The Witzard

"It's our summer jam, so we figured we should put it out, cuz I am very bored of waiting to finish my album [before] releasing new music haha," Grimes (real name Claire Boucher ) said in a recent press release. Last winter, Boucher signed what some might call a mildly head-scratching management deal with Jay Z 's own Roc-Nation off-shoot company — alongside previous signees HAIM , M.I.A. Santigold , Mark Ronson, Shakira , Wale, and The Ting Tings . Grimes and her fellow Canadian comrade/frequent collaborator Blood Diamonds were reportedly commissioned by Roc-Nation to produce and original track for R&B super-star Rihanna . While it was ultimately rejected by the Roc-Nation team, Grimes & Blood Diamonds recently recorded their own version of the track, now re-titled "Go." Blood Diamonds' 2010-12 reminiscent Dubstep/Electro -leaning production work seems to have been influenced by Grimes' former Full Flex Express touring mates, ...

"Well shit. Since @stereogum posted the You Blue It pre-order, the [first] 100 sold out. Looks like the others might too," You Blew It! Tweeted Tuesday afternoon upon the release of "Surf Wax America" premiered by the good people over at Stereogum ; whether it was intentional or not, the Florida -based Emo revival band will unleash their You Blue It covers EP on the 20-year anniversary of Weezer aka "The Blue Album" and have seemingly already gained the backing of Indie Rock blogs and fans alike. Although I was only seven when it came out, Weezer was always one of my favorite bands and quite honestly, The Blue Album and Maladroit are amongst my "desert island" albums. I forget where, but I once read that frontman Rivers Cuomo made a 3-ring binder of chart-topping Pop songs, breaking down their various characteristics, and essentially cracked the code of what makes a hit song; his meticulous sonic research surely paid off because n...

What we have here are essentially three newly un-vaulted Troubadour era non-album Stepkids tracks; Stones Throw quietly uploaded their Wanderers EP to it's label website and companion Soundcloud page this past Tuesday, June 17th. "The songs in this collection are different than anything else we've done. We wrote and recorded them at the height of our experimentation," The Stepkids quipped on the free-form nature of their latest mini-EP. "We spared no artistry and weren't limited to any business strategy, a target audience, single considerations, or [style] limitations... In other words, for better or worse, you will never again hear anything like this from us, let alone anyone else. Enjoy," bandmates Jeff Gitelman, Dan Edinberg & Tim Walsh collectively continued. The Wanderers EP standard download zip-file comes complete with three previously unreleased carelessly noodling Psych-Rock tracks and six variations of it's largely black-and-...

For his latest single, "Ego Death" LA -based rapper-producer Busdriver has essentially assembled an all-star team of Underground Hip-Hop MVP's; Busdriver, Aesop Rock & Danny Brown spit hot fire in succession over the course of Stones Throw affiliate Jeremiah Jae 's nearly 6-minute neck-snapping beat. While hailing from three separate corners of the Underground Hip-Hop spectrum, the three veteran emcees surprisingly mesh very well together (I believe Busdriver & Aesop have rapped together before). "Yeah, no... I understand what you're saying. But is is sexier than torture?" opens Jae's slightly off-kilter beat, which features multi-layered lines like: "And downtime is never met with an overjoyed grin / cause sleep and death have always been conjoined twins," "He shoots the whores, truly stupid troubadours," and Danny Brown 's fairly sound assertion that he's the "Rap Marilyn Manson." It's ...

Whether or not you're a fan of The White Stripes , The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather , or his recent work with Neil Young , you really can't deny the sheer impact that Jack White 's own Nashville -based Third Man Records has had on the vinyl record industry or the modern day Blues-Rock revival in recent years. Entirely intentional or not, White has single-handedly helped usher in the 21st century resurgence of the age-old waxed medium; the former Record Store Day ambassador has gotten involved in a number of unique record-centric projects including producing Young's latest covers album, A Letter Home from inside a 1940's Voice-o-Graph portable recording studio and somehow managed to record, press, and sell the world's fastest record in record-breaking time this past Record Store Day . While Jack White's second solo album, Lazaretto was released last Tuesday, June 10th, I was lucky enough to receive my pre-ordered "ULTRA LP" the weekend prior ...

"this is "n**gas on the moon," featuring björk on all 8 tracks. it is the first installment of our new double album, "the powers that b," due out later this year on Harvest/Third Worlds Records . the second disc is titled "jenny death,"' Death Grips wrote along with eight newly-released YouTube audio streams uploaded on Sunday around 12 midnight. While little else is known about n**gas on the moon , a couple days later, Björk did in fact confirm that she appears on the mini-album and that she's thrilled to be Death Grips' latest "found object," which I'd assume would basically mean that they used chopped and sampled vocal fragments. It's their third consecutive album meticulously "leaked" online in such a manner; n**gas on the moon was preceded by their November free album Government Plates and infamous Epic Records contract-infringing dick pic album, No Love Deep Web . Björk 's nearly unmistake...

"There are kids at school who dress like everybody else, because they don't know what to do, and there are musicians like that, too," Jack White recently told Rolling Stone in a particularly telling no-holds-barred interview. "I'll hear TV commercials where the music's ripping off sounds of mine, to the point I think it's me. Half the time, it's The Black Keys ," he continued. It's only the latest set of comments accumulated in an on-going public feud with Dan Auerbach & Patrick Carney , which originally erupted when TMZ leaked a batch of White's private emails last year. The same Rolling Stone interview, in support of this forthcoming solo album Lazaretto , somehow managed to bash former bandmate Meg White , Lana del Rey, Adele , Duffy, Danger Mouse , and the late Amy Winehouse, which have since been retracted. Jack White seems to have been converted to the age-old school of thought that nearly all press is good press; a new-fo...

Not even counting his seemingly endless pre- Stones Throw material, veteran emcee Homeboy Sandman has released one album, First of a Living Breed , and about four EP's with the documentary-wielding Indie Hip-Hop label since inking a deal in 2011; most recently having concocted a Jaylib -style collaborative EP with Stones Throw affiliated producer Paul White , ingeniously titled White Sands . According to Stones Throw , Homeboy Sandman 's latest track, "Atlantis" is "one of a few dozen new tracks Sand's been working on this year. Expect to hear the best of them in a new full length album set for Fall 2014 - title, producers and track list TBA." It's single cover is essentially laid out to mimic Nirvana 's iconic Nevermind album artwork and the track itself was produced by insanely prolific rising West Coast rapper-producer Blu . Comfortably nestled atop a jittery off-kilter beat, Homeboy Sandman ferociously raps, "I'd rather l...