Vinyl Vlog 553
COLUMN

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Spencer Gets It Lit LP by Jon Spencer & the HITmakers. After breaking and then building upon the first new and surprisingly fertile ground that the guitarist had touched in years with Spencer Sings The Hits! in 2018, Jon Spencer has continued on the same creative terrain with Spencer Gets It Lit. For any other musician, such a statement could sound unsurprising and/or unexciting but – with a well-established history of...

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Friday, 10 June 2022
SPOTLIGHT: I WILL LET YOU KNOW
FEATURES

WHO: Abbie Barrett WHAT: I Will Let You Know WHY: We try to promote the local bands here on Ground Control, because let’s be honest, we’re a website of the people. No, but seriously, Abbie Barrett is someone we’re going to be watching more closely because with I Will Let You Know, she has delivered a hard-hitting, catchy, riffarific pop-punk album that’s chock-full of catchy tracks and perfect for the Summer. You know you’re listening to greatness when, after just...

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Wednesday, 08 June 2022
I Wanna Be Literated #257
BOOKS

Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Recordsby Jim Ruland I’m going to start calling Jim Ruland “Jim Rules-and” or “Jim Rules Land.” By the time I came to punk rock  in the late 90s (and it really is a calling), SST was already going “dormant.” It a took a few years of dedication to realize I had to go back to the source to truly understand modern music and that inevitably led me to SST Records. But,...

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Friday, 03 June 2022
Vinyl Vlog 552
COLUMN

Steve GunnOther You Few albums in the past few years have made the impact on me that Other You has. Part of it has to do with the fact that I just wasn’t expecting it. It’s not exactly a smash hit album, so my expectations weren’t set (i.e. I hadn’t been jaded yet by public opinion), so I wasn’t expecting to fall in love. Most of why I’m impressed by this album is that I didn’t know I needed it....

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Wednesday, 01 June 2022
Vinyl Vlog 551
COLUMN

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Animal 12” EP by Suzi Moon. Important point: there are three songs on Suzi Moon’s Animal 12” EP. All three songs appear on both sides of said single so, where most vinyl releases are characterized by the movement from front to back, this single seeks to reprise its progression from one side to the next. That statement is not made as an indictment – it is made as an observation as...

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Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Sleaford Mods live @ The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA [05-20-22]
LIVE MUSIC

It’s safe to say that the Sleaford Mods are in a category all of their own, and this makes them hard to describe. I know descriptions don’t matter but with this band, it’s kind of fun. Sleaford Mods are a rap group (I think) made up of two British guys whose music sounds like a cockney guy speed-talking about working-class problems over simplistic, but grooving, beats. It’s kind of punk rock in the sense that it reinterprets and simplifies rap...

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Sunday, 22 May 2022
Jon Snodgrass & Buddies Live @ O’Briens Pub, Boston, MA [05-18-22]
LIVE MUSIC

I’ve been a fan of Jon Snodgrass for over 20 years and have never seen him live. Embarrassing, I know. Especially considering how much I owe the man. Armchair Martian is such a no-brainer for anyone into pop punk, especially the Descendents/ALL/Fat Wreck variety, and I was hooked from the beginning (hey, when’s a new album coming out?), but I didn’t think country music could be cool until I heard his band Drag the River with ALL frontman Chad Price...

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Friday, 20 May 2022
Vinyl Vlog 550
COLUMN

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Raising The Roof 12” EP by Booze & Glory. It’s funny how, over time, the purpose of EPs has seemed to change. In the Nineties (read: when I began paying attention), EPs took on a pretty lauded and/or respected position as several such titles came up from the underground . Of course, all things must come...

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Monday, 16 May 2022
Vinyl Vlog 549
COLUMN

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Lunatics EP by The Drowns. It would be easy enough to curse The Drowns out for what the band has done with the Lunatics EP. Not unlike what innumerable other acts have done, over the years (Hot Water Music, NOFX and John Lennon all leap to mind), The Drowns have elected to take a moment that they’re capable of stretching out from their musical comfort zone (which has tended to stay...

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Sunday, 15 May 2022
Vinyl Vlog 548
COLUMN

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Gotta Give It Up LP by Sweat. On the surface, the cliche that, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” writes itself into any discussion about Gotta Give It Up. Yes – from the opening notes of “Hit & Run,” the opening cut on Gotta Give It Up, Sweat presents itself like a tight and intense unit – an imposing and very metallic entity which also speeds along at a...

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Friday, 13 May 2022