The Witzard

Over Easter Weekend, MATAMOSKA! (@matamoska) posted a rather cryptic message on Instagram, which simply read: "[soundcloud] exclusive only." along with a Monkey Emoji and hashtags "#matamoska&friends" and "#thespecials." It took a little while, but with some earnest digital sleuthing, we soon stumbled upon MATAMOSKA! & Friends' cover of The Specials' "Monkey Man" uploaded to multi-instrumentalist and mixing engineer Esteban Flores Valenzuela 's Soundcloud page. According to Facebook, MATAMOSKA! 's core line-up consists of Flores on keyboards/backing vocals, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Jose Padilla , drummer Richard Sanchez , bassist Hector Rivera , trumpet player Ivan Lopez , trombonist Robert Verdugo , and tenor saxophonist Jovan Loera . We first heard about by way of their amazingly-titled 2017 album SKALLUMINATI released on limited edition cassette through Illinois-based In The Lake Records . Next we heard from MATAM...

During the height of his mid-90's heyday, Fiend chalked up studio time with both No Limit Records (Master P) and Ruff Ryders Ent. (DMX) . But the man AKA Ricky "International" Jones now calls Curren$y 's micro-label, Jet Life Recordings homebase. I was first turned onto Fiend about a year or 2 ago with Tom Breihan 's Stereogum entrance post; Breihan's future posts would chronicle Fiend 's cleverly-executed sample flips of The Specials and Washed Out originals. While Fiend somehow managed to record and release roughly 6 mixtapes between 2011-12, he's remained un-characteristically silent throughout the latter 1/2 of this year. "Wonderful" was quietly released Tuesday afternoon and features a Funky RJ2 beat and a guest verse from Jet Life labelhead, Curren$y . I'm not really sure where this one'll eventually end up, but let's hope that a Fiend/Jet Life mixtape materializes "sooner than later!"

"Hi, readers of Stereogum ! My name is Tom Breihan , and I'm the older of the two new guys around here. A few Internet Eons ago, I wrote the "Status Ain't Hood" blog for The Village Voice . For the past couple of years, I've been a staff writer @ Pitchfork . And yes, that means Brandon and I just acted out our own 80's body-switching comedy. He's Judge Reinhold . I'm Fred Savage . A few things about me: I'm tall enough that complete strangers point and stare. I come from the beautiful town of Baltimore, Maryland ; Perhaps you've enjoyed our byzantine crime dramas on television. I'm a dad. This past weekend, I moved from Chicago to Virginia , which was not fun. I like dogs and nachos and professional wrestling . I really, really like Rap music , so you can expect to see some more of that around here." "For my first post, my new bosses here @ Stereogum have graciously allowed me to pick a new song to share. I...