The Witzard

Un-G Opening for Sulu & Excelsior, 11/15/19 (CREDIT: Jean-Baptiste Sankara) Music has always been my muse and my place of refuge. Just like in high school, The Bad Brains & Public Enemy brought me through some pretty tough times, this Magnificent Mix allowed me to express and find some creative release through our present-day sh*t-show. This music came about when I was living in Southern California. I would, occasionally, fly back East to play shows with my bandmates (P.I.C.) to satisfy that itch to create and perform, but other than that, I didn't really have anything like P.I.C. going on in Cali. Plus, I started working as a Digital Communications Specialist for a non-profit health care provider that was a talking point in the 2016 Election. I loved the work, but I was looking and dealing with a lot of ill and hateful sh*t all day and every day. I needed to release the pressure, so after work, I would take out the pen and pad and The 16 Pads (AKA my Akai MPD24 contr...

Chubby & The Gang 2020 Line-up (CREDIT: Ellie Chaplin) Last year, a London-based Hardcore/Power Pop band called Chubby & The Gang quietly released a mysterious 7-inch single called "All Along The Uxbridge Road." It was first released on Static Shock Records Overseas and, later, saw a secondary re-issue on Goner Records here in The States. Somehow, we got a copy of the UK pressing, we believe, after initially reading about said 7-inch across the pages of P*ssed Jeans frontman Matt Korvette's own D.I.Y. 7/12-inch review site, YellowGreenRed . Not long after, Chubby & The Gang unleashed their proper full-length debut, Speed Kills, boasting production work from F*CKED UP's own Jonah Falco with mastering provided by Will Kilingsworth. It remains one of the strongest, fun-to-listen-to albums spewing with infectious Street Punk/Hardcore swagger and sing-along Power Pop-laden hooks; however, quite unfortunately, Speed Kills was released on Static Shock just pri...

Long-time Descendents frontman and pseudo-mascot Milo Aukerman has re-emerged with the announcement his first-ever proper solo project, RebUke. Aukerman has been the primary vocalist for Descendents since 1980 (three years post-formation) and sporadically, yet consistently, ever since. Through the years, all the while, functioning as Descendents' frontman, Milo Aukerman conducted post-doctoral research in Molecular Biology at The Universities of Wisconsin–Madison & Pennsylvania, as well as working as a plant researcher at DuPont and an adjunct professor at The University of Delaware. However, it appears as though Aukerman has decided to forgo his aforementioned careers, as of 2016, in an effort to focus on music and Descendents and music full-time. It appears as though Milo has since amassed quite a passion for ukuleles, as his freshly-announced solo project, RebUke—emphasis on "uke"—is, of course, primarily ukelele-based. Earlier this year, Descendents (or, ...

DO WHAT YOU WANT Author Jim Ruland (CREDIT: Clair McAllister) "No one has ever confused Bad Religion with The Misfits, but that doesn't mean they don't have some scary songs. The band's predilection for pin-pointing (and predicting) society's worst-case scenarios and constant reminders that we're heading for annihilation mean the landscape for a Bad Religion song can be downright terrifying. Here are 13 songs that showcase the spooky side of Bad Religion that you can listen to alongside the voices in your head in the room inside your room. Of course, with The Pandemic showing no sign of ending due to The Tr*mp Administration's gross mismanagement, you could just play "We're Only Gonna Die (from Our Own Arrogance)" over and over again until there are no humans left," author Jim "Vermin" Ruland told The Witzard, via email. Ruland recently co-wrote Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion along with the band themselves. We...

CREDIT: Mark Champion Last Friday was yet another Bandcamp Friday event, wherein Bandcamp have vowed to waive 100% of their revenue share on all sales on the first Friday of every month giving musicians more money from each purchase. One of our personal favorites, Houston, Texas-based Skinhead Punk/Hardcore crew Liberty & Justice, returned just in time with another exclusive Bandcamp Friday special. It's a quick-strike 3-track EP entitled my america. Liberty & Justice made a number of exclusive packages available, including a 32-piece run of limited press cassette tapes, a limited edition "yellow a** shirt," a special T-shirt/tape combo, and, of course, digital EP. While we purchased one of the last my america EP cassettes (there are currently ONE 13 left!) on Bandcamp Friday, we reached out to East End Barber owner and Liberty & Justice frontman Ryan "Crowns" Taylor this weekend for some additional information concering said release. my amer...

Less Than Jake with New Drummer Matt Yonker (CREDIT: Paris Visone) Less Than Jake (LTJ) are without a doubt Ska Punk stalwarts, at this stage of their career, having been a non-stop touring machine for the past 30 years. LTJ have been one of my personal favorite bands for quite some time now and they're, honestly, one of the bands I've seen live the most. Way back when, in The Witzard's earliest aughts, we conducted an interview (better yet, a Twitter-view ) via Twitter, with long-time LTJ bassist and co-vocalist Roger "Lima" Manganelli. Plus, we've spoken with both guitarist/co-vocalist Chris DeMakes and former drummer/pseudo-frontman Vinnie Fiorello on seperate occasions, but never for an actual published interview. Less Than Jake are easily one of the most fun charismatic bands I've ever seen live and one time, in Philly at The TLA, they even invited the entire crowd (well, anyone 21+) to accompany them to the bar for post-show beers. Oddly e...

Girl Talk CREDIT: Joey Kennedy Girl Talk is the music-making alias of mash-up maestro, super-producer, and beat-maker Gregg Gillis. Girl Talk famously rose to prominemce in the early to mid-2000's with his unique sample-filled releases Night Ripper (2006,) Feed The Animals (2008,) and ALL DAY (2010.) Gillis soon ascended to large-print typeface atop countless festival bills and, eventually, got so busy, he had to quit his day job as a bio-medical engineer. Even prior to Night Ripper, Gregg Gillis had been quietly making music as Girl Talk since about 2000-02 and had issued a number of releases, including, but not limited to, Secret Diary, Unstoppable, Stop Cleveland Hate 12-inch, and Bone Hard Zaggin' 7-inch EP with Illegal Art, 12 Apostles, and 333 Recordings, respectively. Arguably, his most successful—and in our opinion, most enjoyable—release from this period would be 2006's Night Ripper, which boasts some 300 inter-woven samples. Gregg Gillis was able to lega...