The Witzard

It looks like it's poised to be a pretty BIG week for Philly Hoagie-core pioneers Body Spray , as their long-awaited debut full-length, Music to Fall Down To will be released digitally this Friday, March 15th. They're also, playing a Music to Fall Down To Record Release Show on "St. Body Spray Day," Sunday, March 17th, at Ortlieb's with Plot & Table. Just this past Friday, Adam Black, Dan Haddigan, Eric Kenney & Ian Kiesel unleashed their second music video from Music to Fall Down To for Bandcamp single, "New Smell." It was directed by James Powers and edited by B.S.' own Adam Black and features the band running around "the mean streets" of Philly wreaking havoc, all the while, donning giant middle finger masks on their heads. Honestly, the "New Smell" is "Philly" through and through; from Body Spray 's Rocky -esque sweatsuits to punching meat slabs... well, much smaller pieces of meat strappe...

Music To Fall Down To by Body Spray Body Spray (@BodySprayStinks) are a South Philly -based Noise Rock/"Hoagie"-core band consisting of frontman Dan Haddigan , bassist Adam Black , drummer Ian Kiesel , and guitarist Eric Kenney . Their Bandcamp page boasts: "We met in a bowling league. We rolled together and then, we Rocked together!" For a Punk/Hardcore -adjacent band, Body Spray are surprisingly active on social media; regularly maintaining and updating their own Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter pages. Since first seeing Body Spray 's set at Pissed Jeans' WHY LOVE NOW? Record Release Show at Boot & Saddle back in March of 2017 with M Ax Noi Mach , I've been frequently corresponding with Adam & Ian , I believe, on the band's Twitter page and through email. Although, I've been listening to Body Spray 's phenomenal 2016 Hell EP for, at least, a year or so now, I've known they've had a proper full-length looming ...

The GoGo Loco Twist by GOGO LOCO As you may well remember, The Witzard published a comprehensive 2016 interview with The Mobbs' extremely well-groomed frontman Joe B. Humbled to coincide with their fourth album, PIFFLE! on Dirty Water Records . Back in 2016, The Mobbs released PIFFLE! as well as a companion beer brewed by Hart Family Brewers fittingly deemed Pale & Interesting . I hadn't heard much from The Mobbs' drummer and general manager/press contact/booking agent Cheadle since late 2016, but still, assumed The Mobbs were together and actively working on their fifth studio album; however, this past weekend, I got an email from Cheadle , which read, in part: "Hey Matt! How are you doing? I'm sure you already know, but The Mobbs are no more... but before you get too upset, check out GoGo Loco , our new project!" The Mobbs quietly announced they were "gone" at the beginning of March with bassist The Bishop having announced his de...

It was Winter 2013 and "Thrift Shop" was still rapidly rising through the ranks of Billboard 's Hot 100 chart. I'll never forget the first time I met Jason Brown , it was up in the Shop Rite break room and said, "what's up, Macklemore ?" I don't think it was in a particularly nice way, but regardless, we still became friends. I worked as a baker and Jason was checker at the front-end registers and eventually, worked his way back to frozen foods department. I soon learned about Jason 's rapping alter-ego, "Jason Brownies" and he, knowing I ran an online music publication, was constantly passing me CD-R mixtapes and hand-made cassette tapes of his musical musings. He eventually hung up his "2 turntables and a microphone" in exchange for fuzzed out Garage Rock guitars and lush Indie Rock -minded melodies and formed solo projects/bands Bear Faces and Sapwood , which both still appear to be active, in one form or another. ...

"This album [expresses] the gathering of the band's journey across the past two years; a journey full of encounters, people, music, places, and coincidences. All [of these] adventures are permeated in the band's sound, like the memories of a tough hobo. There are hobos who ride trains [and] others ride roads. The HOBO-FI rides Rock "N" Roll from a Blues train to all the lonely Punk ways," self-described " GARAGE / LO-FI / power BLUES " Ancona, Italy -based band Gentlemens (sometimes, referred to as "The Gentlemens" ) wrote within a brief, albeit perfectly descriptive, emailed statement. I first spoke with Gentlemens pseudo-frontman Giordano Baldoni about a year ago, June 2015, after either I discovered them or they discovered me via Twitter ; his initial email included this interesting little tidbit, "We are a little and unsigned band from Ancona (Italy) , we like to play live, and our main favorite bands are the Garage band...

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...

"With bluesy organs, descending basslines, and one of the slowest, hardest-swaggering beats we've heard in a good while, "Everyday" calls upon [Rod] Stewart 's classic number "In a Broken Dream," re-contextualizing it as a tale of modern ennui (read: boredom )," as okayplayer effectively describes A$AP Rocky 's latest At.Long.Last.A$AP (ALLA) single, "Everyday;" recorded with a very unlikely cast of magnificent characters... Rod Stewart , Miguel, "Uptown Funk" super-producer Mark Ronson , and co-producer Emile Haynie. When it comes to ridiculous left-field collaborations, "Everyday" falls somewhere in between The Fat Boys' utterly awesome Beach Boys -backed "Wipe Out" and Kid Cudi 's surprisingly smooth Michael Bolton & King Chip -assisted "Afterwards (Bring Yo' Friends)." Ronson ingeniously managed to convince R&B crooner Miguel to passionately sing: "Everyd...

When I hear the phrase "The Dough Roller," I almost instantly think of the chain of family-friendly breakfast-lunch-and-dinner restaurants that are littered up and down the Coastal Highway in Ocean City, Maryland where my friends and I go for bi-annual car shows nearly every May and October. While The Dough Rollers (emphasis on the extra "s") are the latest budding band to release a Blue Series 7-inch record on Jack White 's Nashville -based Third Man Records . Hailing from New York and fronted by Malcolm Ford , The Dough Rollers are somehow able to effortlessly forge a unique blend of revivalist Rock "N" Roll in the same vein as bands like The Black Keys , Hanni el Khatib, and Kings of Leon . Noisey , who premiered A-side "Little Lily" just last week quite fittingly described it as a "song [that] simultaneously kicks you in the face and makes you reconsider your life in college for not becoming a rockstar;" although a s...

Hanni el Khatib is the first natural-born American from a family of Palestinian and Filipino immigrants, who bravely heads up his own one-man band on a mission to revive 1950-60's era Rock "N" Roll , classic cars, Greaser chic, and straight razors. Khatib is a talented multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter/producer who's equally influenced by the stylings of Johnny Cash , Sam Cooke, Iggy & The Stooges , Black Sabbath, Johnny Burnette , etc. as well as Blues , Garage Rock, Soul , Folk, and Doo-Wop . Hanni el Khatib linked up with similarly-minded Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach to record his second album, Head In The Dirt , which Innovative Leisure's putting out on April 30th. The pair recorded 11 tracks down in Nashville , soon after Khatib opted to "erase everything he'd become comfortable with and to make an album out of only raw instinct and inspiration." Head In The Dirt 's lead-off single, "Family" now has...

Yeah, I basically drafted up a few terms and then coined one, "Neo-Classical Psych Rock," to help better describe SPACIN' s particularly unique, noisy sound. It's members all hailing from Philly , the band's sound seems like a by-product of Hardcore Punk and Noise/Garage Rock . SPACIN' is fronted by Jason Killinger and it's kinda a side project of his old band, Birds of Maya ; In the studio, he's joined by Paul Sukeena , Sean Hamilton , and his wife Eva on guitar/bass/drums (respectively) on their righteous Richie Records debut, Deep Thuds EP... I think it'd be safe to assume that SPACIN' are influenced by guys like Iggy & The Stooges , Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath , Ty Segall, and Pixies . While they've only unleashed roughly 8-10 tracks, SPACIN' really managed to effectively display a colorful, wide variety of styles on Deep Thuds : Psychedelic Rock, Noise Rock , riff-heavy Rock "N" Roll, Power Pop , Post-...

One of the great things about Punk Rock is that it hasn't really progressed/digressed much sound-wise since it's late 1970-80's inception. I mean, most 21st Century Punks honestly don't sound all THAT different than pioneers like Iggy & The Stooges or Black Flag . So, I think it's all about sprinkling in personality and a dash of slight progress [style]. Allentown -based Pissed Jeans are kinda a hard band to label... Like is it Hard Rock ? Hardcore? Sludge Metal ? Indie Rock? Pigfuck? My insanely knowledgeable buddy, Jason Morroni basically coined the term "Power Thrash" through text earlier tonight and I'm just gonna go a head and run with that ha. The Jeans took about a 5-year break to "live life" a little bit and then re-formed over the summer to record Honeys with Alex Newport , which'll be out Feb. 12th on Sub Pop . "Bathroom Laughter" is out first LEGIT taste of the album, a collection that Sub Pop fitti...

Since PO PO basically de-constructed right before our very eyes without even releasing an album, sole remaining brother Zeb Malik has christened a BRAND NEW musical moniker: Jahan Lennon . While readying his official [re-]debut and the proper follow-up to DOPE BOY MAGICK , Zeb sent a twisted Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers cover over to Stereogum late Thurs. afternoon. "DON'T COME AROUND HERE" here is an interesting take on the Southern Accents (1985) original; First off, Jahan Lennon decides to sub in a sitar and gun-shot rhythm for the stock Rock "N" Roll guitar/drum pattern. Zeb Malik really did his best to try and describe his "Don't Come Around Here No More" cover to @tompetty on Twitter : "I did a trap cover of "dnt come around here" about my hometown, philadelphia ... thnk u for the inspiration *." While Jahan Lennon is busy finishing up his Mad Decent EP (October), Diplo 's gonna release a Rock tr...

Amy Winehouse was not unlike the late-great Ol' Dirty Bastard : Wildly talented, mildly deranged - A genuinely tortured soul. Winehouse's last known batch of proper recordings was recently collected and released as Lioness: Hidden Treasures . The Jolly Boys consists of 3 laid-back 70-something gentlemen: Albert Minott, Derrick "Johnny" Henry , and Joseph "Powder" Bennett . Utilizing sparse instrumentation -- acoustic guitar, 'rumba box [bass sub.] and maracas -- The Jolly Boys create a distinct brand of "Mento" music... a centuries-old style of Jamaican Folk not generally known outside of the island region. Legend has it that The Jolly Boys' up-beat riddims were the soundtrack to many of [actor] Errol Flynn 's infamous "never-ending" yacht parties. "Powder" & "Johnny" were 2 of The Jolly Boys founding members, upon it's formation back in The Roaring 50's. Albert Minott seems to be the ...