ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 28, 2000 Matthew Good is a loud rocker. That’s easily discernible from a quick spin of his band’s latest CD, Beautiful Midnight. Matthew Good is also a loud talker, as I discover for myself when he calls the Straight from his West End apartment prior to his five … Continue reading Matthew Good and the great Radiohead controversy of 2000
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 30, 1999 Matthew Good is doing pretty well for a guy who was lugging stuff around in the shipping-and-receiving department of Army & Navy six years ago. His band’s 1997 album, Underdogs, has gone way past platinum in Canada, having sold roughly 140,000 copies so far. And now … Continue reading Feedback and cheerleaders “turn shit into solid gold” for the Matthew Good Band
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 23, 1997 Inside the False Creek offices of A&M Records, a scrawny young guy is struggling to record a promotional sound bite over the phone for a Prince George radio station. “Hi, this is Matthew Good, and you’re listening to…what are those call letters again?” After a couple … Continue reading “Hi, this is Matthew Good, and you’re listening to…what are those call letters again?”
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 26, 1996 Christmas came early for Matthew Good this year. On the same day that the Straight interviewed the up-and-coming local rocker, he received a present from his publisher at EMI: an autographed picture of American astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon. The souvenir is in keeping … Continue reading Matthew Good, 25, walks home in the cold after opening for the Who
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 5, 2004 On the new Matthew Good CD, White Light Rock & Roll Review, there’s a printed message on the disc itself from the shit-disturbing local rocker. It reads “INSERT IN PLAYER/FEEL THE GLOW OF COMMERCE.” Although Good notes that it’s a “tongue-in-cheek” statement, it’s also very accurate, as the music … Continue reading Matthew Good sees the light
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 19, 2007 ROCK MUSICIANS AREN’T known for giving away their last beer, so it comes as a bit of a shock when Matthew Good offers up his lone Pilsner Urquell. It’s a muggy Friday afternoon, though, and I’m just parched enough to accept it. “I gotta leave on tour in a … Continue reading Dark times inspired Matthew Good’s Hospital Music
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, NOV. 4, 2009 MATTHEW GOOD’S LATEST album is called Vancouver, but any fawning tourists who pick it up thinking they’ve scored an upbeat musical postcard of our picturesque city are in for a surprise. There are no odes to the mountains meeting the sea, no ditties about shopping on Robson or cocktails at … Continue reading Matthew Good’s feeling much better
ORIGINALLY POSTED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 19, 2001 By Steve Newton The members of AC/DC aren’t doing any interviews in advance of their two shows at the Pacific Coliseum on Sunday and Monday (April 22 and 23), but that’s okay, because if they were, they’d probably just want to talk about their latest album, … Continue reading Talkin’ AC/DC with Devin Townsend, Matt Good, and Michael Slade
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 17, 1997 By Steve Newton When Matthew Sweet calls in the afternoon from a Manhattan hotel room, he’s just hours away from taping an appearance on Late Show with David Letterman. That night, through the wonder of TV, Sweet’s new single, “Where You Get Love”, will be transmitted … Continue reading Matthew Sweet still searching for that elusive SNL appearance
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 6, 1995 By Steve Newton When Matthew Sweet checks in from his L.A. abode for an afternoon chat, I’ve got a fair supply of questions lined up. I want to uncover the acclaimed pop rocker’s thoughts about his place on the Another Roadside Attraction megatour, which comes to … Continue reading Matthew Sweet wishes his records were as loose as Neil Young’s
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 6, 2001 By Steve Newton If you want to know how well Nickelback lead vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist Chad Kroeger’s musical career is going, you only need look as far as the 27-year-old rocker’s Langley home. He just put in a hot tub. And had the pool enlarged. … Continue reading When Nickelback had the power to make grown men stick their dicks in whirling plastic blades
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 15, 2001 By Steve Newton Midnight Oil is one of the most politically motivated and socially conscious guitar-rock bands in the world. Although best known for embracing Aboriginal land-rights issues in its native Australia via the 1988 hit “Beds Are Burning”, the quintet has always kept an eye … Continue reading Midnight Oil won’t forgo antinationalist songs in wake of 9/11
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 5, 2001 A silver Keith Richards–style skull ring catches the glare of the dressing-room lights as Todd Kerns wraps his fist around a can of Coke. The blue and red dragon etched on his right bicep, a ringer for Ozzy Osbourne’s chest tattoo, quivers slightly as he … Continue reading Static in Stereo sets the controls for the heart of the seventies
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 20, 1997 On the Saturday afternoon when Junkhouse leader Tom Wilson calls from his Hamilton home, he’s still buzzing from a wild gig the previous night in Quebec City. It was the band’s first experience with the concert-in-the-round format, and it left the singer-songwriter-guitarist somewhat numbed. “It was … Continue reading Carnivals and bar fights inspire Junkhouse’s Fuzz
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MARCH 14, 2013 Man, that Stoker is one mind messer of a Hitchcockian psycho thriller. It’s such a mind messer that—even as I write this three days after seeing it—I can’t decide if I like it or not. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The movie centres on the weird relationships between recently … Continue reading Horror review: Stoker
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MARCH 30, 2006 The video-game industry has spawned several action-oriented horror flicks in recent years, ranging from the mediocre (Resident Evil) to the pointless (House of the Dead) to the downright putrid (Alone in the Dark). Stay Alive takes a different tack than those in that its plot isn’t built around … Continue reading Horror review: Stay Alive
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 7, 2004 When Limblifter leader Ryan Dahle drops by the Straight office for an interview, it’s almost as if he knows more folks at the paper than I do. While fixing himself a cuppa joe in the kitchen, Dahle runs into the paper’s effervescent promo queen Christine MacKay, who he apparently knows … Continue reading Limblifter Gets User-Friendly
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 20, 2005 During Dave Genn’s last year of high school, U2’s The Joshua Tree, the Cure’s The Head on the Door, and the Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead were discs that drew heavy rotation on his personal play list. And right up there was the self-titled major-label debut by local … Continue reading 54-40 thrives on new blood
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 2, 2009 WHEN THE Straight calls up former Age of Electric and Limblifter member Ryan Dahle to chat about his debut solo album, Irrational Anthems, the musical jack-of-all-trades (singer, songwriter, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, banjo player, producer, mixer, mastering engineer) is hanging at his buddy Steven Shearer’s Vancouver studio. Shearer’s the visual artist who … Continue reading Ryan Dahle does it all, with a little bit of help
INTERVIEWS WITH VANCOUVER TALENT AGE OF ELECTRIC blasts pure pop on Make a Pest a Pet (1997) Guitar idol DON ALDER finds one fan at a time (2012) ANNIHILATOR’s Jeff Waters is getting into the “old hard-rock stuff” again (1990) LONG JOHN BALDRY on Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Davie Bowie–and Images in Vogue (1985) ART … Continue reading from the ‘hood
By Steve Newton I’ve been lobbying for years to get the three most deserving rockers I can think of–Rory Gallagher, Link Wray, and Johnny Winter–inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I keep hoping that one day Jann Wenner and his braindead RRHOF cohorts will pull their heads out of their asses long … Continue reading Braindead twats at the Rock Hall nominate Whitney Houston, spurn Rory, Link, and Johnny
By Steve Newton Back in 1997 I did a set-visit piece for Fangoria on the local filming of Peter Benchley’s Creature, a TV-movie based on theJaws author’s 1994 novel, White Shark. The sea-beast in question was not content just taking out swimmers in the ocean; it actually walked on land too. Yeah, sounded pretty hokey to me too—even with the … Continue reading On the Vancouver set of Peter Benchley’s Creature with a shark that can walk
The 2015 Academy Award nominations were announced today and, as expected, the horror genre got left out in the winter cold to die a slow, painful death. When was the last time those geeks at the Academy even recognized the value of a fright flick? Sure, we all know that Kathy Bates won a Best Actress Oscar for … Continue reading F**k the Oscars, here’s the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards nominees
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MARCH 22, 1996 Last July a band calling itself Red Rider—but without Tom Cochrane in the lineup—played the Commodore. Not surprisingly, the turnout was small, and not surprisingly, I wasn’t there. I’ve been a Red Rider fan since day one, but the notion of seeing the band without Cochrane … Continue reading Tom Cochrane gets his Canuck on at the Commodore in Vancouver
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 20, 1995 The Another Roadside Attraction show at Seabird Island two years ago was one of Gordon Downie’s all-time favourite gigs. The Tragically Hip vocalist told the Georgia Straight recently that it was the natural beauty of the Agassiz location—surrounded by nearby mountains and dense woods—that made the … Continue reading Gordon Downie sees Bruce Allen in a Subway ad at Another Roadside Attraction
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 6, 1995 By Steve Newton In 1995, it’s as if the Tragically Hip can do no wrong. Late last February, the Ontario guitar-rockers played a Pacific Coliseum gig that sold out in 20 minutes flat. Not long after that, you could have flicked on Saturday Night Live and … Continue reading Gordon Downie says opening for the Rolling Stones is like being a golf caddy
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 3, 1992 By Steve Newton In a recent edition of top horror magazine Fangoria, Pet Sematary author Stephen King explained how he felt about Pet Sematary Two, the sequel to the 1989 horror hit that grossed $84 million worldwide. “I don’t approve of the movie and I didn’t … Continue reading Horror review: Pet Sematary Two
