Moonlight_Graham

Slipped into HMV yesterday, saw a copy of Chaotic Neutral on vinyl, couldn't resist, bought it. $20, pretty good price. Question: haven't opened the vinyl yet, but on the cover the sticker says "CD included". Is there indeed a CD inside? Can't feel it with my fingers....

That's a gut-wrenching story, I feel terrible for him. It seems like such a struggle now. Matt's written about the industry in his songs a lot, like in 'So Close': If you ain’t on your back taking it get out of here And if somehow you do, you sing Young Man Blues "Ain’t got nothing in the world these days" Just the world don’t know it’s true The whole song describes musicians struggles: "Keep us alive on 45, Don’t let the wolves get anything. Keep us alive on 45, It may mean more than anything". And i mean Matt tries, and releases his old albums on vinyl, and they sell well, but then there's the bunch of technical problems the vinyl company or whomever screwed up on, must be so frustrating! But what about new artists? There's hardly any money to be made in music sales now, though I guess vinyl is helping a bit. So the industry and record companies aren't making money on rock bands, so why invest in them? Why promote them? It's totally different now for musicians. There's no MuchMusic like there used to be to widely promote rock singles and bands/musicians. Great rock songs/videos on Youtube hardly get any views. Extremely few newer rock bands in the world exist that can fill even half a hockey arena, only old nostalgia acts from the 70's-90's. What will summer rock festivals look like in 5 years, if they even exist anymore?

I'll just be happy if Matt is able to sustain a healthy enough income throughout the rest of the years he chooses to make music to be able to keep putting out records and tour the country like he has. Matt's an artist, he's great at expressing himself, his gift isn't marketing or business (even his most successful marketing efforts, like his blogs etc, center around his ability to express himself & connect with people). His art was very commercially popular in the 90's/early 2000's, & has waned in recent years, but so be it. I don't think he has much if any control over whether people will like his art or not, he just pours his heart into mics and the chips I guess fall where they may. The things he's been singing about the last decade or so, the mainstream have barely cared about anyways, so is it any wonder? Stanley Kubrick's films never made money like that shitty Avatar flick haha. I've started listening to the radio more nowadays while I drive to work & it's really sinking in that while I might have saved thousands of dollars downloading pirated MP3's like mad the last 15 years, we really did ruin the industry. it's really depressing listening to 90's rock too and remembering how great we had it then, what an amazing decade for the industry. Also by far the best decade ever in the history of Canadian music.

Ha That's funny. Matt's way too into the song to even notice, he's really giving everything on that song man.

They choose No Liars as the next single and leave Army of Lions on the table, who decides these things?!? Same with Had It Coming vs, Arrows of Desire or Via Dolorosa

Obama is okay. Social domestic policy is a bit progressive. He's a bitch to the system though,. He's not W. Bush but he still disregards international law (drones etc). He's a great actor, and makes great speeches, though a lot of it is just bullsh!t. He's a smart politician.

You were bang on about Sanders. The polls showed he was going to get his butt kicked in the Southern states, which are more conservative leaning (even the Democrats), so his views just won't fly down there even among Democratic voters. They've gone Hillary so far and there's really nothing Bernie can do about that minus scrapping much of his platform. He wouldn't have the best shot vs Hillary in the general election. Southern Americans just aren't ready for Bernie's ideas, which are status quo throughout virtually all other western countries. Bernie's the only chance this election to help stop the BS and start really fixing that country that's headed for the toilet. In 50 years Americans will look back and kick themselves that they didn't elect him. Americans aren't ready for him, and that's a shame I think. He's the first major U.S POTUS candidate in my entire lifetime I've ever put my full support behind (for what it's worth)

This is essentially what I believe. God(s) or no gods etc. is unknowable, unless evidence is provided for me. Essentially I believe in science: rationality, logic, and evidence. Agreed. Most religions are fundamentally moral philosophies/ideologies. You strip all metaphysics away from ie: Christianity and you have a moral philosophy based on selflessness, charity, non-violence, humility, helping others etc. That philosophy can be reached through reason just as easily as religious faith, though religion is an effective way to try and convince people to try to keep following the moral code. Religion is the most powerful & dangerous human invention of all-time. It's created a lot of good but has also led to a lot of bad consequences, like millennia of violence/war & close-mindedness. That's what happens when so many people are so fiercely devoted to an ideology that's based on believing hearsay, much of which is either fables or lies.

I'd actually be quite enthusiastic for the printed lyrics for those albums where the CD's didn't originally come with lyrics in the liner notes.

Well I wish you the best no matter what happens. I think the consensus on here wasn't that your voice was "better", but just that your style had changed, not for better or worse. Some of the acoustic tours you've had and playing Rabbits live has shown that you can still sing in the style from your earlier career (pre-WLRRR-ish) and hit the classic notes, but you just choose to explore other areas of your voice as you said. Maybe similar to what your mother said, I guess when you drive a Ferrari you can tend to want to drive it as fast as it can go...especially when you're young.

At least this sounds a bit different than most of his stuff, decent. After the 4th or 5th song he put out it just sounds like the same whining.

Rico has one of the most annoying riffs in rock history. The chorus is good though.

CD's aren't compressed at all. They're a lossless format. The only compression in CD's is the compression that modern engineers add at the mastering stage in the "loudness wars", but that has nothing to do with the format itself, only the mastering of the source used to put on the CD or MP3 and even vinyl. CD, MP3, and vinyl each have their pros and cons. Vinyl can have problems reproducing deep bass, especially big drops in bass, and can lose high end at especially at the end of the record when the grooves get smaller. "Analog" doesn't always mean "better". VHS and cassette tapes were analog too: http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Myths_%28Vinyl%29#Myth:_Vinyl_has_greater_resolution_than_CD_because_its_dynamic_range_is_higher_than_for_CD_at_the_most_audible_frequencies http://www.laweekly.com/music/why-cds-may-actually-sound-better-than-vinyl-5352162 That's fucking bullshit. $40 for the LP and you don't get the whole damn album even when it has room to spare? If they cut it for length reasons I could understand, but like WTF.

That's a glaring omission. Do you listen to a lot of vinyl? It's known that vinyl has less dynamic range than CD's. On a record you're just not going to get the high and low end that a CD is capable of producing.

I'd say Avalanche was his last "old school MG" album, & his musical style has evolved greatly since then. After Avalanche he mostly abandoned his original vocal style where he wailed out those big long epic notes; he's more low-key and vibrato-based since then. His general music style has been much more of a "singer-songwriter" vibe since WLRRR. I think a lot of that probably has to do with him not being in a proper "band" since Audio of Being & transitioning into a solo artist with "hired guns" backing him up. When many songs initially being written by just 1 person on an acoustic guitar or piano/keyboard etc instead of in a rehearsal space with a band it seems natural the songs sound more intimate. Matt's also gotten older & left the 90's alternative sound of highly distorted guitars long behind. He seems calmer, more content in his life, & I'd imagine the treatment of his bipolarity has had it's own influence. I love & sometimes miss the old MG vocals and sound, but I've come to increasingly love his newer stuff the more I listen. His lyrics have become so much better too. LOES is his lyrical masterpiece album IMO, and the music on that album is so different but absolutely incredible, I love the jazz elements on LOES & CN. I also increasingly find that to truly appreciate Matt's stuff since around Hospital Music you have to dig much deeper, invest more time into the meaning of his lyrics, to find the real artistry of the songs/albums. The more you venture down the rabbit hole the more you'll be rewarded. An example is the song "Arrows of Desire". It's a really catchy song musically, but the lyrics pretty vague and confusing at 1st glance. To understand the true artistry & genius of that song it may take some digging to figure out that "arrows of desire" is a line from the poem "Jerusalem" by William Blake. Then once you begin to understand the meaning of that poem, like here: http://www.shmoop.com/william-blake-jerusalem/, you can begin to unravel how Matt is using that poem in a 21st century context to make the point he wants to make, & how the "arrow" & its journey in the song is really a metaphor for something else. If you follow Matt's online posts about U.S. foreign policy etc it's easier to figure out what he's trying to express. Matt's earlier music was more accessible & appealing to a casual listener, but the lyrics just weren't as consistently strong and sometimes just seemed like nonsense lol, maybe at times using clever words/phrases to use as a lift-off point for his epic long wailing vocal notes (which were incredible). IMO all phases of his career are genius, but for very different reasons. In the last year or so I've come to realize that Matt is increasingly not simply a musician, but a true artist in every sense of the word, who happens to use music, sound, words, and images (album covers etc) within the context of an album/song as his medium to express himself. His songs are like audio versions of his blog posts in many ways: sonic expressions of his thoughts and feelings rather than text. I used to wish for the return of Matt's older style, especially vocals, but I'm now completely happy just watching his music evolve any he wants it to as an artist & enjoy the ride. Agree/disagree? Your thoughts on Matt's career evolution?

It's a GREAT song, should have been the first single IMO. When I first listened to Chaotic Neutral I listened to Army of Lions about 8 times in a row, couldn't get enough of it. Blake does such a great job on the drums on that song, a great booming beat. They must have cranked the volume of the drums in the mix when they discovered how good it sounded in the studio with the drums carrying the song like that. Probably the first Matt Good song that's made me get up and dance.

I'm in the same boat. Looks like the albums will be available in retail record stores etc unlike the vinyls from his last few studio albums (available online or at tour merch booths only from what it seemed). So that might give us a bit more time to make a decision.

The prequels had some fantastic aspects, some decent aspects, and more than its share of terrible aspects. Unfortunately, much of the most important stuff, like dialogue and a bunch of acting and even plot, was often average or disappointing. The action was amazing, I enjoyed many of the cool new alien species, enjoyed Dooku (including the Yoda fight) was badass, a lot of the new vehicles/ships etc. The Force Awakens...well seeing the reviews I thought JJ had pulled off a miracle but it after seeing it...it was much more a reboot than a sequel, it ripped off just about every plot device, planet, and character from the original trilogy. It was devoid of George's incredible creativity, which is one of the major things that made the originals great and one of the only saving graces of the prequels. Thankfully they've recycle's most of the original trilogy ideas in this first movie and proved "oh look we can do old-school Star Wars1" and got all that nonsense out of their systems and can take more risks with the next flick.

Reading my original post again, I'm not sure whether or not I regret expressing my concern on the topic of Matt's smoking (Matt's always been candid/honest and never pulled punches on his feelings on any topic, so I didn't think he'd mind if I did the same), but I definitely do regret the way in which I said it, and probably regret the specific thread in which I brought it up the topic also. Whether inappropriate or not, i'll say again that it came from from a place of love (probably too much "tough love" for that particular thread given the positive vibe of Matt's opening post). The subsequent responses, including mine, well I agree it was definitely too much for the thread and off-topic, and I regret the thread went that way, but I felt I had to defend myself at the same time. I apologize to Matt, Anton, and any other Bored members for any offense or headache I might have caused. Much love to you all.

I appreciate the respectful reply. If Matt was excessively obese or an alcoholic I'd probably say something too. If I had the chance to ask Elvis to please quit taking addictive meds, I'd do it. The thing with smoking is that it also specifically targets virtually all the body systems that make up his wonderful voice; mouth/tongue/throat/vocal cords/lungs etc. He already has a very audible wheeze from what could just be from getting sick all the time, maybe pneumonia/bronchitis or whatever. Matt has free will and can and will do whatever he wants...but so do I, and I don't want to sit around and watch our friend slowly destroy himself and his god-given gift while staying silent about it if I have the opportunity to voice my concern just this once. Not trying to be a naggy-pants, this comes from a place of heartfelt love and concern. I started getting more concerned when I saw this video, ironically where Matt explains how The Bored helped him out by finding the "All Your Sons..." demo. Matt's teeth/gums in this vid are wrapped with brown cigarette tar, his wheeze audible. Watch in fullscreen HD (not on a cellphone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-OvPhnJ80s With all due respect, tell that to my grandfather and aunt, both dead from lung cancer via smoking. Thankfully my mom quit right after her dad and sister passed away, the writing was on the wall for her. She gained a bit of weight from bad eating to compensate afterwards, but she's still alive. Every addictive habit has its benefits, they relieve stress.

Matt, thanks so much for again sharing a little bit of yourself with me, and with all of us, through your new record, your tour, and through your thoughts in different media and especially on this Bored. It's been fascinating being a part of your journey the last 20 years or so, musically and personally, through whatever you share with us, and you've gone places I could have never have imagined. Based on some of the songs from the last few records, you have no idea how happy I am to see that you've seemed to have found true happiness in your life. Congrats! As a fan, I only ask 2 things from you in 2016: 1 - Please stop smoking. Any time I see you in an interview or pic smoking, watching a singer with your god-given gift willfully destroy that gift by his own hand, bit by bit, it's a damn fucking tragedy. Not to mention I've had 2 close relatives die of lung cancer from smoking, so I don't want to see your family lose you before your time. For a guy so intelligent as yourself, it's a really REALLY stupid thing to keep doing, career-wise and personally. Would be like watching a younger Jimmy Page slam his own fingers between a door every day. 2 - Musically, just keep doing whatever you want creatively. I'm sure you get pressures and advice from all sorts of people and entities. Fuck them. I hope you keep taking risks, big risks. LOES was a big risk, and it was one of the best albums in your career. Do a full-on jazz album if you want, or whatever the heck floats your fancy creatively. Write a novel, make some paintings...whatever. The fans will buy it. Good luck!

That would be damn cool.

If Matt ever gets some time between tours he should tab out all/most/some of his songs. I'd pay good money for a big guitar tab book like that, it's pretty much impossible to find good MG/MBG tabs on the internet except for the big hits, even http://www.mgtabarchive.com/ is very hit-and-miss, and hasn't been updated in forever. Would be awesome to buy a Chaotic Neutral tab book at the merch booth. As a bonus it would be a good reference for him so he doesn't have to figure out how to play old songs again before every tour haha.

Holy shit that was beautiful. Friggin' Stu man, the guy never ceases to amaze me. Cool to see blake on guitar too, all 4 of them playing. I was thinking of skipping this tour but maybe I'll pick up a ticket. Thank you for this. I don't know how many new fans you're picking up at this point in your career, but for old fans like me who have seen you live a dozen times or so, hearing the same songs can get pretty boring. How much new material you play matters a lot to me, it's quickly becoming the difference to whether I plop down $50+ for a ticket during a tour or not. For me, it's just not worth my $50+ to hear the same songs every single tour.

Haha that's awesome!