The Witzard

wattmilliams' Matt Williams (CREDIT: Rob Cella) Matt "wattmilliams" Williams a passionate musician, song-writer, bass guitar teacher, audio engineer, and real estate agent active within the thriving music scene of Philadelphia/South Jersey. Primarily playing the bass guitar, Williams has accumulated years of valuable experience through touring, session work, and collaborations with esteemed artists, such as HUXLEY, Good Look, Sigourney, Gold Coyote, Garden State Radio, and The Shimmy Shimmy's. Williams has been fortunate enough to play direct support for a wide range of acts across various genres, including Living Colour, Disturbed, The Pretty Reckless, Royal Blood, Punchline, Lit, and more. These opportunities have allowed Williams to showcase his versatility and adaptability as a musician. While "Drama Queen" exudes raw energy and unapologetic rebellion, it offers much more. Demonstrating his creative audacity, this gritty exploration delves into t...

FRND CRCL recently leveled up from a four-piece to a two-piece consisting of vocalist/guitarist Zac Johnson and drummer/back-up vocalist Aaron Smith. Johnson & Smith hail from Hopewell & Millville, New Jersey and are part of a Punk band that bears resemblance and influence to the explosive Pop-punk bands of the early 2000's, as well as modern Punk Rock & Indie Rock. Founded in 2016, FRND CRCL has released two full-length albums, an EP, and multiple well-recieved singles to date. One of FRND CRCL's latets singles, "Complications," landed on multiple editorial playlists, including Spotify's New Punk Tracks and Apple Music's Rise & Grind. FRND CRCL have toured in direct support of Goalkeeper and have hosted their own headlining mini-weekender tours in both October 2021 and February 2022. FRND CRCL have now returned with their latest single and first as a two-piece, "47." FRND CRCL's "47" is an upbeat, high-energy Pop-pu...

"Like many bands last year, Lansing, Michigan's Hot Mulligan—the "#1 Hot New Band" per their Facebook page—put out an LP in 2020 that they didn't get to tour. This year, they'll release I Won't Reach Out to You (IWROTY,) a six-track EP that operates as a quasi-response to their 2020 full-length you'll be fine. The EP is bookended on the first and last tracks by a resounding glance-back at a world that, simply, doesn't exist anymore: "Stay home, stay home / You said it wouldn't make a difference whether we could be together or not,'" explains Wax Bodega. Hot Mullian's current line-up includes frontman Nathan "Tades" Sanville, rhythm guitarist Chris Freeman, lead guitarist Ryan "Spicy" Malicsi, and drummer Brandon Blakeley and may or may not include bassist Garrett "Sniff" Willig . Hot Mulligan's aforementioned full-length album, you'll be fine, was released last year on California-based...

It's been previously discussed right here across these pages of The Witzard, but the various Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (THPS) in-game soundtracks were very influential on my musical tastes as a young adult. Being the oldest of two kids, my four older cousins and my close friend/musical mentor, Jason, were, luckily, alwats exposing me to interesting music I probably wouldn't have discovered on my own. However, the soundtracks for THPS 1-4, were really the first time I had "discovered" music on my own—most of which, I still listen to to this day—including, but not limited to, Dead Kennedys, Goldfinger, Primus, Bad Religion, Del The Funky Homosapien, De La Soul, NWA, and much, much more. However, of particular note were Los Angeles-based Third-wave Ska/Punk band Goldfinger, whose "Superman," essentially, became the unofficial theme song to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1) and equally strong "Spokesman" later, appeared on THPS4. Goldfinger, like ...

Jim Jagger While Developing THPS4, Neversoft Woodland Hills Office in California (2002) "My name is Jim Jagger, and I am an Animation Director in the video game industry. After spending my first few years making games in The UK, I wrote to Neversoft, begging for an opportunity to work on the Tony Hawk's [Pro Skater] series. My love for the game began with "The Warehouse Demo" and by the time I had completed THPS2 I was desperate to be involved. By some fluke or miracle, I found myself in California, breathing life into my favourite game! Catching the tail-end of THPS3, I primarily worked on THPS4 and THUG [Tony Hawk's Underground]." "There can be only one place to start and that's with [Goldfinger's] "Pretending I'm A Superman." This song epitomised the game so much that my friend and former Neversoft colleague, Ralph D'Amato, used it as the title for his recent documentary of The Tony Hawk Series. With the help of direct...