Elliott SmithXO(Bong Load 25th Anniversary)photo: turntablelab.com I thought I had closed the book on Elliott Smith in my life. He was thrust upon me by an ex girlfriend who was from Oregon. As you can imagine, you can’t be in high school in Oregon in the 90s and not be consumed by Elliott Smith’s music. And when you date someone like that, some of that stuff is going to rub off on you. I absorbed his last album From a...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Drowns’ Under Tension LP. While we could easily start this review of The Drowns’ debut album discussing the disparity between looks (the album cover – which is terrible) and content (the music on the album), let’s just start with this endorsement: no matter how much praise Under Tension receives, it deserves more. There are plenty of flaws in the packaging, but the music is absolutely peerless in its quality. From beginning...
Nas Illmatic (Get on Down Records) photo: @frangarg There’s this Key and Peele sketch called Bling Benzy and Da Struggle which perfectly personifies the state of mainstream rap music. In the sketch, the “old” and “new” sound of rap music are represented: the struggle of the old rap, delivered calmly but confidently over a jazz melody deals with social inequalities, the new rap delivered loudly with a screeching voice is about getting titties in your mouth. Neither is right or...
A deeper look at the grroves pressed into the hot pink, limited edition pressing of Father of All Motherfuckers by Green Day. After a span of sixteen years spent examining a series of high-concept creative endeavors (American Idiot started the trend in 2004 and catapulted Green Day onto an echelon of rock stardom that no one imagined possible for the band before, followed by another concept album in the form of 21 st Century Breakdown and a three-album vanity project,...
The Muffs No Holiday Right now I can’t think of a sadder story and a bigger regret in my life than the Muffs. That’s a lot for one sentence, I know, but thinking about this band is a lot for me. Musically, you’d be doing yourself a favor by checking them out. Start with Blonder and Blonder, both a nod to Bob Dylan (I think) and a perfect representation of their music. It’s punk rock, but not too offensive, but...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Territories’ “Short Seller” CD Record. On paper, my mind wobbled at the idea of this release. “This is a playable vinyl record made using a CD press,” proclaimed the press release which accompanied my review copy of Territories’ “Short Seller” CD Record. “CDs are dead. Long live vinyl.” While I was curious right away, I was also hesitant. History had taught me that any new music format – no matter how good...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Watch Your Back” 12” single by Charger. At this point, each member of Rancid’s musical personality has been established in both the annals of punk and pop music as well as in fans’ hearts (Lars Fredericksen is the “streetwise professor,” blasting out poppy street punk which is at home on punk playlists but has a flawless pop heart, Tim Armstrong is the ska side of the band, the band’s drummer has...
Run-DMCRun-DMC(Get On Down Records reissue)photo: turntablelab.com Whenever we get a chance we like to keep it local here on Ground Control. We do it with our bands and we do it with our labels. I’m Boston based and how Get on Down has escaped me for all these years, I’ll never know. The best part is that I found out about them through word of mouth from my local record store in Somerville called Index Records. Well, my record (no...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Green Fuzz” 10” single by Naked Giants. After releasing their debut album, Sluff, in 2018, even the softest, newest and least tested critics figured they had Naked Giants’ career path pegged and charted. They figured that a future full of odd, poppy, rocky and fairly danceable music was in the cards for this band, until such time as tastes shifted and then the group would just implode under the weight of...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Twin LP by Sound Of Ceres. It may sound odd (or even erroneous) to claim that an album as methodically-paced and dreamy in demeanor as Sound Of Ceres’ sophomore album is comes off as being both exciting and fascinating, but there’s honestly no other good way to characterize it. As a whole, listeners will find it easy to sink into and get lost within the lush and beautiful sounds which emanate...