The Witzard

Just this past Friday was the first Bandcamp Friday of 2021 and to help celebrate the occasion, our favorite Baltimore-based producer, JUmbled (who describes himself as falling "somewhere between Madlib & Mike Watt") returned with a gaggle of goodies: a new project, Classic Rock Breaks, Vol. 1 and a CD-only comp. entitled Just The Singles , as well as resurfaced CD copies of his early Rap/Hip-Hop album, Keep Diggin' , Monster Jam, YOU DON'T KNOW?! with bonus cuts, and Bully Preston's The Insult, and cassettes of You Best Not Miss with Lace Berriez and his 2019 instrumental beat tape, Padre. Classic Rock Breaks vol.1 by Jumbled As stated above, Just The Singles is a Tone Lōc - Lōc-ed After Dark-inspired CD-only comp. featuring Jumbled's collaborative efforts with the likes of ALASKA, Cody Cody Jones, Dot-Com Intelligence, Dwell, salk. Drew Scott, Torito, UllNevaNo, Vans_Westly, and more. For those painfully unaware, the remainder of the aforementioned...

Late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, Weezer surprise released their fifth album entitled Weezer AKA "The Teal Album" on digital streaming platforms world-wide. It would appear as though these type of color named untitled/self-titled Weezer albums have become something of a "stunt" in recent years; although, as you may recall, Weezer 's first album widely known as "The Blue Album" (1994) was, and still is, widely acclaimed by fans and critics alike across the globe. After self-producing their second album, Pinkerton , Weezer once again joined forces with The Cars' former frontman Ric Ocasek for 2001's "The Green Album," which, as you may recall, featured undeniable green-tinted smash-hits such as "Hash Pipe," "Keep Fishin,'" and "Photograph." Following my personal favorite Weezer album, Maladroit , as well as "Beverly Hills" -featuring Make Believe , Weezer once again, r...

I'm Insane by JACK MOVES Since the release of his Work to Rule EP earlier this year, emcee, beat-boxer, and live looper Jack Moves quietly unleashed a Bandcamp cassingle entitled "Smoke Break​/​Sweet Revenge." Now, he has returned to unveil his next Extended Play. It's titled I'm Insane: A Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne , which is obviously, a 6-song tribute to The Prince of Darkness , Ozzy Osbourne and his long-time/now-defunct band, Black Sabbath . I'm Insane includes Jack Moves' previously released and extremely spot-on cover of Ozzy 's howling 1983 single, "Bark at The Moon," as well as his 1995 Zakk Wylde & Geezer Butler -assisted single, "Perry Mason." For I'm Insane , Jack Moves additionally tackles "Shot In The Dark" from The Ultimate Sin (1986) and "Mr. Crowley" from Blizzard of Ozz (1980) as well as Black Sabbath 's "Black Sabbath" from their 1970 self-titled debut. Then...

"I was joking around with Rian Johnson on Twitter and I was saying how there’s an urgent need to speak out about the many deeds of the ultimate Jedi who wastes all the other Jedi and eats their bones. Rian agreed, and told me to get to work, that the story must be told! So, I wrote the song and recorded it with a little help from my kids, who you’ll hear excitedly jumping in and out of the room while I work. Enjoy!" The Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle charismatically wrote within the band's on-site blog upon the Monday Jan. 30th release of "The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All The Other Jedi & Eats Their Bones." It all seemingly started when Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer and director Rian Johnson Tweeted "Excited (and relieved) to finally share this!" along with a link to an article dubbed THE OFFICIAL TITLE FOR STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII REVEALED; @mountain_goats (Darnielle) promptly replied, "my five-year campaign to sell...

Daptone Records' own revered Soul-Funk crooner The Screamin' Eagle of Soul , better known as 67-year-old Charles Bradley , a former James Brown impersonator who once went by "Black Velvet," is hearing up to unleash his third studio album this upcoming April 1st, 2016, Changes . Bradley's Menahan Street Band , The Budos Band, and The Bullets -assisted album is the proper follow-up to 2013's Victim of Love , and his debut No Time for Dreaming two short years prior, Changes takes its name and overall running theme from a similarly-titled Black Sabbath Vol. 4 track, which Daptone exclusively released as a Record Store Day 7-inch back in 2013. Interestingly enough, Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach 's recently-premiered Psych-Rock side project The Arcs features three rotating members of The Menahan Street Band – Nick Movshon , Homer Steinweiss , and El Michels Affair founder Leon Michels – who spearheaded a retro-futuristic Funk -leaning sound, w...

BOOTS is just about the only artist I can think of who's single-handedly worked with Beyoncé , modern day Hip-Hop heavy-weights Run The Jewels , and thinly-veiled Australian songstress Sia , yet has somehow still managed to draw comparisons to Acid-Rockers Queens of The Stone Age ; a comparison which @bootsonboots quickly refuted in a seemingly since deleted Tweet , instead likening himself to "future Hendrix/[Black] Sabbath ." Late Wednesday night into Thursday morning, BOOTS played what could quite arguably be billed as his biggest "show" to date — one broadcast to hundreds of thousands of fans scattered across the United States and Canada . Jordan Asher took the Tonight Show stage after "openers" Will Ferrell Little Debbie and Chelsea Peretti to perform a riveting rendition of his latest Motorcycle Jesus EP single, "I Run Roulette." Asher was simply flanked by two righteously pummeling drummers backed by a barrage of str...

Download Mixtape Just in time for All Hallow's Eve , Yelawolf & DJ Paul unleashed a 5-track FreEP, Black Fall late Wednesday night. The former Three 6 Mafia producer crafted some pretty sinister-sounding beats using primarily Rock & Metal samples; so far, I've heard Metallica , Pink Floyd, Muse , Michael Jackson, and Black Sabbath (Dio) . I never really used to like Yelawolf 's hillbilly-tinged brand of Southern Hip-Hop , until I heard his genre-blending collaboration with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran , The Slumdon Bridge EP . It's a truly timeless Alt. Hip-Hop EP that I would've gladly paid good money for and I guess Travis Barker & Eminem 's separate Yelawolf co-signs didn't hurt either. Leaked pre-release single "Light Switch" expertly manages to sample English Prog-Rock band Muse 's radio-friendly hit "Uprising," while elsewhere, "Thriller" and Pink Floyd are sampled on one track. Yelawolf &...

Once you get past the deeply religious/Satanic imagery, 5 Nameless Ghouls , and dark brooding undertones, Ghost [B.C.] are a damn good Heavy Metal/Rock band; However, I'd personally liken them more to formative Heavy Metal bands like Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult , etc. despite repeated allusions to the occult. Ghost are fronted by a mysterious Pope -like figurehead who goes by "Papa Emeritus II" (formerly Papa Emeritus ) and he's usually flanked on-stage by 5 cloaked Nameless Ghouls , which each represent the five elements: fire, water, wind, Earth , and ether. Filmed by Rob Semmer at 2 recent Los Angeles and New York -based gigs, the band's new video "Monstrance Clock" is pretty much your standard Rock "N" Roll performance clip. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to catch the tail-end of the Swedes' blistering set at Metallica 's first annual Orion Music + More Festival last summer... It's the last track on Ghost 's ...

Hanni el Khatib is the first natural-born American from a family of Palestinian and Filipino immigrants, who bravely heads up his own one-man band on a mission to revive 1950-60's era Rock "N" Roll , classic cars, Greaser chic, and straight razors. Khatib is a talented multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter/producer who's equally influenced by the stylings of Johnny Cash , Sam Cooke, Iggy & The Stooges , Black Sabbath, Johnny Burnette , etc. as well as Blues , Garage Rock, Soul , Folk, and Doo-Wop . Hanni el Khatib linked up with similarly-minded Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach to record his second album, Head In The Dirt , which Innovative Leisure's putting out on April 30th. The pair recorded 11 tracks down in Nashville , soon after Khatib opted to "erase everything he'd become comfortable with and to make an album out of only raw instinct and inspiration." Head In The Dirt 's lead-off single, "Family" now has...

Yeah, I basically drafted up a few terms and then coined one, "Neo-Classical Psych Rock," to help better describe SPACIN' s particularly unique, noisy sound. It's members all hailing from Philly , the band's sound seems like a by-product of Hardcore Punk and Noise/Garage Rock . SPACIN' is fronted by Jason Killinger and it's kinda a side project of his old band, Birds of Maya ; In the studio, he's joined by Paul Sukeena , Sean Hamilton , and his wife Eva on guitar/bass/drums (respectively) on their righteous Richie Records debut, Deep Thuds EP... I think it'd be safe to assume that SPACIN' are influenced by guys like Iggy & The Stooges , Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath , Ty Segall, and Pixies . While they've only unleashed roughly 8-10 tracks, SPACIN' really managed to effectively display a colorful, wide variety of styles on Deep Thuds : Psychedelic Rock, Noise Rock , riff-heavy Rock "N" Roll, Power Pop , Post-...

Even though I only caught roughly 35 minutes-worth of their set sunday afternoon [running 2-3], Ghost undoubted made the biggest impact on my musical ear this weekend @ Metallica 's first annual Orion Festival . Frontman "Papa Emeritus" and his band of 5 cloaked Nameless Ghouls flew in from Sweden @ buddy James Hetfield 's special request. Ghost has been garnering a note-worthy amount of blog-based buzz since about 2010 coinciding with the release of their debut album, Opus Eponymous . Somehow warranting rumored claims of "Satanism" practice , I personally think Ghost make music that sounds like Classic Rock/Metal : Black Sabbath , Cream, Blue Öyster Cult , Metallica, The Rolling Stones , etc. Donning their now infamous priest/peasant-inspired hooded garb, Ghost ripped through a 10-12-somg set, including a spot on "Here Comes The Sun" cover, in the blistering 90° Atlantic City heat. Visually, it all vaguely reminds me of what KISS grew oh...

"It's provocative, new, Surf-Hop , edgy & not safe. But yet oh so sexy for the women," says Yonas Michael of the ideology behind his newly-crafted Surf-Hop sound. The artist formerly known as "Y-O" of U-N-I is putting the finishing touches on his debut solo project, Lost In Hollywood . So far, eager fans have heard a handful of assorted album tracks: "House Full of Women," "Scorpio Lover" (Preview), "Open the Door" [below], and "PUNKS." The latter will be the last official album advance until it's quickly-approaching Halloween (Oct. 31st) release date. While actively creating Lost In Hollywood , Michael acquired beats from Ro Blvd. Mainframe, Faahz, Tony (Crimekillz) , AJ Subat, Polyester, Tae Beast, Alejandro Chal, and Klutch. In a recent emailed exchange, Yonas Michael stated that the primary focus throughout was to make a classic, great album... and that the signature "Surf-Hop" sound was...

Xavier de Rosnay & Gaspard Augé will be the first to admit that they're far from classically-trained musicians. But over the course of the 4 years since the release of their break-through debut, † ("Cross") , they've noticeably upped their musical chops. When compared against Justice 's original Dance -inspired sample- based sound... Audio, Video, Disco is said to be a lighter-sounding Arena/Prog Rock nodding affair; Soft-violent "daytime [ Electronic ] music," if you will. Particular artists of influence have been said to include: Supertramp, The Eagles, Black Sabbath, Queen, The Beatles , and Yes . Yet the most interesting factoid concerning the 11-track set [Oct. 25th] may very well be that the 2 DJ's played EVERY single instrument! Thusfar, our ears have been graced with 2 singles and 1 leaked track: "Civilization," "Audio Video, Disco," and "Helix." Read more about Audio, Video, Disco 's tedious 1.5...