REVIEWS

The Misfits Friday The 13th EP (Misfits Records/Sony Music) While there’s no small part of this critic that wants to hang this band which calls itself The Misfits and dismiss them as heretics (I’ve done it continually for years), the truth is that I just can’t do it now. The truth is, the four songs which comprise the Friday the 13th EP are the best that the band has done in years; they’re dark but urgent and walk that ever-so-treacherous...

Bipolar Explorer Electric Hymnal (Slugg Records) I knew what I was getting into when I said that I’d like to receive a free copy of this latest release by New York City’s BIPOLAR EXPLORER, I didn’t know how deeply into it I’d be going. My last contact with the band’s leader, Michael Serafin-Wells was last December and he mentioned that they had been working on some new pieces that were inspired by the time he’d been spending in a West...

The Low Anthem Eyeland (Washington Square/Razor+Tie/Concord) To say that the last ten years have been busy ones for The Low Anthem would only betray a gift for understatement in the one who said it. In that time, the band has bounced between no fewer than three record labels in addition to releasing a couple of albums on their own. They’ve been toasted as great additions to the “new folk” and “Americana” fads, only to abandon them as quickly as the...

Various Artists God Don’t Never Change (Alligator) It has been said before that the greatest measure of an artist can be found in the list of other individuals who assemble to pay him tribute. If we take that as the truth, it can also be taken as doubtless that Blind Willie Johnson is one of the most important musicians to ever pick up a guitar and play the blues; on God Don’t Never Change, a veritable who’s who collection of...

PUP The Dream Is Over (Side One Dummy/Universal) Over the last few years, critics have announced the death of rock n’ roll so often that it has become pretty difficult to truly wonder if they’re not right. It gets even harder to not think that maybe – just maybe – there’s no going back either; it is the twenty-first century, after all, and making music on a computer is easy – so why bother picking up a guitar? Are those...

The Claypool Lennon Delirium Monolith of Phobos (ATO/Cadence Music) Even right on the face of it, a project which features contributions from Les Claypool and Sean Lennon screams intrigue and instant sub-cultural credibility. Lennon has spent the duration of his career riding the fact that he is his father’s son as well as illustrating that his dad’s fine pop songwriting chops really are a genetic gift, while Claypool has spent toe duration of his career illustrating that generic lines –...

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...

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”...

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...