The Witzard

So, as a record collector myself, I can safely say, one of the most sought-after records for most record collectors to "dig" up would be a coveted Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash bootleg. Said fabled bootleg has been released under numerous titles over the years, including The Dylan Cash Session , The Nashville Tapes, Nashville 1969 , and Partners on both unofficial LP's and CD's. A few years ago, I was, actually, lucky enough to unearth a copy of 2009's pseudo-yellowed The Nashville Tapes in a crate at a record/antique store up in Mullica Hill, NJ, I believe. Now, it appears as though those infamous 1969 Dylan/Cash sessions will finally be officially released in full on Bob Dylan (Featuring Johnny Cash) - Travelin' Thru, 1967-1969: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 15 . As seen within 2005 Joaquin Phoenix-starring biopic, Walk The Line, Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan were both, seemingly, long-time fans and mutual admirers of each other's work; then, suddenly, one fa...

Los Angeles sister act HAIM have indeed dabbled with Hip-Hop in the past, whether it be nearly getting recruited as A$AP Rocky 's backing band or appearing on genre-blending Kid Cudi and Childish Gambino tracks... But now they've enlisted rising A$AP Mob emcee, A$AP Ferg to append a ferocious add-on verse to their Days Are Gone album stand-out, "My Song 5." It's not entirely unlike a visual Where's Waldo? of seemingly everyone Danielle, Este & Alana Haim have encountered or befriended while on the road over the last couple years; featured emcee A$AP Ferg , Ke$ha, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig , Grimes, Big Sean , SNL comedian Vanessa Bayer, Mama & Papa Haim , producer Ariel Rechtshaid, and even "Artemis" from It's Always Sunny . Leading up to it's Tuesday afternoon release, @HAIMtheband's long-rumored "My Song 5" video was subtly teased with cleverly edited 90's screen-grabs from Sally Jessy Ra...

Pharrell arguably had one of the most successful years of his career last year with the combined mega-success of "Get Lucky," "Blurred Lines," and countless other chart-topping hits. Late Tuesday night, news broke that Pharrell 's long-rumored second solo album, now titled G I R L will see a March 3-4th release. Pharrell himself described the album as "the difference between [age] 30 and 40" during a career-spanning Complex interview and in stark contrast with both In My Mind (2006) and N*E*R*D , G I R L will supposedly feature "no rapping" whatsoever. While I've always thought Pharrell was a pretty impressive rapper-producer, he's a damn awesome singer and hook-man, as well. "Happy," the first single of the album's 10 currently untitled tracks, is a prime example of Skateboard P 's singing chops; it was originally composed for the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack and almost functions as a modern day all-a...

Rising Brooklyn producer-of-the-moment Harry Fraud wrangled up a crazy/awesome posse of Internet -friendly rappers for his upcoming High Tide EP ; It'll feature frequent collaborator like Action Bronson , French Montana, and Chinx Drugz across 5 contained tracks. Lead single "Yacht Lash" positions JODY HiGHROLLER (RiFF RAFF) alongside Odd Future 's returning prince, Earl Sweatshirt . Harry Fraud successfully melds together a DIRTY Psych-Rock -drenched Hip-Hop beat, which leaves plenty of room for 32+ bars worth of swagged out bravado. Earl Sweatshirt effectively slays the first 1/2 of this track, only his 10-12th recorded appearance since returning home from juvie in Samoa (Feb. 2012). Sweatshirt laments about his triumphant return to prominence, "Nothin' much to my ethics / Bitch, I'm joggin' like I already won the election / Fuck it, shunning protection... Rest assured, I keep the label embarrassed." RiFF RAFF on the other hand...

Young KREAYSHAWN sure did have one sudden, albeit triumphant rise to fame this past calendar year; Her debut single, "Gucci Gucci" amassed some 3 million YouTube hits in it's first 3 weeks, which imminently resulted in the signing of a coveted $1 million deal with Columbia Records (June). That's the thing - I can tell that KREAYSHAWN has this completely RAW, un-tapped natural talent(s): Film, music, video editing, graphic design, pixel art. KREAYSHAWN was born and raised in The Bay Area to a single, Punk Rock -loving mother. Although she dropped out of Berkley film school, KREAYSHAWN has since shot and edited music videos for a wide range of Popular artists including: Lil B BASEDGOD, Soulja Boy , A.P.B. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stalker, Dread, D.B. The General ... and even starred in The Memorials - "We Go to War" (music video). Essentially, she has yet to prove much of anything @ all, but I can tell that KREAYSHAWN has a lot of drive. So, her ...

I bet that many of you may be fairly familiar with Chairlift and don't even know it. For example, the Boulder, CO Synth Pop group's 2008 track, "Bruises" was used in one of the initial iPod Nano [Chromatic] commercials. Chairlift have been noticeably inactive since the release of their debut long-player, Does You Inspire You? (2008) and lost a founding member, Aaron Pfenning - Now in pursuit of a solo career as "REWARDS." Chairlift 's remaining 2 members have also been focusing on a number of side-efforts, as of late: Songstress Caroline Polachek appeared on Washed Out 's recent lead single, "You and I," in addition to Popular tracks from Flosstradamus and Acrylics . Multi-instrumentalist Patrick Wimberely seems to have struck up quite the friendship with the boys of Das Racist; PatrickWHAT produced 5 individual tracks [this including "Michael Jackson" ] and went on to Executive Produce the entirety of their debut alb...