The Witzard

The Hanukkah Sessions - CREDIT: Lego Dave Grohl (@LegoDaveGrohl) Last year, Foo Fighters frontman and esteemed writer Dave Grohl and producer, multi-instrumentalist, and song-writer Greg Kurstin teamed up once more for The Hanukkah Sessions : a series of eight performance videos covering the likes of the Beastie Boys, Drake, Mountain, Peaches, Bob Dylan, Elastica, The Knack, and The Velvet Underground. Eight Jewish artists, one for each night of Hanukkah 2020. Sunday night, the first night of Hanukkah, Grohl & Kurstin re-emerged with Night One of The Hanukkah Sessions 2021. "Welcome back to the menorah, y'all. Let's kick it this year's Hanukkah Sessions with one of Dallas, Texas' favorite Jewish daughters. So, put on your coffee shop spectacles and your Betsey Johnson dress and HAVA listen to this... "Stay" by Lisa Loeb," read a video description uploaded along with Night One's festive candle-lit offering. Yes, Dave Grohl & Greg Ku...

The Internet really is a never-ending Twilight Zone -esque worm hole of a place sometimes; case in point, just last night, after returning home from rollicking Sweat N Soul -filled a Har Mar Superstar concert in the depths of Philly around 1-1:30am, I wasted nearly an hour aimlessly Googling covers from Sean Tillmann 's one-time touring mate and fellow Tillman(n) , Father John Misty ... starting with two unabashedly ironic Taylor Swift in the vein of Ryan Adam 's 1989 covers and ultimately, ending up at a sparse SiriusXM cover of Nirvana 's "Heart-Shaped Box." Somewhere down the seemingly endless sonic worm hole I created, I stumbled upon @fatherjohnmisty 's sprawling, wonderfully executed renditions of widely-known Leonard Cohen , The Arcade Fire, John Lennon , Rihanna, and most recently, Nine Inch Nails classics. Former Fleet Foxes drummer and ironic "rockstar" Josh Tillman unexpectedly covered NIN 's breakout anti-pop hit, "Cl...

"My interpretation [of "Blank Space" ] from the classic Ryan Adams album "1989,"' former Fleet Foxes drummer and semi-ironic, self-loathing Indie-Pop superstar Josh Tillman aka @fatherjohnmisty Tweeted Monday evening on the heels of Ryan Adams' just-released Taylor Swift 1989 covers album. Tillman was seemingly riffing on Adams' 1989 re-imagined in the style of Bruce Springsteen 's Darkness On The Edge of Town meets The Smiths' Meat Is Murder , sloppily crooning Swift's chart-topping "Blank Space" and "Welcome to New York" in the style of Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed . "In the studio working on a [song-for-song] reinterpretation of Ryan Adams "1989," gonna be great! Ryan's amazing," Father John Misty sarcastically wrote in a since-deleted "so psyched"-hashtagged Tweet. While Tillman's rendition of "Blank Space" is, to say the very least, a litt...

Yeah, I basically drafted up a few terms and then coined one, "Neo-Classical Psych Rock," to help better describe SPACIN' s particularly unique, noisy sound. It's members all hailing from Philly , the band's sound seems like a by-product of Hardcore Punk and Noise/Garage Rock . SPACIN' is fronted by Jason Killinger and it's kinda a side project of his old band, Birds of Maya ; In the studio, he's joined by Paul Sukeena , Sean Hamilton , and his wife Eva on guitar/bass/drums (respectively) on their righteous Richie Records debut, Deep Thuds EP... I think it'd be safe to assume that SPACIN' are influenced by guys like Iggy & The Stooges , Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath , Ty Segall, and Pixies . While they've only unleashed roughly 8-10 tracks, SPACIN' really managed to effectively display a colorful, wide variety of styles on Deep Thuds : Psychedelic Rock, Noise Rock , riff-heavy Rock "N" Roll, Power Pop , Post-...

While I love Hip-Hop and almost anything mildly "Punk Rock," I can honestly say that I've never really heard tell of a Hardcore band releasing a mixtape... and the sheer notion of it DOES sound pretty sketchy on paper. But I digress - Let's use the term "mixtape" loosely here and think of Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape, Vol. 1 as more of a Who Odds & Sods-esque mix CD or hand-dubbed cassette; Rather than an arrogant DJ drop-filled collection of unclear-able sampled Boom-Bap beats and rhythms. Roger that? Titus Andronicus sold 200 copies of a hand-made CD-R rarities collection @ SXSW this past weekend. Due to a wider response than expected, Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape, Vol. 1 was liberated on the band's Tumblr come Monday morning. It's essentially a 23-track collection of live cuts, covers, demos, out-takes, rehearsal sessions, and miscellaneous "odds & sods" spanning 2005-12. While the quality obviously varies from t...