The Witzard

Das Racist were hands down, one of the greatest post-2000 New York area Hip-Hop groups, who essentially created their own "outsider rap" scene, which would later harbor up-and-coming guys like Lakutis , LE1F, Mr. Muthaf*ckin' eXquire , Antwon, Kassa Overall , KechPhrase, Big Baby Gandhi , etc. Luckily enough, I had a chance to see Das Racist on their then unannounced 2012 "farewell tour" in Philly , a show which additionally featured a mini- Greehead label showcase: Lakutis , LE1F, and Weekend Money as opening acts. Since disbanding, founding members Himanshu "Heems" Suri and Victor "Kool A.D." Vazquez have each released a number of critically-acclaimed solo mixtapes; well, Heems actually uploaded two mixtapes, Nehru Jackets and Wild Water Kingdom , while Das Racist were still actively together. Suri then moved to Bombay, India between 2012-mid-2014 as part of a self-imposed exile, wherein he began recording material for his

" ACTiON BRONSON JUST JUMPED TO THE TOP OF THE RAP GAME FOOD CHAiN WiTH THiS MOViE-QUALiTY ViDEO, "EASY RiDER" FT SLASH ," Tweeted oddball rapper and supposed Galaxy Gladiators collaborator, @JODYHiGHROLLER aka RiFF RAFF . "DON'T LET ME DIIIEEEE!!!" Action Bronson proclaims in a black-and-white red bandana-accented clip whilst pummeling bullets out of a machine gun, which appears to be a war flashback; as "Easy Rider"'s hymn-like intro starts, we see our bed-ridden hero approached by a lieutenant, "Soldier, tell me what happened..." to which Action Bronson achingly grunts, "Where's my guitaarrr!!?" It's largely unclear what happens next, but we see Bronson, still in a hospital gown, and his red bandana speeding down a barren desert highway as "EASY RIDER" and "DIRECTED BY TOM GOULD " scroll across the trailer-esque screen. RiFF RAFF is generally non-sensical, but he's 100% righ

Los Angeles sister act HAIM have indeed dabbled with Hip-Hop in the past, whether it be nearly getting recruited as A$AP Rocky 's backing band or appearing on genre-blending Kid Cudi and Childish Gambino tracks... But now they've enlisted rising A$AP Mob emcee, A$AP Ferg to append a ferocious add-on verse to their Days Are Gone album stand-out, "My Song 5." It's not entirely unlike a visual Where's Waldo? of seemingly everyone Danielle, Este & Alana Haim have encountered or befriended while on the road over the last couple years; featured emcee A$AP Ferg , Ke$ha, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig , Grimes, Big Sean , SNL comedian Vanessa Bayer, Mama & Papa Haim , producer Ariel Rechtshaid, and even "Artemis" from It's Always Sunny . Leading up to it's Tuesday afternoon release, @HAIMtheband's long-rumored "My Song 5" video was subtly teased with cleverly edited 90's screen-grabs from Sally Jessy Ra

Rat Fist are a newly-formed Punk band who you may not have heard about yet; consisting of primary members Sean McGuinness & Randy Randall from veteran Sub Pop Post-Punk bands Pissed Jeans & No Age respectively, along with part-time bandmates Michael J. Sabolick, Jelle de Cremer , and Aaron Farley . They're gearing up to head out on a three-date West Coast mini-tour with Canadian punks rockers, F*cked Up , which will double as a 7-inch re-release jaunt. Rat Fist previously self-released 50 test press copies of their debut 7-inch that were were sold exclusively at their initial run of East Coast gigs, while the second pressing has since been expanded to a batch of 500 limited records. "We will have 7" available for mail order starting next Monday 8/25. Send $7 for shipping in the USA or $10 for shipping everywhere else. Make check out to: Randy Randall 10658 Sable Ave. Sunland, CA 91040 USA... It might take a while for me to get to the orders, so please

Even though I've been an avid Stones Throw record collector for about 10 or so years now, I still managed to learn a lot of interesting facts and tidbits from their Kickstarter -funded, Jonah Hill -approved documentary, Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton . For example: Aloe Blacc 's HBO -backed "I Need a Dollar" nearly saved the label, Peanut Butter Wolf was childhood friends with Stones Throw employees Jeff Jank and Steve Helmer (aka Baron Zen), Kanye and Roots bandleader ?uestlove are fervent supporters of the prolific label, the years following J Dilla 's untimely death are generally regarded as Stones Throw 's "post-Hip-Hop" phase, etc. It's funny because while I'm pretty familiar with Stones Throw 's ever-growing label roster, I noticed a few names through out Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton that even I didn't recognize; Royal Kush , extraterrestrial songstress Diva , and righteous Punk band The Cliftons in particular. This past Tues

In all honesty, I've never really been all that into Garage-Psych Rock man-machine Ty Segall and his various projects, but I know he puts out quality material at a pretty consistent rate. While I don't personally own any of his countless records, I did in fact try to get a copy of his Record Store Day exclusive, Ty-Rex EP a few years ago to no avail. Segall is currently readying his first LP since last year's marathon three-album release schedule ( Sleeper, Gemini, and Fuzz ); " Manipulator [features] Ty's helium-cooled vocals, sounding more powerful and dynamic than ever, and many sounds in the mix, but most of all, SO many guitars!" reads a rather disjointed Drag City press release. Seattle -based radio station KEXP 90.3 FM premiered a download-able stream of album track, "Susie Thumb," one of 17 tracks culled from the nearly hour-long record, which supposedly took Ty Segall almost a full month to record to tape. Tom Breihan over at St

"And I say, "Gee [whiz]," which I'm not sure is a phrase I've ever uttered before. I can imagine it appealing to American truckers with Good Riddance to Bin Laden stickers," alt-J frontman Joe Newman recently told British publication The Guardian in a rather scathing band interview; Newman is of course referring to alt-J 's latest single, "Left Hand Free," which the band said was only written to appease their American label because they didn't exactly feel teaser single, "Hunger of The Pine" was a "big single." alt-J 's critically-acclaimed first album, An Awesome Wave (2012) was essentially heralded as the second coming of Radiohead , while "Left Hand Free" is more so along the lines of Black Keys or Jack White -ian Modern Blues-Rock . "I tried to make the drums as cliched as possible, there's none of my personality in it... I'm doing some kind of organ solo. I don't know wher

"The album is sounding incredible. The whole album is a standout. I don't care about individual songs, I'm trying to make a complete, classic project. I just do my music uninfluenced by anybody else, or current trends, and it comes together at the end," Action Bronson recently told online publication NME about his approach to recording his long-rumored VICE Records debut, Mr. Wonderful . "Nothing needs to have a f*cking theme all the time. This is just rap. I'm not trying to make people think I'm some sort of scientific wizard or inspirational poet. F*ck that! It's just happy, funny, rugged, rough rap," which almost perfectly describes Bronson's care-free aesthetic to his chef-turned jet-setting rapper Hip-Hop career. While he's been playing it live for a month or so now, Action Bronson 's major label single, "Easy Rider" leaked online Monday afternoon; he previously performed the track at Peter Rosenberg 's Peterp

Wampire are a newly augmented Indie Rock band hailing from "Hipsterville, USA" Portland, Oregon ; founding members Eric Phipps and Rocky Tinder have been actively performing together since about 2001 playing dance-friendly Electronic music at local house parties. While it doesn't exactly specifically mention musicians names or which instruments have been added, a recent Stereogum post notes that " Wampire are a quintet now — a "real band," if you will." Although WAMPIRE 's Facebook page seems to have been recently updated to feature their mysterious new band mates' names: Cole Browning, Owen Thompson , and Thomas Hoganson ... but still lacks respective instrument specifications. Judging by "Wizard Staff," the lead single from their forthcoming second album Bazaar , Wampire are seemingly taking their fledgling music career(s) a little more seriously than the former half jokey Horror-Punk roll-out behind Curiosity (2013),