The Witzard

Back in 2019, Los Angeles emcee Alex Ludovico continued his ongoing #MedicineMondays weekly singles series and last year, he did something similar with #RewindWednesdays. His Bandcamp page explains, "Drugs, sex, and Hip-Hop. Alex Ludovico, born in Gary, IN and created in Chicago, is the living embodiment of that credo." One of our personal favorite moments from 2019's #MedicineMondays roll-out was Ludovico's collaborative EP with fellow Chicagoan Jason Griff entitled Scarf Tissue. Upon returning from our honeymoon to Italy, we immediately linked up with Griff & Alex Ludovico, via email, to talk about their phenomenal Scarf Tissue EP. They were kind enough to help us assemble a comprehensive track-by-track (All-around) Breakdown for Scarf Tissue. Not long after, following a string of one-off singles, Alex Ludovico & Jason Griff returned with the first proper EP of #RewindWednesdays, THE RED MAN IS HERE. RUN. For THE RED MAN IS HERE. RUN. We got a chance to ...

Chris Gethard is a self-proclaimed "comedian, author," and... "telephone call enthusiast," who was born and raised in West Orange, New Jersey. You may know Gethard from his podcast, Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People (Beautiful/Anonymous,) his books, Lose Well and A Bad Idea I'm About to Do: True Tales of Seriously Poor Judgement & Stunningly Awkward Adventure, or roles on The Chris Gethard Show , Parks & Recreation, The Other Guys , or Broad City. Little-know fact: Chris Gethard is, also, a wrestling super-fan and was once a staff writer for Weird N.J. He was even interviewed as part of an installment of the RTF WRESTLING FANZINE! a few years back, as well. Gethard now resides in Queens, New York, but has decided to return to his roots for his latest Comedy album, TAYLOR HAM, PORK & CHEESE: A COMEDIC TRIBUTE TO NEW JERSEY . Full Disclosure: for those who may not already know, I, too, was born and raised and still reside in South Jersey ...

Quills by Vans_Westly I was attending a wedding reception here in South Jersey at The Little Red Schoolhouse this past weekend with my fiancé, when I received a Tweet from @DrewciferScott tagging me in a previous Tweet from @Vans_Westly , which simply read: "Yo, I really want someone to review Quills ." Westly was of course, referring to his latest Quills EP , which was completed and released just in time for his Quills Release Party this past Saturday, June 24th at Baltimore 's The Windup Space with "special guests" Height Keech, Drew Scott, Raymond Strife , and Lt. Headtrip —nearly all of whom I've previously worked with and covered here at The Witzard . Drew Scott , who produced "Spring Sh*t" on Quills , road tested a few new tunes from his upcoming "weirdo Psych-Pop EP," which soon after The Windup Space show, he said "felt real sexy and pathetic;" in addition to Vans_Westly 's Quills EP , Scott also released ...

" ["It All Comes Back to You"] has a miles-deep atmosphere of layered synths and drum machines that sucks you in while the love and empathy of the lyrics bubbles to the surface. It's enveloping and all-encompassing, sending you deep in the same way The Church 's "Under The Milky Way Tonight" sends you into orbit,'" Philly 's WXPN The Key enthusiastically wrote about Pink Skull founder Justin Geller 's latest 80's New Wave -leaning project, Remote Places . Geller's debut solo endeavor, Nights and Weekends EP , has already drawn early stylistic comparisons to The Cure , New Order, and The Smiths , as well as a bit more contemporary artists like The National , Washed Out, and Wild Nothing ; or even more befittingly self-described as sounding "like the soundtrack to a modern day re-make of The Breakfast Club . (Sometimes)." Justin Gellar recruited a gaggle of local Philadelphia area friends and musicians for his 5-s...

"My interpretation [of "Blank Space" ] from the classic Ryan Adams album "1989,"' former Fleet Foxes drummer and semi-ironic, self-loathing Indie-Pop superstar Josh Tillman aka @fatherjohnmisty Tweeted Monday evening on the heels of Ryan Adams' just-released Taylor Swift 1989 covers album. Tillman was seemingly riffing on Adams' 1989 re-imagined in the style of Bruce Springsteen 's Darkness On The Edge of Town meets The Smiths' Meat Is Murder , sloppily crooning Swift's chart-topping "Blank Space" and "Welcome to New York" in the style of Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed . "In the studio working on a [song-for-song] reinterpretation of Ryan Adams "1989," gonna be great! Ryan's amazing," Father John Misty sarcastically wrote in a since-deleted "so psyched"-hashtagged Tweet. While Tillman's rendition of "Blank Space" is, to say the very least, a litt...

Jacksonville 's very own genre-blending Alt. Country superstar Ryan Adams is in fact, no stranger to recording full-length cover albums; Adams reportedly recorded, and ultimately scrapped, a stripped down 4-track revision of The Strokes' critically-acclaimed debut Is This It? (2001). But for whatever reasons, Adams' " Blues cover version" has rather discouragingly still only been heard by members of his former backing band, The Cardinals . Ryan Adams' second attempt (or third, if you count his unheard Vampire Weekend album), at a full-length cover album: a self-described Smiths -indebted version of Taylor Swift 's recent career-redefining 1989 has been very well-documented through his own personal social media accounts. "Ryan's music helped shape my song-writing. This is surreal and dream-like. Countdown to [Ryan Adams' 1989] @TheRyanAdams ," @taylorswift13 frantically Tweeted Thursday afternoon, upon the sudden announcement ...

Actor, comedian, author, director, painter, scholar, cell phone salesman, and apparent sleep-less human, James Franco has seemingly decided to add yet another "notch to his belt;" he's currently finishing up a full-length album with his art school band/multi-media project, Daddy . Franco formed daddy with fellow forward-thinking Rhode Island School of Design classmate Tim O'Keefe around 2011. Daddy 's formative Motorcity EP and companion "Love In The Old Days" Remix EP were recorded on location in Detroit during the making of James Franco 's 2013 Wizard of Oz prequel, Oz The Great & Powerful and featured a Polaroid of his scantily-clad Spring Breakers co-stars on Motorcity 's cover. Franco and Tim O'Keefe even went as far as to recruit local golden-voiced legend and Motown founding father, Smokey Robinson for additional vocal duties on early video-single, "Crime." "We took a 10-poem sequence called "The B...

Shamir Bailey is a self-described 19-year-old "musician, comedian, singer, rapper, twerker, chef, writer, film-maker, tumblr, [and] skinny fat ass" hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada . GODMODE founder and Mr. Dream drummer Nick Sylvester discovered and ultimately signed Shamir after hearing his DFA -style modern Disco-House music demo tape; even though Sylvester had previously sworn to never sign artists based outside of New York City . Slightly ahead of his forthcoming Northtown EP , Shamir and acting producer Nick Sylvester have strategically leaked two glitched out R&B/Dance tracks thus far, "If It Wasn't True" and newbie "I Know It's a Good Thing." From what I can tell, Shamir 's first label-backed track, "If It Wasn't True" was released earlier this year on GODMODE 's cassette compilation Common Interests Were Not Enough to Keep Us Together ; it's a bona fide " Disco-House anthem with rare levels ...

I must admit, I was initially drawn to "Post-Punk" band Merchandise because a recently-penned Ad-Hoc article likened their sound to that of The Smiths , who just so happen to be on of my favourite bands. Between their rapid-fire 2012-13 albums, Children of Desire and Totale Night , the band's membership quickly multiplied from three to five; now including Carson Cox, David Vassalotti, Elsner Niño, Patrick Brady , and sax player Chris Horn . Marking the announcement of their new-found partnership with Indie label 4AD , Merchandise unleashed a limited run clear 12" for "Begging for Your Life / In The City Light," a 14-minute track which was previously released on a split Chelsea Light Moving tour cassette. While 1,000 12-inches were briefly available for pre-order, set to ship on February 25th, 4AD almost instantly sold out and "Begging for Your Life" is now alternatively available on iTunes and a number of other digital retailers. For ...

1/3 of Swedish Indie-Pop group Peter Bjorn & John , Peter Morén is gearing up to release a series of Swedish-to-English EP's in the coming months; his four-track Broken Swenglish (Vol. 1) will see a Monday, December 9th digital-release on the band's Swedish -based collective imprint, INGRID . Stereogum premiered a new, previously unreleased Peter Morén track called "Constant Reaction" late Tuesday afternoon. It's a guitar-drenched romper of a track, which is a little bit more Rock -oriented that Peter Bjorn & John 's typically super-chill output. "Constant Reaction" is more of less an aggressive six-string musical response "that plays [out] like The Smiths , if Morrissey had a lot more protein in his diet." Peter Morén personally sent Stereogum a little bit of introspective background info on it's creation: "I wrote this after the awful shootings against a youth-camp in 2011 on the island Utöya outside of Oslo ...

Mauro Remiddi is a well-traveled man (Rome, Brooklyn, London) who's not afraid to show his emotions through song, when need be. Remiddi moonlights as "Porcelain Raft," crafting densely-layered Dream Pop tunes, and mildly reminds this particular listener of one Steven Morrissey . Maybe it's the androgynous vocal stylings and "artsy" public image, paired with that all too familiar devil-may-care sate of being [attitude]. Porcelain Raft 's music is dark and emotional. But not in that worn out, "obvious" sort of way. The casual music fan might find it a bit shocking to realize that Mauro Remiddi has been involved in the world of music for the bulk of his 27-year existence; From playing circus gypsy music to tap dance piano, Remiddi has tracked a wide array of tunes to tape, mini-disc, and CD. Secretly Canadian will liberate his proper debut, Strange Weekend , this coming Jan. 23-24th. "Once a dear friend of mine said, "Imagine if in...