The Witzard

Lo(u)ser is the new solo project of 8-bit/Ska Punk musician Chris Graue. His past music-making credits include The Maxies, The 131ers, Suburban Legends, Pizza Wolf, Naronic Distress, and The Scene Report. As a director and editor, Graue has filmed and created music videos for the likes of The Bombpops, The Bruce Lee Band, Goldfinger, NOFX, Mike Park (Asian Man Records,) Red City Radio, Reel Big Fish, Frank Turner, and We Are The Union. It appears as though Chris Garue may have initially kick-started Lo(u)ser back in 2015 with a 2-track EP entitled Gold, Frankincense, and Brr quietly uploaded to Bandcamp on a Name-Your-Price basis. Now, Graue has returned with a brand spankin' new glitched out single, "Growing Up," from Lo(u)ser. "Despite these accomplishments, Chris feels suspended in time as if enveloped in the forcefield of some demented Stasis Rune." "With each ticking second, his kinetic energy builds until finally exploding onto the music scene ...

The Witzard and Don't Panic have a long strange relationship together. Well, maybe, not exactly "strange," but it's definitely one of my personal favorites I've forged over these past 10 years running this very site. It was quite a few years ago, maybe, about 2009 or so, on a complete whim, I saw Don't Panic at local now-defunct Vineland, New Jersey venue Hangar 84. I believe, Don't Panic were opening up for The Ataris and I vaguely recall talking to one of the members' (maybe, drummer Anthony Paesano) parents about it being his first show with the band. Their set was phenomenal and I ended up buying a CD copy of Don't Panic's then-new EP, My Fairweather Friend . One track in particular, "Caroline," quickly became a staple on CD-R mixtapes I was actively making for my then-girlfriend/now-wife. However, it appears as though by 2011-12, Don't Panic had broken up or, at least, gone on an indefinite hiatus. So, you could imagine...

Early on during Nation-wide Quarantine/Lockdowns, it appears as though Ridgewood, New Jersey's own Senses Fail hunkered down and laid down a remotely recorded album chock-full of covers of classic Punk, Hardcore, and Emo-adjacent staples. "Doing a quarantine covers record. Just finished "We're Only Gonna Die" by @badreligion," a Tweet dated April 8, 2020 explained. "Gonna be DIY. I'm gonna mix it and Gavin & I are doing I remotely. Pretty fun, so far. We, also, have a Morrissey song. Thinking about Jawbreaker, maybe, early Get Up Kids," Senses Fail frontman James "Buddy" Nielson further detailed on @SensesFail's band page. Since then, no additional details concerning said covers comp. have come to the surface, but fingers crossed, it's still happening! Through Being Ghoul by Senses Fail Concurrently, Senses Fail have seemingly been working on the proper follow-up to 2018's If There Is Light, It Will Find You, e...

If The Witzard mainstay John "Jumbled" Bachman is truly "somewhere between Madlib & Mike Watt," does that mean Eben Dennis is the James Williamson to his Mike Watt? For those unfamiliar with this head-scratching "analogy," Mike Watt & James Williamson appeared together within the 2000's reunited iteration of Iggy Pop-helmed The Stooges ; Williamson played guitar with Iggy from 1970-71, 1972-74, and 2009-13, while Watt joined between 2003-13 playing bass across Stooges "reunion" albums The Weirdness (2007) and Ready to Die (2013.) Thus, we've been familiar with Eben Dennis' musical output just as long as we've been writing about Jumbled. In fact, Dennis provided additional guitar riffs to Berko Lover-assisted "Sam Adams" from our very first introduction to Jumbled, 2016's [I wish it was longer] or WIWL. Only Devotion by Plague Saints We've since covered John Bachman & Eben Dennis' work togeth...

Last month we told you about the latest installment of Brycon & G-Pek's There's No More Room In Hell (6) just in time for a last-minute addition to your Halloween-themed playlists. Now, less than a month later, Brycon has already returned with his next proper solo outing: Brutalism EP. It's being described as "a 7-song EP focused on city life and some of its associated hardships. Each track surveys and explores around these themes, but leaves the resolve in the listener's hands." More or less, a "beat tape" in most aspects of said term, Brutalism boasts slow mechanical drums, ethereal samples, hazy conga lines, and haunting voices, as well as an overarching conceptual theme. Not entirely unlike J Dilla, Madlib, or even Kanye West before him, Brycon fully employs the "producer/musician as feature" theory here and is, indeed, front and center through and through. Additionally, to help fully flesh out this ensemble-like EP, Brycon h...

YŌKAI' is a Hardcore band based out of South Central, Los Angeles. Bassist Hector Rivera (@odiocore) recently reached out to us directly after seeing our interview with WORLD BE FREE guitarist Andrew Kline. So, in addition to being part of both Ska revivalists MATAMOSKA! and Ska/Hardcore band Mafia Rusa, Rivera is, alsp, part of a straight-up Hardcore band by way of YŌKAI'. Their current line-up includes Rivera on bass along with guitarist Johnny Vallejo, vocalist Danny Ortiz, and drummer Jairo Avila. Thus far, YŌKAI's ever-growing discography includes a 2016 EP entitled Reap What You Sow and a 2020 2-track single dubbed 2020/776-66. Reap What You Sow was engineered by Taylor Young (Twitching Tongues, Code Orange, DRAIN) at The Pit Recording Studio and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audio Siege Mastering Studio. 2020/776-66 by yōkai 2020/776-66, on the other hand, was recorded and mixed by Hector Rivera's MATAMOSKA! bandmate Esteban Flores and mastered By Curtis I...

Steve Haney is a drummer and percussionist widely known for his expansive body of work with Latin & Funk/Soul ensemble Jungle Fire. Haney's recording and performance highlights include Stevie Wonder, performing for President Obama at The White House with Oscar-winner A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire composer,) The Oprah Winfrey Show, Greyboy Allstars, The M-Tet, Joe Bataan, Quantic, Ozomatli, Kelly Finnigan, and GRAMMY-winning vocalist Gregory Porter. However, in addition to his musical endeavors, Haney moonlights as visual artist VISIONS COLLAGE (@visionscollage) tranforming mixed media into paper-cut collages. We've, personally, been Following Steve Haney's various VISIONS COLLAGE & Jungle Fire social media pages for quite a few years now. Haney's collages are typically hand-cut, extremely vibrant, often primarily feature musicians, and are, sometimes, shared with various alternate renditions. While boasting a multitude of musicians and bands from across ...

"PGH to PHL. Cody & Don have been yucking it up as pals and collaborators for years, but up until now, they have never done a full album together," reads a description on Bandcamp. ialive & Cody Cody Jones (then, known as Stillborn Identity) have been working together sporadically ever since 2015-16. ialive appeared alongside Cody on Jumbled-produced "Groundhog Day" from STLBRNcollabamonth2015. "Often succumbing to areas of internal turmoil, we see the boys letting go of inhibitions, flipping the script, and cutting loose on tracks like a dirtbike through dry leaves," said description continues. Through 2017, Cody Cody Jones & ialive released two collaborative digital splits together entitled FOUR TO THE FLOOR 1-2. ialive appeared alongside Blastmaster Baker on "Call of The Void" from Cody's monthly/year-long 2018 project, Year of The Dog. Rap of The Month. ialive & Cody Cody Jones have since worked together on a number of...

[adult swim] Festival 2020 held virtually this past weekend, Novemeber 13-14th, was billed as "MUSIC, COMEDY, AND MAYHEM FROM YOUR COUCH!" and was streamed exclusively on YouTube in real-time. Broken down into separate categories such as Music, Watch Party, Live, and Giveaway, [as] Fest's performers included D∆WN, J.I.D. KAYTRANADA, Mastodon, Open Mike Eagle, Robyn, Run The Jewels, Colin Stetson (Bon Iver,) Thundercat & Ariana Grande , Tycho, and Kamasi Washington. With said performances, appearances, DJ sets, premieres, and specials being streaming online from about 2:00pm-12:20am Friday and 10:00am-11:50 Saturday, we decided to set some Reminders for specific performances that interested us most. Although, now, both full-day live sets are streaming on YouTube in their entirety, as well as separate segments for each respective artist, performer, or special. So, for purposes of this specific feature, we decided to focus on a number of particular performances tha...

FASTPLANTS are a self-described "Chicago-land Skate Punk band hailing from Waukegan, Illinois. Their Bandcamp page fittingly explains, "we're into skateboarding and Punk Rock." FASTPLANTS' current line-up consists of life-long skateboarders and musicians Matt Anzelone (guitar/vocals,) Abe Linders (guitar/vocals,) Marc Harman (drums,) and Kevin Tabisz (bass.) Throughout 2017, FASTPLANTS released two full-lengths on Milwaukee-based Beer City Records, Spread The Stoke and Split L.P. with Scottish Crossover Thrash/Skate-core band Daniel Wax Off. Prior to said tandem full-lengths, FASTPLANTS self-released two EP's, fittingly titled EP01-02. in partnership with Moriarty Records between 2014-15. Now, FASTPLANTS have returned with a brand new 7-inch/digital single on a brand new label all in tribute/homage to one of their favorite skateboarders, Jeff Grosso , who, unfortunately, passed away this past March at the tender age of 51. Grosso b/w Super Stoked 7...

Liberty & Justice have quickly become one of our personal favorite bands in recent months. Honestly, at this point, we're not even exactly sure how or where we discovered Liberty & Justice, but we do know it was partly due to their socially distant remotely-recorded quarantine-shot music video for "Dancing On My Own" self-released this past March. In the months since, we've gotten to "know" the fellas from Liberty & Justice—Ryan "Crowns" Taylor, Cory "Gaza" Parker, Edwin Carson, Halston Luna & Ramzi Beshara—albeit, only via email (for now!) but they're a truly great, extremely motivated, hard-working gang of dudes. Since releasing their exquisite Robyn cover, Liberty & Justice unleashed a like-minded cover of Green Day's "J.A.R." AKA "jason andrew relva," along with three originals, "no more orbits," "second ward serenade," and "halfway home," all uploaded...

Doug Carrion is a long-time Punk/Hardcore bassist, vocalist, producer, and musician. He's best-known for playing and recording music with the likes of Dag Nasty/Doggy Style with Brian Baker (Bad Religion, Minor Threat,) Descendents from 1985-86, For Love Not Lisa, Daddy X/Humble Gods, Ultrahead, Pale, Kottonmouth Kings, Con-800, Six Degrees of Right, and his own band, Doug C. & The Blacklisted. Additionally, Dough Carrion has produced, composed, and performed music for TV and film; as a music editor, Carrion has worked on a number of reality/game shows such as Beauty & The Geek, The Biggest Loser, Identity, Science of Love, Opportunity Knocks, Parental Control, and Make It or Break It. As recently as Summer 2019, Doug Carrion has joined forces with another one of his ex-Dag Nasty bandmates, Peter Cortner, to form a new Dag Nasty-inspired Medlodic Hardcore band dubbed FIELD DAY. A thinly-veiled reference to Dag Nasty's 1988 Giant Records album of the same name, FIELD ...