Ground Control's coverage of the Paid Dues Festival is in three parts. This is Part III. Click here to jump back to Part I or Part II. Back in the VIP area, the DJ spun stacks of records for the tired few who ponied up $100 bucks for the privelege, enough for eleven-hours of non stop music without falling back on some massive hard drive. A marathon achievement in itself (not to mention the sheer weight of 11 hours worth...
To put it mildly, most members of the underground music scene do not wear mainstream acceptance well. Maybe it’s simply a matter of too many eyes and ears on a musician at once that makes underground and independent musicians uneasy; under the big, bright lights, musicians that occupy what they consider to be small niches that shouldn’t, theoretically, get much attention and wither and dry up. Those that worry about that prospect should take heart however, because Kimya Dawson has...
For those that wouldn't necessarily search out the music of a man with a monocle, Daedelus is releasing a free mp3 of "Hrs:Mins:Secs" from his forthcoming Ninja Tune release Love To Make Music To, out this June. Having recently released Live at Low End Theory, from his live set in Los Angeles in July '07, Daedelus has returned to the studio for his first album of new material since 2006's Denies the Day's Demise. Fans who download the mp3 directly...
It has been four years since Alun Piggins released his sophomore album, Awaken The Snakes, but it isn’t as if the singer/songwriter has been inactive or suffered from a block that kept him from producing a follow-up. Rather, in the space between Awaken The Snakes and the tellingly entitled At War With The Elephants, Piggins has gone around the world a couple of times with former Rheostatics frontman Dave Bidini (the latest excursion is chronicled hilariously in Bidini’s book Around...
Boston’s very own experimental metal band 5ive announced a free download from their latest Tortuga Recordings release, Hesperus. The 40-second intro of “Gulls” sounds like it could belong on Frankfurt’s Mille Plateaux label—which might explain the association with Kid 606—but then a quick snare fill let’s you know real fucking fast that this is some dope-ass, drugged-out metal. Hesperus marks' the band's—consisting of Ben Carr (guitars) and Charlie Harrold (Drums)—third release...
Of the litany of instruments a rock band uses, the organ just doesn’t come to mind as a tool that would cause audience members to nod their heads in approval. Somehow, something like the triangle or the cowbell resembles that rebellious symbol so akin to rock much more appropriately. Then again, guys who like to skate around on ice and beat each other up have been listening to the organ for decades. This is where The Apes come in with...
Ground Control's coverage of the Paid Dues Festival is in three parts. This is Part II. Click here to jump back to Part I or here to read Part III . I wasn't prepared for Hieroglyphics. I'd seen the logo on t-shirts and stickers, I bought Handsome Boy Modeling School, which led me to Deltron 3030, but I didn't connect Del or the three-eyed face to Hiero. So I wasn't ready to get knocked on my ass by the Oakland...
Imaad Wasif is big believer in rock and the epic force of the mid-paced riff. He's also been seen about as the touring guitarist in Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But his style and approach have very little to do with YYY's artful yelp-rock. This record, Strange Hexes, had kept inadvertently coming up for me in the shuffle zone and I was keeping an eye on it in that way that you keep an eye on a guy who swears a lot...
Mezzanine section, row 0, seat 212. Located at the very top of the Wiltern; I could almost touch the venue’s ceiling. That increased elevation only accentuated the rush given off by the night’s performers: Austin’s Explosions in the Sky. By the end of the night, lift off was in order. And in this case, a thunderous standing ovation that was equal to the big sound the quartet does on a regular basis. So loud in fact that it drowned out...
After two and a half minutes of anticipation and grand orchestration on an almost non-track fittingly titled “Opening Credits,” Ghostland Observatory’s new disc transitions to the monotonous strains of “Heavy Heart.” With vocals that sound like they’ve been hijacked from Jack White and a re-mixed sound of a telephone busy signal, the track is menacing, but settles into a danceable mix. The first half of Robotique Majestique borrows from GO’s 2006 effort Paparazzi Lightning, with new smooth groove...