With two EPs under their belt, it was only a matter of time before the ever-touring Canadian foursome Tokyo Police Club officially issued a full-length debut—even if “full-length” means 28 minutes. On Elephant Shell the indie rockers punctuate short upbeat songs with bells, handclaps and densely irreverent lyrics. Led by the distinctive voice of frontman and bassist Dave Monks, whose vocal style most similarly lends itself to that of The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy, Tokyo Police Club crafts short tunes whose...
Do you like The Doors? I don’t. I pretty much hate them. In fact, probably the thing I like the most about them is how mad some people get when you say you don’t like them. Like, really mad. I guess it doesn’t happen as much now that I am older, but back in the day, if I could manage to work something like “Pfffft, The Doors. They aren’t a real rock ’n’ roll band. How can they be a...
The landscape of the music industry has been a strange place of late. Even a cursory glance at page three of any issue of Rolling Stone published since the New Year will reveal what looks like an obituary column for high-level record label executives, in-house publicists and A&R folk as well as bands that have been downsized out of their offices and the cushy confines of their lucrative multi-record contracts, respectively. People are worried and, conspicuously, bands are on the...
This is the latest installment of the Super Roots series from Osaka, Japan's Boredoms. Super Roots 9 (finally released domestically) features a single 40-minute live recording from Christmas Eve in Japan, 2004. The CD comes in a gatefold format with a 40-page booklet containing artwork, music scores and notations. This release is more in line with the band’s recent releases like Vision Creation Newsun than with their previous noise recordings. The impression it leaves you with is how dynamic, technical and...
In a time when the modern rock show too often comes packaged with pretense and posturing, the Breeders re-emerge to remind us what real rock is. At Slim’s, the crowd—young punks, dudes with Mohawks, girl-girl couples, and a large swath of middle-aged guys in tees and sweatshirts—hadn’t come to be trendy, they’d come for Kim Deal. Playing for the sold-out house, the former Pixies bassist—alongside twin sister Kelley—delved into the Breeders’ back catalogue, dusting off enough classics to delight...
It’s been about five years since Gossip started to spread like wildfire out of Olympia, WA. People really started to notice when Movement appeared on KRS in 2003; blasting scruffy riffs, hammering drums and a singer with a voice that could make you cry or organize a riot with just the right word, the album made the biggest of big indie rawk splashes. Not at home though—Gossip erupted and began their insurrection abroad. Five years later and the band is...
I had been curious about DeVotchKa for a long time. Any band that can take a Theremin, violin, accordion, sousaphone, stand-up bass and a string section and make it all sound like some twisted Slavic love song has got to be worth checking out, right? If a band like Einstürzende Neubauten can take scraps of metal, wood and anything else they could find and turn it into an aural delight then surely the members of DeVotchKa could take all of...
You ever have one of those days where you get the voicemail of every single person you call? Well, Ground Control had one of those days when trying to find a writer to cover Les Savy Fav and The Dodos. Everyone seemed to be out of town. But we'd have to be complete idiots to pass up a chance to spend an even ing with Tim Harrington and the boys, so we didn't. If a picture is worth a thousand...
It's been a rather active decade for Joy Division considering the band have been out of order (so to speak) for almost 30 years. Their influence created a genre of its own in the early 2000s with bands like Interpol, She Wants Revenge and others owing quite a bit of their sound to the band, while branding of the band hit fever pitch as Peter Saville's iconic Unknown Pleasures logo was splashed across scores of products and people (who probably...