For the record while Nickelback and Bieber Fever are Canadian exports, it was Americans who made them big. Just saying we all played a part in that sad tale. And yet there’s so much good music coming out of Canada. I’ll be in the US Grandpa Simpson rambling about some band that’s HUGE in Canada and earn blank looks. Who or what are you talking about? So that’s the purpose behind this CanCon Column every Tuesday at 9am…to provide illumination of Canadian music: retro, past and present/future. Any suggestions email or use comments below.
Matthew Good Band
Formation: 1993-2002
Twitter: @mattgood
Website: MatthewGood.org
Fan Website: Disorientation
Check Out:
Beautiful Midnight:
I wasn’t in Seattle when grunge broke. I got there long after Kurt was dead, the flannel fad passed and the city was now known for coffee and computers. (My friend T-Dawg and I visited Jimi Hendrix on a grey damp day that made All Along The Watchtower feel hollow).
Still as T-Dawg and I rambled slick Seattle streets, I couldn’t help but wonder what it was like for Seattleites all these years later to hear a song from that era. Where would it emotionally take them? What memories would it trigger? Matthew Good’s Load Me Up (track 5 off Beautiful Midnight) is like that: a sonic time machine for Canadians.
Soon after it’s release it was ubiquitous.
In Good’s hometown of Vancouver he became a celebrity (he was the Canadian Kurt: fame made him sulk). Here in Toronto 102.1 The Edge our “cutting edge” radio station (see what I did there?!) Load Me Up and Hello Time Bomb were these freshtastic doorways to all these songs and rich emotional worlds: Pumpkins, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Stone Roses and more. Those Good songs helped ease and were the transition of pop music into rock n roll, the sonic journey we all follow growing up.
To me the songs are wrapped in time…to fresh ears…I’m curious what do they sound like to you?
Sounds Like:
Like a sardonic Oasis (which, yeah I know that’s an oxymoron but I stand by it). You can also hear some Stone Roses in there as well.
Fun Fact:
I once reviewed their album Beautiful Midnight for Allmusic (this was back in the days of my youth!). (Their should be a few more Sammy reviews kicking around the site).
Funky Cool Lyric:
“If heaven’s for clean people, it’s vacant.”