Abstract indie-rockers, Animal Collective, will be dropping a new EP, Water Curses, on CD and 12’’ on May 6th, 2008. Sticking true to the format, the EP will feature 4 brand new tracks recorded during a separate session than last year’s Strawberry Jam. Water Curses will see the band re-imaging their constituent parts and exploring new waters saturated in shapes alongside a more stripped down feel than their more recent work. It will also see the band exploring rhythm, electronics,...
When I hear the words “Die! Die! Die!” and “New Zealand” in the same sentence I tend to think of poor Frodo and Sam fighting their way through Mordor while their punk-ass friends are off hanging out with talking trees and catching in the wonderful landscape of Middle Earth. But, as usual, I’m way off. Die! Die! Die! is actually a dope rock band from Auckland, New Zealand, and they just announced some tour dates in support of their latest...
Adrian Belew has racked up an impressive resume over the years. A singer and virtuoso guitarist, he's played with Zappa, Bowie and the Talking Heads, among others, but he's best known as the frontman for prog-rock gods King Crimson. In between King Crimson tours, Belew has been performing with the Adrian Belew Power Trio, and is currently in the middle of a 21-city jaunt across the United States. Earlier this month, Ground Control spoke to Belew's Power Trio bandmates, bassist...
This was not my first time at the dance. Ages ago, mere weeks into last August, I marveled at the Echo’s tidy ambience as a slew of strange bands paraded across the stage and Annie Clark stomped out a fiery lullaby of smashed guitars and freckles. Now, only a few yards beneath the Echo at it’s larger twin the Echoplex, that memory is quickly fading. The Echoplex appears much larger and more proprietary than its upstairs stage. The bar is...
Oxford-based indie-dance-rock band Foals have announced the release of their debut full-length, Antidotes, due out April 8 on the mother of all indie labels, Sub Pop. After meeting up in Oxford, the five gents crowded around 20-year-old Yannis Philippakis and forged on to make dance music for yuppies, or maybe even dance music for athletes? Yannis explains, “We wanted to make music that was very technical, that wasn’t just party music, but at the same time you could dance to...
In 1975 when Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was performed live, accusations of Peter Gabriel being "pretentious" were the buzz words among prog-rock’s self inflated elitists. I missed that tour—didn't discover Genesis until 1977, after the original band broke up, but I did not miss Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's performance of the "We Must Learn More" tour; or whatever the hell you want to call what happened at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. I actually felt...
I've experienced a strange phenomenon at every single Mates of State show I've ever been to: I'm by far one of the oldest people in attendance. Seeing how I haven't been to a show by the duo in two years, I can only assume that this will be far worse once they start touring in support of Re-Arrange Us, their fifth album, which was announced today. The recording and release of Re-Arrange Us was scheduled around the birth of their...
There is no denying that Siouxsie Sioux is an icon. From her days as a Sex Pistols groupie during the birth of punk rock, to her rise as one of the leaders of the post punk/goth movement with both The Banshees and The Creatures, she has reinvented herself over and over, while at the same time keeping true to her beliefs, her attitude and most importantly, her music. Siouxsie has stood tall atop the rock that is the test of...