The Witzard

Team C1 who plays on the Jersey Interchange C1 vinyl LP (SOURCE: Christian Lesperance) Jersey Interchange is a musical collaboration series that re-imagines the songs of the New Jersey Punk, Hardcore, Emo, and Ska scenes of the late 1990's/early 2000's. Conceived as a simple creative outlet by NJ native Christian Lesperance (Skappository!) during the COVID-19 Quarantine, Jersey Interchange quickly blossomed into an exciting project, as over 50 different Jersey-based artists contributed and recorded tracks using home recording set-ups, each bringing a fresh take on the melodies that might have since been buried in basement storage bins, but never forgotten in the memories of fans who sang along with them over 20 years ago. The project gained significant traction and relevance thanks to the fans who tuned-in weekly and spread the word, plus, great support from outlets, like BrooklynVegan, NO ECHO, and many other music-related blogs, radio shows, and podcasts. In the fall of 20...

Stud Wiser in a live scenario (CREDIT: Kevin Michael Smith, @kms_foto) Stud Wiser started as a two-piece just with drums and guitar, consisting of David Adler & Nicholas Malfara, during the height of The Pandemic. They lived close enough, at the time, and had a lot of similar interests, so they could still figured to get something going together. They've said a lot of the initial ideas and demos were very much in the vein of Royal Blood and/or The White Stripes . After Adler & Malfara wrote about three and a half songs, they decided to branch out to find some more people to help fill out the project. They were all friends through friends in other bands, so they decided to make a "super-group" of sorts. Malfara believes it's, actually, Matthew Grace's first band being a singer—previously only serving as a guitar/bass player—and he personally thinks "he's killing it." Malfara always wanted to do some sort of musical project with Chris Swans...

Scott Sellers - "Remains" and "Now or Never" single covers (SOURCE: Bandcamp) Scott Sellers is likely best-known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Rancho Cucamonga, California Pop-punk Rufio. Sellers has been active with Rufio in various incarnations with a cast of both primary and rotating members from 2000-07 when they broke up, but briefly reunited in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2015. Rufio has been largely inactive since 2010 when they releasded their final album, Anybody Out There, which was followed by one last world tour. Sellers has been sporadically active over the years since Rufio's initial demise with a number of musical projects, including BigCity with former Rufio guitarist C lark Domae & Aaron Fernandez and Mercy Street with one-time Rufio bassist Taylor Albaugh. BigCity was initailly active in the early 2000's, but didn't share any official musical releases until The Quest for Power EP in 2021. Mercy Street shared a self-titl...

DIVIDED HEAVEN & Jared Hart in Hoston, Texas 2019 (photographer unknown / SOURCE: Facebook) DIVIDED HEAVEN has teamed up with their old friend Jared Hart (Mercy Union, The Scandals) for an unconventional cover of "Because You're Young" by C*ck Sparrer . I'm sure most people would not associate ukulele with the highly-influential English Punk group, but Jeff & Jared have put their own twist on this cover that was produced by Tim van Doorn. "I've been fortunate enough to cross paths with Jeff for over a decade now. He was one of the very first people to convince me to get out of my comfort zone and hop in a car with just a couple of acoustic guitars. Ever since that first tour, I've learned to trust and appreciate his instincts." "We both spent a lot of time listening to and covering these songs and I'm glad we could take a stab at this one from our current perspectives. Any time Jeff needs a harmony, I'll be there," Har...

Better Lovers (CREDIT: James Hartley) As you may recall, early 2022 ushered in the break-up of Buffalo, New York Metalcore/Hardcore Punk behemoth Every Time I Die (ETID.) In the media and across their various personal and band social media accounts, ETID's Jordan Buckley, Andy Williams, Stephen Micciche & Clayton Holyoak were seemingly pitted against one-time ETID frontman and Jordan's own brother, Keith Buckley. Buckley, Williams, Micciche & Holyoak appeared to all be working on a new project together (with a then-unannounced new singer) and Keith Buckley seemed to be cooking up something of his own. It seemed to be a messy legal dispute and an unfortunate demise for one of the sub-genres' greatest bands. Just yesterday, we got news of the sheer existence of one of those new post-ETID projects. Better Lovers, a newly-formed band featuring vocalist Greg Puciato, guitarists Jordan Buckley & Will Putney, drummer Clayton "Goose" Holyoak, and bassist...

BAYWAY posing with crossed baseball bats (CREDIT: Photography By Sean P @photosbyseanp) New Jersey is known for a lot of things—The Shore, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Pesci, and whatever Taylor Ham is—and has been home to Hardcore infused with Rap for quite sometime. Taking influence from predecessors, like E.Town Concrete & Fury of Five, BAYWAY bring their gritty and aggressive sound to the genre on their upcoming EP, The Newport Sessions, set for release April 20, 2023 on DAZE & RTF Records. BAYWAY's current line-up consists of vocalist Jay Way, guitarist Chris, bassist Dan, and drummer Dave. BAYWAY (oftentimes, known as BAYWAY NJ) burst onto the Jersey Hardcore scene in 2022 with their impactful five-track World of Bayway EP released on limited edition gold foil cassette tape and digitally on Ride The Fury/RTF Records. The Newport Sessions by Bayway Completely produced, mixed, and mastered by the band in Jay Way's studio, the EP features a classic skit-style intro...

Bowling for Soup "Hey Mario" music video still (SOURCE: YouTube) "We are so sad to announce that Chris Burney, founding member of Bowling for Soup, will be leaving the band and will be joining long-time friends Simple Plan as touring bass player. "I really like Canadians, I always have, and bass has less strings... I'm not getting any younger, so I am excited to have an easier job," Chris Burney. "We will miss him so much. We almost made it to 30 years. I certainly wish he and the Simple Plan guys well," Jaret Reddick. It is unclear whether we will replace Chris or carry on as a three-piece. Thank for you understanding," Bowling for Soup (B.F.S.) posted across their social media pages over the weekend. Thankfully, it ended up being... an April Fools' Day prank! B.F.S.' next major band update was a bit more optimistic and plentiful, reading: Surprise! Releases TOMORROW! We put a bunch of the covers we've done in the last few year...