WHO: The Bombpops WHAT: Death in Venice Beach WHY: There probably hasn’t been a band more ready to be the new NOFX. They’re on FAT, their albums sound like they should, and they’ve even stood in for NOFX in their videos. But while it’s easy to write off such a band as being a derivative of a derivative, they quickly showed that they’ve got the genre figured out well enough to make a great record in their debut Fear of...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Fat Possum reissued pressing of the Los Angeles LP by X. It might not be the first thing that fans think of when they’re looking at punk rock and trying to decode how the genre has evolved, but the fact is that the breed which was borne of Los Angeles in the late Seventies and early Eighties drew from a very deep well of inspiration – arguably a deeper one than...
Dual FormVarious ArtistsStones Throw & Leaving Records Every now and then we get thrown a curveball here at Ground Control and we’re better off for it. We listen to a lot of music, and when an album impresses us out of the blue, we pass the savings onto you, dear reader. Knowing nothing about this Stones Throw/Leaving Records compilation album, we put it onto our weekly rotation and haven’t been able to take it off. This merits and inquiry. Dual...
The Essential Chomsky (New Press Essential)by Noam Chomsky, Anthony Arnove (Editor) What can I possibly say about Noam Chomsky that hasn’t been already said or said better than I possibly could? And whatever can be said probably underrates him. We can try to communicate the importance of reading and understanding Chomsky, but we’d still fall short of truly explaining how much we can gain from him. Oh, to long for such a time when the elderly were actually full of...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Hawaii EP 12” reissue by Young Canadians. Punk bands have been called dangerous and have been accused of challenging every establishment with which they come into contact, but the truth is that such claims are often pretty overstated. Really think about it, reader – as rough and tumble as The Ramones, Richard Hell and the Voidoids and Television may have looked, there wasn’t much in the way of content in any...
Mr Show: What HappenedNaomi Odenkirk You want to know the impact Mr Show has had on the comedy world? Well, think of your favorite sketch comedy during or after the 90s and it’s a given that Mr Show has had a huge impact on them. It’s just one of those shows that came together with the right writers, at the right time, and the right talent to really make it special. And after a decade of staleness from SNL, it...
The Lighthouse SoundtrackMark Korven The shitty thing about the vinyl boom is that a once-expensive hobby just got more expensive. The great thing about it is that we’re getting reissues of all these classics we’ve been wanting but have been unable to find. Also, just about everything is getting pressed on vinyl, and that includes silly stuff like vinyl. There are some releases, however, which are just perfect for the format. This is one of them. Pity the Oscars. It’s...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols LP by the Sex Pistols. The problematic thing about albums which come to be regarded as “culturally significant” is that, after it has been released and that cultural significance presents itself on a larger scale, everyone whats to get their hands on it and tool around with it in order to put their fingerprints on it and make it their own – in...
Oh SeesFace Stabber I’ve always admitted Thee Oh Sees (now just “Oh Sees”), first for their talent, then for their consistent output of good music, then for their work ethic, then for all three. One never knows what a new year will bring, musically, but one can always count on a new John Dwyer project. Honestly, with such a massive output of stellar material, it’s hard for me to admit that this band and frontman John Dwyer are still a...
Elliott SmithXO(Bong Load 25th Anniversary)photo: turntablelab.com I thought I had closed the book on Elliott Smith in my life. He was thrust upon me by an ex girlfriend who was from Oregon. As you can imagine, you can’t be in high school in Oregon in the 90s and not be consumed by Elliott Smith’s music. And when you date someone like that, some of that stuff is going to rub off on you. I absorbed his last album From a...