The Witzard

The Mr. T Experience (oftentimes, abbreviated as "MTX" ) are a long-standing Punk Rock/Pop-Punk establishment hailing from Berkeley, California. MTX have been active ever since 1985 and are a product of the same local "scene" as The Donnas/Electrocutes, Green Day, Jawbreaker, NOFX, Operation Ivy, Rancid, and Tilt. They, also, share stylistic similarities with other bands not native to The Bay Area, who are, often, closely associated with this movement, such as The Queers, Screeching Weasel, and The Groovie Ghoulies. MTX 's unique sound is, additionally, characterized by a heavy Ramones-ian influence and they even went as far as to cover 1978's Road to Ruin in full, as part of Selfless/Clearview Records' Ramones Covers Album Series. MTX were mainstays at iconic Punk/Hardcore club, 924 Gilman Street/Gilman during the 1990-2000's and were signed to Lookout! Records 'til about 2004. The Mr. T Experience 's current line-up consists of "D...

Grumpster is an Oakland, California-based Punk trio consisting of vocalist/bassist Falyn Walsh , guitarist Lalo Deetz , and drummer Noel Agtane , who make "Rock & Roll for the young and old." After first forming Grumpster in early 2017, Falyn, Lalo & Noel cut their teeth playing gigs at 924 Gilman Street and soon became mainstays amidst Gilman 's tight-knit D.I.Y. scene. Earlier this year, Grumpster submitted a cover of Green Day's "Having A Blast" to GILMAN STREET'S RIPOFF (A Tribute to DOOKIE ) jointly issued by Asian Man/Lavasocks Records. Grumpster have previously self-released a handful of musical offerings, including "KAIROS" (2017,) a split with Slumped, Cutting Ties EP (2018,) and "Strangers" from earlier this year. Now, Grumpster have once again reunited with Asian Man Records to properly release their full-length debut, Underwhelmed and lead-off single, "Crumbling." Asian Man founder Mike "B...

I'm proud to present to you, my trusty The Witzard disciples, a new (hopefully) recurring column to be tentatively entitled "Wax Watchers," which will, for the time being, at least, chronicle physical reviews of physical media, such as: full-length vinyl, 7-inches, cassettes, and CD's. This first introductory installment of Wax Watchers will showcase a freshly-pressed 7-inch EP from Bay Area Ska Punks Jokes for Feelings (JFF) entitled Too Much Too Hipster . Last October, I was "cold sent" a pre-release digital single from JFF called "Sweet Song," which was slated to appear within the band's then-upcoming 4-song EP to be released at the top of 2018. Last month, Jokes for Feelings played an EP Release Show at notorious West Berkley Punk/Hardcore venue 924 Gilman St. AKA Gilman , along with Mustard PLUG , Buck-O-Nine, Neverlyn , and Shark Punch—awesome band name; just about a week or so ago, I received my characteristically checkered ...

Jokes for Feelings are an East Bay -area Ska Punk band consisting of drummer Tony Acosta , vocalist/keyboardist/violinist/guitar player Bill Raphael , trombonist and back-up vocalist Allie Miller , bass player Dave Garcia , trombonist Noah Ortiz , sax player Michael Booker , and guitarist and back-up vocalist Josh Raphael . Jokes for Feelings regularly play gigs at 924 Gilman St. Alternative Music Foundation AKA "Gilman" in West Berkley, California . Throughout their brief, yet plentiful career, the "4th Wave" Ska band's members have played with Punk/Hardcore luminaries such as The Ramones' 1989-96 bassist C.J. Ramone , Agent Orange, Mike Watt of The Stooges and Minutemen fame, Voodoo Glow Skulls, The Specials (Roddy Radiation & Neville Staple,) The Aggrolites, and Guttermouth . Since forming in 2006, Jokes for Feelings have self-released three EP's— One of Us Sucks , Sleeping Giant , and We Don't Need Your Label Anyways —and one f...