The Witzard

Just in time for this glorious Bandcamp Friday, James Kochalka Superstar has shared a brand new recording of a song he first wrote in 1985 with Eric Bradford on a couch at The University of Vermont for their college band, Jazzin' Hell. This newly-updated 2022 version of "The Mummy's On The Loose" was recorded with Kochalka's friends, ROUGH FRANCIS , with guest vocals supplied by his teenage hero, Jello Biafra (Ex-Dead Kennedys, The NO WTO Combo) and mixed by GRAMMY Award-winning producer and Jazzin' Hell keyboardist, Peter Katis. All of this was collectively wrangled, coordinated, and produced by Neil Cleary. "Whenever I get that first rumored taste of Fall, my soul starts to yearn deeply for Vermont & Burlington. So, watching a new Neil Cleary-directed video of ROUGH FRANCIS backing James Kochalka on a 40-year-old song of his about a mummy is the kind of sentence that means everything to Burlingtonians and very little to most other folks and it...

1976's best kept secret and a righteous-sounding precursor to Punk Rock , Death are gearing up to release their first single in nearly 40 years, "Relief/Story of The World" this upcoming Tuesday, July 30th. The Detroit Proto-Punk band were initially active from about 1971-77 , broke up upon major label distaste regarding their name, and moved to Vermont once Death split. Brothers Bobby, Dannis, & David Hackney went on to form 2 separate Gospel Rock/Reggae bands, The 4th Movement and Lambsbread . Sadly though, David Hackney passed away in 2000 (succumbing to lung cancer) right before Death 's sudden resurgence; due in part to tech-savvy record collectors, Death 's lone self-released single, "Politicians In My Eyes" rocketed to the top of thousands of blog-spun playlists once again, between 2008-09! While their sons briefly toured as cover band Rough Francis , Bobby & Dannis Hackney triumphantly re-formed the band with long-time guit...