The Witzard

It's probably just some sort of weird subconscious coincidence, but the track I'm about to review is titled "At Night In Dreams" and man, did I have a colorful dream last night: I was attending some sort of St. Patty's -themed little people marathon race in my hometown, where all the runners were either dressed like leprechauns, nuns, or priests... But they could party harder than any binge-drinking testosterone-filled frat dudes! Anyways, White Denim is currently one of my favorite bands, but my first exposure to their music wasn't even a proper White Denim album; frontman James Petralli released an unofficial "solo album" a few years ago, which featured Portastudio -recorded covers of Elvis Costello , Ween, Neil Young , Stevie Wonder, King Crimson , and White Stripes album deep cuts. Needless to say, White Denim 's most recent record, Corsicana Lemonade quickly became one of my favorite Rock "N" Roll albums of 2013-14! It's...

Once you get past the inherent trippiness and utter nonsense that comes along with White Denim 's latest "Pretty Green" video, it's a pretty damn great Rock "N" Roll number. Austin 's finest recently teamed up with director(s) The Modern Plow Collective to create what The Line of Best Fit (who premiered the video) describes as "a particularly hungry acid trip." It features both quick glimpses and extended scenes of White Denim dressed in all sorts of fucked up food masks, face-encompassing beards, empty-looking gold masks, green screened giant lips, and a bunch of 90's-reminiscent cheesy CGI video trickery. Forget about anything vaguely weird that Michael Jackson ever released, White Denim have easily produced the most tripped out performance video I've ever seen! ha Sonically, I think "Pretty Green" sounds a lot like The Black Keys and I'm sure we could sit here and argue ALL DAY about who came first... Wilco ...

"It's taken five records to make one that sounds the way we do on-stage," lamented White Denim frontman James Petralli , who recorded a 6-track Portastudio -assisted covers album on-the-fly last April... "We wheeled-in a bunch of crazy 50's gear and played from noon until 2am every day until the album was done." Downtown Records plans to unleash Corsicana Lemonade , which was jointly produced by Jeff Tweedy, Tom Schick , and local Austin maestro Jim Vollentine , this upcoming October 29th. White Denim could more or less be likened to a slightly more Indie Rock -minded, Funk -infused version of The Black Keys or something along the lines of Squeeze , Big Star, and Rick Derringer . Aside from a nifty little Corsicana Lemonade album teaser clip, "Pretty Green" is a blistering Rock "N" Roll romper, despite it's semi-questionable title. This marks the first time during White Denim 's 7-year career that they've worked...

Kids These Days are a bunch of super-talented, surprisingly Bluesy 18-20-somethings hailing from Chicago . The group which is fronted by MC Vic Mensa are headed out on a nation-wide tour this Fall with Asher Roth & Chuck Inglish ... includes young talent: Macie Stewart , Nico Segal, J.P. Floyd, Lane Beckstrom, Greg Landfair Jr , and Liam Cunningham . I think it's pretty safe to classify Kids These Days as a "Free Jazz" band, but they've also recorded music with Blended Babies , Chuck Inglish, The O'My's , and Asher Roth. It really boils down to being a Hip-Hop -infused style of Jazz that vaguely reminds me of The Roots or N*E*R*D 's instrumental chops. They're currently working with Wilco main man Jeff Tweedy , putting the final touches on Traphouse Rock LP, which'll finally see a [FREE] release on "Halloween Eve," Oct. 30th. Kids These Days premiered our latest taste of the album, "Who Do U-Luv?" online @ ...