Matthew Sweet : Classic or Dud?

Well in the case of 100% Fun, the taste of the record buying public = crap (also the label probably had too many manufactured).

(Is there another thread for this subtopic?)

Let's revive this thread for this sadly underrated fellow. A few thoughts:

100% Fun may be his most consistent release in all. "Super Baby" is so stupid it's brilliant. But Altered Beast's "Someone To Pull the Trigger" may be his best song.

I was looking for my copy of In Reverse this am and couldn't find it, sadly. I'm not sure I would love the ProTools Spector production as much anymore, but there are some great tunes on it -- opener "Millennium Blues" and all the ELO-inspired stuff (he even namechecks "Message From the Country" on one track).

He was opening for Robyn Hitchcock in 92 and my friends and I were at the front of the stage while some roadies were setting up for Sweet. I was telling them how I liked his contributions to the Golden Palominos but was unimpressed with his solo records.

The roadie was Sweet. He glared at me through his set.

Also, Matthew Sweet's cover of "Every Night" on one of the McCartney tributes is outstanding.

Without Quine and Lloyd he's just a nice boy, a second-tier songwriter; with them he's got something to prove, and often does.

A bit of an oversimplification, I think, Alfred.

There's lots of forgettable songs – rote verses, mushy singing – on the "classic" trilogy (at least three per album).

hearing "Girlfriend" on the radio the other day was a pleasant surprise - I don't think I've listened to it in years. But I've found everything else I've heard by him (admittedly limited to singles and his constant presence on mid-90's cd alt-samplers I'd get for free working in a mall CD shop) to be dullsville.

I suppose I'd rather listen to him than Kravitz...

Alfred OTM, but I do think that percentage-wise, said trilogy is far more classic than dud. And select assorted cuts found elsewhere are worthwhile.

I loved hearing Quine on the radio after the local AOR station added "Girlfriend" in the wake of Nevermind's explosion. Also loved meeting Ivan Julian (Quine wouldn't tour, apparently) backstage when I was v. drunk, and telling him it was a shame the Voidoids never played out of New York much as "millions" of people were prolly dying to see them.

Good times.

Guitar Hero has revived my interest in this subject.

ALTERED BEAST RULES!

Yeah, Alfred otm. Timi Yuro otm too about how cool it was to see Ivan Julian, although I only saw him from the audience.

"Not When I Need It"!!!!!!!!!!

I like that one. What I wrote above still stands, though.

Ha -- I was going to say that 100% Fun might buck that trend, but then I reached "I Almost Forgot."

http://cart.shoutfactorystore.com/store_assets/eoc/productimages/b3eoc/sho/82666310946.jpg

New album Sunshine Lies went a-leaky.

Will need to digest, but very Girlfriend-ish in spots.

All I ever heard by Matthew Sweeet is the Buzz of Delight track on the 'Jericho Go' compilation. And it's awesome.

i should probably explore

the album cover screams hit or miss to me, tho

"Sweet Sunshine Lies" is a nice title

girlfriend is dope as fuck imo

"Girlfriend" is great. Then he lost it, kind of, for a few years whilst partly busy to try copying the "grunge" guitar sound, until he made a great artistic comeback with 1999s "In Reverse", which may have been even better than "Girlfriend".

matthew eat morelike. dude looks seriously unhealthy, esp when he's next to s. hoffs.

I still only know his stuff with Buzz of Delight. Their ep is worth downloading for the track 'In Summer'.

Apparently he was also in 'Oh-OK' for a while with none other than Linda Stipe.

god was Sunshine Lies a dog. some of it was just painful to hear, esp. coming from a man in his mid-40s (and sounding it): "Room to Rock" is bad Neil Young.

Then he lost it, kind of, for a few years whilst partly busy to try copying the "grunge" guitar sound

This is no more true here then when you said it about The Posies, you know.

Girlfriend has a solid handful of great tunes and Altered Beast has a couple, but I always get the feeling I'm listening to someone who has studied REALLY hard and done all his homework and stayed up late for months on end getting every tiny detail right. As result, it's all a bit airless and dead, like a painstakingly accurate museum diorama representing "classic pop".

true confession: i've never gotten past "divine intervention" i just listen to it over and over

"girlfriend" is so great

pretty sure the album cover sorta ruined me at a young age, w/r/t expectations of girlfriendliness

"Girlfriend" came up on my ipod on album shuffle a couple days ago and I could hardly bear to listen to it, it sounds so compressed and airless. There are a couple keepers for sure: the title track is as classic as pop gets, but the album's seriously frontloaded and I really had to fight to stay awake through everything past "I Thought I Knew You."

i put evangeline on a mix for a girl yesterday

still works

Never quite classic, but certainly not dud. Someone who was badly oversold by a particular kind of rock critics – they made promises on his behalf that his amiable records could never begin to keep.

i have to say classic just because i was inexplicably in his top 8 friends list on myspace during the year or two when myspace actually mattered. really like many of his songs too, though they sort of reside in a limbo state where they're better if i'm not actually listening to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXUTfxWJJS4
gotta be one of the best powerpop songs i'd not heard before last week. pretty sure that's Richard Lloyd being godlike on solos.

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.

I'm in a coffee shop I mention a lot on the CVS thread, and they have a guy playing guitar who just did "Sick of Myself." After he finished, I went up to him and mentioned having contributed to the GoFundMe, and said how unfortunate this was. He said he loved Matthew Sweet, but from his response, I actually wasn't sure if he knew what happened.

"Sick Of Myself" greatest rock song of the past 30 years? sure, why not.

def not many songs with like five fake endings, that's for sure

Once upon a time, back in 1996, Matthew Sweet took time out of his life as a very popular recording artist to sing at our Wild Honey Pet Sounds/Friends Show at the El Rey Theatre. He was magnificent. He became a member of the extended Wild Honey Foundation family and remained so ever since. We take care of our own. Please support Wild Honey's benefit concert for his stroke recovery at McCabe's Guitar Shop on Sunday, November 10th. It is going to be unforgettable! Tickets are moving briskly.

Get tickets here

Matthew's musical friends and bandmates(past and present) have stepped up and immediately volunteered for this intimate event at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. Bangles Debbi Peterson and Vicki Peterson, Dan Wilson, Richard Lloyd (Television), Val McCallum (Jackson Browne), Greg Leisz, Tony Marsico, John Moremen, Nick Vincent, Willie Aron, Lyn Bertles, Jim Laspesa, Gabi Lima, and possibly several surprise guests will perform an amazing evening of music to support and inspire Matthew in his recovery. It will be an unforgettable night in this very intimate venue. All performers subject to change

Nice to read at least the first half of this sentence in a GoFundMe update:

The doctors and hospital care in Toronto were instrumental in saving Matthew's life, but health care is not free for Americans in Canada.

For what it's worth, it's not free for Canadians, either, which I think is a misconception some Americans have. We pay, it's just that it's deducted through payroll--and past a certain income threshhold, you additionally pay a modest premium. But that covers you--or at least for anything that's not serious. Luckily, I haven't yet had to find out how more serious illnesses are handled.

Oh wow, just read Matthew's update.

Yeah, hell of a read. Quoting it here:

A note from Matthew:
I was colder than I’ve ever been and an icy sweat came from every pore. Then I heard a deafening white noise in both my ears growing, and growing and growing in volume, and my eyes started to scramble like eggs in a pan. “Call me an ambulance” I called out to Evan who was just checking us in to the Toronto hotel after a ten hour drive from Baltimore. Then I was in an ambulance and I heard a man yell, “Sir you’ve had a stroke.” I didn’t know what it meant. It seemed unreal as much of my life has. It’s hard to start here without saying how touched and humbled I am by the success of my GoFundMe page. My future would be gone without it. I stand a chance it is as simple as that. I should first of all thank Russell Carter, Cathy Lyons and everyone at Russell Carter Artist Management, because it was their idea to reach out for help. As I said before, I did not know what was happening to me at the time as I didn’t really know what a stroke was and I was alone in Canada to take in the fact that I could only see double and that I was now numb on the left side of my body and face and arm and legs and feet . I just didn’t realize how much I’d lost as I waited ten days to be given clearance from the doctors at Toronto Western Hospital, where I lay in the stroke unit waiting to be released. “Do you know where you are? What is the date? What is the year? What is your name? Where are you?” These are the things I was asked every day - “Push up with your right leg. Push up with your left leg.” I noticed there were bruises all over my left arm because it was hanging there, unable to move on its own. The only way they would let me travel back to the states was with a medical crew, on an airplane and straight into a rehabilitation hospital. The cost of all these things was already astronomical. What is mankind doing? To not make these things available as part of our culture everywhere. My wife Lisa dutifully prepared for me to enter into Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Omaha. It was a Madonna in Lincoln, NE where my mother spent the last years of her life, so I knew it somewhat, but I found out so much more about it and the people who work there; the Nurses, the Physical Therapists, the Occupational Therapists, the Vision Therapists, the Speech Therapists, the Doctors, the Aides and all those who made it possible for me to undergo the level of care that I did at Madonna until I came to be discharged early in December. I was given what’s called the Madonna Spirit Award by all my caregivers upon my release. “My God, I’m the least deserving ever of this award,” I thought to myself. Because I did not believe in myself, I did not understand what was happening and what these people were trying to do for me and in that way the people of Madonna are a lot like you. I was never a very good friend in my life. I never really understood others very well, as I was born bipolar and I was struggling just to stay afloat in my own body, but that’s another story. As I learned to walk, bathe, strengthen my legs, learn what hard work really was, I cried many times at my terrible fate and yet I also was so thankful for the fate I had in life, because it was a wonderful fate, and I was so lucky and found everything I wanted again and again and again. Not too many people I suppose can say that. But you have taught me what care is. Caring about others, caring about what can be done, caring about what happens. In a way, I never thought anything mattered but caring does matter and of that I now am very aware. I am very aware as I watch my wife. Lisa has to become my caregiver for the rest of our lives. I shudder to think of her fate, there is nothing I could have wanted less to happen to our future and yet happen it did and deal with it we must and we are doing the best we can day by day. I’ve lived through the day where I realized I may never play guitar again, I’ve lived through the day where I realized I may never draw a straight line again or enjoy the pasttime that developed over just the last year of my life, painting with fountain pens and coloring with dip pens and ink. I understand now what it means to need to reinvent oneself, when the self you knew before is gone, you have no other choice, you either quit or you keep going and so I feel I must keep going, and I feel a great burden to do so with such incredible support that you, many of whom I do not know, have given me. I must just say thank you to you for giving me this help. This hope I cannot feel whether I could have had on my own. I will try to make music. I will try to. I will try to make art. I will try to express myself, because that is all I have ever known and all that has ever brought me joy, throughout a life filled with more sadness than anyone could know what to do with, than any of us know what to do with, and that’s life. May you all today find a glimmer of hope and love and a future to strive toward the way you have helped me find it, every one of you.
With love and gratitude,
Matthew Sweet 12/2024

Video interview on his rehab at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital (on their official YouTube channel):

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

It's really lovely to see.

Wonderful progress. He seems to be in an ok place, literally and figuratively.

A detailed update:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/matthew-sweet-interview-since-stroke-health-update-1235354779/