The Witzard

Jerry Williams, Jr. has been consistently been recording and releasing music since 1962 under his given name, as well as Little Jerry , The Detroit Magnificents, and most notably, Swamp Dogg . The Guardian once went as far as to lamented that " Swamp Dogg [was] the Soul genius that time forgot" within a 2006 feature. Swamp Dogg has since cemented himself as an "Outsider" Soul/Funk and has released at least 26 original albums. Swamp received a bit of a career resurgence with his 2018 album, Love, Loss & Auto-Tune was was produced by Indie/Electronic Rock mastermind, Ryan Olson . Olson is, in fact, an affiliate of Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon and has played in a number of critically-acclaimed bands, including, but not limited to GAYNGS , Marijuana Deathsquads, Mel Gibson & The Pants , Poliça, and Jason Feathers with Vernon himself. Love, Loss & Auto-Tune , as its title suggests, found Swamp Dogg embracing modern Auto-Tune technology, as well a...

Paradice 1 by OQ Late last month, I received a mysterious cold-sent email from a man named Liam O'Brien simply titled "Hi From Wisconsin." I've since learned O'Brien has previously played and released music with Holy Sheboygan! , Moon Ruin, and his namesake, Liam O'Brien's Faithless Followers . For his latest endeavor, Liam has joined forces with fellow Wisconsinite and multi-instrumentalist Cole Quamme ("qua-mee") of The Fatty Acids ; " OQ is Liam O'Brien & Cole Quamme in collaboration with an array of Midwestern, US -based contributors," reads their "short" press release. While amidst the earliest stages of recording in 2016, Cole Quamme reached out to his fellow Milwaukee Folk/Bluegrass peers to see what they could, potentially, do with his unique style of "Bubu" -leaning beats. Quamme was, eventually, connected with Liam O'Brien , who morphed his inter-locking rhythms into full-fledged comp...

"So proud of my brother James Blake dropping the bigness tonight... Also, so proud of our song ["I Need a] Forest Fire" came from wonderful accidents and good friendship... James , or Jim as I call him when I'm upset with him, is such a powerful musician; to be like Aaron Neville , AND Aphex [Twin] ?" Bon Iver frontman and frequent James Blake collaborator Justin Vernon (@blobtower) exuberantly Tweeted on the eve of The Colour In Anything . Vernon and Blake previously collaborated on "Fall Creek Boys Choir" from mid-album Enough Thunder EP , although likely first rubbed shoulders due to this singular candid statement: "He's James Blake . Just go listen to his music and say, "hey, that's Kanye 's favorite artist." Justin Vernon contributed crooned backing vocals assists to "MONSTER" and the majority of Kanye 's sprawling magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy , as well as a number of fractured ...

It all started about two months ago now, when I received a rather intriguing cold sent email from James Barker at London-based PR company Mystic Sons, which read, "First Listen – New Album from Australia's [Answer to] Bon Iver – Hayden Calnin, Cut Love Pt. 1;" described as a "fantastic artist" whose debut single, "Cut Love," at the time, already garnered 40,000 digi-spins at Hype Machine and had received stylistic comparisons to the likes of Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), M83, Dawn Golden, Beach House, and whom, I, myself, immediately likened to Electro-Soul crooner James Blake. "'Cut Love Pt. 1" the album is a testament to Hayden's creative abilities, demonstrating that each track can resemble a new chapter. It is experimental to say the least, but an experiment that certainly works. It's exhilarating, truthful, and vicariously touching," Mystic Sons befittingly wrote within their initial emailed press release. Leading up to Cu...

" Cut Love Pt. 1 is a conceptual bunch of songs, which should be taken on as a journey. This is not a pop record, so don't expect bangerzzz or much adhering to standard song structure. It's weird, but I like weird. I wanted to make something that was 100% me and the result is something I am really proud of. I recorded [Cut Love] Pt. 1 all at home in my studio and it's taken me a lot of time to get it finished, and I'm so excited to share it with you all. I have so many people to thank, but above all, this record wouldn't have been possible without all of your support and believing in what I create. So, thank you! I'll be posting some more on it tonight to give you a little more insight, but I really just wanted to let everyone know that I've put everything I have into this record, and to not go into listening to it with any expectations, and just let it translate to you as it does naturally. Some of you may love it, others may hate it, but all in all...

Internet -spun legend had to that Chief Keef discovered Polish beat-maker Young Ravisu (Radoslaw Sobieraj) himself in later 2012-13 while perusing YouTube for " Finally Rich -type beats;" after some additional mixing, paperwork, and legal mumbo-jumbo, Young Ravisu 's instrumental slowly morphed into "Citgo." The 2 like-minded 18-year-olds' collaboration eventually ended up appearing as a bonus track on Chief Keef 's commercial debut, Finally Rich . Before this piece goes too far, let me just say that I'm far from a Chief Keef expert/super-fan: I'm really only familiar with him through his Kanye -affiliated tracks, "I Don't Like" (Remix) and more recently, "Hold My Liquor" with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) . Now, nearly 8+ months after it's initial release, "Citgo" has been re-hashed as a proper video-single, more or less. A mere coincidence or not, GBE Ent. also unleashed a 16-track mixtape, Bang P...

"[ Bon Iver 's] a fucking genius! I'd never seen nor heard of him in my life, and I looked up, and I was in a fucking 5 x 5 room with a white guy, smoking weed... and his voice is like something I've never heard, and he's using words that are far from common. Within 20 minutes, I realized why Kanye had him there." - Rick Ross (Billboard) Justin Vernon probably never imagined that his high-pitched primary band, Bon Iver would ever garner so much widespread acclaim, let alone 4 Grammy nominations. 2011 was quite arguably The Year of Bon Iver ; Over the course of the year, Vernon somehow managed to strike up a lucrative friendship with Kayne & Jay-Z , harmonize alongside Nicki Minaj , appear on Gayngs' remix album - "Affiliyated," collaborate with The National and Dub Master James Blake , and hawking Bushmills whiskey. On top of all that, his long-awaited follow-up album (Bon Iver, Bon Iver) was released on Jagjaguwar . That very album ...