The Witzard

Dead Best's Brian Sokel, 2021 (SOURCE: Brian Sokel) Brian Sokel is a Philadelphia native. Sokel played guitar in the influential Punk/Dub band Franklin (sometimes, ! franklin) from 1992 until the band's demise in 1999. They released numerous albums and singles on various labels. Sokel on to play in AM/FM with fellow Philadelphian Michael "Mike" Parsell (Frail) and was the primary song-writer. AM/FM released numerous albums on Polyvinyl Records in the early 2000's. They toured numerous times, but, ultimately, disbanded in 2004. Sokel has, also, spent time throughout his career playing music with Atom & His Package, short-lived Misfits-covering super-group T.V. Casualty , Fracture, The Jai-Alai Savant with his one-time Franklin bandmate Ralph Darden, Aspera Ad Astra, and Gonner. Sokel took a 10-year period off from making his own music between about 2003-13 after which he briefly formed a new project, Gonner, with Parsell and one-time Franklin bassist Roy Binn...

CBGB's "Frankenstein" Flyer (CREDIT: David Ackerman) We’ve Got A Flyer On You will (hopefully!) be a new recurring column here at The Witzard. It’s set to feature, examine, and re-visit mixed bill/genre, once-in-a-lifetime, iconic, and otherwise noteworthy Punk/Hardcore show flyers and their corresponding line-ups. As often as possible, we plan to speak directly with the promoters, bookers, flyer artists, soundmen/women, show attendees, and, most importantly, the artists themselves. If all goes well, we’re even hoping to, eventually, cover a handful of shows we attended ourselves in years past, as well. For the inaugural edition of We’ve Got A Flyer On You, we’ll be spotlighting an infamous December 2000 show at CBGB’s featuring Mouthpiece (who were reuniting,) BANE, Reach The Sky, American Nightmare, and Tear It Up! The infamous Frankenstein/Santa Claus flyer was posted last December across a bunch of Punk/Hardcore flyer Instagram, and like-minded, pages in honor of ...

1986 Boston Globe TV38 WSBK Friday The 13th Ad (SOURCE: Bob O'Rourke) Not entirely unlike Wrestle/Wrassle Rap or Basketball Rap, there's, apparently, a whole sub-genre of hockey-themed Punk/Hardcore—oftentimes, referred to as "Puck" Rock or Hockey-core. Yes, I've been a die-hard fan of Punk/Hardcore for 15+ years and I, too, only first heard about Puck Rock within the last few weeks. Although, once I started diggin' around, I discovered about 10-15 bands at the forefront; this was, then, gradually narrowed down to 10 "front-line" bands, which will be chronicled here over the course of coming weeks. The "top-scoring" bands we selected include: Crippled Youth, SLAPSHOT, The Hanson Brothers/Nomeansno, Two Man Advantage, The Boils, D.O.A. THE ZAMBONIS, Pansy Division, The Hextalls, and THE RAMOMS' "Gritty Is A Punk" flexi-disc. We sent out a short 6-question interview form to all of the aforementioned bands, received some back, ...