folk

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Wronger LP by Tommy Stinson’s Cowboys In The Campfire. While the breadth of musical styles that Tommy Stinson has approached in his career has not been small (beginning first with indie rock with The Replacements, Stinson has has touched on punk with Bash & Pop and Perfect as well as undeniably mainstream, “for the paycheque” rock with Soul Asylum and Guns N’ Roses), it would be hard to deny that everything...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into TK and The Holy Know Nothings’ The Incredible Heat Machine LP. It isn’t always easy for this writer to get into country music (there often has to be a “alt-country” plank in the floor to make it easier to enter on), but it didn’t take me long to find my way to relishing the music on The Incredible Heat Machine – TK and The Holy Know Nothings’ sophomore full-length album. From note...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Back of Our Heads LP by Kalen & Aslyn. I confess that Country balladry is not my favorite type of music. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate a slow song; I am absolutely capable of appreciating a love song or a slow song – but those moments when a singer just lilts his or her way along through a melody and does so through puddles of caramelized saccharine compel me...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Tackle Box LP by Hamell On Trial. It might sound a little ridiculous, but the truth is that some musicians need to have something which genuinely pisses them off – something they find truly abhorrent – before them in order to produce their best work. Take Ed Hamell, for example; Hamell has been a politically-minded songwriter since he first appeared in 1996 but his best music has always appeared when either...

Hello Readers of Ground Control Magazine, I would like to introduce myself as Amanda Faculty, a new columnist for Ground Control. I am a San Francisco chick born and raised in the hype of Kurt and Courtney. My dad raised me on Oingo Boingo and camping trips, Led Zeppelin and late nights. Decades later, I go to many alternative rock shows including the genres of shoe gaze, punk, and surf rock. Of course, my folk heart attends Hardly Strictly Bluegrass every year....

As contrary to the basic mindset of music journalism as it might seem (most critics like to see themselves as taste-makers with an ear for a hit, a finger on the public’s cultural pulse and a keen eye which recognizes emerging future trends), sometimes there’s just no way to explain how or why a band succeeds or fails to break through and become a cultural icon. It could be argued that it just boils down to dumb luck; sometimes a...