#the specs

[the-cactus-taco]

Had these three done forever just forgot to post them oops— anyway, here are The Specs!

TLDR lust (or doc) is a mad scientist that when crazy trying to learn about the multiverse, and decided to summon a demon. That demon being fresh! They eventually struck a deal and began working together. Grease was some sucker they kidnapped for testing, but he ended up being so into it that they just kept him around as doc’s new assistant, the call him “lab rat” as a nickname.

Anyway they’re polyamorous in a very Adam’s family way where they are very very evil but have a perfect healthy romantic relationship

[ztremx]

[greensparty]

Talking with Matthew Sweet

Prior to starting this site, I was a huge fan of singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet. I first got into him with this 1991 masterpiece Girlfriend. I’ve listened to that album and his catalog an insane amount of times. It’s accompanied me on many trips and I always discover something new upon each listen. Beyond his hits like “Girlfriend” and “Sick of Myself”, Sweet has carved out his own corner of the pop culture sandbox: scoring and appearing on countless movie and TV soundtracks, doing cover albums with Susanna Hoffs, and still performing for his massive cult following.

Then when I began this site, I have been fortunate enough to cover him: getting to review his 2017 album Tomorrow Forever, the 2018 follow up Tomorrow’s Daughter, his 2021 album Catspaw , cover his 2018 Boston concert, and even interview the man himself in 2021.

In February, Mr. Sweet began a tour in the Midwest. It was his first shows in nearly four years. The tour continues with a stop at The Wilbur Theatre in Boston on April 15. This tour is happening as he recently released a live album and he's also recording a new studio album. I recently got to speak to Mr. Sweet via phone.

concert poster for his upcoming show at The Wilbur in Boston, MA

Me: When we last talked in January 2021 when Catspaw was released, live music had not quite returned just yet. This current tour marks your first tour in years. Tell me about this tour coming together at this particular time.

MS: Well, you know, I watched a lot of people start going out during the pandemic and then having to re-schedule dates over and over again. In particular, the Indigo Girls, who are managed by my manager. They were going out and then someone in the band would catch it, one of the girls would get it and they would quarantine and then re-do dates. Part of it was that I didn't feel it was time yet. Then I was having some health issues that were sort of slowing me down and made me even more paranoid about getting COVID. I did eventually get it several times. So anyways, I think I thought I would start going out about a year before now. But then when I decided I was going to tour, it was too late to book last year. And so we just decided it was going to be Spring of '24. It made me nervous about having to go out and play after having not played for so long. We went out and did about ten days in February and that was my first actual band shows since before the pandemic. It was kind of crazy to be back doing it, but very quickly it felt normal and I relaxed knowing I could sing. My voice was singing well, I was remembering everything, it was fun to play guitar. I had some really bad back problems when I was last touring in 2019 and did a lot of those shows on a chair. I just couldn't stand up for that long without my back giving out. Now that seems to be gone, I can stand with a guitar for an entire show.

Ric Menck, my normal drummer, couldn't do the February dates. So we got Debbi Peterson from The Bangles to sub in on the drums. She's a long time friend of mine. It's kind of cool to be starting up again live, it's got an edge to it. So those shows were really fun to do. And it turns out Debbi is going to do April as well. So people might be into that, a real live Bangle banging on the drums! Also we have an extra band member, my manager's son Adrian who is grown (he's about 30) is playing acoustic guitar and singing. And all of a sudden we have Paul Chastain, Adrian Carter and Debbi Peterson - three voices.

Sweet performing live @ Brighton Music Hall 6/17/2018

Me: You mentioned Debbi Peterson on this tour. You've had a longtime collaboration with Bangles singer Susannah Hoffs. Was it as simple as you needing a drummer and Debbi Peterson was available for this tour?

MS: Kind of. It was sort of short notice, so it was like, who are we going to get? But I've had Debbi come out here before and play with me. She's really sweet and we've always gotten along really well and always dug her drumming. I've known her many times, so we weren't strangers to each other. But still, we've never jammed on my music before, playing the hits or whatever. So it's been fun to have it be a little bit different.

Me: The Catspaw album is now three years old. Do you feel like this tour is allowing that album to get its own tour as opposed to being lost in the shuffle?

MS: Not really. I feel like it's long enough ago, I don't really have any intention towards promoting it this year. I'm more thinking about the next record and writing songs for that. We've kind of done a song off it, then not done a song off it. So I don't know if we'll be playing Catspaw when we get to Boston. [Pauses] It's not that I don't like Catspaw, it's just that I'm always looking forward, never looking back.

Me: Speaking of that, you are working on a new studio album. Is there anything you can tell us about it at this time or is it more a work in progress?

MS: Yeah it's a work in progress and I've only been writing songs so far. For a long time, I'd track as I'm writing, so it's a little different than I'd done it in a long time. I'm mapping stuff and trying not to be too judgemental about it, just kind of let it pile up. I'm assuming, because I already have quite a bit, that by the end of this year I'll have plenty of songs. It's possible I'll record it before the end of the year but it's looking like we'll be doing dates into the Fall, in which case I probably won't get it recorded 'til the Spring of '25. But I have some art work for it and I have a title, I'm stealing the title from the movie Midsommar. I made this cat painting and my wife said it reminded her of the movie Midsommar. The painting looks very poppy and a pop art sort of thing. Now we got it on t-shirts, stickers, and it's on the kick drum. So my head is into what this album will be, but it hasn't formed itself enough to explain what I think it is.

album cover

Me: In February, you released the live album Live in Grant Park Chicago 1993, from the Altered Beast era. Other than some live tracks, this actually marks your first live album release. How did this particular show get selected?

MS: It was a show that was really memorable because it was a really huge audience. It was an interesting lineup - Richard Lloyd was playing, Will Rigby (a left-handed drummer), it was a special lineup to capture. We knew it was recorded in a truck. My biggest memory was the newspaper the next day said "The Pope, The Bulls and Matthew Sweet" as its headline. My Mom was Catholic and I was a fallen Catholic by this point, but my Mom was really excited about that headline. So that's what I remembered about it. I didn't have much to do with it, because when it comes to old albums I'm often horrified. If I'm at someone's house and one of my old albums is on, I'm like "turn it off". But I'm glad they put it out and it's available for people to hear.

Me: On the new live album there's some cover songs. You've done loads of cover songs over the years. Between the Under the Covers albums you've done with Susannah Hoffs and numerous soundtrack and compilations. Do you have a favorite cover song you've done?

MS: Wow! That's really hard, I don't know. It doesn't immediately pop into my mind. You know, I've done cover bands when I was a teenager and we'd play new wave and cover songs. I was in this band The Specs. They were originally a prog rock band and by the time I was in it they were new wave.

Sweet (2nd from right) when he was the bassist for The Specs

But I remember when I was touring with Girlfriend, my manager Russell would say "you should do some covers". Maybe we didn't have as much to make the set out of also. So we'd cover stuff back then. Maybe now I cover stuff less in live shows than I would've back then. But with Susannah, in a way it's kind of her world, covering songs. And we wanted to do something together and she had these folks at Shout Factory, kind of wanting to do something with her, and it just kind of happenstance happened that we did the Under the Covers thing. We had a lot of fun recording!

I learned to play bass by picking the bass lines off of records by ear. So I've always had that ability to hear something and I may not know the name of the chords but I can kind of know what it's doing. So that helped me to kind of learn the songs when I came up with our list.

Me: In addition to your music, you are a visual artist and sculpture. You were even a consultant on Tim Burton's film Big Eyes about artist Margaret Keane. Do you like mixing it up and doing the art when you're in between music and vice versa?

MS: It has been that, but right now it's concurrent. I'm making music and I'm also making cat paintings. In a weird way it's kind of intertwined for me. The first thing I did that wasn't music was throwing pottery on a wheel. When I first learned how to do it, you have to get into a very zen spot of not thinking about anything in order to grow. Otherwise it kind of collapses if you're not in the right headspace. It reminded me a lot of music more than I thought it would. Even when I'm spinning pottery it reminded me very much of music. Early on, I would steer it and when it's done I couldn't remember how it became that. It was overwhelmingly cool that - wow, it's like this thing now! I found that was really similar to those two things. I used to make some pottery on the road and then put it out on the merch booth that night. Now I'm making cat paintings where I'll get on a kick and do a series of five or six. But they're all kind of modernistic cats.

For info on Matthew Sweet

For info on his show at The Wilbur on 4/15/24

[yixiangs]

these are my new favourite pictures of him

[drarrymybeloved]

allen & lu from kill your darlings as harry potter & draco malfoy send tweet

[beomglocks]

i wanna gag i wanna choke i want you to touch that little dingly thing that swing in the back of my throat

[skzeers]

a baby in a sweater