I Am Jealous...

[sodamntired]

of people who are just NOW getting into Matthew Good.

there is a whole catalogue of awesome music, underdogs, beautiful midnight, audio of being, and such.

I post this because my friend, who I haven't talked to in years, had recently got into Avalanche, and he was buying copies of everything MG(B) off of half.com and ebay.

I remember when i first heard Refused - New Noise and I was disappointed by my internet search that they had broken up.

does anyone else have stories?

thank you.

[Gomo]

I was introduced to Matthew Good Band by a Canadian chap named Aubrey who lives in Vancouver. I knew Aubrey from a message board I've been posting on since 1999. Anyway after much refusal to listen to MGB because of my need to reject certain things that people over-hype (MGB was being over-hyped at this time on that message board) I finally gave Hello Time Bomb a spin. Then I listened to Strange Days, Fearless, Euphony, and something else. I was instantly intrigued and soon after I was hooked. So I got into MGB right around mid to late 2000 when Beautiful Midnight was still relatively fresh. Living in New York the only way I could have known about Matthew Good Band was through the Internets. Since I didn't have access to his albums at that point I just got to downloading tracks. Eventually I started buying albums on mymusic.com because of the cheaper shipping to the US. However, I did own the Beautiful Midnight US (clean) version because that was easy to find and cheap. I played that so much it's unbelievable; mostly in the Summer on the stereo behind me while playing Diablo II, but also in many other situations. Many of the tracks from Beautiful Midnight appeared on the many mix CDs I would make. I remember not liking Audio of Being when it came out, but now I can't believe I had such a view. So Audio of Being and beyond have been new experiences as they were released, but it was fun to go back and experience the previous albums and get a sense of the chronology. In that way Underdogs doesn't really connect with me like it probably does for others, but Last of the Ghetto Astronauts has a much stronger connection with me. I dunno, chalk it up to my early downloads.

 

If I were just being introduced to Matt Good now I wonder what I would first be attracted to. I'd absolutely recommend Beautiful Midnight and Avalanche as starters.

Edited July 23, 2009 by Gomo

[Audio of Being]

Living close to the Canadian border I get stations from Toronto, and the Hamilton area. I remember it was sometime in 1997 or 1998 that I heard Matthew Good Band for the first time. The song was Everything is Automatic, and a few days later it was Apparitions. I ventured into Canada that weekend to buy the Underdogs CD. I listened to the whole thing, and at 1st I was not very impressed. Finally the last song Change of Season played, and because of the lyrics to the song I was hooked. So I listened again to the whole CD this time paying close attention to the lyrics. I have found out that Matt's lyrics are/were some of the most thought provoking, and honest lyrics I have ever heard. In 1999 I heard that Beautiful Midnight was coming out, and once again it was the lyrics not the music so much that caught my attention again. Since those days I have been a fan waiting for the new album to come out, and see how much more honest, and open his lyrics would become. In all the time I have listened to him I find best lyrics belong to CD Avalanche, and Hospital Music, and Audio of Being.

[Prometheon]

I am jealous...

 

Of how you can just turn them off? Those bad ideas that feel so soft?

 

Sorry, I had to. I don't really have an epic "this is how I got into Matt Good story." Back in the the day my mom had Limewire and had d/led a few Matt Good tracks she had heard. I distinctly remember Born to Kill, Truffle Pigs, and Heather's Like Sunday. I dug them, bought all of the CDs, became a fiend, and that was that.

Edited July 23, 2009 by Prometheon

[Gomo]

My story is clearly epic ;)

[Audio of Being]

Lyrics are more epic. ;)

Edited July 23, 2009 by Audio of Being

[sodamntired]

it was Everything is Automatic I heard on Much, waited until Apparations, but it wasn't until Beautiful Midnight, and when I went down to the States that I was a Matt Good (band) fan.

[here is no why]

the first album i owned was Beautiful Midnight, I heard the singles and such before but eventually found the album for cheap somewhere and just had to get it. Obviously i fell in love with the sound. Then AOB came out and I bought it first day, I remember that I couldn't take the cd out of the player, it must have been months. Still my favourite album Matt has touched thus far...

[Computer]

I'd heard of MGB way back when they were on muchmusic and the radio a lot with stuff like hello time bomb, apparitions, load me up, everything is automatic.. I always sort of liked the singles, but never checked out any of the albums. One day I was at my friends place playing 360 and he had music streaming from his computer on it, and I checked the song name, "suburbia" and realized at this point I needed to actually check out the albums and not just the singles. So I first bought in a coma, then avalanche, and then everything else except underdogs.

[Sarah A]

It was grade 7 and we were put in groups to make a video for French class (we had to act out what would occur when you went to a restaurant). One of the guys in the group had the idea to have music playing in the background. The song was Load Me Up. I have been listening ever since. ;)

[AnOceanPearl]

My first exposure to MGB was Everything is Automatic, and when it came out, I loved it the first time, loved it less the second time, and by the fourth or fifth listen I thought it was shit. I thought Indestructible was okay when I heard it, and was pretty much floored by Apparitions and how great it was, but it wasn't enough to turn me into a fan. Time passed, Hello Time Bomb hit the radio and I thought it was pretty good. My dad bought the CD and one weekend while I was at his house, I gave it a spin. As soon as Giant started, I knew I was going to love the album, and I sure as hell did. I loved it so much I burned a copy of the CD and gave that one to my dad, taking the copy he purchased with me back to my mom's house.

[jnak00]

Our local radio station played Symbolistic White Walls way back in 1996. Been a fan ever since.

[Jarrod]

My sister had Underdogs. Heard Rico, was hooked.

Then Beautiful Midnight came out, bought it for my sister but I stole it from her.

[young37204]

I remember when I kept hearing Everything Is Automatic on 102.1 the edge in toronto in 1997, but they'd never say who the band was until 2-3 songs later, and I'd have been at work and such by then. I always seemed to keep missing the name of the band and I finally found out it was MGB after like 4-5 times hearing it. I should've just gone online back then and searched, but such is hindsight.

 

To this day, through all the albums and such, it's still one of my favorite songs of his.

[Morglor9]

Well, considering that aside from hearing the MGB singles back in the day, the majority of my exposure to Matthew Good's material has been in the past year, and to be completely honest, I've found that since I wasn't there for the ride, I like:

 

Early MGB (Last of the Ghetto Astronauts, earlier songs like Whispering in the Dark)

Solo Matt Good (Avalanche - current)

 

Honestly, there's nothing from the massively famous era of MGB that grabs my attention like the early stuff or his recent work. Yes, I've listened to his entire discography (more or less), several times. Underdogs/Beautiful Midnight/Audio of Being just doesn't hold my ear the same way.

[shade]

ya the band started going downhill after releasing "turn on the bright lights"

[Computer]

antics was pretty good though

[Prometheon]

Truthfully Interpol all sounds the same to me. They're not bad by any means, but none of their stuff really leaps out at me.

[LonelyWreckage]

I'm still fairly new to MG/B compared to many of you - unsurprisingly. I got talking to a Canadian lass at the back end of 2005 on an Oasis forum, who sent me a rar of her favourite tracks at the time, amongst those (from what I can remember) were Indestructible, Suburbia, Hello Time Bomb and Alert Status Red. I opted for Underdogs, found it to be just as great as I imagined and naturally worked my way through the rest.

[Pew89]

I saw the videos on Much (every one since Apparitions), back when I was a kid and actually watched Much. But I didn't get into MG/B until I got In a Coma for my cousin. We watched a few of the music videos on the dvd and he burned me the 1st disc of the set.

 

Then I went out and got Avalanche. I was hooked.

Edited August 5, 2009 by Pew89

[winn23]

i think more people would be hooked, if the radio would play songs other than strange days, rico, or apparitions etc....but radios go for popularity so i doubt they change it anytime soon. now if hunting for rabbits, or avalanche, and even 99% of us is failure would play, matts abums would sell out.

[sodamntired]

so i was all of 17/18 years old, i used to post a lot on the IGN message board, back when it was free. In the music section I had a thread called, "Matthew Good Band. The Best Band On Earth"

 

so Matt was about to release Beautiful Midnight stateside and I posted the following:

 

I really want to see Matt Good Band get, if not huge, then at least better known in the U.S. I want this because there's gotta be people down south who are sick of all the Limp Bizkit/Korn/Kid Rock hysteria (I just realized those last two aren't around anymore.) and want to hear some straight rock, none of this rap-metal crap. edit: Kid Rock is still around, Limp Bizkit is far gone.

 

What I think is cool about the prospect of Matt Good getting big in the U.S. is the fact that he's a great anti-star. He hates the spotlight and award shows. You know he's not going to be on TRL and he's not going to take it up the a** for Carson Daly or Kurt Loder.

 

What sucks is this is what you have to do today to get any airtime. This means a lot of people who might like they music they make are never going to hear anything by them. The only national broadcasting they might get is going on a late night talk show (Conan, Letterman, or Kilborn. No Leno. He's as big as a whore as Daly is.) or maybe VH1, just because Rebecca Rankin used to host RapidFax on MuchMusic and I'm sure her and Matt would get along pretty well. She knows what kind of interviews they're into and she wouldn't cross the boundaries. Edit: Rebecca Rankin is not on Vh1 anymore. their loss.

 

As for Advertising down south, the only thing that needs to be done, in my opinion, is a lot of airtime, both television and radio. They have made some of the best videos ever to air. Play The Future is X-Rated, Load Me Up, and Apparitions. Those videos/songs are enough to get people hooked on their sound. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, if you play these videos, don't interrupt them for a "shout-out to your girl in Connecticut" and don't make the video shorter so you can interview the star of last week's top grossing movie.

 

Any other thoughts? I really like this band and like talking about them and their (possible) success in the U.S. So post any questions or comments on this board.

[st4rseed]

I was obsessed with OLP when I was younger, I first heard of MG when people would constantly recommend it when they found out I liked OLP (not sure why). It was not until a few years ago that I started listening to MG extensively. It started right around the time I was having problems with my strict religious upbringing clashing with my need to embrace individuality (and my being gay).

 

Matthew's music really helped me get on the right path, it helped me to move beyond the toxic belief system I was under and embrace my individuality. Today, I obsess about MG's music far more than any other artist. ;)

 

I cannot wait for this new album!

[Devil On Rollerskates]

I remember hearing EIA, Apparitions, HTB and LMU on the radio in the late 90s, but for some reason I didn't start getting into MGB until 2002, when I eventually got all their albums, only to find out the band had split. But not to worry, I told myself, Matt Good will continue as a solo artist. I even bought Big Shiny Tunes 7 just to get a copy of Weapon (which I believe is the last time MG appeared on one of those compilations, not including Big Shiny 90s (Indestructible I think)). When Avalanche came out, I initially found it to be good but didn't really get into until after repeated listens. It's now one of my favourite albums, and Avalanche one of my favourite songs. In 2004 during the WLR&RR tour I finally got the chance to see MG live, at the Marquee Club in Halifax (which is closed now). It was a fantastic show, and I remember MG noting on his blog that it was one of his favourite shows he had played. Haven't seen him live since, but hopefully I'll get a chance this tour.

[Devil On Rollerskates]

On a more personal note, I appreciate and admire his openness about his Bipolar Disorder and outspokenness regarding mental health issues in general, due to my own mental health problems (Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (bad things come in threes I guess)). There are those who may feel he talks about it too much, the same way there are those who may feel he talks about politics too much, but I for one am glad that there is someone out there who is in a position to spread awareness about mental health issues, because even now there are so many misconceptions about it, as well as a stigma surrounding it that prevents many from seeking help.