The Witzard

LEKTRON, L-R: Matt Skiba, Atom Willard, Hunter Burgan, and Randy Moore (SOURCE: Facebook, photographer unknown) LEKTRON was born in a torrential rainstorm in San Jose, California on a fateful winter night. What started out as an excuse for Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio, blink-182) to make some noise in a friend's studio quickly evolved into a Garage-esque Punk Rock band thanks to the recording prowess of Ryan Perras and the Black Belt guitar musings and structural sensibilities of Randy Moore (GET MARRIED, DOKI DOKI, Dan Andriano & The Bygones.) Moore actually works at Asian Man Records with owner and founder Mike Park. The three built the foundation for the songs "Dirty Jacks" & "She's A War" to be taken up by rhythm section juggernauts Atom Willard (Social Distortion, Against Me!) on drums and Hunter Burgan (AFI, Matt Skiba & The Sekrets) on bass. What started in the vibey confines of District Recording Studios in San Jose would be taken down to...

Take Today, L-R: Mark Bancroft, Emily Reed, Joseph M. Edwards, and Donald Bush pictured with Communiques LP's (SOURCE: Instagram) Take Today formed in the early 2000's (2003, to be exact) after the demise of a previous project, Empty Handed NJ . Take Today's current line-up consists of vocalist/guitarist Joseph M. Edwards, bassist/vocalist Emily Reed, guitarist/vocalist Mark Bancroft, and drummer Donald "Don" Bush. They're from Southern New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia. Although, Take Today's Bandcamp page readily lists their "hometown" as Burlington, NJ. Take Today released Communiques, Volume One as a trio including Joseph, Emily & Don in 2014 and followed it up with Communiques, Volume Two as a quartet in 2021. Back in early November, Take Today combined Communiques, Volumes One/Two as one cohesive "album"-length release containing the original seven songs, plus, three additional bonus tracks...

blink-182 "and" Scott Sellers (SOURCE: Scott Sellers) Scott Sellers, one-time frontman of beloved Rancho Cucamonga-based Pop-Punk/Skate Punk Rufio has been recording and releasing solo music at a rapid-fire pace since 2018's The Judge. Sellers has also played with a variety of bands since Rufio's 2007 break-up and sporadic brief reunions, including Mercy Street and BigCity with former bandmate Clark Domae . Sellers is known to be an avid blink-182 fan—Scott covered "A New Hope" from their 1997 album, Dude Ranch, on his 2020 covers album, Influence —and we're sure blink were a huge influence and source of inspiration for Rufio. By now, we all know the "classic" (well, second line-up) of blink-182 has effectively re-united as of last week, now including long-time members Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker & Tom DeLonge. DeLonge was in the band from their formation in 1992 up until they broke up in 2005 and then, again from 2009-15 when he left and...

Seasoned Punk singer-songwriter Dan Andriano is a man of many talents and a vast array of influences ranging from Melodic Punk to Americana. He is most known for his role as bassist and co-vocalist in Chicago Punk Rock band Alkaline Trio with whom he has released nine studio albums to date. He has, also, previously released two solo records under the name Dan Andriano In The Emergency Room, as well as material with Matt Pryor (The Get Up Kids.) In addition, Andriano has played bass in the Rock super-group The Damned Things along wth members of Fall Out Boy, Anthrax, and Every Time I Die since 2019. Plus, Dan has done stints over the years in Ben Weasel & His Iron String Quartet, Flowers, Slapstick, The Falcon, and Tuesday. Just yesterday, Dan Andriano announced the sheer existence of his new band, Dan Andriano & The Bygones. It features brothers Dylan & Randy Moore from buzz-worthy San Jose, California-based Punk/Rock band, Get Married. Along with the announcement of ...

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...

Last Friday was quite the busy day for critically-acclaimed drummer/producer Travis Barker : his remix for rising Pop songstress Maggie Lindemann 's "Friends Go" was released, as well as "F9mily (You and Me)" from Country/Rap emcee Lil Nas X 's latest 7 EP, AND his main gig, Blink-182 released a new song, "Generational Divide." As many of you may know by now, long-time co-vocalist and guitarist, Tom DeLonge , was fired/quit Blink back in 2015. Prior to this, the band had been active with Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge & Travis Barker from 1998-2005, then, the band broke up for about four years, and reunited in 2009 for numerous world-wide tours. FULL DISCLOSURE: Blink-182 was amongst my first favorite Punk/Hardcore bands, so I'm a bit biased! I've always stated, I was happy when Blink returned—although, Mark & Travis' Electro-Rock/Pop-Punk band (+44) formed in the interim, put out one of my all-time favorite albums!—although...

I. Atom Age Industries: MISFITS ENAMEL PINS WAVE 2 (@atomageindustries) Atom Age Industries is a Bellflower, California-based clothing company and store-front. They re-produce and sell goods from artists such as AC/DC, Blondie, The Cramps, D.O.A. Dead Kennedys, FEAR / Lee Ving, Hüsker Dü, The Misfits, The Police, and Suicidal Tendencies. Atom Age primarily sells T-shirts, records, and enamel pins and carries a host of limited edition capsule collections for the above-listed artists, as well as countless others. Etched beer mugs/glasses, letterman jackets, enamel pins, patches, can & bottle cozy's, skateboard decks, button packs, CD's, silk-screened posters, and other assorted items. These newly-released Misfits Wave 2 Enamel Pins are now available... just in time for the next (fingers crossed!) Original Misfits show! Wave 2 features 6 glossy "BULLET," "FIEND EYES," "HALLOWEEN," "EVIL NEVER DIES," "DIE, DIE, MY DARLING" ...

Let me first just preface this by saying: THIS WILL NOT BE A SUBJECTIVE PIECE... I've been a die-hard Blink-182 fan for as long as I can remember and I believe their Enema of The State (1999) and utterly hilarious live album, The Mark, Tom & Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back (2000) were amongst my first CD's nestled within my barren Walkman CD wallet, alongside Alanis Morissette 's Red Hot Chili Peppers -assisted Jagged Little Pill and Mariah Carey 's Daydream (which I believe featured her Ol' Dirty B*stard -helmed "Fantasy" Bad Boy Remix ). It always felt as though a Blink-182 or Blink -related side project like Box Car Racer , Transplants, Angels & Airwaves , (+44), short-lived Hip-Hop super-group Expen$ive Taste , etc. released an album almost every summer from 8th grade all the way through my college years; a sentiment that even rings true for the reunited California Pop-Punk band's latest Neighborhoods (2011) and appropriately...