The Witzard

"Do It with a Rockstar" seems to chronicle the semi-average, often mundane existence of a slightly washed up Rock "N" Roll legend. My best guess is that Amanda Palmer is a liberal-thinking feminist/bi-sexual "Punk Cabaret" cult hero, a former member of The Dresden Dolls . Palmer managed to fund and record her latest album, Theatre Is Evil , with nearly $1.2 million notoriously raised on Kickstarter . It was only following a pretty cut-throat, spirited, and publicized exchange with veteran producer, Steve Albini (Nirvana) that Amanda Palmer finally agreed to pay her crowd-sourced horn and string players with money over "beer and hugs/high-5's." "Do It with a Rockstar" isn't Palmer's first time behind Wayne Coyne 's directorial lens; The Flaming Lips roped in Amanda Palmer for a re-recorded version of "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" after Erykah & Nayrok Badu pulled out of the slightly risq...

"Die Young" is a mildly apocalyptic, sugar-coated "dance til we die" jam along with some half-assed satanic rituals/pseudo-orgy-tinged visuals... complete with that inherent layer of Hipster sleaze and over-produced shitty-ness. Ke$ha 's your typical she'd-be-hot-if-she-showered-more-often kinda dirty [blonde] girl; But I must say, she's really cleaned up a lot since first bursting onto the music scene with Animal/Cannibal EP (2010). Nate Ruess , who scored 2+ MAJOR hits this year with fun. , helped Ke$ha co-write "Die Young" and Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco , and Cirkut all had a hand in the production end of the Electro-Acoustic hybrid track. Ke$ha 's second album, Warrior , is slated for a December 4th release and will also include a handful of note-worthy appearances from Iggy Pop , Wayne Coyne, Ben Folds , will.i.am , and Patrick Carney (The Black Keys). Like I was starting to say up there, before some debonair young fellow r...

Biz Markie has gotta be one of the most awkward rappers male vocalists in the history of music. But with that said, "Just a Friend" quite easily ranks within my [imaginary] Top 50 favourite songs OF ALL TIME list! Markie recently logged a few recording sessions with fellow Psych-Rock weird-o, Wayne Coyne . Together, Biz & Wayne managed to conjure up "2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)" along with Ke$ha , which was the lead-off track from The Flaming Lips' semi-recent Record Store Day comp, Heady Fwends . Now, they've teamed up with skate clothing brand, Volcom to create a child-like Yo Gabba Gabba! -inspired T-shirt line for adults ha. Volcom then commissioned Markie & Coyne to self-design a bunch of signature T-shirts along with Dave Grohl , Jack Black, "Napoleon Dynamite," Mark Mothersbaugh , and their forward-thinking kids. "I Can't Believe It's Really Happening" is the second track to materialize from Biz Ma...

Bon Iver head honcho, Justin Vernon has somehow managed to become quite the "enigma" in the world of Popular music over the past couple years: An independent, New Age Folk artist who's been able to bridge the gap between Indie Rock and Hip-Hop _ commercial obscurity and "mainstream success." On the heels of his feverishly-awaited 2011 "comeback" album - Bon Iver, Bon Iver , Vernon laid down some studio time in Hawaii with Kanye & Friends (Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, John Legend) , which eventually ended up on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy . Following generally wide-spread fan and critical acclaim alike, Bon Iver, Bon Iver was nominated for a set of 4 Grammy awards near the close of 2011. Shortly after the announcement, a slightly dated and previously unpublished Justin Vernon interview (The New Yorker) was issued; Included within it's pages were a handful of not-so kind words for the people behind The Grammy's . Vernon w...