Outtahere

uglyredhonda: Thanks for the info! :) I wanted to commend you on your ability to negative (respectful) comments. Taking positive comments is easy. But everytime you release a record or a demo, you come here and see something you've worked on be reviewed and although most comments are positive, some are negative. Yet you reply to them in a respectful and sometimes insightful manner. That takes a certain amount of character.

I guess that's a double edged dagger when it comes to length with a CD, it can be longer than vinyl (from what I understand anyway). It's cool but then you have to face some headaches if you want to put it on vinyl. Does it cost a lot more to press a double or triple vinyl?

It took a lot of listens but now the album's settled in for me. The only songs I don't like are No Liars (cowbell and weird synth thingy after the first chorus) and Los Alamos which I find long and meandering (I know I seem to be alone in this situation). I systematically skip these now. I'm not in love with Girls in Black (see what I did there?) either but I don't skip it. I think All You Sons and Daughters doesn't belong on this record. The song is OK in itself but it lacks the general feel of the rest of the album. Moments, Kid Down The Well, Tiger By The Tail, Cloudbusting and Cold Water all have the same vibe. Add Harridan and Army of Lion to add a heavier and more rockish vibe and you've got a great record. Harridan to me is like Non Populus for this record. The solo at the end is just awesome. Holly McNarland's voice on Cloudbusting is superb. As it's been said before, Matt and Holly's voice were made to sing together.

That makes more sense than whole! That's probably it, they forgot a t at the end.

On mg.org it reads "my hear like belladonna swims some plasma undermine" But it sounds more like "my whole like belladonna swims some plasma undermine" Is it a typo?

Oh I'm certain you're 110% behind it. One would be foolish to release a record with material that's just meh to him (even though some do obviously). How are you suppose to support it for months if you don't enjoy it? I can't say if you were responding to me or the Billy Corgan post but, I was actually saying two seperate things: first that, personally, some songs don't connect with me which has nothing to do with, second, that I felt that the flowing of the record itself feels weird a bit, as if some songs go together and some don't (but again this is a very personal point of view). From your post, I got the impression you released more a collection of songs rather than a record in the classic "thematic" meaning of the word, hence my comparison with Lights which was a perfectly flowing cohesive record and remains one of my favourite records of all time of all artists. And I didn't give the demos a listen so when you put the record on SoundCloud, that was my first listen. I ended up buying the record which means I like the record. That being said, the artistic industry is a bloody mess. What I'm going to say is going to sound ludicrous I know but a lot more money is going into making hot dogs than making filet mignon. You're in the filet mignon side of things: it takes time, effort, money and in the end not many people will appreciate it. On the flip side, weiners costs a lot less, sells a lot more and become the cash cow of the companies running the industry. So unless you're financially self-sufficient, you're screwed. But from what I see, with Warner, you seem to have a more similar experience to the Avalanche era with Universal as in they actually help promote the record. I'm still debating the purpose of a video nowadays but still I'm happy to see you're actually getting support this time. Lights should have gotten that kind of support and same with Arrows but unfortunately, the people you were with at the time did not bother. And that's a shame.

What Matt's saying is a sad truth and I get it. I was born before CD players arrived in our homes... which meant that we had to wait until they were affordable before getting one. Vynil and cassettes were king in my home for a decade and a half of my existence. They both had the same advantage for artists who make full records: it was a pain to skip a song and they had two seperate sides. It took me a while to consider Mother's Talk and I Believe fom Tears for Fears' Songs From The Big Chair as something else than the end of a side and the beginning of the other. Same with The Seeds of Love which to me has an A side containing the singles and a B Side consisting of another type of songs. Those records are hard to listen on a CD as a whole because the seperation is still there in my mind. The arrival of Naspter and iTunes were a double edged sword. On one side, it allowed people who like certain songs off a record to only buy those instead of not buying it altogether or making a mixtape by borrowing the record from someone they know. On the other side, it has changed the way the generations that followed listens to music. Recently, Noel Gallagher was saying how he had to explain to his 14 years old daughter what a record sleeve was and that yes he had to decide what was going to be on that little image in the square that appears on the top of her music app... because she never buys any physical music let alone full records. Matt's post probably explains why Chaotic Neutral doesn't really flow as his previous records do. But I don't understand why an artist cannot make a full on record and stil sell tracks. For someone buying tracks, the running order doesn't really have any importance. It strange because, to me, Chaotic Neutral was more of a curve ball than Lights of Endangered Species which I loved from one side to the other instantly. It took a lot of listens to enjoy CN and there are songs I still don't like. Is it a result of Matt being underwhelmed by making records as he seems to be in this post or is it just because I didn't connect with some songs? It doesn't really matter. The point I'm trying to convey is, although a lot of songs from Chaotic Neutral definitely go together, it's certainly more a collection of songs than a record per se. To me, it's like Vancouver MKII. I had the same feeling with that record. I do hope he returns to making records. But given this last post, I doubt it... he's always been a great record maker.

Yes! Ahh those were the days.

Oh I definitely agree! Plus, in the past, with WLRRR as well as other bands who have put their lyrics on their Websites, I've seen typos and wrong lyrics. Nothing major I know. But I do get and commend the decision of not printing lyrics. Not only is it cheaper for the artist but it's better for the environment (and, let's be honnest, lyrics are read a couple of times until you learn the whole song and then the booklet is never opened again :P)

And the lyrics are on MG's site anyway.

Exactly! :P

Ha ha! Yeah I'm a bit of an MG geek :P

That is correct. Matt was a solo artist before LOTGA and changed musicians as he wished, just like he does now. The records "Euphony", "Broken" and "Left of Normal" were made as Matthew Good but he had a band with him and the name "Matthew Good Band" was used on the last pre-LOTGA record called "15 Hours On A September Thursday". In a way, LOTGA was supposed to be in the same vein as the previous ones with Matt recording with Ian and Geoff as well as Dave on some tracks without them being a proper band (which is why there's no pictures of Dave in the sleeve) and was released as MGB (not Matthew Good Band). The difference is that record became popular contrarely to the other ones and radio stations started calling them the Matthew Good Band and the name stuck. The person who compiled the pre-LOTGA songs under History Teacher wrote "Matthew Good Band" which is not really incorrect given the history and the fact that the Matthew Good Band was not originally just Matt, Ian, Geoff and Dave.

Awesome! Thanks a lot! :)

Yup! Cheers!

That's be nice! :)

I'm talking about this one

I'm unable to find a good version of the History Teacher sleeve. Does anyone have that lying around?

Oh absolutely! In my opinion, it's one of the best rock records of the 90's. I believe Flashdance II was first demoed for Underdogs and then recorded for BM. As for Pony Boy, it was demoed by Matt and Ian during the recording of Beautiful Midnight but Matt said he was never able to recreate the vibe back when they recorded it for AOB (hence it not making the final cut). For me it was Everything is Automatic but Apparitions was what drove me to buy Underdogs. The LOTGA and Raygun. I then bought BM on the day of its release.

Absolutely! I remember back then there were no album previews and streaming and such. So when I put the CD in the machine the first time, it was actually the first time I heard it. So, when I heard the beginning of Giants, to me it was in the same vein as Underdogs or Hello Time Bomb (which was the only track we'd heard from the record prior to its release). Then when the slow part started I thought "What the hell?" Oh and I also remember the surprise I had the first time I heard the end of Born To Kill.

Yeah that's all I wanted to say :P 16 years already... wow!

I was going to say "10 bucks someone takes the story of the album cover seriously" but he added a disclaimer. Wise decision Matt, wise decision.

I was looking though old archives and stumbled upon this blog post Matt made between 2000 and 2004. Maybe that can answer your question:

I thought the video would be released today but I guess not. I wonder when it'll be released.

They're on iTunes? The same ones that appear on Instagram?