The Witzard

Taylor "Cindy Lou Who" Momsen and her [teen] angst-filled Alternative Rock band, The Pretty Reckless are gearing up to join Marilyn Manson's Hey Cruel World... Tour . Momsen has been on "indefinite hiatus" from her infamous Gossip Girl acting gig since roughly 2010. But she's made good use of her new-found downtime, re-inventing herself and perusing her Rock "N" Roll fantasies along with The Pretty Reckless . Taylor Momsen says she's creatively influenced by Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Soundgarden , The White Stripes , and Oasis ; She's reportedly been messing around with music since the age of 8 and upon signing with Interscope Records (2009), has recruited a variety of band members, which now include: Ben Phillips, Mark Damon , and Jamie Perkins . The Pretty Reckless' discography currently consists of one album and 2 EP's. The bulk of which, including full-length Light Me Up , were written-recorded along with famed producer Ka...

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a sucker for a good cover. When it comes down to it, the practice of covering songs is the sheer essence of Pop Culture : Taking something vaguely familiar, re-hashing it, and then re-releasing it to [eventual] wild success. One could even go as far to argue that sampling beats in Hip-Hop is a form of "covering." The latest cover to show up on my radar is Mike Posner 's recent version of Oasis - "Wonderwall" (1995). Posner's biggest claim to fame may very well be "Cooler Than Me," a track which was written-produced in his Duke dormroom. A Matter of Time was distributed to the masses through iTunes U with help from friends, Don Cannon & DJ Benzi . One proper album and a couple digital mixtapes later... Mike Posner liberated a BRAND NEW collection around Thanksgiving, The Layover . While "Wonderwall" is easily the stand-out track, the mixtape features a fine assortment of collaborators...

Ryan Adams is one of those dudes that you can never really predict what he's going to do/say next. But not in the same sort of mildly "threatening" way as say, a guy like... Charlie Sheen . But you can always bet that it's going to be unique, fun, and quite memorable - Maybe that's what makes an expectedly "dull" Alt. Country Rocker like Adams so utterly compelling. Take a look @ Ryan Adams' varied covers selections, for example: Vampire Weekend , Iron Maiden, Alice In Chains , and Oasis . Since first appearing on the music scene in 1991, Ryan Adams has managed to release somewhere between 13-20 studio albums, solo and as a member of assorted bands. (This excluding a gaggle of un-cataloged randomly released tracks and collections.) Even @ age 36, Ryan Adams seems to have quite the affinity for Halloween; "Halloweenhead" was a stand-out track on Easy Tiger (2007) - The track is seemingly about drug addiction, die-hard fans, and/or h...

Ryan Adams - "Wasted Years" (Iron Maiden) Many years ago [2000], when I was first REALLY "getting into" the Indie Rock music scene... my tech-savvy, older cuz Josh passed me a Led Zeppelin Greatest Hits 3-CD set, a box of cassette tapes, and a collection [Read: "stack of data CD-R's"] of shit to check out. Contained within the bounds of one of those CD-R's was "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)," a playful, little ditty from Alt. Country singer-songwriter Ryan Adam 's debut long-player, Heartbreaker . Since his 2000 inception, Ryan Adams has released 6 individual solo albums, 4 records with his [former] band The Cardinals , got married to Mandy Moore , released a Heavy Metal album as "Orion," upstarted his very own record label imprint, and unleashed a handful of mp3's from his assorted "side endeavors." In the mix of what may easily seem like to some a schizophrenic musical career, Adams man...