The Witzard

"Hi Matt... thanks for your interest in my work. While now is not the time to reveal everything, basically, the majority of my mash-ups that I've done connect to each other on several levels and tell a large, arcing story centered around the pursuit of pleasure, knowledge, and overall happiness in one's life. I've been dropping hints ( Easter eggs) in each (starting from the "Uptown Funk" Macho Mix ) that are pretty much impossible to find, unless you know what you're looking for, which I'll end up giving clues for at a later date... Twaddle. This particular song deals with a portion of the story involving a young woman named Rhonda Garbanzo (hence, the usage of The Beach Boys' hit... couldn't find many songs with the name "Rhonda" in it) that finds herself close to death (hence, "Stairway [to Heaven]" ) after many years of abusing her body and ultimately, her soul. She is promiscuous, a severe alcoholic, and mani...

"WE ARE NOW AT OUR BEST AND SO DEATH GRIPS IS OVER. WE HAVE OFFICIALLY STOPPED. ALL CURRENTLY SCHEDULED LIVE DATES ARE [CANCELLED]. OUR UPCOMING DOUBLE ALBUM THE POWERS THAT B WILL BE DELIVERED WORLDWIDE LATER THIS YEAR VIA HARVEST/THIRDWORLD RECORDS . DEATH GRIPS WAS ALWAYS HAS BEEN A CONCEPTUAL ART EXHIBITION ANCHORED BY SOUND [AND] VISION. ABOVE AND BEYOND A "BAND." TO OUR TRUEST FANS PLEASE STAY [LEGEND]," Death Grips wrote within a seemingly haphazard napkin-scrawled band break-up note uploaded to their Facebook page back in July 2014. Although, it now seems as though said disbandment was nothing more than an elaborately planned rouse, as founding members MC Ride, Zach Hill & Flatlander are amidst a full-fledged band reunion; having already circled the world once around, booked a number of festival dates for this upcoming summer, and are currently recording a proper follow-up to their reported "last" album, The Powers That B , tentativel...

While he isn't preoccupied melding together the sultry melodies of Rod Stewart and Miguel for an A$AP Rocky track or recruiting his sharp-tongued Albanian-Jewish buddy Action Bronson for a widely unreleased "Uptown Funk!" remix, super-producer Mark Ronson somehow managed to record and release one of the most downright Funky , yet commercially accessible albums of 2014-15; Uptown Special has already yielded one undeniable world-wide mega-hit with Ronson's infectious Bruno Mars -assisted "Uptown Funk," but now they're attempting to score similar chart success with it's proper B-side, "Feel Right." "PARTY PEOPLE, I'M VERY PROUD TO PRESENT THE VIDEO [FOR] "FEEL RIGHT" FT. @ItsMystikal DIR. BY @brunomars & @cameronduddy !!" @MarkRonson exuberantly Tweeted this past Monday afternoon. Although they make a quick cameo appearance towards the end, "Feel Right" solely features mini- Mystikal look-a...

"WOOOOOOOOO, "UPTOWN FUNK" REMIX BLASTIN' OFF RIGHT NOW ON @HOT97 [WITH] MY BROTHER @MarkRonson ," @ActionBronson exuberantly Tweeted Thursday morning, not long after his Freako Rico -designed, Bloodsport -inspired MR. WONDERFU L cover artwork made its debuted across The Internet. "Uptown Funk" is quite arguably the most instantly recognizable track culled from Ronson's New Age Soul-Funk chart-topping "solo" album, Uptown Special ; in recent weeks, it's bombarded daytime/late night TV, countless movie trailers, numerous commercials, and radio waves nation-wide. Mark Ronson painstakingly decided to cut out "Uptown Funk"' s lush extended intro, which okayplayer reports took some eight hours to create, to properly retro-fit Action Bronson 's newly-appended replacement verse. While Ronson, Bronson, and Bruno Mars' genre-blending collaboration may seem like a head-scratcher to the average listener, it sh...

Well, since Super Bowl XLVIII was more or less a televised blood-bath (43-8), Red Hot Chili Peppers/Bruno Mars' halftime team-up was expectedly cringe-worthy, and the million-dollar commercials were pretty sub-par, the real winner of the night was comedian Jon Daly aka RHCP2014 . Last week, Daly unleashed a legit-sounding new "Chili Peppers" track titled "Abracadarbafornia" upon the unsuspecting Internet . It's essentially a note-perfect re-hash of an old Comedy Bang Bang sketch written by Jon Daly and buddy Zach Galifianakis , centered around their fake Pepper Men fan club theme song, "Abracadarbafornia." Daly and multi-instrumentalist Cyrus Ghahremani (King Cyrus King) single-handedly duped one terribly unsuspecting Yahoo Music writer who preemptively lamented, "the song is classic Peppers , so much so, it almost sounds like a parody... with a slightly melancholy guitar riff before sinking into the prototypical Peppers groove....

Here we have the second Major Lazer post of the day; Yeah, I guess I could've augmented that Macklemore piece [below] to include it, but I really think "Bubble Butt" deserves it's own post. I can almost picture it now: Diplo and Eric Wareheim hanging out, watching TV and drinking beer, seeing the old school "Baby Got Back" video, and wondering how they could re-create it for 2013 A.D. It's more or less a companion set of visuals meant to go along with last week's "Bubble Butt" (Remix), which features Bruno Mars, 2 Chainz, Tyga , and Mystic - None of whom actually appear in the booty-licious Wareheim-directed video ha. I'd personally like to think that when he's not jet-setting back and forth across the free world, Diplo hangs out with the infamous Tim & Eric cult-hero, who's had a hand in creating the twisted bionic soldier of the zombie apocalypse Major Lazer mythology. "Bubble Butt" chronicles the...

Diplo has been a very busy man lately; a full-length with Snoop Lion , that new Major Lazer record, produced a track for Mac Miller , formed an audio-video channel with Skrillex & A-Trak , etc. Sometimes it's pretty easy to forget that Thomas Wesley "Diplo" Pentz is a former Philly teacher who just so happened to single-handedly pioneer Hip-Hop/Dancehall/Moombahton/Dubstep . Fully employing his Major Lazer alter-ego, Diplo 's latest creation is a remix of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' recent mega-hit single, "Can't Hold Us." Diplo then recruited 1st Klase to re-work to Hip-Pop beat into an Island riddim, which Trinidad -based rapper Swappi 4D proceeds to lyrically shred to pieces! Essentially, all that remains from the original are that Microsoft Outlook piano lick and Ray Dalton 's smooth "Can we go back, this is the moment. Tonight is the night" central hook. Macklemore 's verses seem a little haphazardly sprea...

"Tuxedo Funk EP," a mysterious 3-track quick-strike EP was quietly uploaded online about a week ago. It's been slowly picking up steam across The Blogosphere and I finally gave it a listen late Monday night, too. Blue-Eyed Soul crooner Mayer Hawthorne is quite obviously the man handling vocal duties over top of what's rumored to be smooth production work from either Jake-One, RAC , or Dâm-Funk . The unique blend of Soul-Funk , Doo-Wop, Hip-Hop , and EDM ends up sounding something like Bruno Mars meets Daft Punk [or just Chromeo ] ha. Supposedly cloaked in secrecy due to label-binding contracts, I'm sure Tuxedo 's true identities will be revealed eventually; But regardless, there's more Funk housed in these 3 tracks than on Red Hot Chili Pepper's failed 3-album opus, Stadium Arcadium (2006). "Do It" is hands down, my personal favourite track, after a few early listens. Tuxedo Funk 's opener is nearly 4:15 of blazin' Disco-...

The Police were a 1970-80's Reggae -tinged Classic Rock band, who would in turn inspire Hawaiian Blue-Eyed Soul singer, Bruno Mars some 35 years later; an influence that's especially noticeable on his latest single, "Locked Out of Heaven," which was recently remixed by zombie-slaying Dancehall king, Major Lazer . Between recording/releasing Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010) and it's proper follow-up Unorthodox Jukebox , Mars got slapped with coke possession and slowly started straying away from his "cookie-cutter" image. Sound-wise, Unorthodox Jukebox is a little more edgy and Experimental... cause Bruno Mars & The Smeezingtons [production team] linked up with a bunch of A-List producers: Jeff Bhasker , Mark Ronson, Benny Blanco , Supa Dups, and Paul Epworth . If we're excluding his stripclub anthem - "Money Make Her Smile" (Diplo), "Show Me" is quite arguably one of the album's most interesting tracks. It's...

While Philly DJ-producer Dilpo and his record label, Mad Decent have been an instrumental part of the ever-growing Electro House/Dubstep scene(s) since roughly, 2003... Most people really don't even realize how familiar they are with Diplo 's discography: "Paper Planes," Kid Cudi, "Run The World (Girls)," Usher, Die Antwoord , Wale, Chris Brown Busta Rhymes , and even an upcoming Reggae album with Snoop Dogg . Dilpo 's current passion project, Major Lazer was started out as a collaboration with Switch - who effectively jumped ship in Dec. 2011. Major Lazer is represented by a cartoon frontman who's basically a "bionic Jamaican super-commando and nightclub owner who fights zombies and vampires on a rocket-powered skateboard." Diplo is currently hoed up in Kingston, Jamaica earnestly working on the proper follow-up to Major Lazer 's well-received Indie Rock breakthrough, Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do (2009). T...

While I self-admittedly partake in some and abstain from some of the law-less, rebellious activities outlined throughout "Young, Wild & Free," I can TOTALLY relate to the overall fun-loving aspect of it all. The basic premise of Mac & Devin Go to High School seems to be: A "cool guy" (Snoop) and a "nerd" (Wiz) form a friendship and learn about the trials and tribulations of life... in the same vein as classic films like How High? or Cheech & Chong . It appears that Bruno Mars took enough time off from singing about glistening vampires and passionate werewolves so that he could lay down "Young, Wild & Free" 's instantly catchy hook. Mac & Devin Go to High School is reportedly on track for an early 2012 release. Snoop & Wiz 's original soundtrack, Music from & Inspired By The Movie will become available for purchase on Dec. 13, 2011.

About a year or so ago, a buddy and I went to a Mayer Hawthorne & The County show in the basement of a Philly church ( First Unitarian Church ). Highlights of the night, Presented by R5 Productions ... included a House Shoes ( Dilla -based) DJ set, massive amounts of zebra print, a set from delightfully Poppy opener Nikki Jean , many great Mayer-lead "New-Wop" jams, Hip-Hop heads and Hipsters, an impromptu post-show meet-and-greet/signing, etc. But the most memorable moment of the night was also a completely unexpected one. Mid-way through the main performance, County ax-man Topher Mohr took hold of the lead mic while Mayer stepped back into the folds of the band. The track [which I later learned was called "Ruthless" ] was instantly catchy... New, yet "throwback" in the same vein as the Mayer Hawthorne & The County collection. Soon after the close of the Mazda2 Tour , Topher unleashed "Ruthless" as part of a larger project - That o...