Matthew Good: Encyclopedia II - Matthew Good - Matthew Good Band

Matthew Good - Matthew Good Band

Good's early career in music involved a variety of folk demos and a stint as the lead singer of a folk band, the Rodchester Kings. The Matthew Good Band was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1995. That year, they released their debut album, Last of the Ghetto Astronauts. Although initially popular only in the Vancouver area, the album began to catch on across Canada in 1996, with the singles "Alabama Motel Room", "Symbolistic White Walls", and "Haven't Slept in Years" becoming significant hits on radio and MuchMusic. Last of the Ghetto Astronauts, made on a budget of roughly five thousand Canadian dollars, eventually set the mark as the highest selling independent label release by a Canadian artist.

The band's 1997 album Underdogs spawned the hit singles "Everything is Automatic" and "Apparitions", the latter of which remains the band's most successful single. Good's political outspokenness and brash confidence were unusual in the Canadian rock scene of the 1990s, and he was soon recognized as much for his seemingly difficult disposition as for his musical talent. As a nod to his reputation, Good sold t-shirts that read "I Hear Matt Good Is a Real Asshole" at MGB shows. He also maintained a subversive image, sometimes posing for publicity photos in a gorilla mask.

Beautiful Midnight followed in 1999 and became hugely successful via singles including "Hello Time Bomb", "Strange Days", and "Load Me Up". The album skyrocketed the band's celebrity status and earned them two Juno awards in 2000, for Best Group and Best Rock Album. (Good himself boycotts the Juno Awards, and guitarist Dave Genn has been quoted as saying that he only attends for the open bar.)

After touring Beautiful Midnight for nearly two years, the band set to work on The Audio of Being. The album's creation came amidst a difficult emotional period for Good, where he struggled to deal with the band's success. He was also diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a disease that causes lesions to form in the lungs, prompting him to quit smoking altogether. Following throat surgery to remove a nodule from a vocal cord, Good holed up for three weeks in a hotel in Whistler to work on songs. Good later wrote that he spent much of the time "trying to keep down food supplement bars, trying to forget the growing tension within the band, the high expectations of needing to produce 'hit songs' (whatever they are these days), throwing up, and trying to find some semblance of direction in my personal life."

The band entered the studio in 2000 to record the material. The sessions saw a great deal of inner-band turmoil, with Dave Genn quitting the band before the album was complete. He returned a few days later, however, only to quit permanently not long after the album's release that October. Following Genn's departure, Good dissolved the band in 2001.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Matthew Good Band", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki