The Witzard

Ty Segall is a San Francisco -bred Garage-Psych Rocker who's recording output is similar to say... The Beatles . Since bursting on the music scene in 2006, Segall has released a countless, varied array of albums with different groups and on the solo T.I.P. 2010's Melted (Goner Records) may very well be one of the earliest and most note-worthy solo offerings. A self-proclaimed "rapidly-recording artist," Ty Segall teamed up with buddy, Eric "King Riff" Bauer , chilled out a bit, and slowly recorded Goodbye Bread over a 6 month period. To the best of my knowledge, "Goodbye Bread" is Segall's first officially-sanctioned and produced music video; The title track from an album of the same name, Drag City released Goodbye Bread back on June 24th, 2011... a mere 2 months after they unleashed "Ty-Rex" (Record Store Day) . The result: a simple, single shot, Matt Yoka -directed affair, which chronicles a night out with Ty Segall - as...

These here, my friends, are a few of the things that "Blog Dreams" are made of: 1-3 buzz-worthy new-comers, chemistry, kinship, spur-of-the-moment collaboration, creativity... sex, drugs, and violence. With little-no concrete information to springboard off of, this post will almost purely consist of cold, hard reporting! Hodgy Beats' complex rhyme schemes are cleverly strewn across the bleeps and blips of a Jonti -produced beat. Overall, the final product [dubbed "Nagoya" ] is truly a brilliant juxtaposition of the interesting pair's Pop tendencies and sheer aggression. A beat which was reportedly created, flourished, laced, and completed over the course of one mere night (9/27-28). Hodgy Beats is a flourishing member of LA -based Odd Future and it's sub-crew, MellowHype ; While Jonti [Danimals] is a talented multi-instrumentalist /producer, hailing from Sydney, Australia and Stones Throw Records . Be on the look out for Jonti 's debut long-p...

GAMES - "No Disguise" (Ford & Lopatin) Long before adopting the current "Ford & Lopatin" moniker, Daniel Lopatin and Joel Ford were musically active as Games. While initially musically active from 2009-10, Brooklyn 's very own Games managed to craft their own brand of "Throwback" Electronic music... Imminently releasing Spend the Night with [Games], "Everything Is Working"/"Heartlands," , 3 volumes of the Heaven Can Wait mixtape series, [Games] That We Can Play EP, a hand-crafted CFCF Remix, and a few other miscellaneous WorldWideWeb -housed goodies. After receiving a mild amount of initial media attention and success, that OTHER playground games-related artist/ Interscope Records pretty much forced Daniel Lopatin and Joel Ford to change their project's name... to Ford & Lopatin . From that point forward (2011), the dynamic duo would be referred to as "Ford & Lopatin." Quickly signin...

Let me simply start out by saying that Blink-182 have always been and will be one of my utmost favourite bands. Ever since first hearing Enema of the State (1999), Blink's albums and respective side bands have without a doubt soundtracked my summer days and nights. I've since delved back into the previous 2 albums [ Cheshire Cat-Dude Ranch ] gaining a solid sense of respect for 90's Pop Punk . Blink-182 went on to release two more albums: Take Off Your Pants & Jacket (2001) and "Blink-182" (2003) - along with a string of chart-topping hits before disbanding in 2005. "Another Girl, Another Planet" and "Not Now," 2 note-worthy non-album tracks were then included on Greatest Hits (2005) and release as successful radio singles. After what seemed to be a pretty messy [intense] fall-out, Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker , and Tom DeLonge broke off into a few respective separate side bands... (+44), Angels & Airwaes, Transplants , and TRV$D...

--- subject: band name If you must use the f - word in your band name, which there is no need to. you should change your name to the F***ING LOSERS. All you are, are loser wannabe's going from bar to bar trying to make it big some day. Won't happen, Won't happen. Get a life , and change your band name . There is far to much bad words used in society today. It's no wonder kids today are growing up and stealing cars, robbing people. It's no wonder, when their parents, with their body full of tatoo's, rings in the nose, lip, eye brow, you name it. When the kids see and here all this from the people they look up to, then they don't know any better them selves. And the cycle goes on, and society and the world keeps getting worse. That's why we'll never have peace in this world. THINK ABOUT IT: Is there really a good reason for naming your band the F***ING CHAMPS when there are litterly thousands of great names to call a band, I can't think of one...

"Honey Bunny" is a loaded American [slang] term that generally refers to a person of particular endearment. The music video for Track #1 from Father, Son, Holy Ghost was directed by Girls guitarist Chet "J.R." White with Ivan Shumaker , features Christopher Owens (vox) as leadingman, and co-stars his real-life girlfriend, Hannah Hunt (Dominant Legs) . It all starts out with Owens in a belly-shirt sweater... scouring the sun-drenched streets of Downtown LA . While on a valiant quest for true companionship, he runs into a couple of duds, gets tangled up in their van, and then proceeds to hi-jack a sleek, white Corvette . All the while, the jangling, Surf Rock (Beach Boys) tune progressively builds and crescendos in the background. Almost instantaneously, Christopher Owens proceeds to pick up his own personal "Honey Bunny" - Hannah Hunt . Let the gushiness, lovesong , and FUN-TIMES ensue! Girls' latest record: Father, Son, Holy Ghost , is now ava...

Live instrumentation is essentially the elementary basis for nearly any and all Hip-Hop compositions; Whether it be sample source(d) material or the interpolation [re-creation] of said raw audio. During a time period in which Hip-Hop was proclaimed "dead" (2006-10), groups like Will Sessions have since re-invigorated a sense of new-found life into the genre as a whole. Will Sessions are an 8-10 musician deep Detroit crew fronted by trumpeter, Sam Beaubien . Making good use of a full-bodied "throwback" sound, which features drums, bass, guitar... in addition to trumpet, keys, sax, trombone, and percussion. Since forming as a solo endeavor in 2007, Will Sessions has progressively morphed into something much larger and greater. Live in concert, they've moonlighted as The Guilty Simpson, Black Milk , and Phat Kat Big Band(s) ... Plus having separately logged studio-time with the likes of Elzhi , Mayer Hawthorne , Slum Village, 14K, Black Milk , and Buff1 . R...

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a sucker for a good, solid cover (band's take on another's original composition); A "good cover," in my eyes, displays equal parts respect, admiration, and creativity all @ once. "Come As You Are" is the latest addition to my desktop mp3 download file... recorded in a single take by Porcelain Raft [Mauro Remiddi] in London , the day before he laid down "Amateur's Feeling" - lead track from Fountain's Head EP . Seemingly recorded and released in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Nirvana 's Grunge staple LP, Nevermind (1991). Remiddi takes the liberty of gutting and re-arranging the track's trademark instrumentation, adding in his own Italian -bred brand of SWAGGER. Having already independantly reelased a set of 4-6 EP's, Mauro Remiddi is currently hard @ work on Porcelain Raft 's debut long-player for Secretly Canadian .

New-comer Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire reminds me very much of Biz Markie ... wherein @ any given moment in time, you're not entirely sure if he's fucked up, prolific, "mental" [zany], or TOTALLY serious. Last week, Мишка (Mishka) liberated eXquire's debut mixtape, Lost In Translation , to the masses. It's 18 contained tracks channel that raw energy/talent that Tom Breihan & I have [very] recently championed. The mixtape features beats pain-stakingly crafted by Charli Brown Beatz, Necro, El-P (Cannibal Ox), Constrobuz, Jake-One, BoweryBeats, Esoteric , and eXquire himself. Note: The young New York rapper's vocal stylings may remind seasoned fans of Wu-Tang Soldier, Method Man 's notorious rhyming abilities. For all intensive purposes, "Huzzah" is being pushed as Lost In Translation 's lead single. Directed by TKTK Media and filmed entirely in black-and-white, the music video for "Huzzah" (Bonus Remix) features fellow...

Xavier de Rosnay & Gaspard Augé will be the first to admit that they're far from classically-trained musicians. But over the course of the 4 years since the release of their break-through debut, † ("Cross") , they've noticeably upped their musical chops. When compared against Justice 's original Dance -inspired sample- based sound... Audio, Video, Disco is said to be a lighter-sounding Arena/Prog Rock nodding affair; Soft-violent "daytime [ Electronic ] music," if you will. Particular artists of influence have been said to include: Supertramp, The Eagles, Black Sabbath, Queen, The Beatles , and Yes . Yet the most interesting factoid concerning the 11-track set [Oct. 25th] may very well be that the 2 DJ's played EVERY single instrument! Thusfar, our ears have been graced with 2 singles and 1 leaked track: "Civilization," "Audio Video, Disco," and "Helix." Read more about Audio, Video, Disco 's tedious 1.5...

The final scenes of "Swim Good" feature a mysterious panda-masked man, limousine explosion, blood by the ocean... and do little-nothing to help clear up the amassed sense of confusion. Syncopated along with Tricky Stewart 's drumbeat, Frank Ocean does his best to stay true to the overall lyrical theme of said track. Behind the wheel of a vibrant orange Lincoln limo and under the direction of NABIL , Frank Ocean manages to get roped up in a number of hi-jinx. Those including but not limited to: forest-surrounded crusin', ninja sword tricks, passionate love-making [murder?], ocean crest stock footage, a pair of Air Jordans , and FIRE! " Kanye 's 808's & Heartbreak album is more influential than we think... It helped to free other hip hop artists to experiment. Visually speaking, Kanye and André 3000 are the most influential to this generation, whether we want to admit it or not. I don't think it will stop with wearing saggy "jeggings...

" Guns N' Roses headlined the first show I ever saw. This was July 1992 at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC , the first night of their massive co-headlining tour with Metallica . A couple of weeks later, a Montreal show would end in a riot when both bands ended their sets early: Metallica because James Hetfield caught on fire, Guns N' Roses because Axl Rose was upset after being upstaged by the guy who caught on fire. As legend had it, Axl had attempted to recruit Nirvana as the tour's opener, but Nirvana turned it down because Kurt Cobain didn't like the way Axl talked about women in his songs. Faith No More ended up opening instead. As a 12-year-old, I was happy about Cobain's decision - Not because I supported his reasoning, but because I was more excited to see Faith No More than I was to see Nirvana . (Back then, I thought The Real Thing was a better album than Nevermind . When I'm in the right mood, I still think The Real Thing is a better ...

"Lana del Rey" is the recently-implemented stage name of one Lizzy Grant , a doe-eyed singer-songwriter from Brooklyn . After garnering lackluster responses as a solo artist, 24-year-old Grant went back to the drawing board... and along with her PR team, conceptualized the alter ego that is now better known as "Lana del Rey." There's even rumored to be an album named after the persona, which was released before the complete ["package"] concept was fully realized (2009-10); It seems as though the album has since been pulled from all major online retailers. Of the 5-6 Lana del Rey mp3 tracks that I've managed to locate... 3 seem to be fairly recent, noteworthy, and official: "Video Games," "Blue Jeans," and "Kinda Outta Luck." Having dubbed herself "The Gangster Nancy Sinatra," that illusive SWAGGER is eloquently plastered across the 3 above-stated del Rey tracks. Fans of these compositions, may also ...

"EXCLUSIVE HORROR-THEMED MIX FROM THE CONNECTICUT PSYCH-FUNK MARVELS: Connecticut 's suave Psych practitioners The Stepkids have gifted The Stool Pigeon with a ghoulishy weird mixtape of horror-themed tracks... ahead of the release of their self-titled debut for Stones Throw on September 26-27th. The hour-long mix comprises a truly mind-messing array of artists; From kindred freak-funk souls in Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Funkadelic right [on] through to cosmic creepiness from Frank Zappa and Thelonius Monk . Watch out, this one'll blend your brains into a pink protein shake and not leave you a tip!" - The Stool Pigeon

Based off the Jimmy Kimmel Live stock footage in the clip's opening sequences, I believe this "Alligator Boots" pilot dates back to about 2006-08; As the track performed on Kimmel ("Brand New") was featured on Rhymefest 's 2006 album, Blue Collar , and indefinately pre-dates Kanye's 808's & Heartbreak (2008). Basically, Kanye & Rhymefest were hardcore fans of Crank Yankers ... imminently got together with its creators, Jimmy Kimmel , and Jack-Hole Industries (The Man Show) to create a puppet-based [ghetto] sketch comedy show; 30-some various puppet characters were carefully made and pretty much wasted. One can TOTALLY tell that this show had a lot of "potential" ...even from this rough outline of a pilot episode. What we have here is essentially a behind-the-scenes look @ the creation of the various aspects of the canned show. I wonder what halted Comedy Central from green-lighting "Alligator Boots?" Pretty sure th...

Plain and simple... From a long-time music aficionado's point of view, the concept behind "Let 'em Come" (music video) is a very original and intriguing premise. For all intensive purposes: Nina Kate , Carmen Pie , and Michala Vano are Scroobius Pip , P.O.S. (Doomtree) , and Sage Francis - respectively. @ the video's start, we see the girls getting ready and pre-gaming... But then, as they fervently walk downtown to the bar, carefully sequenced raps start coming out. Ever so slyly rhyming and wreaking havoc throughout the pub, "The Real Scroobius" soon has a run in with Nina Kate and the gang [roughly 2:15]. Subsequently getting kicked out, they once again begin roaming the dark London streets. As Michala (Sage) comes into the fold, they hop into a cab and eventually bail without paying fare. The camera begins to wobble and pan out, as Nina, Carmen , and Michala progressively hit the bottle harder and harder. Leaving the apartment, we are again...

Let's face it... It's almost 2012 and by now, most of us have heard of Stargate , weather we're aware of it or not. Since their 1997 inception, the Norwegian production team, consisting of Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen , has managed to fine-tune a number of Grammy-winning hit for artists like: Rihanna , Katy Perry , Beyoncé , Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa , and Marina & The Diamonds . I have to admit, I'm a [casual] fan of many of their radio singles - Not even knowing who was behind the creation of these lush, layered tracks. One could even go as far as to say that Stargate was [partially] responsible for honing the genre-bending sounds of Popular albums: Rated R - Loud , Rolling Papers , and Teenage Dream . Kassa Overall , it seems, is a fan of Hermansen & Eriksen 's varied array of works, as well. For all intensive purposes, the Harlem -based drummer/rapper-producer's latest aptly-titled mixtape is based around nothing but Stargate ...

"Yesterday, Ariel Pink released "Witchhunt Suite for WWIII," a one-off digital single. LA native Pink (born Ariel Rosenberg ) first began writing and recording the 16-minute sprawling epic 10 years ago while the events of September 11, 2001 began to unfold. "Witchhunt Suite for WWIII" was originally released in 2 parts on a limited tour-only CD-R in 2007 entitled Yas Dudette ... But Ariel Pink wished to make a newly-recorded version of the song available in its entirety in tribute to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. "Witchhunt Suite for WWIII" is now available to buy exclusively from iTunes . Watch the Animal Charm with Ariel Pink -directed music video for the one-off single below." - 4AD (Beggars Group)

Attaching the adjective mysterious onto the artist formally known as "Jelly Jells"' name would be a true understatement and [misguided] mistake... As Jelly's official bio notoriously reads: " JELLY JELLS is the half African-American , half Italian son of a prostitute. He is a musician, magician, inventor, aesthete, dreamer, do-er, and believer!" Yes, I know, this statement has been plastered all over the Internet by now... But to be honest, it's essentially the crux of Jelly Jells' sheer existence; A feeling that's repeatedly echoed throughout his music. Included along with the "B€/\UT!FU{_" mp3 file was the phrase "Jelly Sammich" - what seems to be an eventual album title. One can assume that this will be the next [career] step for Jelly Jells ... in the not-so-distant future. But for now, we have 2 samplings from said full-length: "Itiswhatitis" and "B€/\UT!FU{_." From the sound of it, Jelly d...

We have witnessed time and time again, attempts from new artists to make a breakthrough each year. Some succeed, but many prove that music as a profession is not as easy as it seems. To survive as a musician in modern times is as easy as shopping on Black Friday ; Not a simple task. The division of genres make an easy target for hipster's crazed opinions, often damaging a reputation or two. Marketing strategies; The key to a successful career. A catchy hook/bridge, controversial lyrics, and a mixture of genres can gain the attention needed to fuel a ride to the top. The golden ticket needed, may have landed in the right person's lap at the right time... when Hip-Hop freshman, Kendrick Lamar decided to leave his mark on the ever-so-popular chart-topping single "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster The People . Lamar proved his infinite potential earlier this year when he released his first charting digital album Section.80 . The Cali native stirred up heavy media buzz by di...

"We work with some amazing artists, and we appreciate the support you show them. To celebrate their work, and say thank you to you, we've made a limited edition, double 12" vinyl sampler. It features a track from each of the artists we've worked with this year. It won't be available to buy anywhere. We would love to give you a copy of the XL Recordings Sampler 2011 . If you'd like a copy of the sampler, email your postal address to XL11@xlrecordings.com and we'll send you one, wherever you are in the world. We have 1,000 copies to give away. First come, first served. .. [I know that I quickly put in to get my 12" copy around 12-1pm!] Thank you to everyone who asked for a sampler. The response was overwhelming. If you emailed us we will reply soon." XL Recordings Sampler 2011 tracklist: A1 Adele - "He Won't Go" A2 Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx - "I'll Take Care of You" B1 Radiohead - "Supercollider" C1 Tyle...

Ryan Adams - "Wasted Years" (Iron Maiden) Many years ago [2000], when I was first REALLY "getting into" the Indie Rock music scene... my tech-savvy, older cuz Josh passed me a Led Zeppelin Greatest Hits 3-CD set, a box of cassette tapes, and a collection [Read: "stack of data CD-R's"] of shit to check out. Contained within the bounds of one of those CD-R's was "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)," a playful, little ditty from Alt. Country singer-songwriter Ryan Adam 's debut long-player, Heartbreaker . Since his 2000 inception, Ryan Adams has released 6 individual solo albums, 4 records with his [former] band The Cardinals , got married to Mandy Moore , released a Heavy Metal album as "Orion," upstarted his very own record label imprint, and unleashed a handful of mp3's from his assorted "side endeavors." In the mix of what may easily seem like to some a schizophrenic musical career, Adams man...

"You guys think this is bad? Try waiting over a decade for Dr. Dre 's Detox album. A guy who says he'll release it for sure, then gives us musical blue balls by extending the release date. Last year and this year, he teased us with music videos, but still no word of Detox . WTF DRE!!?" - regulatorzone (YouTube)

Asher Roth professed his immense love for college on the aptly-titled break-out hit [ "I Love College" ] from his 2009 debut, Asleep In the Bread Aisle . While one could easily tell that Roth indeed had a lot of potential, I'll be the first to admit that the collection as a whole wasn't exactly a "Classic Album." But with this said, tracks like "Lark on My Go-Cart," "Be By Myself," "She Don't Want a Man," and "Sour Patch Kids" without a doubt hold a certain amount of re-play value. Shouts are also due to friend and fellow new-comer, Oren Yoel [producer]. I have always been a champion of the theory that Asher Roth 's between-album mixtapes are his utmost best source of recorded output. Case(s) in point: The Greenhouse Effect (2008) and Seared Foie Gras with Quince & Cranberry (2010). Freestyling over Popular tracks from the likes of Jay-Z , The Cool Kids , Clipse, Britney Spears , OutKast , Lil'...

" Born Villain is the title of the new Marilyn Manson album. While looking to experiment in unlikely collaborations, I met Shia, and we spent a long night at my studio. After seeing "Maniac," his [ KiD CuDi ] short film, which is somewhat inspired by Man Bites Dog , I was astonished by his directing ability. So, I shared quite a few of my favorite inspirations in art, literature, and obviously film. I was impressed with how Shia [LeBeouf] digested my world, and made what I'd like to think, is both an homage and a mockery of the history of cinema. We ended up writing a short film. The score is from my new album, and is, in the words of Macbeth , "Full of sound and fury.'" - Brian Warner (Marilyn Manson) Shai LeBeouf put it best when he recently confessed that "In my teenage years, [Marilyn Manson] was the scariest thing in the world, so part of me has always been intrigued. " As Shai and I are generally the same age (24-25), I share the s...