The Witzard

The Drowns Live - CREDIT: Trude Gilman (@photography.by.trude) Our favorite raucous Rock "N" Rollers from the Pacific Northwest, The Drowns , have announced their new EP, Lunatics, and released a video for the first single, "Live Like Yer Dyin.'" Lunatics is the follow-up to the band's recently-released 7-inch, "Know Who You Are," and their previous full-length, Under Tension. For Lunatics, The Drowns once again got back into the studio with producer Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem, Dropkick Murphys, The Bouncing Souls) to re-capture the magic they created for Under Tension. "'Live Like Yer Dyin'" is my love for Little Richard in one song. It gets up and goes, right from the first beat. Pure and simple Rock "N" Roll, lightning in a bottle," says frontman Rev. Lunatics showcases incredible growth in The Drowns' song-writing—revealing an array of influences the band has not showcased in their prior releases. ...

Last Friday, on New Year's Eve, while most people were either getting ready to party (or pre-gaming!) Pirates Press Records released the A-side to The Drowns' upcoming yelloe 7-inch single, "Know Who You Are," which is streaming now, as well. Said 7-inch is, also, available now on the Pirates Press Records web-store and officially comes out later this month. The aforementioned track is, of course, a cover of the legendary Slade and the B-side features a new original track called "Guidelines of Control." The Seattle Rock "N" Roll purists have never been shy to readily acknowledge their influences and, since Day One, Slade has been high up on that list. To quote The Drowns' guitarist/co-vocalist Aaron "Rev" Peters, "their energy and Rock "N" Roll sound is nothing short of pure sonic truth." The minute The Drowns started jamming "Know Who You Are" in-studio, they knew it was going to be great and FUN...

PHOTO CREDIT: Brent Broza (ARTWORK BY: Jim Lindberg) Most well-known for his role as primary song-writer and lead singer of Punk Rock band Pennywise, Jim Lindberg has been making inspiring, thought-provoking music since the 1990's. Musically, he is influenced by a wide array of genres from Punk & Folk to old school Country & Americana stylings. Lyrically, Jim takes inspiration from relatively anywhere, from transcendental philosophers to real-life events; always seeking to tell a story or find the answers to life's "big questions." Lindberg has shared the first glimpse of his debut acoustic solo project with "The Palm of Your Hand" produced by Ted Hutt (The Gaslight Anthem, Lucero, Flogging Molly.) It boasts a band featuring David Hidalgo, Jr. (Social Distortion) on drums, Joe Gittleman (The Mighty Mighty BossToneS, Gang Green) on bass, and Marc Orrell (Dropkick Murphys, The Black Pacific) on guitar. Lindberg began writing "The Palm of Your H...

Seattle-bred Pirates Press Records signees The Drowns have quickly become one of our favorite Punk/Hardcore bands here at The Witzard. Their sophomore album, Under Tension, was quietly released earlier this year with production work throughout from Ted Hutt (Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, The Gaslight Anthem.) We, actually, had the opportunity to speak with The Drowns' Aaron "Rev" Peters & Andy Wylie back in late July. At that point in time, The Drowns had released music videos for singles, "Hold Fast" & "Them Rats," as well as flexi-disc 7-inches for "Demons," "Hold Fast" (Hold Fast Demons,) "Black Lung," and "Wolves On The Throne." During this pandemic, The Drowns have stayed relatively busy with Rev & Andy Wylie both contributing remotely-recorded solo sets as part of Pirates Press' socially-distant "festival" Rock The Sofa—rather than their annual Rock The Ship event—held this p...

The Drowns at Pirates Press Rock The Ship 2019 (CREDIT: Robert Taylor) "I first met Rev when his band, Success, were supporting my pals, 7Seconds, on a West Coast/Pacific Northwest tour during the Summer of 2015. I was tagging along for the California dates and had the pleasure of getting to know the guys from Success over those few days. I remember, after they played their set in Reno, Rev was so excited that there was a pit during their set. They brought so much excitement and positive energy to the tour and were absolutely solid dudes all the way. I did everything that I could to catch up with Rev & The Gang anytime they were in town after. Over the next few years, I had heard that Rev was working on another band called The Drowns and when he sent me the demo for their first record, View from The Bottom, it was clear that something special was about to happen. The Drowns have their own style and sound that would appeal to any Punk & Oi! crowd and beyond. It wasn...

The Drowns are a Punk/Hardcore-leaning Rock "N" Roll band hailing from Seattle, Washington. The Drowns' core line-up consists of both current and former members of The Briggs , Coyote Bred, Madcap , The Shell Corporation, Success , and Time Again. It's believed The Drowns' players are frontman Aaron "Rev" Peters , bassist/vocalist Andy Wylie , drummer Jake Margolis , and guitarist Jonny Wade . The Drowns have hand-crafted a unique breed of Punk/Hardcore-indebted bare bones Rock "N" Roll akin to Bouncing Souls, C*ck Sparrer, The Gaslight Anthem, Hot Water Music, and Titus Andronicus. The Drowns released their first proper recordings together in 2018 as View from The Bottom on 1984/Live from The Rock Room/Bypolar/Gunner Records. Although, throughout 2019, they seem to have struck up a partnership with Emeryville, California-based imprint, Pirates Press Records ; said label released two 2019 EP's for The Drowns , The Sound 7-inch and a...

I'll never forget seeing The Gaslight Anthem at The Mann Center 's Skyline Stage in South Philly on a warm September 2014 night with my then-girlfriend Caroline . It was one of the first 10 dates of a 40-date jaunt across North America and Europe behind their latest album, Get Hurt , which little did we know, at the time, would be Gaslight Anthem 's final run before their 2015 indefinite hiatus . I don't believe we caught Against Me! but we did catch Jimmy Eat World 's phenomenal career-spanning set; to this day, I still recount how Gaslight 's set was and still is one my favorite performances I've ever seen—I previously caught a portion of their set at Metallica 's ill-fated 2012 Orion Music + More Festival —especially, since drummer Benny Horowitz had an unexpected "family emergency" and Against Me! 's Atom Willard learned the entire set in a matter of mere hours. It was a rather riveting, increasingly charismatic 20-song set f...