The Witzard

"[a] beach boys meets ty$ kinda vibe," @diplo Tweeted early Thursday afternoon, attempting to best describe his latest Soundcloud upload, "LONG WAY HOME;" a quasi-remix, or more so a loose cover, of Ty Dollar $ign 's non-album single, "Stand For" re-recorded with Grizzly Bear/Vampire Weekend members Ed Droste & Rostam . "its about time that indie rock acts started to co-opt rap beats," Diplo lamented in the track's short-lived Soundcloud description, which Pitchfork points out, was imminently deleted. I was just telling my beautiful girlfriend, in terms of sheer line-blurring concept, "LONG WAY HOME" vaguely reminds me of Vampire Weekend 's middle-of-the-road Indie Rock/Hip-Hop hybrid track, "Step (Wintertime Remix)" featuring appended verses from Danny Brown , Heems, and Despot . "Stand For," the structural basis for "LONG WAY HOME," was actually co-produced by Diplo ...

I'm about 98% sure that I first stumbled upon Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet ) during my early exploration of Jaylib -era J Dilla ; the late great rapper-producer concocted a neck-snapping remix of Hebden's own "As Serious As Your Life" (2003) along with fellow Detroit emcee Guilty Simpson . While he's primarily regarded as a one-man band, Four Tet has branched out in recent years working with drummer Steve Reid , MADVILLAIN, Neneh Cherry , Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman , and has produced unofficial remixes for everyone from Lana del Rey to Justin Timberlake. Four Tet unleashed his latest foray into Hip-Hop late Tuesday afternoon; "One Time For" is one of two tracks recently recorded with rising Atlanta emcee Rome Fortune . Even though it may still be a little rough around the edges, "One Time For" is an extremely glitched out, drum-heavy Electronic Hip-Hop hybrid, which could very well be the start of a great collaborative ef...

for their latest video-remix treatment, Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox recruited Puddles The Clown (aka Big Mike Geier ), a 7-foot-tall sad clown and Atlanta -based performance artist with a voice not unlike Tom Jones ; together, they recorded a sprawling "throwback"-style cover of Lorde 's recent mega-hit, "Royals" in Bradlee's living room. It's a pretty amazing track, nonetheless, which wouldn't have been entirely possible without Robyn Adele Anderson , Cristina Gatti, Adam Kubota , Allan Mednard, and of course, Puddles' gold-plated vocal chords. "Royals" is far from Postmodern Jukebox 's first go-round; in fact, they've recorded genre-shifting covers of everyone from Robin Thicke to Katy Perry and even laid down an entire Nickelback album, A Motown Tribute to Nickelback ! Bandleader-pianist Scott Bradlee has composed a staggering mix of re-arrangements, including all sorts of broad-spanning styles: Doo-Wop ,...

Mayer Hawthorne has really progressed leaps and bounds since unveiling his premier limited press heart-shaped "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" 45 for Stones Throw (2008). Hawthorne has toured across America with everyone from John Mayer to Erykah Badu ; I was lucky enough to catch Mayer Hawthorne & The County post- A Strange Arrangement at First Unitarian Church (a legit Philly church rec-room). He's already gotten a chance to collaborate with Kendrick Lamar , Snoop Dogg, Daryl Hall , SebastiAn, Jessie Ware , James Pants, Pharrell , Jake-One, etc. Andrew "Mayer Hawthorne" Cohen has effectively pioneered a sort of Hip-Hop -infused "New-Wop" sound, over the course of 3 albums and some change. But critics and fans alike are saying that Hawthorne's most recent album, Where Does This Door Go? , is swaying in a little more of a mainstream radio Neo-Soul sonic lane. 16-year-old Kiwi [New Zealand] songstress Lorde rocketed to #1 on t...