Three Mile Island by Mark Stephens You can’t fly into Harrisburg Pennsylvania and not notice those giant smoking towers looming near the airport. It’s like you’re landing at the nuclear power plant in Springfield. In fact, they’re the cooling towers of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant where a nuclear catastrophe almost happened in the 1970s. Something happened – a radioactive spill? – but no one quite knows for sure. According to Wikipedia, something ALMOST happened, but again, it’s...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Apostasy LP by Garbageface X Yung Gutted. Anyone who is already familiar with Karol “Garbageface” Orzechowski’s output knows the emcee has a pretty dark and potentially violent disposition (2016’s NØ FUTUR(E) 7” illustrated that really well), but he’s really stepped up his game on Apostasy with the help of NYC producer Yung Gutted. This time the movement is exponentially slower; in print, readers may assume the music is more methodical in...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the We Are Busy Bodies released, 2LP reissue of Make A Pest A Pet by Age Of Electric. First, it’s important to point out that this new reissue of Make A Pest A Pet – the third and final album by Age Of Electric before the band went on its first hiatus – marks the first occasion whereupon the album has been released on vinyl. Before now, MAPAP was available on CD,...
Ty Segall Singles 2007-2010 Double LP What makes great music? Tough question, I know. So maybe it’s better to ask, “Why do we listen to music?” What does music have to offer? Well, that is going to vary from person to person, but I think most people can agree that good music does something to you. It changes your mood. It takes you from point A to point B. It has the power to liberate you. It empowers. In order...
The Body Builders: Inside the Science of the Engineered Human by Adam Piore One of the greatest things science can offer us is the ability to better ourselves: improve where possible, correct mistakes, fix what might be broken. That work is certainly going on right now and Adam Piore’s Body Builders presents itself as a look behind all the science that goes behind engineered humans. It’s right there in the title. The problem is that that isn’t really the case,...
Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain Welcome to our first cook book on Ground Control! One Of many, we hope… I think it can be said that Anthony Bourdain is the punk rock chef. Sure, he’s on a major network and doesn’t exactly publish through an independent publisher, but then again neither did the Clash. It’s Bourdain’s outlook and approach to his craft that makes him punker than most. The man does love the Stooges, after all… If you’re a...
311 Transistor What was 311 supposed to do with the explosion that occurred when they released their selftitled album in the 90s? You know, the one with Down and All Mixed Up? Those songs were massive, the ALBUM was massive, and it helped firmly establish 311 as a band everyone was paying attention to – both where they came from and where they were headed. With all the momentum, it seems 311 was poised to go to...
The MAXX: Maxximized, Volume 1-4 by Sam Kieth, William Messner-Loebs I have to give the Maxx and Sam Keith a lot of credit. Jon Spencer once said that good rock music has to at least be a little bit weird. Well the Maxx did the same for me and comics. I have no idea what first attracted me to the comics (maybe the crossover with Gen13 which was my gateway comic?), but once I started, I was hooked and...
Safari Honeymoon by Jesse Jacobs (Koyama Press) Well, now I am completely convinced that Jesse Jacobs is trying to fuck with us. Or maybe it’s Koyama Press for putting this book out. You know I can’t quit you, Koyama. But honestly, having read Jacobs’ previous work (By This You Shall Know Him), I should actually be thankful that this is Jesse Jacobs’ more grounded work of the two. Not that that’s a good thing. While the narrative of By This...
311 Selftitled Have you considered the reputation 311 gets nowadays? I’ll refer you to a running gag on the Eric Andre show where they substitute the names 311 and 911 when quoting conspiracies. These were followed by surf-rock-type flailing and hippy dancing. At the end of last season they actually had 311 on to torture while they performed Down. It’s all in good fun, however, as Andre has gone on record saying that he thinks 311 is an underrated band....