The Witzard

Mikey Erg with Jeff Rosenstock, Alex Clute & Lou Hanman (CREDIT: Emily McKern) "Mikey Erg continues to set the gold standard for hooky Punk love songs. Love At Leeds is him at the top of his song-writing game—just one finely tuned ear-worm after another," writer Dan Ozzi gushes within a press release. Love At Leeds is the realization of many dreams for Mikey Erg. A life-long music obsessive, growing up in the early 90's, there was one sound he'd always hoped to capture on his recordings: the sound of Steve Albini. Steve's credits include Pixies, Flogging Molly, Iggy & The Stooges, and, of course, Nirvana's iconic third album, In Utero, one of Mikey's absolute favorite records. Mikey had never in his 20-plus-year recording career ever been able to make a fully-analog recording. Love At Leeds was the perfect time to rectify all of that. Love At Leeds by Mikey Erg Utilizing the same group of musicians that helped him realize his debut solo alb...

Flogging Molly are a beloved and critically-acclaimed Irish-American Celtic Punk band now based out of Los Angeles, California, but originally hailing from Dublin, Ireland. Flogging Molly's current line-up consists of Dave King (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhran,) Bridget Regan (violin, tin whistle, vocals,) Dennis Casey (guitar, vocals,) Matt Hensley (accordion, concertina, vocals,) Nathen Maxwell (bass guitar, vocals,) Spencer Swain (mandolin, banjo, guitar, vocals,) and Mike Alonso (drums, percussion.) Since we're currently in a festive mood gearing up for Halloween later this week, Dave King was once the frontman of 80's Heavy Metal/Hard Rock band Fastway with "Fast" Eddie Clarke (Motörhead.) Fastway provided the soundtrack for campy 1986 Horror film, Trick or Treat, which, featured Dave King providing vocals for fictional in-film frontman Sammi Curr, alongside cameos from Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne, and long-time Michael Jackson dancer Tony Fields. ...

"We are excited to announce that a new Joanna Newsom song was released this morning! Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson ," read an uncharacteristically serious Tweet from GRAMMY -winning Comedy-Rap triumvirate @thelonelyisland , which just so happens to showcase the rhymin' talents of Newsom's husband, Andy Samburg . While I'm vaguely familiar with Joanna Newsom 's beautifully fragile harp-assisted melodies, I'm gonna be completely honest here: the only time I've ever actually "heard" her music was on Asher Roth & Nottz Raw 's reflective "Sprout & The Bean" -sampling RAWTH EP cut, "Break Bread." Newsom's first album in nearly five years, Divers , features lush string arrangement composed by "a total murders' row: Newsom [herself], Nico Muhly , Dirty Projectors frontman Dave Longstreth , and Ryan Francesconi ," as Stereogum reports. Divers' string arrangements were additionally record...

"Do It with a Rockstar" seems to chronicle the semi-average, often mundane existence of a slightly washed up Rock "N" Roll legend. My best guess is that Amanda Palmer is a liberal-thinking feminist/bi-sexual "Punk Cabaret" cult hero, a former member of The Dresden Dolls . Palmer managed to fund and record her latest album, Theatre Is Evil , with nearly $1.2 million notoriously raised on Kickstarter . It was only following a pretty cut-throat, spirited, and publicized exchange with veteran producer, Steve Albini (Nirvana) that Amanda Palmer finally agreed to pay her crowd-sourced horn and string players with money over "beer and hugs/high-5's." "Do It with a Rockstar" isn't Palmer's first time behind Wayne Coyne 's directorial lens; The Flaming Lips roped in Amanda Palmer for a re-recorded version of "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" after Erykah & Nayrok Badu pulled out of the slightly risq...