The Witzard

Normal Creatures are a new Hip-Hop/Rock-leaning group hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who aren't exactly "new." Long story short, Normal Creatures once functioned as Sikes & The New Violence from 2014-20, but posted a message this past September accompanied by an image with the text "Goodbye Sikes and The New Violence. Hello Normal Creatures." Sikes explained within part of the heart-felt message, "I don't feel as though it's fair for the band to exist under the shadow of "Sikes" and I want us to be acknowledged as a collective unit..." He further explained all of Sikes & The New Violence's music released prior to 2020 will continue to exist online as such, although, a set of three singles recorded and released during Quarantine will soon be accurately re-uploaded to streaming services as Normal Creatures. Somebody's Watching Me (Rockwell Cover) by Normal Creatures Now, just in time for Halloween, The Ar...

WalyO is a mysterious Connecticut-based producer and beat-maker. Sonically, his style of music often falls somewhere in-between remixes and mash-ups; almost like a musical version of Marvel's beloved zany WHAT IF...? comic book series. However, a press release asserts, "WalyO is NOT a remixer, instead, he creates brand new tracks by chopping up various acapellas from many different songs and re-arranges them into new verses on beats that are in the taste of the so-called artists." Following the success of his 2018 Diplomats-centric project Dipset, We Still Bangin', WalyO has returned with the first single from his next like-minded effort. N​.​W​.​A. Feat. Michael Jackson - "LA Riots" will appear within WalyO's upcoming sophomore project, his own rendition of Dr. Dre's fabled as-yet-to-be released magnum opus, Detox. Honestly, a collaboration between N.W.A. & The King of Pop is not as far-fetched as it sounds on paper... as Michael Jackson's...

J Dilla + Michael Jackson = Share My Bed by J.Rocc It's safe to say, I've been patiently awaiting J.Rocc 's J Dilla & Michael Jackson -blending mash-up project ever since Stones Throw posted: " Share My Bed=M.J. & Dilla 1st track "Player Has Butterflies" ... wait 4 the rest" nearly 10 years ago back in November 2009. Over the years, a handful of tracks have been sporadically leaked out from the project—alternatively, referred to as "Dil Jackson" —but every year, as Dilla Month (February) comes and goes, I've always wondered, if we would ever hear the entirety of J.Rocc 's Share My Bed . Even this year, J Dilla 's birthday, Feb. 7th (same as my dad's!) passed, as well as Feb. 10th, the 12th anniversary of his passing, and still, no signs of J.Rocc 's anxiously-awaited Dil Jackson project. However, just a few days ago, on Valentine's Day , J.Rocc quietly dropped Share My Bed on his Bandcamp , without any pr...

Justin Timberlake released his long-awaited fifth studio album, Man of The Woods today, which has taken him "back to his Nashville roots," as well as his pre- Timbaland production partners, The Neptunes . This upcoming Sunday, Timberlake will also make his return to Super Bowl LII , playing his first half-time show since 2004's Super Bowl XXXVIII half-time show controversy, widely regarded as "Nipplegate." "When it was announced JT would return to the Super Bowl , after spectacularly failing to stand by [Janet] Jackson at the height of his career, it started bugging me more," one half of Epic Beard Men , B. Dolan wrote on Soundcloud early Friday morning. "I started out to make a single one of these mash-ups out of curiosity. Then, I kept going because I'm petty and a music nerd and it was stunningly easy," @BDolanSFR continued. B. Dolan is of course, referring to his "dope, highly unofficial 30-minute satirical mix"...

"It was an action-packed few days, Sandman was so patient with the whole thing, it was amazing... The effect in ["Life Support"] is stop-animation; basically, every time anything moved in those sections of the video, we'd move something [and] take a picture. So, that meant pulling apart flowers, petal by petal, in some cases... It was a blast to make... Homeboy Sandman and I have built a body of visuals together and we have a lot of trust in each other. He pushes limits musically and I try to match his intensity with the visuals, while keeping an eye on his humorous side," director @pacerivers told me in a series of recent Twitter direct messages sent on the eve of his latest sun-drenched creation, "Life Support." Homeboy Sandman 's just released Hugo XL -produced self-reflective cut is reportedly "a new track, not on any album release, strictly for the video," according to Los Angeles -based imprint Stones Throw Records . Rivers a...

Barcelona -based Latin Alternative producer Pablo Diaz-Reixa 's 2010 Young Turks/XL album under his El Guincho guise is easily a shimmering David Bowie & Michael Jackson -influenced Spanish -language Psych-Pop masterpiece. I've been (im)patiently awaiting Diaz-Reixa's proper follow-up to his nearly flawless Pop Negro for a solid year or so and now, it seems like he's finally readied his fourth album, Hiperasia for a digital release February 12th and a physical release a mere month later on March 11th. For those not exactly familiar with El Guincho 's frenzied sample-laden output, it sounds like something similar to Vampire Weekend 's Paul Simon Graceland -influenced "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" era material, which has additionally been described as Tropicália , Psych-Pop, and "Space-Age Exotica" stylized rhythms. Formerly the drummer for seemingly defunct Experimental-Batucada group Coconot , Pablo Diaz-Reixa has released three a...

It's almost unfathomable to me, as both a home-grown music writer and music-buying all-American 20-something, to hear that musical luminaries Michael Jackson and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury once recorded a number of incomplete tracks together that have been sitting in a vault somewhere in "Neverland," collecting dust for nearly 30 years! Mercury supposedly brought the potentially über-fruitful 1983-84 sessions to a screeching halt after Jackson attempted to bring a llama into the recording studio. Head Stereogum writer, Tom Breihan basically conceptualized the whole mind-boggling scenario perfectly: "[it's] like finding a giant pile of money under the bed in your hotel room and deciding, what the Hell, you'll just leave it there" ha. But now, Grammy -winning producer and Madonna collaborator, William Orbit has gone back in and meticulously re-produced/mastered the long-lost Queen -backed track, "There Must Be More to Life Than This,...

" ACTiON BRONSON JUST JUMPED TO THE TOP OF THE RAP GAME FOOD CHAiN WiTH THiS MOViE-QUALiTY ViDEO, "EASY RiDER" FT SLASH ," Tweeted oddball rapper and supposed Galaxy Gladiators collaborator, @JODYHiGHROLLER aka RiFF RAFF . "DON'T LET ME DIIIEEEE!!!" Action Bronson proclaims in a black-and-white red bandana-accented clip whilst pummeling bullets out of a machine gun, which appears to be a war flashback; as "Easy Rider"'s hymn-like intro starts, we see our bed-ridden hero approached by a lieutenant, "Soldier, tell me what happened..." to which Action Bronson achingly grunts, "Where's my guitaarrr!!?" It's largely unclear what happens next, but we see Bronson, still in a hospital gown, and his red bandana speeding down a barren desert highway as "EASY RIDER" and "DIRECTED BY TOM GOULD " scroll across the trailer-esque screen. RiFF RAFF is generally non-sensical, but he's 100% righ...

The self-proclaimed "Greatest Band In Late Night," The Roots have really come a long way since busking for pocket change on South Philly street corners back in the late 1980's; now in their sixth year with Jimmy Fallon as his show changes hands from Late Night to The Tonight Show , the on-screen band has been augmented to include two horn players borrowed from The Dap-Kings . What initially started as a brief behind-the-scenes vignette, okayplayer in-house videographer Jake Remington ended up filming a 2-part mini-documentary. Part 1 effectively shadows ?uestlove , who'll soon appear as a crusty afro-corpse on Law & Order: SVU , as he goes through his pre-show rituals and morning routine before Fallon #970 ; Hashtag-savvy fans get an inside look into ?uestlove 's New York high-rise apartment, his coveted sneaker and T-shirt collection, his breakfast-scented cologne cabinet, boxing with a personal trainer, and 20 minutes of electric relaxation on the ...

"A group of three hippies on a road trip through the backwaters of 2013's rural music scene fall prey to a murderous cannibalistic band making, including a leather-masked, guitar-wielding Avey Tare , his knife-wielding keyboard player Angel Deradoorian , and their cannibal chief drummer and decaying grandfather Jeremy Hyman ," Dave Portner vaguely attempted to describe his then newly-formed project, Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks upon their April 2013 formation. An Indie Rock super-group of sorts or even a self-described " Jazz power trio," Slasher Flicks features former members of Dirty Projectors and Ponytail , along with Avey Tare who's seemingly on a brief hiatus from his main band, Animal Collective . Domino Records will release the band's debut album, Enter The Slasher House on April 7-8th and paired with the Monday morning album announcement, came Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks' first pre-release sonic-appetizer, "Little Fang....

" Share My Bed = MJ & Dilla 1st track, "Player Has Butterflies" ...wait [for] the rest," read a vague 2009 Stones Throw post. Beat Junkies co-founder and former Black Star & Jaylib DJ J. Rocc has seemingly been working on some sort of unspecified J Dilla/Michael Jackson mash-up project for the past 5+ years. Dilla was a known Jackson (5) super-fan and even sampled "Dancing Machine" for Q-Tip 's solo track "Move" (2008), originally appearing on his Beat CD '05 #3 web-bootleg. I can vaguely remember downloading a copy of my first J Dilla album, Champion Sound with Madlib (2003). It falls right between what I would consider his two greatest works, Ruff Draft EP and his magnum opus, Donuts . Little did I know, at the time, that Dilla's health was slowly failing because of lupus complications and a rare blood disorder; he ultimately passed away on February 10th, 2006. I didn't realize til a few years later, bu...

Download Mixtape Just in time for All Hallow's Eve , Yelawolf & DJ Paul unleashed a 5-track FreEP, Black Fall late Wednesday night. The former Three 6 Mafia producer crafted some pretty sinister-sounding beats using primarily Rock & Metal samples; so far, I've heard Metallica , Pink Floyd, Muse , Michael Jackson, and Black Sabbath (Dio) . I never really used to like Yelawolf 's hillbilly-tinged brand of Southern Hip-Hop , until I heard his genre-blending collaboration with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran , The Slumdon Bridge EP . It's a truly timeless Alt. Hip-Hop EP that I would've gladly paid good money for and I guess Travis Barker & Eminem 's separate Yelawolf co-signs didn't hurt either. Leaked pre-release single "Light Switch" expertly manages to sample English Prog-Rock band Muse 's radio-friendly hit "Uprising," while elsewhere, "Thriller" and Pink Floyd are sampled on one track. Yelawolf &...

Full disclosure here: "Shake Your Body (Down to The Ground)" is quite easily amongst my favourite Michael Jackson/The Jackson 5 tracks; thanks to my wonderful parents (married 29 years today!) who exposed me to Jackson, Billy Joel , Elton John, Stevie Wonder , etc. records at a very young, impressionable age. While Justin Timberlake is currently ramping up to unleash the second part of his first album in nearly 6 years, The 20/20 Experience , he stopped by BBC1 Live Lounge over the weekend, just days after debuting new material at iHeart Radio Music Fest (Vegas). Along with familiar hits new and old, Timberlake and The Tennessee Kids ripped through a pretty spot-on, Funk -laden version of "Shake Your Body." Random coincidence or not, Justin Timberlake was very recently awarded the coveted Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at this year's MTV VMA's , where Timberlake briefly reunited with his wildly popular and now-defunct "boy band," N...

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 ...

All I can think of when I hear something about R. Kelly anymore is "I wanna piss on you... Gimme that pee-pee. Gimme that poo-poo" thanks to Dave Chappelle's CLASSIC scandalous skit. But R. Kelly is actually a really talented, slightly zonked out musician and he's seemingly about to infiltrate a whole new market: Hipsters! Robert Kelly formed a new-found kinship with French Indie Rock band Phoenix at Coachella earlier this summer; performing a few unique mashed-up remixes for the unsuspecting concert-goers, "Ignition" (1901) and "Chloroform" (I'm a Flirt) . It's kinda like that time R. Kelly & Jay Z teamed up for a MASSIVE album and world tour -- Except it's more like if Jay Z was 4 scrawny French guys ha. But with that said, it's not a whole lot unlike Daft Punk & Pharrell 's recent mega-hit, "Get Lucky;" Just a little more Adult Contemporary and a little less Electro -fied. Ina recent inter...

"Seems @theweeknd have said there is no sample used or enough likeness to "Machine Gun" to warrant any infringement... or credit," head Quaker and Portishead mastermind Geoff Barrow angerly Tweeted early Wednesday morning. It sounds like Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) initially asked Barrow and Portishead for permission to use said sample and upon being denied clearance, loosely re-created "Machine Gun"'s ferocious, almost Tribal -sounding drum pattern. But honestly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense... since The Weeknd and Portishead are both signed to Universal Records , plus Geoff Barrow and Beth Gibbons are self-admitted Hip-Hop supporters. "Belong to The World" is actually The Internet 's second taste of The Weeknd 's upcoming "sophomore" album, Kiss Land . In what seems like an effort to foster more of a prominent public image, Abel Tesfaye granted Complex his first full-fledged earlier in the we...

Preceded only by a vague, Bob Dylan -like teaser clip earlier in the week, Justin Timberlake unleashed his BRAND NEW single, "Take Back The Night" late Friday afternoon; oozing Off The Wall era Disco vibes, I guess Timberlake's track shares it's name with an anti-rape organization of some sort (creepy coincidence or not). One particular commenter at Stereogum , michael_ , actually said it perfectly: "What has changed since the release of [The 20/20 Experience] and this upcoming one is Daft Punk 's "Get Lucky" and Robin Thicke 's "Blurred Lines" copping their own shares in this Neo-Disco Pop ..." The 20/20 Experience (Part 2) is slated for a September 30th release, along with the "JT Complete Package," which'll re-collect all 21 tracks from parts 1-2. "I originally recorded a massive amount of material and decided on the 20 tracks that I wanted on the album(s) over a year ago," Justin Timberlake l...

Phoenix somehow managed to get their hands on what most music fans and audiophiles would consider damn-near "The Holy Grail" of modern recording equipment: Michael Jackson 's infamous Harrison 4032 recording console, which was used to make Thriller ! Guitarist Laurent Brancowitz found the console included within a surprisingly no frills auction and eventually haggled it's owner, Clayton Rose down to a fair $17,000 [from $32,000 asking price]. Frontman Thomas Mars immediately had Rose ship Jackson's Ping-Pong table-sized Harrison 4032 across the pond and over to Paris so that Phoenix could begin mixing their new album, Alternative Thriller Bankrupt! Last week, the band unveiled the companion "just peachy" cover artwork, 10-song tracklist, and a world-wide release date -- April 22-23rd. DJ Zane Lowe debuted Track #1, "Entertainment" on his BBC Radio show Monday afternoon, which was then followed by a home-made YouTube lyric video...

Haphazardly constructed around an old Rudy Ray Moore vocal sample, "3 Dollars" features MF DOOM 's triumphant return to the mic... Rapping over a beat produced by the younger brother of his long-time friend/collaborator, Oh No [Madlib] . Over time, Michael Jackson has somehow managed to tediously de-construct and re-assemble a collection of tracks, which were generously inspired [sample] by 1970's Blaxopolitan film series, Dolomite . Oh No's previous albums were exclusively built around samples culled from Middle Eastern Psych Rock , Galt MacDermot, Ethiopian Funk-Jazz , and video games. Five Day Weekend is prepping to release Oh No 's latest album, cleverly titled "Ohnomite," this upcoming June 5th in conjunction with Stones Throw . Graphic artist Charles "Ques" Munka designed the colorful album cover, which showcases the rappers featured within: Guilty Simpson , MF DOOM, Phife Dawg , Erick Sermon , Rapper Big Pooh , Frank Nitt, M....

Dayglo Abortions - "Stupid Songs" My favorite Canadian band of all time. This is the opening track on Dayglo's 2nd and most popular album, Feed Us a Fetus. For anyone not familiar with this groups work, this is probably the perfect first impression. If you dig this, look up "Stupid World" off the same aforementioned album. Side note: These guys sound exactly like the records live; They're really on top of their live performance! Feederz - "Taking The Night" Some bands mix music and performance art perfectly - This is one of those bands. Singer Frank Discussion opened fire on an audience with a machine gun full of blanks, got banned from 924 Gilman St. for wearing euthanized dogs like a stool and flinging it into the crowd, and stole Jello Biafra's wife (that last one I don't think was an "artistic statement" as much of it was just a dick move). The Lewd - "Climate of Fear" The Lewd are one of a long list of...