REVIEWS

PUP The Dream Is Over (Side One Dummy/Universal) Over the last few years, critics have announced the death of rock n’ roll so often that it has become pretty difficult to truly wonder if they’re not right. It gets even harder to not think that maybe – just maybe – there’s no going back either; it is the twenty-first century, after all, and making music on a computer is easy – so why bother picking up a guitar? Are those...

The Claypool Lennon Delirium Monolith of Phobos (ATO/Cadence Music) Even right on the face of it, a project which features contributions from Les Claypool and Sean Lennon screams intrigue and instant sub-cultural credibility. Lennon has spent the duration of his career riding the fact that he is his father’s son as well as illustrating that his dad’s fine pop songwriting chops really are a genetic gift, while Claypool has spent toe duration of his career illustrating that generic lines –...

Wayne Federman The Chronicles of Federman (A Special Thing Records) As a comedy fan, I’ve heard the name Wayne Federman thrown around for a while. I really had no idea that it was because the man is a bit of an institution in the alt-comedy world and has been doing comedy for almost three decades. With such a long career, it’s no wonder the man’s comedy is being collected in the form of a chronicle a.k.a. The Chronicles of Federman....

Brooks Wheelan Middle East – Cambridge, Massachusetts – May 7, 2016 Frequent readers of Ground Control (as you should be) know my love for Brooks Wheelan’s stand-up debut “This is Cool, Right?” We listen to a lot of records here on Ground Control and they just keep coming, but as of late, it’s becoming that stand-up albums are coming out faster than ever. On last year’s Best-of lists, I carved out a space for best Stand-Up album, and you can...

FEELS CD by Feels Castle Face Records Reviewed by G. Murray Thomas Feels play noisy guitar rock. Glorious noisy guitar rock, if you’re into that. And I am. However, buried beneath the fuzz and feedback are well crafted songs. From the slinky bass lines of “Slippin,” to the shifting tempos of “Today,” to rolling psychedelia of “Running’s Fun,” they demonstrate they can compose songs which are more than hard rocking chords. On “Tell Me,” their first single, and “Small Talk”...

Marc Maron WTF: The First 100 Episodes (A Special Thing) They say everything old is new again, and as far as our entertainment is concerned, that certainly seems to be the case. Sure, big budget productions are more plentiful than ever, but people are also “doing it for themselves” and using the older and easier forms of media to broadcast their programming. In that sense, radio has had a resurgence in the form of Podcasting. At the top of the...

Sharpling and Wurster The Best of The Best Show box set (Numero Group) You know what we’re going to do right now? We’re going to push a collection of sixteen CDs containing radio comedy bits on you. These CDs don’t even have MP3s, but play in real time. For the twenty-first century, this is a truly baffling format. So what exactly is wrong with us? Nothing, dammit. I’m doing this for your own good. The Best of the Best Show...

Dan Telfer Ocean of Panic (A Special Thing Records) Let’s make this quick so that I don’t waste your time. I’m going to thank Dan Telfer for making an important standup comedy record. It’s an important album because it nails down exactly what annoys me about some alternative standup comedy today: ridiculous paranoia, superficial fears, and obvious exaggerations because these stories are actually not that entertaining or in depth. Think that shouting words don’t necessarily make them a punchline?...

Rob Zombie The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser (T-Boy/UMe) At first glance, one might assume that everything is just business as usual for Rob Zombie on his sixth solo studio album. Its title, The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser, reads like a compilation of words pulled from the titles of his other albums and seems a little laughable and ridiculous, at first. Likewise, the same could be said of all twelve of the titles...

Michael Jackson Off The Wall CD/Blu-Rae (Epic/Legacy) It’s unlikely that anyone would ever attempt to downplay Michael Jackson’s importantce in pop music and pop culture history. In the era when pop and rock did battle for supremacy on radio and television airwaves, Michael Jackson – the youngest member of the Jackson 5 – elected to ignore the popular trends which dominated both and simply chart his own course using elements of both but sounding like niether. It worked beautifully too;...