Nas Illmatic (Get on Down Records) photo: @frangarg There’s this Key and Peele sketch called Bling Benzy and Da Struggle which perfectly personifies the state of mainstream rap music. In the sketch, the “old” and “new” sound of rap music are represented: the struggle of the old rap, delivered calmly but confidently over a jazz melody deals with social inequalities, the new rap delivered loudly with a screeching voice is about getting titties in your mouth. Neither is right or...
Photos by Brittany Rose...
A deeper look at the grroves pressed into the hot pink, limited edition pressing of Father of All Motherfuckers by Green Day. After a span of sixteen years spent examining a series of high-concept creative endeavors (American Idiot started the trend in 2004 and catapulted Green Day onto an echelon of rock stardom that no one imagined possible for the band before, followed by another concept album in the form of 21 st Century Breakdown and a three-album vanity project,...
Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism John Patrick Leary It’s a 1984 type of situation working at some companies. I’m talking about double-speak: talking one way, while knowing that it means something completely different. While we’re not quite there yet in our society, in the environment of a company it manifests itself as corporate jargon speak. You know what I mean. Sentences like “Let’s take this conversation offline so we can consolidate our innovations and sunset this project.” While it’s...
Parasite Don’t you just hate it when the Oscars get it right? The Academy Awards, for all their influence, are also kind of a joke. Their real interest is self-preservations so, more often than not (at least ever since I’ve been paying attention), they stick with mainstream schlock about Hollywood, or feature their favorite film-makers than actually what’s thoughtful and exciting. There’s a reason people call certain movies “Oscar bait,” because what the Oscars like you can spot a...
The Muffs No Holiday Right now I can’t think of a sadder story and a bigger regret in my life than the Muffs. That’s a lot for one sentence, I know, but thinking about this band is a lot for me. Musically, you’d be doing yourself a favor by checking them out. Start with Blonder and Blonder, both a nod to Bob Dylan (I think) and a perfect representation of their music. It’s punk rock, but not too offensive, but...
Star Trek Picard Movie & TV Collection Here on Ground Control we plan on going where no man has ever gone before – to cover the entire Star Trek series home releases for your enjoyment. Well, not really, but we are terribly excited about the new Picard series debuting on CBS. Star Trek has a long and rich history, and though it’s had many ups and downs, it’s probably most known for the Next Generation series with...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Territories’ “Short Seller” CD Record. On paper, my mind wobbled at the idea of this release. “This is a playable vinyl record made using a CD press,” proclaimed the press release which accompanied my review copy of Territories’ “Short Seller” CD Record. “CDs are dead. Long live vinyl.” While I was curious right away, I was also hesitant. History had taught me that any new music format – no matter how good...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Watch Your Back” 12” single by Charger. At this point, each member of Rancid’s musical personality has been established in both the annals of punk and pop music as well as in fans’ hearts (Lars Fredericksen is the “streetwise professor,” blasting out poppy street punk which is at home on punk playlists but has a flawless pop heart, Tim Armstrong is the ska side of the band, the band’s drummer has...
Run-DMCRun-DMC(Get On Down Records reissue)photo: turntablelab.com Whenever we get a chance we like to keep it local here on Ground Control. We do it with our bands and we do it with our labels. I’m Boston based and how Get on Down has escaped me for all these years, I’ll never know. The best part is that I found out about them through word of mouth from my local record store in Somerville called Index Records. Well, my record (no...