The Witzard

Robert Smith has been the long-time smeared lipstick-wearing frontman of The Cure since 1978. Aside from his beloved body of work with The Cure, Smith has released a limited number of outer-band recordings on his own. Those including collaborations with, but not limited to, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Glove, Cult Hero, Crystal Castles, The Twilight Sad, blink-182, The Stranglers, KoЯn, and Junkie XL. Robert Smith has, additionally, released a number of solo recordings including "Pictures of You" (Paul Mac Remix) from the One Perfect Day Soundtrack, a cover of Kathryn Beaumont's "Very Good Advice" from Almost Alice, a cover of John Martyn's "Small Hours" the Johnny Boy Would Love This tribute comp. and lastly, a cover of Frank Sinatra's "Witchcraft" from Frankenweenie Unleashed! (Music Inspired By The Motion Picture.) It was announced earlier this week Smith would be appearing alongside Gorillaz, the long-time "virtual...

For the past few months, Damon Albarn & Jamie Hewlett's long-running "cartoon" band, Gorillaz, singer 2-D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, guitarist Noodle, and drummer Russel Hobbs, have been trickling out new songs sporadically during Quarantine. As part of their ongoing Song Machine series, Gorillaz have released numerous "Episodes" (songs) and "Machine Bitez" including "Momentary Bliss" Feat. slowthai & Slaves, "Désolé" Feat. Fatoumata Diawara, "Aries" Feat. Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order) & Georgia, and "Friday 13th" Feat. Octavian. Plus, Gorillaz shared another non-Song Machine song by way of "How Far?" Feat. Tony Allen & Skepta in tribute/homage to Damon Albarn's long-time friend and collaborator, Allen, who, unfortunately, passed away back in April at the age of 79. "Song Machine—the cartoon music contraption, which spits out brand new episodes fresh from the studio, as and...

"My name is Charles Edison. I'm a beat-maker/producer/rapper from Essex originally, now based in South London. I started making beats roughly 10 years ago, but got semi-serious with it around five years ago. I use a mix of samples and synths in my beats and draw on quite a wide scope of influences, which I'll delve into a little bit with a couple of albums that really defined my approach to music..." Everything is Fine by Charles Edison I. MF DOOM & Madlib (MADVILLAIN) - MADVILLAINY (2004) "I know this will probably be on a lot of people's lists, if you ask them about influential or definitive Hip-Hop albums, but it's a great one for illustrating what can happen, when the right people are brought together. Madlib is well-known for finding great loops and not messing with them too much; just opening them up for someone like DOOM with that free-associative flow to just let loose on. To me, it's just the perfect example of a Hip-Hop record. The...

"Their musical anarchy and constant attitude to disregard rules and forge their own path was inspirational to me. [The Clash] meant death to genres, music, and message above everything," Diplo lamented about collaborators Mick Jones & Paul Simonon in a pre-release statement. Following the track's initial announcement this past Friday, "HERO" was unleashed early Monday morning as part of Converse 's annual Three Artists, One Song collaborative campaign. It was presumably produced by Mad Decent founder Diplo and was one of five tracks recorded recently between London , Hawaii, and Los Angeles ; Basic tracks for "HERO" were recorded at Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn 's Studio 13 , whom Jones and Simonon had previously worked with on Plastic Beach (2010). Fans of the newly-forged super-group's past works with recognize familiar elements of Hip-Hop -infused R&B , 1980's Punk Rock , and Reggae-Fusion , but I wouldn't ...

While it's title could easily be a reference to Toni Braxton 's similarly-titled 1996 smash-hit, M.I.A. 's latest [controlled] leak, "UNBREAK My Mixtape" almost seamlessly samples Blur , Carly Simon, Karen Dalton , and Fresh 4 in just under 5 minutes! After nearly a year of 2's-worth of delays and a single threatening Tweet , M.I.A. 's long-awaited fourth studio album Matangi is finally slated for a firm November 5th release. "UNBREAK My Mixtape" might just be The Internet 's fifth taste of Matangi , succeeded by "Only 1 U," "Come Walk with Me," "atTENTion," and possibly even "Bad Girls" (2012). M.I.A. effortlessly floats in-between the rapidly-changing beat(s); lamenting about a lost love and a broken mixtape, "Here's a mixtape that I made, let's take a break... While I get my life sorted, here's a mixtape... What did I do for you to call me crazy?" M.I.A. seems pretty ...

I wonder if [MF] DOOM ended up making an appearance @ The London Olympics a couple weeks ago... or could it have the fine doings of a skillfully-trained " DOOM-poster !?" Either way, DOOM has been living "across the pond" due to a scattered details exile since about 2010, which was when/where he originally linked up with Jneiro Jarel . KEY TO THE KUFFS is the resulting album that was slowly pieced together, recorded under the dual-moniker "JJ DOOM," and featuring guest verses from Damon Albarn, Khujo Goodie , Beth Gibbons, and Boston Fielder - members of Gorillaz , Goodie Mob , and Portishead aided fame (respectively). DOOM is a very left-field, mysterious [prolific] kind of guy and KEY TO THE KUFFS really seems like a fitting album to be released in his 25th year as a performer! Ninian Doff directed the highly- Experimental , split-screen music video for "Guv'nor" as part of Rizlab Project #4 , which was ultimately unveiled late W...

Frequent Gorillaz collaborator and 1970's Soulman , Bobby Womack is fixing to make a triumphant comeback with the release of his first album in nearly 20 years, The Bravest Man In The Universe (June 11-12th). Womack's music career was kick-started back in the early 60's with family band, The Valentinos and later as Sam Cooke 's backing guitarist. Recorded over the past few years along with friends Damon Albarn and XL Recordings head honcho Richard Russell , "Please Forgive My Heart" is our initial taste of the album; Man, it's a bubbling, piano-driven synth -heavy affair that's slightly reminiscent of Albarn & Russell's Electro -leaning collective outputs... But have no fear, Bobby Womack 's passionate, heart-felt vocal delivery first heard on revealing original hits [and covers] like "Fly Me to The Moon," "California Dreaming," "Across 110th Street," "Sweet Caroline," and "It's All...

I've been a hardcore music fan for about 10-15 years now; An admitted lover of all things Hip-Hop, Indie Rock , and Punk (Pop Culture). OutKast, Gorillaz , and LCD Soundsystem have been atop my list of favourite artists for some time and were quite arguably the 3 most eclectic musicians of the last decade! So, much to my delight it was pretty exciting to hear about Converse 's latest "3 Artists, 1 Song" installment: Damon Albarn , André 3000 , and James Murphy. "DoYaThing" premiered online earlier today, in conjunction with the release of 4 SPECIAL EDITION Jamie Hewlett -designed Gorillaz "Chucks." Pitchfork 's very own Ryan Dombal reports that while in the studio over 3 days back in September, the eclectic trio also recorded a Dirty 12-minute version of "DoYaThing" in addition to the [previously released] Radio Edit. Gorillaz are set to debut a companion music video and the long version online in the coming weeks. "DoYa...

Lana del Rey [Lizzy Grant] effectively became 2011's "It Girl" with the release of her phenomenal debut single, "Video Games" (Stranger) . Like many struggling singer-songwriters, Grant has been signed, dropped, and significantly changed her public image since bursting onto the scene (2009). With that said, it can be assumed that Lana del Rey has collected just as many "haters" as she has avid supporters. To be perfectly honest, the only other artist I can think of that made this much commotion... garnered so much wide-spread buzz/hate and critical acclaim -- right out of the gates -- with just one track is Britney Spears . And maybe in this post- Mike musical era, that's the true synthesis of Pop Culture: Britney Lynn Spears . After months of repeated teasing and speculation, Lana del Rey 's major label debut, Born 2 Die will [finally] be released this coming Jan. 30-31, 2012. Pitchfork reports that it will feature "Off to The Ra...