The Witzard

As many of you may have noticed, The Witzard was temporarily shut down for about two weeks until just this past Monday. It was a nice little break, as my beautiful wife and I traveled across Italy for our "second" honeymoon and as expected, it was phenomenal! We were with a tour group and made stops in Venice, Florence, Rome, Tuscany, Assisi, Murano, and finally, Naples for Pompeii. We saw some truly gorgeous sites and had some of the best Italian food and wine I've ever had in my life; quite honestly, I think I've, essentially, "ruined" Italian food for myself here in The States for the time being, at least! While in Italy, I took a much needed break from my 'round-the-clock writing schedule here at The Witzard... but I did get a chance to listen to a few then-newly released albums and EP's while in transit. One of those select releases being Alex Ludovico & Jason Griff's collaborative SCARF TISSUE EP . It's a quick 5-track lyrical as...

" Night Drive co-founders, Rodney Connell and Brandon Duhon met after a young woman they were both unknowingly dating was killed in a car crash. The tragic event bonded the two and shortly afterwards, they began a musical collaboration," reads a rather cryptic introduction to "Future Wave" duo Night Drive 's Facebook Bio . "This guy we met at a bar (who [said] he used to guitar tech for Jimmy Page ) dared us to cover "Whole Lotta Love." It just so happened that "Too Much Love " came on the house speakers in the background and we thought that was kind of interesting. It all just materialized from there," Rodney Connell detailed within a recent emailed statement. Night Drive further describe "Whole Lotta Love/Too Much Love" as a "dark Electro-Pop re-imagination," which they say is "what you might expect, if Jimmy Page and James Murphy had a child in a dystopian NYC , circa 2041." I wonder if...

"We’ve always had this really jammy, high-energy live show compared to some of our records. We all love to dance. We didn’t want to take away from the emotion or the core feeling of what our band is all about—which I don’t even think we could take out if we wanted, because it is who we are—but we wanted to bump the speed up and have a little bit more fun," Warpaint vocalist and guitarist Emily Kokal explained within a statement concerning their self-titled album follow-up, Heads Up . Since releasing critically-acclaimed Warpaint (2014), Jenny Lee Lindberg quietly released a 2015 solo album right on! , as jennylee ; Theresa Wayman issued material as BOSS on producer Mr. Dan 's Speedy Wunderground imprint; drummer Stella Mozgawa played on Kurt Vile 's 2015 efforts, b'lieve i'm goin down... and Spotify Sessions EP ; Kokal worked alongside NIN affiliate Saul Williams on his politically-charged "Burundi," as well as "Wishing Song" ...

Well, since Super Bowl XLVIII was more or less a televised blood-bath (43-8), Red Hot Chili Peppers/Bruno Mars' halftime team-up was expectedly cringe-worthy, and the million-dollar commercials were pretty sub-par, the real winner of the night was comedian Jon Daly aka RHCP2014 . Last week, Daly unleashed a legit-sounding new "Chili Peppers" track titled "Abracadarbafornia" upon the unsuspecting Internet . It's essentially a note-perfect re-hash of an old Comedy Bang Bang sketch written by Jon Daly and buddy Zach Galifianakis , centered around their fake Pepper Men fan club theme song, "Abracadarbafornia." Daly and multi-instrumentalist Cyrus Ghahremani (King Cyrus King) single-handedly duped one terribly unsuspecting Yahoo Music writer who preemptively lamented, "the song is classic Peppers , so much so, it almost sounds like a parody... with a slightly melancholy guitar riff before sinking into the prototypical Peppers groove....

"Tuxedo Funk EP," a mysterious 3-track quick-strike EP was quietly uploaded online about a week ago. It's been slowly picking up steam across The Blogosphere and I finally gave it a listen late Monday night, too. Blue-Eyed Soul crooner Mayer Hawthorne is quite obviously the man handling vocal duties over top of what's rumored to be smooth production work from either Jake-One, RAC , or Dâm-Funk . The unique blend of Soul-Funk , Doo-Wop, Hip-Hop , and EDM ends up sounding something like Bruno Mars meets Daft Punk [or just Chromeo ] ha. Supposedly cloaked in secrecy due to label-binding contracts, I'm sure Tuxedo 's true identities will be revealed eventually; But regardless, there's more Funk housed in these 3 tracks than on Red Hot Chili Pepper's failed 3-album opus, Stadium Arcadium (2006). "Do It" is hands down, my personal favourite track, after a few early listens. Tuxedo Funk 's opener is nearly 4:15 of blazin' Disco-...

Guess what? Eddie Vender 's got a "NEW" solo album out! No, not really; Just a cassette tape that's [been] unearthed from someone's Seattle basement of the Pearl Jam frontman doing originals and covers sometime in the late 80's, pre- Pearl Jam existence. Believed to have been recorded for a co-worker, this-13 track tape includes covers of the Kenny Rogers ballad, "Something Inside So Strong" and "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke . It's not the first time early recordings from Vedder have surfaced that included some of these tracks (I've personally heard around 50 versions of "Betterman" prior to this collection), but the sound quality for this tape beats out most on the market. How is it? Well, let's take into account the fact that at the time, Eddie Vedder and his previous band, Bad Radio , were doing live covers of the Red Hot Chili Peppers . Yes, Eddie Vedder covering the Chili Peppers , I'm talking a...

I just recently bought a second copy of The Wallflowers' Bringing Down The Horse (1996), which along with Jagged Little Pill & Crash , was one of the first CD's I ever bought with my own money as a kid. Now, we all remember those great mid-90's Alternative Rock hit singles like "One Headlight," "The Difference," and "6th Avenue Heartache" ... The Wallflowers' first single after a nearly 7-year hiatus, "Re-boot The Mission " is a really Dance-Funk -leaning Rock "N" Roll swinger of a track; Noticeably influenced by The Clash's unique brand of Reggae -fied Dance rhythms, it seems pretty fitting that "Re-boot" features the guitar/back-up vocal talents of Ska Punk pioneer, Mick Jones . The seasoned vet also lent his musical talents to another one of The Wallflowers' new tracks included within Glad All Over , which is out this upcoming Tuesday (October 9th). Black Dog Films director Sam J...