Pearl JamLive on Two LegsRecord Store Day Exclusive Everything critical that can be said about Pearl Jam has already been said. What’s left now are just end stories and personal experiences. The validity of “grunge” as a music genre can be debated (and it should...

MF DoomOperation: Doomsdayphoto: turntablelab.com Pity the state of mainstream hip hop. Seriously, pity it. I’ve completely tuned out and shun it. It’s one of those weird situations where I don’t listen to it, but I just know it sucks. I was in an Uber the other...

What a year it’s been for live shows and what a time to be alive. Many of us took up hobbies during COVID and mine was trying to fill some gaps in my musical knowledge. Boy, did Superchunk fill that gap. Very seldom does a perfect band come along: one with a rich...

Jon Spencer & The HITmakers Spencer Gets It Lit (In The Red Records) As he has been famous for doing since he first founded the Blues Explosion in 1991, Jon Spencer has succeeded in confounding his fans by including a couple of songs which didn’t appear on...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Drag Me LP by S-E-R-V-I-C-E. While fans already had a pretty good idea where Jon Spencer would end up following the dissolution of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in 2016 (other than making appearances in the multitude of...

Mastodon Hushed and Grim photo: thegroovemanscollection There’s a reason why Mastodon is currently one of the biggest metal bands that still matters. They don’t pack in stadiums, I know, but they’re not playing tiny venues either. They’re big enough to play all...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Spencer Gets It Lit LP by Jon Spencer & the HITmakers. After breaking and then building upon the first new and surprisingly fertile ground that the guitarist had touched in years with Spencer Sings The Hits! in 2018,...

WHO: Abbie Barrett WHAT: I Will Let You Know WHY: We try to promote the local bands here on Ground Control, because let’s be honest, we’re a website of the people. No, but seriously, Abbie Barrett is someone we’re going to be watching more closely because with I...

Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Recordsby Jim Ruland I’m going to start calling Jim Ruland “Jim Rules-and” or “Jim Rules Land.” By the time I came to punk rock  in the late 90s (and it really is a calling), SST was already going...

Steve GunnOther You Few albums in the past few years have made the impact on me that Other You has. Part of it has to do with the fact that I just wasn’t expecting it. It’s not exactly a smash hit album, so my expectations weren’t set (i.e. I hadn’t been jaded...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Animal 12” EP by Suzi Moon. Important point: there are three songs on Suzi Moon’s Animal 12” EP. All three songs appear on both sides of said single so, where most vinyl releases are characterized by the...

It’s safe to say that the Sleaford Mods are in a category all of their own, and this makes them hard to describe. I know descriptions don’t matter but with this band, it’s kind of fun. Sleaford Mods are a rap group (I think) made up of two British guys whose...