A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Songs! From The Bathroom Stall? EP by Houston and the Dirty Rats. More than the other things that Songs! From The Bathroom Stall? certainly represents for Houston and the Dirty Rats, the most important rule to keep in mind...

BeckHyperspace(photo: turntablelab.com) I owe a lot to Beck. Scratch that, I owe a ton to Beck. I owe him because he taught me what good music should sound like. Jon Spencer once said that good music should sound a little weird and he’s right. As a kid in high...

Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psycheby Ethan Watters Don’t let the cover fool you, Crazy Like Us id a lot more focused than the cover let’s on, with arrows exporting all the different disorders from the USA. Also, let’s note how a title like...

Mutations: The Many Strange Faces of Hardcore Punkby Sam McPheeters This, in the business, is what we call a “headscratcher.” On one hand, there is a ton to enjoy in Mutations, but I’m not sure what the goal of this book was or if it tries to accomplish anything....

WHO: Nice Guys WHAT: Self-titled WHY: I’ll gladly say that Nice Guys are the best band in Boston and fight anyone who wants to challenge that. Remember, this isn’t exactly the same band from 5 years ago. They used to stick to the EP format and sounded raw and...

Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don’t Have Toby David A. Sinclair I’ve come to appreciate the format of popular science books the more I read them. The good ones are written by pros in the field, who actually have a science degree and do research in an...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Fat Possum’s vinyl reissue of Wild Gift by X. As good as Los Angeles was and as important as that album would ultimately prove to be in the presentation of X, the band’s debut album will ultimately always play a...

WHO: The Bombpops WHAT: Death in Venice Beach WHY: There probably hasn’t been a band more ready to be the new NOFX. They’re on FAT, their albums sound like they should, and they’ve even stood in for NOFX in their videos. But while it’s easy to write off such a...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Fat Possum reissued pressing of the Los Angeles LP by X. It might not be the first thing that fans think of when they’re looking at punk rock and trying to decode how the genre has evolved, but the fact is that the...

Dual FormVarious ArtistsStones Throw & Leaving Records Every now and then we get thrown a curveball here at Ground Control and we’re better off for it. We listen to a lot of music, and when an album impresses us out of the blue, we pass the savings onto you, dear...

The Essential Chomsky (New Press Essential)by Noam Chomsky, Anthony Arnove (Editor) What can I possibly say about Noam Chomsky that hasn’t been already said or said better than I possibly could? And whatever can be said probably underrates him. We can try to...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Hawaii EP 12” reissue by Young Canadians. Punk bands have been called dangerous and have been accused of challenging every establishment with which they come into contact, but the truth is that such claims are often...