The Witzard

No Faith / No Future / No Problem by Titus Andronicus / Craig Finn It almost seems as though New Jersey 's own pride and joy Titus Andronicus have been on a Bob Dylan 's Never Ending Tour -evocative cross-country jaunt in support of their critically-acclaimed Punk Rock Opera , The Most Lamentable Tragedy , onto which they've just added some sprawling 42 additional dates through May 30th with The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn and La Sera ; "with the hotly anticipated "No Faith / No Future / No Problem" American Tour kicking off in just one week, peerless rock band Titus Andronicus and luminous singer-songwriter Craig Finn are ready to take their friendship to the next level," reads a recently published post to Titus Andronicus' own web-headquarters. "It is in that spirit of love and sharing that they make available today, for streaming and free download , a digital split single of mutual covers, celebrating the imminent tour and the two...

" Happy Holidays , everyone. All the best Christmas songs were written by Jews , and Chanukah songs suck. This is my favorite Christmas tune, sung over the Vincent Guaraldi instrumental," New-Wop crooner Andrew Mayer "Hawthorne" Cohen wrote in a particularly tongue-in-cheek gentile-slamming 2010 mini- Stones Throw press release accompanying his sparse "Christmas Time Is Here" Peanuts -assisted cover. Just a few mere years later, Hawthorne and his Disco-Funkateer partner-in-crime, Jake-One quietly unveiled their first slice of post- Tuxedo Funk EP era material; a jittery groove-soaked rendition of Paul McCartney & Wings' 1979 Synth-Rock yuletide favorite, "Wonderful Christmastime." Now, just days ahead of the soon forthcoming 2015-16 holiday season, Tuxedo have unwrapped a completely original, retro-futuristic holiday standard titled "Holiday Love." It appears exclusively within Amazon Music 's recent holi...

homeboy sandman is the sandman by blu "I understand you've been running from the man that goes by the name of the sandman," echoes an eerie back-laid sample delicately lifted from America 's 1971 Folk Rock album track, "Sandman." It's actually the lead-off track from illusive super-producer from Blu and seasoned underground rapper Homeboy Sandman 's surprise four-track download-able EP, homeboy sandman is the sandman . While they've previously worked together on a number of non-album tracks, most notably "Atlantis," which was released on Stones Throw this past June, this marks their first cohesive long(er)-form project. homeboy sandman is the sandman EP was released with little to no release information, aside from " homeboy sandman is the sandman produced by blu " and a handful of vague Bandcamp genre tags: " hip hop , hip-hop/rap, nwc rap , Los Angeles." It's largely a Jaylib -style rapper-producer a...

It's become something of an annual tradition; every December, Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche picks his favourite year-end track, re-records his own unique version, and sends it over to Stereogum 's headquarters. This yule tide season, he's conjured up a sparse acoustic-laden cover of "Wrecking Ball," effectively eliminating any remaining ounce of TWERKIN', debauchery, and mega-studio sheen. But in it's own right, "Wrecking Ball" is an incredibly well-written, dare I say... modern day power-ballad (for lack of a better term), and maybe Sondre Lerche 's version can help some naive-minded listeners finally see that! In recent years past, Lerche has sent Stereogum staff writers a few interesting Animal Collective , Owen Pallet, and Beyoncé covers. "I had trouble finding [a song] that I felt truly motivated to interpret. So, while "Wrecking Ball" may not be my very favorite song of 2013, it turned out to be ...

Just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a "Happy" holiday season: Christmas, Hannukah, New Years , Festivus , Kwanzaa , etc. I'm running on fumes, pretty drained from muling at the super-market all week, and man, am I ready to eat, drink & be merry! I'd like to wish everyone a happy, safe holiday with you and yours... Thought I'd take a few minutes this Christmas Eve Eve to upload a little somethin' about this here [oddly endearing] musical nugget, before taking a few days off to CELEBRATE; 90-year-old veteran actor, Christopher Lee seems to have quite the admiration for Heavy Metal - So much so that he decided to record/release a mini-EP appropriately titled, A Heavy Metal Christmas upon the masses this 2012-13 holiday season. Christopher Lee , along with Hedras Ramos Jr. (guitar), Ollie Usiskin (drums), and Hedras Ramos Sr. (bass) dubbed up a couple spirited covers of "Little Drummer Boy" and "Silent Night," which a...

"GUN HAS NO TRIGGER" is about the possibility for true dissent, and how I can't figure out what that could be. What is a 2012 Exodus from the Society of the Spectacle (to mix language Situationist and Rastafari )? So, we made a video from the iconography of the "Default" profile image used by Facebook and Gmail , and also the look of the classic Apple iPod commercials. The colors in the background are the ones I think of when I hear the harmonies of Amber [Coffman] and Haley [Dekle] (via experimental synesthesia). Enjoy!! - David Longstreth (Director) Dirty Projectors will make their triumphant return to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon this coming June 19th, which just so happens to be the release date for the band's new album, Swing Lo Magellan . Cross your fingers that David, Amber, Haley , etc. decide to link up with The Roots for yet another made-for-TV performance like "When The World Comes to an End" (2009). Shout outs to the guy who ...

The true beauty of Christmas is that everyone has their own unique way of celebrating it: traditions, customs, festivities, and what have you. Cheech & Chong even went as far as to record their own very "special" interpretation on this pre-recorded song/stand-up routine, "Santa Claus & His Old Lady." The Ode 7" single's B-side, "Dave" was later included on the comedy duo's aptly-titled debut album, Cheech & Chong (1971). Their eventual 1978 feature film Up In Smoke and it's companion soundtrack were later met with great fan-fare. Cheech & Chong followed it up with a gaggle of mind-altering content. For all intensive purposes, I've included a sample excerpt from "Santa Claus" down below. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and... "A Festivus for the rest of us!" "Once upon a time, about, hmmm, 5 years ago, there was this groovy dude and has name was Santa Claus , y'know? And he used to ...

"Bam Bam Bronsonelli" himself announced that he has a number of projects currently in-the-works, set to rival his highly successful 2011 output(s). Action Bronson set Twitter ablaze last night, Tweeting about 3 upcoming releases: "Blue Chips" mixtape with Party Supplies (February), Tommy Mas -produced sophomore effort "Mr. Wonderful" (Summer 2012), a currently [finished] untitled album with The Alchemist , and a project entirely made up of Harry Fraud beats. It seems as though Action Bronson wasn't happy with JUST taking over Underground Hip-Hop , he's prepping to dominate the mainstream market in 2012 A.D! Merely minutes after the stream of announcements, Action Bronson liberated a BRAND NEW Party Supplies -produced sampler track, "Mistletoe" (Remix) . Bam Bam spits a few quick bars over a chopped and edited version of Justin Bieber's recently-penned Christmas jingle. Now, you can knock the man, but don't knock "...