Since the stream of original bluesmen that flowed out of the Mississippi Delta began drying up years ago, the ranks of remaining players making the music has been infiltrated by a number of well-meaning and earnest impostors who have kept the spirit of the genre going on life support. Sometimes the music can be good but, more often than not, it just honestly feels like a bunch of weak-ass replicas peddling a dog and pony show of “what the blues...

In the last century, the processes of making and capturing music for the purposes sharing the moment with others has been torn apart and rebuilt so often that, were someone from the dawn of record making transported to the present day, they wouldn't even know where to start. Even in the 1950s and '60s, the act of setting up a single microphone and capturing a band literally live off the floor was the norm; it has only been within the...

Ever see or hear a band and know exactly what they're about from the very first time you hear them but remain hypnotized because something about it seems off? It's one of those moments when you know something's not quite the same as everything you've ever heard before, and that's the captivating skew; that little different thing holds you glued to speakers, trying to figure it out. In recent memory, no band better exemplifies that scenario than Balance And Composure;...

If the last few years and the proliferation of solo and side projects that have appeared from major label artists have taught us anything, it's that the practice of a big-time band member striking out from his/her established project and releasing new music can be a dicey proposition. Much of the success or failure of a solo endeavor can be attributed to the personal sensibilities of that individual player; the results can be as strong as Wade MacNeil's Black Lungs,...

It's a rare occurrence that a brand new band appears on the scene and bearing all of the earmarks of direct lineage to the first wave of hardcore bands. Make no mistake, lots of bands try to pantomime the movements of groups like Black Flag, Minor Threat and Descendents, but few if any of them ever really come close to the raw adrenaline those bands were capable of provoking in listeners. 'Few if any' does not mean 'none' though. From...

Alright ya mugs, so it's been a while since anybody at Ground Control posted a bunch of free SWAG from the music business, hasn't it? Those filthy prospectors have obviously been asleep on the job because it's not like the biz took a year off! So I guess it's up to me. Being the fine, upstanding businessman I am, I thought I'd lay some fine materials on you for your listening pleasure. What you'll find below is some of the...

The problem so many rock bands suffer from has always been that, no matter what sort of music they want to make, they feel compelled to approach it with a sort of tunnel vision; they have to come into it in their own time, put their own stamp on it and make it their own. It's their way or no way. It's commonplace for a band to want to twist the idiom they're working in and put their own face...

Isn't it funny how trends are able to reoccur in pop music? In the 1980s, synth-pop ruled the airwaves as bands like Depeche Mode, Flock Of Seagulls, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Devo (among hundreds of others) made the most of their Casio-tones and produced primo plasticized pop. All of that was erased at the dawn of the Nineties as rock asserted control over the radio again but, as time has passed and the sour taste of synths has faded,...

There are moments – and listening to Matt Vanuti's Hangisphere is one of them – when one has to pay attention to what's going on because there's a central, cornerstone element that is very alien. There is an unusual sound that amounts to a puzzle that a listener will find himself paying very close attention to – if only to figure out what it is. In the case of Hangisphere, that sound is made by the PanArt Hang – a...

The gifts a band might possess can take many forms. For some, they have the impressive ability to simplify and micro-size their muse in such a way that tiny music – tiny structures, modest sentiments and small sounding instruments – can seem like the most important things in the world. When that happens, it's usually a surprise to listeners because it's just so small but seems to be key for the listener's continued existence. Other bands simply have a gift...