, Matheny discusses the connection that On Tyranny has to the broader worldwide trend that the educator and noise-pop provocateur refers to as “The Global Political Realignment” that is currently underway.
Before you dig into Matheny’s masterpiece, this seems like an appropriate time and place to tell readers of this website, and specifically On Tyranny, that maintaining it has been and continues to be a tremendous challenge. While I will elaborate on the story of the series at another time – truly, what Emperor X has created here is worthy of your attention more so than any other post on this website – publicists, musicians, friends and family members have recommended I halt or even terminate this series amid the growing threat of fascism in the U.S.
[Emperor X’s new album, Unified Field, will be issued by Bar/None and available for purchase starting June 26. Rest assured that The Bad Penny will cover the release heavily. Read more about Emperor X on his website; and his Instagram, Facebook and Bandcamp accounts.]
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