The Witzard

Tom Fec is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based musician, experimentalist, and label owner of his own imprint, Rad Cult. Fec is the frontman of Experimental/Psychedelic Pop band Black Moth Super Rainbow, sometimes, known as Satanstompingcaterpillars. Since about 2008, Fec has released a plethora of music as TOBACCO , as well as Sbarro Hottopic. Tom Fec has, additionally released music as Demon Queen with Zackey Force Funk, The Allegheny White Fish with his brother, Ken Fec, and most recently, as Malibu Ken with long-time collaborator Aesop Rock. Fec's beloved recordings as TOBACCO have often featured a crew of unlikely collaborators, including Beck, emcee Beans, Felt (Slug & MURS,) The Flaming Lips, High Tides, The Hood Internet, Notrabel, Serengeti, and sole & The Skyrider Band. Now, TOBACCO has announced a new album, Hot, Wet & Sassy—Fec's first proper album since 2016's Sweatbox Dynasty—to be released on Ghostly International this Fall. Earlier this morning, TO...

Not as They Do by Manikineter Carl Kavorkian has returned with his third release as MANIKINETER in just two years; Not As They Do EP follows 2017's Missing & Mannequin Eater EP 's, as well as a stand-alone single entitled "Shoot The Chalice." Kavorkian self-describes his MANIKINETER output on Bandcamp as " experimental , hip-hop, industrial , electronic, noise , and punk," but I've generally, just described it simply as Noise-Rap since first hearing Mannequin Eater . I've always enjoyed Punk/Hardcore and Hip-Hop concurrently without finding many releases successfully able to blend the two (very similar) genres in a natural, organic way, aside from Mos Def & Black Jack Johnson 's 2004 magnum opus The New Danger , of course. It appears as though Carl Kavorkian had been toying with the idea of merging Hip-Hop , Punk/Hardcore, Industrial , and a multitude of genres on his releases prior to MANIKINETER 's Mannequin Eater EP ;...

"Nowadays, I'm more influence by the artists around me making making music here in Baltimore. We probably take that for granted a bit, but we're really lucky. When I [first] started making beats at 16-17, I was pretty much just biting DJ Premier and every producer on [Nas'] Illmatic, sampling the hand-me-down vinyl I was given from my friend's weird uncle. As I got older and more fascinated with Pop and Alternative music—especially, the really depressing stuff—my production was shaped by hearing this handful of albums in my early beat-making days. Honestly, it's really hard to narrow down [to] under 10 (I wish I could pick a Prince album or Madonna's first album) but I'll keep it at six." - Drew Scott (AKA Giddeon Gallows) Forbid feat. Al Rogers Jr. by Giddeon Gallows I. OutKast - Aquemini (1998) "First CD I bought with my own money; hearing the 808's and that guitar on "Rosa Parks" at 10 years old was a moment. I alread...

"I'm Jeff Richie from New Jersey . I make Punk-Rap under the name "JE DOUBLE F" and New Wave under the name "TUFF TURF." First of all, I've never considered myself a "beat-maker" or a "producer." I've never considered myself much of anything. Nothing specific, at least. I write songs, I record them; sometimes, with sequenced instrumentation à la Rap/New Wave , sometimes not. No bullsh*t, no claim to be part of any specific "culture" or "scene." In fact, I think music culture and scenes are a complete waste of time. With that said, here are three albums that f**ked me up permanently:" I. GRAVEDIGGAZ - 6 FEET DEEP (1994) "I had been listening to a lot of traditional Hip-Hop around the time that I first heard 6 FEET DEEP . I was probably 16-years-old. This album proved to me that you can make " Rap music" that's not about intercity violence and drugs—two things that I had (an...

The Internet really is a never-ending Twilight Zone -esque worm hole of a place sometimes; case in point, just last night, after returning home from rollicking Sweat N Soul -filled a Har Mar Superstar concert in the depths of Philly around 1-1:30am, I wasted nearly an hour aimlessly Googling covers from Sean Tillmann 's one-time touring mate and fellow Tillman(n) , Father John Misty ... starting with two unabashedly ironic Taylor Swift in the vein of Ryan Adam 's 1989 covers and ultimately, ending up at a sparse SiriusXM cover of Nirvana 's "Heart-Shaped Box." Somewhere down the seemingly endless sonic worm hole I created, I stumbled upon @fatherjohnmisty 's sprawling, wonderfully executed renditions of widely-known Leonard Cohen , The Arcade Fire, John Lennon , Rihanna, and most recently, Nine Inch Nails classics. Former Fleet Foxes drummer and ironic "rockstar" Josh Tillman unexpectedly covered NIN 's breakout anti-pop hit, "Cl...

NEW ICONS OF A VILE FAITH by Echo Beds Denver -bred genre-defying Echo Beds are the latest signees to politically-charged emcee and former Anticon founder Tim "sole" Holland 's latest label venture, Black Box Tapes . I would likely describe Echo Beds' rather long-winded "overdriventapehissnoisewall- landscapemetaldrumpummelpainfacevolumetherapy" sound of something strangely evocative of what an imagined missing link between late 80's-1990's Industrial Rock forefathers Nine Inch Nails and their critically-acclaimed modern day counterparts, Noise/Aggro-Rap group Death Grips ; an obtuse indefinable sound, better yet, self-described by vocalist/bass player Keith Curts and beat-maker Tom Nelson as "a caterwaul of contact-mic'd oil drums, broken cymbals, battered basses, unrecognizable tape loops, and dilapidated voices with the expressed intention of volume as therapy and put it through the grinder of self-practiced D.I.Y. ethos." ...

Death Grips have always been a band to defy convention; whether it be signing with a major label Epic deal and ultimately getting dropped for leaking private emails, self-releasing not one, but three full-length albums (one complete with dick pic cover art), cancelling an entire 2012 tour to record without informing nay of the pre-booked venues, and working on a mysterious [probably fake] short film with Robert Pattinson & Colin Hanks . Just last night, Death Grips posted a message scrawled across a napkin on their Facebook page, which reads: "We are now at our best and so Death Grips is over. We have officially stopped. All currently scheduled live dates are canceled. Our upcoming double album "the powers that b" will still be delivered worldwide later this year via Harvest/Third Worlds Records . Death Grips was and always has been a conceptual art exhibition anchored by sound and vision. Above and beyond a "band." To our truest fans, please stay l...

Not entirely unlike it's highly-revered Classic/Indie Rock predecessors Sgt. Pepper's and The Blue Album , sample grand-wizard Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk ultimately intended for his latest body of work, Broken Ankles EP to function as "a continuous mix and it intended to be listened to as a while with gap-less playback." The Pittsburgh native then recruited veteran emcee Freeway from the neighboring suburb of Philadelphia to overlay gritty complex rhyme schemes atop his multi-layered 6-track mini-album, which somehow still manages to sample everyone from Aretha Franklin to Nine Inch Nails . For the purposes of this very EP, Girl Talk & Freeway have both slightly modified their respective styles, but not to the point that it's beyond recognizable or would endanger alienating long-time fans. I'm actually a little surprised at how good most of Girl Talk 's beats sound; they're 100% full-fledged Hip-Hop beats with sufficient room for additi...

Just as Trent Reznor re-formed Nine Inch Nails after a nearly 5 year hiatus for their recent Hesitation Marks album and an upcoming 54-date world tour, comes the first full-fledged NIN sample-based Hip-Hop project: Isaiah Toothtaker & Jacob Safari 's ИOTHING EP ! The aspiring Arizona -based rapper and one-time WAVVES drummer constructed 8 tracks-worth of beats using unlicensed samples; ranging from "A Warm Place" to "The Day The World Went Away," hand-picked from across NIN 's broad-spanning discography. "It’s far from Linkin Park . God damn no. Ain't no Aerosmith and Run-DMC , ain't no Coldplay and Kanye shit, ain't no Onyx and Biohazard shit," Isaiah Toothtaker lamented to The Kid Mero at Noisey , who premiered ИOTHING EP . "This is a proper hit. Nine Inch Nails are some weirdos but so is Young Thug , you feel me?" he continued. Honestly, they're really on to something here, if you think about it....

"Bound 2" is quite easily the most Kanye West -sounding track on Yeezus , an album which on-again Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor is indeed a fan (and obvious influence): " Yeezus , I really love it. I think the sound of it is cool. I can't endorse what he's saying lyrically, but I will say that in terms of the role of the dangerous entertainer in 2013, nobody is beating him at that game. It feels like he might implode. Even if it is calculated to some degree, it feels rough on the edges in a way that I can appreciate. I'm glad he's out there. Consistently he's put out ahead-of-the-curve shit. He's definitely a talented guy." The Roots drummer and de facto bandleader ?uestlove expressed his admiration for Track #10 pretty early on in 140 characters or less: "ok this #Bound2 on repeat all day is a problem. don't wanna hear anything else, but #Bound2 (including the 9 songs before it) #Yeezus." Meticulously construct...

"There are milk crates downstairs, if you need to use one MT @justintimberlake Join me & @Target tonight for just one song" aging Indie Rockers Yo La Tengo snarkily Tweeted Wednesday night. For what it's worth, a global super-star like Timberlake really does have ABSOLUTELY NO business playing a one-off corporate-sponsored show at a shitty hole-in-the-wall [albeit closed] NJ Indie Rock venue like Maxwell's ; Justin Timberlake was actually filming an Instagram & Twitter -fied Target commercial for a select 150 lucky fans, which is coincidentally set to dual as a promo for his new clothing line and a secondary "Take Back The Night" music video. Not even 24 hours later, Jay Z and new-found buddy Timberlake unleashed their Anthony Mandler -directed "Holy Grail" visuals, via Facebook . The exclusively-released clip could've very well reached nearly 42 million combined "Friends" by now, which has only recently been re-u...

What kind of madman would spend the better part of a year recording and re-recording an anti-commercial mainstream Hip-Hop album (if that's even a thing ha) all while his celebutante girlfriend is carrying their unborn baby and steadily nearing her dude date, only to have mega-producer Rick Rubin come in and re-work the entire 10-track collection mere hours before it's deadline!? - Unsurprisingly, Kanye West . It's almost mind boggling how much steam Yeezus has garnered without a proper single or music video, aside from "New Slaves"' building-side projections across the world, and virtually no album track leakage until the Friday before it's Tuesday June 18th release! Aside from all that, Kanye decided to boldly stray away from any sort of legitimate-looking album artwork/packaging, instead opting for the ghetto bootleg CD-R look: no cover or booklet, empty jewel CD case, sparse tracklist on the reverse side, and only a Yeezus -marked piece of red ta...

Trent Reznor abruptly disbanded his pride and joy, Nine Inch Nails , nearly 5 years ago now; Rumblings of a re-formed band reunion started to trickle out just few months ago and in almost one fall swoop, Pitchfork uploaded 3 separate stories late last night... album title/release date, a "leaked" radio single, and a 50-date world tour trek. Since splitting up NIN , Reznor formed another band with Atticus Ross and his wife, How to Destroy Angels_ (2010) and composed a few acclaimed film soundtracks for The Social Network/ Girl with The Dragon Tattoo . I guess you could say that my hippy cousin-turned-lawyer Adam turned me onto NIN , who I always associated with the weird Goth kids in grade school, about 8-10 years ago. Starting with their new albums @ the time, Dave Grohl -assisted With Teeth and Year Zero , I slowly delved backwards into Trent Reznor 's lengthy discography; a few of my personal favourites include The Downward Spiral , Further Down The Spiral, Sti...

Rather than just issue some dumb, pre-concieved press release/statement, veteran lyrical assassin Jay-Z decided to step into the studio and record a track about his involvement in a few current events. "Open Letter" bravely delves into slightly questionable shit like The Carters vacationing in Cuba (a restricted tourism zone) and having to sell his small fraction of the Brooklyn Nets in order to become a sports agent. Timbaland and Swizz Beatz co-produced the track, which also somehow manages to work in references to Kevin Hart 's infamous "You gon learn t'day" comedy skit and Bob Dylan 's Blood on The Tracks era single, "Idiot Wind" (1975). It's worth noting that Jay-Z most likely isn't working on a new album, cause his hair is pretty shaped up and well-kept ha, which in itself, basically alludes to time NOT spent in-studio. Here's a few well-written bars pulled straight from the painfully short Life + Times -b...

ANTWON 's beat-making buddies usually seem to conjure up some pretty emotionally-driven, hard-hitting borderline "Industrial-Rap" rhythms; But every once in a while, Nature Boy Gang 'll unleash a couple sun-soaked 90's New Jack Swing -reminiscent jams like "Darby Crash" (stacy Remix) , "LIVING EVERY DREAM," and now "3rd World Grrl." Since being re-released late Tuesday afternoon, the latter is currently serving as ANTWON 's second IN DARK DENIM (Greedhead) video-single... now has a hilarious [companion] puppet-assisted Live Circus & Alessio Avezzano -produced/directed clip to go along with it. Built around dimly-lit scenes of ANTWON rapping straight into Avezzano's camera, which are then juxtaposed against his puppet counterpart living his every sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll -fueled fantasy surrounded by an entourage full of beautiful hunnies. ANTWON , channeling Rico Suave , smoothly raps during "3...

Dave Grohl is quite arguably the hardest working man in Rock "N" Roll , having laid down drum tracks for everyone from Paul McCartney to Nine Inch Nails . Grohl is a self-taught drummer/guitar player and high school drop-out who's most notable work includes playing with Nirvana, Foo Fighters , and DC Hardcore band Scream . He really isn't your average drugged-out, middle-aged Rockstar . Since Foo Fighters went on a hiatus in October 2012, Dave Grohl has been hard @ work on a number of interesting side projects; He'll be filling in as Queens of The Stone Age 's temporary drummer on their upcoming album, might "get back together and do stuff" with Them Crooked Vultures , has been tirelessly working on his directorial debut... centered around infamous Sound City [studio], recorded a Rick Springfield/Foo Fighters track, playing that 12-12-12 Hurricane Sandy relief concert, and recently filled in for buddy Chelsea Handler on her talk show, Che...

"Many years ago, a young and naive Nine Inch Nails were asked what TV shows they'd be interested in appearing on. As a joke (and likely drunk), they thought of the most absurd choice they could come up with at the time. They were then informed their bluff had been called and were actually booked on said show... They hopped in their Honda Civic touring vehicle and traveled many miles to (I think) NJ for the big show. They had a laugh making fun of the people, their fashion choices and hairstyles. Life was good. Years later, The Internet is discovered... There's a moral in there somewhere. Come to think of it, Skrillex may indeed owe me some publishing on that hairdo." - Trent Reznor

I bet that many of you may be fairly familiar with Chairlift and don't even know it. For example, the Boulder, CO Synth Pop group's 2008 track, "Bruises" was used in one of the initial iPod Nano [Chromatic] commercials. Chairlift have been noticeably inactive since the release of their debut long-player, Does You Inspire You? (2008) and lost a founding member, Aaron Pfenning - Now in pursuit of a solo career as "REWARDS." Chairlift 's remaining 2 members have also been focusing on a number of side-efforts, as of late: Songstress Caroline Polachek appeared on Washed Out 's recent lead single, "You and I," in addition to Popular tracks from Flosstradamus and Acrylics . Multi-instrumentalist Patrick Wimberely seems to have struck up quite the friendship with the boys of Das Racist; PatrickWHAT produced 5 individual tracks [this including "Michael Jackson" ] and went on to Executive Produce the entirety of their debut alb...