The Witzard

Earlier this fine post- Thanksgiving Weekend morning, whilst I was at Boscov's getting my new suit pants tailored, I had a sudden burst of creativity in the form of a clever one-liner to start a tentative review of Animal Collective 's cringe-worthy mess of a new single, "FloriDada:" "There's an age-old music industry joke that goes something along the lines of, "if Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke recorded the sounds of himself sh*tting or farting into a mic backed by the band's music, people would likely still buy it.'" But rather than give those talent-less Art-Rock Three Stooges any more unnecessary spotlight, I've instead decided to review veteran underground emcees Homeboy Sandman & Aesop Rock 's far more noteworthy surprise-released Cyber Monday FREE EP, Lice . "You're probably scratching your head right now wondering why this EP is called Lice ... The truth is, [Aesop Rock] and I always have all these ide...

"I'm writing all the time, but recently I got the bug back. When it comes, it comes, and I can't force it, but... I got it back with "Hotline Bling" and all the other things I've been experimenting with," Erykah Badu recently told Noisey concerning her five-year gap between New Amerykah Part 2 (Return of The Ankh) and just-released But You Caint Use My Phone ; a clever allusion to Badu's own widely-acclaimed 1997 Live single "Tyrone," in which she famously laments, "you need to call Tyrone... but ya can't use my phone." "HOT LINE BLING BUT U CAINT USE MY PHONE MIX" (now re-titled "Cell U Lar Device" ) was initially conceived as an impromptu birthday present for a friend of Erykah Badu 's with assistance from Dallas -area producer Zach Witness , better known locally as one White Chocolate . "When I thought about doing the "Hotline Bling" remix, I thought about him. And the same ...

" The Saint Cecilia Hotel , named after the patroness saint of music, is known as "a lush retreat from the world." And, believe me, that it is! 14 rooms and a small bar, it's tucked away in the trees within a bustling, Austin neighborhood. As our van pulled up in the wee hours of September 30th, 2015, I was struck with a rather impulsive idea: to record some songs on our days off to give to the world as a "thank you" for the last 2 years," Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl wrote in a heart-felt hand-penned letter on the heels of their 5-song Saint Cecilia EP . "Though there's a world-class recording studio just on the other side of the fence ( Arlyn Studios ), the hotel manager, Jenny offered that we record in the hotel... by 6pm the nest day, the office was transformed into a control room and the bar was littered with microphones and cables. Amps were in the kitchen. Drums in front of the fire place. Instant studio, courtesy of the legenda...

"DROPPING SOME NEW TRACKS IN THE [MORNING] JUST TO SAY, "HEY WE'RE WORKING ON NEW TUNES JUST EXPLORING AND FINDING... THANKS FOR THE LOVE AS ALWAYS," @badbadnotgood cryptically Tweeted late Thursday night; on the heels of their latest impending non-album double-header, "Here and Now" and "Timewave Zero." okayplayer's own skilled wordsmith Michael Eric Gonik fittingly described "Timewave Zero" as a "full-sprint psychedelic jazz & rock romp built over a dizzying shuffle and lurking, murky organs." Gonik then continued to describe the slightly more subdued, college slam poetry bar-leaning "Here and Now" as "[ramping] up the reverie with a sampledelic treatment that could double as a lost Sun-Ra outing with a more straightforward groove." While they've previously reinterpreted everyone from Ol' Dirty Bastard to Kanye 's favorite London -bred crooner James Blake , BBNG 's recen...

"When we heard that [Run The Jewels] were fans and down to get on this beat, I was super excited... but cautiously so. I knew this was the type of beat that they could just eat for breakfast; but I was hoping that the whole thing wouldn't come off sounding too retro. I was at Emile Haynie 's house when the email with the mix came through and so, we stopped what we were doing to throw it up on the speakers," 1/3 of self-described "three-headed band with one man name" Andrew Wyatt recently wrote in an email sent to The FADER . Miike Snow is a world-renown Swedish-American Indie/Synthpop band consisting of Wyatt along with Christian Karlsson & Pontus Winnberg , who together function as songwriting and production duo Bloodshy & Avant ; they've collectively produced chart-topping hits for everyone from Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas to Britney Spears (including "Toxic" and "Piece of Me" ). Although, Hip-Hop isn't ...

"'Strangers" was definitely inspired by our time living in California . We wanted it to sound like how California feels to us... portray that image of quintessential California , which sometimes can simply be that girl in a sundress with that pretty California smile," LA -based Indie Pop trio The Rebel Light previously told The Line of Best Fit . Brothers Alan & Jarrett Stell and their cousin Brandon Cooke have already been compared to the likes of The Shins , Grizzly Bear, The Beach Boys , Todd Rundgren, Ariel Pink , The Doors, and The 5th Dimension during their brief tenure. The Rebel Light 's latest self-released single, "Strangers" "was recorded at home, with the vocals being laid down in the bathroom and the drum parts recorded in a wood shed," according to UK -based Clash magazine . It would appear as though The Rebel Light have managed to garner a considerable following across the pond, ironically, wherein many of the sun...

"Burst through the door, son I'm Kramerin' . Who wrote a gorgeous stanza? It's not you, it's me like George Costanza ," grizzly-voiced Ukrainian-American emcee Your Old Droog ferociously rhymes on his latest self-described "stupid" Soundcloud loosie, "Basketball & Seinfeld." Not long after uploading his "SEINWAVE2000" -sampling track, Droog himself annotated a portion of its expectedly ingenious Seinfeld and basketball-centric rhyme schemes at Rap Genius : "I used to smoke [funny cigarettes] and just watch Seinfeld re-runs. Or being h*gh out [of] my mind at the crib and watching ESPN Classic and old Bulls Finals series against The Blazers ." "Basketball & Seinfeld" was reportedly produced by Your Old Droog and manipulates a sample lifted from Abelard 's original composition "SEINWAVE2000," which in turn, makes use of a sample pulled from Jonathan Wolff 's infamous Mouth ...

"I used to have tons of songs in my head, but since I couldn't play anything well and I didn't know how to use programs [so] I was never able to make them," Chicago emcee and former Cool Kids affiliate Hollywood Holt writes within his rather compelling Facebook Bio section. Now better known as simply HXLT (pronounced: "Holt" ), the former club-friendly rapper has returned with the lead-off single from his as-yet-untitled G.O.O.D. Music debut; " Holt 's manager told Billboard at the time of his singing that "it's like if Joy Division , The Strokes , and Dr. Dre made an album together."' Judging by "Live to Death," it would appear as though HXLT has somehow already managed to master the whole Psych/Punk Rock -leaning brand of Alt. Hip-Hop that Kanye 's former protégé Kid Cudi has spent the past five or so odd years aimlessly trying to hone and perfect. Although, prior to unleashing "Live to Death"...

"I'm the poster child for alleged drug dealers. These n***as mention my name with their little rumors and their little jewelers. That's no threat, that's no sweat," former Virginia Beach drug dealer and Clipse emcee Pusha T ferociously rhymes on his latest solo single; a Dr. Dre -sanctioned freestyle over Meek Mill 's "R.I.C.O," which notoriously kick-started Mill and Drake 's ghostwriter allegation-slinging beef. For the record, whether he in fact endorses and makes use of ghostwriters or not, Drake 's rapid-released double-header "Back to Back" and "Charged Up" absolutely slayed and effectively obliterated Meek Mill 's abysmal retaliation diss, "Wanna Know." "Real money ain't shy. No, lay it out... get a tan on it. They say numbers don't lie. Well, dope boy, put your bands on it," Kanye 's "Runaway" protégé poignantly rhymes elsewhere on "R.I.C.O," whic...

"Before, I used to make records when I made music... then, I decided to make culture. And as I got older, I decided I'm going to make fashion. Ladies and gentlemen, listen and watch some fashion," rapper-producer and mogul Sean Combs aka Puff Daddy preached to an audience full of industry insiders, rappers, producers, record execs, and socialites Tuesday night at an impromptu listening party. The matter at hand: Puffy 's first project since Last Train to Paris (2010), MMM – short for Money Makin' Mitch , a self-described "sonic motion picture." Puff Daddy & The Family 's long-rumored proper return-to-form, MMM appears to be a precursor to Combs' apparent final album, No Way Out II . Diddy 's initial hustler's ambition-leaning concept behind MMM was first brainstormed during an evening of " Netflix and Ciroc & lemonade," in which he and his lady finally got around to watching Dame Dash 's cult classic Shakesp...