The Witzard

Barcelona -based Latin Alternative producer Pablo Diaz-Reixa 's 2010 Young Turks/XL album under his El Guincho guise is easily a shimmering David Bowie & Michael Jackson -influenced Spanish -language Psych-Pop masterpiece. I've been (im)patiently awaiting Diaz-Reixa's proper follow-up to his nearly flawless Pop Negro for a solid year or so and now, it seems like he's finally readied his fourth album, Hiperasia for a digital release February 12th and a physical release a mere month later on March 11th. For those not exactly familiar with El Guincho 's frenzied sample-laden output, it sounds like something similar to Vampire Weekend 's Paul Simon Graceland -influenced "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" era material, which has additionally been described as Tropicália , Psych-Pop, and "Space-Age Exotica" stylized rhythms. Formerly the drummer for seemingly defunct Experimental-Batucada group Coconot , Pablo Diaz-Reixa has released three a...

Jacksonville 's very own genre-blending Alt. Country superstar Ryan Adams is in fact, no stranger to recording full-length cover albums; Adams reportedly recorded, and ultimately scrapped, a stripped down 4-track revision of The Strokes' critically-acclaimed debut Is This It? (2001). But for whatever reasons, Adams' " Blues cover version" has rather discouragingly still only been heard by members of his former backing band, The Cardinals . Ryan Adams' second attempt (or third, if you count his unheard Vampire Weekend album), at a full-length cover album: a self-described Smiths -indebted version of Taylor Swift 's recent career-redefining 1989 has been very well-documented through his own personal social media accounts. "Ryan's music helped shape my song-writing. This is surreal and dream-like. Countdown to [Ryan Adams' 1989] @TheRyanAdams ," @taylorswift13 frantically Tweeted Thursday afternoon, upon the sudden announcement ...

"Throughout its storied three-year existence, Troubled Waters has emerged as the world's preeminent Paul Simon tribute band, attracting a passionate fan following in multiple states. Evoking the heavenly vocals, poignant lyrics, and sensible wardrobe of the greatest Folk-Rock artist of all time. Troubled Waters has taken every effort to mimic that classic P-Sim sound, withe exception of some of the more complex arrangements on Graceland ," reads the brief artist biography on mysterious Late Show with Stephen Colbert inaugural week guests, Troubled Waters . "So sit back, feel groovy, and remember what the man himself said: "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls, and whispered in the sound... of Troubled Waters ," the band's rather sparse website continues, making a few clever allusions to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Simon solo hit "Feelin' Groovy." While it was widely assumed to...

Despite, or maybe even because of, the fact that critically-acclaimed Queens emcee Despot has yet to release his oft-delayed, nearly 10 years in-the-making debut, We're All Excited , he's somehow still able to "rub shoulders" and get a casual Sunday brunch with industry heavyweights like Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig and 21-22 Jump Street leading man, Jonah Hill . Fresh on the heels of his recent Evan "E*VAX" Mast -produced lead single lifted from his seemingly soon forthcoming album, Despot has unleashed his "first" proper music video for "House of Bricks;" although, he's previously appeared on film alongside Mr. Muthaf**kin' eXquire , Das Racist, Vampire Weekend , a pre- Run The Jewels El-P & Killer Mike , Sky Ferreira, Chromeo , and Santigold. "Me and Evan [Mast] have been talking about this album since I met him, so we have hypothetically been working on this album for close to 10 years... Most of th...

"Local man who never does anything quietly releases single on a Sunday afternoon," @despotroast half-jokingly Tweeted this past Sunday afternoon, but truth is: 33-year-old rhyming Queens native Alec Reinstein was initially signed to El-P 's now-dissolved label Def Jux from 2004-10 and has been actively working, scrapping, and repeatedly re-working his "debut" album, either titled We're All Excited , Hooray for Me , or Jerry , ever since to no avail. Despot has almost made an intern "career" out of recording nearly flawless guest verses for his friends, having recorded with everyone from Vampire Weekend to Meyhem Lauren . His latest single, "House of Bricks," which totals just about less than five overall releases, was produced by RATATAT multi-instrumentalist Evan "E*VAX" Mast and seems to date back to about August 2012 in it's earliest incarnation; Despot performed the track, then titled "House Made of Br...

Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig has had a pretty buzz-worthy year; having appeared on genre-blending tracks with Major Lazer , SBTRKT, Chromeo , @Seinfeld2000 , and even a duet with Karen O on the Her soundtrack. Koenig's latest outer-band activity includes a Twitter -esque "rapped-sung" verse on new-comer iLoveMakonnen 's Red Bull Music -backed "Down 4 So Long" Remix , which was released over the weekend along with 1,000 free downloads as part of their 20 Before 15 singles series. " @iLoveMakonnen5D and @despotroast (Despot) could both put out greatest hits albums and neither one has ever made an album," @arzE Koenig affectionately Tweeted about his fellow collaborators and new-found buddies upon "Down 4 So Long"' s release. Koenig and Despot 's appended verses add an air of fun and familiarity to Makonnen 's "Down 4 So Long," which is reportedly about the accidental shooting death of his high scho...

"[a] beach boys meets ty$ kinda vibe," @diplo Tweeted early Thursday afternoon, attempting to best describe his latest Soundcloud upload, "LONG WAY HOME;" a quasi-remix, or more so a loose cover, of Ty Dollar $ign 's non-album single, "Stand For" re-recorded with Grizzly Bear/Vampire Weekend members Ed Droste & Rostam . "its about time that indie rock acts started to co-opt rap beats," Diplo lamented in the track's short-lived Soundcloud description, which Pitchfork points out, was imminently deleted. I was just telling my beautiful girlfriend, in terms of sheer line-blurring concept, "LONG WAY HOME" vaguely reminds me of Vampire Weekend 's middle-of-the-road Indie Rock/Hip-Hop hybrid track, "Step (Wintertime Remix)" featuring appended verses from Danny Brown , Heems, and Despot . "Stand For," the structural basis for "LONG WAY HOME," was actually co-produced by Diplo ...

Los Angeles sister act HAIM have indeed dabbled with Hip-Hop in the past, whether it be nearly getting recruited as A$AP Rocky 's backing band or appearing on genre-blending Kid Cudi and Childish Gambino tracks... But now they've enlisted rising A$AP Mob emcee, A$AP Ferg to append a ferocious add-on verse to their Days Are Gone album stand-out, "My Song 5." It's not entirely unlike a visual Where's Waldo? of seemingly everyone Danielle, Este & Alana Haim have encountered or befriended while on the road over the last couple years; featured emcee A$AP Ferg , Ke$ha, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig , Grimes, Big Sean , SNL comedian Vanessa Bayer, Mama & Papa Haim , producer Ariel Rechtshaid, and even "Artemis" from It's Always Sunny . Leading up to it's Tuesday afternoon release, @HAIMtheband's long-rumored "My Song 5" video was subtly teased with cleverly edited 90's screen-grabs from Sally Jessy Ra...

"did a song with @SBTRKT called "NEW DORP, NEW YORK" - listen 2 the radio 1 rip if u like" Columbia scholar @arzE Koenig Tweeted late Tuesday afternoon. The mysterious masked London -based producer has been hinting at the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed self-titled 2011 LP for quite some time now and recently released a series of mid-album Transitions EP's . Wonder Where We Land will see a wide release on Young Turks this forthcoming September 22-23rd; SBTRKT has recruited his frequent collaborators Sampha and Jessie Ware along with Chairlift songstress Caroline Polachek , A$AP Ferg, Warpaint , Denai Moore, Koreless , Raury, and Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig . The aforementioned Koenig-featuring track, "NEW DORP, NEW YORK," serves as the album's lead/teaser single; it's a weirdly fitting modern mash-up of Post-Dubstep break-beats and a slightly re-tooled infamous line cherry-picked from "Ballroom Blitz" (...

"I asked your boss for your number. I never wondered which way it would go. You woke me up from my slumber. Now let me break your work flow. It's not a lot, but all I wanna do is skip town on a weekend with you. There's still so much to discover There's still a lot we don't know," read a recent suspiciously rhythmic-sounding Craigslist missed connections posting. It's actually a thinly veiled album release announcement for Chromeo 's new album, " White Women (title) 05-12-14 (date) - m4w," which also includes the Retro-80's album artwork. The FADER dually notes that the address listed with the posting, 701 1st Ave. N , was actually the location of First Avenue , Prince 's favourite hometown Minneapolis venue, where Purple Rain 's concert sequences were filmed. White Women , a self-described Larry David Funk album, is rumored to house a few choice cuts assisted by frequent collaborator Solange , Toro Y Moi, Vampire Weekend...

Fresh off their recent Best Alternative Music Album Grammy win, Vampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio has announced a six-date Drake -referencing wordy-titled "Would You Be Interested in a Mira Tour? Tour 2014." BAIO , who's actually the second cousin of Happy Days teen-actor Scott Baio , released his second Electro-Dance EP (Mira) back in October; and to coincide with the tour web-announcement, Chris Baio uploaded a 41-minute DJ mix titled, "Would You Be Interested in a Mira Tour? Tour 2014 Tour Mix" to Soundcloud late Friday morning. While it's currently without a proper tracklist, BAIO 's mega-mix includes plenty of unreleased music, off-kilter Dance tracks, Tribal beats, semi-dated House rhythms, etc. But after Shazaming a few random sonic-moments, I was able to identify a handful of interesting artists: Dense & Pika , Bjørn Torske, Meramek , and an extended remix of BAIO 's very own Future Classic EP title track, "Mira....

Just mere minutes before the stroke of 12 midnight New Year's Eve 2013-14, @vampireweekend Tweeted out a pretty self-explanatory mini-message: " wintertime remix of "Step" featuring Danny Brown, Heems & Despot . Happy New Years from Vampire Weekend ," along with a smarturl hyper-link. It's the kinda thing that probably shouldn't work anywhere near as well as it actually does, and I'd guess that this is your typical Pitchfork staff writer's ideal wet-dream collabo scenario ha. "Step" (Wintertime Remix) builds off frontman Ezra Koenig 's original, penned for Modern Vampires of The City and acts as the B-side to lead single, "Diane Young" [see below]. When juxtaposed against Koenig's past relationship reminiscing lyrics, Danny Brown, Heems & Despot manage to fit in surprisingly well with "Step"' s running theme. While the track's supposedly based off an unreleased and re-purposed Sou...

Chromeo , David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel , are without a doubt two of the forefathers of now über-trendy futuristic-leaning Electro-Funk ; they've been making smooth Space-Funk together since the mid-90's, but somehow only unleashed their first album, She's In Control , as recently as 2004. While Chromeo 's fourth album, White Women still lacks a solid release date, that indeed hasn't stopped them from kicking a promotional campaign into full gear! After releasing two teaser singles within the last few months, Dave 1 & P-Thugg stopped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Tuesday-Wednesday night, along with fellow Canadian buddies Death from Above 1979 and "The Sexy Socialites" (a fully fleshed out Gospel choir). The recently reunited 2-piece have seemingly been delegated to Chromeo 's backing band, while Dave 1 & P-Thugg took on the role of a 1980's-minded Back to The Future -like Electr...

Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover ) hasn't really released much new material since unleashing last year's feature-heavy Camp follow-up mixtape, ROYALTY . But it sounds like the former Community star is planning to unveil what will likely be a new full-length mixtape [or album?], because the internet , "this winter break;" and if @DonaldGlover's Twitter feed is to be believed, it just might house collaborative tracks with buddies Kid Cudi , Flying Lotus, and Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), as well as his other recent web-single, "Centipede." because the internet 's latest rumored inclusion, "Yaphet Kotto" (freestyle) was uploaded to Gambino's Soundcloud page roughly a week ago. Preceded only by a Skylar-White -drowning- Breaking-Bad -like teaser trailer, "Yaphet Kotto" showcases Childish Gambino blatantly addressing his detractors: "Worst rapper to ever spit on an open mic / Worst rapper to ever get on so...

Well, this is quite easily the coolest impromptu event I've seen or heard happen in mainstream music in quite some time; Dusting off any pre-concieved notions of banjo-aided Bluegrass or College Rock labeling, frontman Marcus Mumford recruited a couple of friends to help his band, Mumford & Sons , perform a spirited cover of The Beatles/Joe Cocker 's two-headed hit, "With a Little Help from My Friends" at Glastonbury last night. Mumford's posse was effectively joined on stage by Ezra Koenig and 2 additional members of Vampire Weekend, The Vaccines, First Aid Kit, Staves , and a few more musically-inclined buddies. Mumford & Sons seem to have modeled their call-and-response cover after Cocker's Soul -drenched 1968 rendition, which I first heard on The Wonders Years as a kid... not even knowing it was a Beatles song 'til years later! The original "With a Little Help from My Friends" is of course, comfortably nestled within The Be...

Following a largely un-fullfilled search for a copy of Modern Vampires of The City that aimlessly led me across Cumberland County , I realized that aside from 2-3 well-executed lyric videos, Vampire Weekend have yet to release a proper music video in support of their new album; Whilst still grabbing headlines by torching a couple Saab 900's and hanging out with "distant second cousin" Steve Buscemi , the New York -based band finally unleashed a "Diane Young" video Monday morning. Continuing a long-standing trend that started with "Giving Up The Gun" (2010), director Primo Kahn somehow managed to recruit a very interesting cast of characters: Chromeo , Dave Longstreth (Dirty Projectors), Sky Ferreira , Despot , Santigold, Hamilton Leithauser (The Walkmen), and a ski-masked man that just might be cameraman Kahn himself. What starts out looking mysteriously like a modern-day Last Supper slowly morphs into a righteous "dinner party where g...

It all started when my older cuz Josh burned me a stack of CD-R's full of pirated music; I couldn't really tell you what was in there... But probably some Beastie Boys , mid-90's Ska, Dave Matthews Band , Phish, mash-ups, and Ryan Adams - "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)." It's a self-loathing Alt. Country romper pulled from Adam's solo debut, Heartbreaker (2000), which was later featured in Accepted and Old School . Ryan Adams' abridged discography includes about 13 albums and he's recorded [and vaulted] records-full of everything from Death Metal to Hip-Hop and unreleased Vampire Weekend/The Strokes covers CD-R's. Judd Apatow 's latest film, This Is 40 showcases a specially-formed Ryan Adams Band along with keyboardist Ian McLagan (The Faces) who performed during it's final scenes. Ryan Adams even contributed re-recorded live tracks for inclusion on it's soundtrack, "Lucky Now" and "Shin...

Vampire Weekend successfully managed to engage car enthusiasts nation-wide after torching 2 Saab 900's for use in their "Diane Young" [promo] video; It's unclear what kind of condition the cars were in when Vampire Weekend 's team acquired the used vehicles. The Internet -savvy gearheads @ Jalopnik even penned a heated article titled "Vampire Weekend Are a Bunch of Dicks," which essentially calls out the band. Refuting claims that the 2 Saabs were sold under sketchy circumstances and "torched like a pile of leaves," frontman Ezra Koenig blessed Spinner with quite a few choice words/quotes: "I want people to understand that we do respect cars and the last thing we want to do is to fuck up a collector's item or something like that. Hopefully people believe me when I say that our record label was trying to purchase the cheapest, oldest cars possible; They weren't trying to buy a beautiful perfect condition car." Koeni...

Without sounding like a TOTAL Hipster douchebag , which I can honestly assure you I am NOT.... I can vividly remember downloading Vampire Weekend 's self-leaked 2007 demo tape and burning it onto a Blue CD-R before anybody else even knew about them! Vampire Weekend are "Tribal -infused" in the same sense that The Police were a "Reggae" band , riddim [rhythm] and Funky melodies; Evenly spread across their then upcoming self-titled debut record, Vampire Weekend somehow managed to find a way to seamlessly blend Indie Rock , Pop sensibility, "Yacht Rock," Punk Rock ideologies, Tribal drums, keen fashion sense, and a wide variety of assorted influences. The band's follow-up, Contra (2010) is most def one of my favourite albums of the past 10 years and while it's chock-full of instantly catchy hit jams, nothing beats "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa!" Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Baio & Chris Tomson took a little break b...

While Philly DJ-producer Dilpo and his record label, Mad Decent have been an instrumental part of the ever-growing Electro House/Dubstep scene(s) since roughly, 2003... Most people really don't even realize how familiar they are with Diplo 's discography: "Paper Planes," Kid Cudi, "Run The World (Girls)," Usher, Die Antwoord , Wale, Chris Brown Busta Rhymes , and even an upcoming Reggae album with Snoop Dogg . Dilpo 's current passion project, Major Lazer was started out as a collaboration with Switch - who effectively jumped ship in Dec. 2011. Major Lazer is represented by a cartoon frontman who's basically a "bionic Jamaican super-commando and nightclub owner who fights zombies and vampires on a rocket-powered skateboard." Diplo is currently hoed up in Kingston, Jamaica earnestly working on the proper follow-up to Major Lazer 's well-received Indie Rock breakthrough, Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do (2009). T...