The Witzard

After Anthony Green left rehab in 2020, he started writing a song called "I Don't Want to Die," a sentiment that captures the raw, sometimes heartbreaking, but, also, hopeful nature of his new solo record, Boom. Done. It turned out to be a lightning strike to his song-writing and, with the help of long-time friends and bandmates Tim Arnold & Keith Goodwin of Good Old War , Green wrote one of the most intentional and formidable bodies of work in his expansive career. Out everywhere this July on Born Losers Records, Boom. Done. was written over the last couple of years following an overdose where Green's struggle with addiction led to him, actually, losing his life for up to eight minutes. Around this time, Green was, also, formally diagnosed with bipolar disorder and while most of his music has grappled with the realities of addiction and mental illness, there's something different about the songs on Boom. Done. "I don't dance, the world around...

Moor Jewelry (CREDIT: Bob Sweeney) Moor Jewelry —sometimes, known as " Moor X Jewelry "—is a collaborative Philly-based project consisting of Camae Anywa (Moor Mother) and Steve Montenegro (Mental Jewelry.) Don Giovanni Records released Moor X Jewelry 's debut collaborative EP, Crime Waves , back in June 2017 to both widespread critical and fan acclaim. Prior to Crime Waves , two early Mental Jewelry tracks, actually, appeared on Moor Mother 's 2017 album, The Motionless Present , released on UK-based The Vinyl Factory ; one of those formative tracks, "Big Crime," would end up re-appearing on Crime Waves and the other, "Remember," remains a Motionless Present -only exclusive. Moor Mother has since shared a solo album, Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes (2019) on Don Giovanni , as well as six appearances across Zonal 's 12-track 2019 Relapse Records album, Wrecked . Together, Moor Mother x Zonal , additionally, released non-album cu...

Stale Flowers by dreamswell dreamswell are a self-proclaimed "Doomgaze" (Doom Metal + Shoegaze) band hailing from Philly. Formed about four years ago, dreamswell consists of Candice Martello, Jon Martello, Gina Piccari & Madalean Gauze , who initially bonded over a shared admiration for seminal Shoegaze bands, such as True Widow & Slowdive. " dreamswell , stemming from the gritty music scene of Philadelphia, is the collaboration of four familiar Philly music scene faces, who have come together to hit hard, get muddy, and whisper lightly," reads a description on their Facebook page. I also, catch sonic allusions to equally "gloomy" bands like Silversun Pickups, Cults, The Smashing Pumpkins, Baroness, The Cure, Siouxsie & The Banshees, and Echo & The Bunnymen. After having released a 2-act EP series throughout 2017-18, dreamswell have returned with the first single from their debut full-length, SPOILED . "Stale Flowers" defi...

"Sweet Fall" is a song I've had in my possession for, at least, six months now, as I received it literally days before my wedding. It's been a bit delayed on my end, as most coverage has been for the last few months because... well, life! Although, honestly, it might have just worked out this time because the accompanying Bob Sweeney -directed music video for "Sweet Fall" is out, now, too. DEC 4 is the newly-enacted project of Philly -based musician, vocalist, and lyricist Justin Zugerman (@zuwear_.) It appears as though Zugerman is, in fact, a childhood friend of both John Morrison & Josh "Indi" Leidy of the Serious Rap Sh*t podcast. After going on an indefinite hiatus from his long-time Psychedelic/Experimental/Hip-Hop project with Chris Grau , Oxygen&Light , Morrison & Leidy introduced DEC 4 to their friend and fellow Philly -based producer and multi-instrumentalist, Harry Metz , whom most of you may well know as Rolled Gold...

Donovan "ialive" Phillips is a self-described "Rap-singer-songwriter/beat aficionado/musical collector" hailing from The City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . ialive has released numerous collaborative and solo projects over the years, but hasn't released a tried and true "solo" album since 2015's Awake In The Snake Hole . However, in recent years, he's released collaborative projects with both Darko The Super as The Hell Hole Store and TIMEWAVE ZERO with Height Keech , as well as Four to The Floor 1-2 EP's with Cody Cody Jones ... just this past week, ialive announced his long-awaited third solo album, DON'T DO NOTHING , which will be dropping on Height 's Cold Rhymes Records Friday, January 11, 2019. DON'T DO NOTHING was fully produced, recorded, and mixed by ialive himself at The Green Gem in Philly with mastering done by Vinyl Cape 's own C$ BURNS . On the most recent episode of THIS COLD RHYM...

"I'm Zilla Rocca. I rap, produce, and write articles. I have my own Indie label, Three Dollar Pistol Music and put out music with my friends Curly Castro, Small Professor, and PremRock as our posse, Wrecking Crew. Me and Small Pro put out a group album as Career Crooks [last] year called Good Luck with That , where he did all of the beats, but I've been a producer, as well for 15 years. So, here's some of the most important albums to me, when I'm "behind the boards.'" I. Handsome Boy Modeling School - So... How's Your Girl? (1999) "I remember buying this album in 1999 and having no clue how any of these songs were made. I didn't start making beats for another three years or so, but this album never left my conciousness. [Dan The] Automator is one of my all-time favorite producers because he bounces between genres effortlessly, from Serge Gainsbourg stuff with Lovage, to Sci-Fi Fantasy Robot sh*t with Deltron [3030], to the first Go...

Steve Martin 's long-standing and storied relationship with Hip-Hop goes back nearly 30 years. It seems to have all started with "The Steve Martin" from EPMD's critically-acclaimed and genre-shaping debut Strictly Business (1988) which goes a little something like this: "Well, I have a new dance, that you all must learn You may have seen the Pee-Wee Herman , but it's had it's turn Now, this brand new dance, I know you not with it You might break your neck, to really try to get it If you seen the clumsy movie it was called The Jerk You had to check out Steve Martin , as he started to work He was doin' freaky moves with his feet and head With his blue farmer suit and his big Pro-Keds ." Good Luck With That by Career Crooks It appears as though, according to YouTube 's Learn Hip Hop Dance instructor MahaloDance , "The Steve Martin" is also "an old school Hip-Hop move," which I would assume was likely inspire...

"I used to watch Run-D.M.C. videos on my grandmother's TV in South Philly; then, I had to hide Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg CD's from my parents when I was 10-years-old. I used to make Rap tapes on my dad's stereo system. I would record every episode of BET's Rap City in high school on VHS. In college, I started my first Rap group. After college, I started my own Indie Rap label. Today, my first album released on a record label is out. And I can't believe it!" Zilla Rocca ecstatically wrote within a Friday afternoon Facebook post. Friday, May 19th was the release day for the seasoned South Philly rapper-producer and remixer's major label "debut," Good Luck with That on Toronto-based Indie Hip-Hop label URBNET. Zilla recently formed Career Crooks with his long-time friend and partner-in-crime Small Professor (Small Pro) and ahead of Good Luck with That, they released two hard-as-nails pre-album collections: last year's Sin Will Find You: The C...

"It's a song I always loved, but I could never figure where to place it, in terms of albums and such. I've performed it a few times and it always did well... I kind of Kanye'd the hook and had variations of it done by El Malito & Margel The Sophant , before I put it together the way it is now. I just wanted it... to be great because the beat is crazy and the story/concept is heavily indebted to this book, The Song Is You by Megan Abbott ," Wrecking Crew & Career Crooks emcee Zilla Rocca wrote, via text Monday night, concerning his latest stand-alone single. "Lemon Drop" was released in a similar fashion to Zilla 's recent influx of 90's Golden Age Hip-Hop -evoking Noir-Hop loosies: "98 Avirex Flow" and Ghostface Killah & Raekwon -flipping "Faster Blade Redux," which was fittingly premiered right here at The Witzard . Zilla Rocca further explained that it's his "goal to drop one song a month for...

"I was re-watching old Mad Men episodes and I heard Don Draper say "we're the creatives—just the least important most important thing there is." And I immediately went into the studio and freestyled the first verse over that beat 'cause I was so inspired by that line... to give you more insight, I'm not a freestyle type of recording artist; usually, all of my stuff is written, then re-written, then edited, and then finalized when I record it. I picked out that beat from Small [Professor] is his apartment during a snow storm. He pitched it first to a very [well-known] rapper, who passed on it, and I snatched it up immediately," South Philly -based emcee and @RapBooklets curator Zilla Rocca wrote within a recent emailed conversation. Rocca and the self-proclaimed " smallest professor that you've seen thus far" have been friends and collaborators since 2008 and South Philly neighbors for the past 4-5 years; they're previously relea...