The Witzard

umm... and the Haunted Apartment by umm... Not entirely unlike his last retrospective release, The Station Signal 's Collection of Work , West Virginia emcee and producer Unsung (@UnsungTheRapper) has returned with Umm... 's and The Haunted Apartment . Umm... is one of Steven Miller AKA Unsung 's many recording aliases I've been hearing about these last few months. Umm... 's and The Haunted Apartment is, essentially, a long-shelved compilation culled from three separate previously unreleased Umm... albums initially recorded between 2002-04: Umm... and The Surprisingly Well Garnished Plan , U Look Like Pumpkin Pie, and Umm... and The Giant Windmill . Unsung self-recorded the albums onto a dusty old 4-track recorder from a friend, while compiling his first and second Hip-Hop albums, Embrace The Shellfish & TWIN , burned onto CD-R's, and passed out to his friends, family, and classmates nestled inside of "folded and staples [pieces] of paper....

Collection of Work by The Station Signal Steven "Unsung" Miller is a rapper, producer, and musician hailing from Morgantown, West Virginia/Pittsburgh . Since initially bursting onto the map in 2001, Unsung has self-released 21 projects of varying lengths on his Bandcamp page, as well as Mugwampers -championed Young Man (2016) on Already Dead Tapes & Records and mini-album Mount St. Helens just this past May on BearTooth Collective . However, Miller's latest project isn't exactly credited to "Unsung" and honestly, it isn't exactly "new" either; Collection of Work is attributed to The Station Signal AKA Brandt Dykstra & Steven Miller . Nearly 10 years ago, between 2006-08, Unsung & Brandt wrote, recorded, and produced almost 60 songs together, which were very recently re-discovered and painstakingly whittled down to a concise 9-track Collection of Work . Not only did Unsung recently uncover a plethora of Station Signal ...

"This song was pretty therapeutic in helping me come to term with a failing relationship. It failed not because we didn't work at it, but maybe because we worked too hard at it and it became this thing that we both started resenting on some level. By the end, we were kind of like two mismatching puzzle pieces that had been shoved together... It's hard a hard spot to be in and I've had lots of friends that have been in this same place in relationships. It wasn't a horrible relationship either and I think that's what makes it harder, when its good like 50-60% of the time, but is that a way to live? ["I Need You Closer"] kind of helped me just face it in a very literal sense. This was also the fastest song on the album to write, I think I started recording it at like 11am one day and by 9pm, it was done. I remember texting my friend being like, "you have to come sing some group vocals on this song with me RIGHT NOW, before the urgency expire...

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,...

After what even most die-hard Shins fans would consider a pretty lackluster album attempt, frontman James Mercer has reunited with producer-buddy Danger Mouse aka Brian Burton to write and record a new Broken Bells album, After The Disco . Broken Bells (1) was essentially Mercer's "solo" debut and once again, he's comfortably playing the Run-D.M.C. to Danger Mouse 's Rick Rubin ; who seems to play best with others, ie: Gnarls Barkley , Gorillaz, The Black Keys , Beck, Portugal. The Man , etc. Lead single "Holding On for Life," which was previously included within an album teaser, has been self-described by Burton as a mix between late 1980-90's Dr. Dre or Ice Cube and Bee Gees -style falsetto. After The Disco will become available this upcoming January 14th and will feature micro-appearances from Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes) on horns, Daniel Lupi -orchestrated string arrangements, man-made drum machine fills by Brian Burton himself, and...

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...