The Witzard

While they generally make a unique brand of self-loathing, love sick Dream Pop , Swedish duo JJ (formerly known as "jj" )'s music has always been heavily influenced by Hip-Hop and R&B ; take their latest single "All White Everything" for example, sonically it's a crisp piano ballad accented by a sparse Hip-Hop drum pattern about mid-way through, who's title is seemingly an allusion to Jay-Z 's Kanye & Rihanna -assisted smash single, "Run This Town." It's our first legitimate taste from JJ 's forthcoming album for Sincerely Yours/Secretly Canadian V , which will be their first proper full-length since jj n° 3 (2010). Aside from it's August 19th release date, 12-song tracklist, and cryptic album artwork , little else is known about V . Roughly two weeks before unveiling the aforementioned information, bandmates and apparent couple Elin Kastlander & Joakim Benon quietly uploaded a 45-second JJ V album trailer...

1/3 of Swedish Indie-Pop group Peter Bjorn & John , Peter Morén is gearing up to release a series of Swedish-to-English EP's in the coming months; his four-track Broken Swenglish (Vol. 1) will see a Monday, December 9th digital-release on the band's Swedish -based collective imprint, INGRID . Stereogum premiered a new, previously unreleased Peter Morén track called "Constant Reaction" late Tuesday afternoon. It's a guitar-drenched romper of a track, which is a little bit more Rock -oriented that Peter Bjorn & John 's typically super-chill output. "Constant Reaction" is more of less an aggressive six-string musical response "that plays [out] like The Smiths , if Morrissey had a lot more protein in his diet." Peter Morén personally sent Stereogum a little bit of introspective background info on it's creation: "I wrote this after the awful shootings against a youth-camp in 2011 on the island Utöya outside of Oslo ...

Once you get past the deeply religious/Satanic imagery, 5 Nameless Ghouls , and dark brooding undertones, Ghost [B.C.] are a damn good Heavy Metal/Rock band; However, I'd personally liken them more to formative Heavy Metal bands like Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult , etc. despite repeated allusions to the occult. Ghost are fronted by a mysterious Pope -like figurehead who goes by "Papa Emeritus II" (formerly Papa Emeritus ) and he's usually flanked on-stage by 5 cloaked Nameless Ghouls , which each represent the five elements: fire, water, wind, Earth , and ether. Filmed by Rob Semmer at 2 recent Los Angeles and New York -based gigs, the band's new video "Monstrance Clock" is pretty much your standard Rock "N" Roll performance clip. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to catch the tail-end of the Swedes' blistering set at Metallica 's first annual Orion Music + More Festival last summer... It's the last track on Ghost 's ...

While I think my overall musical tastes are pretty cultured and broad-spanning/sound, I must admit that I'm not too keen on current world music. Honestly, when I hear "World Music," what first comes to mind is African Tribal drums, Middle Eastern Acid Rock, Swedish Pop , Mariachi, and South African jam bands . I'm vaguely familiar with Asian Jazz-Fusion , Grime, bagpipe-led Celtic Punk , and Finnish/Norwegian Death Metal. When I first got my learner's permit [license] back in high school, my buddy Ryan and I were driving all over New Jersey , searching for terribly assembled D.I.Y. Punk shows @ dirty VFW halls and seedy hole-in-the-wall bars/clubs. 1970-80's Hardcore Punk is generally associated with it's formative New York , California , and UK scenes... But I guess we, myself included, tend to forget that there are rebellion-fueled, aggressive, socially awkward teens all over the world! Somehow, throughout my 10-12 year relationship with Punk Roc...

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I was seriously considering writing up a review for Frank Ocean 's just-released, Billboard chart-topping album: channel ORANGE ... until I saw Refused rip shit up on Fallon @ 1am late last night. Refused are a pretty infamous, recently re-formed Swedish Hardcore band that were originally active from 1991-98; They released 3 seminal albums in their heyday - including The Shape of Punk to Come , while it was critically-acclaimed, the band still feels that it didn't get a proper "push" back in the day (1998). "We never did The Shape of Punk to Come justice back when it came out; too tangled up in petty internal bickering to really focus on the job. And suddenly there's this possibility to do it like it was intended. We wanna do it over, do it right. For the people who've kept the music alive through the years, but also for our own sakes. We feel that you deserve it and we hope the feeling is mutual!" - Refused While taking part in a full-fledge...

Even though I only caught roughly 35 minutes-worth of their set sunday afternoon [running 2-3], Ghost undoubted made the biggest impact on my musical ear this weekend @ Metallica 's first annual Orion Festival . Frontman "Papa Emeritus" and his band of 5 cloaked Nameless Ghouls flew in from Sweden @ buddy James Hetfield 's special request. Ghost has been garnering a note-worthy amount of blog-based buzz since about 2010 coinciding with the release of their debut album, Opus Eponymous . Somehow warranting rumored claims of "Satanism" practice , I personally think Ghost make music that sounds like Classic Rock/Metal : Black Sabbath , Cream, Blue Öyster Cult , Metallica, The Rolling Stones , etc. Donning their now infamous priest/peasant-inspired hooded garb, Ghost ripped through a 10-12-somg set, including a spot on "Here Comes The Sun" cover, in the blistering 90° Atlantic City heat. Visually, it all vaguely reminds me of what KISS grew oh...

Mysterious, Hip-Hop -loving Dream Pop duo, jj burst onto the Indie music scene sometime back in 2009. Elin & Joakim soon inked a deal with Sweden -based label, Sincerely Yours . In a similar vein to Nine Inch Nails' "Halo" system, each of jj 's major releases thusfar have been labeled, "jj n° 1-3." My personal favourite jj project, "kills" was quietly liberated over Christmas Break 2010-11; Elin & Joakim 's interpretation of "the mixtape" was pretty similar to the American ideal... and featured 10 well-done, lush flips of a handful of 2010's most Popular hits: Dr. Dre, Taio Cruz , M.I.A. Jay-Z , T-Pain, Diddy-Dirty Money , and Kanye. jj essentially released an album's-worth of complementary material online over the course of 2011, some of which may [or may not] eventually end up re-appearing on "jj n° 4" (IN ETERNITY) . A few weeks ago, I emailed a batch of 10 questions over to jj and just th...

jj is an up-and-coming Hip-Hop tinged Swedish Pop group, consisting of Elin & Joakim . Already 2 full-length albums deep into their fledging career... It seems as though jj have started an annual tradition of releasing Grade A non-album content every Christmas . Last year, it was "kills" (mixtape) and this time, it's a double present: "eve of destruction-vi." Nearly a year later, "kills" is still available for download. The highly-recommended set includes dark Dream Pop re-interpretations of Dr. Dre, Taio Cruz, M.I.A. Jay-Z , Dirty Money , and Kanye -penned hits. Originally released around Dec. 15-20th, "eve of destruction" seems to be a quasi-protest song; Made famous by Barry McGuire and written by P.F. Sloan (1965), jj have re-purposed the track for reasons yet unknown. Even though parts of the lyrics are somewhat incomprehensible and the bulk of online content is written in Swedish ... You can sense the sheer passion an...

While Ann Arbor, Michigan Doo-Wop singer (multi-instrumentalist) Mayer Hawthorne and Stockholm, Sweden -based Peter Bjorn & John couldn't be further apart distance-wise... They do in fact have a common affinity for Pop music . With that said, this track right here ultimately houses the essential Teenage Dream Pop team-up! Mayer Hawthorne has added his own unique vocal accents and flourishes onto PB&J's Soft Rock original , effectively morphing the track into a Doo-Wop tune for The Age of Tomorrow. Let us hope that this is only the modest beginning(s) of Peter Bjorn & John x Mayer Hawthorne 's collaborative efforts. Their latest albums -- Gimme Some and How Do You Do? -- are currently available for for your purchasing and listening pleasure. Catch Peter Bjorn & John and Mayer Hawthorne [& The County] in a town near you... As both bands are now in-midst of their respective nation-wide promotional tour jaunts. MAYER HAWTHORNE FOR DETROIT LIO...