The Witzard

Just about a month ago, Bearded Gentlemen Music scribe and Twitter personality Dane Jackson (parody) ( @almightydanish ) alerted his oodles of trusty Followers, and I paraphrase, they "should totally check out The Pomps' "Ska-ellar" new album, Bottom of The Pomps." So, we obviously dropped everything we were doing and immediately went and checked out Bottom of The Pomps and, indeed, totally loved it! It was released on rapidly-growing Alameda, California-based Ska/Ska Punk label Bad Time Records , who has very recently issued albums and EP's from We Are The Union, CATBITE, JER, The Suicide Machines & Coquettish, DISSIDENTE, Joystick!, FOLLY & The Best of The Worst, Eichlers, and Abaskadabra. Then, one thing led to another and soon enough, we had gotten in direct contact with The Pomps' founding member, vocalist, and guitarist Alex Stern (Big D & The Kids Table, The Inevitables, The Sterns ,) via email transmission. Stern and I got a chanc...

Less Than Jake with New Drummer Matt Yonker (CREDIT: Paris Visone) Less Than Jake (LTJ) are without a doubt Ska Punk stalwarts, at this stage of their career, having been a non-stop touring machine for the past 30 years. LTJ have been one of my personal favorite bands for quite some time now and they're, honestly, one of the bands I've seen live the most. Way back when, in The Witzard's earliest aughts, we conducted an interview (better yet, a Twitter-view ) via Twitter, with long-time LTJ bassist and co-vocalist Roger "Lima" Manganelli. Plus, we've spoken with both guitarist/co-vocalist Chris DeMakes and former drummer/pseudo-frontman Vinnie Fiorello on seperate occasions, but never for an actual published interview. Less Than Jake are easily one of the most fun charismatic bands I've ever seen live and one time, in Philly at The TLA, they even invited the entire crowd (well, anyone 21+) to accompany them to the bar for post-show beers. Oddly e...