When I had first learned that Sloan was playing the main stage at Barrie's Kempenfest this year, I was a little skeptical about the crowd that might show up. Were they going there for Sloan or for the cold beer on a hot Friday night of a long weekend? As Sloan took the stage and the crowd around me started to get into them, my skepticism was laid to rest. This song is dedicated to you because this song is...
Since helping to blow the doors off of North By Northeast music conference alongside OFF! and The Descendents with a landmark performance at Yonge-Dundas Square this year, Fucked Up has continued to burn a path across North America tirelessly in support of their newest album, David Comes To Life. When the band stopped at The Independent in San Francisco on July 25, 2011, Ground Control Magazine's head photographer Raymond Ahner was there to catch the mania and, truly, neither he...
Since helping to blow the doors off of North By Northeast music conference alongside OFF! and The Descendents with a landmark performance at Yonge-Dundas Square this year, Fucked Up has continued to burn a path across North America tirelessly in support of their newest album, David Comes To Life. When the band stopped at The Independent in San Francisco on July 25, 2011, Ground Control Magazine's head photographer Raymond Ahner was there to catch the mania and, truly, neither he...
Since helping to blow the doors off of North By Northeast music conference alongside OFF! and The Descendents with a landmark performance at Yonge-Dundas Square this year, Fucked Up has continued to burn a path across North America tirelessly in support of their newest album, David Comes To Life. When the band stopped at The Independent in San Francisco on July 25, 2011, Ground Control Magazine's head photographer Raymond Ahner was there to catch the mania and, truly, neither he...
Hey junky, How's yer arms, ya misanthropes? Itchin' yet? Well, I got some stuff right 'ere at'll cure what ails ya. This week, we be goin' hard inta some artists, cause ya know what? It's my column annat's what I say's gonna happen. I foun' some complete works ta put in yer works'is week. 'At's right, in addition ta the single songs I was able ta lift from da fi' points o' da interwebs, I also nabbed a coupla full...
Released in September 1991, Nirvana's sophomore album and major label debut elevated Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl from cult band to generational spokesmen who'd unwittingly assisted in creating a cultural shift. Rising to Number One the world over by year's end and ultimately selling over thirty million copies worldwide, Nevermind would come to be much more than one of the most successful and influential albums of all time; the album that returned unaffected rock n roll integrity and passion to...
The album has only been out for a few months now, but a mythos has already begun to develop around The Black Lips' Arabia Mountain. While bassist Jared Swilley already told Ground Control that some pretty wild shit went down in the recording studio, tales and rumors of producer Mark Ronson almost dying from eating liver sashimi, using a real human skull as a reverb mic, Sean Lennon and Q-Tip secretly played on the album and more have begun to...
As recently reported by NME , The Guardian , AOL Spinner , NY Press , and a host of other news agencies, Heineken was forced to remove an advert which features a cover of the Dead Kennedys' 'Too Drunk To Fuck' because of complaints it would encourage binge drinking. Heineken had used the song in a commercial tie-in to promote its beer in banner advertisements broadcast via the popular music website Spotify. Spotify had been running a series of banner advertisements, which...
I often overhear conversations, and see Facebook postings that mention how terrible modern music is, especially in comparison to the glory days of the early Nineties alt-rock explosion. While I do have fond memories of the last decade of the twentieth century and its music, I strongly disagree with this perspective. Thankfully, I have managed to refrain from angry wall postings or public outbursts about the inherent laziness of this perspective and would instead like to offer a gift to...
As complicated as the rhetoric has seemed to become since the dawn of the millennium, there are really only two kinds of punk band: those who make punk rock reliant upon sound and form, and those who are punk in ideal. The most visible camp has traditionally been the “sound and form” set – they wear the uniform, are the most outspoken and have the biggest personalities – but the ones who tend to have a little more endurance (read:...