So do you want bleak? As the new Smashing Pumpkins DVD opens, a crushing sense of inevitability and despair overtakes viewers as Billy Corgan recounts, “I’m obsessed with the concept that, just as I’m about to get out of Hell, I seem to find my way back in. There was that feeling about getting back into the band like I’m sort of re-singing on to the army for a set of experiences that I know I don’t want.” Bold and...

One of Ground Control's favorite obsessions (seriously, look at all the related articles at the bottom), The Sword, has announced the perfect present for all the nascent metal fans in your family: a limited edition box set featuring Age of Winters and Gods of the Earth. The one-two punch comes with a limited edition sticker and will be available on Amazon on November 25th, as well as all of their forthcoming tour dates with Metallica. Yeah, The Sword and Metallica...

Shiny Toy Guns could’ve gone a few different routes to better the world. They could’ve collected toys, as in Toys for Tots. Or they could’ve collected guns (no questions asked) to get those violent weapons off the streets. Or, better yet, they could’ve collected toy guns for tots. But, after a long deliberation between the band members, they decided on a free concert at the Hard Rock Café in Chicago to benefit Illinois Hunger Coalition. They did manage to weave...

Day/Track 1 – Pukkelpop IntroCan you say exciting? I know I’m crazy, but starting off a trip to the sound of 150,000 people says I’m about to go on a journey. I’m self-admitting myself to Pukkelpop. I hear this place has been around since I’ve been born, and legends have divulged their abilities here. Everyone should be a believer of Pukkelpop when people like the Ramones and The Killers have dropped in on this place. Insanity does only one thing,...

While the possibility of a full reunion has now been terminally limited by the untimely deaths of keyboardist Richard Wright and psychedelic casualty Syd Barrett, it’s a safe assumption that there are tremendously few fans that wouldn’t (literally) pay good money to see David Gilmour and Roger Waters reconvene Pink Floyd. After all, the Floyd haven’t toured in fourteen years and haven’t toured with Waters in twenty-three and given that both Gilmour and Waters are still playing select portions of...

When some bands get huge, it’s really fun and gratifying to watch because, while everyone that heard them before knew they were good, the chances of them breaking out and making a massive impression seemed so far removed that it’s actually a surprise when it happens and even more surprising when it doesn’t seem to phase the band or slow them down. Los Campesinos! is a great example of this; the Cardiff, Wales-based band came literally from nowhere with a...

I won’t lie, I’m a sucker for a super group. It’s like the first Olympic “dream team” or like when the Traveling Wilburys got all those old dudes together for a few hits. This time it’s Down, which has a list of ex-bands that range from Pantera to Corrosion of Conformity and Crowbar, and unlike the aforementioned super groups, they rocked the fucking house. As the House of Blues began to fill up, it was nice to see fans that...

If you’ve ever been to a karaoke bar (I have, don’t judge me) and flipped through one of the catalogs of music available to sing, you may have noticed some recurring themes – you can do country songs of ay vintage, all manner of pop from Fifties girl groups to Meatloaf to Suzanne Vega (beware “Uncle Tom’s Diner” by the way – it’s torturous), a galaxy of show tunes and even alt-rock if Cake, Ugly Kid Joe or Creed is...

So does the swindle continue? You know you’re asking. Thirty years after the release of the Sex Pistols’ one and only full-length album, the band – with all four of its original members – boarded the stage at Brixton Academy in front of a capacity crowd. Again? Maybe – what difference does it make? Ten years after the Filthy Lucre tour that featured the same set list (how could it not? The band only has about fifteen original songs plus...

For a genre that has always professed a higher-than-average intelligence quotient among its fan base, for whatever reason, documents (books, magazines and so on) and documentary films extolling the virtues and historical merit of punk rock always seem to pander to the lowest intellectual common denominator. The House Of The Rising Punk? What a lousy title; it’s trite, situationist at best, cheesy and requires no thought at all. If the film is going to talk about the venue that started...