The Witzard

"It's hard to pinpoint the moment I wanted to become a producer. I do remember contemplating at a young age the elements of Hip-Hop, wondering where I fit in. My older brother wrote [graffiti]. My other brother's friends were DJ's and emcees. To 12-year-old me, it was logical to take a craft up in one of these cornerstones. I, actually, wanted to break, but having no actual training available to me, that didn't last long. Around this time, I recognized my affinity for beats and beat-making. The part that interested me the most was seeing people come up with something from nothing. You didn't need to know how to play an instrument. The process intrigued and excited me. The rapping was cool, but what moved me the most was the music. I could get down with an average emcee, so as long as the sh*t he was rhyming on was tight; vice-versa, if a fire emcee had wack beats, it felt wasted to me." Four Albums of Note (Honorable Mentions) 1. De La Soul - 3 Feet...

Last we heard from dj BC , we were posting about the re-release of his MENORAH MASHUPS: crazy chanukah mixes & mashups (a dj BC compilation) just in time for Hanukkah . Now, a few days before Christmas , @realdjbc posted "Get it while it's cracklin' like fire..." on his Instagram page, along with a mysterious link to TheBeastles.com . When clicking on the image that reads, "A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS CARD TO NYC," a song of the same name plays, attributed to The Beastles — dj BC 's infamous Beastie Boys/Beatles "super-group"—seamlessly blending together The Beasties' "A Letter to NYC" and Paul McCartney & Wings' "Wonderful Christmastime." This isn't, however, the first time dj BC has juxtaposed The Beatles & Beastie Boys' music together, as he has previously released collections entitled dj BC Presents: The Beastles , Let It Beast, and ILL COMMUNICATION , as well as a single entitled "...

Black Gold - Spare Nuggets by Tom Caruana Mashups Not to be confused with similarly-named Davey Havok -fronted Horror Punk band, Son of Sam is a Soul/Funk -inflected Instrumental Hip-Hop band hailing from "Cinder Hill," UK . Founded by Sam Brothers John (drums) and Joe (bass & guitar) Son of Sam unleashed their 2017 debut, CINDER HILL with assistance from fellow bandmates Dutch Halligan wielding keyboard, flute & sax) and Tom Caruana helming percussion & production. Tea Sea Records -released CINDER HILL features a slew of emcees and vocalists including John Robinson , Sadat X, The Black Opera , Guilty Simpson, Organized Konfusion 's Prince Po , Denmark Vessey, Quelle Chris , Masta Ace, and Large Pro . Tom Caruana , actually, runs Tea Sea Records , which boasts Son of Sam , The Menagerie, Professor Elemental , Dr. Syntax, Klondike Kids , longusto, Boiler Room Collective , and Grand Agent amongst their eclectic roster, as well as Caruana's own or...

"You could fit the contents of Tony's previous releases on Slumberland and Matador [Records] onto one side of a 90-minute cassette and still have room left over for the eight offerings on CONFRONT THE TRUTH , but would you want it any other way? When Tony sings about "trying to move on but I just don't know how," no extension of the time it takes for him to bring that feeling across is going to solve the problem at hand. You're immediately thrust into the orbit of these songs; you know how he feels, and now you can relate. Transference is complete. You've got plenty of time left over to dwell upon them. The eight offerings on CONFRONT THE TRUTH notch a significant advancement in his style and approach. Almost completely absent from these new songs are the over-loaded guitar crunch of DISSED AND DISMISSED , or his earlier work with OVENS; it's replaced by gentle acoustic balladry, tasteful Mellotron and piano backing, the kind of musicianship that o...

"If you are one of the few who have known about MF DOOM ’s debut album since the year it first dropped (1999), you’ll know there’s been a few versions of the album to come out. There’s been bonus tracks, bootlegs, CD's, tapes, and even a lunch box edition. But here’s the thing about OPERATION: DOOMSDAY — it’s a Hip-Hop classic! Those who don’t have it, need it. The record keeps selling out, and they keep making more. Just like The Beatles , if The Beatles came to destroy Rap ," Egon 's Now-Again -affiliated online record store Rappcats wrote within a rather "villainous" press release. Egon 's co-conspirator and revered Beatsmith-In-Chief , Madlib has had a particularly mysterious, light years ahead of its time, and oddly progressive relationship with the self-proclaimed METAL-FACE[D] VILLAIN since unveiling their lone collaborative project, MADVILLAINY , amongst the terribly unsuspecting world nearly 12 years ago. Now, upon Rappcats latest OP...

" SADEVILLAIN came about when I made two remixes back to back consisting of MF DOOM and Sade ( "Air" & "Silver Spoon" ). After posting it on the /r/MFDOOM subreddit, I got some pretty good feedback, and one user suggested I should make a full mixtape involving only MF DOOM and Sade , and I thought that was a great idea, so I laced some more samples with some of my production and went to work," mysterious 18-year-old British producer Sean Harrison aka Seanh2k11 wrote within an emailed conversation just two nights ago. Harrison quietly uploaded his 8-track SADEVILLAIN EP to DatPiff Monday afternoon with the intent to generate "maybe 1,000 views max," which quickly garnered critical acclaim from okayplayer , FACT, Highsnobiety , rapper Lupe Fiasco, and a number of additional online publications; in an attempt to distance and set myself apart from my peers, I reached out to Seanh2k11 via his YouTube channel in hopes to line up a SADE...

"We thought "Take Me Out" [2004] was very cool, and wouldn't it be nice to say hello when they came to Los Angeles ," Sparks frontman Russell Mael recently lamented to Domino Records concerning his newly-minted band with younger brother Ron and the entirety of Scottish Dance-Punk band Franz Ferdinand . "We met and decided then it would be great to do something together. We put forward a couple demos, one was "Piss Off." But they got swept up by everything, and it didn't happen at the time," Mael continued. Legend has it that FFS didn't fully reconvene until Coachella 2013 when Ron & Russell Mael ended up bumping into a tooth-aching Alex Kapranos frantically in search of a local dentist that they unanimously decided a "10-year gestation period for this idea was long enough." FFS' self-titled Domino Records debut was recorded late last year during a marathon 15-day recording stint, wherein the 6-man band...

While it's unclear to exactly what capacity at this point, but it seems as though Dirty Projectors frontman and guitarist Dave Longstreth was somehow involved in the writing/recording of Rihanna, Kanye & Paul McCartney 's new single, "FourFiveSeconds;" according to a currently unsubstantiated report from Kanye 's friend and long-time barber, Ibn Jasper , " Kanye 's whole new album is co-produced with Paul McCartney ... He decided to put Rihanna on ["FourFiveSeconds"] and put it on BOTH of their albums because they are both Roc-Nation " (reports which Rolling Stone have since shot down). In addition to Longstreth, "FourFiveSeconds" additionally features as-yet-unknown contributions from Mike Dean , Dalllas Austin, Elon Rutburg , and Noah Goldstein, as well as Ty Dolla $ign and Kirby Lauryen , both of whom previously worked with West-McCartney on "Only One." It's without a doubt the track Ty Dolla $ign ...

"In early 2014, Paul McCartney and Kanye West first began working together in a small bungalow in Los Angeles . The process that would result in "Only One" began with a simple brainstorming session between the two: with McCartney improvising on the keyboards and Kanye vocally sketching and shaping ideas in a stream-of-consciousness riff," laments a recent press release marking the 12 midnight New Year's Eve release of Kanye & Paul McCartney 's abrupt new single. Although a collaboration between the two men who recorded such drastically different world-renown songs as "Hey Jude" and "Gold Digger," "Only One" could be likened to the unknown middle ground that might exist between 808's & Heartbreak and Let It Be ; further accented by background vocals from Taylor Gang signee Ty Dollar $ign , co-writer Kirby Lauryen , and a beat concocted by in-house producer Mike Dean , McCartney adds in a beautifully sparse ...

"We're trying not to think too much in a cartoon sense, but more just like a psychedelic, otherworldly type of thing. If you want to draw a parallel, maybe think of what The Beatles did with Yellow Submarine ," Chad Hugo , one half of hit-making production team The Neptunes , recently told Variety about their forthcoming work on The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water . "Squeeze Me," which was released online Friday afternoon, is the first track accredited to N*E*R*D since their 2010 group album, Nothing ; Hugo, Pharrell , and Shay Haley 's critically-acclaimed Funk-Rock fusion side-band has remained largely inactive over the past 4-5 years since its release. While Pharrell seemingly confirmed that N*E*R*D 's "nature-based" fourth album has been in-the-works since around 2013, nothing of any magnitude has yet materialized. But to their credit, "Squeeze Me" is a jangly Caribbean -infused track that's likely comparable to...

" Tuxedo Xmas jam dropping for all my gentiles (Santa emoji)," @MayerHawthorne Tweeted in the wee hours of the morning, preceding his newly unmasked Disco-Funk duo's yuletide single. "Happy Holidays from Tuxedo . Original by some guy named Paul McCartney ," reads the Soundcloud description scribed beneath "Wonderful Christmastime." While most of us have known it since day one, about two years ago, Hawthorne and producer buddy Jake-One just recently revealed themselves as Tuxedo , along with their self-titled Stones Throw -backed album announcement. Jake-One manages to keep the majority of the former Beatles' holiday track intact, but adds a little more Disco-Funk /kazoo-fueled Hip-Hop swing to "Wonderful Christmastime;" while Mayer Hawthorne delivers his now signature buttery smooth New-Wop vocals, without disgracing McCartney's arrangement and even appends a couple Prince -level high notes, for good measure. Now, mind ...

Rat Fist are a newly-formed Punk band who you may not have heard about yet; consisting of primary members Sean McGuinness & Randy Randall from veteran Sub Pop Post-Punk bands Pissed Jeans & No Age respectively, along with part-time bandmates Michael J. Sabolick, Jelle de Cremer , and Aaron Farley . They're gearing up to head out on a three-date West Coast mini-tour with Canadian punks rockers, F*cked Up , which will double as a 7-inch re-release jaunt. Rat Fist previously self-released 50 test press copies of their debut 7-inch that were were sold exclusively at their initial run of East Coast gigs, while the second pressing has since been expanded to a batch of 500 limited records. "We will have 7" available for mail order starting next Monday 8/25. Send $7 for shipping in the USA or $10 for shipping everywhere else. Make check out to: Randy Randall 10658 Sable Ave. Sunland, CA 91040 USA... It might take a while for me to get to the orders, so please...

While I wasn't exactly a fan of The Men until about two months ago, I had heard that they generally put out records at a Beatles -like pace, every year to two years tops; their most recent album, Tomorrow's Hits , the follow-up to their critically-acclaimed 2012 collection New Moon , is my first experience with The Men . It's an album I bought on the sheer strength of three of eight pre-release tracks, a vinyl package which came complete with a black-and-white numbered faux-review splattered cover, limited edition crimson red vinyl, giant fold-out poster, Tomorrow's Hits iron-on shirt decal, and more included goodies. Sound-wise, it's an interesting track-by-track trip through a wide variety of styles ranging from Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band -like Blues-Rock boogie, feedback-drenched Electro-Punk , Bob Dylan reminiscent Country-Rock jams, a sparse piano & harmonica ballad, twangy hyper-speed Rock "N" Roll , righteous Post-Punk , etc...

Not entirely unlike it's highly-revered Classic/Indie Rock predecessors Sgt. Pepper's and The Blue Album , sample grand-wizard Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk ultimately intended for his latest body of work, Broken Ankles EP to function as "a continuous mix and it intended to be listened to as a while with gap-less playback." The Pittsburgh native then recruited veteran emcee Freeway from the neighboring suburb of Philadelphia to overlay gritty complex rhyme schemes atop his multi-layered 6-track mini-album, which somehow still manages to sample everyone from Aretha Franklin to Nine Inch Nails . For the purposes of this very EP, Girl Talk & Freeway have both slightly modified their respective styles, but not to the point that it's beyond recognizable or would endanger alienating long-time fans. I'm actually a little surprised at how good most of Girl Talk 's beats sound; they're 100% full-fledged Hip-Hop beats with sufficient room for additi...

After what even most die-hard Shins fans would consider a pretty lackluster album attempt, frontman James Mercer has reunited with producer-buddy Danger Mouse aka Brian Burton to write and record a new Broken Bells album, After The Disco . Broken Bells (1) was essentially Mercer's "solo" debut and once again, he's comfortably playing the Run-D.M.C. to Danger Mouse 's Rick Rubin ; who seems to play best with others, ie: Gnarls Barkley , Gorillaz, The Black Keys , Beck, Portugal. The Man , etc. Lead single "Holding On for Life," which was previously included within an album teaser, has been self-described by Burton as a mix between late 1980-90's Dr. Dre or Ice Cube and Bee Gees -style falsetto. After The Disco will become available this upcoming January 14th and will feature micro-appearances from Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes) on horns, Daniel Lupi -orchestrated string arrangements, man-made drum machine fills by Brian Burton himself, and...

Initially mis-labelled as "New Shit, No Name," Sean Price (NIGGLETIUS!!!) quietly uploaded "Sean Shank Redemption" to Soundcloud Thursday/Friday morning, while most of The Internet was sound asleep; a hard-hitting track with no producer or emcee credit whatsoever, it's since been revealed to feature Starvin B. But it doesn't really matter, because Sean Price is hands down one of the most talented and sadly, criminally under-rated rappers in the game! DA GRODD FATHER!!!'s Twitter feed has since been updated to vaguely specify, "The dude on the song with me is [named] STARVIN B. AND HE CAN F*CKING RHYME..." Price also seemingly revealed a tentative title for his forthcoming album, BONGO LENZIE BEAR . While there isn't exactly a solid release date, a new Sean Price record is definitely something to get mildly excited about; especially since his last album, Mic Tyson was packed full of 15 certified "cold hard" Golden Er...

Well, this is quite easily the coolest impromptu event I've seen or heard happen in mainstream music in quite some time; Dusting off any pre-concieved notions of banjo-aided Bluegrass or College Rock labeling, frontman Marcus Mumford recruited a couple of friends to help his band, Mumford & Sons , perform a spirited cover of The Beatles/Joe Cocker 's two-headed hit, "With a Little Help from My Friends" at Glastonbury last night. Mumford's posse was effectively joined on stage by Ezra Koenig and 2 additional members of Vampire Weekend, The Vaccines, First Aid Kit, Staves , and a few more musically-inclined buddies. Mumford & Sons seem to have modeled their call-and-response cover after Cocker's Soul -drenched 1968 rendition, which I first heard on The Wonders Years as a kid... not even knowing it was a Beatles song 'til years later! The original "With a Little Help from My Friends" is of course, comfortably nestled within The Be...

Right before rippin' it up with [the bulk of] his Wu-Tang clansmen, RZA & Ghostface Killah played a quick game of "Bubble Soccer" in Studio 8B 's elevator hallway alongside Gerard Butler and host, Jimmy Fallon . They were really there to promote RZA 's Man with The Iron Fists film soundtarck. but it was pretty great to see the typically "hard as nails" Wu-Gambinos let their guards down and have some good-spirited fun on live TV. Wu-Tang Clan then performed a BRUTAL version of "6 Directions of Boxing" with Fallon's house band, The Roots ; Ghostface, RZA, Cappadonna, GZA , Masta Killa, U-God , and Inspectah Deck were all present for the group's first televised performance together in roughly 10 years' time. The star-studded Iron Fists soundtrack is out today (October 23rd) and it's companion Kung-Fu flick hits theatres on November 2nd. Album stand-out "The Baddest Man Alive" now has an action-packed m...

I guess it's pretty safe to say that The Streets & The Music were 2 of the BIGGEST British Rock bands to break on "this side of the pond" [America] since The Beatles/Rolling Stones' 1960-70's Classic Rock heyday; After 10+ years of well-received hits, Mike Skinner recently dissolved The Streets (2011) and around the same time, The Music decided to call it quits, too. Skinner has since teamed up with The Music frontman, Rob Harvey , and now they're producing new music under the group name "The D.O.T." Following the online pre-release of a few rough demo singles, it seems as though The D.O.T. are ready to unveil the debut full-length, And That (Oct. 22-23rd). Man, I can literally remember it like it was yesterday... when I first heard The Streets' witty, back-handed rhymes on "Fit But You Know It," which was released on some random Rolling Stone/Budweiser comp. ha. While Mike Skinner & Rob Harvey have self-rele...

Bob Dylan 's been on "The Never-Ending Tour" for about 40+ years straight now... rapidly releasing a new album every couple years and continually re-inventing himself as the "new Bob Dylan" for a fresh generation of youngsters. Sept. 11th saw the release of Dylan's landmark 35th album - Tempest , which is pretty impressive since he's 71 now! I always say that Bob Dylan 's music is a whole lot like Lil' Wayne 's prolific output; You either love it or hate it. A couple of my favourite albums from his damn-near expansive backcatalog are easily Blood On The Tracks , Nashville Skyline , and Blonde On Blonde . It was an utterly AMAZING experience, when I saw Bob Dylan live @ Temple with my dad and buddy Jeremy a few years back on the Christmas In The Heart album tour (2009). Aside from a bunch of random grizzly-voiced old/new tracks spanning the bulk of Dylan's discography, I really only recognized about 4-5 staple tracks puled from Highwa...