The Witzard

Early on in their career, Leeds -based band alt-J were quickly heralded as "The Next Radiohead" due to their extremely well-orchestrated, thought-provoking brand of Indie/Art Rock heard across their 2012 full-length debut, An Awesome Wave . Then, Joe Newman, Thom Sonny Green & Gus Unger-Hamilton did a total 180° and more or less, alienated nearly half of their new-found fans—à la: Beastie Boys' 1987 single "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)" debacle—by releasing tongue-in-cheek über- "American" single, "Left Hand Free" from 2014's This Is All Yours ... but, unsurprisingly, "the least alt-J song ever" pretty much back-fired because no one got it, including the label, and the song rapidly became, quite arguably, one of their biggest smash-hits to date. Last summer, alt-J suddenly returned this their third album (technically, an EP) RELAXER , which in the months since, has become my personal favorite release...

Das Racist were hands down, one of the greatest post-2000 New York area Hip-Hop groups, who essentially created their own "outsider rap" scene, which would later harbor up-and-coming guys like Lakutis , LE1F, Mr. Muthaf*ckin' eXquire , Antwon, Kassa Overall , KechPhrase, Big Baby Gandhi , etc. Luckily enough, I had a chance to see Das Racist on their then unannounced 2012 "farewell tour" in Philly , a show which additionally featured a mini- Greehead label showcase: Lakutis , LE1F, and Weekend Money as opening acts. Since disbanding, founding members Himanshu "Heems" Suri and Victor "Kool A.D." Vazquez have each released a number of critically-acclaimed solo mixtapes; well, Heems actually uploaded two mixtapes, Nehru Jackets and Wild Water Kingdom , while Das Racist were still actively together. Suri then moved to Bombay, India between 2012-mid-2014 as part of a self-imposed exile, wherein he began recording material for his ...