joeposh

Christ, that's a big time miss by whoever was project managing the pressing. I know in the past labels have replaced LP's for fuck ups like this, you may want to bend some ears to see if you can get them to fix it on their dime. It's a bit of a pain for the consumer, as you usually have to file a claim and wait for the new disc to ship, which can take months, but it's better than being stuck with an incomplete representation of your work. Didn't open my copy of LOTGA yet and will have to consider sending it back to Amazon now that I know they botched that aspect. Will wait to hear if you get any answers.

We also don't know when they started the process for the back catalog releases. It's quite possible that they were supposed to come out earlier but also faced delays that we're not privy to. Either way, I'm pretty hopeful they'll be largely on target since they announced them in close connection to the projected release date.

Great catch -- and for the record (no pun intended), I am thrilled that this is happening and already placed an order for the entire first wave. It came out to be slightly cheaper with shipping to the US on Amazon.

No WLRRR? Disappointing as that's the album that has an a real vinyl-era sound. We already had warnings about Audio of Being not being in the mix. Surprised they didn't go for Loser Anthems or Lo-Fi, but maybe there's plan for a second wave should this go well.

I wonder if the issue is the number of 6+ minute songs on that album. Or if he was hoping to add in some of the session stuff like Pony Boy and All Together. Though as I look at it, assuming he's mastering for 33 1/3 RPMs, it shouldn't be a problem since 20 minutes per side is typically the advised limit. Here's how it would breakdown according to the song times on wikipedia. Even if he added in bonus tracks, there's no way that runs more than 3 LPs. LP 1 Side A (Runtime: 15:56) "Man of Action" – 7:01 "Carmelina" – 4:16 "Tripoli" – 4:39 Side B (Runtime: 15:04) "Advertising on Police Cars" – 7:08 "I, the Throw Away" – 3:09 "Truffle Pigs" – 4:47 LP 2 Side C (Runtime: 16:22) "The Fall of Man" – 5:03 "Under the Influence" – 4:32 "The Rat Who Would Be King" – 6:47 Side D (Runtime: 16:02) "Anti-Pop" – 4:08 "The Workers Sing a Song of Mass Production" – 5:21 "Sort of a Protest Song" – 6:33 I'd happily pay more for AoB if that's what it takes to get it pressed.

Giant, Suburbia, Truffled Pigs, and Born Losers have been the ones that seem to stick out for my friends when they first hear them. The kind of tracks that you stick on a playlist or mix cd and they double back to ask you where you found it.

It's been off Spotify in the US for at least a month now as well. Very weird, maybe there was a licensing conflict with some of these streaming sites.

This would be great news. I hope Matt took the comments about crowd funding and remastering for vinyl to heart. There is absolutely a market for this, and it can help negate any financial risk he might need to incur to take this project on and do it right.

I'd love to hear how it sounds when you get a chance to spin it. How's the sleeve? I assume it's not a gate fold since it's a single LP.

So did these ever go out? The page still indicates it's for pre-orders, with the same estimated ship date of 11/12. Meanwhile, Amazon.ca has it listed as November 25th. I have to wonder what the source of this series of delays has been... I feel like Matt has been missing on a lot of potential sales by not having these in hand for the tour.

Well that's annoying, especially since they can't provide a solid window for fulfillment. Hopefully outside retailers will get their allotment around the same time.

Too early to draw too many insights from the set list. The band will mix different songs in throughout the tour and likely add a few old ones into the rotation once they have more off days to work through additional songs.

He's never played Man of Action live before, correct? I'd hop on a plane to any show just to hear that.

Matt seemed to indicate in the stream thread that the 2 disc euro version would be getting pressed to vinyl as well. He may have misspoke, given that I don't know how economical a vinyl run of that nature would be for him, but I would certainly pay to import it.

Not to my knowledge, and I'm actually quite thankful for that. It would be to cool to hear them now that the record is out -- but I think getting them prior to release in the past has unfairly colored how people approach the songs and how they felt about the finished product. Your initial exposure to a song often becomes your reference point, so people had a tendency to nitpick production choices or changes that they probably would have been fine with otherwise.

Noticed yesterday that the vinyl release has been pushed back to the end of October. Is it going to be made available through traditional retailers as well, or just MapleMusic? You seemed to indicate that the international version (which includes past acoustic and live tracks) would be pressed too, is that accurate?

Yeah, the specific omission of just Dave suggests this isn't a mere oversight by the folks at Frostbyte.

Matt did a recent interview where he touched on the song credits issue, basically saying he was very generous with the writing credits back in the hay day of MGB, and gave Dave attribution on songs he really had very little role in crafting. Seems he decided to correct that with the release of Old Fighters. Here's the interview in question (relevant portion is at the 25:00 mark):

One of the things I really appreciate about this album manages to weave so many elements of Matt’s past into something distinctly new and compelling. The ambient guitar lick that simmers beneath “Hey Hell Heaven” calls to mind the spacey opening notes of Avalanche’s “Bright End of Nowhere”, before veering into a soaring refrain. The pleading cries of “Mutineer” evoke the visceral emotion that coursed through the vocals on “Tripoli”. The sonic canvass of “Guns of Carolina” features the distortion and sampling that served as the unifying undertow on “Hospital Music” and feels like it could slide right into the track list next to “She’s In It for the Money”. “We’re Long Gone” could just as easily be situated with “Put Out Your Lights” on WLRR, and even “So Close” offers a lyrical homage to The Who that can’t help but call to mind the musical one he constructed with “Ex-Pats…”. Matt would probably cringe if he read this, but I even hear elements of “Last of the Ghetto Astronauts” in “Letters in Wartime”. By the time the song reaches its apex, I half expect it to end with strained shrieks exclaiming definitively that “the war is over!” -- bringing it all full circle. Too many artists spend their careers striving to recapture that one song, that one sound, that one album that brought them to prominence. Chasing a formula until it ultimately degrades and destroys what was special about those songs to begin with. Matt has never seemed comfortable in that space, and has always acknowledged that ultimately the music making process is still a very personal, exploratory and selfish thing. It’s a decision that has assuredly cost him sales, fans and airplay over the years – but it’s also freed him from the whims of the radio rollercoaster. It’s also allowed him the rare ability to own all of it (well maybe not “Rico) and acknowledge and revisit the sounds and influences that have been such a formative part of his life. This album might be the best showcase of that yet. It’s not a return to form or a nostalgic revisitation, it’s just the latest chapter.

I just grabbed it off Amazon MP3. Great stuff.

Mutineering has definite Audio of Being vibes, especially in regards to Matt's vocal style. I had the same "Tripoli" flashbacks at points.

The oddest part of that chart projection is that this is easily your most radio friendly album since Avalanche, and perhaps even the MGB era. I think "Had It Coming" set the tone nicely for the album, and spoke to the influences that inspired you to make this record, but is probably the least accessible song for a general audience. If "Arrows of Desire" gets a fair shake at radio, I could see it really turning some heads and getting the album some sales traction. Then again, maybe all of this just speaks to how far rock radio has fallen in the past 5 years. In the US it's hard to even find a station that consistently plays rock music, let alone breaks new songs. I'd imagine it's a similar state of affairs up north.

That's what struck me as well. Every Matt Good solo album has had a few reaches that don't quite mesh or hit the mark, and ultimately hamper the flow of the overall album -- this might be the first to avoid that trap. It's a tight, cohesive record that leaves you wanting more. A rare and admirable feat in the itunes age where every additional track is a potential source of revenue.

The transition between those two songs is so perfect. Generally speaking, this album seems to flow extremely well thus far.

It's live on CBC: http://music.cbc.ca/...ts/Matthew-Good Checked out of curiosity and it seems they put it up early. Listening to "So Close" as we speak! Wow, Mutineer pinned my ears back. Can't wait to hear this one in full quality.