Hamilton Spectator Mg Article

[saturnine]

Politics is the one thing that seems to excite Matthew Good more than music. So the Vancouver rocker made sure he had Tuesday night off from his rigorous tour schedule.

 

Good spent it holed up in his Montreal hotel room with his wife Jenny, flipping through the channels and surfing the Internet, watching the U.S. election returns come in.

 

"It is without question the definitive moment in history in our lives," Good said in an interview on the eve of the election. "It is that important."

 

Such statements come as no surprise to Good fans. He's the consummate political junkie, spending as much as four hours every day on his laptop or reading the newspapers to keep up on the latest smidgen of an update.

 

So it's with some trepidation that any interviewer breaches the subject with Good, out of fear that the ensuing monologue will monopolize the entire slotted time period. But it has to be done. It wouldn't be a Good interview without some Bush-whacking.

 

"It's extremely reckless, extremely dangerous," continues Good's barrage on President George W. Bush's foreign policy. "And if it's allowed to continue, grow and attempt to achieve some of its other goals, it's going to make the world a far more dangerous place."

 

At this point, Good pauses and moves his mouth away from the phone so he can sneeze (he's been plagued by a head cold for the past week). It seems as good a time as any to change topics.

 

Let's talk about the music, Matt. Your new album, White Light Rock and Roll Review, is as different from last year's Avalanche as it could possibly be. Gone are the strings and the lush sonic structures. White Light is straight-from-the-garage, off-the-floor guitar rock. It contains snippets of The Who and heavy dollops of Crazy Horse. There's even a couple of songs that are pure alt-country, steel pedal guitar and all. The project is different than anything you've done before.

 

"It's kind of the goal," Good says with a condescending shrug and maybe a bit of a yawn. "Hopefully, it's all different.

 

"It was very much influenced by touring the last record, slowly kind of throwing out those elements live that I didn't particularly want to use. Through that kind of refinement, I found myself writing songs that were very direct and the instrumentation sparse. I was just very much influenced to record that kind of record."

 

The resulting product is probably his best yet. He's teamed up with Limblifter and former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur to present the new songs on his current tour which comes to Hamilton tomorrow.

 

So what's next for Good ?

 

He wouldn't mind continuing down the alt-country road, he says. As a matter of fact, he'd love to record an album with his namesakes from the Sadies, Dallas and Travis Good.

 

"I think the next record I make is going to be far more eclectic and a lot less accessible," he says. "I don't think you'll find any songs that could really be played on the radio on it. I spent a decade doing that. To tell you the truth, it's such a boring thing to me now. You know, 'here's the single, make a video.' I'm kind of fed up with it."

[Maverick]

Yah, I read that... not a great article... sad to see that he's got a cold as well..... that could boad poorly for the concert... oh well ;)

[marik]

okay article. not too much new here. alt-country? like Hopeless?

[Princess]

Good says with a condescending shrug and maybe a bit of a yawn

 

Didn't realize you could see a shrug over the phone. ;)

 

And yes, I believe he said somewhere before that Hopeless is considered alternative country - I don't see what else would be on the album anyway.