The Witzard

Titus Andronicus, L-R: R.J. Gordon, Patrick "Paddy Stacks" Stickles, Chris "Big Steve" Wilson & Liam "The Younger" Betson (SOURCE: Big Hassle) Not entirely unlike Bob Dylan and/or Bing Crosby & David Bowie long before them, New Jersey's own Heartland Rock stalwarts Titus Andronicus are cranking up the festive mood yet another notch with the release of their first-ever stand-alone holiday single, "Drummer Boy." Having released one of the year's most celebrated Rock albums with The Will to Live and dazzled ecstatic fans across America, Titus Andronicus have much to celebrate. Plus, they're sharing plans to ring in The New Year with additional tour dates across The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, and Ireland. "Drummer Boy" lifts the musical components from Billy Joel's timeless 1973 anthem, "Piano Man," and retrofits it to tell The Nativity Story from the perspective of "The Little Dru...

One Step Closer (CREDIT: Spencer Chamberlain) Ahead of an expansive 20-date cross-continental tour, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania's own One Step Closer have shared their first new single since their 2021 full-length, This Place You Know . "Dark Blue" finds One Step Closer leaning into the most Melodic Hardcore/Emo elements of their sound without sacrificing an ounce of energy we know and love them for. The song launches into a towering chorus that pushes the band into even more anthemic territory and offers hints at new potential directions in their sound. "Dark Blue" is the start of a compelling new chapter for One Step Closer and listeners should keep an eye out for more from the band in 2023. The group will be on tour for most of the winter with upcoming shows in the US, Australia, Southeast Asia, Japan, and more through 2022-23. "Earlier this year while driving through The Pacific [Northwest], I was struggling with how much we were about to be touring t...

GAMETIME L-R: Kyle Devlin, Nick Pickrell, and Gabriel Hancock (SOURCE: Kyle Devlin) Kansas City, Missouri's own GAMETIME have released another new single after reuniting at the end of 2021. The Melodic Pop-punk band was initially only active from 2002-04. GAMETIME's recorded output from their initial two-year stint as a band includes a self-released self-titled EP from 2002 and Let The Games Begin released on Minor League Recordings. Both EP's were later re-collected and re-released together as a 12-track version of Let The Games Begin now appearing on streaming services. Swedish imprint A Song In My Heart Records issued their own even more expansive 22-track compilation simply dubbed Gametime in 2019; it boasts selections from GAMAETIME and Let The Games Begin, as well as tracks that originally appeared on various compilations, assorted demo recordings from different sessions, and two previosuly unreleased acoustic cuts. GAMETIME's latest single, "Just Sta...

Sulu & Excelsior "Run & Hide" video still (SOURCE: Steven E. Mallorca) Long-time friend, collaborator, and one of our favorite artists here at The Witzard, Steven "Steve" E. Mallorca AKA Sulu has returned with the first single from his latest solo project/band, Sulu & Excelsior's third album, So Ends The Honeymoon. "Run & Hide" is the first piece of the musical puzzle that will soon be revealed to be So Ends The Honeymoon and So Ends The Honeymoon is the final album in a what has become a three-part sonic trilogy; directly preceeded by The AntiMatter Suite (2019) and E ddie Romero (2016.) In-between Eddie Romero/The AntiMatter Suite and So Ends The Honeymoon, Sulu has graciosuly gifted us a couple non-canon projects including 2017's "The Over Under" holiday single, Refinished (Remix Album) featuring new, slightly updated versions of all of your favorites from both Eddie Romero & The AntiMatter Suite, and XLCR Ins...

The Sound of Animals Fighting (CREDIT: Porter McKnight) The incubation is complete; re-emerging from the dank ooze of the early 2020's, The Sound of Animals Fighting (T.S.O.A.F.) returns with their new EP, APESH*T, their fourth release and first new music in 15 years. "APESH*T is equal parts renewal and the culmination of all that came before. A revival of spirit while maintaining the integrity of the key ingredients and processes that have always made this project a rewarding outlet for us. It is our best work," says The Nightingale. Masked Rock collective The Sound of Animals Fighting started in 2004. Core members The Nightingale AKA Rich Balling (Hospital Gown, ex-RX Bandits,) The Skunk AKA Anthony Green (Saosin, Circa Survive, F**kin' Whatever, L.S. Dunes,) The Walrus AKA Matthew "Matt" Embree (RX Bandits, Biceratops,) The Lynx AKA Chris Tsagakis (RX Bandits, Technology,) and a super-mysterious character known only as The Koala... APESHIT by The Sou...

Bloomington, Indiana's genre-eschewing own A Vulture Wake (A.V.W.) recently unleashed their second EP of the year! Animal is a progressive powerhouse of hooks and riffs—five songs continuing the band's ongoing movement to "Do No Harm; Take No Sh*t," while taking aim at the powers that be, inner demons, and a bleak future on this dying planet. A.V.W. now offers solutions to the issues raised in their previous releases—commit violence, give in, leave the planet, sleep? The choice is ours. Animal follows the critically-acclaimed and fan-embraced Kingdom EP—also, produced, engineered, and mixed by Mike Kennerty (The All-American Rejects, Direct Hit!, These Enzymes.) Just this past Friday, both the Animal EP and its predecessor, Kingdom, were collectively packaged together as the 11-track One.Kingdom.Animal album. Available on colored vinyl through Thousand Islands Records and limited to 500 LP's, it comes with a lyric sheet insert and black inner-sleeve and featur...

Little Low, L-R: Mike Assatly, Eric Pocock, Christine Atturio, and Kris Moya (SOURCE: Facebook) Little Low hails from The Bay Area, formed by guitarist and vocalist Christine Atturio (Save Ends,) drummer Mike Assatly (Spirits, BearTrap,) guitarist Eric Pocock ( Discourage ,) and bassist/vocalist Kris Moya (Jabber, Long Knives.) While we would attest Little Low sound something like a musical menagerie falling somewhere in-between Paramore, Weezer, and Cults, yes, their members have collectively played with Punk/Hardcore greats BearTrap, Discourage, and Long Knives. Originally started as a solo project in Boston by Atturio, Little Low released a self-titled EP of acoustic songs in 2020. After a move across the country in 2021 and missing the comradery of a full band, Atturio & Assatly asked Pocock & Moya to join and Little Low was born anew. With each member bringing their unique set of musical chops to the table, Little Low melds together driving Hardcore drums, sparkly Em...

"Just Us Two" video shoot, L-R: Steve Aoki with Taking Back Sunday's Shaun Cooper, Adam Lazzara, Mark O'Connell and John Nolan (SOURCE: Hai-Online.com) So, yesterday afternoon, we saw a post from former Taking Back Sunday (TBS) rhythm guitarist and founding member Eddie Reyes on Facebook , which explained, "Hey, guys, go check out the remix Steve Aoki did for this old jam; it's pretty cool. I was [a part] of something special that I still love, respect, and deeply miss very much. Proud of the dudes and thanks for the opportunity to be a part of something special." So, then, we did a little digging and digital sleuthing and soon, stumbled upon Taking Back Sunday's "Cute Wihtout The "E" (Ziri)" (Steve Aoki Remix.) Aoki has remixed Emo/Punk Rock mega-hit, "Cute Without The "E" (Cut from The Team)" from TBS' 2002 debut full-length, Tell All Your Friends . It appears as though "Cute Without The "E...

Chef Josh Kemble at W.D. Dickinson: Farm, House, Mercantile (CREDIT: Epicurean San Diego) I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed an interview NO ECHO founder Carlos Ramirez conducted with San Diego Punk/Hardcore frontman turned chef, business owner, and podcaster Joshua "Josh" Kemble. I was almost instantly intrigued and gave Josh a Follow on both Twitter ( @thegrexican ) and Instagram ( @joshkemb ,) who soon Followed me back. Before too long, Chef Josh & I connected on Twitter talking about potential food and drink pairings to accompany Praise's then-just released album, All In A Dream , which I was listening to one night whilst cooking dinner for my family. Chef Josh & I quickly started swapping ideas (and recipes) back-and-forth and soon landed on a scrumptious ideas for a collaborative feature for The Witzard. I sent Chef Josh a Punk/Hardcore Spotify playlist I've been compiling in recent months, let him pick a handful of favorites, and, then, did ...

Knelt Before, L-R: Mark Johnston, Derek Woodard, Shannon Eoff & Donald "Don" Rossington (SOURCE: Mark Johnston) We've been chatting with Knelt Before founding member and mastermind Mark Johnston on Instagram Messenger these past few months even before they had released a lick of actual music. At this point, it's pretty safe to say we've heard various versions of the bulk of their discography as it stands today. Along with Johnston, Knelt Before's current line-up consists of Donald "Don" Rossington, Shannon Eoff, and Derek Woodard. Collectively, Knelt Before's members have either previously performed as or made music with LoveHateHero, Divide The Day, What Lies Within, Breakaway, Tall Dark Whimsy, A Prize Worth Killing, Second Coming, Dekisi, and XDADX. Knelt Before, at its sheer genesis, is a group of middle-aged Punk vets, who have done this more than a time or two before. However, this time around, it's 100% Positive Mental Attitu...

Free Organs, L-R counter-clockwise: Adrian Silva, Molly Jones, Garrett "Mott" Mott & Ace Perdon with mystery man/live drummer (CREDIT: A Party Pepple Productions) Free Organs formed out of the blistering heat of West Texas in 2022. Molly Jones, Adrian Silva, Ace Perdon & Garrett "Mott" Mott found each other in-between visits to majestic coffee shops and poorly-ventilated garages. Free Organs' first single, "Happy Goodbyes," was released on October 28, 2022. It was written and recorded in Silva's living room over the span of a two-month period. Free Organs can be found on craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or at a local hospital, as well as this handy-dandy one-stop-shop mega-link. Within the facets of Free Organs, Jones provides vocals, guitar, and song-writing, Silva supplies vocals, guitar, and recording techniques, Perdon contributes bass, piano, and synth orchestras, and Mott plays lead guitar. Happy Goodbyes by Free Organs Not lo...