The Witzard

"Don't sleep on Butch Bastard ," read a statement credited to Josh Tillman of Father John Misty and Fleet Foxes fame attached to a cold submitted message sent days after I posted my email address on Twitter , along with an open call for new music "not featured on Pitchfork ;" after reaching out to Poor Moon bassist and newly-christened Butch Bastard frontman Ian Murray himself, the Father John Misty -affiliated artist would go on to specify, "[ Josh is] my friend and I appreciate his endorsement, but I don't wish to be viewed as an appendage to his career." It would likely appear as though Butch Bastard was born when the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, performer, producer, and director uprooted his life from Seattle to Los Angeles in 2014 and started recording tracks from the comfort of his bedroom. Murray's wonderfully titled forthcoming album, I Am Not a Man , which currently lacks a proper label or release date, showca...

Just a few short years after the demise of his long-time Alternative Rock band The Czars and soon after his 1970's-inspired debut solo album Queen of Denmark (2010), John Grant decided to move from Colorado all the way to Iceland on a whim. Grant had initially planned to record it's follow-up, Pale Green Ghost , with his buddies from Midlake once again. But while vacationing over in Iceland sometime between 2011-12, John Grant linked up with Electro -producer Biggi Veira (Gus Gus) and the 2 almost immediately recorded "Pale Green Ghosts" and "Black Belt." Bella Union/ Partisan Records will co-release Pale Green Ghosts this upcoming May 13-14th world-wide. "If Queen of Denmark is Grant's 70's album, channeling the spirits of Karen Carpenter and Bread , then Pale Green Ghosts is his 80's album," recounts label Bella Union in it's lengthy featured biography on John Grant . John Grant & Biggi Veira 's in...