exclusive: the soundtrack to danny denial’s bazzooka is a revolution in sound

There are few voices in the underground as bold as Danny Denial’s. Bandleader, producer, filmmaker, and all around organizer, Denial’s music is unapologetically Black and unapologetically queer, each new project spinning out into an increasingly enmeshed multimedia universe. Spanning from the chilling DETHHEADS USA to their latest project, the visionary dystopian series BAZZOOKA, Danny’s projects have an unmistakable authorial voice always building on what came before. The soundtrack to BAZZOOKA brings together some of our favorite acts in the scene for a record that, like the best soundtracks, captures the magic that makes the series tick while standing as an album in its own right.

As Danny explains, “As amazing as producing BAZZOOKA the series has been, curating the all-Black soundtrack has been the real beating heart of the project. This is a personally cathartic journey for me, after navigating the past year, the pandemic, and the civil rights movement as a Black artist, and the soundtrack in particular is what I’m most proud of. Connecting with my peers in this way, from Black Ends to The Black Tones to The OBGMs and Troi Irons, has been as inspiring as it’s been healing. I think solidarity has been a saving grace for us all, and I’m excited to see what else we can create when we work together.”

The final installment of the series, Episode 6 “SEATTLE IS BURNING” is out now, streaming below.

Building on the momentum of the BAZZOOKA Soundtrack, Danny Denial has been working on a project to highlight the overlooked grunge icon Tina Bell, telling us “A big part of honoring contemporary Black excellence in colonized spaces is looking back at the trailblazers who paved this path for us. I’m thinking of Black artists in alternative music like Death, Poly Styrene, and – in Seattle, specifically – Tina Bell. Tina Bell was the vocalist of Seattle band Bam Bam, known in these circles as the proto-grunge pioneers who influenced grunge bands like Pearl Jam and Mother Love Bone. But, as a Black woman fronting a rock band in the late 1980’s, she hasn’t been memorialized in Seattle music history quite the way her white contemporaries were. I had the honor of participating in a KEXP Sound & Vision retrospective on her influence and legacy with Eva Walker, and I’m also excited to be working with Bam Bam to honor her in our BAZZOOKA finale. We’ve ended each episode with a performance by a Black artist on the stage of The Central Saloon, and for our last performance, we leave it on an empty stage to the voice of the incredible Tina Bell. It’s a testament to how far we’ve come, and how much work we have to do.”

Get more from Danny Denial on Instagram @fuckdannydenial