Pretty much the only way I make money these days is through touring, so Ive essentially been out of job all year, which has been really stressful financially for me and the guys in my band. The guitar work on those albums really tickles my guitar nerd bone. Matthew Sweet's Son of Altered Beast pushes the music of 1993 studio release Altered Beast further, providing new material for fans and giving others a chance to see another dimension of Sweet's work.
I have self-doubt. puckrock2000: UberDave: Looks like he got older and put on a few pounds. I dont know what people will think about it, really, but I felt it really fit the album I wanted to make. When people come to see me, theyre really invested in it., Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Contact Us via Farkback|Report a bug/error msg|Terms of service/legal/privacy policy|Do Not Sell My Personal Information I love my wife, and to spend time with her weve been married for going on 28 years next spring. I feel like it has the right kind of grasping going on in it - where it helps the album and it also helps kind of define what the vibe of it is. (The storyline features a gigantic feline villain). It can get dark and sometimes a little desperate. 703-549-7500. birchmere.com. We sold our house in November. It made it so that I could keep making records. I was already worrying and steeling myself against some things in life. That song is about defiance. You do cover a range of emotions on the album. Matthew Sweets journey began with a move to Athens, Ga. in the early 1980s at the urging of his pen pal, R.E.M.s Michael Stipe. It has a small studio area that works just great for me, and we have all these other rooms that are acoustically very interesting. Even though I mastered it [in the earliest stages of that]. It was really satisfying.

Turn on javascript (or enable it for Fark) for a better user experience. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Photo by Evan Carter. Im resigned to my fate. (Photo by [+] Paul Natkin/Getty Images). Give A Little and Challenge The Gods sort of skew more positive, hopeful, while something like At a Loss goes the opposite way. I got to be Homer playing bass, and I wrote a song for that, Sweet said. The effect is reminiscent of Cheap Tricks debut LP or Big StarsRadio City, products of a bygone era of record-making when long-form flow and coherence the exact amount of time it took to share a joint with a friend or build up the courage for that first kiss were essential to a successful album. It was a conscious decision not to give agency to that negative energy, Almond says. You know what they say: Sweets for the Sweet. I really had a lot of fun doing it. On Twitter @LJSWolgamott. The performance features Jerry Garcia performing with friend, mentor and legendary keyboardist/vocalist Merl Saunders. Im going to get the deeper feeling of why that thing is important to him. I think a big influence over it is that I played all the lead guitar myself on it, and that pulls it together and makes it it all gel as one. Matthew Sweet's 15th studio album Catspaw is now available via Omnivore Recordings. This one, I didnt maybe try as hard for that. Its life or death. looks like he needs to.. get back in the arms of a good. The first hour is free with validation. It was this quality that found Catspaw a home on Omnivore Recordings. But whereBeastwas the self-interrogation of an artist in his mid-20s,Catspawis the confessions of a career artist, mature and assured in his craft and achingly transparent in his confrontations of aging and the search for meaning. As you get older, you realize, Oh my god, so much time has passed.. Susanna Hoffs. Theres this Mickey Baker book on guitar method He was a really great studio player in the late 50s and early 60s and part of the duo Mickey & Sylvia. Recently I heard catspaw again and started looking up definitions. Its no coincidence that Todd Almond, who wrote the musicals book, also attended high school in Alliance during the early 90s. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. I was just starting to write songs and play a little guitar and I had this thought: I wonder if when Im old and Ive been around music a really long time, I might suddenly just be able to play lead guitar without ever properly learning how. There's a neat video of an accoustic performance of Different Drum floating around YouTube when did Susanna Hoffs learn to sing on key? Im not really a lead guitarist. "Don't cry that it's over, smile because it happened" "It was a lot of fun, he's really sweet." They currently practice at Neurology Clinic at UW Medical Center - Montlake and are affiliated with UW Medical Center - ; As of now, Yellowstone has not been renewed for season 6. Derek and The Dominos. Almost forgot, Matthew Sweet did a longish stripped down set recently for Curt Smith's YouTube show, Stripped Down Live. Yeah, definitely, says Sweet, calling in from his home in Nebraska, where he recorded the new album. This is your Fark Writer's Thread, Making Choices Edition, Good news, everyone. Dont try to get them to do something thats my idea - let them run free and pull from their freedom what youre going to use on the record. That doesnt mean Matthew has given up his musical career. It took 10 years of workshops and rewrites before Girlfriend finally opened at the Berkeley Rep Theatre in 2010, but when it did, Sweet sent flowers to the cast and crew. The whole thing is Im going to do the Kickstarter campaign. I had these pottery cats I used to make. The Catspaw album was completed before the pandemic, but reading the credits, you might expect it was something he did under quarantine, since its as close to being completely DIY as anything hes ever done. So in a way, its not hugely different for me: I live in an internal world a lot. What is Matthew Fox Doing Now? All Rights Reserved. Happens to a lot of people over twenty years. 13. friend. Matthew Sweet's 15th studio album Catspaw is now available via Omnivore Recordings. I took a few days off following Paul McCartneys Pinnacle Bank Arena concert, and Ive got a notebook that needs emptying. Yeah, he got fat. It sure sounds like Richard and Bobs style has rubbed off on you.If I had to choose one of them, it would be Richard. Maybe if you just play a really long time, it just kind of comes together? and other songs. And the funny thing is, it did. The guy is maybe unsure how the person hes singing to feels. "Don't cry that it's over, smile because it happened" "It was a lot of fun, he's really sweet." Hes kind of reticent to say how he feels until he knows how they feel. Its gotten rapidly worse here virus wise. The result is Catspaw (Omnivore), which contains some of his most angular and aggressive moments since 1993s Altered Beast. I was very sensitive in that way. Sweets music has appeared in numerous films, television shows, and games, includingAustin Powers,Guitar Hero II,Buffy the Vampire Slayer,The Simpsons, andScooby-Doo, among many others. You might even imagine that its the cat thats got his tongue, looking at the seemingly menacing feline on the cover of the forthcoming Catspaw, which comes out January 15, 2021. The result is Catspaw (Omnivore), which contains some of Also, he adds, its just very pandemic Im at a loss, you know? Check out the new track, below. COPYRIGHT 1995 - 2023 GRATEFUL WEB, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This time out, Sweet intensifies his reverence for guitar-oriented rock. Recently I heard catspaw again and started looking up definitions. On Catspaw, his 15th studio album, due out January 15, 2021 on Omnivore Recordings, Matthew Sweet cranks his vintage amplifiers and steps into a role previously played by some of his generations most unique and incendiary lead guitarists from Richard Lloyd (Television) to Robert Quine (Lou Reed) and Ivan Julian (Richard Hell & the Voidoids). Image Credit: Paramount Network. So I didnt think too much about being in the shadow of other people. But I had this little kind of vision and, low and behold, I made an album and I played lead guitar on it. Altered Beast (1993) continued the hot streak with singles Ugly Truth and Time Capsule, while 1995s 100% Fun single Sick of Myself reached #2 on rock radio, breaking him even wider. Im glad I just finished a record so Im getting the treat of feeling like Im doing something for the next couple of months. $35.). Copyright 1999 - 2023 Fark, Inc | Last updated: Apr 05 2023 16:06:31 But hes kept me finding out about cool little things that get reissued and come out. As Girlfriend turns 30, Sweet once again confronts the idea of aging, doing it gracefully over the course of the dozen tracks that make up his latest studio effort Catspaw. Wrote Job You need to create an account to submit links or post comments. Weve started moving on from that, Sweet said. Big deal. Overall, these songs create a pleasing sensation of a prolonged, happy blur. I havent written any of it yet, Sweet said. I was also developing my ear over time. I dont know what to say,' he laughs.

But theres also a morbid sense of fun and even some nostalgia at play. Im able to.. Since the release of his breakthrough 1991 album Girlfriend, Matthew Sweet has established himself as one of Americas preeminent power pop artists. I really connected to the idea of the certain and deadly inevitable the pounce. And we did play the album in its entirety.

I should preface all this by saying Im a cat freak, though, Sweet points out, and Ive used cats over my career. It did a lot for me in my life. I worried a lot as a kid. We got in our car, drove our cats out there and closed an hour after we arrived in Omaha.. As a student at University of Georgia, he was immersed in the college towns burgeoning alternative rock scene, playing in pioneering acts like Oh-OK and the Buzz of Delight. stars explode - out now catspaw - out now And Ive always kind of dreamed that Id be able to do it. So its been a really happy occurrence to have it be coming out and be doing interviews for it. Im sure theres a few of those on Catspaw, as wella couple of things where I couldve never jumped to that note, in reality. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. The two albums he made with Susanna Hoffs are quite good. And it happens to have some doomy things on it that fit. It was recorded in his home studio and finished just before the pandemic, and its timing feels somehow appropriate. I kind of felt like I dont want to be out here (L.A.) at retirement age and never having got to know anybody. Its spontaneous. Success and people come and go in life, but I know I will always be making music and that it continues to be fun and intriguing that mystery of discovering what a song is going to become. Catspaw is the latest product of a remarkably fertile period that began when Matthew and his wife returned to his native Nebraska in 2013 after two decades of living and working in the Hollywood Hills. Thats just a thing in life that happens. Im at home and seeing almost no one. Dont ever forget life is totally cruel and the catspaw is already coming down on you.. Matthew Sweets journey began with a move to Athens, Ga. in the early 1980s at the urging of his pen pal, R.E.M.s Its even scarier if the teenager is gay and uncertain of the other persons orientation. Its not surprising, then, to see the wide jaws of a potentially devouring feline on the cover. We just really see eye to eye on things. brainiac-dumdum: Give me a "B", "O", "R", "I", "N", "G"!What's that spell?BLAND! The moment Matthews exit became obvious was when host Jeff Probst showed up at Tika. Exploring topics like growing up and breaking up, Sweet tallied a pair of gold records in the 90s, selling more than a million albums in the U.S. along the way. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. But those poor people at the town hall having to take her calls has found a much more fruity one. I realized after Id finished the record that I had made it just after turning 55 and that was coincidentally the exact age I fantasized I would be all those years ago when I was hoping someday Id be able to play lead guitar on my own album.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'gratefulweb_com-banner-1','ezslot_7',126,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-gratefulweb_com-banner-1-0'); Catspaw will be released January 15 on Omnivore Recordings. Sweet continued to evolve over a string of well-received albums in the early 2000s. I spoke with Matthew Sweet about stepping out on lead guitar and the way Catspaw unintentionally manages to address turbulent times in America amidst pandemic. He still sounds pretty good. And I had this idea that, even if I didnt play bass for a while, that somehow, in my subconsciousness, I would get better at playing bass even though I was never playing it. To take this album, which was about real personal things for me, and make it work for these two other kids was so cool.. July 21, 2009. Aha! It was very spur of the moment we decided to do it. Matthew Sweet is At a Loss for words, as he tells it, in the hard-rocking first single from his upcoming album. Matthew Sweet is At a Loss for words, as he tells it, in the hard-rocking first single from his upcoming album. Come to California. Sweet will be doing the singing when he and his band roll into Vega Thursday. But Im kind of a homebody. Its as much of a studio as Ive ever had, Sweet said. After scoring a record deal with Columbia (and then with A&M), Sweet Whats it like being able to look back at a project like that three decades later and see the way that it continues to resonate with people the way it does? Usually I start all of my recordings with just Ric and I. Ill play a guide guitar and hell drum along. I dont have the technical ability he has. He consistently shares his art pieces with his followers on Instagram. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. And one day it just popped into my head. Then Im going to write them all, then do demos, which I havent done forever. Image Credit: Paramount Network. Shop Official Matthew Sweet Merch, Vinyl Records, Shirts and More. I was on the radio a couple of weeks ago, and the guy introduced me as one of the pioneers of power pop. But maybe I felt like the whole album really had sort of that edge to it. Moving to Athens for college, he fell in with the vibrant music scene there, playing with Oh-OK and The Buzz of Delight. really, subby? Ive been running snakes around to all the rooms, getting the sounds in there.. Other Farkers comment on the links. WebBell Bottom Blues. I remembered having that kind of weird premonition when I was probably like 13. Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic. Sweet handles all of it: recording, mixing, Hfner bass, electric guitars, and Pet Sounds-like background vocals. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Some of the songs, in particular the opening song Blown Away, I felt really went with that definition well. And of course he's touring the Girlfriend album in the Fall. Im a practitioner., Throughout the half-hour interview, Sweet was clearly happy with everything that is going on in his life and career, which is continuing, unlike most of his late '80s/early '90s contemporaries. There were definitely some solos that were made up of three different takes. Think a third-string QB doesnt matter? It took Matthew Sweet 30 years and 15 studio albums to conjure the cojones to play lead guitar on record. I remember it so clearly. Singles Girlfriend and Ive Been Waiting, paired with their Japanese anime-laced music videos (a novelty to the American market at the time), won Sweet a lifelong international following. But you know, he put out. Sweet continued to evolve over a string of well-received albums in the early 2000s. Im able to.. Links are submitted by members of the Fark community. Davina & The Vagabonds, Sunshine. Davina Sowers loves prewar music, and shes been making her version of the blues, jazz and swing that . Manage Settings You know, its funny, he says. The bright spots for me were hooking up with Omnivore Recordings, who Id always wanted to do something with, and working on the artwork with them - which is always one of the most fun parts of the process for me. Continue with Recommended Cookies, Before the gold and platinum albums, before the MTV hits and critical renown, power-pop and alternative-rock pioneer Matthew Sweet was just a 13-year-old bass player sitting alone in his Nebraska bedroom, daydreaming of a life spent making music. I realized after Id finished the record that I had made it just after turning 55 and that was coincidentally the exact age I fantasized I would be all those years ago when I was hoping someday Id be able to play lead guitar on my own album.. Matthew Sweet is At a Loss for words, as he tells it, in the hard-rocking first single from his upcoming album. You might even imagine that its the cat thats got his tongue, looking at the seemingly menacing feline on the cover of the forthcoming Catspaw, which comes out January 15, 2021. I think both of us are a little bit similar in that were pretty emotional people. At a Loss establishes that Sweets lead playing is of a piece with some of the other famous guitarists hes had in his band. Now I can hear where I want a lead line to go., Catspaw is guitar-driven: 12 songs, lean and consistent, direct, and notably darker than Sweets recent song-cycles. Im saying, to hell with fate and gods and things like that. Like Dylan Thomas said, Rage against the dying of the light. Bolstered by a layer of chugging rhythm guitars, this pick-me-up anthem is his I Wont Back Down Rise above, take your place / Punch the world in the face, he sings. And I thought, I wonder if when Im old, Ill just be able to do it? And I felt like it was time to try the theory, he laughs. They understood it and for that reason I was really excited to give it to them.Catspawwas mastered by industry legend Bob Ludwig. How did that kind of manifest itself on this project? Im 56, which, at that time, seemed impossibly old to me, you know? Nebraska senator, legal group demand retraction for 'groomer' tweet, Suit alleges Lincoln company's closure violated labor law, Lincoln woman who killed two in hit-and-run tried to kill third man, police allege, Regents will consider contract with HDR for design of Memorial Stadium renovation, Boys basketball: The 2022-23 Super-State, all-state and honorable mention honorees, Girls basketball: The 2022-23 Super-State, all-state and honorable mention honorees, Charges against former NU football coach Mickey Joseph dismissed, On the Beat: McCartney, The Hold Steady, RIP Tommy Ramone and Johnny Winter, Review: Davina & The Vagabonds, "Sunshine", Sofia Richie converts to Judaism ahead of wedding to Elliot Grainge, Jennifer Lopez launching low-calorie cocktail brand, Kate Bosworth and Justin Long confirm engagement, Robert De Niro in talks to front new Paramount+ crime series. For me, being an artist is ultimately a solitary thing, he allows. I tend to be kind of shut in anyway. He was the first drummer who I just felt right with when we played together. Pyynk: (I) Almost forgot, Matthew Sweet did a longish stripped down set recently for Curt Smith's YouTube show, Stripped Down Live. Here is what our favorite BAU agent from "Criminal Minds" has been doing with his time off the show. Its worth noting that Sweet did play some lead guitar with Lynda Stipe (sister of Michael) and Linda Hopper (Magnapop) in Oh-OK, an early-80s Athens, Ga., indie pop outfit. WebAbout. Prefiguring the quarantine and social distancing era, Sweet has created something whole and beautiful within the confines of isolation. MAGNET recently caught up with Sweet in his hometown, where, like the rest of us, hes waiting out the pandemic and hoping to hit the road before 2022. In addition to lead guitar, Sweet handles everything from recording to instrumentation on his 15th album, now available digitally and on CD or vinyl via Omnivore Recordings, with Velvet Crush drummer and longtime collaborator Ric Menck the only other contributor to the new project. Later this year, the Girlfriend album turns 30. But it just sort of is like magic. The playwrights other crucial choice was to not include the seemingly obligatory scene of gay characters getting beat up by homophobic bullies. It was an album that Almond and his best friend, Shannan, a girl and the only person hed confessed his orientation to, listened to obsessively. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. So we sort of have that in common: when we feel something, we feel it really strongly. CaptainWes: Hasn't he always looked like a creepy motherfarker? Richards [Lloyd] playing influenced me a lot the ambition he has, that feeling when he just lets loose. WebSweet, Nebraska-born but also a college years scenester in Athens, Georgia (in the REM era) was sipping from a half-empty glass in the last chance saloon when he made his third album Girlfriend. But you know, he put out 100% Fun, so he can pretty much do whatever the fark he wants.This. What impact did that sort of isolation have on this project as you started guiding it forward? This article was published more than4 years ago. Onstage, the songs are performed by an all-female rock-and-roll quartet and then picked up by the only two actors: Lukas James Miller as Mike and Jimmy Mavrikes as Will. It was this quality that foundCatspawa home on Omnivore Recordings. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). And the funny thing is, it did. Beware of Darkness.

Please subscribe to keep reading. Bill Berry / Peter Buck / Mike Mills / Michael Stipe.
Ive never gotten sick of it.