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The lithe and sultry mrs tbogg and I will be out for the evening to go see pop music genius Matthew Sweet. New CD out Tuesday.
Local preview:
A few years back, rock critic Chuck Klosterman listed Matthew Sweet as one of the most accurately rated (as opposed to over- or underrated) artists in rock history, saying, “Every Matthew Sweet album has only one good song, and that song is utterly perfect.” As examples Klosterman listed “Sick of Myself,” “Girlfriend,” and “Where You Get Love.” He’s right about those songs, but he’s wrong about the albums — Sweet’s filler is better than most artists’ singles. And his best albums have little or no filler.
The buzz on Sweet’s new album Sunshine Lies, his tenth, is that it’s a power-pop masterpiece. And it is. The only problem — if it is a problem — is that a number of Sweet’s albums could be described the same way. Sweet is such a master of a certain kind of guitar pop song — ’60s-flavored but with modern production values, featuring a wild guitar solo and beautiful vocal melodies concealing depressing lyrics — that it’s easy to take him for granted.
In the years since his early-’90s commercial heyday, even Sweet himself has sometimes seemed a little bored by his solo career. He’s taken up work as a producer, helped create music for the Austin Powers movies, and formed two different supergroups, one with Bangle Susanna Hoffs and another with singer-songwriters Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins. He’s also taken up pottery, and, judging by his website, he’s as excited about that as he is about music. Still, Sunshine Lies does not sound at all like the product of someone who has lost the passion to create great music — it’s the work of an artist rediscovering some of his strengths, working at the peak of his power.
I still love this video if for no better reason to watch Robert Quine.
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Chuck Klosterman can always be counted on to be at least 75% wrong.
Enjoy the show!
I love Matthew Sweet, Chuck Klosterman, and the San Diego Reader. Even though I don’t live in San Diego anymore, rarely read Chuck Klosterman, and didn’t even know Matthew Sweet had a new cd until I saw it in the Springfield (MA) paper yesterday.
Klosterman was right about that song – it’s perfect. Should have been a huge, huge hit, but American taste in music – as in so many things – both sucks and blows. Quine rocks it, bu the underlying song is so sturdy, a lesser guitarist would have had to go miles out his way to ruin it.
‘Girlfriend’ is one of those albums that people find in your record collection and ask why they hadn’t heard of it. They’ll ask the same twenty years from now.
(The collab with Susanna Hoffs ain’t bad, either.)
What? You’re not glued to your computer, watching the HD stream from demconvention.com? And then giving us hysterical posts lamenting how the convention is sealing Obama’s defeat by not saying (insert favorite talking point here) over and over!?!?
What a disappointment!
Thanks for the heads up. I don’t get an email update from Park West, so I didn’t see when he was coming to Chicago. Just got two tickets for his October show.
I think Ugly Truth Rock is my favorite Matthew Sweet song. The hooks are awesome, and Quine is once again excellent on that track. Just wish I could find a Lum keychain like he had.
Oops, my bad, that was the equally excellent Richard Lloyd on Ugly Truth Rock. He also had the cool short solo on Marquee Moon (as opposed to Tom Verlaine’s long solo).
Whew, I was thinking for a minute that he did Love is Like Oxygen.
What? “Only one good song” on _Girlfriend_? Personally, I think “I’ve Been Waiting” is better than “Girlfriend”, and “I Wanted To Tell You” is also great. Why is it that so many journalists give in to the temptation to say things that are clever (“Every Matthew Sweet album has only one good song, and that song is utterly perfect.”) even if they’re not true?
Otter, I agree with you. I think there are a lot of great songs on Girlfriend, and Altered Beast as well. The next few albums are pretty hit and miss, and I don’t love everything on Girlfriend, but it’s a great album for the most part.
Oh hell yeah. Didn’t know about the new album. Have seen Sweet a couple of times and he killed. How was this show?
Maybe I’m the only one, but I even like some stuff on Earth, and that’s despite the Trip Shakespeare backing vocals turning Sweet into Seals & Croft at times. Not to mention “We Lose Another Day” from Inside is pure pop at its most charming.
As for Robert Quine, every time I hear one of his solos, or even just his tremulous tone giving someone easily gone to callow like Lloyd Cole some depth, I get sad we won’t get to hear him play anymore. Good thing we still have Marc Ribot.
The show was good. The new stuff was very good, since he has such a knack for writing hooks everything seems familiar. What you lose with him in concert are the harmonies since most of them on the CD’s are his voice overdubbed. Unfortunately his supporting band doesn’t provide much in that department.
And they ripped up Girlfriend. and I’ve Been Waiting.
Where was the show? This would have been a good one to catch…
Belly Up
Spent the whole day listening to Sweet’s Greatest Hits….”Devil with the Green Eyes” is one of the most overlooked songs of all time. Really good show…awful sound mix.