The Witzard

Durand Jones & The Indications dressed as The Batmen (@voodoonola) 🎃 David Bowie once described his then-new album, Young Americans , as [being] "the definitive Plastic Soul record. It's the squashed remains of ethnic music, as it survives in the age of Muzak, written and sung by a White Limey" within an 1976 Playboy interview. Said terminology was previously used by Paul McCartney to describe The Beatles' 1965 album, Rubber Soul, as well as Bowie's most commercially-successful album, Let's Dance (1983.) David Bowie and producer, Tony Visconti, recorded Young Americans primarily in Philadelphia between August 1974 & January 1975 with a slew of local musicians; this including an early-career Luther Vandross, Sly & The Family Stone drummer Andy Newmark, Carlos Alomar (James Brown, Chuck Berry, Iggy Pop,) and later, John Lennon at secondary sessions in New York. "Young Americans," actually, interpolates the Lennon-sung line, "I ...

"I go by the name King Ani Mal. I'm out of South Philly and originally from Gulf Port, Mississippi. SPP GSF AFFILIATE. I am currently working on a "so-far" untitled 5-track EP produced entirely by Look! It's Aidan AKA Aidan Douglas AKA A.I.D. (@look_itsaidan.) It should be out very soon! To keep up with my music and shows, Follow my Instagram, @turbocrunch . Also, check out my latest album, Skinny God out on EVERY streaming platform. Here's my Beat-maker Bedrock:" I. TV On The Radio - Dear Science (2008) "I think, Dear Science was one of the first albums that made me want to dip into production. I just remember thinking how good the album was and telling myself that if they could do it, so could I. Then, I downloaded LMMS (Linux MultiMedia Studio) and started playing around on my laptop. At the time, I was playing guitar in a Punk band and no one wanted to hear what I was making, except my homie Scress. I didn't rap or even plan on becomi...

Charles Edison is a sharp-tongued rapper-producer and beat-maker hailing from South London with a ferocity similar to that of a College Dropout-era Kanye West and a healthy vernacular comparable to either The Streets (Mike Skinner) or Dizzee Rascal. Edison has been actively producing and making beats since about 2013 or before and one of his earliest note-worthy productions was "Messiah Complex" for Delusionists —a self-proclaimed "Hip-Hop group who probably won't shoot you"—as well as his accompanying "Poison" Remix on the B-side. Charles Edison has released and self-produced two EP's, an instrumental beat album, and a handful of singles since 2014. He's currently gearing up to release his latest EP, Reception, this upcoming November 3rd, which features Delusionists' Ben Black on EP single "GALLERY." I first heard about Charles Edison when fellow Londoner and writer Hairy Fraud (@GingerSlim) premiered "GALLERY" on his...

" Superet is an American Rock band that formed in Los Angeles on Valentine's Day of 2016. Tattooed across the arm of singer/guitarist Matt Blitzer , the date marks both the project's genesis and the manifestation of the musical partnership between five close friends," reads a press release I recently received from BB Gun Press . Superet consists of Blitzer, along with keyboard player Alex Fischel , drummer Sam KS , bassist Patrick Kelly , and guitar/keyboard/percussion player Isaac Tamburino , who have previously "collaborated in various iterations over the preceding years;" further detailing that Superet is "the culmination of their long-standing creative kinship." While Superet recently premiered their first single, "Pay It Later," on Zane Lowe 's Beats 1 radio show, the majority of their social media sites cryptically read either " Superet is coming..." or " SUPERET IS A BAND." Frontman Matt Blitze...

"Don't sleep on Butch Bastard ," read a statement credited to Josh Tillman of Father John Misty and Fleet Foxes fame attached to a cold submitted message sent days after I posted my email address on Twitter , along with an open call for new music "not featured on Pitchfork ;" after reaching out to Poor Moon bassist and newly-christened Butch Bastard frontman Ian Murray himself, the Father John Misty -affiliated artist would go on to specify, "[ Josh is] my friend and I appreciate his endorsement, but I don't wish to be viewed as an appendage to his career." It would likely appear as though Butch Bastard was born when the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, performer, producer, and director uprooted his life from Seattle to Los Angeles in 2014 and started recording tracks from the comfort of his bedroom. Murray's wonderfully titled forthcoming album, I Am Not a Man , which currently lacks a proper label or release date, showca...

Sacramento -based Noise-Rap band Death Grips have had a very tumultuous, to say the least, relationship with the media since their sudden 2010 inception, although the recently "disbanded" and reunited three-piece have been heralded as "the first truly important band of the 21st century;" having direct influence on The Thin White Duke's final album ★ (Blackstar) , Kanye 's Aggro-Rap masterpiece Yeezus , and even Travi$ Scott 's righteous T.I. & Kanye -assisted Rodeo . Death Grips' first post-"breakup" album, Bottomless Pit was unleashed Friday, May 6th at the stroke of midnight, amdist a weekend abuzz with new music and countless headlines from the likes of Radiohead , James Blake, Chance The Rapper , De La Soul, Homeboy Sandman , KAYTRANADA, and Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def . Bottomless Pit was preceded by eventual album tracks "Hot Head," Zane Lowe -debuted "Eh," and non-album "Interview 2016," althou...

"Hey baby, you forgot your Ray Bans And my sheets still orange from your spray tan It was more than soft porn for the K-man She remember my Sprinter, said "I was in the grape van" Uhm, well cutie, I like your bougie booty Come Erykah Badu me, well, let's make a movie... No more parties in LA Please, baby, no more parties in LA" - Kanye & Kendrick Lamar Kanye West is without a doubt one of the most charismatic, unabashedly outspoken to a fault, and arguably creative artists in all of Hip-Hop and even all of music; in my eyes, West, the self-proclaimed "No. 1 Rockstar On The Planet," could easily be likened to Classic Rock monoliths Queen , who once performed "Bohemian Rhapsody" at Glastonbury . For purposes of this very analogy I'm trying yo set up, that would in turn, make President Obama 's favorite emcee, Kendrick Lamar , David Bowie in our "Under Pressure" -referencing equation. Lamar's To Pimp a...

Bitmilltary by ayyy donkey Death Grips are a notoriously on again, off again, and currently reformed Hardcore Punk -infusing Sacramento -based "Aggro-Rap" band; if you're not familiar, just think, a hypothetical musical ménage à trois between Black Flag, Beastie Boys , and Gravediggaz – two of which are coincidentally sampled throughout their genre label-pulverizing debut mixtape, Exmilitary . Death Grips' underlying influence can, believe it or not, be heard on everything from recent father of two Kanye 's own 2013 Dancehall -leaning Aggro-Rap magnum opus, Yeezus to recently deceased incomparable Thin White Duke's final album, ★ (Blackstar) which was additionally influenced by President Obama 's favorite rapper, Kendrick Lamar . While we patiently await Bottomless Pit , the long-rumored follow-up to Death Grips' double-disc March-April 2015 "reunion" album, The Powers That B , an amateur remixer known as ayyy donkey has taken it u...

Barcelona -based Latin Alternative producer Pablo Diaz-Reixa 's 2010 Young Turks/XL album under his El Guincho guise is easily a shimmering David Bowie & Michael Jackson -influenced Spanish -language Psych-Pop masterpiece. I've been (im)patiently awaiting Diaz-Reixa's proper follow-up to his nearly flawless Pop Negro for a solid year or so and now, it seems like he's finally readied his fourth album, Hiperasia for a digital release February 12th and a physical release a mere month later on March 11th. For those not exactly familiar with El Guincho 's frenzied sample-laden output, it sounds like something similar to Vampire Weekend 's Paul Simon Graceland -influenced "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" era material, which has additionally been described as Tropicália , Psych-Pop, and "Space-Age Exotica" stylized rhythms. Formerly the drummer for seemingly defunct Experimental-Batucada group Coconot , Pablo Diaz-Reixa has released three a...

Rock "N" Roll and quite arguably, music as a whole lost one of its most charismatic, uniquely individual, and beloved figureheads when David Jones aka The Thin White Duke aka Ziggy Stardust , otherwise known as the one and only David Bowie unexpectedly passed away early Sunday morning, January 10th, amongst the company of dear family and friends following an 18-month battle with cancer. I'm not even going to attempt to write a fully fleshed-out obituary to Bowie, hands down one of my all-time favorite performers since I was about 12, but I figured I would at least assemble a few of my thoughts and feelings into an all-too-brief hand-written tribute; a proper David Bowie obituary can be viewed over at Stereogum , which was written by Tom Breihan and served as a loose structural basis for this very piece. Throughout the course of his storied and ever-developing 52-year career, Bowie released some 28 genre-blending studio albums, produced one of the most critically-ac...

Lady Gaga recently teamed up with Hip-Hop Soul/R&B crooner and Phoenix cohort R. Kelly for her latest teaser single, "Do What U Want." The first in a series of a planned weekly singles series leading up to her third studio album, ARTPOP (November 11th); Highsnobiety further described it as "a distinct step away from some of the styles of many of Gaga 's previous songs, less Bowie -derived and more Tina Turner ." But I personally hear lurching rhythmic effects that're reminiscent of "Thriller"' s eerie-sounding central rhythm and seasoned vocal inflections akin to Christina Aguilera . It's kinda more or less along the lines of a socially-conscious "panty-dropper," inter-spliced with semi-prolific lines like, "Do what you want with my body... Write what you want. Say what you want about me." Just mere hours before uploading "Do What U Want" at 12:01am, Lady Gaga ended up posting a number of ...

Trent Reznor abruptly disbanded his pride and joy, Nine Inch Nails , nearly 5 years ago now; Rumblings of a re-formed band reunion started to trickle out just few months ago and in almost one fall swoop, Pitchfork uploaded 3 separate stories late last night... album title/release date, a "leaked" radio single, and a 50-date world tour trek. Since splitting up NIN , Reznor formed another band with Atticus Ross and his wife, How to Destroy Angels_ (2010) and composed a few acclaimed film soundtracks for The Social Network/ Girl with The Dragon Tattoo . I guess you could say that my hippy cousin-turned-lawyer Adam turned me onto NIN , who I always associated with the weird Goth kids in grade school, about 8-10 years ago. Starting with their new albums @ the time, Dave Grohl -assisted With Teeth and Year Zero , I slowly delved backwards into Trent Reznor 's lengthy discography; a few of my personal favourites include The Downward Spiral , Further Down The Spiral, Sti...

I wonder if when David Bowie penned "Space Oddity" nearly 45 years ago, he'd ever imagined that an astronaut would ever release a re-recorded version from outer-space!? Fast-forward to May 12, 2013: Just 2 days before ending his 5-month stay on the International Space Station (ISS), Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield uploaded a unique "Space Oddity" cover. It's the first music video filmed in outer-space and the backing track itself was arranged back on Earth by producer Joe Corcoran and pianist Emm Gryner . Hadfield has been surprisingly active on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit , etc. while working on the ISS ; Constantly posting spacey photos, video content, answering fan questions , and recording original music while "sitting in a tin can, far above the world." Chris Hadfield is currently headed back into Earth 's atmosphere and should land on solid ground sometime between May 13-14th, while "Space Oddity" has already managed ...

David Bowie quietly unleashed "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" late Monday night; It's the second pre-release single from his long-awaited/rumored album - The Next Day , which is slated for a world-wide release this upcoming March 8-15th. Bowie has been largely in-active for the bulk of the past 10-12 years... recording with TV on The Radio/Scarlett Johansson , morphed into a fashion icon, re-interpreted in Portuguese for The Life Aquatic , hanging out with Snoop Dogg and Alicia Keys , just growing old gracefully, etc. Producer-bassist Tony Visconti recently called The Next Day "quite a Rock album" that was secretly recorded between 2010-12 with Earl Slick , Gail Ann Dorsey, Sterling Campbell , Zachary Alford, guitarists Gerry Leonard/David Torn , Tony Levin, and saxophonist Steve Elson . Italian film-maker Floria Sigismondi directed "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)"' s companion music video, which co-stars actress Tilda Swinton as David ...

When taken quite literally, David Bowie 's Folk Rock -laden "Space Oddity" (1969) is about an astronaut "sitting in a tin can, far above the world" gazing back down @ his home planet from the depths of outer-space. But I bet Ziggy Stardust , nor anyone else for that matter, would've ever imagined that a man could actually manage to write/record a song in a Canadian space shuttle orbiting over the Mediterranean . I've always been pretty fascinated with NASA , space travel, constellations, etc. But this most recent technological advancement is CRAZY/cool on a whole 'nother level!; Chris Hadfield has been steadily updating us mere Earthlings through Facebook , Twitter , and Reddit during his long, tedious process of launching into space. The infamous space recording has been rumored for a while now and "Jewel In The Night" was finally released on December 23rd, just in time for Christmas . I'm guessing Hadfield somehow transmit...

Jack Davey is pretty widely known as the fashion-forward, genre-blending frontwoman of "Hip-Hop" group J*Davey , but now she's decided to branch out on her own... forging a solo career as a slightly more Rock "N" Roll -tinged sultry Funk-Soul songstress. Fresh off the heels of their long-awaited and [finally] self-released proper album, New Designer Drug and following the birth of her new-born son, Davey is readying her solo debut in 2 distinct parts; ILLAV8R is planning to liberate L0-F! Side A on Oct. 2nd, which Jack Davey simply describes as "a girl, her shitty guitar, and introspective songwriting." It's follow-up, Side B will see a Nov. 6th release, feature more instrumentation/advanced guitar techniques, and was produced by Joey Strat of The Knux . L0-F! Parts 1-2 will then be re-released together in a DELUXE edition with 3 bonus tracks on Dec. 11th! "Howl at The Moon" mysteriously appeared in my Inbox late yesterday ...

If you ask me, Yeasayer really "hit it outta the park" with their last release, Odd Blood (2010)! The Brooklyn Psych-Rockers have been earnestly chipping away @ their follow-up third album, which singer-keyboardist Chris Keating describes as a mix between "an Aaliyah album if you played it backwards and slowed it down" and David Bowie 's [1979] Art Rock album, Lodger . Yeasayer 's new album is expected to materialize and be released by late spring or early summer of 2012; Back in October 2011 , the band had already compiled 22+ songs and were thinking about recording to separate LP's: a real album of 3-4 minute Pop songs and an [Internet] soundtrack . Fast-forward to May 2012... Yeasayer released the first taste of their untitled album just yesterday, "Henrietta." We All Want Someone to Shout For notes that the band recently shipped out CD singles of the track to members of their fan club and now, it has appeared online. "Henri...

I must admit that I've kept in contact with Topher Mohr since our last featured article (2010)... he's parted ways with Mayer Hawthorne & The County , recorded a second full-length album, and is currently shopping new material around to major labels. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of said album, Phlotilla and I must admit: What a varied, cleanly-produced piece of work we have here! 4 of it's 11 tracks previously appeared on Topher Mohr 's self-released Ruthless EP in slightly altered form(s). As a whole, I think it'd be safe to categorize Phlotilla as "Soft Rock;" Sonically reminiscent of Steely Dan, Hall & Oates , and The Beach Boys with touches of Reggae and Funk-Soul . Friends and frequent collaborators: Quentin Joseph, Alex Elena , and Quincy McCrary added unique musical flourishes [backing] to the record's 11 original compositions. "Forever Yours" -- one of the newly-penned, unreleased tracks of the bunch --...

Charli XCX is a young, 19-20 year old British songstress who's slowly gaining notoriety and managing to niche out her own unique genre: Goth [Dark] Pop . She has a semi-androgynous style that can be easily likened to that of Ziggy Stardust era David Bowie ... and her fashion icons include Spice Girls , Wednesday Addams , and Winona Ryder from "Beetlejuice" (1988). Although she essentially self-released a full album back @ 14, Charli XCX has been garnering a lot of blog-love for her recent batch of singles and a proper 2012 debut is soon expected. "I'll Never Know" was released just yesterday, in conjunction with the kick-off of London Fashion Week ; Recently written and recorded @ Red Bull Studios , Charli XCX 's tune was re-appropriated as the soundtrack to Fred Butler's "Tank Top-Ranking, Tongue-Tied & Twisted" runway show. Soundcloud is making Charli XCX 's Tropical- tinged romp, "I'll Never Know" avai...

After 12 long years of "soul searching," The Soul Man is [FINALLY] back in the building! Following a successful Occupy Music Tour opener in Stockholm , Sweden, D'Angelo continues his quick, yet effective comeback jaunt across Europe . The place was Le Zénith, Paris, France - last night: D'Angelo & The Testimony proceeded to rip through a dusted off selection of his greatest hits... this including "Brown Sugar," "Untitled," "Devil's Pie," and "Chicken Grease." Later in the show's setlist, the band even treated the crowd to a number of Funked up new jams . Then, The D'Angelo -led Testimony kicked off a familiar acoustic-driven tune penned by yet another reclusive Rock "N" Roll legend, "Space Oddity" (1969). With such a spot-on cover in toe, it almost makes you wonder if a [slightly updated] David Bowie -assisted version of "Space Oddity" will appear on D'Angelo '...