The Witzard

Earlier this week, just in time for Valentine's Day, UK Pop-punk/Rock band Neck Deep shared their latest non-album single and msuic video, "Heartbreak of The Century." The track is described as "a classic-sounding Neck Deep song, catchy, angsty, pacey, powerful, and a little bit pathetic" by vocalist Ben Barlow, complete with an Academy Award-deserving music video. It's definitely akin to Neck Deep's earlier more hard-edged Pop-punk material that can be heard across 2012-13 EP's Rain In July & A History of Bad Decisions . Barlow continues, "we took the idea of "The Heartbreak of The Century" and imagined if you could, actually, win an award for that. So, there we had it—a sh*tty Oscar's, where we won The Heartbreak of The Century award. We wanted the video to feel classic/nostalgic, something that was entertaining to watch, rather than your usual. It features some of our "best" (worst) acting to date and is one of o...

blink-182 - Viking Wizard Eyes, Wizard Full of Lies (ART CREDIT: Dan Schenker) Art Inhuman is a collaborative effort between Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) artist Dan Schenker and writer Matt Horowitz. Dan takes band names, lyrics, and song names and with the help of an A.I. manipulates them into what he feels best represents them visually. If you have a suggestion for an upcoming addition to this series, Tweet Matt at @SharpChedder856 and/or Dan at @heydanschenker and Tag the band or artist you'd like us to feature next. This project spawned from Dan's decades-long love of music. Dan had been a fan of the band FOLLY since early high school—for the blend of Punk, Ska, and Hardcore they seamlessly wove, for the energy their music made him feel, and for the almost disproportionately poetic lyrics and topics they covered. So, when Dan thought to input some of his favorite lyrics, song titles, and album titles into Midjourney, the results were staggering. He posted them to Face...

blink-182 "and" Scott Sellers (SOURCE: Scott Sellers) Scott Sellers, one-time frontman of beloved Rancho Cucamonga-based Pop-Punk/Skate Punk Rufio has been recording and releasing solo music at a rapid-fire pace since 2018's The Judge. Sellers has also played with a variety of bands since Rufio's 2007 break-up and sporadic brief reunions, including Mercy Street and BigCity with former bandmate Clark Domae . Sellers is known to be an avid blink-182 fan—Scott covered "A New Hope" from their 1997 album, Dude Ranch, on his 2020 covers album, Influence —and we're sure blink were a huge influence and source of inspiration for Rufio. By now, we all know the "classic" (well, second line-up) of blink-182 has effectively re-united as of last week, now including long-time members Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker & Tom DeLonge. DeLonge was in the band from their formation in 1992 up until they broke up in 2005 and then, again from 2009-15 when he left and...

"Like many bands last year, Lansing, Michigan's Hot Mulligan—the "#1 Hot New Band" per their Facebook page—put out an LP in 2020 that they didn't get to tour. This year, they'll release I Won't Reach Out to You (IWROTY,) a six-track EP that operates as a quasi-response to their 2020 full-length you'll be fine. The EP is bookended on the first and last tracks by a resounding glance-back at a world that, simply, doesn't exist anymore: "Stay home, stay home / You said it wouldn't make a difference whether we could be together or not,'" explains Wax Bodega. Hot Mullian's current line-up includes frontman Nathan "Tades" Sanville, rhythm guitarist Chris Freeman, lead guitarist Ryan "Spicy" Malicsi, and drummer Brandon Blakeley and may or may not include bassist Garrett "Sniff" Willig . Hot Mulligan's aforementioned full-length album, you'll be fine, was released last year on California-based...

The Crust Brothers cover The Cars by The Crust Brothers Richard "Ric" Ocasek passed away this past Sunday, September 15, 2019. 75-year-old Ocasek was found dead Sunday at his New York City townhouse by his estranged wife, Paulina Porizkova, where he had been recovering from a recent surgery. The Chief Medical Examiner's office later reported Ric Ocasek died from natural causes; although, he suffered from both hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. Ocasek was best-known as being one of the founding members of The Cars, as well as the band's long-time lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter. The Cars emerged from the 1970's New Wave scene and were early originators of what is now commonly known as Power Pop with sonic allusions to Rock "N" Roll, Art Rock, and Rockabilly throughout. The Cars always appeared to be (to me, at least) a Punk-adjacent band, which makes complete sense because during The Cars' career, as well as a...

Last Friday was quite the busy day for critically-acclaimed drummer/producer Travis Barker : his remix for rising Pop songstress Maggie Lindemann 's "Friends Go" was released, as well as "F9mily (You and Me)" from Country/Rap emcee Lil Nas X 's latest 7 EP, AND his main gig, Blink-182 released a new song, "Generational Divide." As many of you may know by now, long-time co-vocalist and guitarist, Tom DeLonge , was fired/quit Blink back in 2015. Prior to this, the band had been active with Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge & Travis Barker from 1998-2005, then, the band broke up for about four years, and reunited in 2009 for numerous world-wide tours. FULL DISCLOSURE: Blink-182 was amongst my first favorite Punk/Hardcore bands, so I'm a bit biased! I've always stated, I was happy when Blink returned—although, Mark & Travis' Electro-Rock/Pop-Punk band (+44) formed in the interim, put out one of my all-time favorite albums!—although...

INTRODUCTION: Maybe, it's in the gray hairs that I've started finding in my thinning hair. Maybe, it's that dreaded third decade of life that seems to have been rearing it's ugly face around every corner. Maybe, it's a quarter life crisis, but something has been keeping me up at night. I sometimes, stay awake into the early hours of the morning spinning records and fumbling with CD jackets from high school, grasping hold of my youth for dear life. I search out elusive first presses of albums I'd somehow, lost to time, hoping that they'll somehow, tighten the thread leading from middle school to adulthood. To be clear, I'm not fishing my torn band T-shirts or "bondage" pants from the depths of my closet, but as I make the transition into my 30's, shedding roommates and getting oil changes at regularly scheduled intervals, I can't help ruminating on where these albums came from and how they've shaped me. I can't help begging th...

Let me first just preface this by saying: THIS WILL NOT BE A SUBJECTIVE PIECE... I've been a die-hard Blink-182 fan for as long as I can remember and I believe their Enema of The State (1999) and utterly hilarious live album, The Mark, Tom & Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back (2000) were amongst my first CD's nestled within my barren Walkman CD wallet, alongside Alanis Morissette 's Red Hot Chili Peppers -assisted Jagged Little Pill and Mariah Carey 's Daydream (which I believe featured her Ol' Dirty B*stard -helmed "Fantasy" Bad Boy Remix ). It always felt as though a Blink-182 or Blink -related side project like Box Car Racer , Transplants, Angels & Airwaves , (+44), short-lived Hip-Hop super-group Expen$ive Taste , etc. released an album almost every summer from 8th grade all the way through my college years; a sentiment that even rings true for the reunited California Pop-Punk band's latest Neighborhoods (2011) and appropriately...

Blink-182 were my [first] favourite band through most of middle school and high school. while I own nearly all of their 8-10 CD's and rare pressings, the "Blink-182" section on my iPod is fairly short and sweet, cause their music's just engrained in my head! Take Off Your Pants & Jacket is HANDS DOWN one of my all time favourite albums, Cheshire Cat/Dude Ranch are late 90's Hardcore classics, and The Enema Strikes Back is quite arguably the best recorded live album since KISS ALIVE ! (1975). Mark, Tom & Travis turned me onto great bands like Black Flag , Rancid , Misfits , Fugazi, Fall Out Boy , and Motion City Soundtrack through their well-written liner notes and interviews. I can vividly remember talking about Blink-182 (Untitled) during Gym class either junior or senior year; Like most of Blink 's albums and side projects, it was released right on the cusp of spring/summer. It was a "perfectly progressive" Punk Rock album, writ...

My old college friend Dani was telling me about "Some Nights" a couple weekends ago @ the bar, vaguely describing it's overall style as "Afrobeat." I have to admit, right off the bat, I wasn't entirely convinced... But after a few repeated listens, I was soon convinced that fun. was much more than a mere One Hit Wonder ("We Are Young") . For fun. 's recent [second] album, they enlisted the help of Kanye -affiliated Hip-Hop producer, Jeff Bhasker . Fine-crafted over roughly 9 months, Some Nights was liberated to the masses way back on Feb. 14th; The experimental recording sessions were truly a first for both parties, who generally lean towards opposite ends of the Hip-Hop/Indie Rock spectrum. Currently signed to Fuel By Ramen , fun. 's intricate 3-part sound is made up of Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost , and Jack Antonoff . The band's first album, Aim & Ignite (2009) was highly revered by fans and critics alike. While it's es...

Let me simply start out by saying that Blink-182 have always been and will be one of my utmost favourite bands. Ever since first hearing Enema of the State (1999), Blink's albums and respective side bands have without a doubt soundtracked my summer days and nights. I've since delved back into the previous 2 albums [ Cheshire Cat-Dude Ranch ] gaining a solid sense of respect for 90's Pop Punk . Blink-182 went on to release two more albums: Take Off Your Pants & Jacket (2001) and "Blink-182" (2003) - along with a string of chart-topping hits before disbanding in 2005. "Another Girl, Another Planet" and "Not Now," 2 note-worthy non-album tracks were then included on Greatest Hits (2005) and release as successful radio singles. After what seemed to be a pretty messy [intense] fall-out, Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker , and Tom DeLonge broke off into a few respective separate side bands... (+44), Angels & Airwaes, Transplants , and TRV$D...

Mark Hoppus @ Google+ challenged tech-savvy fans to "Command the A" Thursday evening [August 4th]; The linked URL, heartsallgone.com, was then essentially shut down nearly 24 hours later. While live and active, the micro-site featured a simplistic black-and-white rendering of Blink-182 's Popular "smiley face" logo (2003) strewn across a stalk white background. Once highlighted under the command of Ctrl+A , a download link and accompanying "invisible lyrics" text for a new album track, "Heart's All Gone" were simultaneously revealed. To reiterate, Blink-182 's first commercial effort in 8 long years [ Neighborhoods ] will become available for purchase world-wide this coming Sept. 27th!