The Witzard

Beach Rats (CREDIT: Matthew Gere) Beach Rats were one of our favorite Punk/Hardcore super-groups to emerge in recent years and we've alays wondered if and when they would return with a proper full-length. It appears as though the New Jersey Punk/Hardcore Gods have heard and answered our prayers, as Beach Rats have announced their first proper full-length album, Rat Beat, dropping this July! Beach Rats consists of frontman Ari Katz (Lifetime, Ex-Ressurection,) guitarists Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty) & Pete Steinkopf (The Bouncing Souls,) bassist Bryan Keinlen (The Bouncing Souls,) and drummer Daniel/Danny "Dubs" Windas (A New Enemy, The Arsons, Let It Burn.) Beach Rats' 2018 EP, Wasted Time , was released on Bridge Nine Records and featured the same line-up—just with Daniel "Dubs" Windas appearing in a somewhat less official capacity. Beach Rats have now signed with Epitaph Records, an imprint owned, operated, and founded by Bake...

Ian, Joe & Amy (CORIKY) 2019 Fort Reno, Washington, DC / CREDIT: Claire Packer Not only has Alec MacKaye returned with his first active band in 20+ years, HAMMERED HULLS , his brother, Ian MacKaye , has now re-surfaced with a newly-minted group of his own: CORIKY [pronounced: "ko-ri-kee."] Supposedly, coriky is "a dice game, like liar's poker," according to photographer Mark R. Bacon. A recent Dischord Records press release simply explains, " Coriky is a band from Washington, DC. Amy Farina plays drums. Joe Lally plays bass. Ian MacKaye plays guitar. All sing. Formed in 2015, Coriky did not play their first show until 2018. They have recorded one album. They hope to tour." In their earliest aughts, CORIKY , then-unnamed, were often billed as "Amy Ian Joe (Name Unknown,)" "Ian, Amy & Joe," and, I've heard, at one point, were even toying with going by The Odds ; an homage to husband and wife, Ian MacKaye & ...

I guess, at this point in my life, on the verge of 32, I would deem myself an "aging Punk" (I know, it's an extremely un-Punk thing to do!) but I feel, as though, before labeling someone else an "aging Punk," I should, at least, own up to my own dwindling status in the community/sub-culture. I've been listening to Punk/Hardcore music for about 17 years now; so, that would mean I first discovered the genres around 15-16, which sounds about right. I guess, if my memory serves me correctly, I discovered a bunch of formative 80's punk bands like Black Flag, Fugazi, Minor Threat, The Misfits, Samhain, Bad Religion, etc. through listening to Pop Punk bands, such as blink-182, Sum 41, and Green Day, during the early 2000's. I've always felt a special attachment to the worlds of Punk/Hardcore—attending amany sweaty shows dimly-lit shows long before I was even old enough to drink!—and oddly enough, the older I get, the more of an attachment I feel toward...

Run It Back is one of the more infrequently published "recurring" columns here at The Witzard : honestly, I don't even know when we published one of these last... but what I do know is that the column title is inspired by a Nottz Raw -produced Asher Roth track of the same name, which expertly samples The Misfits' "Return of The Fly." Minor Threat were East Coast Straight-Edge Hardcore/Punk contemporaries of both The Misfits and Glenn Danzig 's next band, Horror Punk pioneers Samhain , which even briefly featured Minor Threat guitarist Lyle Preslar . For me, personally, Black Flag , Minor Threat, Fugazi , The Misfits, and Samhain were my bread and butter while exploring Hardcore/Punk as an angsty 15/16-year-old during the age of Napster and P2P sites. Now, I know Minor Threat/Fugazi frontman and DC -based Dischord Records co-founder Ian MacKaye —like most well-traveled Punk/Hardcore musicians—has always been part of a slew of short-lived b...

Wasted Time by Beach Rats Beach Rats is a New Jersey -based Hardcore band consisting of vocalist Ari Katz , guitarist Brian Baker , guitarist Pete Steinkopf , bassist Bryan Kienlen , and drummer Daniel "Dubs" Winda s. Amongst them, Beach Rats have about 32+ collective years spent recording, touring, and melting faces within countless New Jersey & New York -based Punk/Hardcore bands. Brian Baker alone has played with Bad Religion , Dag Nasty, Dead F**king Last , Doggy Style, Government Issue , Junkyard, The Meatmen , Minor Threat, Pavement (no, not that Pavement ,) and Samhain. Ari Katz has spent his time playing with High School Sweethearts , Lifetime, Miss TK & The Revenge , and Zero Zero, while Pete "The Pete" Steinkopf & Bryan "Papillon" Kienlen have both been long-time members of The Bouncing Souls . Drummer Daniel "Dubs" Windas , the greenhorn of Beach Rats , has spent his early years between 1999-2007 and onward play...

Pure Disgust by Pure Disgust "The NWODCHC [New Wave of DC Hardcore] is so powerful and on the rise. It’s great to see young kids being in the center of it all as well. It’s even cooler to see that all my friends are [getting] on bigger labels, putting the name of DC back on the map. You've got Protester putting a record out on Triple-B Records , Stand Off putting one out on Youngblood , Red Death putting something out on Lockin' Out ... I love it all. My friends are what keep me here, and I love every single one of them and what they're doing," Pure Disgust frontman Rob Watson recently revealed to DC -based publication Bandwidth ; it's fitting that Washington, DC is currently experiencing a period of musical rebirth— nearly some 40 years after 1980's Hardcore founding fathers Bad Brains , Fugazi, Minor Threat , Dag Nasty, Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins , Scream, Rites of Spring , Embrace, etc. initially burst onto the scene. Watson formed...

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...

Pissed Jeans are probably the most sobering, un- Rock "N" Roll Hardcore [Noise-Rock] band since like... Straight Edge pioneers, Minor Threat/Fugazi . Weasel-voiced frontman Matt Korvette is an insurance claims adjuster by day, for Christ's sake! "Bathroom Laughter" and "Cathouse" (released Monday) chronicle relate-able, everyday mis-doings that the average Middle American can easily relate to; I mean, we're talking about "crippling pert allergies," hallway screaming/kitchen crying, a "blistering fear of going to the doctor," and unrequited rhapsody with saucy women. "Cathouse" is most likely gonna be our last FREEBIE 'til Sub Pop drops the band's fourth studio album, Honeys , this upcoming Feb. 12th. Former Japanther director/graphic artist, Joe Stakun supposedly made [filmed] a music video for the band, which @PissedJeans' Twitter feed says should be unleashed to The Inter-web sometime dur...

"Nice New Outfit" (Track 01) by Chris Lawhorn (1.) What really compelled you to edit a bunch of Fugazi tracks together in the first place... and how'd you go about picking which parts to use? Chris Lawhorn: I love the band. I thought it would be an interesting project and an excuse to listen to their catalog in a new way. I used all of the songs in their discography -- apart from those on the Instrument soundtrack . (2.) Did you have to pay constant attention to stuff like pitch, tempo, rhythm, timing etc. When mashing the tracks together? Yes. With the whole album, I tried to group the tracks by tempo -- so that I wasn't mixing fast tracks with slow ones. And with the individual tracks, it was a matter of keeping each instrument in time with those from the other tracks by manually moving beats around. (3.) Do you have a background in Punk and/or Hip-Hop (even just as a fan)? Cause parts of it really remind me of both genres! In the late 90's...

I think I'd have to honestly say that Black Flag, Misfits, Minor Threat (Fugazi) , and Beastie Boys were the first 3-4 1980's Hardcore bands that I really got into @ the tender [aggressive] age of like 15-16. Always having a few "cool" older cousins, Hardcore Punk was the first type of music that I really discovered on my own! While they're all pretty great in the own ways, Black Flag still remains one of my favoutite bands, all these years later... particularly Rollins era Black Flag , of course. They were so much more than just another Punk band - Seamlessly mixing in bits & pieces of spoken word poetry, Blues-Jazz , Sludge/Doom Metal , Rhythm & Blues , Prog. Rock, Breakbeat , Contemporary Classical (1970's), and intricate guitar solos. Vice Records' music channel, noisey recently too a trip "across the pond" to play some tunes for a few young critics. My best guess is that most of these kids are roughly 6-12, all of whom have ...

For all intensive purposes, writer/director Scott Crawford was roughly 12-years old during the height of "Reaganomics" (1981-89) and of course, the rise of Hardcore Punk forming adjacent to the nation's capitol: Washington, DC . D.I.Y. fanzine publisher, Crawford was a fairy instrumental player attached to DC Hardcore 's initial burst in popularity. Around the same time, young Hardcore bands like Misfits, The Ramones , and Beastie Boys were making waves on the nearby coasts of New York and New Jersey ... Now, some 30+ years later, he's piecing together an end-all-be-all documentary to properly tell the story of the genre and city that he knows best! Salad Days: The DC Punk Revolution is scheduled for a 2013 wide release and interviews are still being conducted, but we already have 2 short "teaser trailers" to help whet your appetite. In an earnest attempt to fully convey the passion-filled story of DC Punk , Scott Crawford is currently re-intervi...

30 years ago today way back in 1982 - a greatly unique, [w]reckless, and promising young man passed away @ the hands of one last fatal "speedball:" John Belushi . He was an up-and-coming comedian, who really only revealed a segment of his many talents to the word while briefly on top. Belushi was a member of the inaugural Saturday Night Live cast (1975), along with buddies Chevy Chase & Dan Aykroyd . SNL -bred John Belushi characters which present-day audiences might recognize include: Jake E. Blues & Kuldorth [Conehead] . Following his 1979 departure from the popular sketch comedy show, Belushi appeared in a number of successful movies and assorted TV shows: National Lampoon's Animal House , The Rutles, 1941 , The Blues Brothers , and lastly Neighbors (1981). At the time of his sudden death, Belushi was working on a number of projects, which were ultimately cancelled. A little known John Belushi -related factoid is that he was an avid Hardcore Punk fan and ...