SS53

I touched on this in a previous post. I'm really bummed there's no St. John's, NL show. That said, I can't really blame you, Matt. You were stuck in the fucking Breezeway bar last time, and not only that, but we don't even have a radio station that plays your music. Would it be fair to assume that that's a factor in your decision to not come here? I mean, it's not like you're not playing Atlantic provinces at all. Just curious about how you view Newfoundland when it comes to booking shows, because we ALWAYS get the shaft here, and I imagine that's because you (as well as many other artists) do as well. We get some fairly big acts from time to time, but at MAD costs. I don't care how good Tom Petty is; I'm not paying 100 bucks for shit seats. In fact, if I go see a rock show, I don't want seats at all - I wanna be on the floor as close to the stage as possible.

Really enjoying this album. A lot. Very few albums feel so great to me upon first listen. It's a wonderful surprise. Not that I expected it to be bad, mind you, but for some reason I really couldn't get into "Lights..." as well as I did, say, "Vancouver" which I thought was a downright brilliant record. (Though I think a possible reason I didn't quite dig on LOES was the fact that I was following along with the M+ demo releases, and felt there were some absolute fucking gems there that weren't represented on the final album. Mind you, that's not my call to make. Obviously Matt wasn't confident in them, or downright didn't like them, and that's fine. I'm just bummed they seem to have disappeared from the internet, hahaha). "Arrows..."; Definitely reminds me of the MGB style of catchy tunes, with loud guitars, and fantastic chord changes. Love the sound of the bass, too, which sounds like it carries right over from "Vancouver". The riffs, tones, melodies, and vocals are some of the best Matt's done, if you ask me. I can't really comment, lyrically. I've never been much of the poetic type. He could literally sing the phone book, and if the melody is good, I'll like it. I'm very much about "sounds", and not necessarily words. Not that I have anything against them. I like singing along to songs as much as the next person. Not to sidetrack too much, but on the topic of whether or not it can make a dent on charts, who knows? Lord knows it's good enough, but just go to YouTube and watch Matt's Rant on Tit's and Ass, and that absolutely still rings true, now, perhaps, more than ever. Christ, in Newfoundland we don't even have a single radio station that plays Modern/Alternative rock. Perhaps a show or two on the University radio, but otherwise, it's 2 Top 40 stations, 1 classic rock station that plays the occasional MGB tune, maybe, and a soft rock/easy listening station. No wonder Matt's not doing a show here on this tour. Sucks for me, and a lot of other Newfies, but I'm not sure I can blame him, honestly. Last time he was in St. John's he was stuck playing the shitty campus bar (which was awesome, by the way - too cool to see a show like that in such an intimate venue), while Bill Cosby was playing the stadium.