The Witzard

CATBITE & Brian Fallon Are The Slacures (CREDIT: MO @phobymo) "We never got to make it to the legendary Chris Gethard Show, so we decided to create our own Goth alternate reality and create The Chris Gothard Show!," CATBITE (@catbiteband) shared within an Instagram post earlier this morning. The four-piece Philly-based Ska band had been teasing something called The Slacures for a number of days; posting "coming 6/9 😈. Subscribe to or YouTube channel for first dibs, link in bio," a number of days ago. Alright, so all of this finally materialized together earlier this morning as a CATBITE & Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem, Molly & The Zombies, The Horrible Crowes) together as The Slacures covering The Slackers' "Yes, It's True" written by vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Vic Ruggiero from their 1998 album, The Question . So, CATBITE & Fallon created The Slacures—see what they did there, The Slackers + The Cure =...

Town Liar, L-R: Benny Horowitz, Nick Remondelli, Heath Saraceno & Paul Stanley from KISS(!), and Jason Shevchuk (SOURCES: Facebook & Google) Town Liar's members include drummer Benny Horowitz (The Gaslight Anthem, WAX BOTTLES, The Killing Gift, Full Circle Swing, The Low End Theory, Yellboy, Bottomfeeder, Antarctigo Vespucci, ex-Mercy Union,) guitarist Nick Remondelli (Autumn, Bound, The Break In Mile, ex-None More Black,) bassist/vocalist Heath Saraceno (Midtown, ex-Senses Fail,) and vocalist/guitarist Jason Shevchuk (Kid Dynamite, None More Black, Former Member, Bound, OnGuard, LaGrecia, The Break In Mile, ex-R.A.M.B.O.) Shevchuk & Remondelli played together in New Jersey Vegan/Straight Edge Hardcore band Bound around 1996. They briefly played together again in a band short-lived band called The Break In Mile, which Remondelli says, "never went off the ground." Lies: One Through Seven by Town Liar Shevchuck, then, formed Kid Dynamite and soon afte...

I'm not really 100% sure if I'm gonna throw together one of those "Year-End Lists" yet or not. But But there were definitely quite a few strong releases littered throughout 2012, some unveiled pretty recently, too: Handwritten , good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Wasting Light , Blue Chips, Audio Video Disco , Blak & Blu , etc. My 2 current favourites, good kid, m.A.A.d. cit y and Blak & Blu , were released roughly 2 weeks ago (Oct. 22-23rd). Gary Clark Jr. and Kendrick Lamar are 2 talented men in their mid-late 20's, simply aspiring to make it in their respective genres of Blues Rock/Hip-Hop and are making some pretty bold moves to do so. If you're interested, check out my separate reviews for both albums, which should still be on "The Witzard" 's front page [below]. Gary Clark Jr. liberated the officially-stamped music video for "Ain't Messin' Round" over @ Rolling Stone earlier this Monday morning. It marks the seco...

While they've already managed to make a pretty seamless transition from Hardcore Punk to throwback "Jersey Shore Sound," The Gaslight Anthem are slightly lesser well-know for their spot on, jaw-dropping cover re-arrangements. Spanning between 2006-12, they've successfully executed spirited takes on everyone from The Rolling Stones to Kelly Clarkson , either in the studio or a live setting. Frontman Brian Fallon was recently "across the pond" promoting Gaslight Anthem 's fourth and undoubtedly sing-a-long-able Mercury record, Handwritten ; Looks like he made a quick pit-stop @ BBC Radio 1 in his travels... playing a gut-wrenching, stripped down acoustic take on The Colour & The Shape hit-single, "Everlong" (1997). It doesn't really even matter that Foo Fighters released "Everlong" roughly 15 years ago now, Fallon still manages to breathe new life into Dave Grohl 's Modern Rock staple. Brian Fallon unleashe...

The Gaslight Anthem somehow managed to write & record one Hell of an E-Street Band -less Springsteen comeback album!; With that said, Handwritten really is just a top-notch "Post-Punk" Arena Rock -sounding record. Single-handedly helmed by seasoned Pearl Jam/Springsteen producer Brendan O'Brien , who was dealt the fairly difficult task of nearly re-shaping the band's signature sound from the ground up. For the most part, it chronicles Gaslight Anthem 's journey from the NJ Hardcore scene to "mainstream recognition" [success] and that's something I think I'd feel hard-pressed about cramming into 100-200 words. "Biloxi Parish" is most likely my personal favourite track on Handwritten, but man, the whole damn album's pretty STELLAR and seamless! I guess Biloxi Parish was a small sub-division of Louisiana way back when in 1811-12... How any of that relates to The Gaslight Anthem or Brian Fallon (frontman) - I honestly hav...