Ground Control's coverage of the Paid Dues Festival is in three parts. This is Part II. Click here to jump back to Part I or here to read Part III . I wasn't prepared for Hieroglyphics. I'd seen the logo on t-shirts and stickers, I bought Handsome Boy Modeling School, which led me to Deltron 3030, but I didn't connect Del or the three-eyed face to Hiero. So I wasn't ready to get knocked on my ass by the Oakland...
Imaad Wasif is big believer in rock and the epic force of the mid-paced riff. He's also been seen about as the touring guitarist in Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But his style and approach have very little to do with YYY's artful yelp-rock. This record, Strange Hexes, had kept inadvertently coming up for me in the shuffle zone and I was keeping an eye on it in that way that you keep an eye on a guy who swears a lot...
Mezzanine section, row 0, seat 212. Located at the very top of the Wiltern; I could almost touch the venue’s ceiling. That increased elevation only accentuated the rush given off by the night’s performers: Austin’s Explosions in the Sky. By the end of the night, lift off was in order. And in this case, a thunderous standing ovation that was equal to the big sound the quartet does on a regular basis. So loud in fact that it drowned out...
After two and a half minutes of anticipation and grand orchestration on an almost non-track fittingly titled “Opening Credits,” Ghostland Observatory’s new disc transitions to the monotonous strains of “Heavy Heart.” With vocals that sound like they’ve been hijacked from Jack White and a re-mixed sound of a telephone busy signal, the track is menacing, but settles into a danceable mix. The first half of Robotique Majestique borrows from GO’s 2006 effort Paparazzi Lightning, with new smooth groove...
Ground Control's coverage of the Paid Dues Festival is in three parts. This is Part I. Click here to read Part II and Part III. You almost didn't read this. Maybe because it was a hip-hop show, or maybe because it was San Bernardino, but either way, security confiscated my pencils and pen as I walked through the gates for the Paid Dues festival. The pen was snatched from my bag immediately, but the pencils presented problems. “Is a pencil...
The singer/songwriter perhaps best known for her work with the Moldy Peaches, and now for her magnificent contribution to the Academy Award winning Juno, will be embarking on a massive 30 date US tour. Mixing humor and sorrow with wordsmith agility, Kimya has gained national recognition with her last few albums, particularly her most recent, Remember that I Love You. Be it her clever and intelligent lyrics, or perhaps just their time and place within the incredible Juno, Kimya is finally getting well-deserved...
There’s a common misperception among many groups of music enthusiasts that those making the stuff that the rest of us listen to are somehow different. They’re artists. They’re special. At some point in the last forty years, pop music groups—no matter what subgenre of music they play, be it punk, metal, Top-40 pop, ska or the dozens of others—lost sight of the fact that like, Chuck D. once said, “While making music professionally is a fun job, it’s still a...
Before I knew any better, I asked Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner) a rather innocuous question after one of his band’s harrowing 2006 sets showcasing the Tom Waits/Frank Zappa/Gogol Bordello Molotov cocktail that is Six Demon Bag. “Where are you guys from?” I asked with a toothy grin on my face after just witnessing Sergei Sogay (Chris Sharr), Pow Pow (Christopher Powell), Critter Crat (Russell Higbee), and Chang Wang (Billy Dufala) and the aforementioned Honus, sway, crash and careen through a...
There are definitely a few issues when it comes to live albums. For one, you can’t see the band. And when said band is known for their showmanship, and I put the emphasis on “man” here, you kind of lose everything the band is known for. However, if you’ve seen Tim Harrington before—stripping, tearing up stuffed pandas, rubbing his nipples—then you’ll have the upper hand while you’re listening to the new Les Savy Fav live album, After the Balls Drop,...
Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, the he and she music factory known as Mates of State, have confirmed the May 2008 release and track listing for their fifth full length album, Re-Arrange Us. The album is argued to carry the most complex tunes put out by these idie-stars yet; including additional instrumentation expanding beyond their classic layered and playfully dueling vocals. And if that weren’t enough, the album comes in a reversible and multi-layered package that will allow fans to...