The Witzard

S/T by Witchtrial It's always reasonably enjoyable when artists start up a new side-project or band that's slightly outside of their typical/expected genre; for example, Hardcore Punks playing "Classic Rock" ( Angel Du$t on Pretty Buff or The Men on Tomorrow's Hits ,) Norwegian Heavy Metalers playing sunny Power-Pop ( Kvelertak as Beacheads ,) Fleet Foxes drummer J. Tillman re-emerging as Indie Rock/Folk heart-throb Father John Misty , members of Anthrax, Fall Out Boy & Every Time I Die joining forces as Pop Punk -inflected Heavy Metal band The Damned Things , Brownout covering Black Sabbath as Brown Sabbath , Ty Segall 's Noise-Rock/Punk side-band GØGGS ... I could, honestly, go on and on! So, this brings us to the latest band of merry misfits doing unexpected things musically: WITCHTRIAL . A primarily DC-based band, WITCHTRIAL consists of members of some of The East Coast 's finest Punk/Hardcore bands, including, but not limited t...

I must admit, I was initially drawn to "Post-Punk" band Merchandise because a recently-penned Ad-Hoc article likened their sound to that of The Smiths , who just so happen to be on of my favourite bands. Between their rapid-fire 2012-13 albums, Children of Desire and Totale Night , the band's membership quickly multiplied from three to five; now including Carson Cox, David Vassalotti, Elsner Niño, Patrick Brady , and sax player Chris Horn . Marking the announcement of their new-found partnership with Indie label 4AD , Merchandise unleashed a limited run clear 12" for "Begging for Your Life / In The City Light," a 14-minute track which was previously released on a split Chelsea Light Moving tour cassette. While 1,000 12-inches were briefly available for pre-order, set to ship on February 25th, 4AD almost instantly sold out and "Begging for Your Life" is now alternatively available on iTunes and a number of other digital retailers. For ...