Matthew Sweet : Classic or Dud?

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LolinaArtPottery?ref=pr_shop

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Matthew_Sweet%2C_2006.jpg/320px-Matthew_Sweet%2C_2006.jpg

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSi1DLYxiY2-zqetYn6WaDZUNcavyBQDa5x8Ryq0l4BoSVEzKJr

http://mlkshk.com/p/9OWP

He looks like he should be in the Allman Brothers.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Matthew_Sweet%2C_2006.jpg/800px-Matthew_Sweet%2C_2006.jpg

he should really get a friend to wiki edit that picture out! it's frightening!

so great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5R9xcu2YOA&feature=related

http://bestofthe80s.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/topol.jpg

I saw him on his recent "Girlfriend"-in-its-entirety tour and god damn was he good. The dude he's got playing lead now can really nail those Quine/Lloyd parts, with a lot of conviction if not quite as much style.

love the quine/lloyd guitar detailing, but it's a great song even without:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mab-GckfnfY

i used to have that goodfriend comp on tape! one of my favorite things on it is the live version of cortez the killer he does with the indigo girls. gives me chills.

"Thank you, boys". That's the great Sara Lee on bass, Miller, you putz.

for scott

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDiL1pXO84U

its so good!

holy shit did you just upload that to youtube??? awesome. thanks. i've actually looked for it on youtube before!

yeah, i just downloaded the album, mostly for the demos, so i figured i'd upload cortez while i was at it

amy goes in

On those early nineties records Sweet and Lloyd Cole ran an aesthetic managed care facility for punk guitarists. Listening to Cole's eponymous solo debut from 1990 I see Fred Maher and...Matthew Sweet on bass. Cole plays rhythm on Girlfriend. I wondered last night whether Quine did more for Cole than Sweet: Quine's acerbic solos underlined Cole's sass.

"Sick of Myself" became so damn relatable in my 30s....

his current live band is great and he still sounds great singing

i was so obsessed with girlfriend when in came out (1992?) i sent him a fan letter and he sent me back a handwritten letter and all these vinyl singles and eps!

OTM-I saw him on the this tour, and I think it was better than when I saw him on the Blue Sky on Mars tour.
Jason Victor on guitar is pretty sweet too.

Yeah Victor killed it

I picked up the Time Capsule 1990-2000 CD for dirt cheap and I kind of think it's all I ever need.

Something in your eyes
That is keeping my hope alive
But I'm sick of myself when I look at you
Something is beautiful and true
In a world that's ugly and a lie
It's hard to even want to try
And I'm beginning to think
Baby you don't know

all timer

He has my vote for highest music - gossip ratio, that is, I know zero about him as a person, I don't know what he looks like, I don't know anything about his fans, I don't know how I'm supposed to view myself as someone who listens to Matthew Sweet. It's just CDs floating in a vacuum.

Seeing him in November. Acoustic trio. Dunno dunno.

Oh, damn, I hope he recovers soon!

A GoFundMe from his manager, with details about a stroke.

Ugh ... awful. Hope he can recover.

Side note: One of the people who gave money to that GFM is named Glenn Stefani.

Really sad and had no idea it was this serious. When he recently cancelled his tour (including last week’s NYC show) they only said he was ill.

Holy shit. It's shocking and striking that even a relatively well known gigging musician needs help in this stupid country.

Man, why didn't he have insurance!? Heartbreaking.

Didn't pick up on this till I saw it on Facebook. Was happy to donate--"Millennium Blues" is a song that really means something to me.

Quarter of a million in costs. Yikes.

Terrible news. Hope he makes a good recovery. Thank you so much for posting the gofundme link, chipped in a bit.

Hat tip to Jon Cryer, Ken Jennings, Peter Buck and especially Judd Apatow for coming through with big donations. I wonder if a benefit concert could be put together? If record sales were still at '90s levels, a Sweet Relief type benefit album would've been enough.

Just read about the stroke last night, very sorry to hear it. Girlfriend is still a semi-regular spin for me along with those Susanna Hoffs covers compilations.

John Mayer in with a nice donation too. There was also a Richard Lloyd, not sure if it was THE Richard Lloyd.

Probably! He played on Girlfriend.

Yeah, figured it probably was him.

Also Adrienne Armstrong, who I presume is Billie Joe Armstrong's wife, and more from R.E.M.'s camp via Bertis Downs and Mike Mills (now the top donor)

Heartening to see this level of support for a good musician who by all accounts seems like a great dude, but it's a shame it has to even come to this. A good reminder that most of us in the good ol' USA are one unexpected illness or injury away from total insolvency

yeah ain't that the sad truth :(

no surprise but always good to see further confirmation mike mills is a good dude

I had totally forgotten he was in Oh-OK.

BTW, "Girlfriend" was released October 22, 1991.

They've reached the initial goal, just about -- new update from his manager:

We and Mattthew are overwhelmed with gratitude for the many generous donations and well-wishes from donors around the world in the last 48 hours. With your direct help, Matthew was able to check out of the hospital in Toronto and successfully return to Omaha on board a medical flight attended by two nurses with medical equipment to keep him stable. He was admitted into the rehabilitation hospital immediately where he is already being evaluated and tested so medical staff can prepare a more comprehensive rehabilitation plan this week. With each bill and test completed, we’re getting a clearer picture of the total cost of Matthew’s long, tough road to recovery. The funds raised to date will cover all of his medical expenses in Canada, the flight to Omaha and the first 28 days in rehab. We are raising our goal to $400,000 at this time with the hope that we can continue to cover Matthew’s medical and essential monthly expenses while he remains in day to day rehabilitation and recovery for an undetermined number of months in 2025. Needless to say, Matthew will not be able to return to performing concerts anytime soon. Your contributions are profoundly helpful to Matthew - he is fully aware of your generosity and has asked that I convey his deep appreciation to all of you who have helped him

Jim Parsons and Ben Gibbard also chipping in with nice donations. Biggest so far is from JAM Productions, which I didn't expect to see.

It's crazy for a 60 year old touring musician to not have health insurance.

I read somewhere that he's had some ongoing health issues that made it really cost prohibitive to get insured.

xpost -- yeah but...America. I guess I'm just not that surprised, sadly. Dick Dale essentially had to keep touring just so he could fund his dialysis treatment, for instance. It's a shitty world on that front!