The Witzard

Runnin' Scared/Their Disguise by Warish WARISH are a self-proclaimed "Low-Budget Horror Rock" band hailing from Oceanside, California; yes, their guitarist/vocalist is Tony Hawk 's son and fellow Pro "Street" Skater, Riley Hawk . Oddly enough, my first real-deal "concert"—aside from Dexys Midnight Runners & Sesame Street/Disney On Ice—was Activision O2 Presents: Tony Hawk's Boom Boom HuckJam held at the then-First Union Center (now-Wells Fargo Center) in Philly in November of 2002. Boldly billed as "THE ONLY ACTION SPORTS TOUR THAT MATTERS!" and featuring the biggest, gnarlist SKATE/MOTO-X/BMX stars of the day rippin' it up on a giant half-pipe constructed right atop where the Sixers & Flyers would typically play. I can vaguely remember, my family went with my best buddy, Ryan, and his family and little did we know, in addition to Action/X-treme Sports, we'd be treated to our first Punk/Hardcore X-perience: Punk R...

NIGHT FINDS YOU by TUFF TURF TUFF TURF is a New Jersey -based Nihilist New Wave band fronted by everyone's favorite Nihilist Punk-Rap super-star, JE DOUBLE F . Equal parts Glenn Danzig & RiFF RAFF , JE DOUBLE F is, actually, the ALL CAPS moniker of Atlantic City 's own Jeff "Spooky" Richie . We've previously covered both Jeff 's 2017 full-length, HUMAN RITES and TUFF TURF 's "BODY HEAT" B/W "HEAVEN, RIGHT NOW" cassingle; plus, JE DOUBLE F was the second brave artist to submit a Beat-maker Bedrock to us, featuring particularly "gloomy" selections from Gravediggaz, Samhain & Nine Inch Nails , of course. Now, JE DOUBLE F -helmed TUFF TURF have returned with the long-rumored follow-up to their 2016 American Scream Records full-length, HUNGER & HAUNT , ominously titled NIGHT FINDS YOU . TUFF TURF , actually, take their name from Fritz Kiersch 's 1985 American Drama film of the same name starring a young...

JE DOUBLE F (Jeff Richie) is a self-described "Punk-Rap" emcee and producer hailing from Atlantic City, New Jersey . Richie has previously crafted demonic-sounding beats for fellow East Coaster Stillborn Identity AKA Cody Cody Jones , released a split 7-inch with Sleep Beggar , and runs his own music, film, and book imprint called AMERICAN SCREAM RECORDS . Last year, Jeff put together one of the earliest Beat-maker Bedrock columns for The Witzard , which showcased Gravediggaz 's RZArector -produced 6 Feet Deep , Glenn Danzig -fronted Samhain 's Final Descent , and Nine Inch Nails' critically-acclaimed 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine . JE DOUBLE F 's latest solo release, HUMAN RITES , was issued on AMERICAN SCREAM in June 2017 and was fittingly, first described to me as something along the lines of " Danzig [meets] MF DOOM ." When Jeff Richie 's not composing his own unique brand of Punk-Rap head-bangers, he's busy fronting a ...

"Fast, chaotic songs with no frills. Heavy touring schedule and DIY ethics; if Danzig met DOOM , you'd have JE DOUBLE F ," reads a fragmented chunk of a recent press release I received from Atlantic City, NJ -based Punk rapper JE DOUBLE F . Jeff Richie has previously worked with Pittsburgh emcee Cody Jones (formerly Stillborn Identity ), fronts a Nihilist New Wave/Punk band called TUFF TURF , and was recently cited by Static Brothers' Riff Quantum & DJ DM as a primary source of influence on their latest OBSTETRIC TRASH EP . Richie readily cites his own greatest sources of influence as Glenn Danzig , Bruce Campbell, Larry David , and Bruce Springsteen . "'JAGGED EDGE" is mainly influenced by the current political and social climate in the United States . People make a choice and then complain about the result, as if someone made that decision for them. "Personal responsibility" is considered a bad term and young people seem to love ...

" Ash Roth, Trav Bark, Nottz Raw ... supercalifragilistic-mystic odyssey / When Travis hits the crashing kick and Nottz is on the beat / When Ash is spittin' nasty sh*t, it makes it hard to breathe / Masters of the craft, it's the last of a dying breed," Asher Roth ferociously rhymes during his introductory "Goin' Down" verse on his latest cleverly-titled Travis Barker and Nottz Raw -assisted release, RAWTHER EP . Roth's newest Punk Rock -tinged extended player has seemingly been in-the-works since he, Nottz , and Barker first met during their concert-opening stint on Blink-182 's 2009 "One Way to Bonerville" reunion tour, which in turn, helped spawn a plentiful working relationship, as well as Travis Barker 's "Sour Patch Kids" Remix from his remarkable mid-album cycle mixtape, Seared Foie Gras with Quince & Cranberry . RAWTHER is of course, the unofficial follow-up to Asher & Nottz 's Misfits and J...

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...

It's pretty safe to say that Fall Out Boy are far from the righteous Chicago Punk band they used to be and quite honestly, their most recent album was far from "Saving Rock and Roll." But I also have to admit that FOB 's live show, which I caught on Temple 's basketball court, was an enjoyable Pop-Punk experience all in itself; a mix of tracks both old and new spanning from Take This to Your Grave (2003) to Save Rock and Roll (2013), scattered with giant branded beach balls and momentary piano/acoustic guitar break-downs. Post recording and releasing Rock and Roll, Fall Out Boy headed down to Alt. Country /former Punk youth Ryan Adams' Los Angeles -based studios. Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Andy Hurley, Joe Trohman & Mr. Mandy Moore managed to record 8 tracks over a 2-day period at PAX AM Studio , sessions which would eventually become the PAX AM Days EP ; It was officially announced in the wee hours of Sunday-Monday morning that the Ryan Adams -...

FLAG. Black Flag. FLAG. Black Flag . Flag Black. Flack Blag. It does get confusing, no? Well, not for me. Black Flag was a band that changed my life. It was like entering a portal and I would never be the same ever again afterwards. The band dominated over everything in my little universe. No matter how many line-up changes, no matter how many drummers, no matter whatever stylistic change the band went through, I liked ALL of it. And it wasn't until the very end of their career that I realized that something was wrong in my perceived Punk Rock paradise. Black Flag were the band that almost broke up in time. With a major emphasis on the word "almost." Also, I had decided that Black Flag founder Greg Ginn must have lost his marbles. And this was BEFORE he broke up his own band. Here is why: The month is January. The year is 1986. Black Flag are playing their first big show with yet another new line-up at The Stardust Ballroom in Los Angeles ... D. Boon of The Minut...

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...

Without sounding like a TOTAL Hipster douchebag , which I can honestly assure you I am NOT.... I can vividly remember downloading Vampire Weekend 's self-leaked 2007 demo tape and burning it onto a Blue CD-R before anybody else even knew about them! Vampire Weekend are "Tribal -infused" in the same sense that The Police were a "Reggae" band , riddim [rhythm] and Funky melodies; Evenly spread across their then upcoming self-titled debut record, Vampire Weekend somehow managed to find a way to seamlessly blend Indie Rock , Pop sensibility, "Yacht Rock," Punk Rock ideologies, Tribal drums, keen fashion sense, and a wide variety of assorted influences. The band's follow-up, Contra (2010) is most def one of my favourite albums of the past 10 years and while it's chock-full of instantly catchy hit jams, nothing beats "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa!" Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Baio & Chris Tomson took a little break b...