The Witzard

Fontana, California-based artist Clark Domae was a driving force behind the success of early 2000's Pop-punk/Emo pioneers Rufio. Domae played lead guitar and sang back-up vocals across Rufio's four critically-acclaimed albums, as well as a handful of singles and EP's, released between 2001-10. Domae was part of Rufio's initial run between 2000-07 and reunion stints held in 2010-12 and 2015. During their heyday, Rufio toured alongside of bands like Alkaline Trio, Brand New, Less Than Jake, Relient K, Senses Fail, and Taking Back Sunday. Since Rufio's 2007 disbandment, Clark Domae has started a family, gone back to school, maintains a "normal" job, and still plays guitar from time to time after his kids go to bed. Clark played guitar on "Drugs" from his one-time bandmate Scott Sellers' 2018 solo EP The Judge and most recently, revitalized an old band with Sellers and Aaron Fernandez. BigCity's awesomely-titled The Quest for Power EP con...

Fireside Chats Cassette Tape Art/Prints By: Ethan D'Ercole Chicago-based artist Jason Griff (sometimes, just "Griff") has become a heavyweight in Indie Hip-Hop in recent years. Griff is part of an Underground Hip-Hop network that spans from Chicago to Philly and likely even farther. Griff has produced music for the likes of Zilla Rocca, Scorcese Lorde Jones, Alex Ludovico, My Man Shafe, and Curly Castro. Within recent years, Griff co-founded a label imprint dubbed Insubordinate Records along with Alex Ludovico and Scorces Lorde Jones (may he rest in peace) to release both collabrative and solo efforts from each. Griff's most recent album is a primarily Punk/Hardcore-sampling affair, Fireside Chats, which references iconic Chicago venue, The Fireside Bowl. It features collaborations with emcees Alex Ludovico, Juganaut, ALASKA, defcee, Moecyrus, Scorcese, billy woods, Curly Castro, Zilla Rocca, ialive, PremRock, and SKECH185. Fireside Chats by Jason Griff I. Wh...

Been seeing a lot of Shock G stories (so many of 'em, so good.) Many people in The Bay, mostly music industry folks, all have a story of that cat, kinda mythical, like the Prince or Bill Murray tales you sometimes hear. An indelible mark they leave on you just doing some regular sh*t, 'cuz they're simply special like that. I have a few, but this one sticks out as one of my faves, details all, of course, a bit fuzzy due to this time in my life (so much 🥦) but, also, this was roughly 20 years ago (crazy that I still remember so much of this night, but you would, too, if you experienced it...) My guy, Ryan (then, known as Earflaps, now running Discos Mas) used to have a Wednesday at The Ivy Room on San Pablo. It was, generally, a laid-back affair, but all wax and tons of fun when I joined. Ivy Room is (historically) a little hole-in-the-wall (mostly Rock) live music venue, but on occasion, they'd have Blues & Soul and some random DJ nights. One Wednesday, we wer...

Haj of dumhi tells us he's been working on Shanti's Rebuttal on-and-off for about two years. We briefly spoke with Haj about Shanti's Rebuttal during our 2020 wrap-up style interview earlier this year. The majority of his beats were completed pre-COVID, but when COVID-19 hit, Haj started working on his 2020 projects with FERMENTED SPIRITS and Charles Only/ShamelessPlug. Some of the beats from Shanti's (and some from 2019's TERiYAKi HAiR.PIECE ) wound up being a part of the 2020 project The Airing of Grievances with Reef The Lost Cauze. Initially, Haj intended to put Shanti's Rebuttal out as an instrumental companion piece to Grievances shortly thereafter, but, then, he started working on video collages and more artwork, etc. the music, also, evolved a little bit. It's about 18 minutes long and is intended to be experienced as one continuous piece of music; an Instrumental Hip-Hop soundtrack, of sorts. Its basic plot involves an unwitting heroine who wind...

The Crew 18x24 Acrylic/India Ink (CREDIT: Ryan Callisto @moonofjupiterart) Just yesterday afternoon, we recieved word the world was gaining one more Los Angeles-based Punk/Hardcore super-group. The Crew somewhat amazingly features Punk Rock lifers Fletcher Dragge & Byron McMackin of Pennywise, Mike Muir of Suicidal Tendencies, and Tim Armstrong & Matt Freeman of Rancid. The Crew's debut single, "One Voice," is being billed as "a rousing Punk Rock anthem about unity." Vocalist and guitarist Fletcher Dragge shares: "collaborating with Tim Armstrong, Mike Muir, and Matt Freeman has been an awesome experience; obviously, Byron McMackin & I go way back. Byron & I had a demo of "One Voice" laying around for couple years and I thought it would be cool to bring a couple old friends on board to breath some new life into it." Fletcher continues, "watching these guys lay down their own personal trademark styles on this song wa...

Affectionately known as "Buffalo's Brothers of Brutality," THEY LIVE, have triumphantly returned with their first proper release in about 18 years. Formed by brothers Blake & Eric "E-Dubz" Ellman in 1995, THEY LIVE have consistently been creating Hardcore, Thrash, Power-violence, Fastcore, Thrashcore, etc. on-and-off for the past 26 years. Eric & Blake (Ellman One & Two) have always been the band's primary members, but THEY LIVE has featured a rotating cast of members and frequent collaborators. Said new THEY LIVE release, Summer of Love Canal EP, boasts 10 songs—one of them being a cover of DEVO's "Mongoloid!"—featuring Ellman One (Eric) on guitar, bass, and vocals and Ellman Two (Blake) behind the drumkit. Elsewhere on Summer of Love Canal, THEY LIVE effectively recruited Corey Rae Hunter from HEALER and John Hoffman from Weekend Nachos to provide guest vocals on tracks which have yet to be specified. THEY LIVE's awesome...

Just this past Friday, Big Noise Music Group—founded by Nick Gross, Jon Cohen, and John Feldmann—announced and shared a brand new single from girlfriends. Gross, Cohen, and Feldmann have all had an important hand in the Pop-punk music scene over the course of past 20-30 years. Under Big Noise, girlfriends, the Pop-punk duo comprised of Travis Mills (musical artist, Beats 1 host, actor) and Nick Gross (Big Noise, Gross Labs, Find Your Grind) confidentially released a new single with Hip-Hop artist Jasiah called "Congratulations," alongside an accompanying music video, leading up to their second album debuting later this year. girlfriends' currently ranks #8 in Spotify's New Wave/Pop-punk Artists. Travis Mills & Nick Gross both first stepped up to the plate of Rock stardom long before either of them had even left their angsty teen years. The brash and catchy Hip-Hop Travis made in his Riverside, California bedroom and posted on MySpace as "T. Mills"...

clipping. 2020 (CREDIT: Cristina Bercovitz) Oddly enough, we've recently been re-visiting clipping.'s phenomenal 2016 EP, Wriggle . We always thoroughly enjoyed the short and sweet six-track affiar, but were recenty reminded of its sheer existence following clipping.'s unique installment of NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concert: Tiny Desk Meets SXSW . Taking the whole "tiny desk" shtick more literal than most, clipping. members Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes, along with drummer Chukwudi Hodge played a six-song set on miniature instruments designed by Cristina Bercovitz. Primarily playing selections from their recent albums, Visions of Bodies Being Burned & There Existed An Addiction to Blood, and self-released debut, midcity, one of the stand-outs for us was "Shooter" from Wriggle. Wriggle (Expanded) by clipping. Commemorating the five-year anniversary of their Wriggle EP, clipping. and Sub Pop have announced Wriggle (Expanded) t...

Q: Is Disco Vietnam a A. producer, B. band, or C. All of The Above? A: C. All of The Above. Disco Vitenam's Bandcamp page explains, Disco Vietnam is a Rock "N" Roll band and Hip-Hop instrumentalist from Huntington, NY. All songs by Barry & Kenny Schwartz, brothers united by blood. All beats by Barry." It appears as though Barry (@SupernovaLox) currently lives in New York and Kenny (@MadDrums) hails from somewhere in-between Los Angeles & Texas. As a two-man unit, Disco Vietnam released three EP's between 2007-12 with awesomely-titled Get At Me Corruption, Totally Awesome Decisions, and Fear of Lava. Across said recordings, The Brothers Schwartz were oftentimes assisted by bassist Jared Winzelberg, keyboardist/backing vocalist Nicki Winzelberg, and bassists Keith Allen, Tom Cumming, and Ryan Siegel. Then, as a one-man unit, Disco Vietnam has produced tracks for emcees Zilla Rocca, Dick Wolf, Curly Castro, Gods Know AKA Scorcese Shells & Alpha Da...

Dope, Hookers & Pavement: The Real & Imagined History of Detroit Hardcore (@detroithardcoremovie) is a documentary film directed and produced by Otto Buj. We were fortunate enough to get a press screener, but this is definitely something we would pay $8.00 on our own dime/time to watch. It's one Hell of a documentary about a scene that we (and, likely, most people) had absolutely no idea ever even existed. However, it's easy to see how much of a lasting influence this Detroit scene had on the eventual progression of Punk/Hardcore as a whole. Dope Hookers & Pavement chronicles the rise and fall of a Detroit scene that was only active from about 1981-82. Bands featured prominently within the film include The Necros, Negative Approach, The Meatmen, Bored Youth, The Fix, L-Seven, Violent Apathy, Minor Threat, and The Misfits, along with Touch & Go Records Punk 'zine. Dope Hookers & Pavement boasts in-depth interviews with a who's-who of Hardcore lu...

Digital Underground doesn't really get the respect it deserves, I'd say. They were wildly inventive, balancing silliness with musical chops, and were, arguably, instrumental in starting the wave of George Clinton/Funkadelic-inspired sound that would dominate mid-to-late 90's Hip-Hop. Of course, they, also, introduced us to 2pac and were an integral part of one of the craziest movies of all time, Nothing But Trouble. And Shock G took the Rap alter-ego to new extremes with the Humpty Hump persona, to the point where many people didn't realize they were the same person. We could assume this was inspirational for Kool Keith & MF DOOM, among many others. A lesser-known alter-ego of Shock's was The Piano Man, who was credited with much of the group's instrumentation and production. As Rackadelic, he created their iconic cover and liner [note] artwork. These alter-egos, also, including MC Blowfish, The Computer Woman, and more, all served to obscure the fact...

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band (BRSB) is a rather mysterious steel pan outfit hailing from Hamburg, Germany who have amassed a cult following around the globe. BRSB features Ben Greenslade-Stanton & Björn Wagner and anywhere from one to eight additional musicians. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band's previous two efforts, 55 & The Serpent's Mouth , boasted a wide array of genre-spanning steel pan instrumental covers, including 50 Cent , John Holt, Mobb Deep, Dennis Coffey, Faith Evans, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Dr. Dre. Mary J. Blige, Gang Starr, and Amerie. Now, BRSB have returned once more with the announcement of their third proper album, Expansions, due out later this summer on Big Crown Records. Expansions by Bacao Rhythm and Steel Band "On their third album, aptly titled Expansions, BRSB are back with more of the same, but more of the same with them is inherently different," explains Big Crown within a press statement. Again, covering songs that span genres a...