The Witzard

Just in time for this glorious Bandcamp Friday, James Kochalka Superstar has shared a brand new recording of a song he first wrote in 1985 with Eric Bradford on a couch at The University of Vermont for their college band, Jazzin' Hell. This newly-updated 2022 version of "The Mummy's On The Loose" was recorded with Kochalka's friends, ROUGH FRANCIS , with guest vocals supplied by his teenage hero, Jello Biafra (Ex-Dead Kennedys, The NO WTO Combo) and mixed by GRAMMY Award-winning producer and Jazzin' Hell keyboardist, Peter Katis. All of this was collectively wrangled, coordinated, and produced by Neil Cleary. "Whenever I get that first rumored taste of Fall, my soul starts to yearn deeply for Vermont & Burlington. So, watching a new Neil Cleary-directed video of ROUGH FRANCIS backing James Kochalka on a 40-year-old song of his about a mummy is the kind of sentence that means everything to Burlingtonians and very little to most other folks and it...

Urian Hackney for Paiste (CREDIT: Luke Awtry) Urian Hackney is a Vermont-based drummer, engineer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and skateboarder. Hackney's credits include Lake Superior, Libido Reign, Maneuvers, Caroline Rose, Western Terrestrials, and Wild Leek River. Urian Hackney has filled in for Converge drummer Ben Koller on multiple occasions and plays full-time in his own band, ROUGH FRANCIS. Consisting of three brothers and two of their close friends, ROUGH FRANCIS was originally formed in 2008 as a tribute to their father and uncles' 1970's Proto-punk band, Death. ROUGH FRANCIS are currently prepping their third full-length album, Urgent Care, for release in early May. Although, amidst the global Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic, Urian Hackney has made a bit of a name for himself online as a result of his topical remixes/drum covers. Last week, we first heard about Hackney's work when Scotty "Karate" Heath from Tankcrimes (@tankcrimes) Tweeted a...

1976's best kept secret and a righteous-sounding precursor to Punk Rock , Death are gearing up to release their first single in nearly 40 years, "Relief/Story of The World" this upcoming Tuesday, July 30th. The Detroit Proto-Punk band were initially active from about 1971-77 , broke up upon major label distaste regarding their name, and moved to Vermont once Death split. Brothers Bobby, Dannis, & David Hackney went on to form 2 separate Gospel Rock/Reggae bands, The 4th Movement and Lambsbread . Sadly though, David Hackney passed away in 2000 (succumbing to lung cancer) right before Death 's sudden resurgence; due in part to tech-savvy record collectors, Death 's lone self-released single, "Politicians In My Eyes" rocketed to the top of thousands of blog-spun playlists once again, between 2008-09! While their sons briefly toured as cover band Rough Francis , Bobby & Dannis Hackney triumphantly re-formed the band with long-time guit...