The Witzard

Back in 2019, Los Angeles emcee Alex Ludovico continued his ongoing #MedicineMondays weekly singles series and last year, he did something similar with #RewindWednesdays. His Bandcamp page explains, "Drugs, sex, and Hip-Hop. Alex Ludovico, born in Gary, IN and created in Chicago, is the living embodiment of that credo." One of our personal favorite moments from 2019's #MedicineMondays roll-out was Ludovico's collaborative EP with fellow Chicagoan Jason Griff entitled Scarf Tissue. Upon returning from our honeymoon to Italy, we immediately linked up with Griff & Alex Ludovico, via email, to talk about their phenomenal Scarf Tissue EP. They were kind enough to help us assemble a comprehensive track-by-track (All-around) Breakdown for Scarf Tissue. Not long after, following a string of one-off singles, Alex Ludovico & Jason Griff returned with the first proper EP of #RewindWednesdays, THE RED MAN IS HERE. RUN. For THE RED MAN IS HERE. RUN. We got a chance to ...

Chris Gethard is a self-proclaimed "comedian, author," and... "telephone call enthusiast," who was born and raised in West Orange, New Jersey. You may know Gethard from his podcast, Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People (Beautiful/Anonymous,) his books, Lose Well and A Bad Idea I'm About to Do: True Tales of Seriously Poor Judgement & Stunningly Awkward Adventure, or roles on The Chris Gethard Show , Parks & Recreation, The Other Guys , or Broad City. Little-know fact: Chris Gethard is, also, a wrestling super-fan and was once a staff writer for Weird N.J. He was even interviewed as part of an installment of the RTF WRESTLING FANZINE! a few years back, as well. Gethard now resides in Queens, New York, but has decided to return to his roots for his latest Comedy album, TAYLOR HAM, PORK & CHEESE: A COMEDIC TRIBUTE TO NEW JERSEY . Full Disclosure: for those who may not already know, I, too, was born and raised and still reside in South Jersey ...

Quills by Vans_Westly I was attending a wedding reception here in South Jersey at The Little Red Schoolhouse this past weekend with my fiancé, when I received a Tweet from @DrewciferScott tagging me in a previous Tweet from @Vans_Westly , which simply read: "Yo, I really want someone to review Quills ." Westly was of course, referring to his latest Quills EP , which was completed and released just in time for his Quills Release Party this past Saturday, June 24th at Baltimore 's The Windup Space with "special guests" Height Keech, Drew Scott, Raymond Strife , and Lt. Headtrip —nearly all of whom I've previously worked with and covered here at The Witzard . Drew Scott , who produced "Spring Sh*t" on Quills , road tested a few new tunes from his upcoming "weirdo Psych-Pop EP," which soon after The Windup Space show, he said "felt real sexy and pathetic;" in addition to Vans_Westly 's Quills EP , Scott also released ...

I must admit, I was initially drawn to "Post-Punk" band Merchandise because a recently-penned Ad-Hoc article likened their sound to that of The Smiths , who just so happen to be on of my favourite bands. Between their rapid-fire 2012-13 albums, Children of Desire and Totale Night , the band's membership quickly multiplied from three to five; now including Carson Cox, David Vassalotti, Elsner Niño, Patrick Brady , and sax player Chris Horn . Marking the announcement of their new-found partnership with Indie label 4AD , Merchandise unleashed a limited run clear 12" for "Begging for Your Life / In The City Light," a 14-minute track which was previously released on a split Chelsea Light Moving tour cassette. While 1,000 12-inches were briefly available for pre-order, set to ship on February 25th, 4AD almost instantly sold out and "Begging for Your Life" is now alternatively available on iTunes and a number of other digital retailers. For ...

1/3 of Swedish Indie-Pop group Peter Bjorn & John , Peter Morén is gearing up to release a series of Swedish-to-English EP's in the coming months; his four-track Broken Swenglish (Vol. 1) will see a Monday, December 9th digital-release on the band's Swedish -based collective imprint, INGRID . Stereogum premiered a new, previously unreleased Peter Morén track called "Constant Reaction" late Tuesday afternoon. It's a guitar-drenched romper of a track, which is a little bit more Rock -oriented that Peter Bjorn & John 's typically super-chill output. "Constant Reaction" is more of less an aggressive six-string musical response "that plays [out] like The Smiths , if Morrissey had a lot more protein in his diet." Peter Morén personally sent Stereogum a little bit of introspective background info on it's creation: "I wrote this after the awful shootings against a youth-camp in 2011 on the island Utöya outside of Oslo ...

Mauro Remiddi is a well-traveled man (Rome, Brooklyn, London) who's not afraid to show his emotions through song, when need be. Remiddi moonlights as "Porcelain Raft," crafting densely-layered Dream Pop tunes, and mildly reminds this particular listener of one Steven Morrissey . Maybe it's the androgynous vocal stylings and "artsy" public image, paired with that all too familiar devil-may-care sate of being [attitude]. Porcelain Raft 's music is dark and emotional. But not in that worn out, "obvious" sort of way. The casual music fan might find it a bit shocking to realize that Mauro Remiddi has been involved in the world of music for the bulk of his 27-year existence; From playing circus gypsy music to tap dance piano, Remiddi has tracked a wide array of tunes to tape, mini-disc, and CD. Secretly Canadian will liberate his proper debut, Strange Weekend , this coming Jan. 23-24th. "Once a dear friend of mine said, "Imagine if in...