• Alabama Motel Room: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfYuZBsQvIU MUSIC VIDEO!
  
• Symbolistic White Walls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5f4Na2xTgU MUSIC VIDEO!
  
• She's Got a New Disguise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S29DvLynGng
  
• Native Son: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuByjMB4f6E
  
• Every Name is My Name: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNQbR__wWWw
  
• Haven't Slept in Years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgr1yZ_sd4I
  
• Radio Bomb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPzsZYUdTRs
  
• Fearless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K3UxZKGZYM
  
• The War is Over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU43dNphV2k
  
• (Hidden track!) Omission of the Omen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijah6Bs76sI
  

Sally fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Feb 9, 2021

thanks Manifisto!

thanks Manifisto!

thanks Manifisto!

thanks Manifisto!

thanks Dumb Sex-Parrot and deep dish peat moss for this winter bounty!

• Alabama Motel Room - Solid single, though I still don't love it as much as later Matthew Good stuff. If this was the best they could do, I would not be as big a fan as I am today. I do remember hearing this song a ton on CFOX as a kid (99.3 The Fox rocks! woo!)--a Vancouver radio station---so it's definitely filed under "overplayed" in my mind. The music video is only OK too. The story of a woman being stalked is eh.
  
  Though I was kinda pumped to find out while googling it for this thread that the woman in the video is fellow Canadian alt rock star Holly McNarland!
  
  
  I did not know that! Also, I haven't listened to anything from her since the 90s, so this kind of prompted me to search up her old singles. She had some solid tracks:
  - Holly McNarland - Coward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SynyxgiHtUI
  - Holly McNarland - Numb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MdBU1wgk6c (this track was my fav)
  - Holly McNarland - Elmo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjN2rhlPjGU
  
  i didn't realize until today that all those tracks are on the same album, her debut "Stuff". I guess i haven't heard any of her newer albums... hmm... Anyways, she does some collaborations with Matthew Good on later albums.
  
  
• Symbolistic White Walls: Man, get some serious Tragically Hip vibes from this track. I am less a fan of this as a single. It's catchy enough, I always thought the use of "symbolistic white walls" as lyrics in the chorus came off as a bit forced. Also not the biggest fan of this music video... just Matt Good and his band in a white room, Good mean mugging to the camera, interspersed with 90s people doing 90s stuff.
  
  I do love pretty much the whole verse of this track lyrically though. Super 90s angst. I dig it, especially these lines:
  I have a psychic and she says I'm lonely
  she says my destiny is turning out all wrong
  so now I just sit here
  and think of meaningful things to say"
  
  This is a weaker MGB single, imo. Though I recognize it was super big in the 90s.
  
  
• She's Got a New Disguise: This is a track I overlooked a lot as a teenager because it was a "slower" song. Also partly because it comes off as a lovesick/break-up song and I didn't have time for those despite being, like Matthew Good, a huge dork in high school. Listening to it now, I think I appreciate it a lot more.
  
  One sound I was never a huge fan on Last of the Ghetto Astronauts was what I saw as an overuse of organ... but I have to say, the organ in the chorus here is pretty drat good. Googling, I thought it was interesting to find out that Dave Genn (the organ player) was just a sessional artist on this album... I always thought he was a founding member of MGB, but as it turns out it didn't join until they started touring Astronauts.
  
  Found a solid live performance of Shes' Got a New Disguise here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ReIGf0bwLs
  
  Also, spotted this comment in the video:
  
  
  
• Native Son: This song's okay. Middling Matthew Good Band, imo. I didn't care for it too much when I was younger and I'm not being blown away today. I do like the "And every time I call your name" start to the chorus, but this is also a song that I think they went way too hard on the organ for. When I hear that organ start up in the first few seconds of the track I feel an irrational impulse to hit skip. More appreciation for this song now that I'm older, but still don't love it.
  
  That said, this live version that I posted a few posts back is way radder than the album version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8s8OfFKsE0. Big fan of the faster pace here. I'd rock out to this. Also laughing pretty hard that Good got away with shouting "loving" on a televised performance.
  
  
• Every Name is My Name: This song is total filler and I've basically always skipped it if actively listening to this album. Had to force myself to really listen to it this time... I guess now I appreciate the pretentious jokey-ness of it... it's hard to take seriously.
  
  I chuckled at the reveal that the narrator's name was every name in the credits. But otherwise I am gonna go back to skipping this track every time in the future.
  
  
• Haven't Slept in Years: This song rules. I remember it being a radio single on CFOX back in the day but there was no music video for it. It takes a bit to get going, but Geoff Lloyd's bass line at the start is good. Once the course kicks in and Ian Browne starts hitting that ride cymbal? Woof drat good. I've replayed this song the most the last couple days, so it's definitely still a fav.
  
  Also, while Googling stuff about this, I came across this factoid:
  "The band was originally going to go with another name ("Snowaxe" and "Gandalf" have been mentioned by Matthew Good), however a radio station in Vancouver played "Alabama Motel Room" and announced the band as the Matthew Good Band, at which point it stuck."
  
  I knew the story about how the radio station's announcement cemented the name "Matthew Good Band", but holy poo poo at the idea they could've been called "Gandalf" or "Snowaxe", hahahaha.
  
  
• Radio Bomb: Another middling MGB song for me. I had a lot of proto-MGB energy to it that I recognize in later singles... but unlike later singles which loving rule, Radio Bomb is just kinda there. I always forget about it until it comes up on a playlist.
  
  
• Fearless: Another drat solid track. This is more ballad-y than a lot of what MGB is known for, but they never totally shied away from tracks like this. Glad Genn stopped with the organ and just did piano for this, as it really works. While writing this I double checked the album liner notes and it's not Genn on this track... some guy named Steve Black.
  
  Like Haven't Slept In Years, I don't have a lot to say about this track. I liked it as a teenager and I like it now. Love for these tracks reaffirmed.
  
  
• The War is Over: This one surprised me. I often skipped over it as a teen and always found it a bit forgettable. Probably because I'm not the biggest fan of the opening verse musically. I like the lyrics, especially the "there are spacecraft orbiting the earth / guided by 90-year-old Russians that haven't heard / the war is over" and the line about kids who "fear sex but not the bomb"...
  
  But man, when that chorus kicks in and Dave Genn's organ dominates the track? That's some good poo poo there. Big fan of the drums here too. Browne was probably my favourite drummer Matthew Good worked with.
  
  Track rules, though. Glad I rediscovered.
  
  
• Omission of the Omen: This one is fine. I get why it was hidden. It really sounds like a B-side. Still, as it's not a very long album, I was always surprised that this wasn't cut into its own track. (On my CD, "The War is Over" is the last track and is like 12 minutes long... Omissions comes on at about 9ish minutes). I would've put Omissions in place of Every Name is My Name or something.
  
  Anyways, this song is alright. There are much better solo guitar Good songs on later albums. I do like the ending though.
  
  I was surprised to find that there's live recordings of this song as I kinda figured it'd been swept under the rug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKOtAtDvXh8
  
  THAT SAID, this song has notoriety for being the first recorded use of the phrase "first world problems" (in 1995). It's questionable whether or not Good actually coined the term first, but hey, I'll take this as a win for Vancouver.
  

  quote:

  "Good coined the slang phrase "first world problems" in this song's lyric, "someone would love to have my first world problems." Good's original message of illustrating the often hollow grumbles made by those in the "first world" subsequently gained recognition as an internet meme to minimize complaints about trivial issues by shaming the complainer."

• Geoff Lloyd died in 2010 drat
  
• Apparently Matthew Good has gone on record to state he despises Last of the Ghetto Astronauts (haha, he would), save for Omissions of the Omen
  
• They reference older bands of theirs: Goods Rodchester Kings, a folk band--they did cello and piano on Ghetto Astronauts, I believe. He fired them on tour and hired Geoff, then Geoff suggested Ian as drummer because he heard his punk band playing through walls of a studio he worked at. Ian originally played in a punk band called "Spiders". Played with Gob... and ironically enough John Shepp was recording Too Late No Friends at around the same time for them.
  
  Gob is classic 90s Vancouver punk. They were featured on a bunch of EA NHL and Madden games in the early 2000s.
  I always liked Cleansing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkL3WDfnFhQ
  You're Too Cool was solid too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndBJbtZjNok
  and Give Up the Grudge was loving iconic, but was when they were also getting more pop punk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FrfC6ka6Qg (Foot in Mouth Disease was a great album name)
  
• John Shepp also engineered Good's early demos... Bunch of limited print stuff only on cassette. He lived a block from Good and they hung out a lot.
  
• Browne says Good was a pretty manic songwriter (makes sense, since he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder decades later). Spent days just chainsmoking cigarettes, playing guitar, writing a new song a day.
  
• Hahaha, first song they talk about is Every Name is My Name. Shepp knows the fanbase generally hates it but he loves the joke. Says the lyrics were intentionally absurd and delivered in an intense manner. It was the only album on the song played with a click track. Good gave Shepp the chords and he made a loop for the rest of the band to play over.
  
• Ian points out every MGB album has a song with a weird loop.
  
• Shepp says that they intended to use the old demos in Ghetto Astronauts, but when Llyod and Brown were hired the wound up recording all new stuff, more in line with what Good wanted, so they chucked it all out and that's what Ghetto Astronauts became (Though I dug around and found out Last of the Ghetto Astronauts was also the name of one of the old demos).
  
• Brown: "I was fresh out of music school, doing little jazz licks. No click track. No edits."
  
• They went off on a long tangent about other bassists and drummers they played with about twenty minutes in.
  
• Apparently the vinyl pressing of Ghetto Astronauts omits Omissions of the Omen. It was so short, most of the album took up one side, so side B was entirely smooth. They didn't want to put money into making a metal press for one track, so they cut it. Good was apparently pissed (haha, he would be). But it was either keep the grooves between songs fat enough to replicate the original spacing or make them too thin... so they cut it.
  
• They talk about cut tracks a bit. There were four or five? One was called "Revenge" and had Social Distortion's Charlie Quintana play on it, which is pretty cool. Apparently it sounded amazing and pretty radio friendly, but apparently it sounded like nothing else on the album so it wasn't vibing. Also apparently it had a solo that went on too long and Good isn't much of a soloist, so EMI wanted it cut.
  
• Shepp says the bass in Alabama Motel Room sounds a ton like Primus's Wynona's Big Brown Beaver because Geoff Lloyd was a huge Primus fan and didn't realize he was channelling them. Hmm, Alabama Motel Room and Wynona's Big Brown Beaver mashup? :thunk"
  
• Huh, Shepp says Geoff plays in drop-D for the final chorus. Never noticed that before.
  
• Browne says Ghetto Astronauts is his favourite MGB album because it was so honest. Considers Underdogs a direct continuation. Liked the latter albums less when the guitars got heavier--says he felt it was less unique.
  
• Shepp says the recording sessions were super light and amiable. Everyone was just loving around and having fun. Also that Alabama Motel Room was done in one day.
  
• Apparently Browne is a fairly accomplished singer. Is uncredited, but did the harmonizing on Fearless.
  
  Also apparently he did performances with a group around schools in BC to afford to buy the drumset he used for Ghetto Astronauts.
  
• On Fearless, the song starts fast then slows down. Not only because they weren't playing a clicktrack... and Shepp says Browne's timing was impecable... but apparently Good was loving around when recording and was singing along in a Scottish accent up to the first chorus before he stopped screwing around. Shepp thought it sounded great, natural--an acceptable flaw--so it stayed.
  
• Change of Season, the final track on the next album, was apparently percolating here and they considered putting it on Ghetto Astronauts.
  
• Shepp's favourite song to groove on drums to is Native Son. He just loved those drums.
  

• Deep Six: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to4ZbGp3wG8
  
• Everything is Automatic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9OS5rtv7T0(This was a single with a MUSIC VIDEO, WOO!! but I can't find it any streaming versions of it online. There was one on the Near Fantastica fansite, but it looks like it was run with Flash Player, so I guess it's down now, haha. I have the disc with all the videos so I'll see if I can rip them for the thread)
  
• Apparitions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfPwb4f6lo8 (Same as above... this is, like, THE Matthew Good Band single... but no video online? And I remember it being a pretty rad video. I liked catching it on MuchMusic. We'll see if I can rip it...)
  
• My out of style is coming back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBbvl35O1t8
  
• Strangest one of All: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSPvFTb-_P8
  
• Middle Class Gangsters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWIUv7rXgFY (No official music video for this track, but a bunch of teenagers from Coquitlam (Matt Good's hometown) shot a lofi video and Good reblogged it like 10 years ago which was pretty cool of him... was surprised it came up so easily when I searched the song).
  
• Rico: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-U0OIer5C4 (MUSIC VIDEO: Bummed I couldn't find the Apparitions video... it's supposed to come before this one. Matt Good is a janitor in Apparitions, so at the start of Rico, he's the same character getting off shift. This vid was shot in Vancouver ) ALSO, the video appears to be region locked to Canada, so here's the song without the music vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhyZnzOq6bo
  
• Prime Time Deliverance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRjsRll1vs4
  
• The Inescapable Us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUmgvLO5dlk (No official, but this old fan video was the first result... so MUSIC VIDEO )
  
• Indestructible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V9AIyzQDdA (MUSIC VIDEO!) ALSO, this one is also region-locked, so here's just the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4aBGfYXSaw
  
• Invasion 1:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ork_izDx4
  
• Look Happy it's the end of the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3zL3mtgOGY
  
• Change of Season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7g_XxJHoDM
  

Sally fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Feb 9, 2021

^{thank you saoshyant for this sig!!!
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he/him

• Deep Six - Dug this song as a teen. Thought it was needlessly heavy and aimless and an older hipster teen trying to distance himself from mainstream stuff. But you know what? Listening to it now I've come back to it. The open riff is awesome. I dig the repeated "I dunno"s in the chorus (with the "pretend you know" response). Fun to sing along to. Solid solo too. All round good song. Excellent start to the ablum.
  
• Everything is Automatic - Still loving rules. Helluva opening to hook you in, both guitars. Shouting "Everybody's alright" at live shows were always highlights for me (I think I've seen Good and his band a dozen times now). Browne's drumming on this track loving rules. The kick-kick-snare hit during the chorus always gets me. Awesome song. New Age Soldier indeed.
  
• Apparitions - Solid song. It's always been solid. Like I said, it's basically THE single. I think it was one of the first MGB songs I learned to play on guitar. Great alternative rock ballad all around. It is still definitely overplayed for me. I have heard it a million times. Great song, but I'm ready to skip to another.
  
  That said, it makes a great acoustic track. I used to have this CFOX compilation lying around that has an acoustic cover of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICfBxekXySk
  Don't have it anymore... lost in a move. But I kept it around years just for this track of Good and Genn jamming out acoustically.
  
• My out of style is coming back: I always dug the droning bass of this song. One of the first songs I learned on bass. Hell, Geoff Lloyd's bass playing on Matthew Good Band is one of the reasons I learned the bass guitar. I always loved the way the balanced bass in MGB mixes. I often try to emulate MGB bass in my own music. That said, this song is only just fine. It hasn't aged along with me and it's just kind of "fine" now.
  
• Strangest one of All: Haha, I forgot this song existed. I was surprised when it came on as I was relistening to the album. Even now I almost forgot to give it a bold and a bullet point. Listening to it now, I did the chorus but... I don't much care for the verse. So I just instinctively want to skip it when it starts playing.
  
• Middle Class Gangsters: Hmm, I never really cared much for this song when I was younger and it's still not really doing for me. It's fine. An acceptable MGB filler song.
  
• Rico: This one's a strange one for me. Loved it as a teenager. Often blasted it. It's fast and punchy. But it doesn't really do it for me anymore. Maybe I overplayed it for myself? Of the four singles, it doesn't have the energy of Everything is Automatic, it lacks the ballad power for Apparitions, and it doesn't have the quirkiness of Indestructible. Ah well.
  
  One thing I noticed on this relisten, is there's a weird distorted doubling of vocals on the line "Buy the rights to endless love." MGB are no strangers to doubling of vocals... it gets used a lot. Like in the ending to Prime Time Deliverance. I am just surprised I never noticed it here. It's very faint. Caught me off guard... thought something was going on with my headphones.
  
  Also, fun fact: "This was filmed at the Drink Cabaret in downtown. The street right in front of the club is a one-way street, Matthew is driving up the wrong way."
  
  Also, apparently Good hates this song.
  
• Prime Time Deliverance: Holy poo poo. This song. Friends, I love this song. This may be my fav MGB song of all time. Doing this Let's Listen has me thinking that Prime Time Deliverance is the logical conclusion of Last of the Ghetto Astronaut's sound. It's long and ballady, super 90s in its complaints about the superficialness of the modern world, and has Genn just givin'er on that loving organ. Man, the organ rules on this track. Hooooleee poo poo when that chorus kicks in. And then Browne comes in with that ride snare?
  
  It's all good. The lyrics? The instrumentation? I vaguely remember once reading an interview where they wanted this to be a single but it was deemed too long. Ah well. So it goes.
  
  Top tier track, though. I highly recommend if you're only going to listen to one song from this album, that it's Prime Time Deliverance.
  
• The Inescapable Us This song really feels like a b-side. It's fine. It's okay. It's not Good's best solo tracks... as his solo career would later prove.
  
• Indestructible - Used to love the hell out of this song as a teen, just like Rico. Couldn't get enough of the bass. But like Rico I think I burnt myself out on overplaying it when younger... it's not doing much for me now.
  
• Invasion 1: I overlooked this soon a lot as a teen... would skip it because of the discordant opening... but I eventually grew to dig it because of the rad chorus. Still dig it now. But I was blown away when I looked up the lyrics. The line "built to be seen just crazy" in the first verse? I always thought it was "built in BC, just crazy" and would feel mad patriotic for my home province... but... it seems I've been mistaken for years now, haha.
  
  Still love the lines:
  "Down a hole with the Grinch's antler dog
  And Yukon Cornelius
  When I'm sober I need this"
  
• Look Happy it's the end of the world - I don't really care for this song. Never did. Feels like another song that could've been a single for a lesser band but is instead just a middling MGB track. It's got good energy, but doesn't do it for me.
  
• Change of Season - I like this song a lot. Good low key track. The guitars are great in it. Excellent end to an album.