A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Record Store Day reissue of At Budokan – The Complete Concert 2LP by Cheap Trick. While the 1970s are known for lots of things which happened musically (like the break-up of The Beatles, the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, John Bonham and Elvis Presley, the birth of both punk and disco and many other events), perhaps one of the biggest deals was the concept of a live album...

A critical evaluation of Funny Girl by Nick Hornby. I owe a great deal to Nick Hornby, partly for writing one of the greatest movies ever (no, it’s not the new one), but mostly for getting me into reading books in the first place. This happened many years ago and even though I’ve had my favorites of his over the years, every book has managed to strike a chord within me. Whenever I thought I’d have a character or a...

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...

A critical evaluation of Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk by John Doe with Tom DeSavia and friends, published by Da Capo Press While the stories are (almost) never the same, it’s pretty surprising how consistently structured and formulaic most rock biosand scene expositions are; be it the story of one artist or the collected stories of many, the authors of such books often attempt to condense the finer points of “what happened” down into...

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”...

  NOFX Live: 04-28-16 Venue: Paradise in Boston, MA Review: Ollie Ottoman Photo: Scott Murry Whenever I think of NOFX live shows, I do that Italian gesture of kissing my fingers and go, “MUA!” Seriously, I have seen NOFX in small clubs and large outdoor venues (yes, the Warped Tour), and have never in my life had a bad experience. Is it because they’re such consummate musicians or because they are simply so goddamned entertaining live? Maybe it’s both. We...

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?...