The Witzard

If necessity is the mother of invention, then, it's no surprise that [TITLE HOLDER]'s creation was born at the height of The COVID Pandemic. Formed in 2020 by then-Queens-based singer/song-writer Matt Sullivan, his unique take on Ska & Pop-punk is an honest and earnest take on two genres that have seen their fair share of silly fads and trends. The result is [TITLE HOLDER]'s undeniable energy and Pop sensability that quickly gained the attention of Chris DeMakes (Less Than Jake, The Bruce Lee Band,) who produced and helped arrange several of the tracks from Sullivan's debut recorded effort, the six-song EP, The Story of My Life . Ready and eager to bring their energetic live show on the road, the band followed the release of The Story of My Life by sharing the stage and supporting the likes of CATBITE, J. Navarro & The Traitors (The Suicide Machines,) Mustard Plug, The Pietasters, Spring Heeled Jack, and more. Milwaukee-based Interstate Music even selected [TI...

Don't Panic at the movies in "Woe I" video still (SOURCE: YouTube) Don't Panic is a Rock "N" Roll band through and through. Formed by vocalist/guitarist Ted Felicetti, bassist Keith Slader, guitarist A.J. Larsen, and drummer Anthony Paesano and drawing heavily on influences like Bayside, Foo Fighters, Lit, Millencolin, Motion City Soundtrack, No Use for A Name, White Reaper, and many others. Don't Panic were initially active from 2009-11 released a few EP's, played some shows, and, eventually, parted ways. However, after eight years apart, Ted, Keith, A.J. & Anthony reunited in 2019 to unleash their long-shelved debut full-length, See Through It All . Don't Panic's second full-length album, Dark Horse, was released in Septemeber 2021 and is available everywhere now! Don't Panic's official music video for single "Woe I" from their album Dark Horse sees a release today, Friday, June 10th, on Youtube and Facebook . The vi...

"Hey! Big news, everyone: my new solo record, Black Ice (Volume I,) comes out today, 2/22/22 at 2:22p.m. You can go listen to it over at my Bandcamp and you can buy the vinyl on my Big Cartel . The links are in my Bio, so check it out," Buddy Schaub (@LessThanBuddy) ecstatically exclaimed within a short video posted to his Twitter page yesterday afternoon. You may know Buddy "Goldfinger" Schaub as the long-time trombone/bass player for Less Than Jake, but he does, indeed, have a musical life outside of that band. These are all songs that he's been earnestly working on since 2004. Schaub finally decided on a format for recording them and converted them to 1's and 0's. He warns fans, "there are plenty more songs where these came from, so stay tuned and enjoy these ones for now." Schaub has been working on these songs, and others, on-and-off since 2004 and previosuly released a 5-track collection, Dissociation , jointly billed to Buddy Schaub /...

L-R: Metallica's James Hetfield with Mike Davenport & Donald Spence from Versus The World at Soundwave 2013 (SOURCE: Mike Davenport) We've Got A Flyer On You will (hopefully!) be a new recurring column here at The Witzard. It's set to feature, examine, and re-visit mixed bill/genre, once-in-a-lifetime, iconic, and otherwise noteworthy Punk/Hardcore show flyers and their corresponding line-ups. As often as possible, we plan to speak directly with the promoters, bookers, flyer artists, soundmen/women, show attendees, and, most importantly, the artists themselves. If all goes well, we’re even hoping to, eventually, cover a handful of shows we attended ourselves in years past, as well. For this slightly re-vamped edition of We've Got A Flyer On You, we'll be spotlighting a noteworthy musician, rather than an infamous show. Mike Davenport is a veteran Punk bassist and vocalist who has played with The Ataris, Versus The World, and Cave Mummy, and served as Antifr...

Fontana, California-based artist Clark Domae was a driving force behind the success of early 2000's Pop-punk/Emo pioneers Rufio. Domae played lead guitar and sang back-up vocals across Rufio's four critically-acclaimed albums, as well as a handful of singles and EP's, released between 2001-10. Domae was part of Rufio's initial run between 2000-07 and reunion stints held in 2010-12 and 2015. During their heyday, Rufio toured alongside of bands like Alkaline Trio, Brand New, Less Than Jake, Relient K, Senses Fail, and Taking Back Sunday. Since Rufio's 2007 disbandment, Clark Domae has started a family, gone back to school, maintains a "normal" job, and still plays guitar from time to time after his kids go to bed. Clark played guitar on "Drugs" from his one-time bandmate Scott Sellers' 2018 solo EP The Judge and most recently, revitalized an old band with Sellers and Aaron Fernandez. BigCity's awesomely-titled The Quest for Power EP con...

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...

Less Than Jake with New Drummer Matt Yonker (CREDIT: Paris Visone) Less Than Jake (LTJ) are without a doubt Ska Punk stalwarts, at this stage of their career, having been a non-stop touring machine for the past 30 years. LTJ have been one of my personal favorite bands for quite some time now and they're, honestly, one of the bands I've seen live the most. Way back when, in The Witzard's earliest aughts, we conducted an interview (better yet, a Twitter-view ) via Twitter, with long-time LTJ bassist and co-vocalist Roger "Lima" Manganelli. Plus, we've spoken with both guitarist/co-vocalist Chris DeMakes and former drummer/pseudo-frontman Vinnie Fiorello on seperate occasions, but never for an actual published interview. Less Than Jake are easily one of the most fun charismatic bands I've ever seen live and one time, in Philly at The TLA, they even invited the entire crowd (well, anyone 21+) to accompany them to the bar for post-show beers. Oddly e...

Pretending I'm A Superman Producer Ralph D'Amato (Left) & Director Ludvig Gür (Right) "Friends, I know it's been a little quiet on my side this past week, but, I assure you, everything is fine. Two weeks ago, my feature-length directorial debut, @thpsfilm, was released to a fantastic reception from critics and fans alike. It has remained in the Top 100 list of most-streamed films on @itunes for almost two weeks and still retains a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . However, today is a very special day for another reason: 21 years ago, the game that the documentary is all about, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, was released. It took the world by storm and changed the lives of so many people throughout the years. I cannot overstate how much of an impact this low-budget video game made by a team of 12 people had on my life. It changed everything! So, here I am, holding up my first copy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the PS1 (which was released as "Tony Hawk's...

CREDIT: Mark Marfa Capodanno (Fat Wreck Chords) Detroit-based Ska Punks The Suicide Machines were initially active for 15 years from 1991-2006 and remained disbanded for about three years before reuniting in 2009. They've been actively playing "reunion" shows ever since and at a gig with The Code in May 2018, announced they were currently working on a new record. "In December 2019, Fat Mike dropped a list of albums that were coming out in 2020. One of them was The Suicide Machines and today, we finally get to unveil the details!" read an exclamatory press release from Fat Wreck Chords . Said Suicide Machines album, Revolution Spring , has a street date of Friday, March 27, 2020 and yesterday, we were unexpectedly treated to its lead-off single, "Awkward Always." Revolution Spring was recorded in "about 12 days" at Recordo Rancho , a studio run by Marc Jacob Hudson , who currently plays bass for Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mo...

"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...

(1) For people not exactly familiar with your musical output, how would you best describe the process of recording with guitar pedals and loops? I feel like my process is very straightforward. Its just one layer at a time, just like a painting. I use my pedals to change the color or timbre of the guitar. The loop pedal allows me to maintain a canvas, and the pedals and guitar allow me to paint on it. (2) What sort of new projects, if any, are you currently working on? Would you care to go into a little detail (for each)? As of now Takako Minekawa and I are working on a new record. I just bought myself a sampler keyboard, its exactly the same model Takako and I use for our duo. I told the public that the last record I made was my last guitar looping record. I wanted to get this sampler for myself and see what kind of sounds I can collect and use for my new adventure of music making. (3) I recently reviewed your new Soundcloud track, "Foggy Cliffy Night Drive," w...

After establishing what could best be described as a budding "bromance" with seasoned Less Than Jake bassist Roger Lima (@lessthanRAJ) , experimental guitar virtuoso Dustin Wong simply Tweeted a rough new track, along with a quick micro-message: "some new sounds from a week ago : )." It's 2:34-worth of guitar-drenched hiccups that Wong's dubbed "Foggy Cliffy Night Drive" and essentially, the latest output to be added to his ever-growing post- Ponytail solo discography. Fresh on the heels of the conclusion to an expansive three-album arc, Meditation of Ecstatic Energy (2012), Dustin Wong seems to already be working on the proper follow-up to his latest September-released Thrill Jockey album. A self-proclaimed guitar loop and pedal innovator, Wong recently lamented to Ad-Hoc , "I had a show about a month ago [August] where I was using three loop pedals with different set-ups; it was all improvised, looping guitar and vocals. I was actu...

Feb. 17-18th... Wee hours of the morning, after Philly Less Than Jake show. Easily my 5-6th time seeing the band live and yet another wild night in Illadelphia: Troc, The Irish Pub, NJ train station, assorted antics and hi-jinx, [impromptu] post-show signing! @SharpCheddar856: "Nice meeting you after the Philly show last night man! I run a blog... interview? Hit me up @ sharpcheddar856@gmail.com please." @lessthanRAJ: "Just Tweet me individual questions... I'll try to be informative and savvy in 140 characters or less..." (1) I personally love Anthem & Pezcore (cassette from my cuz)! What are your personal favoutite Less Than Jake (LTJ) albums? B Is for B-side, GNV FLA, and The TV/EP. (2) I'm all about Black Flag, Misfits, Fugazi, The Specials... What Punk/Ska bands have & continue to influence your guys' sound? Descendents, Bosstones, Iron Maiden, Josie & The Pussycars (soundtrack), Weird Al. (3) You play in a variety of bands...