The Witzard

So, we don't post too much about 80's Metal, Hair Metal, or just Metal in general... but we do very much enjoy loud, fast, and generally hard music, as well. Van Halen (VH) have always been one of those bands that holds a special place in our heart; both David Lee Roth & Sammy Hagar had goofy, charaismatic personalities during their tenures with VH, but are, arguably, two of the best frontmen to ever hold a mic! Not to mention the sheer artistic ability and musical innovation of guitarist Eddie Van Halen, his brother/drummer Alex Van Halen, long-time bassist Michael Anothony, and later, bassist Wolfgang "Wolfie" Van Halen, who was, actually Eddie's own son. Van Halen have countless great albums that play extremely well from front-to-back, but one of our personal favorites is their 1978 self-titled debut. It includes an endless amount of hits, such as "Runnin' with The Devil," "Eruption," "You Really Got Me" (a Kinks cove

Scott Reynolds with Anti-Flag at The Friffid, Australia, 2016 (SOURCE: AAA Backstage) New York-based artist Scott Reynolds has become something of a legend amongst underground Punk/Hardcore die-hards. Reynolds is widely known and beloved for his grizzled tone, acrobatic-like vocal abilities, and short time spent with Descendents' off-shoot ALL from 1989-93. Scott "Ratchet" Reynolds has intermittently performed and/or recorded with the likes of The Bonesaw Romance, Fastgato, Goodbye Harry, The Pavers, Scott Reynolds & The Steaming Beast, Three Car Pile-up, TonyALL, and, most recently, cover bands like Wuttin Tarnation & Just Like Them. For his latest solo effort, Chihuahua In Buffalo , worked with his former ALL bandmate Bill Stevenson, who procuded and engineered the album, along with Andrew Berlin & Jason Livermore, at his own The Blasting Room. It's the first time Reynolds & Stevenson have worked together on an album since Fastgato's widely unr

CBGB's "Frankenstein" Flyer (CREDIT: David Ackerman) We’ve Got A Flyer On You will (hopefully!) be a new recurring column here at The Witzard. It’s set to feature, examine, and re-visit mixed bill/genre, once-in-a-lifetime, iconic, and otherwise noteworthy Punk/Hardcore show flyers and their corresponding line-ups. As often as possible, we plan to speak directly with the promoters, bookers, flyer artists, soundmen/women, show attendees, and, most importantly, the artists themselves. If all goes well, we’re even hoping to, eventually, cover a handful of shows we attended ourselves in years past, as well. For the inaugural edition of We’ve Got A Flyer On You, we’ll be spotlighting an infamous December 2000 show at CBGB’s featuring Mouthpiece (who were reuniting,) BANE, Reach The Sky, American Nightmare, and Tear It Up! The infamous Frankenstein/Santa Claus flyer was posted last December across a bunch of Punk/Hardcore flyer Instagram, and like-minded, pages in honor of

Fontana, California-based artist Clark Domae was a driving force behind the success of early 2000's Pop-punk/Emo pioneers Rufio. Domae played lead guitar and sang back-up vocals across Rufio's four critically-acclaimed albums, as well as a handful of singles and EP's, released between 2001-10. Domae was part of Rufio's initial run between 2000-07 and reunion stints held in 2010-12 and 2015. During their heyday, Rufio toured alongside of bands like Alkaline Trio, Brand New, Less Than Jake, Relient K, Senses Fail, and Taking Back Sunday. Since Rufio's 2007 disbandment, Clark Domae has started a family, gone back to school, maintains a "normal" job, and still plays guitar from time to time after his kids go to bed. Clark played guitar on "Drugs" from his one-time bandmate Scott Sellers' 2018 solo EP The Judge and most recently, revitalized an old band with Sellers and Aaron Fernandez. BigCity's awesomely-titled The Quest for Power EP con

Fireside Chats Cassette Tape Art/Prints By: Ethan D'Ercole Chicago-based artist Jason Griff (sometimes, just "Griff") has become a heavyweight in Indie Hip-Hop in recent years. Griff is part of an Underground Hip-Hop network that spans from Chicago to Philly and likely even farther. Griff has produced music for the likes of Zilla Rocca, Scorcese Lorde Jones, Alex Ludovico, My Man Shafe, and Curly Castro. Within recent years, Griff co-founded a label imprint dubbed Insubordinate Records along with Alex Ludovico and Scorces Lorde Jones (may he rest in peace) to release both collabrative and solo efforts from each. Griff's most recent album is a primarily Punk/Hardcore-sampling affair, Fireside Chats, which references iconic Chicago venue, The Fireside Bowl. It features collaborations with emcees Alex Ludovico, Juganaut, ALASKA, defcee, Moecyrus, Scorcese, billy woods, Curly Castro, Zilla Rocca, ialive, PremRock, and SKECH185. Fireside Chats by Jason Griff I. Wh

Been seeing a lot of Shock G stories (so many of 'em, so good.) Many people in The Bay, mostly music industry folks, all have a story of that cat, kinda mythical, like the Prince or Bill Murray tales you sometimes hear. An indelible mark they leave on you just doing some regular sh*t, 'cuz they're simply special like that. I have a few, but this one sticks out as one of my faves, details all, of course, a bit fuzzy due to this time in my life (so much 🥦) but, also, this was roughly 20 years ago (crazy that I still remember so much of this night, but you would, too, if you experienced it...) My guy, Ryan (then, known as Earflaps, now running Discos Mas) used to have a Wednesday at The Ivy Room on San Pablo. It was, generally, a laid-back affair, but all wax and tons of fun when I joined. Ivy Room is (historically) a little hole-in-the-wall (mostly Rock) live music venue, but on occasion, they'd have Blues & Soul and some random DJ nights. One Wednesday, we wer