The Witzard

Since initially bursting onto the music scene in 2008-09, Philly Psych-Pop band PO PO has somehow mysteriously morphed from "family affair" (3 brothers) to the solo endeavor of remaining member, Zeb Malik . Regardless of "current events," PO PO have signed to home-bred label, Mad Decent and are gearing up to release their long-awaited debut album, DOPE BOY MAGICK . Labelhead Diplo and Nick Launay lent their production talents, but with such a tensured past, it's almost hard to tell how many bandmembers are ACTUALLY present on each specific recording. Zeb teamed up with [art] director, Clayton Vomero on Staten Island to produce the music video for "Teen Dreamz / "Let's Get Away" along with DOPE BOY MAGICK's featured artwork (Noah Conopask) . Stereogum debuted the new PO PO video yesterday afternoon, which for all intensive purposes... is a short film oddly rooted somewhere between the genres of gut-wrenching Horror and Roman...

When my buddy Dave & I saw Cults @ Union Transfer (Philly) roughly 2 weeks ago, lead guitarist Brian Oblivion talked about how the band doesn't ever really play live covers, simply because the couldn't nail down a suitable tune. Cults then proceeded to rip through a heavy, emotionally-driven rendition of "Everybody Knows." Originally appearing on Leonard Cohen 's 1988 album I'm Your Man , the track was penned along with Sharon Robinson , and later appeared on a handful of various film soundtracks. From what I can tell, that very Friday The 13th show marked the premier live performance of "Everybody Knows." It has since been revealed that Cults' cover is actually the first in what will essentially be an on-going series... "Old Ideas with New Friends." The compilation is set to be leaked out gradually over the course of the [up]coming months. A few of Indie Rock 's favourite leading men, A.C. Newman (New Pornographers) , Br...

There are plenty of music collectors that claim to have "All Things Dilla." Maybe that's true, if there is such a thing. With that said, I can honestly say that I'm fortunate enough to be amongst this breed. And it's not because I am the most Internet-savvy or because I belong to some special group of music nerds that have the rarest shit. In fact, I only have possession of this rareness because I happened to be there when it all happened! And for whatever reason, call it divine intuition, I kept every cassette tape I was able to get my hands on. I tried to collect every beat-tape , remix, or freestyle possible. Even when we were just hanging out in Dilla 's basement in Conant Gardens , I'd often bring my hand held recorder and just tape us talking shit about any & everything. Dilla was never the type to hoard music. Very often he'd make mixtapes for us to listen to while we drove around in his sparkling green Beamer . Those leath...

Born in 1987, I really can't say that I remember the events surrounding the tragic deaths of Biggie , Kurt Cobain , and 2Pac . But I do recall that these people meant a lot to many adoring fans and that everyone was really sad. Over the course of the past 15-18 years since, I've grown to know and love the music of 2Pac & Biggie . The older I get, the more I grow to appreciate Nirvana (Nevermind) and now I [fully] understand Kurt 's vast artistic vision. I must say though, that I'm a bigger Foo Fighters fan, hands down! In no way would I ever "knock" Nirvana 's legacy... maybe simply because of age, Foo Fighters is the band that I've grown to know, love, and favor instead. We all know that lead Foo , Dave Grohl used to be Nirvana 's drummer and prior to that, he ripped it up along with legendary DC Hardcore band, Scream . I can honestly say that I vividly remember watching the "Big Me" video on MTV way back when (1995), and have...

After 12 long years of "soul searching," The Soul Man is [FINALLY] back in the building! Following a successful Occupy Music Tour opener in Stockholm , Sweden, D'Angelo continues his quick, yet effective comeback jaunt across Europe . The place was Le Zénith, Paris, France - last night: D'Angelo & The Testimony proceeded to rip through a dusted off selection of his greatest hits... this including "Brown Sugar," "Untitled," "Devil's Pie," and "Chicken Grease." Later in the show's setlist, the band even treated the crowd to a number of Funked up new jams . Then, The D'Angelo -led Testimony kicked off a familiar acoustic-driven tune penned by yet another reclusive Rock "N" Roll legend, "Space Oddity" (1969). With such a spot-on cover in toe, it almost makes you wonder if a [slightly updated] David Bowie -assisted version of "Space Oddity" will appear on D'Angelo '...

Himanshu "Heems" K. Suri is really the only [rapping] person who can ACTUALLY pull off sounding so smart/dumb all @ once, without coming off as a complete and total toolbag. It almost seems like "WOMYN," which was the premier track debuted from Nehru Jackets (June) and still my personal favourite... is being told through the voice of Saved By The Bell 's very own "AC Slater." Indeed, yet another fine Pop Culture reference from America 's favourite brown Indie Hip-Hopper ! Remember that one time that Jessie told him that girls don't like being called "chicks" and would much rather prefer "women" instead? Well, this is kinda like after that, when Slater [trying his absolute best] continued to use "women" in the totally wrong tense. OK well, maybe that last part didn't really happen on Saved By The Bell . But it's highly plausible and that what Heems & Mike Finito Lakutis proceed to do here, an...

For all intensive purposes, MondreMAN is the "Rakim" of up-and-coming Oakland "Cloud Rap" duo, Main Attrakionz . Aside from the fact that they quite obviously love weed, beer, Pro Wrestling , and "airy" [ Ambient ] beats... little else is known about the illusive rapper/beatsmith team, nor their Green Ova crew. Since bursting onto the Indie Hip-Hop scene back in 2010 along with fellow stream-of-conscious artists like Cities Aviv, Danny Brown, Lil B , Clams Casino , A$AP Rocky, Das Racist , and Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire ... Squadda B & MondreMAN have branched off to record separate solo projects. MondreMAN liberated his latest effort, M A N EP back in December, which has easily become his most well-received release. Surf on over to Main Attrakionz' Bandcamp page to pick up selections from their newest batch of solo, group, and Killa Beez -esque releases. During his latest promotional push behind M A N EP, MondreMAN released a companio...