The Witzard

Beck dropped a new song this morning. Well, it's actually a cover of Neil Young's 1971 staple, "Old Man," from his iconic 1972 album, Harvest. And Beck's version of "Old Man" actually made its debut last night during the NFL's Sunday Night Football On NBC. It's a 30-second black-and-white spot showcasing Beck playing "Old Man" on his acoustic guitar inter-spliced with imagery of both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' newly un-retired quarterback, Tom Brady, and the Kansas City Chiefs' own quarterback and rising star, Patrick Mahomes. It sounds like next Sunday, October 2nd, The Bucs & The Chiefs will be facing off, as will 45-year-old Brady and 27-year-old Mahomes. The NFL's clip kinda frames Mahomes as being the next "Old Man" Brady and shows highlights of both players' careers. It even boasts a rather "heart-warming" exchange after 2020's Super Bowl LV wherein Mahomes says, "hey, you're...

Robert Smith has been the long-time smeared lipstick-wearing frontman of The Cure since 1978. Aside from his beloved body of work with The Cure, Smith has released a limited number of outer-band recordings on his own. Those including collaborations with, but not limited to, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Glove, Cult Hero, Crystal Castles, The Twilight Sad, blink-182, The Stranglers, KoЯn, and Junkie XL. Robert Smith has, additionally, released a number of solo recordings including "Pictures of You" (Paul Mac Remix) from the One Perfect Day Soundtrack, a cover of Kathryn Beaumont's "Very Good Advice" from Almost Alice, a cover of John Martyn's "Small Hours" the Johnny Boy Would Love This tribute comp. and lastly, a cover of Frank Sinatra's "Witchcraft" from Frankenweenie Unleashed! (Music Inspired By The Motion Picture.) It was announced earlier this week Smith would be appearing alongside Gorillaz, the long-time "virtual...

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...

Tom Fec is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based musician, experimentalist, and label owner of his own imprint, Rad Cult. Fec is the frontman of Experimental/Psychedelic Pop band Black Moth Super Rainbow, sometimes, known as Satanstompingcaterpillars. Since about 2008, Fec has released a plethora of music as TOBACCO , as well as Sbarro Hottopic. Tom Fec has, additionally released music as Demon Queen with Zackey Force Funk, The Allegheny White Fish with his brother, Ken Fec, and most recently, as Malibu Ken with long-time collaborator Aesop Rock. Fec's beloved recordings as TOBACCO have often featured a crew of unlikely collaborators, including Beck, emcee Beans, Felt (Slug & MURS,) The Flaming Lips, High Tides, The Hood Internet, Notrabel, Serengeti, and sole & The Skyrider Band. Now, TOBACCO has announced a new album, Hot, Wet & Sassy—Fec's first proper album since 2016's Sweatbox Dynasty—to be released on Ghostly International this Fall. Earlier this morning, TO...

"Soild Gold #11 - Money Mark! The keys man behind the music of some of the biggest hits for the Beastie Boys (Paul's Boutique, Licensed to Ill, Check Your Head,) Beck (he played the intro to "Where It's At,") and lots of other artists, is slumming it with Soild Gold. changeiscoming is an instrumental record that features a ton of collaborators, including Sean Lennon, Los Lobos, etc. has been out-of-print for years, and is a fan favorite. You will almost definitely recognize some of the tunes, as most of them have been featured on TV shows, commercials, movies, etc.; a really chill dinner party vibe. All in our patented "Soild Gold-style" paste-on covers with hand-stamped labels on Translucent Gold Vinyl and 12x18" cardstock poster. 50 copies of the special "Coins & Bills" Splatter vinyl—Trans. Gold mixed with Silver & Green, which gives it a crazy wavy look!—will be randomly inserted into orders. As always, Soild Gold is ANAL...

Easy Ruckus (or "ESY RKS," for short) are a Canadian Acoustic/Blues/Folk band hailing from Golden, British Columbia . While, at one point in time, it consisted of 3-6 members, ESY RKS currently features founding members Landon Bushell & Matt Downie . Matt & Landon , actually, both grew up in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada and oddly enough, attended the same elementary, junior high, and high schools, but didn't really connect until after graduation upon forming Easy Ruckus in 2011. Landon Bushell & Matt Downie have collectively, recorded, produced, and self-released two EP's—entitled Winter, Part 1 and Take Me Away —through 2016-17, after a nearly 3 year-long hiatus; as far back as Summer 2012, Easy Ruckus was holed up in Golden, British Columbia recording their first proper full-length, when Matt accidentally, spilled a cup of coffee across his laptop and the nearly completed album was lost for good. Since then, Matt Downie taught himself how...

Just about a month ago, I got an email from my friend, producer buddy, and frequent collaborator John Bachman AKA Jumbled mysteriously labelled "2 things." Bachman was writing me about his upcoming Bmore Club -minded project, as well as an idea he said he had been "kicking around;" wherein he simply detailed he wanted to ask "producers to name 3-5 albums that influenced them/their style and talk a little about each album and maybe their [favorite] track." Needless to say, I was immediately interested and Jumbled and I collectively decided we would jointly run our producer playlist column (now, appropriately deemed "Beat-maker Bedrock" ) on both The Witzard and his Hatford & Reckord Tumblr . And without further ado, here's the inaugural Beat-maker Bedrock artist-penned column with brainchild and beat-maker himself, John "Jumbled" Bachman . Beat-makers and producers: if you're reading this and could like to partake in f...

"I could have made you mine. But no, it wasn't meant to be and see, I wasn't made for you and you weren't made for me... I'm on my own sh*t now. Let me tell you how it feels to be f**king great. I feel great," Rex Orange County laments on his latest Zane Lowe -premiered #ROCKMUSICFOREVER second single, "BEST FRIEND." Rex Orange County is the recently adopted alter-ego of Alex O'Connor , a self-loathing 18-year-old "bedroom" musician hailing from the outskirts of London in Haslemere, Surrey . "Being in a picturesque, but culturally void town didn't stop him from admiring fellow do-it-yourself producers Thundercat and Toro Y Moi , or falling in love with Frank Ocean 's Channel ORANGE ; "if I could do anything close to that musically, then that's it," O'Connor beamed within a recent press release. I would best compare Rex Orange County's unique half-sung half-rapped style to "Loser" -er...

"I'd like to think of this album as more of a home-made mixtape you could burn to CD and give to Trick-or-Treaters . It's what I've been working on the past few months; music is a labor of love. I love releasing albums and sharing them with my friends and I intend to never stop. Put Down The Candy & Let The Little Boy Go! furthers that narrative. Maybe one day, I'll embrace my outer-adult to the fullest and find a real job. Til then, this is all I have," Evan Souza , better known as Darko The Super or Doc Heller , wrote within a message included along with his Trick-or-Treat -ready Haloween -themed mixtape. The Witzard previously premiered the mixtape's Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg -inspired title track , which Souza says was dually inspired by Slaves' recent Mike D (Beastie Boys) -produced album, Take Control . Darko The Super clever re-appropriated a line pulled from Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg 's Eazy-E dissing "F*ck wit Dre Day (and E...

"I made the beat [last week]. It's the first beat I made actually playing everything through my MIDI keyboard. I usually never do that. It felt good to have something completely mine in a way. I was listening to the new Slaves album [Take Control] produced by Mike D of Beastie Boys , before I made the beat; maybe that inspired the sound," Darko The Super (Evan Souza) wrote within a recent statement to accompany his latest single and music video, "Put Down The Candy & Let The Little Boy Go!," which he was kind enough to let me premier right here at The Witzard ! "Not too sure what the verses are about, but the chorus describes envying a friend and being dissatisfied with yourself because you're not in a better position like they are, but at least you know them. I wrote the lyrics while taking out the trash, getting a shower, and doing the dishes. I get most of my writing done doing daily tasks," Souza continued. Darko The Super addition...

" Tom & Ed met in history class at Manchester University in 1988. They started off as DJ's known as "The 237 Turbo Nutters" (named after the number of their house on Dickenson Road in Manchester and a reference to their Blackburn raving days). They then opted for "The Dust Brothers," which they nicked from the L.A. producers of Paul's Boutique (as they thought they would never be famous). In 1995, they changed their name to "The Chemical Brothers" after the real Dust Brothers threatened to sue," reads The Chemical Brothers' eerily cryptic abridged Discogs profile description. Electro-House pioneers Tom Rowlands & Ed Simmons are effectively back with their first album in nearly five years after taking a self-imposed hiatus following their seventh studio album, Further . All the while, The Chemical Brothers haven't remained entirely inactive during this gestation period: Rowlands & Simmons prepared a han...

Not only did he appear within a self-satirical SNL 40 Wayne's World sketch dealing with last weekend's Album of The Year winner Beck 's near GRAMMY's acceptance speech-shattering events, Kanye additionally performed an emotional three-song medley towards the end of last night's 40th anniversary primetime special; Kanye appeared on stage, laying sprawled out across the stage floor under a dimly lit/low-hanging ceiling set-up performing "Jesus Walks" into a microphone dangling above his head. West slowly arose for the second segment of his medley — a fragmented chunk of his recent genre-blending collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney , "Only One" (suspiciously sans McCartney). For the third and final portion of his SNL 40 performance, Kanye was joined on stage by former Kids These Days emcee Vic Mensa and mysterious "Chandelier" songstress and in-demand producer, Sia for a dark, brooding animalistic performance of "Wol...

Aside from a series of pretty lackluster mismatched performances and Kanye 's attempted hi-jacking of Album of The Year winner Beck 's spotlight, the only legitimate stroke of "real artistry" at this year's GRAMMY Awards came from Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, Herbie Hancock, ?uestlove , and legendary bassist Adam Blackstone . Sheeran's GRAMMY -assembled super-group performed a spirited live rendition of his latest x single, "Thinking Out Loud;" making best use of recent Late Late Show hosts guitar playing-talents, The Roots drummer/bandleader's "chops," and the classically-trained Jazz pianist's gentle stroke of the ivory keys. It seems as though Ed Sheeran and John Mayer (both reported exes of Taylor Swift ) have put aside whatever differences they might have had, effectively becoming "the weirdest friends ever," to paraphrase Leslie Mann from The Other Woman . I, for one, would definitely not mind hearing a John Ma...

I'll be the first to readily admit that former Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis' latest Beck -produced single, "Just One of The Guys" isn't exactly your typical hyper-aggressive/ Boom-Bap fan-fare here at The Witzard . But regardless, you really can't deny the inherent cuteness behind Anne Hathaway, Kristen Stewart , and relative new-comer Brie Larson (21 Jump Street) acting as part of Lewis' faux all-female backing band. For those not familiar with Rilo Kiley , Jenny Lewis' past solo work, or her guest appearances alongside The Postal Service and Bright Eyes , I'd almost sonically equate "Just One of The Guys" to Hole 's 90's-early 2000's lighter side or for lack of a better term, Soft Chick Rock . I'm not entirely sure if Jenny Lewis was in charge of the ladies' "business casual" white and rainbow accented pant-suits, but she definitely self-directed it's colorful video... which oddly enough,...

While I wouldn't exactly go as far as to automatically mislabel Har Mar Superstar 's most recent album, Bye Bye 17 as "Blue-Eyed Soul" or anything resembling lazy new age Neo-Soul genre tags, frontman Sean Tillmann probably owes more to guys like Justin Timberlake , Mayer Hawthorne, and Robin Thicke than he would probably ever willingly like to admit. Tillmann's latest music video/single was directed by frequent Strokes collaborator Warren Fu , who's previously worked with long-time frontman Cult Records founder Julian Casablancas ; at it's core, "Restless Leg" is a charming, yet vaguely disturbing video centered around an interesting man-on-puppet pseudo-love triangle, which was co-directed by contained Viva La Puppet puppeteer Michelle Zamora . No matter how you may feel about a little tasteful man-on-puppet action, Bye Bye 17 is a very easily accessible album, chock-full of white boy Soul-Funk/R&B; something to the effect of mid...

It's kinda funny, because I just finished showing my beautiful girlfriend a few "Bonnie & Clyde" -era Serge Gainsbourg tracks just the other day, which I bookended by saying that his now-grown-up daughter Charlotte recorded a couple albums-worth of material with mid-90's Slacker-Hop kingpin Beck "Loser" Hansen ; and now, today, by sheer coincidence, here's a new Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck track, "Hey Joe" (a sultry Hendrix cover). It's from the soundtrack to often controversial film director Lars von Trier 's hyper-sexed-up piece, Nymphomaniac . Gainsbourg seemingly stars as the leading lady in said art-film, which'll debut in two separate parts across select North American theatres, between March 21st and April 18th. Here, "Hey Joe" has gotten a breathy, semi-haunting re-work that still retains the Blues-Rock backbone of Jimi Hendrix's highly popularized 1966-67 cover. It has Beck 's signature h...

"WE REMIXED THE BEAT FOR "GUV'NOR" AND DOOM SPAT NEW VERSES ON THE TRACK," BADBADNOTGOOD (BBNG) Tweeted almost immediately preceding Noisey's world premier of the JJ DOOM remix, which was lifted from Keys to The Kuffs (Butter Edition) . Lex Records plans to unleash the expanded and remixed album version on August 21st, but sadly the 12" picture discs won't ship until the end of October; The 2-CD set includes the original 14-track album, plus 4 BRAND NEW tracks and a gaggle of all-star remixes, 2 of which make use of expanded DOOM verses, too. In addition to BBNG and in-house producer Jneiro Jarel , Butter Edition features glitched-out remix contributions from Beck , Clams Casino, Radiohead members Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood , and TV on The Radio mega-producer Dave Sitek . Chester Hansen, Alex Sowinski & Matt Tavares AKA BADBADNOTGOOD previously recorded and self-released a blazin' instrumental Jazz cover titled "DO...

I read some fragments from a partially disjointed Noisey interview with Jeff Broadway and Peanut Butter Wolf , the director of forthcoming documentary "Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records" and the Indie Hip-Hop label's co-founder the other day. One particularly interesting [tid]bit dealt with the film's star-studded interview section; when the interviewer said, " Kanye must've been a hard get," Broadway quickly responded, "Actually, as far as who took the most convincing, that'd be DOOM ." Yep, 1/2 of MADVILLAIN , the walking enigma formerly known as MF DOOM was hard to track down - Go figure! ha Preceded by a behind-the-scenes making-the-video segment the other day, Noisey UK ( DOOM currently resides in South London ) released the Steve "ESPO" Powers -directed "BOOKHEAD" clip late Wednesday afternoon. Lex Records must really have DOOM in a tight nut-hold, cause they're already r...

I guess it's kinda like that old All-American proverb [saying] says, "one man's trash is another man's treasure." But in this case, the one man, TOBACCO (Black Moth Super Rainbow) isn't exactly sure if what he has is a trash/treasure. TOBACCO took the liberty of remixing "I Got Mine" from The Black Keys' fifth album, Attack & Release (2008), but it was never officially released. And now, this lost treasure has somehow managed to find it's way onto The Internet(s) . Seemingly with The Keys' consent, TOBACCO quietly uploaded his dusty old "I Got Mine" remix to BMSR 's collective Soundcloud page late Thurs. afternoon. When it wasn't used by the band, TOBACCO ultimately ended up chopping, editing, and re-using select portions of "I Got Mine" for his own track called "Super Gum." TOBACCO's remix and both original versions are featured down below for your comparison purposes, but be w...

Yoni Wolf , the rapping son of Rabbi Wolf , often makes music that sounds like a dis-jointed mix between Bright Eyes and something like Beastie Boys or Beck . Equally loved/loathed by Hip-Hop and Indie Rock fans alike, WHY? have finally re-emerged from roughly 3 years of utter silence. While they've had a full-length completed since Summer 2011 , WHY? are planning to release a new EP, Sod In The Seed , on August 14th first. Anticon uploaded "Sod In The Seed" (single) to their Soundcloud page just yesterday afternoon, along with the EP's interestingly painted cover art. Right off the bat, Yoni Wolf comes in sounding all emo, a little bit like Bright Eyes ... but fairly soon, WHY? laces up an Electronic bell-backed beat and Wolf starts rapping the shit out of "Sod In The Seed." In addition to all that, WHY? also announced a string of North American tour dates, running from August-Oct. along with some friends-collaborators: Serengeti , Doseone, D...