the matthew show: Home

So I open my mailbox this Saturday, and what do I find but a bigass box from Wampus Multimedia. I then did three things:

First, I squealed like a little girl.

Then I apologized to the neighbors, who I had alarmed significantly.

Finally, I checked with Mark at Wampus about how nigh the release date was. This, of course, is somewhat dependent upon when CD Baby and iTunes get the thing loaded up proper in their catalogues, but it’s looking increasingly like early next week when February will be available to all.

However, it so happens that I’m playing a show at Hip Pocket Theatre this Saturday the 11th. And since I have the dang ol’ discs in hand, I may as well put ‘em up for sale at the gig. Those having an interest in obtaining the album before the rest of the world, c’mon out to Fort Worth and getcher bragging rights. It’s entirely possible that you can meet the star of the album cover, the inimitable Preston Faggart, as he is a resident of these parts and is known to hang at the Hip. And as mentioned previously, you can check the record out online before you buy:

http://februarythealbum.com/

A small caveat: Our friends at Channel 5 seem to suggest that there could be rain on the 11th, which would really suck. In the event of getting rained out again (thanks, Ike, for last time, you bastard), I’m going to ask around and see if there may be a backup venue (hint, hint: FW types, lemme know what you know, even if it’s a living room & a cooler of beer). I gotta release this thing, it’s just sitting there in that box staring at me with its hangdog expression. Oh wait, that’s just Preston.

But supposing that the weather forecasters are wrong (and they often are), the details are as follows: Playing with the trio (being the notorious Jason Jackson & Jeff Simms), I’ll start up at 6PM. The play, The Last Lake Rat, by our old pal Johnny Simons, cranks up at 8:15. After the play, we hop back onstage and keep going till someone unplugs us, come hell or Rapture. Those left behind, don’t worry, nobody in this band is going anywhere.

Venue details here:

http://www.hippocket.org/

So there we go. Release party ahoy, and availability coming soon to fans throughout the interwebtubes. It’s morning in America. And possibly Easter Island.

More soon.

I'll be doing a special performance at Burning Life this Sunday. It's the Second Life version of Burning Man, and this is my second year on the roster. It's always a great time, and there's plenty to explore:

http://burninglife.com/

http://burninglife.secondlife.com/

My show's at 4PM SLT (Pacific time). Love to see you.

Bammo:

http://februarythealbum.com/

Up until now, you've only been able to hear individual tracks, but on this album, the songs are only part of a much larger package.

When I began this album in 2005, I wanted to create something truly new. Inspired by documentary photographers like Walker Evans & Bill Brandt, as well as musicians with documentary tendencies such as my friend Paul of Mocha Lab, I set about creating an album of what I like to call docu-pop. February is the result.

I sat down with five friends, all of whom were in the place of reflection that comes with leaving your twenties behind, without quite knowing what to do with the unrealized dreams that accompanied them. The resulting dissonance was the subject of our conversations, which I recorded at length and pored through extensively in the following months. In doing so, I found wisdom, humor, insight, and often very surprising realizations. We tackled the nature of hope, disappointment, and ugly truth, all in the spirit of adapting George Orwell's "power of facing unpleasant facts" for the new millennium.

The same sorts of thoughts were shaping my songwriting at the time, and as I began recording the new songs, I matched them with pieces of the aforementioned conversations. What emerged was a case study of five people, each at critical points in their lives, asking the old question: Is that all there is? Accompanied by songs exploring the same territory, the album is as much a documentary as it is a collection of pop songs.

I say all this so that even those of you who consume music song-by-song may give the streaming page a try first. Hopefully it will give you an impression of what the album is. Given the changing nature of the music industry back into the singles market it started as, it may be the first and last album of its kind.