REVIEWS

Lou Barlow Brace The Wave (Joyful Noise) I can’t deny it (nor would I want to): I am a Lou Barlow fan. To date, there hasn’t been a musical project of which he was a part that I haven’t loved; Sebadoh, Sentridoh, Dinosaur Jr., Folk Implosion and the stuff he’s just recorded under his own name have all found a home in my record collection. Granted, there was that one EP that Folk Implosion did with Deluxx which I found...

Neil Young and Bluenote Cafe Bluenote Cafe 2CD (Reprise/Warner) Many things could be said for and about Neil Young but, without a doubt, that he was never brash enough to follow a questionable artistic lede through to its conclusion is not one of them. One of the best examples of that can be found in the guitarist’s straight-up blues/R&B period; in the late Eighties (read: long after The Blues Brothers might have made the sound popular enough to turn Bluenote...

New article from our Finnish Correspondent, Suvi Jyrinki This time I´d like to go a little step further representing bands from my country and chose one from probably the craziest part of Finnish metal. I discovered Kotiteollisuus for the very first time, when I was 17 and going to a vocational school, that was called many different names and one of those names was accidentally ’Kotiteollisuuskoulu’. Could there be any more creative or simply better recommendations for anything in this...

The Flaming Lips Heady Nuggs 1994-1997 – 20 Years After Clouds Taste Metallic (Warner Brothers Records) As most fans know, The Flaming Lips had already gone through a few semi-seamless transitions by the time they were ready to begin making Clouds Taste Metallic. By then, they’d already been DIY Okie punks and goth-y pseudo rockers, and had even managed to sort of put together an arresting estimation of their first genuinely golden sound (see Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, released...

Live at the Fillmore San Francisco, CA Friday, January 14, 2016 Review by Ted Silverman On Friday night, January 14, I headed over to the Fillmore from my house in the hills of San Francisco in order to attend the 50th Anniversary of Bill Graham Presents and the 85th Birthday Celebration of Bill Graham. It was a rainy night but plenty of tickets were available at the box office. I got in the hall around 8pm and missed the always...

Album Review – Brian Eno – Discreet Music; two new interpretations In February of last year, writer Liam Carrol wrote the best explanation and interpretation of Brian Eno’s Discreet Music album that I’ve ever read. Rather than try to rehash his words, please read his article, ‘Fullness of Wind: 40 Years of Brian Eno’s ‘Discreet Music’ yourself. This is important background information to understand if you want to fully appreciate the incredible beauty of this album by Eno. I want...

Release date: November 13, 2015 Artist: Swallow the Sun Label: Century Records Hi, My name is Suvi and this is my first music review for Ground Control Magazine. I chose Songs from the North I, II and III by Swallow the Sun to talk about. They come from Finland, as I do myself, and they´re practically the only doom metal band I listen to at the moment. For ten years (already!?) I have been enjoying their music and many times when...

It has been said so often now that most fans (even the newest, least tested ones) can take this as a fact: David Bowie always rocks hardest and best when he’s making a grand artistic statement. The years have proven that as factual but, as Station To Station, Tin Machine, Earthling and, now, Blackstar illustrate, the singer goes that ever-so-important extra step and ascends to a whole other creative echelon when even his biggest supporters are left pretty sure that...

Divers is the fourth studio album by U.S. singer-lyricist Joanna Newsom, released on October 23, 2015 via Drag City. Release date: October 23, 2015 Artist: Joanna Newsom Label: Drag City Genre: Baroque pop, Avant-garde music Producers: Joanna Newsom, Noah Georgeson   This album was released a couple of months ago – Joanna’s first new album in five years. I never started listening to her until about two years ago. I discovered her when a very good friend of mine said...

Restorations LP3 (Side One Dummy) If The Constantines taught us anything in their decade-long run as the pre-eminent Canadian ambassadors to rock n’ roll before the Arts & Crafts artist roster showed the rest of the world that there was some great music being made in the great white North, they showed us that the secret to a great rock song isn’t always a mind-blowing riff – sometimes it has everything to do with sonic texture and a good vibe....