The Witzard

Daniel Ledinsky & Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio) are THE NEVERLY BOYS . While it appears as though they've released a few now-scrubbed songs and have, seemingly, had a couple false starts over the years, Ledinsky & Sitek have finally unleashed their proper debut album together as THE NEVERLY BOYS , Dark Side of Everything . Back when these Nation/world-wide shut downs first started happening a few months ago, as events, concerts, and whatnot started getting cancelled indefinitely, many artists began hosting livestreamed concerts, album listening parties, etc. It was Tuesday, March 17, 2020 and we saw a post on both THE NEVERLY BOYS & Dave Sitek 's personal Instagram page that Sitek would soon be hosting a late night stream of THE NEVERLY BOYS' then-untitled album on his page (@davesitek.) We, of course, tuned in, as did many other fans who had been hearing rumblings about the project for quite a while now; R&B/Psychedelic Soul-Funk singer and producer Migu...

Late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, Weezer surprise released their fifth album entitled Weezer AKA "The Teal Album" on digital streaming platforms world-wide. It would appear as though these type of color named untitled/self-titled Weezer albums have become something of a "stunt" in recent years; although, as you may recall, Weezer 's first album widely known as "The Blue Album" (1994) was, and still is, widely acclaimed by fans and critics alike across the globe. After self-producing their second album, Pinkerton , Weezer once again joined forces with The Cars' former frontman Ric Ocasek for 2001's "The Green Album," which, as you may recall, featured undeniable green-tinted smash-hits such as "Hash Pipe," "Keep Fishin,'" and "Photograph." Following my personal favorite Weezer album, Maladroit , as well as "Beverly Hills" -featuring Make Believe , Weezer once again, r...

"Nowadays, I'm more influence by the artists around me making making music here in Baltimore. We probably take that for granted a bit, but we're really lucky. When I [first] started making beats at 16-17, I was pretty much just biting DJ Premier and every producer on [Nas'] Illmatic, sampling the hand-me-down vinyl I was given from my friend's weird uncle. As I got older and more fascinated with Pop and Alternative music—especially, the really depressing stuff—my production was shaped by hearing this handful of albums in my early beat-making days. Honestly, it's really hard to narrow down [to] under 10 (I wish I could pick a Prince album or Madonna's first album) but I'll keep it at six." - Drew Scott (AKA Giddeon Gallows) Forbid feat. Al Rogers Jr. by Giddeon Gallows I. OutKast - Aquemini (1998) "First CD I bought with my own money; hearing the 808's and that guitar on "Rosa Parks" at 10 years old was a moment. I alread...

Now, many of you may or may not recognize the name "TV On The Radio," but for me, personally, they were my first favorite Indie Rock band. Their 2004 major label debut, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes was essentially, my gateway into Indie Rock and to an effect, helped shape what I do now here at The Witzard . Since TV On The Radio 's initial ascension to Indie Rock super-stardom, long-time guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Dave Sitek has produced albums for everyone from Kelis to Cerebral Ballzy , released a 2010 solo album as Maximum Balloon , and in 2012, even started his own label imprint called Federal Prism and launched a sister label, Sounds Like Fun Records , with The Cool Kids' rapper-producer Chuck Inglish . LEDINSKY AKA Daniel Ledinsky is a Swedish -based singer, producer, and song-writer, who had a massive streaming hit last year with "DonalTrumpMakesMeWannaSmokeCr**k" and has worked with Cee-Lo , Rihanna, Shakira ,...

"I did [approach TVOTR ]. They have been my friends for years and I knew it could be something special," @therealelp replied when asked by a fan what the story was behind Run The Jewels' Colbert -facilitated collaboration with "the most under-rated band of all time," TV On The Radio . "HUUUUGE shout out to our friends @TVonTheRadio , Kareem Bunton, @littleshalimar , and everyone who made last night happen. Love y'all," El-P exuberantly Tweeted Wednesday morning, following his Late Show with Stephen Colbert performance along with unlikely partner in crime, Killer Mike . El-P and TV On The Radio 's working relationship would seemingly date back to around 2006 when El-P was commissioned to remix "Hours" from their Return to Cookie Mountain LP, while Killer Mike was still running with OutKast -affiliated crews Purple Ribbon All-Stars and Dungeon Family . It should additionally be noted that TVOTR lead guitarist and in-house pro...

While I'm a long-time Hip-Hop fan and Asher Roth is hands down one of my favourite rappers, I'd almost be a little hard-pressed to certify his latest RetroHash single 100% Hip-Hop . But with that said, "Tangerine Girl" is quite easily one of his most care-free and self-expressive singles yet. Released one day after his third weekly #HashWednesdays campaign, "Tangerine Girl" was directed by buddy Matt Spicer and as Asher Roth himself put it in a fan-club email, "the song made the perfect soundtrack to a bizarre love story at the skating rink, so we did exactly that." It centers around an average Joe working a mundane 9-5, whom we see secretly looking up "russian matures" on his office computer while in-house DJ Asher Roth smoothly croons "Made of money, I was thinking about her all week / Would've treated her to some Grigio , and fresh brie / The way we vibing it reminded me of ice tea / Want to drink it up so baby come...

Despite the fact, or maybe because, he looks like a modern day hippie burn-out, Asher Roth is easily one of the most talented and criminally under-rated emcees in all of the Boom-Bap land. While I've been a fan since "I Love College," I'll be amongst the first to admit that Roth's mixtapes have always been infinitely stronger than his lone radio-friendly album, Asleep In The Bread Aisle (2009). But with that said, all of Asher Roth 's non-album projects have sufficiently spotlighted his lyrical progression and sense of zen-like calm, cool, and collectiveness during an ill-fated and now severed deal with Def Jam ; Seared Foie Gras with Quince & Cranberry , RAWTH EP, Pabst & Jazz , and The GreenHouse Effect (Vol. 2) are therefore the missing creative links between Asleep In The Bread Aisle and his upcoming sophomore album, RetroHash . Although there's really no way of telling if it's even the same collection of songs, Roth's perpetual...

For the sake of cohesive clarity, maybe it should be duly noted that the majority of this very post was written down in my parents' basement earlier tonight while I was listening to Dope Body 's latest Sludge-Punk album, Natural History , and drinking midair-smuggled German beer: While I can't exactly say that I'm a huge Kelis fan, and you may not be either, but let's be totally honest... who isn't at least vaguely familiar with "Milkshake" or even "Got Your Money" (ODB)? TIME further notes that Kelis has essentially bounced all over the place during her 15-year career; "she made strange, funky Pop songs like "Milkshake" [with Pharrell ] that took over American radio. She was more forceful still with clanging, dissonant R&B tracks like "Bossy." Then, she transformed into a spaced-out Electro-House diva on her last album, 2010's Flesh Tone ." Now the ex-wife of legendary Queens emcee Nas , K...

Alongside modern day Aggro-Rap masterpiece Yeezus , Run The Jewels' self-titled/untitled premier album is quite easily amongst the "Best Albums of 2013." While Killer Mike & El-P have already unleashed a number of music videos behind the album, I haven't really bothered re-posting anything since "36" Chain" because they've all been uploaded to semi-unreliable, non- YouTube video platforms. But needless to say, Run The Jewels let loose a new holiday-themed video Saturday night, just in time for Christmas ; album closer "A Christmas F**king Miracle" now has a companion retro holiday card-indebted video directed by Joey Garfield , who previously starred as Dreadloctopus in the Beastie Boys' infamous late-90's smash-hit, "Intergalactic." According to Joey Garfield 's own Ghost Robot posse-site, "He has created memorable music videos for RJD2 , The Cool Kids, and Lupe Fiasco , and ads for Dos [Equi...

While his primary band is taking what at least seems to be an honest, yet semi-active, indefinite hiatus, TV on The Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe has crafted a new mouth-full of a band, Higgins Waterproof Black Magic Band . Here, Adebimpe is joined by 3 equally busy long-time friends: Ryan Sawyer, Josh Werner , and Alex Holden ... members of Lone Wolf and Cub , Lee "Scratch" Perry/CocoRosie, and Big Numbers (respectively). Higgins Waterproof have recently announced a 5-track self-titled EP that's set for an October 1st release on their own imprint, ZNA Records , along with a month-long (October) Sunday night residency at Brooklyn 's own Union Pool venue. I think it's pretty safe to assume that this is in fact the same 5-song collection Tunde Adebimpe was describing to SPIN just a few months ago: "You have friends in bands and you realize you've known each other 15 years and never played together, maybe out of respect for your friendship. We star...

"WE REMIXED THE BEAT FOR "GUV'NOR" AND DOOM SPAT NEW VERSES ON THE TRACK," BADBADNOTGOOD (BBNG) Tweeted almost immediately preceding Noisey's world premier of the JJ DOOM remix, which was lifted from Keys to The Kuffs (Butter Edition) . Lex Records plans to unleash the expanded and remixed album version on August 21st, but sadly the 12" picture discs won't ship until the end of October; The 2-CD set includes the original 14-track album, plus 4 BRAND NEW tracks and a gaggle of all-star remixes, 2 of which make use of expanded DOOM verses, too. In addition to BBNG and in-house producer Jneiro Jarel , Butter Edition features glitched-out remix contributions from Beck , Clams Casino, Radiohead members Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood , and TV on The Radio mega-producer Dave Sitek . Chester Hansen, Alex Sowinski & Matt Tavares AKA BADBADNOTGOOD previously recorded and self-released a blazin' instrumental Jazz cover titled "DO...

Noisey premiered Chuck Inglish 's new Federal Prism single, "Swervin'" late Tuesday afternoon, which features a semi-reunion with his former Cool Kids band mate Sir Michael Rocks (FKA Mikey Rocks ). Likely the first single from his upcoming Convertibles album, "Swervin'" marks The Cool Kids' first recorded appearance on wax since about 2011. Mikey Rocks randomly mentioned what sounds like a fairly amicable split win a Dec. 2012 AllHipHop interview: "You break us up, we're still going to turn out nice as f*ck separately, and when we come together, we transition that energy into making a dope record. Right now, man, I think we just need to be focusing on blowing up... We might come together as something else different. But as The Cool Kids , no, because we're not the same people, we've changed and evolved into two different artists." More or less, part 2 in Chuck Inglish 's auto-themed series that started with D...

I read some fragments from a partially disjointed Noisey interview with Jeff Broadway and Peanut Butter Wolf , the director of forthcoming documentary "Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records" and the Indie Hip-Hop label's co-founder the other day. One particularly interesting [tid]bit dealt with the film's star-studded interview section; when the interviewer said, " Kanye must've been a hard get," Broadway quickly responded, "Actually, as far as who took the most convincing, that'd be DOOM ." Yep, 1/2 of MADVILLAIN , the walking enigma formerly known as MF DOOM was hard to track down - Go figure! ha Preceded by a behind-the-scenes making-the-video segment the other day, Noisey UK ( DOOM currently resides in South London ) released the Steve "ESPO" Powers -directed "BOOKHEAD" clip late Wednesday afternoon. Lex Records must really have DOOM in a tight nut-hold, cause they're already r...

Since we're being honest, I don't think I've ever actually heard anything from Kelis besides "Got Your Money" and "Milkshake;" "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard and they're like, it's better than yours..." After a few rough years full of shelved albums, label drama, and the dissolution of her marriage to Nas , Kelis has signed to TV on The Radio multi-instrumentalist/producer Dave Sitek 's new label imprint. Federal Prism plans to unleash 2 Kelis albums and a single by year's end, along with new material from Scarlett Johansson , Maximum Balloon/Miguel, Freddie Gibbs , CSS, Chuck Inglish , and more. Kelis uploaded "Call On Me" to Soundcloud mid-Monday afternoon, which was later re-upped in substantially higher quality as "Jerk Ribs." Dave Sitek weaves a densely-layered soundbed that includes squalling horns, Funky basslines, and African drum rhythms; It almost has sonic accents re...

I first discovered Brooklyn 's premier Indie Rock experimentalists , Dirty Projectors , quite a few years ago; Right around the same time that frontman Dave Longstreth decided to re-record an entire Black Flag record from memory (2007). The band's line-up seems to morph/permeate a little bit with each album and has previously included cats like Angel Deradoorian , Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), Adam Forkner, and former-drummer Brian McOmber . Dirty Projectors-13 's latest line-up consists of Longstreth, Nat Baldwin, Michael Johnson , and the sultry 3-part harmonies of Amber Coffman/Haley Dekle/ Jenn Wasner Olga Bell . I guess I'd almost describe their overall sound as some sort of post- Destiny's Child R&B crooning. Case in point: "Stillness Is The Move," which Beyoncé 's little sister Solange just so happened to cover, too. I just ordered used copies of Rise Above, Bitte Orca , and Swing Lo Magellan from Amazon and s...

Musicians have been releasing additional video content ("Bonus DVD's") along with their albums since the decline of the CD format - roughly since the early 2000's. I literally have a stack of 10-15 band DVD's in jewel cases down in my basement, but TV on the Radio have quite arguably executed the strongest DVD format-utilizing release. Nearly a year after it's original [digital] release, TV on the Radio have since decided to give Nine Types of Light a proper re-release. Now available on DVD for the first time, the film helps transform 11 lush, Experimental tracks into an intricate, yet completely "sound" video album. Nine Types of Light has since been nominated @ the upcoming Grammy's (2012) in the category of "Best Long Form Music Video." TV on the Radio commissioned various directors and friends to create clips for each of Nine Types of Light 's 11 tracks... an album which was then slightly re-arranged to form an hour-lon...

After a lengthy 4 year-long "hibernation," Indie Rock 's favourite Philly -bred wanderlust wonder child, Santigold has finally emerged with some new, buzz-worthy music in toe. Nearly out of the blue, "Big Mouth" was released for FREE download yesterday to wide-spread critical and fan acclaim alike. Santigold 's PR rep. later stated that the track is merely a promotional [teaser] single; But you would never know so from the looks of it's accompanying over-the-top, glammed up cartoon-ish music video. The high-ppofile audio/video talents of Switch , Buraka Som Sistema , and director Cody Critcheloe were brought in for back-up assistance in Round #1. Between albums, Santigold managed to work with a wide array of distinctive collaborators including: Christina Aguilera , Q-Tip, Jay-Z , Lily Allen , M.I.A. The Lonely Island , Pharrell, N.A.S.A. Beastie Boys, Julian Casablancas , and Karen O. Master of My Make-Believe was additionally out-fitted with the ...