The Witzard

"'Delicate Empires is about the fragility of power and looks to the story of Genghis Khan for inspiration. Genghis saw the weakness in a way of life that was removed from nature and confined by stone walls and governed by greed, the rise of the Mongol Empire was enabled by this realisation," reads part of a statement I recently received from Daniel O'Toole AKA Captain Earwax AKA EARS. O'Toole is an Australian-based multi-disciplinary artist who over the course of the last decade, has done work as a street artist, curator, gallery operator, esteemed painter, musician, and music video director. I actually met Daniel O'Toole because of one of his latest collaborations, Jonti & Steve Lacy's "Scrood," which was the basis of this very interview in its infantile stages; little did I know, EARS was a world-renown graffiti artist and multi-instrumentalist readying his latest full-length album as Captain Earwax, Delicate Empires. An esteemed musicia...

"The "Scrood" video was directed by @captainearwax [Daniel 'O Toole] . He makes videos similarly to how I make music, by meshing together analog and digital layers to create a certain feeling or mood; in contrast to my other videos, which are more straight-forward narrative-based. It was a super fun process and I'm blessed that we got to do this," @jontidanimals wrote within a heart-felt March 16th Instagram post. "Scrood" is Jonti 's first proper single in over five years and his first piece of original material since submitting beats for "BARBELL," "Laguna," and "Turkuoise," which appeared on long-time friend and collaborator Hodgy 's 2016 Columbia/Odd Future Records debut, Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide . I've spoken with Jonti pretty regularly over the years passed since his last album-length mixtape, Sine & Moon (2012) and I know's been diligently working on this as-yet-untitled Ston...

While my recent Best Albums, EP's & Mixtapes of 2016 List didn't include any type of "Honorable Mentions" section, if it had, it would have likely included the likes of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Blink-182, Nxworries, and J-Zone (for Fish-n-Grits). Aftermath crooner Anderson.Paak and beat-maker Knxwledge's full-length debut as Nxworreis, YES LAWD! It's equal parts The Roots, D'Angelo, J Dilla, and Drake; a perfect mix of Hip-Hop and modern day R&B, easily one of Stones Throw's absolute strongest, most cohesive releases in years. I really haven't given Nxworries' YES LAWD! a whole lot of coverage here at The Witzard (aside from the early singles) and have really just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to write about Anderson.Paak & Knxwledge again... until this past Thursday afternoon, when I heard about Nxworries' "SIDEPIECE" music video filmed at Stones Throw "in the dungeon" by director Ross ...

"Yoooooo! Back in 2011, @monkmiyagi [Hodgy] and I connected and put out some music. When we dropped "Nagoya," it really helped me out a lot. Since then, our friendship has grown and we have a lot more music together; "BARBELL" is the first song to come from that. It is also the first single from Hodgy 's debut solo album, Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide . Hodgy , I'm grateful for your friendship and I hope you like it because there's a lot more music coming from both of us JD X ," @jontidanimals wrote on Instagram over the weekend on the heels of Hodgy 's first single from his forthcoming December 2nd full-length debut. "Recording "BARBELL" back in May—often, I sit around with my acoustic [guitar] and record harmonies, as a kind of meditation process. I find it soothing; this was one of those, which I then turned into a beat, which @monkmiyagi turned into a track," Jonti continued late Friday night. Fireplace: The...

Even since I've been into Stones Throw (Champion Sound-Donuts Era), the semi-respected Bay Area record label has slowly morphed into the place to go for cool, head-jerking vinyl. Peanut Butter Wolf has hand-picked a wide array of emcees, weirdo producers, Funk/Folk revivalists, solo artists, etc. Stones Throw 's genre-blending " Hip-Hop & more" roster presently includes: Madlib , James Pants, The Stepkids , Matthew Larkin Cassell , deceased mega-producer J Dilla , Steve Arrington, Quakers (Geoff Barrow) , Jonti, The Lions , Dâm-Funk, Jonwayne , and countless others. Announced just last Friday, 2 of the label's most note-worthy musicians have teamed up for a collaborative LP - Steve Arrington & Dâm-Funk ! Arrington, former Slave Funky drummer turned spiritual foot-soldier, has bonded with Dâm-Funk , who's quite arguably G-Funk 's last remaining post-90's producer. Steve Arrington self-released his first album in 20 years, Pure Thin...

"The recurring theme in this group is we are all NASTY producers who can rap, NASTILY. [It's] a completely self-sufficient, well-oiled machine," Jonwayne lamented about Digital Diamonds , via Twitter late Friday afternoon. He released a Nirvana -sampling track online a few months ago along with Scoop DeVille under the group name, which has now expanded to include Chuck Inglish . It's Inglish's first major project since The Cool Kids went on indefinite hiatus [broke up?] While Jonwayne on the other hand, is currently busy mixing/mastering his proper Stones Throw debut and Scoop DeVille has produced tracks for everyone from Snoop Dogg to Das Racist (R.I.P.) and Kendrick Lamar 's recent hit singles "The Recipe" and "Poetic Justice." "Delirious" is a CLASSIC hard-hitting Hip-Hop beat that sounds like it might've been collectively co-produced by Jonwayne, Chuck Inglish & Scoop DeVille . It seems to sample some...

The more I think about it, it's really just a coming-of-age type thing that almost all of us go through @ some point during our mid 20-early 30's: admitting that an old friend/fling is now just "somebody that [you] used to know." And that sheer, simplistic candor is exactly what makes Gotye 's similarly-titled 2011-12 break-out hit single so gosh darn relate-able! The quintessential track @ the heart of all this, "Somebody That I Used to Know" was only semi-recently knocked off Modern Rock radio charts by "Call Me Maybe;" Not surprisingly, there has to be close to 28,000+ fan covers and parodies uploaded to YouTube . A number of well-known Hip-Hop producers have taken a shot @ remixing "Somebody That I Used to Know" ... Chuck Inglish , Dice Raw, Sugar Tongue Slim , and DJ Tiesto . Making Mirrors , which is actually Gotye 's third album, is now available for purchase/enjoyment on both sides of "the pond." "Rel...

Homeboy Sandman is probably still hard @ work recording First of a Living Breed , his debut Stones Throw full-length, because labelhead Peanut Butter Wolf keeps "releasing" all the good tracks for FREE! The latest mp3 give-away, "Brown" was produced by fellow Stones Throw signee, Jonti and was uploaded to Soundcloud Thurs. afternoon; It showcases a Hip-Hop beat that was fine crafted on a native South African instrument called a "coconut kalimba" (thumb piano) . Homeboy Sandman & Jonti originally linked up @ Radiolab , "Brown" was seemingly written/recorded for their Colors -based episode. Leading up to First of a Living Breed , Homeboy Sandman has released a string of 2 EP's since signing with Stones Throw in Dec. 2011... Subject: Matter and Chimera EP . Jonti has also managed to issue 2 projects with the Indie Hip-Hop imprint, Twirlgig/Sine & Moon (mixtape). Old Australian "chaps," Jonti and Gotye are h...

Not unlike the vast majority of middle American youth, my initial reaction after first see/hearing Odd Future was, "What the fuck!? That was AWESOME!" Post- Late Night with Jimmy Fallon thoughts: Wu-Tang Clan, Jackass , and The Neptunes . I'd heard of OF before Tyler & Hodgy 's fateful Roots -backed performance of "Sandwitches," but I must admit that I missed the boat when Bastard and the other [solo] online releases came out (2009). To be completely frank, I was a tad bit put off by Tyler The Creator and company's vulgar rhymes about murder, rape, hate, etc. Because let's face it, no one's really that obscene, unless they're a serial killer; and either way, that shit's got to get old after while! "Yonkers" was great... Goblin, Nostalgia ULTRA , Untitled EP , "64" [Bass Drum of Death], "Earl" and his mysterious disappearance/return, The Internet , etc. OF Tape 2 , which is out now, marks the crew...

Lots of interesting activity over @ Stones Throw today, Nov. 21. Sounds like The Stepkids Tim Walsh , Jeff Gitelman , and Dan Edinberg have been quite the busy cats lately. Whether it be laying down unintelligible vocals with Jonti & Illa J [above] or pumping out singles from their STELLAR self-titled debut. The Stepkids Album is without a doubt a dense, multi-layered musical journey... prepared by 3 extremely talented session musicians, now front and center - Finally in the limelight! "Suburban Dream" is in fact, The Stepkids' third official music video; As it's essentially the follow up to both "Legend In My Own Mind" and "Wonderfox." This most recent video was directed animated by Chris King and really teeters the line between the previous videos' sense of surrealism/realism. Throughout the course of "Suburban Dream" we follow a down-on-his-luck young fellow as he wonders through the city, stumbles into a speakeasy...

These here, my friends, are a few of the things that "Blog Dreams" are made of: 1-3 buzz-worthy new-comers, chemistry, kinship, spur-of-the-moment collaboration, creativity... sex, drugs, and violence. With little-no concrete information to springboard off of, this post will almost purely consist of cold, hard reporting! Hodgy Beats' complex rhyme schemes are cleverly strewn across the bleeps and blips of a Jonti -produced beat. Overall, the final product [dubbed "Nagoya" ] is truly a brilliant juxtaposition of the interesting pair's Pop tendencies and sheer aggression. A beat which was reportedly created, flourished, laced, and completed over the course of one mere night (9/27-28). Hodgy Beats is a flourishing member of LA -based Odd Future and it's sub-crew, MellowHype ; While Jonti [Danimals] is a talented multi-instrumentalist /producer, hailing from Sydney, Australia and Stones Throw Records . Be on the look out for Jonti 's debut long-p...