Let's hear a cheer for being playfully malign! The Stranglers had been basically out of commission for the better part of a decade (sure – they could still pull a crowd, but they were losing creative steam quickly after issuing their Coup De Grace in 1998) or on the 'Memory Lane' circuit at most but now – with a dark but giddy spring in their step – The Stranglers are back on their game with their seventeenth full-length album, Giants....
Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say I'm relieved we got a new Bronx album this year. I first saw the Bronx about ten years ago in San Diego opening for Lagwagon. Lead singer Matt Caughtran proudly announced before they came out, "We saw it was going to rain earlier, so we didn't think the show was going to happen, so we all did a bunch of drugs." I was intrigued. The Bronx then proceeded to blow...
Hiya junky,So I dunno if you heard about dis, but I got excited about it feraminit. If you ain't noticed, ol' fi' dollar Billy got ridda a buncha the busted-ass links inna dead zone thit's called The Leak on Ground Control. The way he wis sayin' it, he wis gonna give me da whole section all ta myself an' turn it inta one great big, SWAGGY marketplace're somethin'. Yr. ever-lovin' Don Loder wis gonna make it beautiful, but it didn'turn...
How long has it been since Depeche Mode released an album that you happily told people was essential listening, dear reader? For me, it has been fifteen years; for me, the last truly inspired moment that Depeche Mode enjoyed was the moody, gothic assault of Ultra. On that album, Depeche Mode hadn't broken down quite yet; Dave Gahan's drug problems hadn't become creatively problematic yet, and Martin Gore hadn't succumbed to his penchant for letting his navel-gazing nature dictate his...
The hardest albums to review are the ones which are only “half good.” Trying to critically evaluate an album that goes completely in one direction or the other ('good' or 'bad') is always preferable because there's an economy in it; if it's possible to unilaterally paint an album one color, it's possible to be succinct. If a record has close to an equal number of 'good' and 'bad' tracks though, it's guaranteed to take longer to work through because the...
Happy Easter, ya egghead junky! How's da holiday treatin' youse? Things're great down onna street junky. I scored a buncha new tunes fer youse ta sample – now howzat fer some sweet Easter eggs? Awright, so le's get ta the SWAG. Ya know that reckid label ATO? Well, I scored a heavy samplin' o' wares from them fer youse junkie, annit sounds great! I got some Bronx (ann'ey ain't from Brooklyn – ya know what I'm sayin'?), some My Morning...
Even the most steadfast and true followers in Trent Reznor's fan base have to admit that Nine Inch Nails records were beginning to get formulaic and samey toward band's (first) end. The Slip and Ghost I-IV exemplify the fairly static turn that the music had taken; Reznor had cut himself loose from the major label machine hoping it would help to shake him out of the creative rut that even he knew he was in, but the results were perfectly...
Alabama Shakes – “I Ain't The Same” – https://groundcontrolmag.com/music/SWAG134Alabama_Shakes-I_Aint_The_Same.mp3 Allen Stone – “Contact High” – https://groundcontrolmag.com/music/SWAG134Allen_Stone-Contact_High.mp3 Bobby Long – “Devil Moon” – https://groundcontrolmag.com/music/SWAG134Bobby_Long-Devil_Moon.mp3 Caitlin Rose – “Only A Clown” – https://groundcontrolmag.com/music/SWAG134Caitlin_Rose-Only_A_Clown.mp3 City And Colour –...
What do Marquee Moon, Horses and The Doors all have in common? They are all first albums released by the artists who composed them. They're also all on my personal list of Top Ten Albums of All Time. Okay, it was a trick question. I didn’t really expect you to know the second part. But as I think over my favorite albums, I am struck by how many of them are first albums. In addition to those, we have Appetite...
It took a while to get everything (labels, band members, guest musicians, everything else one could possibly imagine) in line, but the Zero Hour is finally upon us; it was announced this morning that Queens Of The Stone Age's sixth full-length album will be released in June, 2013. The record will come out on Matador Records. It will be the band's first release for that label. It will be the band's first release of new material since Era Vulgaris came...