The Witzard

PHOTO CREDIT: Brent Broza (ARTWORK BY: Jim Lindberg) Most well-known for his role as primary song-writer and lead singer of Punk Rock band Pennywise, Jim Lindberg has been making inspiring, thought-provoking music since the 1990's. Musically, he is influenced by a wide array of genres from Punk & Folk to old school Country & Americana stylings. Lyrically, Jim takes inspiration from relatively anywhere, from transcendental philosophers to real-life events; always seeking to tell a story or find the answers to life's "big questions." Lindberg has shared the first glimpse of his debut acoustic solo project with "The Palm of Your Hand" produced by Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem, Lucero, Flogging Molly.) It boasts a band featuring David Hidalgo, Jr. (Social Distortion) on drums, Joe Gittleman (The Mighty Mighty BossToneS, Gang Green) on bass, and Marc Orrell (Dropkick Murphys, The Black Pacific) on guitar. Lindberg began writing "The Palm of Your H...

L-R: Metallica's James Hetfield with Mike Davenport & Donald Spence from Versus The World at Soundwave 2013 (SOURCE: Mike Davenport) We've Got A Flyer On You will (hopefully!) be a new recurring column here at The Witzard. It's set to feature, examine, and re-visit mixed bill/genre, once-in-a-lifetime, iconic, and otherwise noteworthy Punk/Hardcore show flyers and their corresponding line-ups. As often as possible, we plan to speak directly with the promoters, bookers, flyer artists, soundmen/women, show attendees, and, most importantly, the artists themselves. If all goes well, we’re even hoping to, eventually, cover a handful of shows we attended ourselves in years past, as well. For this slightly re-vamped edition of We've Got A Flyer On You, we'll be spotlighting a noteworthy musician, rather than an infamous show. Mike Davenport is a veteran Punk bassist and vocalist who has played with The Ataris, Versus The World, and Cave Mummy, and served as Antifr...

The Crew 18x24 Acrylic/India Ink (CREDIT: Ryan Callisto @moonofjupiterart) Just yesterday afternoon, we recieved word the world was gaining one more Los Angeles-based Punk/Hardcore super-group. The Crew somewhat amazingly features Punk Rock lifers Fletcher Dragge & Byron McMackin of Pennywise, Mike Muir of Suicidal Tendencies, and Tim Armstrong & Matt Freeman of Rancid. The Crew's debut single, "One Voice," is being billed as "a rousing Punk Rock anthem about unity." Vocalist and guitarist Fletcher Dragge shares: "collaborating with Tim Armstrong, Mike Muir, and Matt Freeman has been an awesome experience; obviously, Byron McMackin & I go way back. Byron & I had a demo of "One Voice" laying around for couple years and I thought it would be cool to bring a couple old friends on board to breath some new life into it." Fletcher continues, "watching these guys lay down their own personal trademark styles on this song wa...

Not entirely unlike Wrestle/Wrassle Rap or Basketball Rap, there's, apparently, a whole sub-genre of hockey-themed Punk/Hardcore—oftentimes, referred to as "Puck" Rock or Hockey-core. Yes, I've been a die-hard fan of Punk/Hardcore for 15+ years and I, too, only first heard about Puck Rock within the last few weeks. Although, once I started diggin' around, I discovered about 10-15 bands at the forefront; this was, then, gradually narrowed down to 10 "front-line" bands, which will be chronicled here over the course of coming weeks. The "top-scoring" bands we selected include: Crippled Youth, SLAPSHOT, The Hanson Brothers/Nomeansno, Two Man Advantage, The Boils, D.O.A. THE ZAMBONIS, Pansy Division, The Hextalls, and THE RAMOMS' "Gritty Is A Punk" flexi-disc. We sent out a short 6-question interview form to all of the aforementioned bands, received some back, heard a few choice words, and still have yet to hear from a few more. We...

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 the question,...