The Witzard

Adam Lempel is a song-writer, composer, and musician currently living in Queens, New York via Amsterdam and Baltimore . Lempel is one half of Baltimore Art-Rock/Noise band WEEKENDS . I can still vividly remember meeting Adam and his bandmate Brendan Sullivan at now-defunct South Philly venue First Unitarian Church sometime between the releases of WEEKENDS (2008) and Strange Cultures (2011.) WEEKENDS were then-signed to Friends Records and were opening for Surfer Blood on their Astro Coast US tour. Somehow, my buddy and I ended up missing WEEKENDS' opening set, but I still managed to sneak back into the venue's "greenroom" AKA church pews for a Monster -sized canned beer with Adam & Brendan before Surfer Blood 's headlining set. Since then, Adam Lempel moved to Amsterdam for a few years to pursue a Masters in Music Design at Hogeschool voor Kunsten Utrecht . WEEKENDS have been on hiatus for a number of years now and Lempel released thre...

"I recorded myself actually, [ "Tape a Twenty" is] one of the few songs that I recorded everything and mixed everything myself on ["STILL LIFE"] . And it was done in Amsterdam. It's kind of a love song about making the imperfect work; like there's nothing perfect, but everything is imperfect/perfect. The video, I made at at the beginning of last year at my school HKU (Utrecht University of The Arts) , where I'm doing a Masters in Music Design . It was the first two weeks of school—we just had this time to work on a project and I kind of decided I wanted to run around the school with a video camera and make a music video. It was funny 'cause I was in a music program, where I could do anything I wanted for the first time of my life, and I spent my time working with video. I built these kind of weird temporary sculptures out of junk and strapped a smartphone on the top to create these weird junk people." "I imagined a guy, like worki...

" Adam Lempel started making solo records as a departure from his work in Baltimore Noise Rockers WEEKENDS . Focusing more on songwriting and heartfelt lyrics, his first record Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats stood out in the Baltimore DIY music scene because it was so unapologetically straight-forward. After getting into the Conservatorium van Amsterdam to study classical music composition, he moved to Amsterdam where he currently lives," reads a brief description attached to Baltimore by way of Amsterdam multi-instrumentalist Adam Lempel 's about me page. Lempel and his noisy partner-in-crime, Brendan Sullivan quietly put out three guitar feedback-drenched albums and and aptly-titled Acoustic Tape, Vol. 1 between 2008-2013; right on the cusp of Indie Rock 's frenzied WEEKENDS/Weekend/The Weeknd mass confusion felt echoed across the blogosphere. However, WEEKENDS have been on an indefinite hiatus since the majority of copies of their then-forthcoming th...

You Belong With Me EP by Adam Lempel and the Heartbeats My buddy Adam Lempel hit me up on Facebook last week, asking if I'd be down to write up a Witzard review on his new band, Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats' upcoming Reoccurring Dreams/Friends Records debut. The answer was obviously, "FUCK YEAH!" I met Adam and his fellow bandmate, Brendan Sullivan (WEEKENDS) backstage in the make-shift green room [church pews] @ a Surfer Blood show in South Philly (2011). Needless to say, following a few texts and emails, I had an advance copy of "Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats" safely nestled in my Inbox. After a few listens, I gotta admit, it's a pretty far departure from WEEKENDS' feedback-drenched brand of improvised Noise-Rock , but The Heartbeats managed to compile an almost INSTANTLY catchy Folk/Pop Rock record!.. mildly reminiscent of The Beatles , Beach Boys, Fiona Apple , Weezer, Simon & Garfunkel , Pixies. "It was recorded ...

I would imagine that a band like Weekends are held very much so in the same public regard as say, Pavement or Nirvana back in their 90's heyday(s): The band's overall musical ability [or lack thereof] doesn't exactly seem to measure up with their ever-growing level of success and critical acclaim. With that said, Weekends is simply made up of 2 multi-instumental cats hailing from Baltimore, Maryland 's thriving "art scene" - Brendan Sullivan and Adam Lemple on rotating Guitar/Vox/Drum duties. Both gentlemen are active solo artists, graphic designers, writers, photo-journalists, members of alternative bands, etc. as well. Personally met Weekends @ First Unitarian Church, Philly gig with Surfer Blood last summer; They proceeded to offer me FREE beer and malt liquor when we officially met in the "green room" [church pews]. I can attest that they're truly some cool-ass, hard-working dudes! Since forming around 2008-09, Weekends have managed...