uglyredhonda

Well, he deleted the post about it, so who knows what's going on. Not sure it's even worth speculating at this point.

Matt included it as part of the pre-release online stream of Vancouver. The stream had a bunch of random demos and at least one live performance. If I'm not mistaken - I thought at one point Matt said that it was actually older than the Vancouver demos, or that it wasn't specifically recorded with Vancouver in mind. (I think was in an M+ post that probably no longer exists.)

I'm assuming you guys ordered the Cobraside US version. Even if it was a couple of bucks more, you probably should have ordered the Canadian version (and probably still should if you want it anytime soon). Amazon.ca really shouldn't be selling the US import.

With Rich, it seemed like their relationship was fraying during the WLRRR touring. Rich posted about a couple of minor incidents on his blog. Matt started working with Ryan Dahle informally after the tour was over, and decided to switch Rich and Christian out for Ryan and Meegee. (That's when Matt posted the note about the freedoms of being a solo artist including playing with different people from time to time.) That seemed to go well until Ryan and Meegee booked some Limblifter dates during what would have been touring for In a Coma. Matt asked Rich and Christian to return for those shows (which they did), after which Matt announced that he was going to give up the band and just play solo. By the time he decided that he wanted/needed to tour with a band again, he opted to put together a new band. And, yeah, I don't think there was an official pre-record-company-meddling tracklist for AOB. The other other tracklist I remember seeing was one that included "All Together" before "Sort of a Protest Song". I think "Pony Boy" was excluded during the sessions.

Apparently, Cobraside was able to get it as a separate track. (It looks like all of the international releases have it.) You wouldn't have to - it's available as an individual track for 99 cents.

Yeah, they look identical. More noteworthy: both include "Darlin'". The Canadian iTunes version does not.

If I remember correctly, if you put a free App in your cart, "None" will appear as a payment option during registration. You still need a Canadian mailing address (I used either a hotel or a post office) to create the account. Once that's done, though, you can use a Canadian iTunes gift card (has to be a Canadian card). They sometimes pop up on eBay, or maybe someone here can pick one up for you. Or, you could get someone in Canada to buy the album for you as a gift in iTunes (which still requires a Canadian iTunes account to receive). I said a while back that once the album was officially released, I'd consider posting them "somewhere". We're not there yet.

CDN$14.23 and free shipping to the US: http://www.cdplus.com/shop/default.asp?isl...amp;code=740549 (I haven't ordered from them in a while, but I did get Live from Massey Hall from them in '08.)

I still can't believe how much Amazon jacks up their internal imports. It's usually cheaper to order it directly from Amazon.ca and pay international shipping. (CDPlus.com is usually the cheapest, as far as ordering the CD in the US.)

Was Vancouver available via pre-order in the US? I was thinking not, but I'm too lazy to look it up. Non-Canada distribution is handled by a third-party (Cobraside), so it's separate - it's possible that it won't show up in the US iTunes Store until the day of release (if not later). I noticed on their playlist history that The Edge has only played Underdogs and Beautiful Midnight singles in the last month as far as MG goes. Not even "Born Losers".

Will be released on vinyl after all: http://www.matthewgood.org/news-comment/20...nformation.html

Three Years May 28, 2010 Dear San Diego, I’ve been here for a while now. I’ve been sleeping on a couch for the last, well, three years. I drink way more than I used to and the only place in town to do it is at a strip club on the highway whose giant neon sign keeps me up nights. I’m the world’s most overqualified, overeducated movie usher. Things could be worse. Parker got new meds a while back, maybe four months ago, haven’t written anything about it, wasn’t sure how it’d turn out or if she’d stay on them. She’s missed a few days here and there but for the most part she’s a lot better, more predictable I guess. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not in her case, but at least she can sleep now, at least there aren’t towers of old newspapers in her room. But I don’t know, there aren’t any equations on the fridge now either. Life’s in a hurry, even when you’re hiding, even when you can’t remember what it is you’re hiding from anymore. Probably just yourself. You never admit it, you spin it in your head and in your guts, you stare cross eyed into the bottom of empty glasses and tell yourself that there isn’t anything to worry about. But even here, where nothing ever happens, where the world seems a distant planet, it’s still true. Maybe there’s nothing more loathsome than yourself, but trying to convince yourself otherwise is a waste of time. Funny though, giving into it’s a waste of time too. Living with it’s going to be your days and nights. And unless you step in front of a train the only thing you’ve got to do in this life is come to terms with that. Sometimes I can feel the snakes in my stomach. Sometimes they talk to me. At night when I’m half me, when I’m not really here, when what was comes calling and I forget that sometimes it’s better not to answer the door, I remember the life I used to lead, the person I used to be, but always make the mistake of never admitting that while I may have gotten myself lost, finding things haunts everyone until their last breath. And, you know, I’ve been wondering if in that moment you do. Or if it’s just the exhausted exhale of having spent a life looking.

Basically, Matt wanted to be able to have a website that he could manage himself (from a technical standpoint), which was not the case with the old site. He didn't think he could make the changes that were needed for the album launch over there, and he found that Squarespace did everything he wanted except for the ability to purchase subscriptions. He thought he might be able to keep the old site around just for M+ (with a different domain), but it sounded like that didn't work out. I suspect he's also struggling to find content and/or unique things for M+, so I think it just seemed like an obvious answer. Having said that, he's acknowledged that M+ has a relatively strong community going, which I'm not sure he's ready to nuke yet. I don't think he's yet decided how/if it will end. At one point, he talked about nuking it in the fall and giving merch to the folks whose subscriptions hadn't run out. But the current site indicates that everyone who signed up will stay a member until the last person's subscription runs out (March of next year). But no new signups. I would be surprised if he did the presale/pre-show stuff that he did last year, though that's just my opinion.

The classic example of how the iTunes bonus track thing sucks is "All Together". It was included as a pre-order bonus on In a Coma, yet the iTunes price was $26.99 for the set. I don't believe it even came with the videos, while you could get the set with the DVD for $20 at a store. But it's the only time that the finished version of that song was ever released anywhere - I don't think any of us have ever heard it, only the rough mix version that's been passed around for years. I dug that they included the Massey tracks on Vancouver, and, in hindsight, I liked that acoustic version of "99%" enough that it I was definitely was glad to have pre-ordered. But I'm not a fan of basically forcing to buy an entire album for one song. That's what the major labels were doing in 1990s - but at least then, it was for the popular single, not the b-side. Having said that, I'll probably end up pre-ordering on iTunes. (I bought an iTunes gift card the last time I was in Canada pretty much in anticipation of it.) And I'm actually a bit surprised / impressed by the price difference from the CD.

He's said that the non-Canada pre-orders will come later. As I understand it, he's using a separate distributor (Cobraside) for non-Canada releases, so there's a delay. (He hasn't yet mentioned whether the non-Canada pre-orders will include the bonus track - the ones for Vancouver did not.)

The pre-order is also up on iTunes Canada, with the bonus track.

There was mention of it in the Lights of Endangered Species megathread. Matt sent out a short thank you on Facebook & Twitter, and he noted in the megathread that he didn't attend.

You're never going to get more for it than you will right now, and you probably could have gotten substantially more for it five years ago. Part of the $250 value was that it had songs that weren't available elsewhere - that's no longer the case now that they're readily available on iTunes. (Same for Loser Anthems.) Frankly, I'd keep it. BTW - would you be willing/able to scan the cover of the booklet? Every scan I've ever found has been either small or really blocky.

You keep skipping the really important parts of this, so let's keep it to one question at a time: 1) Say Matt decides he wants to give away a setlist book, but only as a tie-in with the new release. He has Universal include an entry with every copy of his latest CD. Is that elitist, and would you have a problem with it?

You're projecting. None of that is actually happening on M+, you just think it is. You've twisted the definition of elitism, too - essentially, you're claiming that M+ers think they're better than everyone else because they paid $25 to join. That's retarded. Matt is selling a product, called M+. That product includes: 1) Regularly updated content about songwriting and recording. 2) The ability to comment on posts. (Which is diminished now that there aren't any regular blog posts.) 3) Occasional M+ meet and greets at shows. (This probably happened five times during the touring this year.) You can choose to buy that product or not. Elitism would be if Matt selected who got to join and denied participation to certain folks, using qualifications such as those in your definition of elitism. But that's not happening. He's selling a product, and you can choose to purchase it or not. Elitism would also mean that M+ers think they're better than everyone else, and if you spent five minutes on the M+ forums, you would see that it absolutely isn't the case. By your definition of "elitism": 1) Matt is being elitist because he only plays concerts for people who pay for a ticket. He should be opening the doors and playing so that the people outside that can't afford a ticket can enjoy the show. 2) Matt is being elitist because he's only making his music available to people who buy it on CD or via download. He should be posting it for free on the Internet so that the people who can't afford to buy it can hear it. If you can't tell the difference between the political elitism that Matt was criticizing and a $25 fan club, you're an absolute moron. Here's a hint to the difference: politicians are elected to represent the people who elect them. And if it's this important to you, then explain it - why didn't you buy M+? And I don't mean your current "it's fucking elitist" excuse - I mean what stopped you from buying it six months ago?

You're an idiot. Matt doesn't owe us anything. We buy his music and enjoy it. If he writes a blog for free, that's his choice. If he writes a blog not for free, that's also his choice, and we can each choose to participate. If he wrote a book, you'd expect him to give it away for free? M+ costs the equivalent of TWO CDS FOR A YEAR. One MG show costs more than a year of M+. That makes M+ers "elitists"? The M+ content is nothing like the Blog content. The Blog content is almost entirely political, the M+ content almost never is. The M+ content, by and large, consists of shorter observations, save for the longer posts about the songwriting process and the development of the new album. Those are the subjects he was offering as part of the package from the very beginning, and he's planning on continuing them as promised. Of the two posts today, the first contained four totally random observations (unrelated to politics). The other ("Democra+") was about whether or not to change the M+ social functions, which would obviously be irrelevant to non-M+ers. Those posts combined didn't take NEARLY the amount of time to write as it would for the typical regular Blog post, given how long he (obviously) spends researching and writing that stuff. If this is the thing that makes you decide to no longer be a fan, then don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

http://www.maplemusic.com/assets/product_i...ge_shirt_dt.jpg http://www.maplemusic.com/assets/product_i...ankshirt_dt.jpg

;) The package is missing a few of the more recent files (at least two full songs, I think), but I figured I'd wait and do an updated version once he really gets into recording (or maybe after recording is finished). And I posted one track further into the thread that I accidentally left out. Yeah, so if anyone wants a (mostly) full preview of the new album, it's in the M+ forums. This is probably a pretty good time to buy in (if anyone hasn't already), since he's just starting pre-production for the album.

You may indirectly get that wish. Matt said that Universal is pushing him to deliver "bonus tracks" for the album. I figured he'd just throw off some of the unrecorded tracks from recent years, but it looks like he's writing new songs. (He posted an unfinished one yesterday as a "b-side", which I assume means that it's one of the future bonus tracks.)