A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Live and Loud!! LP by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards. In this digital age of perfectly pressed, equalized and mastered music, something truly seems to have been lost – particularly from live albums. These days, live albums just seem too contained; because those making the recordings often know exactly how to make and produce one, a lot of the of-its-moment energy which comes together at a concert gets forgotten and, because...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2LP reissue of He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. It’s funny but, looking back at it now, it’s unbelievable how quickly everything came together for DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Before April 1987, no one (well, no one outside of Philadelphia) had any idea who the duo was but, suddenly, Rock The House dropped, as did the smash single “Girls Ain’t...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Endless LP by The Struggle. At this point in music history, surf rock’s impact on punk has really been downplayed with more attention put toward the more obvious, poppy turns that the music has taken – especially of late. That’s the first thing The Struggle fixes on their new album, Endless; from front to back, The Struggle mixes melodic hardcore similar to that of the Dropkick Murphys’ earliest recordings with the...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “SEED” LP by Looming. It’s only upon starting to listen to “Seed” that one realizes a female singer fronting an emo band is such a rarity. Why is that? In many ways, it could be argued that the music is tailor-made for a female sensibility (women are in better touch with their emotions and can definitely articulate them better – comparatively, men are more than a little inept). Regardless, the whys...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Black Friday-released Run, Stop & Drop (The Needle) EP by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. It’s not common for a jazz album which was made in a recording studio to really reach out and grab a listener’s attention. Let’s be honest here; jazz was originally music which was born onstage and developed there with the help of gifted players who spent hours crafting it, grooming it, refining it and making it...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Black Friday-issued “Keep It Thoro” 12” single by Mobb Deep’s Prodigy. It’s kind of incredible to think about just how much the “Single” has changed as a format over the years. When singles first gained popularity, their construct was simple; a hit song was collected from a long-playing record, then paired with a song of complimentary length and then pressed one-per-side onto a seven-inch record. Simple, right? As both taste and...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Pocket FishRmen’s The Greatest Story Ever Told LP/CD set. In the grand tradition of bands including The Big Boys, Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid and Daddy Longhead, Austin’s Pocket FishRmen were an archetype Texas punk band in that their artistic vision was a little skewed. They always seemed a little frazzled and they always – always – did things their own way. Even this compilation release is a testament to that “their own...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2LP edition of Ring Spiel ’95 by Mike Watt. As many Ground Control readers are already aware, we have a particular affinity for vinyl records. The sound of them is (obviously) a very big part of that, but the medium’s ability to draw out different aspects of the music contained on it can change the listening experience too; because vinyl has a few more limitations than other media on which music...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Best Of The Best” b/w “45” seven inch single by Roadside Bombs. It’s pretty uncommon for a punk band to publicly praise a music journalist (not that it never happens, just that it doesn’t happen regularly) so when Roadside Bombs doesn’t just praise a critic, they put his face on the A-side of a single and publicly promote him as being “The Best of The Best,” it begs attention.The critic in...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Tales From The Megaplex LP by Count Vaseline. It might seem difficult to understand for those who have never heard his music before, but Stefan “Count Vaseline” Murphy is the definition of “timeless, ageless hipster cool” and he proves it on his third album, Tales From The Megaplex. Throughout the album’s eight cuts (seven originals and one Ween cover), Murphy deadpans and comically monotones his way along against a backdrop of...