The Witzard

DIVIDED HEAVEN in Baltimore, Maryland (photographer unknown / SOURCE: Facebook) We're one day away from the official start of summer, so let's kick things off with a cover of one of the greatest Descendents songs ever written. DIVIDED HEAVEN and German singer-songwriter Matze Rossi have just released a stripped down version of "Clean Sheets" that will leave you feeling a bit more tender. Rossi's raspy howl plays wonderfully with DIVIDED HEAVEN founder Jeff Berman's voice as they belt out a song that has become part of the pantheon of Punk music. Said cover really captures the spirit of singing your favorite songs with all of your friends. You know, the moment at a party or a show where everyone knows every word and can't help but sing at the top of their lungs. It's a special kind of moment reserved for a special kind of song and "Clean Sheets" is just that kind of song. Divided Heaven · Clean Sheets (feat. Matze Rossi) Just this past...

NOT, L-R: Kyle Whitmore, Brendan Scholz, Davey Warsop, and Jarred Cooper (SOURCE: Earshot Media, photographer unknown) Descendents/ALL are now bands that have strongly infleunced and heavily affected generations of youthful, angsty fans. So, this si where it may get a bit confusing: Descendents & ALL are esentially the same band featuring slightly different, albeit similar line-ups. Descendents' most well-known and longest-standing line-up is singer Milo Aukerman, bassist Karl Alvarez, guitarist Stephen Egerton, and drummer Bill Stevenson. While ALL is Alvarez, Egerton & Stevenson with a rotating cast of beloved frontmen: Dave Smalley, Scott Reynolds & Chad Price and briefly functioned as TonyALL with the addition of bassist and song-writer Tony Lombardo (ex-Descendents.) For obvious reasons, Descendents, ALL & TonyALL have rarely ever ALL consistently functioned at the same time. It's safe to say Descendents' fourth and then-final 1987 album, aptly-title...

"Hey! Big news, everyone: my new solo record, Black Ice (Volume I,) comes out today, 2/22/22 at 2:22p.m. You can go listen to it over at my Bandcamp and you can buy the vinyl on my Big Cartel . The links are in my Bio, so check it out," Buddy Schaub (@LessThanBuddy) ecstatically exclaimed within a short video posted to his Twitter page yesterday afternoon. You may know Buddy "Goldfinger" Schaub as the long-time trombone/bass player for Less Than Jake, but he does, indeed, have a musical life outside of that band. These are all songs that he's been earnestly working on since 2004. Schaub finally decided on a format for recording them and converted them to 1's and 0's. He warns fans, "there are plenty more songs where these came from, so stay tuned and enjoy these ones for now." Schaub has been working on these songs, and others, on-and-off since 2004 and previosuly released a 5-track collection, Dissociation , jointly billed to Buddy Schaub /...

The Blasting Room is an iconic studio based in Fort Collins, Colorado co-owned by legendary Punk/Hardcore drummer Bill Stevenson and his engineer counterpart Jason Livermore. Additional engineers and revered staff members at The Blasting Room include Andrew "The Silent Assassin" Berlin, Chris Beeble, and Jonathan Luginbill. Stevenson is, of course, best known for his work with Descendents, Henry Rollins-era Black Flag, ALL/Tony All, and Good Riddance frontman Russ Rankin's side-band, Only Crime. However, over the course of his storied career, Bill Stevenson has additionally spent time playing with Elevator, Higley, The Last, The Lemonheads, Minutemen/Black Flag super-group MinuteFlag, The Nig-Heist, October Faction, and Rise Against. Legend has it, ALL used the advance they received from their record label to secure a location for a studio and practice space, which, eventually, became The Blasting Room. In addition to Bill Stevenson's own bands and passion pr...

Doug Carrion is a long-time Punk/Hardcore bassist, vocalist, producer, and musician. He's best-known for playing and recording music with the likes of Dag Nasty/Doggy Style with Brian Baker (Bad Religion, Minor Threat,) Descendents from 1985-86, For Love Not Lisa, Daddy X/Humble Gods, Ultrahead, Pale, Kottonmouth Kings, Con-800, Six Degrees of Right, and his own band, Doug C. & The Blacklisted. Additionally, Dough Carrion has produced, composed, and performed music for TV and film; as a music editor, Carrion has worked on a number of reality/game shows such as Beauty & The Geek, The Biggest Loser, Identity, Science of Love, Opportunity Knocks, Parental Control, and Make It or Break It. As recently as Summer 2019, Doug Carrion has joined forces with another one of his ex-Dag Nasty bandmates, Peter Cortner, to form a new Dag Nasty-inspired Medlodic Hardcore band dubbed FIELD DAY. A thinly-veiled reference to Dag Nasty's 1988 Giant Records album of the same name, FIELD ...

Long-time Descendents frontman and pseudo-mascot Milo Aukerman has re-emerged with the announcement his first-ever proper solo project, RebUke. Aukerman has been the primary vocalist for Descendents since 1980 (three years post-formation) and sporadically, yet consistently, ever since. Through the years, all the while, functioning as Descendents' frontman, Milo Aukerman conducted post-doctoral research in Molecular Biology at The Universities of Wisconsin–Madison & Pennsylvania, as well as working as a plant researcher at DuPont and an adjunct professor at The University of Delaware. However, it appears as though Aukerman has decided to forgo his aforementioned careers, as of 2016, in an effort to focus on music and Descendents and music full-time. It appears as though Milo has since amassed quite a passion for ukuleles, as his freshly-announced solo project, RebUke—emphasis on "uke"—is, of course, primarily ukelele-based. Earlier this year, Descendents (or, ...

It's pretty safe to say that Fall Out Boy are far from the righteous Chicago Punk band they used to be and quite honestly, their most recent album was far from "Saving Rock and Roll." But I also have to admit that FOB 's live show, which I caught on Temple 's basketball court, was an enjoyable Pop-Punk experience all in itself; a mix of tracks both old and new spanning from Take This to Your Grave (2003) to Save Rock and Roll (2013), scattered with giant branded beach balls and momentary piano/acoustic guitar break-downs. Post recording and releasing Rock and Roll, Fall Out Boy headed down to Alt. Country /former Punk youth Ryan Adams' Los Angeles -based studios. Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Andy Hurley, Joe Trohman & Mr. Mandy Moore managed to record 8 tracks over a 2-day period at PAX AM Studio , sessions which would eventually become the PAX AM Days EP ; It was officially announced in the wee hours of Sunday-Monday morning that the Ryan Adams -...

It must be pretty hard to try to stay "Punk Rock," rebellious, and still keep food on the table these days; Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA V) was released last week and features a pretty awesome, broad-spanning in-game soundtrack. Rockstar uploaded an expansive 59-track 3 volume collection to iTunes: The Soundtrack, Original Music, and The Score (composed by Tangerine Dream ). Included within are tracks, both new and old, from the likes of Clams Casino , Tyler The Creator, Oh No , Yeasayer, Jai Paul , Lee "Scratch" Perry, Yellowman , WAVVES, and recently re-invigorated Hardcore super-group OFF! The Keith Morris -penned "What's Next?" was conjured up exclusively for GTA V and plays alongside Black Flag , Descendents, The Weirdos , and The Germs on a fictitious radio preset. Noisey reports that Morris, just off a stint with Black Flag off-shoot FLAG , should "head [in]to the studio soon to record a full-length of all new tracks." VICE R...

FLAG. Black Flag. FLAG. Black Flag . Flag Black. Flack Blag. It does get confusing, no? Well, not for me. Black Flag was a band that changed my life. It was like entering a portal and I would never be the same ever again afterwards. The band dominated over everything in my little universe. No matter how many line-up changes, no matter how many drummers, no matter whatever stylistic change the band went through, I liked ALL of it. And it wasn't until the very end of their career that I realized that something was wrong in my perceived Punk Rock paradise. Black Flag were the band that almost broke up in time. With a major emphasis on the word "almost." Also, I had decided that Black Flag founder Greg Ginn must have lost his marbles. And this was BEFORE he broke up his own band. Here is why: The month is January. The year is 1986. Black Flag are playing their first big show with yet another new line-up at The Stardust Ballroom in Los Angeles ... D. Boon of The Minut...

Re-assembling Black Flag without righteous frontman Henry Rollins (1981-86) is like if Ford just suddenly decided to release their 50th anniversary Mustang sans that iconic, silver-plated pony emblem. But I'm sure founding guitarist Greg Ginn thinks differently, which is probably why Rollins isn't being included in EITHER Black Flag reunion . Whether or not Ginn realizes it, Henry Rollins is basically the sheer genesis of Black Flag ! ... It was announced late Friday afternoon that 6 of Black Flag 's 16+ assorted members are planning to re-form and tour the nation/across the pond as part of 2 separate groups. Greg Ginn , Ron Reyes , "Dale Nixon," and drummer Gregory Moore are playing 3 summer festival dates @ the moment, supposedly putting the "finishing touches on a new album," and are plotting a " BLACK FLAG US Tour Fall 2013." FLAG , on the other hand, includes Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Stevenson , and Stephen Egerton (...