The Witzard

Mikey Erg with Jeff Rosenstock, Alex Clute & Lou Hanman (CREDIT: Emily McKern) "Mikey Erg continues to set the gold standard for hooky Punk love songs. Love At Leeds is him at the top of his song-writing game—just one finely tuned ear-worm after another," writer Dan Ozzi gushes within a press release. Love At Leeds is the realization of many dreams for Mikey Erg. A life-long music obsessive, growing up in the early 90's, there was one sound he'd always hoped to capture on his recordings: the sound of Steve Albini. Steve's credits include Pixies, Flogging Molly, Iggy & The Stooges, and, of course, Nirvana's iconic third album, In Utero, one of Mikey's absolute favorite records. Mikey had never in his 20-plus-year recording career ever been able to make a fully-analog recording. Love At Leeds was the perfect time to rectify all of that. Love At Leeds by Mikey Erg Utilizing the same group of musicians that helped him realize his debut solo alb...

Mike Park, Jeremy Hunter & Angelo Moore in a video still from "Did You Find The Money Farm?" music video (SOURCE: The Bruce Lee Band) The Bruce Lee Band is back at it, a year after its acclaimed Division In The Heartland EP—released a mere seven months after its predecessor, Rental!! Eviction!! ! "Did You Find The Money Farm?" is the first single from the band's upcoming full-length album, ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK, delivering a sneering indictment of the dehumanizing excesses that are in lockstep with Late-stage Capitalism. "You pattern your life after powerful people, follow the path through the door / one step inside and you'll never look back, you ride on the backs of the poor," vocalist Mike Park sings over ominous horns and an unrelenting rhythm. It's a serious message delivered with the loose swagger The Bruce Lee Band has perfected over the past few decades. "Did You Find The Money Farm?" also, marks the first m...

Fuss L-R: Chase Knobbe, Bob Vielma & Nick Aguilar (CREDIT: Jeff Rosenstock) After living most of his life in The Bay Area, in the mid-2010's, Bob "BOBOSO" Vielma (Shinobu, Yulia, Tadaima) relocated to LA to seek out a different pace of life, away from the tech CEO's and VC sociopaths that had re-created The Bay in their own image. At a party shortly after moving, he bumped into Chase Knobbe (Joyce Manor,) a long-time friend who had been wanting to start a new project and had already found a drummer in Nick Aguilar ( SLAUGHTERHOUSE , Mike Watt + The Missingmen, NEIGHBORHOOD BRATS.) Like a spark, Fuss was born on-the-spot. We're Not Alone, Fuss' debut, is packed with Poppy Indie Rock nuggets inspired by J-pop, Disco music, and Arizona D.I.Y. Punk. Led by Vielma's earnest and direct melodicism, Fuss drop tiny anthems of life after your 20's: trying to keep cool when you feel terrible, working, and continuing to seek out community. Honest and vuln...

"You can PRE-ORDER some sweet limited (and unlimited) vinyl from us here . (There's about 200 left of the above variant!) You can LISTEN to SKA DREAM on all the things here . That includes Quote Unquote Records, where you can download the whole thing for free and if you choose to make a donation there, all the money goes to The First Nations Development Institute. HOPE YA LIKE THE RECORD! HERE'S A LITTLE THING I WROTE ABOUT IT: SKA DREAM is a complete re-recording of Jeff Rosenstock's critically-acclaimed 2020 record, NO DREAM; however, this time around, all the songs are Ska songs—you're welcome. The very good idea to make this record came together when, like many other bands throughout this pandemic that refused to participate in super-spreading events, we were trying to find a fun way to make some music together to share with people. Otherwise, we were just spending our evenings texting the Group Chat in dread about the collapsing world around us. Not the ...

The Bruce Lee Band 2021 Line-up (CREDIT: @supercoolnstuff) The Bruce Lee Band is a long-standing Ska/Punk band from the mind of Asian Man Records' founder and former Skankin' Pickle sax player Mike "Bruce Lee" Park. Since his time spent with Skankin' Pickle between about 1989-97, Park has spent time playing with The Chinkees, KEMURI, Kitty Kat Fan Club, Maguma Taishi, Ogikubo Station, and one-off Shaken 69. The Bruce Lee Band's various iterations through the years have all primarily featured Mike Park, along with various bands acting as his backing band, including Less Than Jake, RX Bandits, and Death Rosenstock. Thus, the most recent line-up of The Bruce Lee Band consists of Mike Park, along with Jeff Rosenstock, Dan Potthast & Kevin "The Guch" Higuchi. In 2019, The Bruce Lee Band returned with their first proper release since 2014's Everything Will Be Alright, My Friend, a 12-inch/digital EP entitled Rental!! Eviction!! Division In The...

Adam Schlesinger was a prolific musician, songwriter, composer, record producer, and co-owner of Stratosphere Sound . Unfortunately, Schelsinger passed away this past April due to complications from COVID-19 at 52 years of age. Adam Schlesinger was most notably, a founding member of Fountains of Wayne , as well as Fever High , Ivy, Rogue Oliphant , and Tinted Windows. Additionally, Schlesinger contributed to a number of soundtracks, including Crazy Ex-Girlfriend , Tom Hank's That Thing You Do! There's Something About Mary , Me, Myself & Irene, Josie & The Pussycats , Scary Movie, Fever Pitch , Orange County, and Two Weeks Notice . Adam Schlesinger even produced and mixed records for America , Dashboard Confessional, Fastball , Ben Lee, The Monkees , Motion City Soundtrack, Led Zeppelin 's Robert Plant , They Might Be Giants, The Verve Pipe , and more. Saving for a Custom Van by Rachel Bloom Since his passing, Fountains of Wayne reunited to perform "Stac...

The Bruce Lee Band , who have now, seemingly dropped the "The," are a long-standing San Jose, California-based Ska/Punk band. Its longest standing member is Asian Man Records founder and one-time Skankin' Pickle, Mike "Bruce Lee" Park and former members have spent their time playing with Less Than Jake, RX Bandits, Classics of Love, Kitty Kat Fan Club, and Rehasher. Bruce Lee Band 's current iteration includes Mike Park , along with Jeff Rosenstock, Dan Potthast & Kevin "The Guch" Higuchi . Since 1990, they have collectively played within a multitude of Punk, Hardcore & Ska-adjacent bands including Skankin' Pickle, The Chinkees, Bomb The Music Industry!, The Arrogant Sons of B*tches, MU330, Sharkanoid, The Brownies, and Whiskey Avengers. Frequent Bruce Lee Band contributors, also, include trombonist Gerry Lundquist of MU330 & Skankin' Pickle fame and bassist John DeDomenici of Bomb The Music Industry!, who both often appear...

"New @bruceleeband coming soon. Even made an [Instagram] page which means this is serious stuff, so please Follow. This photo was taken about 20 [minutes] ago in San Jose in front of @districtrecording I ❤️ San Jose," Mike Park (@mikeparkmusic) mysteriously posted on his Instagram page over the weekend. The Bruce Lee Band has existed in various incarnations since 1995, while the "Bruce Lee" name itself was adopted as a pseudo-nickname by Mike Park during his time spent playing saxophone and singing with Skankin' Pickle from 1989-96. Although, the band is, often, officially known as "The B. Lee Band" because, supposedly, following the release of The Bruce/B. Lee Band 's 1995 self-titled debut, "Lee's brother, Robert, who happened to be the manager of the CD manufacturing plant responsible for pressing the album, contacted Park to give him a friendly word of caution that Bruce Lee's name and likeness were copyrighted." Mik...