The Witzard

Thou are a Sludge/Doom Metal band hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana formed in 2005. Their current line-up consists of guitarists Matthew Thudium, Andy Gibbs & K.C. Stafford , bassist Mitch Wells , drummer Tyler Coburn , and vocalist Bryan Funck . Thou have previously released music in conjunction with a wide variety of labels, such as Deathwish , [adult swim], Vendetta Records , Gilead Media, Thrill Jockey , Sacred Bones Records, and Get Better Records . Although, Thou 's latest effort was surprise-released this past Friday on Bandcamp Friday with Olympia, Washington-based imprint Robotic Empire . Blessings of The Highest Order consists entirely of Nirvana covers; featuring everything from Incesticide B-side "Aneurysm" to "In Bloom" from Nevermind all rendered in a Sludge Metal/Grunge style. In fact, most of the compositions from Blessings of The Highest Order have been previously released on past Thou recordings, aside from "Dive." ...

Urian Hackney for Paiste (CREDIT: Luke Awtry) Urian Hackney is a Vermont-based drummer, engineer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and skateboarder. Hackney's credits include Lake Superior, Libido Reign, Maneuvers, Caroline Rose, Western Terrestrials, and Wild Leek River. Urian Hackney has filled in for Converge drummer Ben Koller on multiple occasions and plays full-time in his own band, ROUGH FRANCIS. Consisting of three brothers and two of their close friends, ROUGH FRANCIS was originally formed in 2008 as a tribute to their father and uncles' 1970's Proto-punk band, Death. ROUGH FRANCIS are currently prepping their third full-length album, Urgent Care, for release in early May. Although, amidst the global Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic, Urian Hackney has made a bit of a name for himself online as a result of his topical remixes/drum covers. Last week, we first heard about Hackney's work when Scotty "Karate" Heath from Tankcrimes (@tankcrimes) Tweeted a...

Runnin' Scared/Their Disguise by Warish WARISH are a self-proclaimed "Low-Budget Horror Rock" band hailing from Oceanside, California; yes, their guitarist/vocalist is Tony Hawk 's son and fellow Pro "Street" Skater, Riley Hawk . Oddly enough, my first real-deal "concert"—aside from Dexys Midnight Runners & Sesame Street/Disney On Ice—was Activision O2 Presents: Tony Hawk's Boom Boom HuckJam held at the then-First Union Center (now-Wells Fargo Center) in Philly in November of 2002. Boldly billed as "THE ONLY ACTION SPORTS TOUR THAT MATTERS!" and featuring the biggest, gnarlist SKATE/MOTO-X/BMX stars of the day rippin' it up on a giant half-pipe constructed right atop where the Sixers & Flyers would typically play. I can vaguely remember, my family went with my best buddy, Ryan, and his family and little did we know, in addition to Action/X-treme Sports, we'd be treated to our first Punk/Hardcore X-perience: Punk R...

Trenton, New Jersey -based emcee/frontman Raymond "Ray" Strife released so many projects last year, we couldn't even keep up—well, my wedding was this past October, as well!—but seriously, Ray put out a BUNCH of music throughout 2018. He released his Ill-Omega -produced full-length follow-up to 2017's critically-acclaimed Preface: I Will Never Be Beautiful EP , Go for The Gusto , #BFF EP with his real-life BFF's Roebus One & Ill-Omega originally recorded back in 2013, and HARD FEELINGS EP from his "Negative" Hardcore band, OVER EVERYTHING . Now, at the top of 2019, Ray Strife has already returned from a holiday vacation to France with a previously unreleased track entitled "Think of how a Castrated Horse Feels," which takes its name from a lyric within Nirvana 's "I Hate Myself & Want to Die" from 1993's The Beavis & Butt-Head Experience compilation. It appears as though Doc Heller 's "Think o...

I've personally, been rockin' out to Super Hi-Fi 's new album, Blue & White —which is out today on Very Special Recordings —since January thanks to Alex Pastuhov at Behind The Curtains Media . Luckily, I've had time to sit with the album and digest it's complex Reggae/Rock -fusing stylings. Blue & White was recorded directly to tape at Jersey City -based 9 Lives Studios with engineer Nicola Stemmer ; bandleader and bassist Eza Gale produced the album himself, which features the talents of fellow Super Hi-Fi bandmates Rick Parker , Robert Stringer, Jon Lipscomb , Ezra Gale, and Madhu Siddappa , as well as a crew of talented friends and musically-inclined associates. Collectively, Super Hi-Fi 's members have played alongside a wide array of artists, including Beyoncé , Curren$y, Donovan , Bill Frisell, Gregory Porter , and The Skatalites. " Blue & White is an album punctuated by dueling trombones, gut-rattling basslines, and Afrobeat -insp...

"Hi Matt... thanks for your interest in my work. While now is not the time to reveal everything, basically, the majority of my mash-ups that I've done connect to each other on several levels and tell a large, arcing story centered around the pursuit of pleasure, knowledge, and overall happiness in one's life. I've been dropping hints ( Easter eggs) in each (starting from the "Uptown Funk" Macho Mix ) that are pretty much impossible to find, unless you know what you're looking for, which I'll end up giving clues for at a later date... Twaddle. This particular song deals with a portion of the story involving a young woman named Rhonda Garbanzo (hence, the usage of The Beach Boys' hit... couldn't find many songs with the name "Rhonda" in it) that finds herself close to death (hence, "Stairway [to Heaven]" ) after many years of abusing her body and ultimately, her soul. She is promiscuous, a severe alcoholic, and mani...

"Honestly, it's a very chaotic little commentary on a very chaotic time. Some of the sound bites come from campaign ads from 50 years ago; [it's] always a bit of a tightrope between serious and ridiculous," mix master maestro graciously Alan "illchemist" Friedman told me within a brief, yet self-explanatory Facebook DM'ed statement sent Thursday night. Now, take it with a grain of salt, but in my eyes, throughout the course of "A Story of Power," Friedman is essentially commenting on the current state of the nation and better yet, the world: social injustices, our comedy show of a 2016 Presidential "race," this ungodly wet, hot American summer, and general state of unrest—"it's a very, very mad world, mad world," as a wise man once said. "A Story of Power" has supposedly been sitting dormant on the back burner... or more so, the back of illchemist 's hard drive for a few months and as he put it him...

"I gave that lil' cockroach life, and he blasted me / N****s made all those memes, and they laughed at me... He's got 11 GRAMMY nominations, y'all not equal / Maaaan, f__k these white people / My grandma died at 82, scrubbin' floors / and n****s still runnin' 'round beggin' for awards," Jay Electronica ferociously rhymed on "The Curse of Mayweather" Monday; nearly an entire verse-worth of disses aimed at his one-time "Control" collaborator, Kendrick Lamar . Although, President Obama 's favorite emcee didn't seem to let Electronica's claims faze him, as he ended up winning five of 11 GRAMMY awards that very same night. I think it's pretty safe to say Kendrick effectively stole the show with his jarring live performance of "The Blacker The Berry/Alright/Untitled III," which juxtaposed he and a spirited Jazz band amidst an all-too realistic prison backdrop and a bonfire-lit African tribe scenari...

Not even counting his seemingly endless pre- Stones Throw material, veteran emcee Homeboy Sandman has released one album, First of a Living Breed , and about four EP's with the documentary-wielding Indie Hip-Hop label since inking a deal in 2011; most recently having concocted a Jaylib -style collaborative EP with Stones Throw affiliated producer Paul White , ingeniously titled White Sands . According to Stones Throw , Homeboy Sandman 's latest track, "Atlantis" is "one of a few dozen new tracks Sand's been working on this year. Expect to hear the best of them in a new full length album set for Fall 2014 - title, producers and track list TBA." It's single cover is essentially laid out to mimic Nirvana 's iconic Nevermind album artwork and the track itself was produced by insanely prolific rising West Coast rapper-producer Blu . Comfortably nestled atop a jittery off-kilter beat, Homeboy Sandman ferociously raps, "I'd rather l...

It almost pains me to admit it at this point because I thoroughly enjoy their respective newer output(s) so much, but WAVVES and Cloud Nothings are two bands that I just didn't get upon their initial Indie blog break-out nor did I enjoy their purposely lo-fi brand of bedroom-recorded Scuzz-Rock . While veteran rapper-producer El-P is without a doubt a Cloud Nothings super-fan, WAVVES frontman Nathan Williams seems to be a little more vocal admirer; Dylan Baldi recently woke up hungover in Paris to a random text from Williams to the effect of "Yo, wanna make a record together?" He further described their nearly completed Dylan & The Dead -esque album to Exclaim! as something in-between Cloud Nothings & WAVVES with "another [sonic] element that wasn't present in either of our music before." Cloud Nothings finally unveiled the companion music video for their January-released lead single, "I'm Not Part of Me" yesterday, coinci...

It's pretty damn awesome that David Letterman 's people are even remotely interested in booking a disjointed post- Nirvana Sub Pop Art-Punk band like No Age to perform on national TV; following film director and special guest Spike Jonze , drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall took the Letterman side-stage during the wee hours of Thursday night into Friday morning. The band had seemingly re-outfitted the set with stark white sheets, including Spunt's drum kit, and wore matching denim outfits... essentially rendering Late Night with David Letterman into a quasi-art gallery installation, while ripping through "C'mon Stimmung." Not even 5-6 hours after their Letterman performance, No Age released a brand new Oliver Payne -directed video for album track, "I Won't Be Your Generator" in true Noise-Punk Rock fashion, as well. It's an artfully weird intimate-object(s) collage, presented in stark contrast against their rec...

"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...

Once you're able to get past the semi-absurd notion that Jay-Z decided to employ former- N'sync er Justin Timberlake to re-sing some Nirvana lyrics, "And we all just / entertainers / and we're stupid / and contagious," "Holy Grail" is actually a pretty awesome album opener/lead single contender. While Jay-Z & Beyoncé were spotted at a Grizzly Bear show pre- Blueprint 3 and Empire of The Sun frontman Luke Steele actually sang back-up vocals on that very album, it seems as though Beyoncé 's 27-year-old Indie Rock -loving little sister Solange really has quite the influence on Jay-Z 's varied musical tastes; Not only does Magna Carta Holy Grail (MCHG) feature interpolated Nirvana & R.E.M. lyrics, but it also makes use of M.I.A. and Alternative Hip-Hop weirdo Gonjasufi samples, "Bad Girls" and "Nikels and Dimes" respectively. Thanks to Samsung Galaxies , MCHG has already "sold" 1 million+ cop...

Ye, I can almost picture it now: Justin Timberlake pleading with his semi-distraught wife, Jessica Biel , "But babe, it's NOT nudity...it's art!" Billboard reports that Timberlake's latest album, The 20/20 Experience has sold 2 million+ plus copies since it's March release and previous singles, "Suit & Tie" and "Mirrors" still remain firmly fixed atop the Billboard Hot 100 . Just in time for Fourth of July Weekend , Justin Timberlake unleashed a steamy new video-single for "Tunnel Vision," which was co-directed by Jonathan Craven, Simon McLoughlin , and Jeff Nicholas . Call it a gentlemen's rivalry, if you will, but some might compare Timberlake's scantily-clad music video to Robin Thicke 's original banned-from- YouTube "Blurred Lines" clip. Although one could also argue that Thicke basically stole Timberlake's Blue-Eyed Soul musical style [SWAG] or even vice versa. "Tunnel Vision...

"The recurring theme in this group is we are all NASTY producers who can rap, NASTILY. [It's] a completely self-sufficient, well-oiled machine," Jonwayne lamented about Digital Diamonds , via Twitter late Friday afternoon. He released a Nirvana -sampling track online a few months ago along with Scoop DeVille under the group name, which has now expanded to include Chuck Inglish . It's Inglish's first major project since The Cool Kids went on indefinite hiatus [broke up?] While Jonwayne on the other hand, is currently busy mixing/mastering his proper Stones Throw debut and Scoop DeVille has produced tracks for everyone from Snoop Dogg to Das Racist (R.I.P.) and Kendrick Lamar 's recent hit singles "The Recipe" and "Poetic Justice." "Delirious" is a CLASSIC hard-hitting Hip-Hop beat that sounds like it might've been collectively co-produced by Jonwayne, Chuck Inglish & Scoop DeVille . It seems to sample some...

I guess since most Hardcore/Post-Punk bands play righteous live shows nearly 1/2-all year 'round, might be the reason why they usually make weird, abstract music videos. Toronto 's very own METZ recently teamed up with director Scott Cudmore to create the slightly disturbing, alternate reality that is "Wasted." It's a pretty fucked up ride through a creepy 90's mall-style photo-portrait studio, like where teenie boppers get glamour shots done. We're talkin' about some downright deranged and uncomfortably "seedy"-looking characters: a wonky-eyed/balloon-covered couple, milk-chugging goths , a family with babyface killah son, in-expert swordsmen, strangely unfazed bloody people, etc. Sonically, "Wasted" sounds kinda like a sludge-filled mash-up between Nirvana and The Jesus Lizard , being brutally beaten with rhythmic sledgehammers, and recorded in an abandoned barn by co-producers Graham Walsh and Alexandre Bonenfan t ha. Ale...

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...

Jack Davey is pretty widely known as the fashion-forward, genre-blending frontwoman of "Hip-Hop" group J*Davey , but now she's decided to branch out on her own... forging a solo career as a slightly more Rock "N" Roll -tinged sultry Funk-Soul songstress. Fresh off the heels of their long-awaited and [finally] self-released proper album, New Designer Drug and following the birth of her new-born son, Davey is readying her solo debut in 2 distinct parts; ILLAV8R is planning to liberate L0-F! Side A on Oct. 2nd, which Jack Davey simply describes as "a girl, her shitty guitar, and introspective songwriting." It's follow-up, Side B will see a Nov. 6th release, feature more instrumentation/advanced guitar techniques, and was produced by Joey Strat of The Knux . L0-F! Parts 1-2 will then be re-released together in a DELUXE edition with 3 bonus tracks on Dec. 11th! "Howl at The Moon" mysteriously appeared in my Inbox late yesterday ...

For starters, Daughn Gibson 's voice kinda sounds like an oddly appropriate mix between Johnny Cash , Barry White , and a bowl-full of coarse gravel; a style which is more than likely a direct result of teenage years spent drumming with assorted Philly and New York -area Hardcore Punk/Metal bands and the 10 years' time traveling cross-country in a BIG empty mac truck, blasting radio-transmitted Country music. When Daughn Gibson moved from his childhood town of Narazeth, PA to Carlisle in late 2010-11, he recorded what eventually ended up being All Hell ... simply created because "there weren't as many like-minded musicians to start a band with." Gibson's close friend Matt Korvette from Pissed Jeans pressed up a limited LP release of All Hell on his home-grown Indie label imprint, White Denim . Daughn Gibson then decided to follow that up with a 2-track 45 and Bandcamp digi-single simply titled, "Lite Me Up" in conjunction with Dull Kni...

Jonwayne must've tracked down a copy of that bare bones Nirvana - "In Bloom" (a capella) mp3 when it leaked way back in 2008. I'm pretty sure that Jonwayne chopped up and remixed Kurt Cobain 's POWERFUL, echoing vocals into a broading Boom-Bap track, which has now been cleverly re-titled "In Spite." Wayne quietly uploaded the track to Soundcloud just a few days ago under the musical moniker, "Digital Diamonds" and fellow rapper-producer Scoop DeVille is the other 1/2 of his new Rap Band . All of the new track's assorted, miscellaneous parts are essentially built and anchored together around Cobain's skeletal vocal performance. "In Spite" somehow manages to inter-weave Kurt's heart-felt wail right against Jonwayne/ Scoop DeVille 's rhymes, effortlessly blending in like a deep-rooted hook. I wonder what Digital Diamonds have in store for us next... a mixtape? Joint album? They've gotta be up to something, ...