The Witzard

Magnolia Park (CREDIT: Jonathan Weiner) Deeply rooted in Pop-punk sensibilities while staying true to their unique style, Orlando, Florida band Magnolia Park draw from an eclectic mix of influences to experiment with elements of Hip-Hop, Emo, and Alternative Rock. Just yesterday, they announced plans for two new companion EP's dropping next month— SoulEater & MoonEater —which, respectively, represent the lighter and darker sides of their multifaceted sound. Ahead of the releases, the band shares the MoonEater lead single and accompanying music video titled "Breathing" featuring Alt. rapper nothing,nowhere. (Dashboard Confessional, Fall Out Boy, Senses Fail.) In an impassioned performance video depicting Magnolia Park singer, Joshua Roberts, free-falling from the heavens, as he pushes his soaring vocals to the edge for a cathartic release of emotions. "Our music is always about creating empowerment out of negative feelings," the band comments. "In...

Town Liar, L-R: Benny Horowitz, Nick Remondelli, Heath Saraceno & Paul Stanley from KISS(!), and Jason Shevchuk (SOURCES: Facebook & Google) Town Liar's members include drummer Benny Horowitz (The Gaslight Anthem, WAX BOTTLES, The Killing Gift, Full Circle Swing, The Low End Theory, Yellboy, Bottomfeeder, Antarctigo Vespucci, ex-Mercy Union,) guitarist Nick Remondelli (Autumn, Bound, The Break In Mile, ex-None More Black,) bassist/vocalist Heath Saraceno (Midtown, ex-Senses Fail,) and vocalist/guitarist Jason Shevchuk (Kid Dynamite, None More Black, Former Member, Bound, OnGuard, LaGrecia, The Break In Mile, ex-R.A.M.B.O.) Shevchuk & Remondelli played together in New Jersey Vegan/Straight Edge Hardcore band Bound around 1996. They briefly played together again in a band short-lived band called The Break In Mile, which Remondelli says, "never went off the ground." Lies: One Through Seven by Town Liar Shevchuck, then, formed Kid Dynamite and soon afte...

"Become What You Hate" (ART CREDIT: Dan Schenker) Art Inhuman is a collaborative effort between Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) artist Dan Schenker and writer Matt Horowitz. Dan takes band names, lyrics, and song names and with the help of A.I., manipulates them into what he feels best represents them visually. If you have a suggestion for an upcoming addition to this series, Tweet Matt at @SharpChedder856 and/or Dan at @heydanschenker and Tag the band or artist you'd like us to feature next. This project spawned from Dan's decades-long love of music. Dan had been a fan of the band FOLLY since early high school—for the blend of Punk, Ska, and Hardcore they seamlessly wove, for the energy their music made him feel, and for the almost disproportionately poetic lyrics and topics they covered. So, when Dan thought to input some of his favorite FOLLY lyrics, song titles, and album titles into Midjourney, the results were staggering. He posted them to Facebook, which ca...

Fontana, California-based artist Clark Domae was a driving force behind the success of early 2000's Pop-punk/Emo pioneers Rufio. Domae played lead guitar and sang back-up vocals across Rufio's four critically-acclaimed albums, as well as a handful of singles and EP's, released between 2001-10. Domae was part of Rufio's initial run between 2000-07 and reunion stints held in 2010-12 and 2015. During their heyday, Rufio toured alongside of bands like Alkaline Trio, Brand New, Less Than Jake, Relient K, Senses Fail, and Taking Back Sunday. Since Rufio's 2007 disbandment, Clark Domae has started a family, gone back to school, maintains a "normal" job, and still plays guitar from time to time after his kids go to bed. Clark played guitar on "Drugs" from his one-time bandmate Scott Sellers' 2018 solo EP The Judge and most recently, revitalized an old band with Sellers and Aaron Fernandez. BigCity's awesomely-titled The Quest for Power EP con...

So, as many of you may well know by now, my wife and I are first-time parents of a now 4-month-old(!) baby and while I'm still trying to find a healthy balance between writing here on The Witzard, as well as a handful of other sites, and hanging out with my growing family, it admittedly isn't always easy. So, while I ran a bunch of Halloween-centric features over the course of the past two weeks or so, I didn't exactly have time to cover everything that came out on or around Friday for Halloween after our last post before the weekend. However, with that said, there were a bunch of ghoulishly great Halloween jams—both originals and covers—released this year. Now, with all that said, I'm proud to present to you A Pumpkin-punchin' Post-Halloween Punk/Hardcore Playlist. I've included Bandcamp links for most of these, as that's my preferred steaming platform (in addition to Spotify) and some of these picks selected are available as Bandcamp-only exclusives and ...