The Witzard

"GOING INTO THE SPACE... I GIVE SO MUCH OF MY HEART... OPENING MYSELF UP TO THE WORLD... AS MY SOUL BECOMES PUBLIC DOMAIN, [WHICH IS] A BEAUTIFUL THING... BUT WITH THAT ALSO COMES [YOU KNOW] HATRED [AND SH*T]... I'VE HAD TO GROW THIS CALLUS [AROUND MYSELF] TO PROTECT MY HEART," vocalist, producer, DJ, and yoga teacher Sumach "Gonjasufi" Valentine warbled within a crackly, baren Warp Records message dubbed Callus (Introduction) , which additionally included a fragment of his as-yet-unreleased song, "Surfinfinity." For those who may be largely unfamiliar, Sumach 's biggest claim to fame would likely be working alongside Jay Z and producer Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshu on his genre-eschewing Magna Carta... Holy Grail (which samples "Nikels and Dimes" ) and was once described by Pitchfork Senior Editor Ryan Dombal as "a scraggly, scary, smoked-out croak that creeps like the spiritual offspring of George Clinton and Leadbe...

For argument's sake, I guess I've always been an Usher fan... or @ least an admirer of Mr. Raymond's sheer talent and work ethic. I can vaguely remember nervously asking a few P.Y.T.'s to dance to "U Got It Bad" (2001) @ those painfully cheese-tastic 7-8th grade dances. Paraphrasing Pitchfork staff writer Ryan Dombal , it was an oddly-matched collaboration that no one expected, let alone asked for. But somehow still managed to greatly surpass everyone's non-existent expectations: Friday night @ FADER Fort (SXSW) , Usher wandered on-stage with The Afghan Whigs mid-way through their "Climax" cover. Frontman Greg Dulli & Usher then launched into spirited, guitar-driver renditions of both artists' more well-known tracks, "Somethin' Hot" and scorching set-closer, "OMG." Former- Yeasayer member and solo artist Sinkane (Ahmed Gallab) came on stage to perform a super- Funky version of his own single, ...

I've been a hardcore music fan for about 10-15 years now; An admitted lover of all things Hip-Hop, Indie Rock , and Punk (Pop Culture). OutKast, Gorillaz , and LCD Soundsystem have been atop my list of favourite artists for some time and were quite arguably the 3 most eclectic musicians of the last decade! So, much to my delight it was pretty exciting to hear about Converse 's latest "3 Artists, 1 Song" installment: Damon Albarn , André 3000 , and James Murphy. "DoYaThing" premiered online earlier today, in conjunction with the release of 4 SPECIAL EDITION Jamie Hewlett -designed Gorillaz "Chucks." Pitchfork 's very own Ryan Dombal reports that while in the studio over 3 days back in September, the eclectic trio also recorded a Dirty 12-minute version of "DoYaThing" in addition to the [previously released] Radio Edit. Gorillaz are set to debut a companion music video and the long version online in the coming weeks. "DoYa...