The Witzard

PURE HEEL - Freedom from You back cover (CREDIT: MArk Miller, @hmniphoto) Jay Galvin is the guitarist of Buffalo Wrestle-core pioneers PURE HEEL , one of our absolute favorite Punk/Hardcore-adjacent bands in recent years. Galvin is affectionately known within the band as The Captain and somewhat less affectionately known as Captain Annoying. He's been with PURE HEEL since their formation and appears on their earliest recordings starting with their four-track 2016 Demo. Galvin has been recording, making, playing, and releasing msuic since about 1995 and either is currently or was once a member of Bleed for Me, The Bonesaw Romance, Disengage, Face The Panic, P*ssing Match, Serpents of Shiva, Slugfest, thegalvinwilhelmmillerquartet; these including stints playing and making music alongside Scott Reynolds (ALL, The Pavers,) Aaron Ratajczak (Every Time I Die, HOURGLASS,) and Scott Vogel (TERROR, WORLD BE FREE.) In addition to his various musical albilities—Jay has been a singer, guita...

Just in time for this glorious Bandcamp Friday, James Kochalka Superstar has shared a brand new recording of a song he first wrote in 1985 with Eric Bradford on a couch at The University of Vermont for their college band, Jazzin' Hell. This newly-updated 2022 version of "The Mummy's On The Loose" was recorded with Kochalka's friends, ROUGH FRANCIS , with guest vocals supplied by his teenage hero, Jello Biafra (Ex-Dead Kennedys, The NO WTO Combo) and mixed by GRAMMY Award-winning producer and Jazzin' Hell keyboardist, Peter Katis. All of this was collectively wrangled, coordinated, and produced by Neil Cleary. "Whenever I get that first rumored taste of Fall, my soul starts to yearn deeply for Vermont & Burlington. So, watching a new Neil Cleary-directed video of ROUGH FRANCIS backing James Kochalka on a 40-year-old song of his about a mummy is the kind of sentence that means everything to Burlingtonians and very little to most other folks and it...

Last time we featured graphic designer, self-described "crafty veteran Punk Rock curator," and producer Justin Mayer, otherwise known as Old City, he had constructed a mash-up EP fittingly titled BL_CK B_ST_RDS . Old City juxtaposed MF DOOM's villainous rhymes against the musical backbone of English Crust Punks, Doom for a double-dose of... Doom! We've been hearing rumblings about a similarly-minded Old City for the last few years, which would seamlessly meld together Punk/Hardcore & Hip-Hop. Said album has since been billed as "a Punk Rock Paul's Boutique," which, as The Witzard regulars will well know, is right up our alley! Old City has been gradually rolling out what, at the time, appeared to be stand-alone singles since October 1, 2019; it was, then, when Old City unleashed his debut single, "Get Sued" Feat. Tre Marsh & Olmec, which, somehow, managed to sample Green Day a whopping 32 times. Get it? "Get Sued," which, in...

Last week, we saw an Instgram post by Scott Crawford (@saladdazed) which read, "Not sure who's doing these beautiful Blue Note-inspired Punk Rock album cover re-imaginings, but I love them," along with a blue-hued image of Hüsker Dü's Flip Your Wig. Crawford added the hashtags #bobmould, #granthart, #gregnorton, and #flipyourwig, along with the additional commentary, "looks like it's art by @stealworks." So, with a little bit of our own digital sleuthing, we learned @stealworks was, in fact, graphic designer John Yates. Stealworks: THE DESIGN PORTFOLIO OF JOHN YATES further details, "Stealworks is the nom de plume of graphic designer, trouble-maker, and tea drinker, John Yates." Yates owned and operated his very own label imprint, Allied Recordings and a sub-label, Dakota Records, between 1990-99 and served as the in-house graphic designer for one-time Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles. John Yates has designed ic...

HARD FOUL at KFJC 89.7FM's "Wall," 2020 (SOURCE: @DanLactose) HARD FOUL is a new Punk/Hardcore band consisting of bassist/vocalist Frank Ripple , guitarist Dan Lactose , vocalist Kurlee Daddee , and drummer Cris R. Collectively, HARD FOUL 's members have spent time playing with Agents of Satan, Deny The Cross, Elephantman, Kalmex & The Riff Merchants, Plutocracy, Radioactive Lunch, Redacted, CCCRRCCSSLLRRKKRRSSS, Dank Goblins, Funeral Shock, Grand Invincible, Happy? Shadow People, Shed Dwellaz, Sheep Squeeze, SPAZZ, Three Wheel Motion, Torture Unit, U.S.F. Underbucket, and DEADPRESSURE. However, with that said, HARD FOUL is Kurlee Daddee 's first time ever participating in a band as an official member! HARD FOUL recently played their "quarantine compatible" live debut on Los Altos Hills, California radio station KFJC 89.7FM this past Saturday, March 14, 2020 from 3-6:00pm with These Bastards . HARD FOUL 's 10-minute set included a select...

Surfin' Turf by Franks & Deans I've been, personally, mulling over something recently: what's the most creative Punk/Hardcore band name? I've since come to the conclusion that it's either The Mr. T Experience (MTX,) The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza (TTDTE,) or Franks & Deans . MTX is American Punk Rock/Pop-Punk band formed in 1985 in Berkeley, California , while TTDTE is a now-defunct American Mathcore/Grindcore band from Murfreesboro, Tennessee . Las Vegas, Nevada 's Franks & Deans —a homage to Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin , of course—have deemed themselves the "world's first Rock "N" Roll Rat Pack band tributing Sinatra and his boys of The Rat Pack ." Franks & Deans are currently signed to SquidHat Records and consists of Robert "Rob" DeTie on vocals/4-string, Mike "Pip" Ullemeyer on drums/backing vocals, Jordan "HOSS" Hoss on guitar/vocals, Ryan "Sampson" Sa...

Music To Fall Down To by Body Spray Body Spray (@BodySprayStinks) are a South Philly -based Noise Rock/"Hoagie"-core band consisting of frontman Dan Haddigan , bassist Adam Black , drummer Ian Kiesel , and guitarist Eric Kenney . Their Bandcamp page boasts: "We met in a bowling league. We rolled together and then, we Rocked together!" For a Punk/Hardcore -adjacent band, Body Spray are surprisingly active on social media; regularly maintaining and updating their own Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter pages. Since first seeing Body Spray 's set at Pissed Jeans' WHY LOVE NOW? Record Release Show at Boot & Saddle back in March of 2017 with M Ax Noi Mach , I've been frequently corresponding with Adam & Ian , I believe, on the band's Twitter page and through email. Although, I've been listening to Body Spray 's phenomenal 2016 Hell EP for, at least, a year or so now, I've known they've had a proper full-length looming ...

Dead Kennedys were a controversial San Francisco, California -based Punk/Hardcore , who were originally active from 1978-86; within said 8-year span, Dead Kennedys self-released four albums and an EP on their own independent record label, Alternative Tentacles . Dead Kennedys critically-acclaimed and widely praised releases include Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables , In God We Trust, Inc. EP, Plastic Surgery Disasters , Frankenchrist, and finally, 1986's Bedtime for Democracy . Dead Kennedys abruptly disbanded—arguably, at the height of their "fame"—in December of 1986, prior to their career-spanning 1987 compilation , Give Me Convenience OR Give Me Death . However, following a 15-year period of inactivity, Dead Kennedys re-formed in 2001 following a number of legal disputes, royalties lawsuits, and disputes between members. Unlike the recently re-formed Original Misfits with Glenn Danzig , this is, unfortunately, not the original incarnation of Dead Kennedys . ...

It was Winter 2013 and "Thrift Shop" was still rapidly rising through the ranks of Billboard 's Hot 100 chart. I'll never forget the first time I met Jason Brown , it was up in the Shop Rite break room and said, "what's up, Macklemore ?" I don't think it was in a particularly nice way, but regardless, we still became friends. I worked as a baker and Jason was checker at the front-end registers and eventually, worked his way back to frozen foods department. I soon learned about Jason 's rapping alter-ego, "Jason Brownies" and he, knowing I ran an online music publication, was constantly passing me CD-R mixtapes and hand-made cassette tapes of his musical musings. He eventually hung up his "2 turntables and a microphone" in exchange for fuzzed out Garage Rock guitars and lush Indie Rock -minded melodies and formed solo projects/bands Bear Faces and Sapwood , which both still appear to be active, in one form or another. ...

Mahatma Crowley, a friend and frequent collaborator here at The Witzard, messaged me an MP3 of "KAYFABE" a few weeks ago from a then unnamed mystery artist he had recently taken under his wing and signed to his Akashic Vibrations Records. I guess the best way I could even begin to attempt to describe Doc Savior and in-house producer Heavy Rev's unique output would be to try to imagine what Kendrick Lamar might sound like, if he were rhyming over an album full of samples culled from Black Flag's first album with frontman Henry Rollins, 1981's Damaged. Crowley generally unleashes new musical projects on various seasonal solstices and Doc Savior & Heavy Rev's Never Sleep is no different—released today, march 20th on the Spring (Vernal) Equinox. Mahatma Crowley served as Creative Director on Doc & Rev's Never Sleep, which was assembled and recorded 100% independently with Crowley coming in after its completion to handle branding and promotion. It app...

Just one day after posting it's looping 4-minute long trailer and mere hours after a collection of online remixes was released, Lana del Rey has unveiled the Anthony Mandler -directed music video short film for her track, "National Anthem." A pair of rising young stars each with a single album [mixtape] under their belt, I'm pretty sure that Lana del Rey & A$AP Rocky can relate to Jackie O. & JFK , the characters which they loosely portray throughout "National Anthem." Self-admitted fans of eachother's work(s), del Rey and Rocky first met over Winter 2011-12 while working together on a collaborative track. "Ridin'" was written/recorded along with The Kickdrums , hastily pulled from Follow The Leader , and appended onto A$AP Rocky 's upcoming Sept. 11th debut LP, LONGLIVEA$AP . Man, I can already tell that "National Anthem" is going to be one of those videos that everyone and their brother blogs bout, while no ...

Dayglo Abortions - "Stupid Songs" My favorite Canadian band of all time. This is the opening track on Dayglo's 2nd and most popular album, Feed Us a Fetus. For anyone not familiar with this groups work, this is probably the perfect first impression. If you dig this, look up "Stupid World" off the same aforementioned album. Side note: These guys sound exactly like the records live; They're really on top of their live performance! Feederz - "Taking The Night" Some bands mix music and performance art perfectly - This is one of those bands. Singer Frank Discussion opened fire on an audience with a machine gun full of blanks, got banned from 924 Gilman St. for wearing euthanized dogs like a stool and flinging it into the crowd, and stole Jello Biafra's wife (that last one I don't think was an "artistic statement" as much of it was just a dick move). The Lewd - "Climate of Fear" The Lewd are one of a long list of...