Remember when you were a kid and first started really liking the idea of getting inventive, readers? It was a really cool time – we'd sit down with a pencil and paper and make some of the most outrageous ideas come to life on paper. It was an exercise in imagination; it really didn't matter if we never actually made any of those things we dreamt up (like a flying car or a turntable which read records with a beam...
There's no question that everyone – fans, critics, press, everyone – was surprised when the list of nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced. Of course, applause should deservedly go to such venerable names as Link Wray, Peter Gabriel (who was already inducted with Genesis in 2010, but now stands to receive induction for his solo work as well), Linda Ronstadt and The Zombies for their nominations, but the really exciting surprises lay a...
Welcome to our new book review column here on Ground Control called I Wanna be Literated! We are going to try and keep this column up with not-just-music-related and not-just-brand-new-books. Some will be topical, old, some new, some borrowed, and almost all of them blue. We are proud to start you off with a humdinger, and hope you keep coming back. After all, Punk’s Not Read. Sometimes the line between content and bonus feature gets blurred a bit. For having...
Playwright William Congreve may have been correct when he wrote that “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” but it was Tammy Wynette who proved that the voice and words of a woman scorned could come framed with gold and platinum trim when set to just the right rhythm. Wynette's signature anthem “Stand By Your Man” remains one of the most recognized and best-selling hit singles in Country music history and it sealed the singer's place as one of...
Even a cursory glance at the current crop of artists drawing the most interest in the roots, folk and Americana genres these days illustrates why it has become so difficult for new, untested artists to break through: for the first time in decades, the top artists aren't treating the music like a disposable escape from larger projects. Artists like The Lumineers, John Grant, Lydia Loveless and The High Bar Gang have all released fantastic albums over the last eighteen months...
With the recent, unfortunate passing of Levon Helm last year, interest in the musical history of the Band is at an all-time high. Although they have always been mainstays on classic rock radio, their timeless material is now being played even more than ever. As always seems to be the case when a notable musician dies, Helm’s legacy is being presented as much more important now than it did in the twilight of his musical career. I have no idea...
The beauty of bluegrass music – when it's played well and not with the intention of packing theaters or stadiums (that music usually gets dubbed 'Americana' these days) – is that it has the potential to be some of the most affecting and gloriously inspirational stuff in all creation. When it comes along for the right reasons, it voices and instrumental timbres in the music can capture a listener's heart as well as his mind and be spiritually moving. That...
For the last thirty-two years, Al Jourgensen and Ministry have been the premier purveyors of a fine form of subversive songwriting which has regularly pulled the rug out from under the genre they were working in at that moment. Be it electronic music or metal, the wit and subversive bent of the music has always been the tie which has bound the music and made it uniquely “Ministry.” Through all those years, there have been plenty of critics who just...
Ever get the impression that you're re-living a part of your life which you'd just as soon forget about? Most of those sorts of feelings revolve around pop music from the Eighties for me; granted, there was a fair bit of really great music recorded during the period of time when the “Me” Generation was ruling the cultural roost (most of it could be found in the underground – to my taste), but there was an inordinate amount of tripe...
Karl Marx once said that history is forever doomed to repeat itself – the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. I've written those words in CD reviews before (readers are welcome to draw their own conclusions on the irony of me citing the quote again) but it's particularly pertinent in Kodaline's case; on In A Perfect World, Kodaline seems intent on actively trying to hit a sort of existential 'reset' button again. The first time that...