As a child, I hated surprises. It was pure torture to know that you don’t know what you thought you knew and as a child know-it-all, this frustrated me. But this past Friday, Say Anything surprised me and all their fans. How? Surprise album! Unexpectedly, the band released their 7th studio album “I Don’t Think It Is” on Equal Vision Records. Their audience of grown-up punks woke up to find another consistently good album released by their favorite band of the...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl reissue of  …With His Hot Blue Guitar! by Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash with His Hot Blue Guitar! is a tough album to discuss in 2016 because, honestly, what can we say about Johnny Cash and his music which hasn’t been said countless times already? The man had an incredible impact on world culture and his music is such a big part of American culture that it’s simply embedded in its...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl reissue of Streets of San Francisco by the Swingin’ Utters. Continuing our coverage, we come to Streets of San Francisco, probably the most important release in the Swingin’ Utters catalogue. I’m going to start off by making it clear that I absolutely adore this album, that it’s one of the greatest street punk records ever released, that it’s a perfect example of a band putting all their ducks in a...

Amanda Palmer has teamed up with Jherek Bischoff on Strung Out in Heaven, a David Bowie covers EP. The EP features contributions from Anna Calvi (who sang and played guitar on “Blackstar”), writer/director John Cameron Mitchell (who sang on “Heroes”), and Palmer’s husband, the author Neil Gaiman. Below, stream the full EP, and find more information about the project, including artwork and a statement from Palmer. Stream and purchase the entire EP at Bandcamp for $1 Here’s what Palmer had...

Saturday at SFJAZZ: Malian balafon mastery, music from Afghanistan, & Irish vocal melody. Posted by Kronos Quartet on Friday, February 5, 2016 Kronos Festival 2016: Explorer Series February 4, 5, 6, & 7, 2016 Thurs & Fri at 7:30pm Sat at 2pm, 3:30pm, 5pm, and 7:30pm Sun at 11am Thursday, February 4, 2016 | 7:30 PM Opening Night! Friday, February 5, 2016 | 7:30 PM Only Sound Remains Saturday, February 6, 2016 | 2:00 PM Ritva Koistinen, Fodé Lassana Diabaté Saturday,...

Filmmaker and composer John Carpenter has announced the first U.S. date of his world tour. The famed auteur, whose directorial credits include Halloween, The Thing, and Escape From New York, revealed Wednesday on Twitter that he and his band will be performing his classic film themes as well as new work at the Playstation Theatre in New York City, July 8. Tickets for the show go on sale this Saturday at 12pm EST. This announcement follows the news that Carpenter’s new...

Metallica’s concert at AT&T Park on Saturday, Feb. 6 will be live streamed, a representative for the band announced on Wednesday. The sold-out show is part of CBS Radio’s annual “The Night Before” series of Super Bowl concerts, which in the past has featured artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley. Tickets for this year’s set were snatched up in under 10 minutes. The concert, which also features opening act Cage the Elephant, will...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl version of Searching For Zero by Cancer Bats. Leave it to Cancer Bats to challenge metal convention by scaling back the production values which are normally strapped to metal albums (“bombastic” is an understatement) and just let the raw aggression and technical talent which is present in every damned microtone of each song be the things which make the album’s stylistic ambition undeniable instead. That’s precisely what the group has...

Hello Readers of Ground Control Magazine, I would like to introduce myself as Amanda Faculty, a new columnist for Ground Control. I am a San Francisco chick born and raised in the hype of Kurt and Courtney. My dad raised me on Oingo Boingo and camping trips, Led Zeppelin and late nights. Decades later, I go to many alternative rock shows including the genres of shoe gaze, punk, and surf rock. Of course, my folk heart attends Hardly Strictly Bluegrass every year....

The Raveonettes just released their first track of 2016 “The World Is Empty (Without You)”. The new track is the first in a series of releases from the Danish duo’s RAVE-SOUND-OF-THE-MONTH playlist, a 12 month playlist which will feature a freshly recorded track released every month this year. The Raveonettes have always strived to do things their own way both creatively and stylistically. 2016 is no different, and Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo have released a brand new track...