Prairieboy

Been a long while since I’ve been on here…really happy to see Lost & Found Kids released. Love it!

Awesome, thx for this. I’ve seen you on Reddit asking Matt about the artwork lol…I’m really curious to see what it’s like once it’s released!

Ok so I’m not going crazy then - I thought I had heard on the tour that the whole album was coming out on the 29th.

Song is amazing! I’m trying to remember what he said about how often a new song drops on the website and when the whole album becomes available?

Matt and the band were on-point last night in Saskatoon. For those who were worried about him because of the Weapon performance in Edmonton the night before, as he explained on Reddit - it was an issue with the track which screwed up the timing. Everything was great in Saskatoon last night - including Weapon which was one of the most intense songs. He opened with Tripoli (which I never thought I’d ever hear live as a full-band version) and then into Decades. New song Daylight Actual sounds fantastic, and Something Like a Storm was on the set list last night too. Matt was really engaged with the crowd, and was very gracious at the end…clapping for the crowd, taking his hat off and bowing. Great to see him back again. As a fan who’s been watching him tour since 1999 - Don’t let a chance to see him pass you by - talents like this don’t come by very often and when they’re gone, they’re gone.

Also interested to see musically where this album goes. Reeeaaally like the vibe of Lost and Found Kids but don’t know if we’ll ever see something like that again. Regardless I am looking forward to what’s next and who’s playing on the record.

The Avalanche tour was something else. Pledge of Allegiance, Near Fantastica, 21st Century Living…so punchy when played live.

Born Losers is one of my wife’s favourites so she was pretty happy to hear it. She’s also a new fan of Radicals. The fact that he opened with Champions was amazing….I haven’t heard that song in years and it was totally unexpected. Rabbits is always so good. And the crowd was totally silent for the end of Apparitions, it was truly haunting. So happy to have him back out on the road again.

In no particular order (because I can’t remember the exact order other than he started with Champions and ended with Los Alamos) here is the Regina set: Champions Parts Strange days Born losers Alert status red Fine art of falling apart Fated Rabbits Apparitions Time bomb Sort of a protest song Load me up Radicals Los Alamos

The 2:11 mark of Lost and Found Kids....wow!!!

Pretty sure what I hue is different than this. I’ll check the tape this upcoming weekend and let you know.

The MuchWest is a longer segment I believe - I’ll have to go back and check it. And yes most of that other stuff is pretty common, the holy grail is live material which there isn’t much of as it was pre-iPhone days. I remember how happy I was to find that “live in Munich” audio recording way back then as it was the only “live” audio of MGB that I had ever come across at that point in time.

Lol “recorded under a blanket” - couldn’t have described it better myself. Yeah I recall there was some other MGB stuff on there so I look forward to seeing that digitized. There along with some music that was my brother’s taste at the time and not mine ....which makes me think this Snowjob performance might be a dub from the original tape I recorded it on, I’m just not 100% sure. If that other magical unicorn tape shows up - I’ll let you know. Could be just a figment of my imagination too. I found tapes that have a MuchWest special, another one with the making of AOB, and a shorter clip of Matt and Dave playing foosball in the Much studio. I believe these are all available in decent quality on YouTube already. Adam - is there any writing on that vhs tape I sent you?

I’m trying to remember why at the beginning Matt says “if the Americans aren’t going to show up...” I *think* there was supposed to be a different band (from the US) headlining the Snowjob concert that backed out at the last minute, so MGB got bumped up to be the concert headliner. Does anyone have recollection of this?

Ha ha awesome - thx for digitizing this for us! I’m just glad that I eventually found that tape - I had made it for my brother who would have been in his early teens at the time, but couldn’t recall what I did with it. Turns out my brother still had it. I still remember like it was yesterday....sitting there Sunday afternoon in my lonely basement apartment with my VCR ready waiting to record the live MGB performance. What a day! Man I just watched a brief clip of it and you did a great job of digitizing this! The audio isn’t fantastic but the video is practically 4K lol! (I must have gone to Zellers and spent decent money on a good quality videotape just for this :))

This is why I still buy physical copies of albums/artists that I really enjoy...I don’t trust that (insert digital service here) will keep them up forever even though I’ve paid for them ?

Thx John for sharing your stories with us this year - it was such a welcome surprise and distraction from everything else that is going on. Music has helped me through so many difficult times in my life and this is no exception. Your interviews and Ian’s have shed new light on this great era of music, and I’ve found myself revisiting my older albums of not just MGB but other bands and artists as well. If anything - it has heightened my appreciation for that period in music history - of when I was in my early 20’s and (to use an overused phrase) life seemed so much simpler. How I miss those days sometimes....although nostalgia can be a funny thing ? Merry Christmas to you and yours.

You're 100% correct - each player has brought something unique to each of these songs. ie. the Christian/Pat/Rich version of Load Me Up might be my favourite version of all. I'm also a huge fan of the Hello Time Bomb version from that era that slows down for the very last chorus before firing up again, and that version of Symbolistic White Walls with the alternative end lyrics might be some of the best lyrics I've ever heard. Thx again for being able to get Ian's perspective on it!

Just finished watching that whole interview - well done again Daniel. To Ian’s point - yes AOB was issued on vinyl. In fact it’s still available in the MG store. This whole interview has made me appreciate the “band” more and the MGB albums more. We’ll never see anything like that again...everything was just clicking at the time for those 6 years that they were together recording music. And sadly - there’s very little audio and likely no video from MGB concerts of that era. There’s no vault of b-sides or unreleased tracks. This is it. 4 albums and 2 EP’s. But having listened to Ian talk about it wants me want to go back and listen very deeply to each album more. I’m glad I’ve picked up the vinyl of each of those albums too. I’m going to have to try AOB again too. Not going to lie - it’s my least favourite of all the albums. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the timing of it all...the fact that it was the end of the band and there was no tour around it, or just personal things in my own life. Great to hear Ian talk about songs like Fall of Man and Jenni’s Song though, that was great insight!

I’m partway through the interview and I hate to be that guy but I’m pretty sure Ian is mixed up on the release of the Underdogs singles. Automatic then Indestructible then Apparitions (not vice versa) then Rico was last. I have very very vivid memories of the order of those singles! Rico came after Apparitions because the Rico video was supposed to be a kind of a continuation of the Apparitions video. The same girl in the Apparitions video (I think I read somewhere her name is Caroline???) shows up at the start of the Rico video (she’s an emotional wreck because the guy shot himself and she ends up going to the bar for a drink) Anyways - this interview is fantastic and I can’t wait to finish it!

Did you notice that both times the “sinner” line comes up that it flashes clips of Matt?

Looking forward to the latest interview!

I’ve just finished watching the rest of the interview and I just have to say - Daniel: thank you so much for doing this interview. And also to Ian and John for agreeing to do this. I could have listened to it go on for hours!! I didn’t get into MGB with LOTGA - for me it was (of all songs) Indestructible that got me to buy the Underdogs album. It’s still a sentimental favourite to this day because of that. For me - Underdogs was the first album I could listen to front to back and then on repeat again...it just worked. So after Underdogs ran its course and before Beautiful Midnight, I started to search out whatever MGB stuff I could to fill the void. And part of that was driven by the Symbolistic White Walls performance at Snowjob on MuchMusic. I just loved that song...how heavy it was and full of a certain sort of passion and anger. I had to have it. That’s when I learned about Raygun and LOTGA and I had to get my local CD store to special order them. Raygun was an immediate favourite because it more closely resembled the Underdogs sound than LOTGA, but over time LOTGA grew on me. I realized that I wished I had LOTGA when it first came out, and not a few years after the fact. The sound just felt like (and still does) that it speaks to a certain part of my life...a bridging between my childhood and into adulthood. (I was 21 when Underdogs came out and had recently moved away from home for the first time in my life for my first “real” job which was in radio of all things which presented its own opportunities to hear new MGB material) I’m not a musician - so I don’t understand how everything works. I just know what sounds good to me. And as much as Matt has grown and improved over time and he’s got a great band now....I miss Geoff’s bass. And I miss Ian’s drums. (Ian is the first drummer that I actually have listened to songs where I sometimes try to consciously block out the other instruments because his work is just so amazing and innovative). And now with all this talk of Euphony and 15 Hours, it makes me want to go dig those CD’s and cassette out of the box I have them hidden away in and rip them onto my computer and phone. Can’t even recall exactly how I got them... Guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow ? Thx again John, Ian and Daniel!

This thread has been absolutely fantastic - thank you John!!

I’ve only had time to watch the first 27 minutes but this is great! And to finally find out why Omissions was left off the vinyl pressing!