The Witzard

Beach Rats (CREDIT: Matthew Gere) Beach Rats were one of our favorite Punk/Hardcore super-groups to emerge in recent years and we've alays wondered if and when they would return with a proper full-length. It appears as though the New Jersey Punk/Hardcore Gods have heard and answered our prayers, as Beach Rats have announced their first proper full-length album, Rat Beat, dropping this July! Beach Rats consists of frontman Ari Katz (Lifetime, Ex-Ressurection,) guitarists Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty) & Pete Steinkopf (The Bouncing Souls,) bassist Bryan Keinlen (The Bouncing Souls,) and drummer Daniel/Danny "Dubs" Windas (A New Enemy, The Arsons, Let It Burn.) Beach Rats' 2018 EP, Wasted Time , was released on Bridge Nine Records and featured the same line-up—just with Daniel "Dubs" Windas appearing in a somewhat less official capacity. Beach Rats have now signed with Epitaph Records, an imprint owned, operated, and founded by Bake...

DO WHAT YOU WANT Author Jim Ruland (CREDIT: Clair McAllister) "No one has ever confused Bad Religion with The Misfits, but that doesn't mean they don't have some scary songs. The band's predilection for pin-pointing (and predicting) society's worst-case scenarios and constant reminders that we're heading for annihilation mean the landscape for a Bad Religion song can be downright terrifying. Here are 13 songs that showcase the spooky side of Bad Religion that you can listen to alongside the voices in your head in the room inside your room. Of course, with The Pandemic showing no sign of ending due to The Tr*mp Administration's gross mismanagement, you could just play "We're Only Gonna Die (from Our Own Arrogance)" over and over again until there are no humans left," author Jim "Vermin" Ruland told The Witzard, via email. Ruland recently co-wrote Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion along with the band themselves. We...

Los Angeles Punk/Hardcore stalwarts Bad Religion have returned, as they always do, in our world's time of need with an updated version of one of their old favorites, "Faith Alone." Now, fittingly re-titled "Faith Alone 2020," this is Bad Religion's first sonic offering since their 2019 full-length, Age of Unreason. "Faith Alone" originally appeared within Bad Religion's 1990 full-length, Against The Grain , as well as re-appearing on '92 Epitaph comp. More Songs About Anger, Fear, Sex & Death, along with then-labelmates NOFX, Pennywise, Coffin Break, Dag Nasty, L7, Down By Law, Little Fingers, and Insted. Bad Religion have morphed their once raucous Punk/Melodic Hardcore track into one now complimented by acoustic piano and lush orchestral strings. Bad Religion singer and co-songwriter Greg Graffin explains, "I have always written songs on piano. Some of our earliest songs were written on my mom's piano." "I'...

D.O.A. 1994: Jay Scott, Brian Roy Goble, Matt Johnson & Joe Keithley (CREDIT: Colin Price) Not entirely unlike Wrestle/Wrassle Rap or Basketball Rap, there's, apparently, a whole sub-genre of hockey-themed Punk/Hardcore—oftentimes, referred to as "Puck" Rock or Hockey-core. Yes, I've been a die-hard fan of Punk/Hardcore for 15+ years and I, too, only first heard about Puck Rock within the last few weeks. Although, once I started diggin' around, I discovered about 10-15 bands at the forefront; this was, then, gradually narrowed down to 10 "front-line" bands, which will be chronicled here over the course of coming weeks. The "top-scoring" bands we selected include: Crippled Youth, SLAPSHOT, The Hanson Brothers/Nomeansno, Two Man Advantage, The Boils, D.O.A. THE ZAMBONIS, Pansy Division, The Hextalls, and THE RAMOMS' "Gritty Is A Punk" flexi-disc. We sent out a short 6-question interview form to all of the aforementioned bands...

Wasted Time by Beach Rats Beach Rats is a New Jersey -based Hardcore band consisting of vocalist Ari Katz , guitarist Brian Baker , guitarist Pete Steinkopf , bassist Bryan Kienlen , and drummer Daniel "Dubs" Winda s. Amongst them, Beach Rats have about 32+ collective years spent recording, touring, and melting faces within countless New Jersey & New York -based Punk/Hardcore bands. Brian Baker alone has played with Bad Religion , Dag Nasty, Dead F**king Last , Doggy Style, Government Issue , Junkyard, The Meatmen , Minor Threat, Pavement (no, not that Pavement ,) and Samhain. Ari Katz has spent his time playing with High School Sweethearts , Lifetime, Miss TK & The Revenge , and Zero Zero, while Pete "The Pete" Steinkopf & Bryan "Papillon" Kienlen have both been long-time members of The Bouncing Souls . Drummer Daniel "Dubs" Windas , the greenhorn of Beach Rats , has spent his early years between 1999-2007 and onward play...

Frank Ocean is a brave, brave man for coming out as bi-sexual in the [final] weeks leading up to the release of his major label debut... something that could have deeply affected channel ORANGE 's initial sales, which ended up debuting @ #2 on the Billboard 200 chart! Ocean's new-found "preference" really doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on channel ORANGE 's overall song content, quality, etc. Most of the time, Frank Ocean sounds a lot like Usher ; a suave R&B singer who could easily fit in on "Urban Radio" and hang with the music industry's BIGGEST rappers. While there's definitely a great mix of various styles spread out all across channel ORANGE , there's an underlying Soulful Funkiness , mildly reminiscent of Prince . Man, it's almost difficult to describe on "paper" how fucking AWESOME channel ORANGE really is - quite easily the best Hip-Hop/R&B album of 2012 [so far]! Granted each of Frank Ocean ...