The Witzard

Sacramento -based Noise-Rap band Death Grips have had a very tumultuous, to say the least, relationship with the media since their sudden 2010 inception, although the recently "disbanded" and reunited three-piece have been heralded as "the first truly important band of the 21st century;" having direct influence on The Thin White Duke's final album ★ (Blackstar) , Kanye 's Aggro-Rap masterpiece Yeezus , and even Travi$ Scott 's righteous T.I. & Kanye -assisted Rodeo . Death Grips' first post-"breakup" album, Bottomless Pit was unleashed Friday, May 6th at the stroke of midnight, amdist a weekend abuzz with new music and countless headlines from the likes of Radiohead , James Blake, Chance The Rapper , De La Soul, Homeboy Sandman , KAYTRANADA, and Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def . Bottomless Pit was preceded by eventual album tracks "Hot Head," Zane Lowe -debuted "Eh," and non-album "Interview 2016," althou...

Death Grips have somehow already managed to "break up" via a napkin and "reform" in a matter of months, signed an Epic Records deal and purposely leaked private emails to get dropped, posed for a mysterious backstage picture alongside Robert Pattinson & Beyoncé (above), recruited Björk to contribute vocals to Disc 1 of their "comeback" album, The Powers That B , were surprisingly name-dropped on Rachael Ray by comedian Fred Armisen , bailed on a whole string of scheduled shows Axl Rose style, and licensed "You Might Think He Loves You for You Money But I Know What He Really Loves You for and It's Your Brand New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat" for an Adidas Predator sneaker commercial... so, it would make sense that the newly-reformed Death Grips would need something of a fresh start; long-speculated Death Grips -affiliated Twitter handle @bbpoltergiest shared a cryptic zipfile link to a 9-track album called I've always been good...

While it would seem like Portland -based Sludge-Metal band Red Fang just accepted a big-ass super-check from Pabst Blue Ribbon to fund their awesome new video "Blood Like Cream," it's still arguably the best music video I've seen in about 2 weeks. Former SNL funnyman, and smashin' Punk-Rock drummer in his own right, Fred Armisen co-stars alongside the band's four members and an angry mob-full of zombies; But not just any zombies... flesh-eating AND beer-guzzling zombies with a thirst for destruction! The Rolling Stone -premiered havoc centers around a local watering hole, where Red Fang and a quickly dismembered Armisen are forced to go toe-to-toe with a slew of blood beer-thirsty zombies. " ["Blood Like Cream"] is about the stress of balancing a touring lifestyle with having a family back at home, but who wants to see a video about that?" frontman Aaron Beam recently lamented to Rolling Stone . "Boring! Instead, we have a...

Sonically, Mechanical Bull should have a little somethin' for everyone; swooning 18-year-olds and die-hard Kings of Leon purists alike. Just a few mere hours after unveiling their slow-burning new single, "Wait for Me," Kings of Leon uploaded a fairly stripped down music video for lead-off single, "Supersoaker." Director W.I.Z. somehow managed to implement some sort of Instagram -tinged video filter, which he describes as "an imagined hybrid of Pop-Art screenprint, hand tinting, and Technicolor film." "Supersoaker" kinda reminds me of a Southern -fried version of The Strokes or some other popular, dirty-looking early 2000's Garage Rock band(s). Throughout, Kings of Leon can be seen fiercely executing the track, surrounded by beautiful women that weirdly enough... they never really seem to fully acknowledge over the course of it's 4-minute run-time! W.I.Z. & Kings of Leon have quite cleverly crafted a bare-bones...

Rest assured, I guess you could say it was a pretty BIG week for Mr. West , who's finally come back into prominence for something else besides banging a Kardashian or walking into a street sign. Late Friday night Kanye debuted his new pseudo-video for "New Slaves" projected across 66 building sides in 10 major world cities; It's second unreleased 1/2 is rumored to feature Frank Ocean and the track supposedly utilizes an un-cleared sample culled from Hungarian Prog-Rock band, Omega . We're talkin' about guerrilla-style take-overs @ Wrigley Field (Chicago), Brooklyn, Los Angeles , Sydney, London , Paris, etc. projected out of make-shift truck/projectors sprawled across the night sky May 11-19th. This is all most likely part of an early promo campaign in support of Kanye 's upcoming album [possibly titled] "Yeezus," which may or may not be out as early as June 18th. Earlier in the week, he took a break from rigorous recording sessions in Par...

While Alec Baldwin 's first major post- 30 Rock endeavor, "Here's The Thing" only has about 4,000+ Facebook Likes , Baldwin's still been able to book some pretty A-List-worthy celebrity talent for his bi-monthly podcast series: Brian Williams , Lena Dunham (Girls), Billy Joel , Judd Apatow, Andrew McCarthy , Fred Armisen, and most recently, Thom Yorke . Randomly littered with mid-conversation Capitol One drops, Baldwin's latest podcast is a rare sit-down with a mysterious an who really doesn't give a lot of interviews; Alec Baldwin & Thom Yorke 's nearly hour-long conversation covers everything from getting impromptu singing lessons from Björk and Micahel Stipe (R.E.M.), computer-based recording techniques, just being able to email guys like Flea to join a band, etc. Here's a choice quote pulled from their "Here's The Thing" interview: "I got Ed [O'Brien] because he was dressed like Morrissey and he had some ...

Last week, Death Grips uploaded 5 minute-long semi-cryptic clips dubbed "No Hands" (Parts 1-5), which I hesitated on posting because I kinda figured there'd be more info revealed shortly. Sure enough, by mid-Wednesday afternoon, Death Grips had uploaded the next installment of their video series, "Lock your doors" (NoHands 6) . Drummer/band leaded Zach Hill further elaborated in a short [yet effective] statement, "They are a series of videos related to our recent first-person performance @ SXSW 2013, DXDG . "Lock your doors" (NoHands 6) , which drops today is the summarization of the concept and project.. It could keep going.. NoHands is in reference to the head perspective-oriented filming.." It's culled from footage filmed @ the band's recent SXXW (or DXDG ) show @ Boiler Room , which may or may not have used Google Glass technology or some sort of face-mounted goggle-cams. The live audio and crowd-sourced rumblings have...