The Witzard

Big Laugh's Revelation Records and Bandcamp profile photo (SOURCE: Big Laugh) For decades, the Upper Midwest of the United States has been a hotspot for Hardcore bands that bend genres and refuse to stick to tired formulas, producing acts like Hüsker Dü & Die Kreuzen. Milwaukee's Big Laugh are here to continue that tradition with a sound that finds them as much at home playing D.I.Y. shows in dingy basements as playing large clubs alongside some of Hardcore & Punk's luminaries. Recently signed with legendary Hardcore label Revelation Records, Big Laugh are set to unleash their debut album, Consume Me, in February 2023. It follows the band's 2020 EP, Manic Revision (11PM Records,) which will, also, see a vinyl re-issue from the label. Recorded with producer Matt Russell at Altered States studio in Chicago, Consume Me is an energetic blast of creative Hardcore. Shadow Figure by Big Laugh Self-described "Punks who listen to Judge," Big Laugh work...

WORLD BE FREE, 2020 CREDIT: Atiba Jefferson (@atibajefferson) Los Angeles-based WORLD BE FREE is a Punk/Hardcore "super-group" in nearly every sheer essence of the term. Its current line-up features vocalist Scott Vogel, guitarists Joe Garlipp & Andrew Kline, drummer Sammy Siegler, and new bassist Alex Barreto; collectively, having played with the likes of TERROR, Buried Alive, ENVY, Constant Elevation, STRIFE, BERTHOLD CITY, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits, RIVAL SCHOOLS, Chain of Strength, and Excel. WORLD BE FREE formed around 2015 and released their full-length debut, The Anti-Circle , on Revelation Records in 2016, which featured Arthur Smilios (CIV, Judge, Warzone) providing bass duties. Now, WORLD BE FREE have returned with a slightly altered line-up, as well as the announcement of a new EP. One Time for Unity has already yielded one single, "Acceptance," and ahead of next month's wide release on Revelation Records, WORLD BE FREE have dropped a second sing...

Constant Elevation for Revelation Records (CREDIT: Julian Gilbert) Punk/Hardcore drummer, musician, and producer Sammy Siegler has been making music since about 1987-88. Siegler's more well-known projects include CIV, Gorilla Biscuits, Judge, Nightmare of You, Project X, RIVAL SCHOOLS, Shelter, Side By Side, WORLD BE FREE, and Youth of Today, but he's, also, recorded music with the likes of Glassjaw, Head Automatica, Limp Bizkit, and Tech N9ne. Supposedly, Sammy Siegler still plays basketball with Beastie Boy Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz, who even remixed "69 Guns" from RIVAL SCHOOLS' 2011 album, Pedals. Sammy's latest group, Constant Elevation, started out as a two-man project with Vinnie Caruana (The Movielife, I Am The Avalanche, Peace'd Out) and released a self-titled 2019 EP on Revelation Records. Constant Elevation's 2020 line-up features Siegler & Caruana, along with guitarist Mike Ireland, bassist Jani Zubkovs, and their newest memb...

December 14, 2018: "Last week, we told you about the 80's boy band New Kids On The Block having recorded at Syncro Sound in Boston, a studio with a clients list that boasted notable Hardcore acts, such as Bad Brains, Wrecking Crew, etc. but there's another Hardcore connection to NKOTB that goes back even further than their recordings at the famed studio, but this time by way of one specific NYHC drummer. Eric Komst, better known in Hardcore circles as just "E.K." played drums for legendary Hardcore band Warzone on their 1988 LP, Open Your Eyes and their self-titled follow-up LP in 1989 and later, did time in Sick of It All, recording on their We Stand Alone 7-inch in 1991; but years before, he was playing in NYHC bands, E.K. was living in Boston and playing drums in a band called Miracle Boy all the way back in 1983. Miracle Boy featured a 13-year-old E.K. on drums and none other than Jordan Knight from New Kids On The Block on guitar and vocals. The group wa...