the matthew show: News

In late 2004, I answered a Craigslist ad for a bass player. I ended up doing several shows with the man who placed the ad, one Doug Kwartler, and he even played bass for me on one occasion in NYC. He's one of the finest songwriters I know, and his voice can be heard as one of the interviewees on february.

Silver Meteor is one of my favorite Doug tunes, and it's now the Acoustic Surprise for July:

Check it out here.
Remember, the tune is only available till the end of July, at which point it will slip away to the land of Osiris and his dancing corpse brides.

May the Fourth be with you.

Though it’s a couple of days late, I have finally posted June’s Acoustic Surprise:

http://thematthewshow.com/music.html
In 2005, I did a show at the Conklin Barn in Long Island (which I wrote about here). At that show, I discovered an incredibly talented individual named John-Flor Sisante, whose career I have followed with great interest since then. Though his first album came out about the time my first record did, he hasn’t yet released a follow-up (owing most likely to his pursuit of a graduate degree). He has, however, regularly posted new tracks to his MySpace page, which have blown me away.

One of those tracks is the one I have just covered for this month’s Acoustic Surprise, entitled Midnight. It does what John-Flor accomplishes so well, making sophisticated things out of simple ones.

As usual, the Acoustic Surprise is only available for one month, after which its digital ash is tossed into a digital urn. Or as Mr. Popeil might say, download now while supplies last...

Doing a last-minute show in Fort Worth this Friday, June 5th, opening for the venerable Villain Vanguard, a band which features an old matthew show associate, Ron Geida (last seen playing on The Skyline Hotel):

http://myspace.com/villainvanguard
C'mon out, it'll be a hell of a time:

http://myspace.com/thebluegrottobar

Insane proptasticness courtesy of the inimitable Crap Mariner:

http://tinyurl.com/pugh4s

Check out these shots from the craziest SL show I've ever played, bar none:

What Is This Crap?
Many thanks to Crap Mariner for the beautiful madness.

This month, partly out of bloodymindedness, partly because of recent close proximity to Baptists, I present to you my cover of Hayes Carll's She Left Me For Jesus:

http://www.thematthewshow.com/music.html
Grab your King James (or NIV, whatever makes you happy), kick off your shoes & throw 'em in the floor.

As always, this tune will only be up for one month, after which its ruin will be smote upon the mountainside, and from the shadows of cyberspace will appear its successor.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker
It has been nearly a month since I first contacted you about my fundraising drive to cover startup costs for my independent music career. In the weeks since, many of you have generously donated, bringing the total to $720, a substantial sum. For those who have given, you have my sincerest gratitude, and I will be contacting you soon to make sure you get your personal show, signed EP, and private mailing list membership.

On April 28th, the drive will close. Some of you will be unable to help, and believe me, I understand that. I have known near-Dickensian levels of cashlessness in my life, and those were in economic boom times. But I will say that I have been surprised by the fact that several of those who have given were the ones I least expected to be in a position to do so. I expect that their pledges may have had an impact on their grocery shopping this month. To know that their belief in me was worth a real sacrifice in their lifestyle is extremely awe-inspiring, and humbling.

Priorities are interesting things. Back when my son was an infant and I was staying at home with him instead of holding down a dayjob, we only had my wife’s income, and she was making less than she had in many years. I was surviving largely on beans & rice, considerably less expensive than the baby’s formula. Yet when our local public television station was having a pledge drive, I couldn’t help but donate. They provided a real, valuable service to me and my son, giving us educational programming for free, and easing my burden during long days in our tiny apartment. It made that month a little less comfortable economically, but the absence of Sesame Street would’ve been far more painful.

Now, I am not remotely comparing myself to the venerable creations of Jim Henson & Company, nor even to Captain Kangaroo. I offer the above as an illustration of personal value, and the relationship between those who create and those who rely on their creations. I have heard from many of you that something I wrote and performed touched your lives. That is incredibly inspiring, and is a primary reason why I have persisted in creating music all these years, despite the attendant expense and sleep deprivation.

If you’ll pardon an extended nautical metaphor, the music business is undergoing a massive hurricane-like transformation. The winds howl, mighty vessels are tossed, Gilligan grasps the gunwales with knuckles as white as his hat. But I am determined to pilot my tiny musical craft through the chaos and out the other side, by using both online and non-virtual performing and new ways of distributing my music, and any other good idea that comes along. The old maps are no good; I’ve had to throw them out and take my own sightings. And so far, I’ve gotten farther than I expected to while staying close to the shoreline, in sight of my dayjob.

But I can’t get any farther that way; there are many more fish out there, if I can just cut loose and find them. I want to do more than I presently can. And you have the power to make that possible:

www.fundable.com
We share many of the same goals. You don’t want to wait years between releases any more than I do. You are as tired of the crap that gets spewed from major labels as I am, and you have searched for alternatives away from mainstream channels. We have found each other. Now we can work together. If by example we can construct even a piece of the new music industry’s platform, while creating music that speaks to individual humans and not slices of a marketing pie chart, what would it be worth to you? Only you can say. But even the smallest contribution will bring that future a little bit nearer for me, and for every other musician who might decide to follow my path.

Thanks, as always, for your time,

matthew

A word…

It has been common knowledge for the last decade that the old music industry is dying a slow, horrible death. There is no standard business model for musicians anymore. Those of us who wish to pursue our craft must invent our own wheels, though we’ve been given amazing digital tools that we’ve never had before to help us. Provided we have the time to use them.

During the past nine years, building awareness of my music has been my second job. That labor has paid off; I now have a substantial base of listeners, contacts, and skills. Each new notice brings more response, and each new performance brings more word-of-mouth and more sales.

And now, I can finally say that a transition is possible. A move from pursuing music part-time to making it my life’s work. Interest in and awareness of the matthew show has begun to multiply. The iron has been getting hotter every time I touch it. A rapidly increasing number of people, indicators, and events are encouraging me to strike now, if I can.

And so: http://www.fundable.com/
I create what I do because it resonates with you, those who understand where I’m coming from. You know that I am not speaking in a vacuum. I am saying things that need to be said, to people who need to hear them. Art is not a boomtime luxury. It’s what gets us out of old mindsets, and into new, improved selves, ready to push forward into the wilderness that lies ahead.

Few artists seem to truly understand that their old world is dying. If music is to survive, new trails must be blazed by those willing to take risks. I want to take music directly to people who seek out new ideas in unfamiliar places, to stake my future as a musician on taking music outside of smoky clubs and badge-laden events full of pretty people. On taking it everywhere else that I can, online and off. Even though the financial rewards are uncertain and nobody has a road map for me to follow.

And even if I don’t have certainty, I do have reasons to hope that this may work, and a network of fellow travelers in virtual worlds, podcasting, internet radio, and other online technologies who are even now making a sustainable place for themselves and other artists and creators.

We are not done with the brick-and-mortar music world. But it, too, will have to change, and is changing even now, with house concerts, internet-driven meetups, and more direct artist-to-fan interaction. The old gatekeepers are being driven aside by the new one: You.

If you believe in this vision as I do, I encourage you to donate to the startup costs of my venture at the link above. I intend to provide an example of what a post-music-industry musician looks like, delivering my music in a personal, direct way, and avoiding the trappings of unnecessary overhead, fake glamour, and tedious hipsterism.

I have many projects, including a series of docu-pop podcasts, already in production, that just need my time and attention to make it into the world. I have offers to play more shows across more platforms at more times of day, increasing awareness into Europe and Asia, where there’s already been proven interest, offers that, till now, I haven't been able to say "yes" to.

$1,500 worth of donations is what I’m asking for in that link above, and it's not really a lot of money. And it’s not an amount I would ask from any one person. What I’m asking is for you to make an investment into something you already find value in, and would like to have more of. Be as selfish as you like. In fact, you’ll receive some measure of reward fairly quickly.

Remember that Fundable only collects pledges if the goal is met. Spread the word to anyone you’ve ever shared my music with, or share it with those who you believe would enjoy it.

All donors will receive a signed EP with exclusive tracks recorded especially for this project. You will get on a special mailing list that will give you priority notification of any future releases. You will have the option of a private streamed or in-house concert (depending on geography). You will be publicly and/or privately thanked (according to your preference). I do not forget a kindness, and if you show faith in me, I will be that much more driven to justify it.

But what you will also receive is the chance to see the creation of something new, and to know that you are responsible for it. As a creator, I have experienced that feeling, and it is irreplaceable. If my work is something you value in your life, help create more of it, and enrich your life further.

Make more of what you love. It’s a nice thought, and now more than ever, it can become a reality.

Thanks,

matthew

No fooling:

http://www.thematthewshow.com/music.html
This month features a cover of Good Old Days by the venerable Mark Oliver Everett, also known as E, also known as the guy behind oddball rock outfit Eels. It's a song for our times.

As always, the Acoustic Surprise is only up for free download until the end of the month, at which point it disappears into the cyber-ether and gets replaced with the new model.

Have at it...

I've had calls for this sort of thing for many years, but only just now figured out what the hell I'm doing:

http://www.cafepress.com/matthewstore
At the above link, you will find t-shirts & mugs bearing matthew-related content. Let me know what works for you, and what doesn't.

Above all, let me know what else you'd like to see. I'm mulling the possibility of signed and/or framed lyric prints, plus a variety of other personalized stuff.

Lemme know,

matthew

Okay, so a long time ago, the Crash Test Dummies had a song that was utterly fucking annoying and got on everyone's nerves until they never wanted to hear anything by the Crash Test Dummies again.

This was always a shame to me, because I had actually discovered CTD shortly before that song came out. Their 1991 album The Ghosts That Haunt Me contains several gems, including my new acoustic surprise, Superman's Song:

http://www.thematthewshow.com/music.html
So enjoy, and let the ghost of Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm go on about its merry way. Eek.

Once again, this thing is only up for a month, so download ye rosebuds while ye may...

Longtime matthew show devotees may recall that a few years ago, I instituted something called the Acoustic Surprise. The idea was that every month, I would release a simple acoustic track for your downloading convenience.

This program, though successful, was short-lived, because for some reason I had a hard time releasing an "acoustic" track that didn't end up with drums, electric guitar, and eight-part harmony on it. Thus, it became less monthly, and more bi-yearly, and eventually ceased altogether as I concentrated my efforts on the new album.

However, since I've been playing shows all by my lonesome for a couple of years online, I have been convinced by many that you all would actually enjoy hearing just me and my acoustic guitar. The mob has spoken:

http://thematthewshow.com/music.html
At the top of the page above, you will find the January edition of the monthly Acoustic Surprise. This time around, it's Hand of the Almighty, a song by the little-known John R. Butler, which pulls no punches on Old Testament smiting guidelines. It's a favorite at Second Life shows, and now it's out to terrorize the interwebs at large.

Now, the deal with the Acoustic Surprise is that it's only available for one month. Download it now or forever lose it to the shifting winds of the information super-HOV-lane. This time next month, I'll have a new Acoustic Surprise up, and yes, it will actually be acoustic. I promise, no horns or string sections. Probably.

Enjoy.

UPDATE 3-1-09: See the latest news announcement for which song is currently up as the Acoustic Surprise.

Got a couple of online radio appearances to mention. One is an interview I did recently with Radio Mike on the Fevered Brain Radio Network:

http://www.thefeveredbrainofradiomike.com/
At present it's the topmost show in the little player box thingy. Check it out, Mike's a good guy who's helped me out a lot over the years.

Another guy who's been there for me since the 'texas' days is Dan Herman, who will be featuring my stuff on his January 18th broadcast:

http://www.radiocrystalblue.com
You can listen live, or if you can't quite catch it, I'll post a link to the archive once it goes up online.

UPDATE 1-18-09:

Got played on The Podcast Network's Rock Show as well. Huzzah:

http://tinyurl.com/7fdroz
UPDATE 1-22-09:

I'm on the Hobson & Holtz Report:

http://tinyurl.com/7kpk88
And the venerable Accident Hash:

http://tinyurl.com/93ll4u
Oh, and here's the Radio Crystal Blue archive of the January 18th episode featuring me own self:

http://www.cblue.lunarpages.com/
UPDATE 2-2-09:

Got played on Daphne's Random Thoughts podcast:

http://tinyurl.com/d23qss
UPDATE 2-9-09:

Got some airspace from Shifted Sound:

http://www.shiftedsound.com/?p=256
UPDATE 2-28-09:

Check it, I'm on the Eclectic Mix:

http://eclecticmix.com/Show.asp?S=220

Okay, so I’ve heard quite a bit from folks who for a variety of very good reasons can’t get into Second Life. This presents problems, because SL is in fact where I do the majority of my performing these days.

However…I have found a solution.

It’s about the dumbest “eureka” moment in history, because the answer has been staring me in the face right here on my desktop for years: iTunes.

When I do a live show in SL, all I’m doing is broadcasting live on an audio stream, which is then piped into Second Life. Well, dig this crazy shit. Go to the Advanced tab in iTunes, and you’ll see an option that says “Open Audio Stream.” Upon selecting that option, a box pops up asking for a URL.

So here’s how we’re gonna do this. Before a show, I’ll send out an email containing the URL for the show. That way you, the listener, can plug it in and have a little concert in your house. I’ll keep my Twitter open, so if you want to shoot me messages or whatnot during the show, you can participate nearly as much as the people who are present in SL.

This means that if you're not on my mailing list, you'd best take care of that. There's a form on this page, even.

There is one more matter to discuss, however. It is customary at SL shows to give tips to performers, much like in meatspace clubs. I bring this up because I’m a capitalist, albeit a rather crappy one. I do like to make music for its own sake, but getting paid helps me do it more often and with greater resources (like my recently repaired and re-sweetened guitar). For those outside of SL, a tip is fairly easy to deliver via PayPal to matthew@thematthewshow.com.

All right, there it is. Let’s try this thing, and see if we can’t get some kinda 21st-century music scene happening. Carpe something or other.

In case anyone thought I'd forgotten:

http://tinyurl.com/87bz6u
May the New Year bring you whatsoever you wish. Or at least not kill you.

Check it, I'm on the new Beatchicks podcast:

http://beatchicks.com/?p=53
I had a good time chatting with and playing tunes for Hope & The Diva, and they never once called me on my bullshit. Enjoy.

Okay, so although I've been rocking the MySpace, Second Life, Twitter and other such hubs of the techpocalypse, I have rather glaringly left Facebook a bit fallow.

Part of this is because it's just not terribly music-friendly. No tracks can be uploaded without a scan of my driver's license (SERIOUSLY), and I mean, damn.

But there are sufficient quantities of friends & acquaintances who've expressed surprise that I've been keeping myself to myself on the big FB, and today I say to you, alright already:

http://tinyurl.com/5ed2y4
As alluded to above, there ain't much in the way of tuneage there, but it's as good a place as any to keep abreast of my goings-on, as I'll be updating it with the same frequency as my other online outposts.

Feel free to Fan me, Friend me, Poke me, or whatever it is y'all do in that joint. Tell yer virtual pals & pets.

Back in my NYC days, I attempted a couple of collaborations with Paul Shapera Gwynne-Craig, better known as Mocha Lab, when he was in Harlem and I was in Brooklyn. He'd throw stuff my way and see what I could make of it, and one of those times, something rather interesting emerged.

It was a little ditty involving confused gender endings and high school reunions entitled Lady Chatterlaine, and was meant to go on the next Mocha Lab album. Alas, his computer committed suicide later that year (2003, I think), and all we had left for posterity was the crappy demo.

However, we were recently moved to re-create the old broad, and the result is available for your perusal here:

http://tinyurl.com/5d8g3u
While you're at it, feel free to saunter over to mochalab.com, he's got lots of other goodies for your earholes.

NeverEndingWonder posted a february write-up:

http://tinyurl.com/6ep2g4
"Combining recordings of five individuals musing on their lives with songs, the matthew show creates a theme album with an ambitious premise and pulls it off with great insight, humor and poignancy."

I thanky kindly.

Those of you who have bought the disc and/or download, do consider taking time to post a review on the merchant's page. It helps people who don't know who the hell I am to figure out whether I'm worth their time.

More soon,

matthew

Last night I had the enormously badass opportunity to perform and interview on Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe, one of the Second Life Cable Network's most popular shows. If you missed it, the video is here:

http://www.slcn.tv/tonight-live-paisley-beebe-19oct2008
Muchas thanks to Paisley and her staff for having me on, despite some crazy technical issues in soundcheck. They have the patience of...well, of those who are familiar with musician techno-illiteracy.

Enjoy.

Believe it or not (cue really horrible ‘70s TV theme), the new record is available TODAY. February can be yours at the following locations…

iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/49774m
CD Baby: http://tinyurl.com/3flvlq
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/433n8c
More retailers to come, but those are my favorites. Do leave a review at those sites upon listening, it helps people know that more people than me and the label find the thing worthwhile.

Thanks to all who patiently waited 5 years for me to get this project done. The early response has been overwhelmingly positive, and hits are way up on the streaming page, which incidentally is here: http://februarythealbum.com/
I’ll keep you posted as postables arise…

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.

UPDATE 10-11-08: No rain, c'mon out.

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.

Doing a show on the south side of Dallas at Opening Bell Coffee. Bob Simpson, a fine performer from way off in San Angelo, will be opening at 8:00, followed by the honky popper hisself. Check out Bob's stuff, it's quite nice:

http://myspace.com/bobsimpsonmusic
Venue info here:

http://openingbellcoffee.com/south_side
C'mon out, get some joe, & have your nerd nodes massaged.