Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXII--Matthew Good Band: Apparitions

For the second time in three weeks we're going to the Great White North for this week's tune....

My oldest son turned thirty-two this week, which struck me as kind of amazing since it seems like he was only born yesterday.  In addition to the thoughts about the vagaries of time, his birthday also brought back memories of late Saturday nights when he and his sister would come over and we'd channel surf until the wee hours of the morning.  On one such night we discovered MuchMusic, the Canadian version of MTV.  At the time, MTV was turning into dreck (a trend which continues to this day--though in fairness, old farts like me aren't exactly their marketing target), and MuchMusic was like a breath of fresh air.  Even better, they featured a lot of Canadian bands unfamiliar to us--some of which turned out to be quite good.

One such group was the Matthew Good Band, which we discovered due to their exceptionally good video of this week's featured song, "Apparitions."  Released in 1998 on their Underdogs album (which was voted the 18th greatest Canadian album of all time by Chart--Canada's Billboard--magazine), the single would also garner a Juno nomination (again--Canada's Grammy) for Best Single.

While my son went on to become quite the fan of Matthew Good, my knowledge of the band and the man is pretty much limited to "Apparitions."  But if you're going to like but one song by a performer, best it be an exceptional one--and this one is.  Oddly enough for a song titled "Apparitions" the song is otherworldly--there's an overarching eeriness to both the vocals and the melody.  There's also a disjointed nature to the way the lyrics are sung--a note held long before a quick transition to a short phrase that only adds to listening experience.  Add in guitars both acoustic and electric, some fear and anger, a little angst, and you have yourself a hell of a Canadian tune.

Are we "stuck inside our own machine?"  Not for mortals such as I to decide.

Hope your birthday was happy, Son--I know it's one of my favorite days....

I'd completely forgotten how good this one was.

Couldn't find the original video, but nonetheless, enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee