Can't Sleep...Clown'll Eat Me

Not being able to sleep absolutely sucks. I'm fucking exhausted, yet my mind is racing and unable to relax. Welcome to the weekend in style! So to pass the time until I can respectably go out for a morning walk to grab some coffee, I've been absorbing the new Matthew Good record, Vancouver. Now multiple listens in, I'm enjoying this WAY more than 2007's Hospital Music and just as much his first two solo releases, perhaps more. His songwriting is so fluid and seemingly simple at times, yet littered with slight nuances and brilliant, painfully deep lyrics.

Tracks like "US Remain Impossible" and "On Nights Like Tonight" rival classics like "While We Were Hunting Rabbits" and MGB favorites such as "Advertising On Police Cars" and "The Rat Who Would Be King". Just as personal as Hospital Music at times, yet musically more focused.

For some amazing reading, check out his site here

His entire catalog is now available digitally in the US, or you can buy the imports from Canada.

Check it, my favorite track from Hospital Music, live and acoustic- "99% of Us is Failure":

So Much New Junk. So much.

Well, it's clearly been a long fucking time since I've updated this blog. So much has happened since my last update, I don't even know where to begin. So instead of going on and on about shit that only I care about, I want to talk about some new jams that making living extremely pleasurable these days:

- Slayer-World Painted Blood
If you don't like Slayer, you have no business listening to, reading about or discussing anything that even remotely comes across as metal. This is the best Slayer album since Diabolus and possibly since Seasons in the Abyss (www.slayer.net)
- Katatonia-Night Is The New Day
Best unheard of band of the last ten years. Why this group isn't as big as Opeth or Porcupine Tree is beyond me. Better songs, better hooks, more mass appeal. Could be their best effort yet (www.nightisthenewday.com)
- Converge-Axe To Fall
Another stellar album from start to finish. Just as brutal as No Heroes and perhaps more diverse (www.convergecult.com)
- Kowloon Walled City-Gambling On The Richter Scale
Like Unsane, Helmet, Crowbar, Jesus Lizard, Tad and The Melvins? I thought you might. Think about all of this, summed up in one band...then add 10 times the heavy. Oh, and they write songs, not just sludgy riff after riff. This is killer shit from SF. (www.inthewalledcity.com)
- Matthew Good- Vancouver
The follow-up to Hospital Music blows it out of the water. Heartfelt and honest, like he always is. An homage to his city, one that he loves and despises. Great stuff (www.matthewgood.org)
- Living Colour- The Chair in the Doorway
Like Sly and the Family Stone...But with balls. Big balls. Truck nut style (www.livingcolour.net)

Also jamming on new releases from: Armed For Apocalypse, Fight Amp, Russian Circles, Doomriders, Om, Saviours, Baroness, Thrice, Long Distance Calling, Ghost Brigade and more.

What a great year for music.

Converge "Axe To Fall":

Katatonia The Day and Then The Shade":

Fancy Friday

Time to get fancy! This weeks' feature is one of my favorite artists of all time, Matthew Good. Yes, I know he's Canadian but we wont hold that against him. The guy is amazing. I hear the sheep reference a lot (mostly from my wife) but dude is awesome and always has something incredibly relevant to say. He finally toured the US for the first time in nearly a decade, earlier this year. Bought my ticket, was all set to go...and got the flu. I thought I was going to die and missed the show. I also missed Clutch that same week. The flu is a cold bitch.

Anyway, I could go on for years about how important Matt Good is to how I craft songs and think about many issues that plague our society. He never comes with complaints...Just points out what's fucked and gives solutions and brilliant social commentary.

Here are a few of my favorites, acoustically. How else does one get fancy?

"Empty Road":
"Avalanche":
"Long Way Down" at home...

I Hear Matt Good's A Real Asshole...

Which fucking rules because after nearly eight years of being a fan, he's finally doing a US Tour, stopping in SF on March 7th! The brick has been shit people. Apparently, he's not really an asshole, just a slogan than has followed him around for years, making its way onto bumper stickers and t-shirts, similar to "Primus Sucks" chants, or to "Linkin Park Sucks" chants at their shows...Although I think the latter is a different story altogether. 

So at $15 a pop for tickets in a tiny cafe/venue, acoustic and solo, I'm pretty stoked. His later opus, Hospital Music is a painfully beautiful trip into the past year of his life (divorce, near death, being Canadian, etc) and is a very experimental piece of work. 

I'm so excited (and my wife is being a saint and tagging along, even though she's not a fan) that I'm not going to write a book here...The music has always spoken just fine.