Although they had to cancel the end of their European jaunt, Ted Leo & Pharmacists have announced that they will be embarking on an extensive North American tour, with three, count ‘em, three shows in the Greater Los Angeles area. The tour begins, appropriately, in Cleveland (a locale that, if you remember correctly, rocks) and winds of in every direction (yeah Canada, we're talking to you too) before the Halloween closing night show in Los Angeles. Spooky. The band is...

Glenn Danzig is no stranger to being an outcast. He’s been scaring the hell out of parents for three decades now and he has no intentions of stopping anytime soon. Satan’s favorite renaissance man is into much more than just music. Danzig is an accomplished graphic designer, photographer, comic book publisher, screenwriter and composer. In fact, Danzig is finishing up a script for a movie about road rage. It involves angry stoner kids who get really fucked up and drive...

Bumps is what happens when Tortoise members John McEntire, John Herndon and Dan Bitney ditch the dueling vibraphones and get down to the business of rhythm—beats—and, well…bumps. This is exactly the sort of record that these guys needed to make in order to start reminding people of how completely on point Tortoise were with regards to percussion. That's generally been the whole driving point behind the band. With the last two Tortoise records, they have drifted off of the "essential...

I think I’m in love with Rocky Votolato. This is embarrassing, mostly because I’m not 14 and he’s not Pete Wentz, but it’s not really a hot-rock-star sort of crush anyway. It’s more like that scene in Wayne’s World where Cassandra’s playing the metal club, and when Wayne sees her things get all fuzzy and “Dream Weaver” plays overhead. It might be the forearm tattoo. It might be the rugged, all-American boy good looks. But it definitely has something to...

Since Ground Control has given me this space to rant/ramble about popular music on a regular basis, I should probably introduce myself and my musical taste. I’m calling myself The Aging Punk not because I plan to write about punk rock every month. Far from it. But the punk rock explosion of the late 70s was one of my formative musical experiences. It still colors—in various ways—my feelings about music. I was 20 years old in 1977. Rock music had...

All the hipsters’ wet dreams have finally come true.  Not only is their beloved Rilo Kiley gearing up for the release of their fourth LP, Under The Blacklight (Warner Bros Records, August 21, 2007) but also, the band recently announced that they would be embarking on their first North American tour in nearly two years.  Although this is Rilo Kiley’s major label debut, don’t think that the band’s success has gone to their heads and that they’ll only be playing...

Still reaping in fans from the remix album Do You Trust Your Friends?, New York indie-rockers Stars announced plans to embark on a full fledged North American tour this fall. Stars will be supporting their much-hyped fourth album, In the Bedroom After the War, beginning October 17th on the East coast and working back towards California. Although the album won't be released on good ol' Compact Disc until September 25th, In the Bedroom After the War has already made its...

I never got to see Soundgarden. Or Nirvana, Pearl Jam, STP, or the Smashing Pumpkins (thank God that last one will be fixed in due time). My musical consciousness took place at a time when Y-107 (remember that?) was getting off the airwaves, alien stickers were the shit, and so were tangerines for that matter, thanks to Tragic Kingdom. Let me not forget to breathlessly utter the name Gavin Rossdale. There were times though, way past my MTV-viewing days, when...

I was shocked to find out that my favorite album ever, Radiohead's OK Computer, has now hit the double-digits in age since its original release. The album, which opened up a huge can of creativity-worms for me, still stands as a triumph of cohesive recording and multi-faceted beauty. So let's take a look at it, track by track: 1. Airbag: "In the next world war… In a jack-knifed juggernaut… I am born again." How perfect are these opening lines? It...

For our 6th Lunarcast, we had a chance to meet up with L.A.’s own disco-lovin’ groovemeister Kennedy—yeah, the “Your Mama” guy. We first met up with him June 28 when he played the Warped Tour 2007 pre-party at the Glass House in Pomona, CA. Then the following week we headed up to a Hollywood studio where he was finalizing his latest single—it's not on his new album, Kennedy For President, due out on Cordless Recordings/Warner Brothers on September 25, so...