The Witzard

Acid Lab Records (ALR) is a Los Angeles-based record label/crew established in 2011; it's members include BeOND , Express Fresh, Gajah , Myk Mansun, Olmeca , OneWerd, Upword , and 3-man emcee posse, Acid Reign AKA Gajah, BeOND & Olmeca . ALR 's members have released a wide array of solo and collaborative projects since 2011 with each other and a handful of affiliates and frequent collaborators, including Kenny Segal , Le Parasite, Willie Green , Japanese emcee MC GEBO, Chrono Triggers , Herrmutt Lobby, Mute Speaker , Destruct, Scotty "Sixo" Trimble , Awkward, and Uncommon Nasa on Gajah 's Hand of Gold Are Always Cold . While Acid Lab Records features a wide variety of talent, all of which can be streamed or purchased on ALR 's Bandcamp page, this very piece will primarily focus on Gajah & Mute Speaker ... hailing from Los Angeles and Cambodia , respectively, Gajah & Mute Speaker are currently gearing up to release their third collaborative ...

Berlin -based multi-instrumentalist, producer, and Baltimore transplant Walter Gross has been steadily rolling out extremely limited edition, thought-provoking cassette releases all year; starting with Black Box Tapes -issued VESTIGE this past March, then, its SUPER BASIC companion piece two months later, and now, Youth:Kill 's A Hunter's Moon EP unleashed today, on the Harvest Moon . Walter Gross also recently assembled "FBR SummerSchool GuestMix 3" for FilthyBroke Recordings' Summer School 2017 series. Youth:Kill consists of Gross along with Big Dada/Fake Four Inc -affiliated emcee Emmanuel "Kiki" Ceac AKA k-the-i??? A 2008 Dusted Magazine review once fittingly described Youth:Kill as "the Underground Hip-Hop version of Black Dice ." A Hunter's Moon is their sixth overall release and first since a self-released 2012 split EP with sole , titled sole/Youth:Kill split . Not entirely unlike its 2017 predecessors, A Hunter...

Red Dillicious by Free Tillman "This project came together organically. I had just bought some new equipment and wasn't really comfortable with my drum sounds, so I decided to loop someone else's... and who has better drums than J Dilla ? I was looking for samples from my music collection and came across Fiona Apple 's Tidal ," beat-maker, writer, and social media personality Free (Lee) Tillman wrote within a recent email. "Throughout my life, I have been a recording engineer, a journalist, a rapper, a stand-up comedian, and a music video director. And I have had recognizable success in exactly zero of those things," Tillman writes within the Amazon description to his 2016 Kindle book, How to Fail at Everything: A Practical Guide for Coasting Through Life . On his Soundcloud page, Lee Tillman simply proclaims: "I make videos, I take pictures, I write Tweets , I write books," complete with links to his various platforms. Red Dillicious ...

"Meet Sudan Archives , a 22-year-old self-taught violinist/vocalist who writes, plays, and produces her own music. In this live performance video, she flips Kendrick Lamar ’s “King Kunta” with just her voice, a violin, and a loop pedal. She'll be performing at Stones Throw Superfest in Los Angeles , November 5th," Stones Throw Records wrote on their Facebook page Thursday afternoon. Their latest signee, formerly know as Sudan Moon , "began playing the violin at age eight in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio , where she also played in various school and church choirs. Her [2014] debut EP, GOLDENCITY , was self-produced on an iPad in her parent’s basement." Now, just two short years later, Sudan Archives is currently preparing to release her proper self-titled "debut" album, which it appears as though, was completed long before she recently signed a deal with Stones Throw . "While classically-trained, Sudan finds inspiration from the various...

"'Strangers" was definitely inspired by our time living in California . We wanted it to sound like how California feels to us... portray that image of quintessential California , which sometimes can simply be that girl in a sundress with that pretty California smile," LA -based Indie Pop trio The Rebel Light previously told The Line of Best Fit . Brothers Alan & Jarrett Stell and their cousin Brandon Cooke have already been compared to the likes of The Shins , Grizzly Bear, The Beach Boys , Todd Rundgren, Ariel Pink , The Doors, and The 5th Dimension during their brief tenure. The Rebel Light 's latest self-released single, "Strangers" "was recorded at home, with the vocals being laid down in the bathroom and the drum parts recorded in a wood shed," according to UK -based Clash magazine . It would appear as though The Rebel Light have managed to garner a considerable following across the pond, ironically, wherein many of the sun...

"We thought "Take Me Out" [2004] was very cool, and wouldn't it be nice to say hello when they came to Los Angeles ," Sparks frontman Russell Mael recently lamented to Domino Records concerning his newly-minted band with younger brother Ron and the entirety of Scottish Dance-Punk band Franz Ferdinand . "We met and decided then it would be great to do something together. We put forward a couple demos, one was "Piss Off." But they got swept up by everything, and it didn't happen at the time," Mael continued. Legend has it that FFS didn't fully reconvene until Coachella 2013 when Ron & Russell Mael ended up bumping into a tooth-aching Alex Kapranos frantically in search of a local dentist that they unanimously decided a "10-year gestation period for this idea was long enough." FFS' self-titled Domino Records debut was recorded late last year during a marathon 15-day recording stint, wherein the 6-man band...

" Rat Fist is the result of a friendship that began over a decade ago in 2003 when [Randy] Randall 's former band Wives and [Sean] McGuiness' former band Navies played a house show together in Washington DC . It was then that the two quickly recognized they had a common love for loud, fast, heavy music," notes the newly-formed band's description on R5 Productions' upcoming events page. Rat Fist unveiled a string of six quick-strike East Coast tour dates, which are listed above, along with a righteous teaser single titled "Disrupt Yr DNA" late Tuesday afternoon. It sounds like a harshly grafted mix of both Pissed Jeans and No Age 's Noise Rock/Hardcore Punk sounds; while I'm not entirely sure who's on lead vocals, Randall's crunchy feedback-drenched guitar riffs meld perfectly with McGuiness' skull-bashing drum lines littered through out "Disrupt Yr DNA"'s nearly 2:30-minute duration. Despite the fact th...

Sharp-tongued Los Angeles by-way-of Chicago emcee Open Mike Eagle has been self-described as an underground "Art-Rap" hero; recently having signed a purported three-album deal with Indie Hip-Hop imprint Mello Music Group . Noisey premiered the second single from Eagle's upcoming fourth album, Dark Comedy , which is currently set for a June 10th release, Tuesday afternoon. "Dark Comedy Morning Show" was supposedly the second to last song recorded for the new album... "It took me a long time to write because I kept wanting to sing this Stereolab song on it that was way out of my range," Open Mike Eagle revealed on Twitter. "Dark Comedy Morning Show" was seemingly influenced by Open Mike Eagle 's recent stint with traveling comedian Paul F. Tompkins and additionally features production work/vocal accompaniment from rising multi-instrumentalist Toy Light . Sonically, it's very emotive of 90's Indie Pop , something not t...

"Birthday Sex" crooner Jeremih has teamed back up with LA -based Electro/Hip-Hop producer and beat-maker Shlohmo to release "No More" just in time for inclusion on your nearly-finalized Valentine's Day playlist. NPR of all places premiered the latest Future-R&B track from the pair, which they further described as "the first single from their forthcoming [WEDIDIT/Def Jam] joint EP, and it's edgy, 3am, come-down-after-the-club music... more Avante-Garde than club-friendly." It's definitely amongst a recent crop of Kanye -inspired sinister-leaning love songs; Shlohmo initially remixed Jeremih 's Late Nights mixtape track, "F_ck U All The Time" around late 2012 and then linked back up for "Bo Peep (Do U Right)" for Yours Truly and Adidas' Songs from Scratch collaborative video-series. While Jeremih & Shlohmo 's long-rumored Untitled EP was previously slated for a February 2014 release, whi...

It's pretty damn awesome that David Letterman 's people are even remotely interested in booking a disjointed post- Nirvana Sub Pop Art-Punk band like No Age to perform on national TV; following film director and special guest Spike Jonze , drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall took the Letterman side-stage during the wee hours of Thursday night into Friday morning. The band had seemingly re-outfitted the set with stark white sheets, including Spunt's drum kit, and wore matching denim outfits... essentially rendering Late Night with David Letterman into a quasi-art gallery installation, while ripping through "C'mon Stimmung." Not even 5-6 hours after their Letterman performance, No Age released a brand new Oliver Payne -directed video for album track, "I Won't Be Your Generator" in true Noise-Punk Rock fashion, as well. It's an artfully weird intimate-object(s) collage, presented in stark contrast against their rec...

"We set out to film the video for "Catchin' The Vibe" in Quasimoto 's home town [of] Lost Gates CA , but were denied filming permits. We were also denied permits for filming in Los Angeles County , possibly due to embarrassment caused in the wake of Quasimoto 's "official letter of recognition" from the Los Angeles mayor and city council, who did not realize that Quasimoto was a semi-fictional cartoon character, weed-smoking promoter of chaos, obsessed with fat ass[es]." Stones Throw then recruited directors Tuomas Vauhkonen & Jeremias Nieminen , who filmed "Catchin' The Vibe" with local actors across alternate locations in Finland and Romania . It's a short, debauchery-filled affair that stars some sort of trashman collecting disposed items; cause like the say, "one man's trash is another man's treasure!" Stones Throw's included mini-press release also notes that " Madlib appears under ...

"The Throwaway" was either lifted off an old mid-90's Beat CD or DAT, which might've come from J Dilla 's hometown storage locker that Jeff Bubeck infamously stumbled upon last April. After a little bit of Internet-fueled confusion, Dilla's personal effects were rightfully returned to his mother, Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey - This including: nearly 8,000 vinyl LP's, pieces of mail, Slum Village paperwork, hand-written notes, and a gaggle of cassette/Beat CD-R's, etc. "The Throwaway" is out first audio-file snippet from Delicious Vinyl 's upcoming Frank Nitt -orchestrated Yancey Boys album, "The Lost Scrolls" (2013). It's the fifth posthumous J Dilla release... right behind The Shining , Jay Love Japan EP, Jay Stay Paid , and Rebirth of Detroit. Frank Nitt and J Dilla 's little brother, Illa J , decided to cruise around LA and visit some of Dilla's favoutite sun-soaked landmarks, which Josh Polon e...

HAIM are a band made up of 3 20-something sisters from LA who's only recorded output includes: the 3-track Forever EP , a Fleetwood Mac cover, some hook work for Childish Gambino , and now "Don't Save Me/Send Me Down." Ever since the imminent break-up of family band Rockinhaim about 5 years ago, Danielle, Alana & Este have been secretly recording together non-stop... fine-tuning their sun-soaked Rock "N" Roll meets 90's R&B sound. They seem to be equally inspired by everyone from Usher to The Beach Boys , but HAIM have somehow been able to meld together a unique brand of Power/Girl Pop . I personally think it's pretty SICK [AWESOME] that 3 hot, model-ish chicks like Danielle, Alana & Este Haim can Rock this hard, whether or not you really even dig their music! While they're slowly but surely chipping away @ finishing up their major label debut, the Haim sisters unveiled a music video for "Don't Save Me...

I wonder if German film director, one-time Killers collaborator, and accidental Hipster cult hero Werner Herzog is even remotely familiar with American Hip-Hop !? Los Angeles -based Indie rappers Busdriver, Open Mike Eagle & Nocando have assembled a loose posse to record a track called "Werner Herzog," which appears on Busdriver 's recent ARGUMENTS WITH DREAMS EP . It's basically Flash Bang Grenada plus Open Mike Eagle , a pairing that director Diana Dalsasso went on to simply describe as, "3 of LA 's best underground rappers that also just so happen to be the best of friends." "Werner Herzog" pretty much features some of the most clever, witty, quick punchlines I've heard in a long time! Prime example: "I got a bunch of girls pregnant cause I sell diapers ... I eat Fair Trade cheese and fart fairness." Diana Dalsasso and Nonstop Record creative partner, Karina Soriano [producer] somehow manage to meld Busdr...