The Witzard

Girl Talk CREDIT: Joey Kennedy Girl Talk is the music-making alias of mash-up maestro, super-producer, and beat-maker Gregg Gillis. Girl Talk famously rose to prominemce in the early to mid-2000's with his unique sample-filled releases Night Ripper (2006,) Feed The Animals (2008,) and ALL DAY (2010.) Gillis soon ascended to large-print typeface atop countless festival bills and, eventually, got so busy, he had to quit his day job as a bio-medical engineer. Even prior to Night Ripper, Gregg Gillis had been quietly making music as Girl Talk since about 2000-02 and had issued a number of releases, including, but not limited to, Secret Diary, Unstoppable, Stop Cleveland Hate 12-inch, and Bone Hard Zaggin' 7-inch EP with Illegal Art, 12 Apostles, and 333 Recordings, respectively. Arguably, his most successful—and in our opinion, most enjoyable—release from this period would be 2006's Night Ripper, which boasts some 300 inter-woven samples. Gregg Gillis was able to lega...

"Me, Dan [Edinberg] (from The Stepkids ), and Chuck [Inglish] got together and made the instrumental. Me and Chuck were got connected 'cause we were already working... on the Kali Uchis album. Dan was visiting me in LA ; so, we got together and made the beat. We were really interested in combining elements... that haven't been combined before. It was the Summertime , so we were feeling a certain way. We hypothesized on what it would sound like to... combine South American [Bachata] music with Trap . Needles to say, when we started making the music, we all got super excited at this new sound... After that, Trinidad Jame$ came in and set the tone for lyrics and melody," producer, guitarist, and song-writer @JeffGitelman wrote within a Twitter -sent statement; "WunderLAnd," the aforementioned track, was released roughly 10 days ago, following Chuck Inglish 's instrumental project Texturizer and Blended Babies -produced Ev Zepplin . "The son...

I'm pretty sure myself, like many like-minded Indie Rock devotees, first heard Cults frontwoman Madeline Follin 's sultry whispery wail was on "Queen of Hearts" from Toronto Hardcore band F__ked Up 's sprawling 2011 Punk Rock Opera , David Comes to Life . While then nine-year-old Follin's first true "solo" work, Dee Dee Ramone -assembled Youth Gone Mad 's Touching Cloth (2000) pre-dates Cults by about 11 years, her latest set of recordings would appear to be her first legitimate outer-band side project; " Follin is the musical project of brother-sister duo Madeline and Richie James Follin . In the down time between record cycles of their respective bands [ Cults and Guards/Willowz ], they decided to finally record and release something together," San Francisco and Miami -based Father/Daughter Records wrote within a recent press release. It was an idea that they had hoped to turn into a reality for years, but time never pe...

"How many times, Pusha T , did producers say to you, "come to the studio right now or we're gonna give this beat to Jay Z ?" Nardwuar The Human Serviette politely asked Pusha T during a 2013 post- Canadian show interview. "Well, one time.. and that was for the "Grindin'" beat and that was Pharrell Williams ... and he's supposed to be my best friend. Right? But this guy actually threatened to give the "Grindin'" beat to Jay Z , if I did not come to the studio right then and right there. I actually came, and I'm glad he did because that record was groundbreakin' for me, Pusha T exuberantly quipped. One 1/2 of early 2000's Virginia Beach -bred Coke Rap phenoms, Clipse , Pusha T – otherwise known as the newly-elected President of Kanye 's re-launched label, G.O.O.D. Music – is gearing up to unleash his long-rumored 2-part King Push album; part one, titled Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude features productio...

Mr. Sexyback himself, Justin Timberlake , unleashed a surprisingly Boom-Bap -ified remix to his latest 20/20 Experience 2 single, "TKO" late Black Friday evening, which is slowly becoming a FREE music-giving holiday. Timberlake somehow managed to recruit J. Cole, A$AP Rocky , and his former "Like I Love You" collaborator, Pusha T (Clipse). While it might kinda seem like part of a larger label-contrived chart-topping master-palm, Justin Timberlake is actually an avid late 1980-90's Hip-Hop aficionado; case in point, The History of Rap (Parts 1-4) with Late Nite host-buddy Jimmy Fallon . Roots band leader/drummer Questlove [Jenkins] simply Tweeted, " #TKOremix so official! @JTimberlake, @PUSHA_T, @ASAPRockyTRILL & @JColeNC (w/ that post- "Control" flow) = COTDAMNY," which almost instantly piqued my interests enough to go check it out! It's very well-produced, which is rare for an after-the-fact remix of this calibe...

Headed into Philly on a whim with my buddy Mike last night (Friday), speeding down 676 and over The Ben Franklin Bridge . Kanye 's site listed 22 new projection cities across America/Europe , including 3 planned Philly locations; Eastern State Penitentiary 's guerrilla-style showing was listed as 10:30-11:30. I called up my girlfriend once we got there, which was around 11:10 and only waited about 10-15 minutes longer amongst a group of roughly 100+ people trying to decide which side of the street to stand on. A black panel van with some sort of New York labeling pulled up and after knocking into someone's truck, pulled out a generator and started setting up as the crowd got more and more restless, starting to block the oncoming late night traffic. Kanye 's so damn obnoxious... like who would really think to project their face on building sides across the world from 9-12 @ night!? It's almost like he's gotten progressively crazier since The College Dropout...