The rot thickens

New short fiction and summer jams for smashing the state

Traxx at The Tower Bar

Today’s Message from the Underworld is packed with exciting news and a gnarly summer playlist so I’ll (try to) keep this short.

The Grotto

I’ve got a new short story called “The Grotto” in the literary magazine X-R-A-Y and you can read it online now.

It’s a story about a writer that reads like a fable. I was going to say a dark fable, but aren’t all fables dark AF? There are no witches or woodsmen or creeps in the forest. A weary writer checks into an inn and makes a startling discovery. Here’s an excerpt:

Seamus was a quiet man who didn’t like to be fussed over. He imagined that all weekend long he was going to have to assure the innkeeper how happy he was with his room. Seamus trudged up the narrow staircase with his suitcase, angling it to avoid banging into the banister. Although it looked like a grand old house from the outside, there were only two rooms on the second floor. The words THE GROTTO had been painted on the door at the top of the landing. With something like foreboding, Seamus inserted the key and opened the door.

It’s about success and failure and what those words mean in the context of the arts. I first started submitting this story five years ago in the summer of 2020 and its racked up quite a few rejections over the years, which is fitting given the premise. I couldn’t be more pleased with the experience I had with the editors at X-R-A-Y who read the story carefully and offered thoughtful feedback and encouragement.

I hope you check it out and, if you read it, I’m eager to hear your thoughts!

You May Now Fail to Destroy Me

I’m also pleased to announce that I’ll have a piece in the forthcoming anthology You May Now Fail to Destroy Me, a collection of American writers about their most dangerous beliefs. I’m not going to tell you my truth is now, but I will say this project dovetailed nicely with something I’ve been working on all summer.

If you’d like to contribute an essay or a story (or something in between) submissions are open until July 15, 2025.

Warped Tour 2025

Thanks to the folks at the Punk Rock Museum, I’m going to the Warped Tour! I’ll be at the Punk Rock Museum’s book tent with a crew of other great writers and photographers. I’ll be signing copies of some of my books from 2pm-3pm. I’ll also be helping out at the tent from 1pm to 6pm so stop on by and say hi!

Signed copies of My Damage

While I was at the Punk Rock Museum with Keith last month, I asked him to sign a few hardcover editions of My Damage. I’m making a few of these available for purchase for Message from the Underworld subscribers in the United States. There are only a handful of copies of My Damage with both of our signatures, and now one can be yours.

If you’re interested, message me ASAP.

Halfway through 2025

I’ve put together of playlist of music from the first half of 2025. (All links below for bandcamp.) The Minneapolis crust punk band War//Plague’s new record The Rot Thickens embodies today’s state of affairs and serves as the playlist’s organizing principle.

It opens with Bob Vylan’s brutal “Killing Punk” and ends with Kneecap’s triumphant “The Recap.” The playlist is inspired by their reminder that victory is possible when you have the courage of your convictions. I think

Caitlin Johnstone

nails it in her newsletter The Empire Has Accidentally Caused the Rebirth of Real Counterculture in the West:

The rich and powerful don’t care if you dye your hair or pierce your nose or kiss a member of the same sex or say Hail Satan. They don’t care if you support one mainstream political faction over the other, or if you yell empty words about anarchy and revolution that aren’t pointed toward any real material goals. They care very much, however, if you are undermining public consent for military and geopolitical agendas they’ve worked very hard to propagandize the public into accepting.

Hell yeah. New and new-to-me bands include Spy from the Bay Area, LIE from Houston, Guck from LA, Kröna from the Dominican Republic, and Mares of Thrace from Alberta, Calgary, whom I’m looking forward to seeing in New Orleans in September.

You’ll also find new (or newly discovered) tracks from classic acts like the Melvins, Mclusky, Hüsker Dü, and Dropkick Murphys as well as personal favorites Phane, Civic, N8NOFACE, Wavves, and Zig-Zags.

I also included a track from 2024 from the Australian band Speed because they’re opening for Turnstile and Amyl and the Sniffers who are coming to San Diego in October. By my count there are two bands on the bill (and this playlist) that feature a flute.

I wish I could include San Diego’s Traxx but they’re not on Spotify. HFS this song is great! It goes hard from the jump and doesn’t let up. I saw them at the Tower Bar on Monday night and I’m sorely tempted to drive up to LA to see them again tonight or to Alex’s in Long Beach on Thursday.

Thanks for reading! Next week’s Message from the Underworld will come from a faraway place and feature one of my literary heroes. If you’re not currently a subscriber, you know what to do…

If you liked this newsletter you might also like my latest novel about healthcare vigilantes Make It Stop, or the paperback edition of Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records, or my book with Bad Religion, or my book with Keith Morris. I have more books and zines for sale here. And if you’ve read all of those, consider checking out my latest collaboration The Witch’s Door and the anthology Eight Very Bad Nights.

Message from the Underworld comes out every Wednesday and is always available for free, but paid subscribers also get my deepest gratitude and Orca Alert! on most Sundays (but not last Sunday, but definitely this Sunday). It’s a weekly round-up of links about art, culture, crime, and killer whales.