The Witzard

It's been widely reported this past Friday's 24-hour Bandcamp Friday festivities garnered $7.1 million, all of which went directly to the artists waiving the company's own revenue shares. Yesterday, we ran a feature on a collection of our favorite beat tapes released on or around Bandcamp Friday and today, we're going to do something similar, but with mixtapes. Now, these aren't exactly your typical rapper, producer, or DJ-orchestrated mixtapes... these are uniquely non-Hip-Hop "mixtapes" orchestrated and released by a few of our favorite Punk/Hardcore bands, DOPE BODY, F*CKED UP, and Titus Andronicus. For Bandcamp Friday, a newly-reunited DOPE BODY released an album/mixtape called Home Body, F*CKED UP issued their MIXTAPE 6, and Titus Andronicus uploaded Sorry About The Delay: Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape, Volume 2A, A Reductive Scoff: Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape, Volume III, and Broken Down In Morgantown: Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape, Volume 4 (An Aste...

So, we recently told you about Jonah Falco & Mike Haliechuk from F*CKED UP 's other band, Jade Hairpins ... well, now Jonah & Mike are back with yet ANOTHER other band, MASTERPIECE MACHINE . Not entirely unlike Jade Hairpins , it appears as though MASTERPIECE MACHINE was birther from F*CKED UP album sessions; although, this time, in addition to Jonah Falco & Mike Haliechuk , they've recruited a third member for MASTERPIECE MACHINE , Riley Gale from POWER TRIP . "Jonah & I were in the studio for two years writing the last F*CKED UP album, [ Dose Your Dreams ] and ended up with tons of music that didn't fit on the album. We had these two specific songs that sounded huge and aggressive, so we wanted to carve them off into their own project," Mike Haliechuk recently told REVOLVER . In stark contrast to both F*CKED UP & POWER TRIP , MASTERPIECE MACHINE —at least, from their debut single, "Rotting Fruit"—MASTERPIECE MACHINE appear t...

Aside from his duties in F*CKED UP , Jonah Falco has stayed busy as of late, mixing/playing drums on GAME 's full-length debut, NO ONE WINS , producing Chubby & The Gang 's "All Along The Uxbridge Road" 7-inch and raucous 2020 album, Speed Kills , mixing and recording Scrap Brain 's A Journey Into Madness , and, most recently, mixing S.H.I.T. 's two one-off singles, "HIDDEN IN ETERNITY" & "ERASER III." It was very recently revealed that Falco is, also, behind mysterious Alternative/Dream Pop group, Jade Hairpins . Along with fellow F*CKED UP bandmate, Mike Haliechuk , Jonah Falco quietly released a 7-inch entitled "Mother Man" B/​W "Gracefully" on the exact same day as F*CKED UP 's 2018 album, Dose Your Dreams . Jonah Falco & Mike Haliechuk recently played a string of live shows Overseas following their official "coming out" as Jade Hairpins , along with a digital re-release of their 201...

Jade Hairpins quietly released a 12-inch/digital single on Merge Records back in October 2018 consisting of two 7+ minute-long tracks, "Mother Man" & "Gracefully." Discogs list their Genre/Style as Electronic, Rock, Pop, Synth-Pop, and Indie Rock and Jade Hairpins themselves label their genre as "Alternative" on Bandcamp. I'm, personally, reminded a bit of the bleeps and blips of The Bravery, The Cure, Four Tet, LCD Soundsystem, and New Order. Seemingly, out of nowhere, Monday afternoon, Merge Records (@mergerecords) mysteriously Tweeted , "~ t o m o r r o w ~," along with a 9-second video and a glowing Jade Hairpins logo. As promised, the following day, Tuesday, February 4, 2020, @mergerecords Tweeted, "Hhhhhaayyyyyeeeeelllllloooo! Back in 2018, Jade Hairpins emerged mysteriously like a pair of cranes from a tall grove, shared their immediately danceable debut 12-inch single, "Mother Man" B/W "Gracefully,...

It all started just a few days ago, when I saw a post on F*CKED UP frontman Damian "Pink Eyes" Abraham 's Instagram page ( @leftfordamian .) He was teasing a then-upcoming episode of his weekly podcast, Turned Out A Punk , featuring Chris Dodge from "The Beastie Boys of Hardcore," SPAZZ . A photograph of @mrchrisdodge was surrounded by images of No Use for A Name , NOFX frontman Fat Mike, CROSSED OUT , Kool Keith , Southern Lord Records , Melt Banana, and The Melvins . I ( @sharpcheddar856 ) posed an exclamatory question through comment, "Woah, now, what's Chris ' relation to Kool Keith !?" Fellow Instagram Punker @bengonzales815sl soon Replied: "@sharpcheddar856 Kool Keith did a guest spot on a SPAZZ record," which I soon learned, was in fact, SPAZZ's 1997 album, La Revancha . Later, Damian Abraham himself, actually, Replied back, as well: "@bengonzales815sl @sharpcheddar856 they are also name checked on Dr. Oc ....

I'm pretty sure myself, like many like-minded Indie Rock devotees, first heard Cults frontwoman Madeline Follin 's sultry whispery wail was on "Queen of Hearts" from Toronto Hardcore band F__ked Up 's sprawling 2011 Punk Rock Opera , David Comes to Life . While then nine-year-old Follin's first true "solo" work, Dee Dee Ramone -assembled Youth Gone Mad 's Touching Cloth (2000) pre-dates Cults by about 11 years, her latest set of recordings would appear to be her first legitimate outer-band side project; " Follin is the musical project of brother-sister duo Madeline and Richie James Follin . In the down time between record cycles of their respective bands [ Cults and Guards/Willowz ], they decided to finally record and release something together," San Francisco and Miami -based Father/Daughter Records wrote within a recent press release. It was an idea that they had hoped to turn into a reality for years, but time never pe...

Rat Fist are a newly-formed Punk band who you may not have heard about yet; consisting of primary members Sean McGuinness & Randy Randall from veteran Sub Pop Post-Punk bands Pissed Jeans & No Age respectively, along with part-time bandmates Michael J. Sabolick, Jelle de Cremer , and Aaron Farley . They're gearing up to head out on a three-date West Coast mini-tour with Canadian punks rockers, F*cked Up , which will double as a 7-inch re-release jaunt. Rat Fist previously self-released 50 test press copies of their debut 7-inch that were were sold exclusively at their initial run of East Coast gigs, while the second pressing has since been expanded to a batch of 500 limited records. "We will have 7" available for mail order starting next Monday 8/25. Send $7 for shipping in the USA or $10 for shipping everywhere else. Make check out to: Randy Randall 10658 Sable Ave. Sunland, CA 91040 USA... It might take a while for me to get to the orders, so please...

"This album is about growing up, and that second coming of age you have when you're already an adult. It's about being a grown-up and having a job and responsibilities and still feeling fragile and uncertain," Fucked Up guitarist and songwriter Mike Haliechuk recently told Consequence of Sound about their upcoming new album, Glass Boys . "It's also about us being in a band for 12-13 years, and what started as this weird hobby has become almost like a job," he continued. Matador Records will unleash the slightly "more chill and less OCD" record in comparison against their concept album, David Comes to Life (2011) on June 3rd; the skull-bashing Canadian Hardcore band secretly recorded Glass Boys between April 2013 and Feb. 2014 with veteran producer Bill Skibbe at his privately-owned Key Club Recording Company . Fucked Up 's righteously poppy pseudo-lead single, "Paper The House" was actually filmed by Scott Cudmore and J...

Without sounding like a TOTAL Hipster douchebag , which I can honestly assure you I am NOT.... I can vividly remember downloading Vampire Weekend 's self-leaked 2007 demo tape and burning it onto a Blue CD-R before anybody else even knew about them! Vampire Weekend are "Tribal -infused" in the same sense that The Police were a "Reggae" band , riddim [rhythm] and Funky melodies; Evenly spread across their then upcoming self-titled debut record, Vampire Weekend somehow managed to find a way to seamlessly blend Indie Rock , Pop sensibility, "Yacht Rock," Punk Rock ideologies, Tribal drums, keen fashion sense, and a wide variety of assorted influences. The band's follow-up, Contra (2010) is most def one of my favourite albums of the past 10 years and while it's chock-full of instantly catchy hit jams, nothing beats "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa!" Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Baio & Chris Tomson took a little break b...

Before I head down to Atlantic City for a debauchery-filled weekend @ Metallica 's "Orion" Festival with a few buddies, Arctic Monkeys , Modest Mouse, Fucked Up , Best Coast, Ghost , and 30-some other bands... I figured I'd dub up a quick post on this nice little slice of Southern Rock: JEFF The Brotherhood - Hypnotic Knights EP . It's essentially a sampler EP, featuring 4 tracks that will eventually end up on Hypnotic Nights LP , which is slated for a July 17th release date. In honor of Hypnotic Knights EP and sticking with the "Sixpack" theme, Jake & Jamin Orrall shotgunned a few beers on camera @ Maxwell's (Hoboken, NJ) the other night. Hypnotic Nights LP is now available in a number of pre-order packages over @ JEFF The Brotherhood 's site. METALLICA!

It appears as though Fucked Up are pulling a "Beatles" - Taking a much-needed break from writing, recording, and playing shows . No word if inner-band emotions have actually played a part in the temporary split, but hopefully Fucked Up come back 10-fold after the break. Fucked Up 's primary members are currently keeping fairly busy... logging time with a number of Hardcore Punk -tinged side endeavors. Young Guv & The Scuzz , CrimSane , baby-making, Looking for Gold , etc. For the record, frontman Damian Abraham is the one procreating and making new sounds with Matt Delong from No Warning and Violent Minds . Earlier today, Stereogum writer Tom Breihan took the liberty of debuting CrimSane 's premier Kushcore track, "ChinaFastGrow," which may or may not appear on an upcoming [possibly non-existant] EP/album release. Formerly known as "Criminally Insane" and then featuring Ben Cook (drums), the band previously released an underground ...

As cliche as it sounds, Punk Rock is NOT just a mere fad; Angst-filled youth rebellion is something that will never go out of style! But let's face it, even today's finest Hardcore bands are way less "threatening" and society-damning than they used to be. Then again, it seems as though we're currently experiencing a "Hardcore Punk Revival," of sorts... with fresh, new bands like Fucked Up, Diarrhea Planet, WEIRD WIVES (Surfer Blood) , Pissed Jeans , Death Grips, PARTY ANIMAL , and Odd Future popping up every so often. But on the other hand, the sum of all these musical parts don't even begin to stack up against the single greatest Hardcore band of all time: Black Flag ! Dope Body are an aggressive young bunch of D.I.Y. musicians, hailing from Baltimore , MD. Andrew Laumann, Zach Utz , and David Jacober have been creating mashed-up Noise Rock together as part of the city's "Wham City" scene since roughly 2008. John Jones was ...

Madeline Follin & Brian Oblivion [O.K.A. "Cults" ] somehow manage to produce a blend of sun-drenched Pop and 60's era Girl Group ditties, which is the total 360° flip of their adverse dark, gloomy public image. Following the release of their self-titled debut long-player ( In the Name Of ), Cults went on to announce an interesting second step: "We're working on a Hip-Hop mixtape of the album. Like, changing all the songs up and getting up-and-coming rappers, guys like Freddie Gibbs and Lil B and stuff. That's gonna be really exciting. We've been dealing with a lot of really bizarre managers... interesting personalities." - Brian Oblivion on Guitar Fast-forward from Summer-Fall 2011 _ Earlier today, Hypetrak fully liberated Cults' initial foray into Hip-Hop: "Bad Things" (Remix) . Sporting a slightly sped up and Boom Bapped beat, Brian & Madeline even re-recorded their vocal flourishes to better match Freddie Gibbs...

I have to admit, when Wavves first broke onto "the scene" in 2008-09, I really wasn't digging his output [ Wavves & Wavvves ] and didn't see the reason for all the attached media "hoopla." But with the addition of Zach Hill (Hella) Bill Hayes and Stephen Pope of Jay Reatard's "The Reatards," my view of the band slowly but surely changed. During this transition phase, frontman Nathan Williams seems to have gradually grown out of his initial messy, Noise Rock sound... and thank [Indie] God(s) , quickly ditched that "I'm cool/arrogant" shtick. This incarnation of Wavves subsequently laid down the tracks compiled on King of The Beach (2010); Included within are note-worthy Pop -based Surf Rock hits like: "Post Acid," "King of The Beach," and "Mickey Mouse." Bill Hayes has since been replaced by Jacob Cooper - former drummer of California's own The Mae Shi . Feel free to mosey...