Attention shoppers: time for holiday shopping is running short – have you finished yet?You know you can hear that announcement running through your mind as you read this, but that's okay, shopper. You're not the only one running frantically around the malls, big box stores, mom and pop shops, boutiques which claim to be haut mode but are really aesthetically questionable or even “antique galleries” (which are really just cleaned up barns, but no one wants to say that) shopper,...
Over the years, lots of jokes have been made at Ozzy Osbourne's expense, but it's sort of understandable because so many things the singer has done are unbelievable. This is a man who has gone no fewer than forty–two rounds with professional rock n' roll – often bare–knuckled – and while he's been knocked down and has the scars to prove it, he just keeps getting up; nothing – not booze, not drugs, not excess, not success, not shifting of...
Okay, so, with installment One of Ground Control's gift guide coverage on the books, readers may have picked up a few ideas. We tried to get a bit in for everyone, but of course there are going to be a couple of people still wandering the malls and the internets trying to find some music which fits that special somebody just right. With that knowledge in hand, we bring you Part Two; a few more sparks to start a fire...
Before Brooklyn was to the early Millennium what Seattle was to the Nineties, before the machine pumped out tonnes of boring synth-pop bands and before the broad concept of “hipsterism” was a going concern, there was a small group of bands doing great things and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah were among them (as were LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and TV on the Radio). Clap You Hands Say Yeah's songwriting style – a mixture of synth hooks and both acoustic...
Now with their Bastards Of Reality tour as Bat Sabbath beginning to wind to a close, the Cancer Bats are finally ready to announce the first details for the follow-up to 2010's Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones LP: their fourth album will be called Dead Set On Living, and will be released in April, 2012. Check out the teaser trailer for the album here: www.teamdistort.com/dsol/Ground Control will report more details as they become available.Further Reading:Ground Control – "Bat Sabbath Takes...
The more unlikely an event is, the more fantastic it is when it comes to pass. One such moment came yesterday, when The Beach Boys announced that they will reunite for a global Fiftieth Anniversary celebration in 2012. The Beach Boys – Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks – will come together for a new studio album and commemorative catalog releases with Capitol/EMI and a fifty-date international tour to begin in April with a headlining...
It’s been quite a while since The National played a reasonably intimate venue in Chicago. The past few years have included multiple summer stops at Lollapalooza, Pitchfork Festival and even an opening spot for R.E.M. at the United Center. All of those settings don’t really provide the atmosphere most fans truly desire, but, of course, beggars can’t be choosers. It was a pleasant surprise to see a headlining tour pop up with a stop in Chicago at one of the more...
Izza mos' wondaful time o' da year Junky!How're ya keepin' ova dere, ya reprobates? Thing're goin' great 'ere, 'at's fo' sure. Nothin's slowed down'is week – in spite o' da fac'dat the man wit' da red suit's onn'is way pretty soon – ann'I gotta'notha great big bag a SWAG fo' ya. Dis week, I nabbed a new tune called "Tennessee" by dis band called High Dive annit's friggin' awesome! It sounds a little like what used ta get called...
Cage The Elephant may have been the band who struck gold saying that there ain't no rest for the wicked but, in the two years since releasing their third album, Billy Talent has proven it to be true, having set an iron man's tour itinerary which has seen them perform in virtually every quadrant of four continents. They've embarked on incredibly successful tours and played some of the largest, most venerable festivals in the world (including Leeds, Reading, Festival D'Ete,...
What’s a god to a non-believer? It’s really about, “Why is there hype if there is no music that we haven't come to expect,” but maybe I’m coming at this wrong. Watch the Throne by Kanye "Ye" West and Jay-Z had the greatest hype build-up of all time, with iTunes seeing some of the greatest sales in history in the first week of release. Mind you, this is the same album that put out limited edition physical editions which included...