The Witzard

"After repeatedly being visited by a strange messenger in his dreams while on tour in the islands of Greece , Toby Pazner became consumed with a vision to tell the stories of The Olympians through music. Chosen by the gods as a messenger for not only his musical gifts, but for his unique position at the center of the Daptone family, Toby built a home studio from scratch and employed some of the top Soul musicians in the world to help him breath life into this album," reads a fragmented chunk of The Olympians' on-site Bandcamp press release. Tobias "Toby" Pazner 's musical journey with the Daptone/Truth & Soul/Big Crown Records -affiliated family dates back as far as 2005 and his piano-vibraphone credits include records by Lee Fields & The Expressions , Lady, El Michels Affair , Lady Wray, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings , Menahan Street Band, Aloe Blacc , Bronx River Parkway & Candela All-Stars, Ultimate Breaks & Beats , and The Bus...

“We went out to LA with [Action Bronson] last month—me, him, Alchemist , and Sean [Mahon] recorded an entire EP of material under the name Jericho . Jericho may be a project that we drop, that’s really under-the-table, no one knows about that yet. Jericho may just be like a multi-genre, no label EP that may cross genres from Hip-Hop to Electro to 80's Pop . We may bridge the gap with that actually, because some of the stuff we recorded for that, one of the songs sounds like a late 80's Smokey Robinson record and sh*t. And then, there’s some Surf Rock on there that sounds like The Beach Boys and Bronson’s rhyming on it," Party Supplies multi-instrumentalist Justin Nealis revealed to HipHopDX way back in January 2014. Nealis, at the time, proclaimed that he aspired to be "like The Black Keys ; they blew up in Rock and had a few Rock records out and then, they went on and used that leverage to call up Raekwon on that BlakRoc sh*t." Party Supplies ...

Full disclosure: Lions producer-guitarist and founding member Dan Ubick and I are friends, frequent collaborators, and mutual fans of each others' collected bodies of work (or at least, I would like to think so). With that said, it's really a no-brainer that nearly any given time Ubick and his number of creative outlets decide to unleash genre-blending music upon the unsuspecting world, I'm ecstatic to have the opportunity to write a piece centered around it; I've previously had the wonderful opportunity to interview Dan twice before, coinciding with the releases of The Lions' This Generation and Soul Riot, as well as having the coveted honor to premier their Ross Harris-directed Clash re-interpretation, "The Magnificent Dance." In addition to The Lions and former Stones Throw-signed Funk/Breakbeat group Breakestra, Ubick has been fortunate enough to work with everyone from Snoop Lion to storied emcee Big Daddy Kane and even formed his own The Beatles/S...

Daptone Records' own revered Soul-Funk crooner The Screamin' Eagle of Soul , better known as 67-year-old Charles Bradley , a former James Brown impersonator who once went by "Black Velvet," is hearing up to unleash his third studio album this upcoming April 1st, 2016, Changes . Bradley's Menahan Street Band , The Budos Band, and The Bullets -assisted album is the proper follow-up to 2013's Victim of Love , and his debut No Time for Dreaming two short years prior, Changes takes its name and overall running theme from a similarly-titled Black Sabbath Vol. 4 track, which Daptone exclusively released as a Record Store Day 7-inch back in 2013. Interestingly enough, Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach 's recently-premiered Psych-Rock side project The Arcs features three rotating members of The Menahan Street Band – Nick Movshon , Homer Steinweiss , and El Michels Affair founder Leon Michels – who spearheaded a retro-futuristic Funk -leaning sound, w...

"Now accepting all reasonable offers for Nick's Honda . Contact The Arcs or Eddie Huang . Oh yeah... and new Arcs video drops this Tuesday... Go get the album too!! Bump it in your new Honda ?" Dan Auerbach 's The Arcs wrote on Facebook Saturday accompanying a brief 30-second trailer advertising their then-forthcoming "Outta My Mind" music video, as well as director Nick Walker 's Honda . It would appear to be a purposely lo-fi, back seat-shot clip in which two unspecified Arcs members discuss the prospect of the brief hybrid trailer-web ad, which Walker commissioned that "might help save us;" anyone interested in buying Nick Walker 's Honda can either contact The Arcs directly or apparent Dan Auerbach affiliate and Fresh Off The Boat creator, Eddie Huang . "These are people that I either met in the studio, or was a fan of the records that they made before I even met them... Richard Swift , I met him six years ago; we made a...

"I've spent enough time thinking about [making songs for radio] with The Black Keys , not that we ever wrote songs just for radio. I just don't want to ever think about that stuff again. With The Arcs , we were just trying to make music that loves up to the kinds of standards that we love: old soul records, Captain Beefheart , newer Hip-Hop records. The songs are really experimental, but not over your head," Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach recently told Rolling Stone . Auerbach unleashed The Arcs' debut boxing-inspired single, "Stay In My Corner," back on May 2nd to coincide with Mayweather & Pacquiao 's monumental prize fight; in addition to all-female Brooklyn mariachi band Mariachi Flor de Toloache , The Arcs additionally showcases the musical talents of long-time studio buddies Leon Michels , Richard Swift, Homer Steinweiss, Nick Movshon , and Kenny Vaughan . Initially billed as a Dan Auerbach "solo" album, the newly-assemb...