The Witzard

Beastie Boys "Sure Shot" 12-inch UK promo, 1994 (SOURCE: Discogs) "Sabrosa pays tribute to the Beastie Boys with two instro-mental cuts that borrow elements from "Sure Shot" out of their classic album, Ill Communication. "Sure Pow" is a great fuzzy, wah-wah guitar Grant Green-on-steroids soundtrack approach to "Pow" from Check Your Head, while "Tangerine Shot' is a cover of "Suco de Tangerina," an instrumental track out of their The Mix-Up LP that takes a twist into Dub [territory]... pure fiyah!" explains a press release. Recorded at Croak Studio (Madrid) by Joaquín Rodriguez. Mixed by Santi Martín and produced by Sabrosa. Mastering by Doug Krebs. Sabrosa's current line-up includes Javi Skunk on drums, Joako Rodriguez on percussion, Santi "Sweetfingers" Martín on bass, Lucas de Mulder on guitar, and Gabri Casanova on Hammond organ and clavinet. "Sure Pow" b/w "Tangerine Shot"

Black Velvet Flag in tuxes with maracas (SOURCE: Sheldon Schiffer) When you start a band, you not only don't know how it will turn out, you, also, don't know how or when it will end. Black Velvet Flag (B.V.F.) has had a few revivals of interest over the years, so it's still not really over. I notice it because I see spikes in the downloads of the documentary [The Rise & Fall of Black Velvet Flag] and the music. We are not talking about big spikes, but spikes they are. As an art project over time, the trajectory of the band's rise and fall coincided with the culture's capacity to embrace irony and self-reflection. For a brief two years in the mid-1990’s, the NY music scene and the Indie band industry of its time was thrilled to see a show and let the listener reflect and to laugh at one's self, to ponder the contradictions, and to imagine all the iterations where similar ironic self-reflexive cultural activity was happening. I think a culture gets to tha

Danger Mouse & Black Thought (CREDIT: UNCANNY, George Muncey & Elliott Elder) Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) & Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) have been long-time friends and infrequent collaborators. Long before The Roots/The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon emcee ever issued a proper solo effort (now, we're up to Streams of Thought, Vol. 3,) there had been rumblings of a collaborative effort with Danger Mouse cleverly titled Dangerous Thoughts . By most accounts now found online, that was around 2005-06 with The Roots steadily releasing Game Theory, Rising Down, How I Got Over, undun, and ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin in the years since. They became the house band for Fallon's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009 and transitioned along with him to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2014. Danger Mouse has been far from inactive himself since 2005-06, releasing The Mouse & The Mask & Occult Hymn EP as DANGERMDOOM with MF DOOM, St. Elsewhere &am

Moonraker (CREDIT: Joe Hunt) Santa Clarita, California-based Punk band Moonraker are releasing their new album, The Forest, this May on Tiny Dragon Music, Bearded Punk Records, Bypolar Records & No Time Records. "They can really write a f***ing hook. This collection of songs has some huge choruses and takes plenty of interesting turns," Upstarter Reviews said of the album. So Cal Punks Moonraker, who jokingly call themselves "The Michael Jordan of Baseball of Punk Rock," have released a new single and lyric video for "The Great Glass Elevator," a song off their upcoming album The Forest. Drummer/vocalist David Green says, "I think that the record is about overthinking. It's a walk through your own head—your thoughts, your memories, your fears—and at the same time, it's a walk through a forest." "Maybe, the further you walk in, the darker it gets, the more you start remembering, the more you start getting triggered, the mo

Lets be completely honest, most people of a certain age would have first heard House of Pain's infectious hit "Jump Around" within the opening scenes of Robin Williams' 1993 blockbuster smash, Mrs. Doubtfire. And, I meam, who doesn't love that blaring introductory horn sample, high-pitched squealing, and braggadocious rhymes from House of Pain's Everlast & Danny Boy O'Connor and scratches from DJ Lethal (later of Limp Bizkit!) It's without a doubt one of our favorite 90's oddball Hip-Hip selections and a must for any Irish/St. Patrick's Day-themed playlist. House of Pain were initially active from 1991-96, went their seperate ways, and embarked on solo careers, but have reunited multiple times over the years namely 2010-11 and 2017 and even briefly as part of Hip-Hop super-group La Coka Nostra. Jump Around / Rokucho by Nautilus / Anna Sato & Toshiyuki Sasaki For the 25th anniversary of "Jump Around" back in 2018, DJ Mugg

Extra Arms and... a man pushing a cart (CREDIT: Tim Meeks) "What is even happening right now?" Good Lord! How many times have you said that to yourself in the last 2... 3... 4... 10 years? Bat-sh*t presidents, natural disasters, a global pandemic, murder hornets, you name it—something f***ed up is always happening. Detroit Power Pop band Extra Arms knows this. They understand it. But instead of accepting it and moving on, they do something about it—they turn up the volume and channel their confusion, frustration, and rage into catchy-as-Hell bangers that make you want to punch a hole in the sky. If you're reading this, perhaps, you've been here before. It's possible that you have cranked their first full band album—2018's Headacher —on a run through your neighborhood. Maybe, you laughed and cried while speeding down the highway listening to 2019's concept/break-up album for the ages, Up from Here . There's even a chance you've been down since