The Witzard

I guess it's pretty safe to say that The Streets & The Music were 2 of the BIGGEST British Rock bands to break on "this side of the pond" [America] since The Beatles/Rolling Stones' 1960-70's Classic Rock heyday; After 10+ years of well-received hits, Mike Skinner recently dissolved The Streets (2011) and around the same time, The Music decided to call it quits, too. Skinner has since teamed up with The Music frontman, Rob Harvey , and now they're producing new music under the group name "The D.O.T." Following the online pre-release of a few rough demo singles, it seems as though The D.O.T. are ready to unveil the debut full-length, And That (Oct. 22-23rd). Man, I can literally remember it like it was yesterday... when I first heard The Streets' witty, back-handed rhymes on "Fit But You Know It," which was released on some random Rolling Stone/Budweiser comp. ha. While Mike Skinner & Rob Harvey have self-rele

Jack Davey is pretty widely known as the fashion-forward, genre-blending frontwoman of "Hip-Hop" group J*Davey , but now she's decided to branch out on her own... forging a solo career as a slightly more Rock "N" Roll -tinged sultry Funk-Soul songstress. Fresh off the heels of their long-awaited and [finally] self-released proper album, New Designer Drug and following the birth of her new-born son, Davey is readying her solo debut in 2 distinct parts; ILLAV8R is planning to liberate L0-F! Side A on Oct. 2nd, which Jack Davey simply describes as "a girl, her shitty guitar, and introspective songwriting." It's follow-up, Side B will see a Nov. 6th release, feature more instrumentation/advanced guitar techniques, and was produced by Joey Strat of The Knux . L0-F! Parts 1-2 will then be re-released together in a DELUXE edition with 3 bonus tracks on Dec. 11th! "Howl at The Moon" mysteriously appeared in my Inbox late yesterday

James Blake is basically the "Iggy Pop" of imported First Wave Dubstep , before it got all sugar-coated and mainstream [corny]. While it's a little unclear as to when it was originally stripped down and mixed together, "Confidence Boost" is a James Blake Harmonimix of a track that was first released back on Soulfood, Vol. 2: Lyriks (2007). Blake has brutally remixed Grime emcee Trim 's hard-hitting composition into something completely different... Skrillex could definitely learn a few things! Although, Pitchfork went on to point out that this isn't just a mere remix, it's a newly-recorded, suped-up version. Let's just call it "Confidence Boost (2.0)," for argument's sake and man, this is a CRAZY/cool breed of Hip-Hop that's in a category all of it's own! James Blake is quite arguably the most Soulful white dude in contemporary music since Hall & Oates made their ever-lasting mark on Soft Rock back in the

Pharoahe Monch , the guy behind "Simon Says," has unofficially announced the sheer existence of a new album; "Damage" is the first released track from his upcoming project, dubbed PTSD . It's actually just a quick sample/teaser of the full track, which will be released on Thursday, Sept. 27th . "Damage" is the final piece in a 3-part series of tracks that're being told from the perspective of a bullet. Pharoahe Monch has slowly issued parts 1-2 over the past 18+ years, "Stray Bullet" and "When The Gun Draws" ... articulately played out on Stress: The Extinction Agenda (1994) with his old band, Organized Konfusion and his second album, Desire . Since Monch has always managed to remain a pretty [socially] "conscious rapper," I wouldn't be too surprised if PTSD was liberated just in time to co-align with the all-important Nov. 2012 Presidential Election ! Briefly taking to Twitter, he manged to adequately

It's not really about Diplo or Zeb Malik , 2 left-field multi-instrumentalists hailing from the heart of Philly . It isn't even about stupid, in-descriptive genre classification(s). It's just "About That Life:" The plain and simple, every day is Saturday type of GOOD SHIT! The Mad Decent labelhead and super-producer who has semi-recently worked with Beyoncé , No Doubt , Usher, and Kid Cudi is finally gearing up to release his long-awaited follow-up LP to Florida (2004). Teaming up with JAHAN LENNON aka Zeb Malik from PO PO fame, who amidst inner-band fighting, have now disbanded after liberating their "debut album," DOPE BOY MAGICK (20012) ... Diplo has self-described "About That Life" as a Psychedelic Southern Gospel jam. Along with "Express Yourself," it'll eventually appear on Diplo 's untitled 2012-13 solo record. Somehow making use of a bunch of instruments that're even pretty "weird" for adv

Biz Markie has gotta be one of the most awkward rappers male vocalists in the history of music. But with that said, "Just a Friend" quite easily ranks within my [imaginary] Top 50 favourite songs OF ALL TIME list! Markie recently logged a few recording sessions with fellow Psych-Rock weird-o, Wayne Coyne . Together, Biz & Wayne managed to conjure up "2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)" along with Ke$ha , which was the lead-off track from The Flaming Lips' semi-recent Record Store Day comp, Heady Fwends . Now, they've teamed up with skate clothing brand, Volcom to create a child-like Yo Gabba Gabba! -inspired T-shirt line for adults ha. Volcom then commissioned Markie & Coyne to self-design a bunch of signature T-shirts along with Dave Grohl , Jack Black, "Napoleon Dynamite," Mark Mothersbaugh , and their forward-thinking kids. "I Can't Believe It's Really Happening" is the second track to materialize from Biz Ma

Peanut Butter Lovesicle are a band made up of 2 Jersey -bred brothers, Jake & Mike D'Arc , and their cousin, Timmy Miller who somehow effortlessly manage to combine the Classic Rock bravado of Led Zeppelin with Cage The Elephant 's brand of Country-Rock SWAG. "In The Zone" 's opening riff reminds me a little bit of The Cars' smash hit, "Good Times Roll" (1979); While the lead track was just released to the masses yesterday, Peanut Butter Lovesicle plan to liberate it's companion EP, Dirty Pride nation-wide on Sept. 25th. The band's new EP was "recorded in an 1869-built church in Hudson, NY using 2-inch tape, few overdubs, and minimal digital." Production work was handled by Henry Hirsch , who's previously worked with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Mick Jagger , and Madonna , and the tracks were then engineered by Rachel Alina . Featured below is Peanut Butter Lovesicle 's [other] Blues -drenched, Gossip Girl-s

Eternal Champ by Sweet Valley Now, this one should really apply to the gamut of college co-eds: Indie Rockers , Hip-Hopheads, Skater Punks , gamers, stoners, Hipsters bloggers, etc. ETERNAL CHAMP is a 13-track Instrumental Hip-Hop collection that's simply based around a bunch of samples pulled from Old School 1980-90's video game soundtracks. After a quick first listen, I hear bits and pieces of Sonic, Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong , and random 8-bit arcade games. Brothers Nathan & Joel (KYNAN) Williams , acting together under the Sweet Valley moniker, recently recounted to Pitchfork that "The second one took a bit longer because we took a lot of samples straight from video game stuff. So, we had to play to certain levels to get the sounds that we wanted. We did a take that's all from Ocarina of Time , the N64 game." Nathan's the founding member of beloved Indie Punk band WAVVES and KYNAN is an amateur beat-making Hip-Hop producer. " Sweet Val

My old college friend Dani was telling me about "Some Nights" a couple weekends ago @ the bar, vaguely describing it's overall style as "Afrobeat." I have to admit, right off the bat, I wasn't entirely convinced... But after a few repeated listens, I was soon convinced that fun. was much more than a mere One Hit Wonder ("We Are Young") . For fun. 's recent [second] album, they enlisted the help of Kanye -affiliated Hip-Hop producer, Jeff Bhasker . Fine-crafted over roughly 9 months, Some Nights was liberated to the masses way back on Feb. 14th; The experimental recording sessions were truly a first for both parties, who generally lean towards opposite ends of the Hip-Hop/Indie Rock spectrum. Currently signed to Fuel By Ramen , fun. 's intricate 3-part sound is made up of Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost , and Jack Antonoff . The band's first album, Aim & Ignite (2009) was highly revered by fans and critics alike. While it's es

Bob Dylan 's been on "The Never-Ending Tour" for about 40+ years straight now... rapidly releasing a new album every couple years and continually re-inventing himself as the "new Bob Dylan" for a fresh generation of youngsters. Sept. 11th saw the release of Dylan's landmark 35th album - Tempest , which is pretty impressive since he's 71 now! I always say that Bob Dylan 's music is a whole lot like Lil' Wayne 's prolific output; You either love it or hate it. A couple of my favourite albums from his damn-near expansive backcatalog are easily Blood On The Tracks , Nashville Skyline , and Blonde On Blonde . It was an utterly AMAZING experience, when I saw Bob Dylan live @ Temple with my dad and buddy Jeremy a few years back on the Christmas In The Heart album tour (2009). Aside from a bunch of random grizzly-voiced old/new tracks spanning the bulk of Dylan's discography, I really only recognized about 4-5 staple tracks puled from Highwa

Death Grips are a compelling Experimental Hip-Hop band hailing from Sacramento , who somehow manage to comfortably straddle the "line in the sand" between underground/mainstream. Essentially fronted by Indie Rock drummer Zach Hill , the band also includes Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett and producer-keyboardist Andy Morin . Since transitioning from next door neighbors to bandmates in Dec. 2010, Death Grips self-released a STELLAR, sample-heavy mixtape called Ex-military and Death Grips EP . Going out on a serious limb, LA Reid signed them to Epic Records and together, they announced a MASSIVE 2-album plan for 2012. The Money Store was liberated to the masses on April 21st and it basically duals as their major label debut; It's gotta be the most weird, un-commercial, and aggressive label-funded project released since Neil Young 's disastrous "Techno" album, Trans (1982). Death Grips' latest track, "@deathgripz" was supposed

Iggy Pop & Ginger Baker are a couple of nearly unfathomable Rock "N" Roll legends; The kinda guys that are libel to have hooked up with your mother, grandmom, and sister back in their 1960-70's heyday! Iggy Pop is quite arguably considered "The Godfather of Punk" ... having slept with David Bowie , essentially invented the stagedive, cut himself with shards of glass during a live show, and then notoriously labelled as "crazy" by none other than Alice Cooper ! Pop then then came into prominence with The Stooges , while Ginger Baker was the righteous drummer for Cream , Blind Faith , and more taste-makers. Film-maker/writer Jay Bulger attempted to capture the over-indulgent life and times of the now 73-year-old Jazz drumming madman in his documentary, "Beware of Mr. Baker" ... Bulger ultimately got to score interviews with Ginger Baker 's friends-collaborators, chronicle his assorted hobbies, and when he finally got a chance to

For starters, Daughn Gibson 's voice kinda sounds like an oddly appropriate mix between Johnny Cash , Barry White , and a bowl-full of coarse gravel; a style which is more than likely a direct result of teenage years spent drumming with assorted Philly and New York -area Hardcore Punk/Metal bands and the 10 years' time traveling cross-country in a BIG empty mac truck, blasting radio-transmitted Country music. When Daughn Gibson moved from his childhood town of Narazeth, PA to Carlisle in late 2010-11, he recorded what eventually ended up being All Hell ... simply created because "there weren't as many like-minded musicians to start a band with." Gibson's close friend Matt Korvette from Pissed Jeans pressed up a limited LP release of All Hell on his home-grown Indie label imprint, White Denim . Daughn Gibson then decided to follow that up with a 2-track 45 and Bandcamp digi-single simply titled, "Lite Me Up" in conjunction with Dull Kni

It kinda sucks, but it's just that time of year... with school back in session and all sorts of new-found "eye-candy" everywhere, highschoolers and college co-eds nation-wide are spontaneously breaking up with each other! Man, now even Taylor Swift has jumped on the fast-track to singlesville with the release of her latest single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." While it could really be about almost any of her assorted ex-boyfriends from roughly 2010-12, it's more than likely either John Mayer or Taylor Lautner . I feel bad for T-Swift sometimes - All these dumb boys, always being so mean to her and stuff. But seriously, I hope she finds what she's really looking for in a companion sooner than later! Taylor Swift made sure to give the track a BIG, glitzy world premier make-over on the 2012 MTV VMA's the other night (closing performance). Like many 20-somethings her age, Swift has a new blossoming love interest to go along with this n

It's pretty wild how a forward-thinking Free Jazz group like BADBADNOTGOOD can take something as "played out" [commercial] as Soulja Boy and re-arrange it so FRESH TO DEF! I got a YouTube email alert from BBNG 's channel earlier today, complete with a still video, which was neatly linked directly to their "Pretty Boy Swag" (Remix) . While it's their first LEGIT [un-]official remix, I'd almost have to say, for lack of a better term... that what BADBADNOTGOOD do "on the reg." is already pretty remix/instrumental-rooted. The guys of BBNG really seem to teeter the line between Classic Blues-Jazz textbook knowledge and a keen 1980-2000's Hip-Hop know-how! Chester, Matt & Alex somehow managed to add all sorts of swaying, Jazzy pauses and commas to the now stripped-down "Pretty Boy Swag;" Largely accenting Soulja Boy 's weirdly endearing Ringtone Raps , which I was first turned on to through Girl Talk 's 2006-

Talib Kweli 's latest mixtape, Attack The Block is a loose [street] album that's loosely based around a British Sci-Fi Thriller of the same name (2011). Kweli does his best to bridge that gap, effectively re-appropriating film dialog for his intro track, "Attack The Block!!!" Talib Kweli has always been a fairly active, politically- conscious rapper ever since he first burst onto the scene with Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998). Surprisingly, Attack The Block was actually released a few weeks earlier than expected... on Sept. 3rd, Labor Day Weekend instead of Sept. 18th. Co-presented along with DJ Z-Trip , the mixtape really is a generous offering - 18 tracks deep, 6 solo Kweli raps. It looks like Talib Kweli has managed to rope in some serious favors and scored guest verses from Black Thought , Skyzoo, Das Racist , Lil' Wayne, Killer Mike , Posdnuos (De La Soul), Ryan Leslie , Mac Miller, and Ab-Soul ... In addition to production work fro

Jonwayne must've tracked down a copy of that bare bones Nirvana - "In Bloom" (a capella) mp3 when it leaked way back in 2008. I'm pretty sure that Jonwayne chopped up and remixed Kurt Cobain 's POWERFUL, echoing vocals into a broading Boom-Bap track, which has now been cleverly re-titled "In Spite." Wayne quietly uploaded the track to Soundcloud just a few days ago under the musical moniker, "Digital Diamonds" and fellow rapper-producer Scoop DeVille is the other 1/2 of his new Rap Band . All of the new track's assorted, miscellaneous parts are essentially built and anchored together around Cobain's skeletal vocal performance. "In Spite" somehow manages to inter-weave Kurt's heart-felt wail right against Jonwayne/ Scoop DeVille 's rhymes, effortlessly blending in like a deep-rooted hook. I wonder what Digital Diamonds have in store for us next... a mixtape? Joint album? They've gotta be up to something,

Way back in June, The Black Keys somehow managed to cram 50-60 hand-selected close friends, family members, and super-fans into notorious Nashville "speakeasy" [dive bar], Springwater Supper Club for a TOP SECRET show/music video shoot. After running through "Little Black Submarines" a few times, the night's festivities quickly transformed into an hour-long make-shift set. Having already re-enacted nearly every go-to Rock "N" Roll cliché in the book: bikini-clas hotties, animal puppet hi-jinx, brawling children, dancing salesmen, .gif short films , etc... The Black Keys opted for a FRESH approach - Live, loud & housed within one seedy-ass club! "Little Black Submarines" is one of The Black Keys' ultimate hidden treasures buried deep within their most recent album, El Camino (2011). It's a retro-style Blues Rocker that honestly, kinda reminds me of either Led Zeppelin or Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers . Local Philly

While André 3000 has been busy "recording a solo album," hawking Gillette razors/beard trimmers, and re-covering Hendrix covers ... Big Boi 's somehow managed to record & release 2 solo projects and produce the bulk of an album for Modest Mouse . All of this has collectively happened since OutKast 's long-lost last album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was released (2003) and on the heels of a long-rumored new album from the group, which no one really knows "if or when that will ever happen." Big Boi is currently putting a few final touches on his second solo LP, Vicious Lies & Dangerous Rumors ; This one's essentially the sequel to Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty and it's currently slated for a Nov. 13th wide release. "She Said OK" is a mega-sized sultry cut that's co-piloted by Big Boi and Brooklyn Hipster R&B rapper Theophilus London , along with background crooner Tre Luce and Soulful producer C

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.