The Witzard

Dead Best's Brian Sokel, 2021 (SOURCE: Brian Sokel) Brian Sokel is a Philadelphia native. Sokel played guitar in the influential Punk/Dub band Franklin (sometimes, ! franklin) from 1992 until the band's demise in 1999. They released numerous albums and singles on various labels. Sokel on to play in AM/FM with fellow Philadelphian Michael "Mike" Parsell (Frail) and was the primary song-writer. AM/FM released numerous albums on Polyvinyl Records in the early 2000's. They toured numerous times, but, ultimately, disbanded in 2004. Sokel has, also, spent time throughout his career playing music with Atom & His Package, short-lived Misfits-covering super-group T.V. Casualty , Fracture, The Jai-Alai Savant with his one-time Franklin bandmate Ralph Darden, Aspera Ad Astra, and Gonner. Sokel took a 10-year period off from making his own music between about 2003-13 after which he briefly formed a new project, Gonner, with Parsell and one-time Franklin bassist Roy Binn...

Long-time friends Adam "Atom" Goren & Brian Sokel followed interwoven paths through the Philadelphia Punk scene in the late 90's and early 2000's. While Sokel brought riffs to the Dub & Hardcore-blending ! franklin and was the primary song-writer and multi-instrumentalist for AM/FM , Goren was playing in Punk bands Fracture & Armalite and exploring the use of sequencers in his eccentric solo project Atom & His Package . In their respective projects, the two toured The US & Canada together, released each other's music on self-run labels, and Goren would even pay tribute to Sokel's band on the Atom & His Package track "For Franklin." Sokel briefly appears on Atom & His Package's "Out to Everyone" from Attention! Blah Blah Blah. and "Upside Down from Here" from Hair: Debatable, as well as TV Casualty's self-titled 7-inch of Misfits covers. Despite their closeness, Goren & Sokel had never ...