"I'm open for the first time" - Matthew Good Band

At one point in my life, I was more or less in love with a girl who had stop-sign red hair and a demonic smile that I had dubbed Suzie Q. She was Canadian to the bone(r), and I still wonder sometimes why I didn't run off and join the circus with her. One of the things we connected over was our absolute rabid fandom of Matthew Good. Other than Suzie, I've yet to meet a single human being who was a pre-existing fan of Matt Good and his awesome work.

For those of you who weren't (un)lucky enough to have Much Music during the brief period it was broadcast in the United States, MGB was a Canadian alt-rock band fronted by the contentious, cranky Matthew Good (duh), a man who made a living out of catchy radio anthems and being a loudmouth who wasn't afraid to call his peers on their shit.

Starting off as a solo acoustic folk act that evolved into modern-rock radio jams via the best-selling Canadian indie album of all time, Last of the Ghetto Astronauts, the group became more and more popular with each subsequent release. Underdogs was fuckin' killer, but Beautiful Midnight still stands as one of the single best alt-rock albums of all time, up there with In Utero and Scream, Dracula, Scream! Shit, it even won them a few Juno awards, but Matt Good didn't even show up; guitarist Dave Genn says he only attended on account of the open bar. If that's not rock'n'roll, I don't know what the fuck is.

2001's The Audio of Being saw the band head into a spacier direction, and while it was still a cool record, it wasn't the era-defining slab a lot of people expected it to be. Of course, when you tell someone as contrary as Matt Good to "write hit songs," of course he's gonna write some airy jams. The band broke up not too long afterwards, and Good went on to put out two rad solo records (with a new one coming out this year, supposedly). I can't wait. Avalanche is one of my favorite prog records ever, and White Light Rock 'n' Roll Revue was just a great, straight-ahead rock album. I'll probably blog abotu Matt Good's solo career later. For now, I hope you enjoy these MGB jams. If they'd made it to American radio, maybe things wouldn't have been as bleak as Staind.

Load Me Up - http://www.mediafire.com/?ffg2ny2dyzm

Everything is Automatic - http://www.mediafire.com/?ebixtyzm5mf

Generation X-Wing - http://www.mediafire.com/?3izzytkztgi

Look Happy; It's the End of the World - http://www.mediafire.com/?2dw2tzkyhmd

Truffle Pigs - http://www.mediafire.com/?10gvyi1wuyn

Going All the Way - http://www.mediafire.com/?d4yummzmyzn