The Witzard

The Witzard and Don't Panic have a long strange relationship together. Well, maybe, not exactly "strange," but it's definitely one of my personal favorites I've forged over these past 10 years running this very site. It was quite a few years ago, maybe, about 2009 or so, on a complete whim, I saw Don't Panic at local now-defunct Vineland, New Jersey venue Hangar 84. I believe, Don't Panic were opening up for The Ataris and I vaguely recall talking to one of the members' (maybe, drummer Anthony Paesano) parents about it being his first show with the band. Their set was phenomenal and I ended up buying a CD copy of Don't Panic's then-new EP, My Fairweather Friend . One track in particular, "Caroline," quickly became a staple on CD-R mixtapes I was actively making for my then-girlfriend/now-wife. However, it appears as though by 2011-12, Don't Panic had broken up or, at least, gone on an indefinite hiatus. So, you could imagine

Early on during Nation-wide Quarantine/Lockdowns, it appears as though Ridgewood, New Jersey's own Senses Fail hunkered down and laid down a remotely recorded album chock-full of covers of classic Punk, Hardcore, and Emo-adjacent staples. "Doing a quarantine covers record. Just finished "We're Only Gonna Die" by @badreligion," a Tweet dated April 8, 2020 explained. "Gonna be DIY. I'm gonna mix it and Gavin & I are doing I remotely. Pretty fun, so far. We, also, have a Morrissey song. Thinking about Jawbreaker, maybe, early Get Up Kids," Senses Fail frontman James "Buddy" Nielson further detailed on @SensesFail's band page. Since then, no additional details concerning said covers comp. have come to the surface, but fingers crossed, it's still happening! Through Being Ghoul by Senses Fail Concurrently, Senses Fail have seemingly been working on the proper follow-up to 2018's If There Is Light, It Will Find You, e

If The Witzard mainstay John "Jumbled" Bachman is truly "somewhere between Madlib & Mike Watt," does that mean Eben Dennis is the James Williamson to his Mike Watt? For those unfamiliar with this head-scratching "analogy," Mike Watt & James Williamson appeared together within the 2000's reunited iteration of Iggy Pop-helmed The Stooges ; Williamson played guitar with Iggy from 1970-71, 1972-74, and 2009-13, while Watt joined between 2003-13 playing bass across Stooges "reunion" albums The Weirdness (2007) and Ready to Die (2013.) Thus, we've been familiar with Eben Dennis' musical output just as long as we've been writing about Jumbled. In fact, Dennis provided additional guitar riffs to Berko Lover-assisted "Sam Adams" from our very first introduction to Jumbled, 2016's [I wish it was longer] or WIWL. Only Devotion by Plague Saints We've since covered John Bachman & Eben Dennis' work togeth

Last month we told you about the latest installment of Brycon & G-Pek's There's No More Room In Hell (6) just in time for a last-minute addition to your Halloween-themed playlists. Now, less than a month later, Brycon has already returned with his next proper solo outing: Brutalism EP. It's being described as "a 7-song EP focused on city life and some of its associated hardships. Each track surveys and explores around these themes, but leaves the resolve in the listener's hands." More or less, a "beat tape" in most aspects of said term, Brutalism boasts slow mechanical drums, ethereal samples, hazy conga lines, and haunting voices, as well as an overarching conceptual theme. Not entirely unlike J Dilla, Madlib, or even Kanye West before him, Brycon fully employs the "producer/musician as feature" theory here and is, indeed, front and center through and through. Additionally, to help fully flesh out this ensemble-like EP, Brycon h

YŌKAI' is a Hardcore band based out of South Central, Los Angeles. Bassist Hector Rivera (@odiocore) recently reached out to us directly after seeing our interview with WORLD BE FREE guitarist Andrew Kline. So, in addition to being part of both Ska revivalists MATAMOSKA! and Ska/Hardcore band Mafia Rusa, Rivera is, alsp, part of a straight-up Hardcore band by way of YŌKAI'. Their current line-up includes Rivera on bass along with guitarist Johnny Vallejo, vocalist Danny Ortiz, and drummer Jairo Avila. Thus far, YŌKAI's ever-growing discography includes a 2016 EP entitled Reap What You Sow and a 2020 2-track single dubbed 2020/776-66. Reap What You Sow was engineered by Taylor Young (Twitching Tongues, Code Orange, DRAIN) at The Pit Recording Studio and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audio Siege Mastering Studio. 2020/776-66 by yōkai 2020/776-66, on the other hand, was recorded and mixed by Hector Rivera's MATAMOSKA! bandmate Esteban Flores and mastered By Curtis I

Steve Haney is a drummer and percussionist widely known for his expansive body of work with Latin & Funk/Soul ensemble Jungle Fire. Haney's recording and performance highlights include Stevie Wonder, performing for President Obama at The White House with Oscar-winner A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire composer,) The Oprah Winfrey Show, Greyboy Allstars, The M-Tet, Joe Bataan, Quantic, Ozomatli, Kelly Finnigan, and GRAMMY-winning vocalist Gregory Porter. However, in addition to his musical endeavors, Haney moonlights as visual artist VISIONS COLLAGE (@visionscollage) tranforming mixed media into paper-cut collages. We've, personally, been Following Steve Haney's various VISIONS COLLAGE & Jungle Fire social media pages for quite a few years now. Haney's collages are typically hand-cut, extremely vibrant, often primarily feature musicians, and are, sometimes, shared with various alternate renditions. While boasting a multitude of musicians and bands from across