The Witzard

It's been widely reported this past Friday's 24-hour Bandcamp Friday festivities garnered $7.1 million, all of which went directly to the artists waiving the company's own revenue shares. Yesterday, we ran a feature on a collection of our favorite beat tapes released on or around Bandcamp Friday and today, we're going to do something similar, but with mixtapes. Now, these aren't exactly your typical rapper, producer, or DJ-orchestrated mixtapes... these are uniquely non-Hip-Hop "mixtapes" orchestrated and released by a few of our favorite Punk/Hardcore bands, DOPE BODY, F*CKED UP, and Titus Andronicus. For Bandcamp Friday, a newly-reunited DOPE BODY released an album/mixtape called Home Body, F*CKED UP issued their MIXTAPE 6, and Titus Andronicus uploaded Sorry About The Delay: Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape, Volume 2A, A Reductive Scoff: Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape, Volume III, and Broken Down In Morgantown: Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape, Volume 4 (An Aste...

Alright, full disclosure: I've been in top secret email transmission with Baltimore -based Noise-Rock band Dope Body since around mid-April and I've been fully aware that they were planning to drop an album's-worth of new material around September/October, too; that album, now titled LIFER , is currently slated for an October 23rd release on Drag City Records . While I'm not entirely sure if I discovered Dope Body 's last album, Natural History (2012) or drummer David Jacober 's solo cassette, Water Karaoke first, I guess my initial interaction with the band was a fateful 14-question interview conducted with Jacober a few years ago. LIFER was recorded back in January 2014 after roughly 19 months of non-stop touring behind Natural History , following a brief hiatus to work on the members' outer-band outlets: Nerftoss , Player Press, Holy Ghost Party! and frontman Andrew Laumann 's gallery-displayed visual art exhibits. Drag City further describ...

For the sake of cohesive clarity, maybe it should be duly noted that the majority of this very post was written down in my parents' basement earlier tonight while I was listening to Dope Body 's latest Sludge-Punk album, Natural History , and drinking midair-smuggled German beer: While I can't exactly say that I'm a huge Kelis fan, and you may not be either, but let's be totally honest... who isn't at least vaguely familiar with "Milkshake" or even "Got Your Money" (ODB)? TIME further notes that Kelis has essentially bounced all over the place during her 15-year career; "she made strange, funky Pop songs like "Milkshake" [with Pharrell ] that took over American radio. She was more forceful still with clanging, dissonant R&B tracks like "Bossy." Then, she transformed into a spaced-out Electro-House diva on her last album, 2010's Flesh Tone ." Now the ex-wife of legendary Queens emcee Nas , K...

Max Eisenberg from Brooklyn, NY moonlights as genre-blending Noise-Rap singer DJ Dog Dick ; a former member of Dog Leather , Nautical Almanac, Dog Synth , etc. Eisenberg is finally gearing up to release his long-rumored HOSS Records debut, THE LIFE STAINS lp (out November 19th). DJ Dog Dick hails from the same original Baltimore -based music-art scene that birthed Dan Deacon , Weekends, Dope Body , Pictureplane, and Surfer Blood . The proper follow-up to last year's Identity EP , LIFE STAINS has been slowly leaked online over the past few months in the form of "Dried Old Leaves," "Rot Is Hot," and Pitchfork -premiered "Grease That I Got." Their track review essentially likens "Grease That I Got" as a "straight-up Pop tune, built around a bass line that could've been stolen from an R.E.M. out-take... or a helium-injected Butthole Surfers ." The Artist Formally Known as DJ DOG DICK (@ALLEYPISS) on Twitter further ...

It's pretty damn AMAZING that Dope Body are prepping their sixth EP-LP release, considering the sheer fact that the band was initially assembled for a one-off gig @ Baltimore 's Natural History museum (2008). Drag City will unleash Saturday 7" tomorrow, March 19th; It's positioned to out-sell Justin Timberlake 's return to form, The 20/20 Experience ha. Serving as a quasi-follow-up to last year's Natural History , "Leather Head" was plucked straight off Saturday (Side A) . Four horsemen Andrew Laumann, David Jacober, Zachary "Zeke" Utz , and new bassist John Jones star in "Leather Head"'s stark black-and-white music video. Director Sheena Callage did her best to harness the band's righteous Black Flag meets Rage Against The Machine Hardcore/Noise-Rock vibe. Callage managed to create a very simple, yet highly effective treatment: Dope Body rockin' out in an empty performance space inter-spliced with face-mo...

Baltimore, Maryland is a metropolitan city chock-full of creative, artistically-inclined young people. On the Indie Rock side of things, WEEKENDS , Dog Leather, Dope Body , Beach House , and Dan Deacon are a few of it's BIGGER, attention-drawing bands. Townsman Brett Yale runs a cassette-pressing record label, Friends Records and a companion Baltimore -centric music blog, B-more Musically Informed . He really seems eager to help sign, promote, and assist local bands in getting their music heard on a much larger scale. Recently spotted a short write-up about "DJ Dog Dick" (Max Eisenberg) from Dog Leather 's new Jazz -inspired track. Pictureplane once said that Dog Leather "[weren't] trying to be rappers, they are just being themselves" ... with that said, "Lights Down Low" definitely has an underlying Hip-Hop feel to it. Richmond 's very own Lil Ugly Mane is featured rapping alongside DJ Dog Dick on the Shawn Kemp -produced t...

(1) Do you dig much Hip-Hop? If so, what were a few of your favourite new artists/albums of 2011? I really like that new-ish Young Jeezy [-feat. André 3000 & Jay-Z] track, "I Do" and lately that has kept me waiting for it to come on the radio again. I also like that new song by Cash Out called, "Cashin' Out." I wasn't too excited about any new Hip-Hop artists this past year, much less could I tell you about an entire album from 2011. For the record, Lil' Wayne is the rapper that I am most impressed by currently (he is insanely prolific) and I do have all of the Baltimore Hip-Hop stations saved as presets in my ride. 92Q is what's up. (2) How would you describe the overall sound of the new Dope Body record, Natural History? Cause "Lazy Slave" is pretty Hardcore, dude! It's a little difficult to try to describe an overall sound of Natural History because of it's wide range of moods and styles. Some songs are more Sunburst...

As cliche as it sounds, Punk Rock is NOT just a mere fad; Angst-filled youth rebellion is something that will never go out of style! But let's face it, even today's finest Hardcore bands are way less "threatening" and society-damning than they used to be. Then again, it seems as though we're currently experiencing a "Hardcore Punk Revival," of sorts... with fresh, new bands like Fucked Up, Diarrhea Planet, WEIRD WIVES (Surfer Blood) , Pissed Jeans , Death Grips, PARTY ANIMAL , and Odd Future popping up every so often. But on the other hand, the sum of all these musical parts don't even begin to stack up against the single greatest Hardcore band of all time: Black Flag ! Dope Body are an aggressive young bunch of D.I.Y. musicians, hailing from Baltimore , MD. Andrew Laumann, Zach Utz , and David Jacober have been creating mashed-up Noise Rock together as part of the city's "Wham City" scene since roughly 2008. John Jones was ...