The Witzard

Nothing by Ghouli Ghouli are a macabre-inspired Richmond, Virginia-based Hardcore Punk band, who just released their debut EP, NOTHING , earlier this morning. We, actually, first learned about Ghouli last week, when Stereogum Senior Editor, Tom Breihan , posted the first installment of his new Let The Roundup Begin: The Month In Hardcore - January 2020 column. Ghouli hail from an area that boasts a decades-long pedigree of great Punk/Hardcore bands, which includes newcomers One Step Closer, CANDY, Break Away, NOSEBLEED, Division of Mind, Red Vision, and Left Cross. Ghouli were formed in early 2018 and their current line-up consists of frontwoman Sam Poe , guitarist Mikey Kent , bassist Ethan Mackenzie , and drummer Eric Kelly , including former members of Hold Tight, Radio Reds, and Teen Death. Mikey Kent recently told The Witzard, via email, that Ghouli are "heavily influenced by 80's Hardcore bands, like T.S.O.L. & Poison Idea, old school Death Rock, like Chri...

Worn are a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania-based Hardcore/Punk band, which have been active since 2016. They're from the same ever-growing Wilkes-Barre Hardcore scene as fellow PAxHC thrashers, One Step Closer, who released their debut EP, FROM ME TO YOU , on Triple-B Records earlier this year. Worn either consists of " Butch - Guitar, Peter - Bass, Ross - Guitar, Caleb - Drums, Dan - Vocals," OR " BRIAN, CALEB, DANIEL, PETER, ROSS ," as both listed on their Bandcamp page. Following this year's NOT YOUR GAME EP release on Scranton/Wilkes-Barre-based label, 12Forty Records , and, apparently, self-released LIVE! ON AXETOGRIND EP , Worn have returned with their latest offering, "TOTAL DISEASE" B​/​W "HARM YOU." TOTAL DISEASE B/W HARM YOU by Worn It was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Wyatt Oberholzer at The Knife Lair with drums performed by Mike Walsh , vocals on "TOTAL DISEASE" performed by Cole Paulson , and artwor...

"MCDONALD’S, MAN MCDONALD’S, MAN THE FRENCH FRIES HAD A PLAN THE FRENCH FRIES HAD A PLAN THE SALAD BAR AND THE KETCHUP MADE A BAND 'CUS THE FRENCH FRIES HAD A PLAN THE FRENCH FRIES HAD A PLAN MCDONALD’S, MAN MCDONALD’S I KNOW THEM FRENCH FRIES HAVE A PLAN I KNOW THEM FRENCH FRIES HAVE A PLAN THE CHEESEBURGER AND THE SHAKES FORMED A BAND TO OVERTHROW THE FRENCH FRIES’ PLAN I ALWAYS KNEW THEM FRENCH FRIES WAS EVIL, MAN SMELLING ALL GOOD AND SH*T I DON’T TRUST NO FOOD THAT SMELLS GOOD, MAN I DON’T TRUST IT I JUST CAN’T MCDONALD’S, MAN MCDONALD’S, MAN MCDONALD’S, DAMN THEM FRENCH FRIES LOOK GOOD [THOUGH] I KNEW THE DIET COKE WAS JEALOUS OF THE FRIES I KNEW THE MCNUGGETS WAS JEALOUS OF THE FRIES EVEN THE MCRIB WAS JEALOUS OF THE FRIES I COULD SEE IT THROUGH HIS ARTIFICIAL MEAT EYES AND HE ONLY BE THERE SOME OF THE TIME EVERYBODY WAS JEALOUS OF THEM FRENCH FRIES EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE SPECIAL GUY... THAT SMOOTH APPLE PIE" - TEXT BY KANYE WEST.

Rock "N" Roll and quite arguably, music as a whole lost one of its most charismatic, uniquely individual, and beloved figureheads when David Jones aka The Thin White Duke aka Ziggy Stardust , otherwise known as the one and only David Bowie unexpectedly passed away early Sunday morning, January 10th, amongst the company of dear family and friends following an 18-month battle with cancer. I'm not even going to attempt to write a fully fleshed-out obituary to Bowie, hands down one of my all-time favorite performers since I was about 12, but I figured I would at least assemble a few of my thoughts and feelings into an all-too-brief hand-written tribute; a proper David Bowie obituary can be viewed over at Stereogum , which was written by Tom Breihan and served as a loose structural basis for this very piece. Throughout the course of his storied and ever-developing 52-year career, Bowie released some 28 genre-blending studio albums, produced one of the most critically-ac...

"Throughout its storied three-year existence, Troubled Waters has emerged as the world's preeminent Paul Simon tribute band, attracting a passionate fan following in multiple states. Evoking the heavenly vocals, poignant lyrics, and sensible wardrobe of the greatest Folk-Rock artist of all time. Troubled Waters has taken every effort to mimic that classic P-Sim sound, withe exception of some of the more complex arrangements on Graceland ," reads the brief artist biography on mysterious Late Show with Stephen Colbert inaugural week guests, Troubled Waters . "So sit back, feel groovy, and remember what the man himself said: "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls, and whispered in the sound... of Troubled Waters ," the band's rather sparse website continues, making a few clever allusions to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Simon solo hit "Feelin' Groovy." While it was widely assumed to...

"Fresh off the heels of compiling a musically diverse compilation for GTAV 's Welcome to Los Santos , The Alchemist and Oh No are back, bringing their Gangrene noise on a whole other level with the release of their long-awaited third full-length record You Disgust Me ," Gangrene 's Nas -fronted label, Mass Appeal Records described in the Hip-Hop duo's latest Soundcloud press release. " You Disgust Me begins where Vodka & Ayahuasca left off, with Al and Oh lyrically vandalizing the minds of the masses over gritty, Psychedelic Jazz , Rock and Fusion -tinged beats;" not limited to, but including samples of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention and 1960-70's Dutch Blues-Rock band, Shocking Blue . Frequent collaborators Action Bronson and Evidence appear alongside Gangrene new-comers Sean Price , veteran emcee Havoc of Mobb Deep, Your Old Droog , Fashawn, and Chuck Stranglers ... although we still have yet to hear that long-rum...

"We are over the moon to announce the first new original Peter Bjorn and John track to be released since 2011 is premiering TODAY on [Stereogum] - It's EXCLUSIVELY [featured] on INGRID Vol. 2 compilation, taken from our forthcoming album sessions written with Patrick Berger . Take a listen now!!!" Peter Bjorn & John ecstatically wrote in a quick personalized Soundcloud note included along with their comeback single, "High Up (Take Me to The Top)." It's the dreamy Swedish Indie Pop trio's first taste of proper new material released since their last critically-acclaimed four-year-old, and one of my personal favorite albums, Gimme Some ; while seemingly remaining absent from the spotlight all together, Peter Bjorn & John actually spent the better part of 2012 diligently upstarting their own home-grown label collective, INGRID along with fellow Swedish hit-makers Lykke Li , members of Miike Snow, Teddybears founder Joakim Åhlund , Coco ...

"Last year, a mysterious rapper named Your Old Droog came out of nowhere with a self-titled mixtape. He sounded so much like Illmatic -era Nas that people thought it really was Nas , rapping under a Clockwork Orange -inspired pseudonym. Well, no, as it turns out, Your Old Droog is just some white guy from Coney Island ," Stereogum "Hip-Hop Head In Chief" Tom Breihan wrote in a recently penned Your Old Droog -centric piece. Following a whirl-wind year, which showcased two 2014-issued releases, Your Old Droog [LP] , critically-acclaimed Your Old Droog EP , and a handful of non-album singles, Your Old Droog unleashed an 11-track Rock -themed KINISON EP late Wednesday afternoon. It's littered with inventive Rock "N" Roll samples ranging from Johnny Cash to the Beastie Boys ("Pass The Mic") and at least 40+ cleverly inter-woven references including Sam Kinison , Pornos for Pyros, Rage Against The Machine , and Sonic Youth (track titles)...

"[a] beach boys meets ty$ kinda vibe," @diplo Tweeted early Thursday afternoon, attempting to best describe his latest Soundcloud upload, "LONG WAY HOME;" a quasi-remix, or more so a loose cover, of Ty Dollar $ign 's non-album single, "Stand For" re-recorded with Grizzly Bear/Vampire Weekend members Ed Droste & Rostam . "its about time that indie rock acts started to co-opt rap beats," Diplo lamented in the track's short-lived Soundcloud description, which Pitchfork points out, was imminently deleted. I was just telling my beautiful girlfriend, in terms of sheer line-blurring concept, "LONG WAY HOME" vaguely reminds me of Vampire Weekend 's middle-of-the-road Indie Rock/Hip-Hop hybrid track, "Step (Wintertime Remix)" featuring appended verses from Danny Brown , Heems, and Despot . "Stand For," the structural basis for "LONG WAY HOME," was actually co-produced by Diplo ...

It's almost unfathomable to me, as both a home-grown music writer and music-buying all-American 20-something, to hear that musical luminaries Michael Jackson and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury once recorded a number of incomplete tracks together that have been sitting in a vault somewhere in "Neverland," collecting dust for nearly 30 years! Mercury supposedly brought the potentially über-fruitful 1983-84 sessions to a screeching halt after Jackson attempted to bring a llama into the recording studio. Head Stereogum writer, Tom Breihan basically conceptualized the whole mind-boggling scenario perfectly: "[it's] like finding a giant pile of money under the bed in your hotel room and deciding, what the Hell, you'll just leave it there" ha. But now, Grammy -winning producer and Madonna collaborator, William Orbit has gone back in and meticulously re-produced/mastered the long-lost Queen -backed track, "There Must Be More to Life Than This,...

In all honesty, I've never really been all that into Garage-Psych Rock man-machine Ty Segall and his various projects, but I know he puts out quality material at a pretty consistent rate. While I don't personally own any of his countless records, I did in fact try to get a copy of his Record Store Day exclusive, Ty-Rex EP a few years ago to no avail. Segall is currently readying his first LP since last year's marathon three-album release schedule ( Sleeper, Gemini, and Fuzz ); " Manipulator [features] Ty's helium-cooled vocals, sounding more powerful and dynamic than ever, and many sounds in the mix, but most of all, SO many guitars!" reads a rather disjointed Drag City press release. Seattle -based radio station KEXP 90.3 FM premiered a download-able stream of album track, "Susie Thumb," one of 17 tracks culled from the nearly hour-long record, which supposedly took Ty Segall almost a full month to record to tape. Tom Breihan over at St...

Wampire are a newly augmented Indie Rock band hailing from "Hipsterville, USA" Portland, Oregon ; founding members Eric Phipps and Rocky Tinder have been actively performing together since about 2001 playing dance-friendly Electronic music at local house parties. While it doesn't exactly specifically mention musicians names or which instruments have been added, a recent Stereogum post notes that " Wampire are a quintet now — a "real band," if you will." Although WAMPIRE 's Facebook page seems to have been recently updated to feature their mysterious new band mates' names: Cole Browning, Owen Thompson , and Thomas Hoganson ... but still lacks respective instrument specifications. Judging by "Wizard Staff," the lead single from their forthcoming second album Bazaar , Wampire are seemingly taking their fledgling music career(s) a little more seriously than the former half jokey Horror-Punk roll-out behind Curiosity (2013),...

"Well shit. Since @stereogum posted the You Blue It pre-order, the [first] 100 sold out. Looks like the others might too," You Blew It! Tweeted Tuesday afternoon upon the release of "Surf Wax America" premiered by the good people over at Stereogum ; whether it was intentional or not, the Florida -based Emo revival band will unleash their You Blue It covers EP on the 20-year anniversary of Weezer aka "The Blue Album" and have seemingly already gained the backing of Indie Rock blogs and fans alike. Although I was only seven when it came out, Weezer was always one of my favorite bands and quite honestly, The Blue Album and Maladroit are amongst my "desert island" albums. I forget where, but I once read that frontman Rivers Cuomo made a 3-ring binder of chart-topping Pop songs, breaking down their various characteristics, and essentially cracked the code of what makes a hit song; his meticulous sonic research surely paid off because n...

For the sake of cohesive clarity, maybe it should be duly noted that the majority of this very post was written down in my parents' basement earlier tonight while I was listening to Dope Body 's latest Sludge-Punk album, Natural History , and drinking midair-smuggled German beer: While I can't exactly say that I'm a huge Kelis fan, and you may not be either, but let's be totally honest... who isn't at least vaguely familiar with "Milkshake" or even "Got Your Money" (ODB)? TIME further notes that Kelis has essentially bounced all over the place during her 15-year career; "she made strange, funky Pop songs like "Milkshake" [with Pharrell ] that took over American radio. She was more forceful still with clanging, dissonant R&B tracks like "Bossy." Then, she transformed into a spaced-out Electro-House diva on her last album, 2010's Flesh Tone ." Now the ex-wife of legendary Queens emcee Nas , K...

While it might not exactly be the righteous ear-piercing RAGER you'd expect from a Trash Talk/Flatbush Zombies team-up, "97.92" is a pretty legit-sounding thankfully Nü-Metal -less Rock -tinged Hip-Hop banger; frontman @LeeSpielman notes that it's first-time beat-maker(s) and fellow bandmate " Garrett [Stevenson] and Kellen on the beat." Even though Trash Talk are signed to Odd Future Records , they really haven't dabbled too much into Hardcore Punk/Hip-Hop hybrids, aside from two Spielman-assisted tracks on Hodgy Beats' quick-strike Untitled EP 2 (2013). Stereogum premiered "97.92" mid-Monday morning, which Trash Talk & Flatbush Zombies collectively recorded together at Converse 's own Williamsburg -based Rubber Tracks studio recently. If The Internet -propelled rumor-mill is to be believed, both groups are currently working on new music; Flatbush Zombies leaked a new track, "LiT" from their upcoming I...

It's become something of an annual tradition; every December, Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche picks his favourite year-end track, re-records his own unique version, and sends it over to Stereogum 's headquarters. This yule tide season, he's conjured up a sparse acoustic-laden cover of "Wrecking Ball," effectively eliminating any remaining ounce of TWERKIN', debauchery, and mega-studio sheen. But in it's own right, "Wrecking Ball" is an incredibly well-written, dare I say... modern day power-ballad (for lack of a better term), and maybe Sondre Lerche 's version can help some naive-minded listeners finally see that! In recent years past, Lerche has sent Stereogum staff writers a few interesting Animal Collective , Owen Pallet, and Beyoncé covers. "I had trouble finding [a song] that I felt truly motivated to interpret. So, while "Wrecking Ball" may not be my very favorite song of 2013, it turned out to be ...

After establishing what could best be described as a budding "bromance" with seasoned Less Than Jake bassist Roger Lima (@lessthanRAJ) , experimental guitar virtuoso Dustin Wong simply Tweeted a rough new track, along with a quick micro-message: "some new sounds from a week ago : )." It's 2:34-worth of guitar-drenched hiccups that Wong's dubbed "Foggy Cliffy Night Drive" and essentially, the latest output to be added to his ever-growing post- Ponytail solo discography. Fresh on the heels of the conclusion to an expansive three-album arc, Meditation of Ecstatic Energy (2012), Dustin Wong seems to already be working on the proper follow-up to his latest September-released Thrill Jockey album. A self-proclaimed guitar loop and pedal innovator, Wong recently lamented to Ad-Hoc , "I had a show about a month ago [August] where I was using three loop pedals with different set-ups; it was all improvised, looping guitar and vocals. I was actu...

1/3 of Swedish Indie-Pop group Peter Bjorn & John , Peter Morén is gearing up to release a series of Swedish-to-English EP's in the coming months; his four-track Broken Swenglish (Vol. 1) will see a Monday, December 9th digital-release on the band's Swedish -based collective imprint, INGRID . Stereogum premiered a new, previously unreleased Peter Morén track called "Constant Reaction" late Tuesday afternoon. It's a guitar-drenched romper of a track, which is a little bit more Rock -oriented that Peter Bjorn & John 's typically super-chill output. "Constant Reaction" is more of less an aggressive six-string musical response "that plays [out] like The Smiths , if Morrissey had a lot more protein in his diet." Peter Morén personally sent Stereogum a little bit of introspective background info on it's creation: "I wrote this after the awful shootings against a youth-camp in 2011 on the island Utöya outside of Oslo ...

" AAN is a fearless experimental Pop band from Portland, OR mixing heavily textured guitars with rich vocal harmonies," according to Facebook . Frontman Bud Wilson decided to start a band with friends-musicians Jon Lewis (drums), Reese Lawhorn (bass), and Jeff Bond (guitar). AAN , which is pronounced like a hard Boston -accented "on," managed to self-release a number of CD-R's throughout the city starting around 2007. 6 years and a few well-received singles/EP's later, AAN are finally ready to unleash their long-awaited debut album, tentatively titled Amor ad Nauseum . I almost hate making open-ended analogies like this... But most of the time, Wilson's vocals sound a lot like a near-perfect hybrid mix between Jeff Buckley and Pavement's sloppy brand of smart 90's Indie Rock . Stereogum (Claire Lobenfeld?) scored an for AAN's latest, Mike Wilson -directed music video, "Mystery Life." It's titular plot revol...

Earlier this year, Usher linked with Diplo to make "Climax," a pretty amazing heartbroken R&B track with masterful Dance -music flourishes and an excellently subtle string arrangement from Indie-Classical wunderkind, Nico Muhly . It's an early contender for Single of The Year (2012) and a fine reminder that, no matter what you may think of Usher and/or Diplo , they are both extremely good @ driving their respective lanes. The new "Climax" video is a bit of fairly typical R&B -video melodrama, all about Usher contemplating the different tragic paths he and his ladyfriend could take, but it's a nice excuse to enjoy the song again. Watch it below... Usher hasn't announced a new album yet or anything, but the "Climax" single is @ iTunes now. - Tom Breihan (Stereogum)