Over the last few years, Willie Nelson seems to have gone out of his way to flex the muscles that about five decades as a celebrated songwriter and performer have earned him. In the last five years alone, Nelson has done an in-depth examination of Cindy Walker's music, done a series of sessions that ultimately bore the plainly reggae-inspired Countryman, actually covered some countrymen (including Dave Matthews, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan and Kris Kristopherson) on Moment Of Forever and cleaned...
Having attending concerts since 1979, and seeing my share of amazing shows, Motley Crue was by far one of the most incredible shows ever. Before the lights went down the last song over the P.A. was the Ramones "Sedated," which was fitting for the Dr. Feelgood-themed stage design. Followed by a set list of the entire Feelgood album in song order. This marked the 20th anniversary of the album's release. An interesting intro to the show involved an over-sized vintage...
The beauty of some musicians is that – while there is a very strong six degrees of separation between them and some taste-making establishments (names, sounds) – they don't attempt to bandwagon-jump or coattail-ride their personal endeavors on the strength of someone else's sound or some associated name. They simply elect to run their own race. Such is the case with Afie Jurvanen – aka Bahamas – and his new album, Pink Strat. Resisting the temptation to remodel his own...
Over the last couple of years (pretty much since Good News For People Who Love Bad News came out in 2004, but the rise really kicked into overdrive when We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank smashed listeners over the head and crashed the gates of mainstream radio in 2007), Modest Mouse has established itself as the big-time identified, hipster band of new rock (sort of like what the Talking Heads were to punk in the Seventies) and both...
Although it was now almost 4 pm, I still had three bands left on my list that I wanted to see, and as luck would have it, the set times were all spaced out just enough for me to enable me to see all of them. First I headed back over to the Hurley.com stage for Black Tide, a young metal band hailing from Miami, Florida. I had seen Black Tide on a few different occasions, and honestly couldn't decide...
Hometowns have a unique way of existing, being different things for different people, all in one zip code. For Paul Banwatt, Amy Cole and Nils Edenloff, home is a song. Or thirteen. The trio forms the Rural Alberta Advantage, and they are the creators of whimsical, achingly honest indie rock piped straight from the essence of their native Alberta on Hometowns. This album sings to all things Alberta; “Frank, AB” even nods to a devastating landslide in 1903. These kids...
Dear readers, I welcome you to our new column here on Ground Control called 777": The New, The Old, and the Out Of Print. The concept is simple: each month we'll review one old, one new, and one OOP record. Sound simple? We thought so, too. In addition to this, we wanted to take the reviews one step further by providing some eye candy and reviewing the package as well, so we'll try to include scans of all the records,...
Now that I had a chance to charge my batteries (both literally and figuratively) I was ready to pick up where I left off. Since I was over at the Old School stage yet again, I decided to stick around and catch the Adolescents, who had put on a great show opening for...
Technology has proven to be a double-edged sword as time wears on and it further encroaches upon the business practices of the music industry. For a band, improvements in recording technology have made it possible to keep costs down to an absolute minimum; record complete albums on an entry-level laptop and digitally distribute it via a web site that the band itself maintains. In some cases, record labels, with their overblown marketing budgets and convenient-for-the-label-only pricing/payment schemes can be removed...
Say what you will about the hipster crowd, but I’ve noticed that they aren’t lacking in the "hot girls on ecstasy" department. This contingent was out in full force and it was the bearded man, A-Trak, they came to see, which is funny considering he went unnoticed as he strolled through the crowd before his set (only to scamper away once I pointed to him for my photographer). Before the dirty hipsters got to see the man that, so often,...