The Witzard

ILL COMMUNICATION (CREDIT: Matt Welch) ILL COMMUNICATION started as a few friends from the Oxnard & Tehachapi, California Hardcore scenes who had talked about making music together for over 15 years. After playing and touring North America & Europe in bands, such as THE WARRIORS, Diehard Youth, NO MOTIV, Retaliate, and Gravemaker, they named the band, wrote some music, and started playing out. Soon after, they recorded two EP's that where released online, as well as a one-sided 12-inch on Another City Records. All their release have been and will be written, recorded, and engineered by a core group of friends. Musically, pulling from classic Hardcore bands, such as Beyond, Turning Point and Inside Out, as well as well as mix of other music styles. Lyrically, addressing a variety of topics covering the state of the world to chillin' out with friends. With the aim to give back to a scene that has given them so much, ILL COMMUNICATION joined the Safe Inside Record...

LIILY live on Miley's New Year's Eve Party, L-R: Sam De La Torre, Maxx Morando, Dylan Nash, and Charlie Anastasis (CREDIT: photographer unknown) Dylan Nash, Sam De La Torre, Charlie Anastasis, and Maxx Morando are the four fundamentals that make up ambitious buzzworthy LA Rock band Liily . Liily have a lot of things going for them: drummer Maxx is currently dating Miley Cyrus, they're managed by Peter Bauer of The Walkmen , they played Miley's New Year's Eve Party on the cusp of 2022-23, and they just have a cool, raw, unadulterated sound. Summed up as an "Angeleno quintet... pushing the Rock genre forward and into a new era of raw tension and passionate fire..." by Atwood Magazine, the band gained momentum quickly. After forming in 2016, early on, Liily took stages by storm, creating notoriety for themselves through their manic energy displayed in their frenzied live shows, but that's not all they had to offer. Bringing that same domestic chaos from...

Beastie Boys "Sure Shot" 12-inch UK promo, 1994 (SOURCE: Discogs) "Sabrosa pays tribute to the Beastie Boys with two instro-mental cuts that borrow elements from "Sure Shot" out of their classic album, Ill Communication. "Sure Pow" is a great fuzzy, wah-wah guitar Grant Green-on-steroids soundtrack approach to "Pow" from Check Your Head, while "Tangerine Shot' is a cover of "Suco de Tangerina," an instrumental track out of their The Mix-Up LP that takes a twist into Dub [territory]... pure fiyah!" explains a press release. Recorded at Croak Studio (Madrid) by Joaquín Rodriguez. Mixed by Santi Martín and produced by Sabrosa. Mastering by Doug Krebs. Sabrosa's current line-up includes Javi Skunk on drums, Joako Rodriguez on percussion, Santi "Sweetfingers" Martín on bass, Lucas de Mulder on guitar, and Gabri Casanova on Hammond organ and clavinet. "Sure Pow" b/w "Tangerine Shot" ...

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...

After 34 years largely unreleased, the Beastie Boys quietly dropped the music video for one of their most raucous offerings Wednesday night. "She's Crafty" originally appeared on The Beasties' 1986 Def Jam debut, Licensed to Ill. It appeared as the B-side to both "No Sleep 'till Brooklyn" and "Girls" on their respective 12-inch singles. "She's Crafty" appeared alongside "Rhymin' & Stealin,'" "Fight for Your Right (to Party,)" "Hold It Now, Hit It," "No Sleep 'till Brooklyn," and "She's On It" as part of a self-titled 1987 Beasties Boys home video release best known amongst collectotrs as the Licensed to Ill VHS. CBS Fox Video Music/Def Jam Recordings, also, released the six-song VHS tape on then-extremely popular formats Laserdisc and Betamax in both The US & Japan. "She's Crafty"'s newly-unveiled music video was filmed on April 1, 1987 ...

Biz Markie rendering on cardboard - CREDIT: Andrew "Andy" Katz (@ajkatzart) Marcel Theo Hall, better know as Biz Markie and oftentimes, affectionately referred to as The Biz, The Clown Prince of Hip-Hop, The Inhuman Orchestra, The Diabolical Biz Markie, and The Emizah-Emizah, was highly revered as one of the most genuine emcees to ever do it. Biz passed away on Friday, July 16, 2021 at the tender age of 57, likely due to complications from Type 2 Diabetes, although, no official Cause of Death has been revealed just yet. Biz Markie is most well-known for his infectious 1989 break-out single, "Just A Friend," but he was a truly multi-talented artist, as well. Biz Mark's lesser-known talents included beat-boxing, dancing, producing, DJ'ing, acting, singing, and song-writing. It was proven time and time again that "Nobody Beats The Biz," but he surely didn't mind collaborating with just about anyone; racking up genre-defying features with eve...

Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz pictured with Biz Markie puppet from Masta Ace's "Me & The Biz" music video (SOURCE: Pinterest) Marcel Theo Hall, better know as Biz Markie and oftentimes, affectionately referred to as The Biz, The Clown Prince of Hip-Hop, The Inhuman Orchestra, The Diabolical Biz Markie, and The Emizah-Emizah, was highly revered as one of the most genuine emcees to ever do it. Biz passed away on Friday, July 16, 2021 at the tender age of 57, likely due to complications from Type 2 Diabetes, although, no official Cause of Death has been revealed just yet. Biz Markie is most well-known for his infectious 1989 break-out single, "Just A Friend," but he was a truly multi-talented artist, as well. Biz Mark's lesser-known talents included beat-boxing, dancing, producing, DJ'ing, acting, singing, and song-writing. It was proven time and time again that "Nobody Beats The Biz," but he surely didn't mind collaborating with ...

Ben Merlis in a BOLD T-shirt pictured with Mr. T (CREDIT: Wyatt Lavasseur) I think about the intersection of Punk & Hip-Hop quite often. Both are street-level genres that were initially rejected by the mainstream, chided for not being "real music." Punks had to book shows at VFW halls and DJ crews set up in public parks well before most of the performers or audience was of drinking age. Both fostered fanatical devotees, who argue that these are, actually, all-encompassing cultures, rather than radio formats or sections in record stores. Being that Punk & Hip-Hop have so much in common, it shouldn't be a surprise that some of the first people outside The Bronx to be bit by "The Rap Bug" were Punks. Dante Ross, who grew up on The Lower East Side of Manhattan going to see bands like Sham 69 wound up doing A&R for Tommy Boy and Elektra, signing groups like Brand Nubian, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, and K.M.D. One of his bosses back then, Tommy Boy ...

Steve Haney is a drummer and percussionist widely known for his expansive body of work with Latin & Funk/Soul ensemble Jungle Fire. Haney's recording and performance highlights include Stevie Wonder, performing for President Obama at The White House with Oscar-winner A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire composer,) The Oprah Winfrey Show, Greyboy Allstars, The M-Tet, Joe Bataan, Quantic, Ozomatli, Kelly Finnigan, and GRAMMY-winning vocalist Gregory Porter. However, in addition to his musical endeavors, Haney moonlights as visual artist VISIONS COLLAGE (@visionscollage) tranforming mixed media into paper-cut collages. We've, personally, been Following Steve Haney's various VISIONS COLLAGE & Jungle Fire social media pages for quite a few years now. Haney's collages are typically hand-cut, extremely vibrant, often primarily feature musicians, and are, sometimes, shared with various alternate renditions. While boasting a multitude of musicians and bands from across ...

CIRCLES is a Nantes, France-based Punk/Hardcore band founded in 2017, who, as NO ECHO once explained it, is "a new French combo firmly rooted in the Revolution Summer-era sound of 1985." CIRCLES current line-up consists of members Antoine Boisset, Guillaume Martin, Julien Normand, Mathias Peronne & Guillaume Salort and are, seemingly, aligned with Coretex, Unity Worldwide & Swell Creek Records. CIRCLES make a very unique brand of Hardcore/Melodic Punk, which harkens back to Dischord Records' 1980-90 output, such as Dag Nasty, Embrace, Fugazi, Minor Threat, and Rites of Spring. CIRCLES' disography currently includes a 2017 demo (fittingly titled Demo 2017) and a 2019 EP entitled Resonate . Now, CIRCLES have effectively returned with a new self-released single, which, actually, duals as a cover. It's a surprisingly spot-on rendition of the Beastie Boys' "Time for Livin'" from their 1992 album, Check Your Head. However, it appears as thou...

The Clash in Philadelphia on September 25, 1982 (CREDIT: Ebet Roberts) We've been running these With The Quickness playlist columns (title thanks to John "Jumbled" Bachman!) for a while now and, in my opinion, they just keep gettng better and better with each new installment. They're, generally, curated by like-minded fans and supporters of Punk/Hardcore, who more so often than not, are adjacent to the scene and not directly involved with or playing the actual music. So, this latest 11th(!?) edition was curated by renown author and well-documented Beastie Boys super-fan Dan LeRoy. An email/Twitter friend of The Witzard in recent years, LeRoy has written a number of extremely enjoyable books, including The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique 33 1/3, its "66 2/3" quasi-sequel, For Whom The Cowbell Tolls: 25 Years of Paul's Boutique, and The Greatest Music Never Sold: Secrets of Legendary Lost Albums By David Bowie, Seal, Beastie Boys, Chicago, Mick Ja...

Nate Patrin Author Photo (CREDIT: Craig VanDerSchaegen) "So, I put together a [playlist] that comprises my favorite moments of Hip-Hop & Punk intersecting, intentionally or otherwise, from the old school to the current moment. It ranges from Downtown NYC Crossover efforts to sample flips to all-out collabos, and spans a broad range of both genres—so, it's more of a historical overview, than a cohesive snapshot of a particular sound. That said, I f**k with each and every one of these songs, 100%." With The Quickness #7: Nate Patrin's Adidas In The Pit/Punk Meets Hip-Hop Playlist 01. The Clash - "This Is Radio Clash" Samples: J. Bodewalt Lampe - "Mysterioso Pizzicato" 02. ESG - "UFO" Sampled By: The Notorious B.I.G. J Dilla, Big Daddy Kane, MF DOOM, Q-Tip, Public Enemy, Nine Inch Nails, and more 03. Liquid Liquid - "Cavern" Sampled By: Grand Master Melle Mel, Guru, Doug E. Fresh, The Notorious B.I.G. 2 Live Cr...

It's been 27 years since the world first heard Beck Hansen's Slacker Rap anthem, "Loser." Although, I would have been six at the time, I can vaguely recall hearing it just a few short years later. To be completely honest, Beck was the first White/Jewish rapper I had ever heard, aside from Beastie Boys Adam "MCA" Yauch, Michael "Mike D" Diamond, and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz, of course. Beck would eventually recruit The Beasties' Paul's Boutique producers, The Dust Brothers, to helm his own cult classic, Odelay (1996) and a couple albums later, 1999's Midnite Vultures. Beck has always managed to effortlessly teeter the lines between Hip-Hop, Indie Rock, Folk, Alt. Country, Dance-Rock/Pop, etc. and even won Album of The Year GRAMMY for his 2014 effort, Morning Phase. Strangely, in stark contrast to Folk-leaning Morning Phase, Beck's two albums released since, Colors & Hyperspace, have been a bit more Mainstream Dance Roc...

Last time we featured graphic designer, self-described "crafty veteran Punk Rock curator," and producer Justin Mayer, otherwise known as Old City, he had constructed a mash-up EP fittingly titled BL_CK B_ST_RDS . Old City juxtaposed MF DOOM's villainous rhymes against the musical backbone of English Crust Punks, Doom for a double-dose of... Doom! We've been hearing rumblings about a similarly-minded Old City for the last few years, which would seamlessly meld together Punk/Hardcore & Hip-Hop. Said album has since been billed as "a Punk Rock Paul's Boutique," which, as The Witzard regulars will well know, is right up our alley! Old City has been gradually rolling out what, at the time, appeared to be stand-alone singles since October 1, 2019; it was, then, when Old City unleashed his debut single, "Get Sued" Feat. Tre Marsh & Olmec, which, somehow, managed to sample Green Day a whopping 32 times. Get it? "Get Sued," which, in...

"Beastie Boys + James Brown = Beastie Brown. Music is the sonic version of a person's soul. You can hear it in the vibes they create. If it hits you on the positive tip, you'll definitely Shake Your Rump. You might be head-bopping on the train caught up in the commuter headphone zone or be a B-boy up rocking on linoleum in the park while a DJ does his thing. Regardless of the situation, the Body's Moving to a Funky Drummer. You can't fight that emotional connection, so don't try. The rhythmic arts are an Ill Communication, no doubt about it. What you have right here is a labour of love mixed up with true passion from the Brooklyn icon, Jazzsoon. He's the living embodiment of all that's authentic New York City and that shines through in all his endeavours." "Serious biz. It's a beautiful combination of The Three Bad Brothers That You Know So Well and The Godfather of Soul. A sonic enterprise like you've only ever dreamed of. It's...