The Witzard

Dan Ex Machina - "When to Shut Up" Music Video (CREDIT: Jackie Papanier) * INTRO/EXTRA I-II. What made you finally decide to record and release the recordings contained within both Pity Party Animal & My Wife, which were originally written between 2004-06, nearly 14-16 years later? How would you say your overall musical sound, style, point-of-view, etc. has changed and evolved since the release of Pity Party Animal earlier this year? Dan Ex Machina: To tackle these both at once: The short answer is that I had bad, inconsistent, home-made, occasionally inspired "finished" versions of a few records recorded at the time they were written, both in dorm rooms when I was in college. I didn't know what I was doing, which was occasionally good for the imagination of the song-writing and arrangements. It was only in the last few years that I was able to revisit these projects—more than a decade later—and make them sound how I, also, wanted them to sound. Than...

The Drowns at Pirates Press Rock The Ship 2019 (CREDIT: Robert Taylor) "I first met Rev when his band, Success, were supporting my pals, 7Seconds, on a West Coast/Pacific Northwest tour during the Summer of 2015. I was tagging along for the California dates and had the pleasure of getting to know the guys from Success over those few days. I remember, after they played their set in Reno, Rev was so excited that there was a pit during their set. They brought so much excitement and positive energy to the tour and were absolutely solid dudes all the way. I did everything that I could to catch up with Rev & The Gang anytime they were in town after. Over the next few years, I had heard that Rev was working on another band called The Drowns and when he sent me the demo for their first record, View from The Bottom, it was clear that something special was about to happen. The Drowns have their own style and sound that would appeal to any Punk & Oi! crowd and beyond. It wasn...

Last week, we received a mysterious cold-sent email including only an MP3 entitled "Fruit Day 1" and the above image. It was attributed to a new artist going by the name of Visitor. From our understanding, said song, "Fruit Day 1," was sent out to a selection of parties, who might have been interested in listening to, writing about, sharing it, etc. Honestly, that's about all we can say, at the moment... but those well-versed in Underground Hip-Hop might hear something a tad bit familiar. However, it's easy to see Visitor is a well-versed, introspective emcee, who sincerely loves and enjoys what they do. Some of our personal favorite lines includes: "if he's tryin' to come correct, then, hit me up and, maybe, we'll connect. You'll wind up interviewin' for the few and the select. Better pay your dues or you know who will come collect. And though it's entertainin', I am not an entertainer. When I'm not on the scene, I stea...

What happens when you mix a couple of guys who grew up touring in Punk bands, but listening to Classic & 90's Rock? We don't know either... but the outcome seems to be Don't Panic; a Rock "N" Roll band through and through. Formed by Ted Felicetti (vocals/guitar,) Keith Slader (bass,) A.J. Larsen (guitar,) and Anthony Paesano (drums) the band started from a mutual love of just making great fun music, free from the restraints of focusing on being commercially viable. Drawing heavily on influences, like Foo Fighters, Lit, White Reaper, Millencolin, Tom Petty, ELO, Face to Face, Butch Walker, RIVAL SCHOOLS, and many others. Don't Panic's first music video for their song "Fall of '99" was released everywhere March 20, 2020 with a new song released every six weeks for the remainder of the year. I. What prompted Don't Panic to re-form around 2019 after an extended hiatus? Ted Felicetti: It had been a long time since I had played a sh...

For the past few months, Damon Albarn & Jamie Hewlett's long-running "cartoon" band, Gorillaz, singer 2-D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, guitarist Noodle, and drummer Russel Hobbs, have been trickling out new songs sporadically during Quarantine. As part of their ongoing Song Machine series, Gorillaz have released numerous "Episodes" (songs) and "Machine Bitez" including "Momentary Bliss" Feat. slowthai & Slaves, "Désolé" Feat. Fatoumata Diawara, "Aries" Feat. Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order) & Georgia, and "Friday 13th" Feat. Octavian. Plus, Gorillaz shared another non-Song Machine song by way of "How Far?" Feat. Tony Allen & Skepta in tribute/homage to Damon Albarn's long-time friend and collaborator, Allen, who, unfortunately, passed away back in April at the age of 79. "Song Machine—the cartoon music contraption, which spits out brand new episodes fresh from the studio, as and...

Not entirely unlike Wrestle/Wrassle Rap or Basketball Rap, there's, apparently, a whole sub-genre of hockey-themed Punk/Hardcore—oftentimes, referred to as "Puck" Rock or Hockey-core. Yes, I've been a die-hard fan of Punk/Hardcore for 15+ years and I, too, only first heard about Puck Rock within the last few weeks. Although, once I started diggin' around, I discovered about 10-15 bands at the forefront; this was, then, gradually narrowed down to 10 "front-line" bands, which will be chronicled here over the course of coming weeks. The "top-scoring" bands we selected include: Crippled Youth, SLAPSHOT, The Hanson Brothers/Nomeansno, Two Man Advantage, The Boils, D.O.A. THE ZAMBONIS, Pansy Division, The Hextalls, and THE RAMOMS' "Gritty Is A Punk" flexi-disc. We sent out a short 6-question interview form to all of the aforementioned bands, received some back, heard a few choice words, and still have yet to hear from a few more. We...

TLDR [too long; didn't read.] Is it cool for me to dig into Clutchy's true identity? I think, it is and here is why I think so. Who is Clutchy Hopkins? Part 1: I don't claim to have any knowledge of who Clutchy is. I developed a thought experiment to try to put my thinking into context, as follows... If you reasonably imagine that there is a broad spectrum of artists, who release their art for public consumption to any degree and wish to chart them somewhere on that spectrum, you would have to establish the furthest extremes of that spectrum before you can place any individual artist within those boundaries. It isn't an arbitrary construct in that it could possibly describe the reality of the artist's intent. This is a broad model and it comes with the basic assumption that it could be useful in determining where artists lie within the spectrum. The model is subject to criticism and interpretation. I find it useful to categorize the extremes within the thought ex...

Last we heard from Massachusetts' own 80HRTZ, he was producing "The Ghost of Route 44" as part of BRZOWSKI's 2019 odds-and-ends-style comp. BLooddrive, Vol. 4. Prior to that, 80 had produced a full-length album alongside fellow Bay Stater and emcee Purge dubbed WHERE THERE'S SMOKE... However, The Witzard regulars might remember 80HRTZ from his inexplicitly infectious genre-fusing remixes of The Misfits' "Astro Zombies" & Dead Kennedys' "California Über Alles" both premiered right here at The Witzard, respectively, featuring DJ Halo & Shortrock. Now, 80HRTZ has returned with his next similarly-minded remix concocted exclusively for The Witzard: Iron Maiden's fourteenth single, "Wasted Years." Maiden originally released "Wasted Years" in 1986 as the lead-off single from their then-upcoming synth-laden album, Somewhere In Time. 80HRTZ's "Wasted Years" fuses together Iron Maiden's beloved ...

OFFSIDE REIDARS (CREDIT: Jussi Leinonen) Not entirely unlike Wrestle/Wrassle Rap or Basketball Rap, there's, apparently, a whole sub-genre of hockey-themed Punk/Hardcore—oftentimes, referred to as "Puck" Rock or Hockey-core. Yes, I've been a die-hard fan of Punk/Hardcore for 15+ years and I, too, only first heard about Puck Rock within the last few weeks. Although, once I started diggin' around, I discovered about 10-15 bands at the forefront; this was, then, gradually narrowed down to 10 "front-line" bands, which will be chronicled here over the course of coming weeks. The "top-scoring" bands we selected include: Crippled Youth, SLAPSHOT, The Hanson Brothers/Nomeansno, Two Man Advantage, The Boils, D.O.A. THE ZAMBONIS, Pansy Division, The Hextalls, and THE RAMOMS' "Gritty Is A Punk" flexi-disc. We sent out a short 6-question interview form to all of the aforementioned bands, received some back, heard a few choice words, and sti...