Settle in for a profound conversation about Authoritarian America with the hyper-intelligent and hyper-talented Tim Browne, vocalist and guitarist for long-running Colorado punk band Elway.
“There’s an endemic undercurrent of detached cynicism and irony on the left in general, and there’s a point of no return after which you become disengaged with politics, you become part of the problem by letting your detachment rule you out of doing anything to fight it,” he says. “And they’re counting on it too.”
It doesn’t take an economic genius to know that Donald Trump’s deranged obsession with tariffs – a fixed charge on an imported good that citizens of the country importing the good ultimately bear the cost of paying – is wreaking havoc on America’s economy. Not to mention the economies of many other countries across the world.
The policy is so plainly dumb and illegal – it’s the U.S. Congress that authorizes tariffs, not the executive branch – that it appears likely even the U.S. Supreme Court, which has failed to rein in Trump to the severe, perhaps irreversible detriment to our country – is going to strike down Trump’s unilateral move, which appears to be the only be the only kind he can make due to, you know, that whole separation of powers thing. (Hence the reason why this post is part of our On Tyranny series.)
Anyway, one of The Bad Penny‘s favorite record labels – Mumbai, India-based underground extreme metal specialists Transcending Obscurity – declared Monday that they’re executing a workaround to Trump’s moronic policy.
Seattle singer-songwriter Robert Deeble has a lot on his mind these days, and it isn’t just his seventh record, The Space Between Us, which is planned for release Feb. 6 through his own Mind Bomb Publishing imprint. Nay, the socially attuned, voracious reader, prolific musician and contemplative in the truest sense of the world is trying to gather what he gained from spending four years mostly in isolation – but with some help with trusted collaborators. They include bassist Viktor Krauss (Allison Krauss/Robert Plant), drummer Lacey Brown (Damien Jurado) and producer Ric Hordinski (producer, string arrangements, guitar).
Major labels suuuck. This we know. But sometimes they get bruised by the little guys – let’s call them “Davids” – who manage to land a clean blow on the Goliaths. Scarsdale, New York’s Too Much Joy accomplished this feat when they regained the rights from Warner Bros. to their second LP, Son of Sam I Am – and that motivated the four lifelong friends who comprise the band to start recording and even play shows again in earnest.
The circumstances also gave Too Much Joy the opportunity to commiserate with how much the U.S. had changed for the worse when they got together in 2000. It’s a dialogue they continue to have now, and which they let The Bad Penny take part in as part of our ongoing series On Tyranny, in which musicians talk about the direct damage that Authoritarian America is having on their artistic careers and personal lives. If Too Much Joy can defeat Warner Bros., can’t the 75 million Americans who didn’t vote for Trump take him down too?
Enjoy this lively conversation with Too Much Joy vocalist Tim Quirk and singer/bassist Sandy Smallens, which took place exactly a month ago, and then hear from many more artists like The Locust, Brett Bradford from Scratch Acid, Bobby Conn, Deaf Club, Carcass, Moonspell and 50 more artists in the On Tyranny archive.
May these discussions motivate you to learn about the horrors happening in this country, spur you into action, realize that you are not alone, and get involved in the thousands of communities fighting fascism before it is too late.
Go here to Too Much Joy’s Bandcamp page for much more on the band. And stay tuned for the next print edition of The Big Takeover to read my feature story on them.
Palm Ghosts’ Joseph Lekkas was all smiles when The Bad Pennycaught up with him a little under a year ago. We connected with the bassist/singer in his residence via video conference call, and he was surrounded by his trio of devastatingly adorable dachshunds. Additionally, his long-running Nashville band, Palm Ghosts, were giddily on the verge of releasing new songs.
Fast-forward to roughly a month ago, when we checked in again with Lekkas and Palm Ghosts bandmate Benjamin Douglas (vocals, guitar, keyboards). We immediately noticed that they were burned out emotionally – and likely spiritually and physically as well – thanks to the terror that the Evil Empire Trump Administration is inflicting on the American public.
To most, it will seem incongruous that this website is cover footballing to any extent. Or applaud an American citizen whose net worth hovers in the $250 million range. But because the sport is caught between a pop mega-star and a hard right-wing contingent in the U.S., we find it fitting to salute NFL Commissioner (aka CEO) Roger Goodell for backing up Bad Bunny at a Super Bowl press conference this morning.
That’s not to mention that we previously covered the Latin hip-hop star’s decision to avoid touring the U.S. for fear of ICE raiding his concerts. And the fact that Trump, Kristi Noem and other sycophantic, bigoted trolls in the White House are unabashedly trying to limit free speech or even make it a crime. Ergo, the uproar over Bad Bunny’s scheduled performance at America’s most-watching sporting event should be made aware to musicians of all stripes.
“Some who voted for [Trump] are not necessarily bad or gullible people. If that’s the case, they should very well now regret their decision and do what they can to right the wrong. They helped put the fox in the henhouse and should help to get rid of it.”
–Brett Bradford
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Recently, yours truly had the distinct honor of conducting an extraordinarily in-depth and all-encompassing interview with one of the most crucial figures in ’80s underground music and foundational guitarists in noise rock: Brett Bradford, formerly of Scratch Acid and now a member of indie-rock quartet Suckling.
The extensive feature will appear on Post-Trash on October 7, but in the meantime, we’re bringing you, separately, his thoughts on Authoritarian America as part of The Bad Penny‘s increasingly critical series called On Tyranny. Here is that portion of the interview, followed by some additional thoughts that Bradford later shared.
Jeremy Moore, originator of Washington, D.C., avant-garde/psychedelic-rock collective Zabus, takes part in The Bad Penny‘s “On Tyranny” series to talk with music journalist Kurt Orzeck about the relationship between authoritarianism and societal inaction, and how his time serving as a U.S. Navy captain gives him a unique perspective on the rise of fascism in the U.S.
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