The Witzard

Early on in their career, Leeds -based band alt-J were quickly heralded as "The Next Radiohead" due to their extremely well-orchestrated, thought-provoking brand of Indie/Art Rock heard across their 2012 full-length debut, An Awesome Wave . Then, Joe Newman, Thom Sonny Green & Gus Unger-Hamilton did a total 180° and more or less, alienated nearly half of their new-found fans—à la: Beastie Boys' 1987 single "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)" debacle—by releasing tongue-in-cheek über- "American" single, "Left Hand Free" from 2014's This Is All Yours ... but, unsurprisingly, "the least alt-J song ever" pretty much back-fired because no one got it, including the label, and the song rapidly became, quite arguably, one of their biggest smash-hits to date. Last summer, alt-J suddenly returned this their third album (technically, an EP) RELAXER , which in the months since, has become my personal favorite release...

Late Thursday night into early Friday morning, while everyone else was listening to the livestream of Nas' Kanye -produced NASIR EP from G.O.O.D. Music 's Queens Listening Session/Party , I was listening to alt-J on Repeat, instead. Right around 12:10am, I got an email from Atlantic Records titled "New Version of "In Cold Blood" Released Today;" when I opened up said alt-J Fan Club email, I learned it was actually, a Twin Shadow re-work of RELAXER single "In Cold Blood" with a guest verse from G.O.O.D. Music Prez. Pusha-T himself. It wasn't until a little later, I realized alt-J had actually, appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Thursday night with Twin Shadow frontman George Lewis, Jr. and Pusha-T in tow to perform the world premiere of "In Cold Blood" (Twin Shadow Version.) Now, let me just say this: I'm a fan of all three artists' bodies of work, especially, alt-J 's RELAXER , Pusha-T's My ...