The Witzard

"Unlikely Indie legends gift us with DOOM 's best emcee effort this decade, through a track crafted by long-time collaborator Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) in [conjunction] with posthumous prolific song-writer, Sparklehorse (Mark Linkous.) Listeners already have precedent that only good could come from duo, Danger Mouse & MF DOOM , as their collaborative project, DANGERDOOM , gave us 2005's The Mouse & The Mask . What differentiates The Mouse & The Mask from DOOM 's dozens of other projects—aside from the Cartoon Network features—is DOOM acting solely as the emcee in this outfit, where he usually has a heavy role in production. It's easy to see how trust was formed, though, as Danger Mouse curated his trademark clean, unique beats that set DOOM up to verbally knock it out of the park on every track. "Ninjarous" makes no exception here and while it exhibits the sterile perfection of Danger Mouse in feel, the influence of Sparklehorse ...

"There are kids at school who dress like everybody else, because they don't know what to do, and there are musicians like that, too," Jack White recently told Rolling Stone in a particularly telling no-holds-barred interview. "I'll hear TV commercials where the music's ripping off sounds of mine, to the point I think it's me. Half the time, it's The Black Keys ," he continued. It's only the latest set of comments accumulated in an on-going public feud with Dan Auerbach & Patrick Carney , which originally erupted when TMZ leaked a batch of White's private emails last year. The same Rolling Stone interview, in support of this forthcoming solo album Lazaretto , somehow managed to bash former bandmate Meg White , Lana del Rey, Adele , Duffy, Danger Mouse , and the late Amy Winehouse, which have since been retracted. Jack White seems to have been converted to the age-old school of thought that nearly all press is good press; a new-fo...

While drummer Patrick Carney recently initiated senseless cyber-beef with everyone from Justin Bieber to Bruce Jenner , The Black Keys really make an infectious brand of no-frills 2-man Rock "N" Roll . Their new album, Turn Blue was announced last Friday via Mike Tyson 's Twitter and was later vaguely described as "A: suffocation, B: sadness, C: numbness from extreme cold, D: a Cleveland late night TV host from the 1960's named Ghoulardi , E: all of the above." Dan Auerbach & Patrick Carney co-produced the album's 11 tracks alongside Danger Mouse , a Hip-Hop -leaning producer who helped oversee The Black Keys' last three albums. Along with an album pre-order, ahead of it's May 13th release, our first taste of Turn Blue , "Fever" was unleashed Monday afternoon; it's a 4-minute synth-soaked Psych-Rock romp that's essentially poised for modern rock radio. Now, I wouldn't exactly call "Fever" Auerbach a...

When describing their forthcoming album, Underneath The Rainbow to Rolling Stone back in December, Black Lips bassist Jared Swilley said that "'Boys In The Wood" is an ode to Lynyrd Skynyrd and growing up in Atlanta ... [it's] about doing bathtub drugs and doing bathtub gin;" a sentiment which is without a doubt echoed through out the course of their grizzly, just-released "Boys In The Wood" video. For whatever reasons, it was jointly directed by Matt Swinsky and James Franco -affiliated weirdos The ATL Twins and by non- Internet standards, "Boys In The Wood" would surely be rated R (aka totally NSFW). It's kinda like a twisted backwoods video-collage chock-full of blood, piss streams, wrestling, masked vixens, blazin' fire, general weirdness, sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll all captured in 4K vision. Underneath The Rainbow was recorded between New York and Nashville with musicians-producers Tommy Brenneck an...

Here's the scenario: Late to work Wednesday morning, the minutes are quickly ticking away past 8 o'clock and I'm whizzing down Route 77 . But in the end, late's late and I'm not really too concerned. Seems like I always [inconveniently] manage to catch Preston & Steve (hands down, one of Philly 's best morning radio shows) when they're playing music rather than cracking jokes, gossiping, etc; a track was soon cued that I later learned was The Sheepdogs - "Feeling Good," which I equate to a mix between The Black Keys/Queens of The Stone Age . The Sheepdogs' self-titled fourth album doubles as both their major label debut and commercial break-through, for all intensive purposes. While Ewan Currie, Leot Hanson, Ryan Gullen & Sam Corbett formed The Sheepdogs in Saskatoon, CAN around 2006, they became "The First Band to Ever Grace The Cover of Rolling Stone" in August 2011 after months of intense competition and 1.5 millio...

It's already been about 2 weeks since The Grammys aired, by the festive beef/drama is surely still going on. Early last week, a TMZ reporter asked Patrick Carney , whose band The Black Keys nabbed 4 Grammy awards, why he thought the academy didn't nominate Justin Bieber for an awards... to which Carney replied, "He's rich, right? I mean, I don't know. Grammys are like, for music, not for money and he's making a lot of money. I don't know - he should be happy, I guess." That's a pretty tame, politically correct response, but Bieber soon Tweeted " the black keys drummer should be slapped around haha." Patrick Carney quickly retaliated by changing his Twitter handle to "Justin Bieber" last weekend [Feb. 15-17th]. Tweeting @ terribly mis-led fans, harboring harsh responses, and ultimately Rick-Rolling unsuspecting Bieber fans with a NEW WORLD PREMIER, which actually ended up being "Recombo DNA" (1977). When...

"Die Young" is a mildly apocalyptic, sugar-coated "dance til we die" jam along with some half-assed satanic rituals/pseudo-orgy-tinged visuals... complete with that inherent layer of Hipster sleaze and over-produced shitty-ness. Ke$ha 's your typical she'd-be-hot-if-she-showered-more-often kinda dirty [blonde] girl; But I must say, she's really cleaned up a lot since first bursting onto the music scene with Animal/Cannibal EP (2010). Nate Ruess , who scored 2+ MAJOR hits this year with fun. , helped Ke$ha co-write "Die Young" and Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco , and Cirkut all had a hand in the production end of the Electro-Acoustic hybrid track. Ke$ha 's second album, Warrior , is slated for a December 4th release and will also include a handful of note-worthy appearances from Iggy Pop , Wayne Coyne, Ben Folds , will.i.am , and Patrick Carney (The Black Keys). Like I was starting to say up there, before some debonair young fellow r...

Right before rippin' it up with [the bulk of] his Wu-Tang clansmen, RZA & Ghostface Killah played a quick game of "Bubble Soccer" in Studio 8B 's elevator hallway alongside Gerard Butler and host, Jimmy Fallon . They were really there to promote RZA 's Man with The Iron Fists film soundtarck. but it was pretty great to see the typically "hard as nails" Wu-Gambinos let their guards down and have some good-spirited fun on live TV. Wu-Tang Clan then performed a BRUTAL version of "6 Directions of Boxing" with Fallon's house band, The Roots ; Ghostface, RZA, Cappadonna, GZA , Masta Killa, U-God , and Inspectah Deck were all present for the group's first televised performance together in roughly 10 years' time. The star-studded Iron Fists soundtrack is out today (October 23rd) and it's companion Kung-Fu flick hits theatres on November 2nd. Album stand-out "The Baddest Man Alive" now has an action-packed m...

The Black Keys & RZA first linked up for 2 tracks on their wildly successful Dame Dash -helmed Blues Rock/Rap fusion album, BlakRoc (2009). It seems like RZA might've called in a few favors when assembling the soundtrack to his upcoming film debut, Man with The Iron Fists : Kanye , Flatbush Zombies, Raekwon , Freddie Gibbs, Corrine Bailey Rae , Ghostface Killah, Talib Kweli , and Pharoahe Monch. Following a steady stream of leaks, the opening track from it's soundtrack album, which is out nation-wide Oct. 23rd, "The Baddest Man Alive" was unveiled Thurs. afternoon. Seemingly co-produced by both Dan Auerbach & RZA himself, "Baddest Man" is a Blues -leaning romp, accented by boastful Hip-Hop bravado. FuseTV premiered the track and quite aptly described it as sounding a lot like "an Ennio Morricone track produced by B.B. King ." While he's been pretty heavily influenced by Kung-Fu [Shaolin] since the Wu-Tang Clan days, T...

Iggy Pop & Ginger Baker are a couple of nearly unfathomable Rock "N" Roll legends; The kinda guys that are libel to have hooked up with your mother, grandmom, and sister back in their 1960-70's heyday! Iggy Pop is quite arguably considered "The Godfather of Punk" ... having slept with David Bowie , essentially invented the stagedive, cut himself with shards of glass during a live show, and then notoriously labelled as "crazy" by none other than Alice Cooper ! Pop then then came into prominence with The Stooges , while Ginger Baker was the righteous drummer for Cream , Blind Faith , and more taste-makers. Film-maker/writer Jay Bulger attempted to capture the over-indulgent life and times of the now 73-year-old Jazz drumming madman in his documentary, "Beware of Mr. Baker" ... Bulger ultimately got to score interviews with Ginger Baker 's friends-collaborators, chronicle his assorted hobbies, and when he finally got a chance to...

Way back in June, The Black Keys somehow managed to cram 50-60 hand-selected close friends, family members, and super-fans into notorious Nashville "speakeasy" [dive bar], Springwater Supper Club for a TOP SECRET show/music video shoot. After running through "Little Black Submarines" a few times, the night's festivities quickly transformed into an hour-long make-shift set. Having already re-enacted nearly every go-to Rock "N" Roll cliché in the book: bikini-clas hotties, animal puppet hi-jinx, brawling children, dancing salesmen, .gif short films , etc... The Black Keys opted for a FRESH approach - Live, loud & housed within one seedy-ass club! "Little Black Submarines" is one of The Black Keys' ultimate hidden treasures buried deep within their most recent album, El Camino (2011). It's a retro-style Blues Rocker that honestly, kinda reminds me of either Led Zeppelin or Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers . Local Philly ...

I guess it's kinda like that old All-American proverb [saying] says, "one man's trash is another man's treasure." But in this case, the one man, TOBACCO (Black Moth Super Rainbow) isn't exactly sure if what he has is a trash/treasure. TOBACCO took the liberty of remixing "I Got Mine" from The Black Keys' fifth album, Attack & Release (2008), but it was never officially released. And now, this lost treasure has somehow managed to find it's way onto The Internet(s) . Seemingly with The Keys' consent, TOBACCO quietly uploaded his dusty old "I Got Mine" remix to BMSR 's collective Soundcloud page late Thurs. afternoon. When it wasn't used by the band, TOBACCO ultimately ended up chopping, editing, and re-using select portions of "I Got Mine" for his own track called "Super Gum." TOBACCO's remix and both original versions are featured down below for your comparison purposes, but be w...

Before I head down to Atlantic City for a debauchery-filled weekend @ Metallica 's "Orion" Festival with a few buddies, Arctic Monkeys , Modest Mouse, Fucked Up , Best Coast, Ghost , and 30-some other bands... I figured I'd dub up a quick post on this nice little slice of Southern Rock: JEFF The Brotherhood - Hypnotic Knights EP . It's essentially a sampler EP, featuring 4 tracks that will eventually end up on Hypnotic Nights LP , which is slated for a July 17th release date. In honor of Hypnotic Knights EP and sticking with the "Sixpack" theme, Jake & Jamin Orrall shotgunned a few beers on camera @ Maxwell's (Hoboken, NJ) the other night. Hypnotic Nights LP is now available in a number of pre-order packages over @ JEFF The Brotherhood 's site. METALLICA!

In the midst of The Roots' latest concept-heavy 13th album (undun) , I nearly forgot about The Black Keys' most recent release; El Camino was issued on the same day as undun and now that "the smoke has cleared," I've gotten an opportunity to fully digest The Keys' latest Blues -drenched offering. By now, it's pretty widely known that Dan Auerbach & Patrick Carney are a couple of pranksters... and they've chosen to align themselves with a cast of equally "zany" characters: Frank The Dinosaur , Mos Def , Danger Mouse , The Black Eyed Peas, Derrick T. Tuggle , pint-sized fighting children, ATL Twins , Dame Dash , and Tennis (Colorado). So, many long-time fans were quite surprised after initially viewing Akron, OH's finest BRAND NEW music video, "Gold on the Ceiling." Said Reid Long -directed video features a continuous stream of grainy, behind-the-scenes footage filmed while on tour. It's very reminiscent of Class...

All jokes aside, The Black Keys record and release albums @ a[n unfathomable] Led Zeppelin -esque pace. Preparing to unleash their 7th album to Zeppelin's record 9, El Camino will see a Dec. 6th, 2011 release. The Black Keys recently re-emerged with a pseudo-used car spot in toe, advertising a 1994 wood-paneled van El Camino in Ohio's own Akron Beacon Journal ; Soon thereafter, full album details were imminently revealed... well, somewhat. First we got a cheese-tastic car dealer infomercial, then pre-order package(s) with tracklist, and now a proper taste of the lead single - "Lonely Boy." Backed with "Run Right Back," the 2 album cuts will be released as part of Record Store Day 's Black Friday 12" series (Nov. 25th). During the 2010-11 El Camino recording sessions, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were said to be heavily influenced by pioneering Punk Rockers like The Clash and The Cramps .