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Recent Entries
News In Brief
Song-A-Week: I Proletariat
This American Life TV Show Streaming!
Song-A-Week 12: What You Know
Song-A-Week Bonus: #11
No Song This Week
Song-A-Week #10: Let Me Know
Conrad has a SHOW!
On a Desert Island, In the caribbean, preferably near the Mayan Riviera
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March 28, 2007

News In Brief

News in Brief
By Matt Good, your reporter in the field.

Google Unveils Google Coach
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (Business Wire) - Today Internet search giant Google unveiled the newest product in its lineup – Google Coach. Designed to be a personal life coach for the internet set, Google Coach will serve as a surrogate frontal lobe for many a sunlight-deprived internet user. It will also help you find the nearest gym, get you to your appointments on time, and pick out what clothes to wear in the morning. One of the more interesting features (appropriately titled G-Plea) will actually scour the web for the perfect apology and deliver it to your girlfriend for you. The new product uses Google’s proprietary search algorithm to probe deep into your darkest childhood secrets and regrets, allowing advertisers to present you with the perfect guilt trip, boosting the ad’s effectiveness. Google’s stock jumped ten percent upon the announcement.

Area Shrub Sues President for Defamation of Character
GREENVILLE, IL (Associated Press) - The area shrub located on the corner of College Ave. and North Prairie St. filed a civil suit against United States President George W. Bush today, for giving the otherwise popular shrub a bad name. “If the leader of the free world wants to act afool on an international scale, that’s his prerogative,” stated the ficus, “but going around identifying himself with peace-loving, NPR-listening plants such as myself, shoot…” The suit calls for thousands of dollars in damages to be awarded to the foliage, as well as a clause asking that the President now be referred to as George W. Smartypants.

Ex-Fed Greenspan Uses Restroom, U.S. Markets Plunge
WALL STREET (Reuters) - Upon reports that the Ex-Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan used the bathroom earlier today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted as panicked investors began a selling frenzy. Stock trader John Contrarian expressed things this way: “Boy oh boy… Watching the ticker today was like watching the toilet water swirl and eventually go down the drain.” Most analysts are confident the movement was an aberration and will not affect the overall economy, but some aren’t so sure. “If Greenspan can just go to the bathroom any time he wants without any sort of warning or statement, what confidence do we have that the bull market will continue?” Studying the situation carefully, current Fed Ben Bernanke reportedly responded by exclaiming, “They never do this when I poop!!!”

Posted by pedalboy at 11:00 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 25, 2007

Song-A-Week: I Proletariat

Song #13 - I Proletariat. Kindof a departure. Electronics, sorta stream of consciousness lyrics... By the end of the song my voice was starting to wear out, so sorry its kinda bouncy and wobbly sounding. This is the kind of song that would need really tight vox I think, so in any real situation that would be fixed. Check it out.

I Proletariat
(C) 2007 Matthew C Good

i proletariat
i apple pie
i big picture now

i proletariat
pie in the sky
big picture looking small

i proletariat
i blue sky
i middle class now

i proletariat
i secret spy
big picture looking small
(well, its better than none at all)

I machiavelli
I merlin, too
Just who are you?
I tens and twenties
I hundreds, too
how much are you?


I intelligentsia
I bourgeois
I trample underneath

I will to power
Entrepreneur
economic conceit

I machiavelli
I merlin, too
Just who are you?
I tens and twenties
I hundreds, too
how much are you?

ooh I good man
I charity
I deduct, you receive.

I machiavelli
I merlin, too
Just who are you?
I tens and twenties
I hundreds, too
how much are you?
I machiavelli
I machiavelli
Just who are you?
I machiavelli
I machiavelli
Monkey see, monkey do!

---

What kinda ending does this song need? I don't know. Any ideas? The typical matt good "add a new track each bar until the whole thing explodes" technique? fade out? or what? Alright seriously this one's a bit different so let me know what you like and dislike about it. thanks for listening.

Posted by pedalboy at 11:43 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

March 24, 2007

This American Life TV Show Streaming!

This American Life, the best show on public radio, period, is now also a TV series on Showtime. For those of you too cheap to buy cable (like me) or too lazy to catch it live, you can stream the first episode off of the showtime site for FREE!!! I hope they do this with all the episodes.

DO IT NOW!!!!!

Have I mentioned I want to BE Ira Glass?

Posted by pedalboy at 10:14 PM | TrackBack

March 19, 2007

Song-A-Week 12: What You Know

#12, everyone! Every week that I manage to pull this off makes me very happy. Okay okay. So to preface this one there's three things that strike me about it...
1) It reminds me of a deathcab song
2) I didn't have time to put in the 12-string guitar solos I was thinking of...
3) I like the lyrics, but I feel like it could use some refining to make sure that whatever it is I am trying to say is clear. Right now it feels like there are two competing ideas that I think are related... just needs a little tying everything together. I also want to make sure it isn't overtly religious. At least not the kind of religious they sell in the Christian Book Stores.

What You Know
(C) 2007 Matthew C Good

Broken spines of hymnals,
Piles of empty journals
filled with all the words
you didn't write

weathered looking covers
just like all the others
mass-produced on
an assembly line.

Most of these books
never get a second look
Empty pages narrate an empty life

Still, we keep them nice
For our self-involved lies.
Maybe one day we'll have something to write.

Battered family bibles
or their picture-perfect rivals.
Tell me now which
would you prefer?

Coming off its binding
red threads are unwinding
The weaker book
has the stronger word

Write down what you know
read for what you don't
There's always someone else you haven't learned from

When its time to make your mark
you won't be in the dark
Put your pen to the page and let it run.

------

Shoot I just heard a piano meeble in there that I meant to delete. Oh Well, that's what you get. Quantity, not quality.

No wimpy "strum the last chord real slow and let it ring" ending this time, chase. does that work for ya?

Posted by pedalboy at 12:31 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

March 13, 2007

Song-A-Week Bonus: #11

So remember when i said there wouldn't be a song this week? That was a half-truth. Here's one I wrote a while ago and demo'd on my cruddy laptop's mic. It should hold you over at least until monday. Since I haven't really been coming up with actual titles for my songs lately and have just been using the first line instead, this song is called "Friend, If You Won't Listen." This song only sorta counts, because I wrote it a while ago, so its not new this week, like the others are. But it is new to you, so that's something... Isn't it?

Editors Note: Actually, that isn't the first line... If we were really using the first line, this song would be called, "Friend, If You're So Sullen," but it's not, so we're not. Who wrote this, anyway?

Oh and I've been working on coooool things for the pedalboy.net/conrad site. Like a flash-based music player that will let you listen to all the songs from the Song-A-Week project, "The Shortest Distance..." as well as "The Falling Action," if you should desire to do so. I will of course post a blog about it when it is completed. Just letting you know I am not dead, I guess. Here's the song, without any further ado:

Friend, If You Won't Listen
(C) 2007 Matthew C Good.


Friend, if you're so sullen
that you can't do a thing
to make yourself feel better,
do it for me.

Cuz I am floating through my days
I not walking, I levitate
I can't think, can't eat
till you awake

You will lie right to your face
and hide out in your private place
No one else gets in until
its too late

Friend, I know its hard to see
that soft and sweet the lies may be
there is something ugly
underneath.

So hold on
to my hand
Find something
makes you warm inside
makes you come alive.

I'm a jealous person and
I am not one to let my friends
pull away from me
to hurt themselves

Whether or not you like it,
I am going to make you believe.
Cuz I need you more than
you need me.

So hold on
to my hand
Find someone
makes you come alive
happy for a while

I am floating through my days
I do not walk, I levitate
I can't think, I can't eat till
you awake.

-----

haha... I was just listening back to the song to make sure I had my lyrics right, and i just heard my talking at the end there... Real technical jargon, you know, using big words like "floating stuff." ::Sigh:: oh well, most of you know I'm a dweeb already, so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

Also, I've got an idea where I write one song and do an acoustic-and-vocal-only demo of it, then for the following few weeks, I record that same song a few different ways, just to see where I can take it. pretty much the same idea Wilco was messing with that you see in the documentary "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart." Anyone think that's a good idea?

Posted by pedalboy at 10:03 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

March 12, 2007

No Song This Week

No song guys - sorry. I had friends from out of town over this weekend and had a marvelous time hanging out with them. I will try to post a funny demo or something later on in the week, so if you aren't subscribed to the podcast, you should Do It Now.

Posted by pedalboy at 11:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 5, 2007

Song-A-Week #10: Let Me Know

IT IS NUMBER TEN. AND I SHALL CALL IT "TEN." No, that's a terrible name. Ermmmm how about I just pick a lyric from the song? Okay... uh, "Let Me Know." That's fine. That will do.

Let Me Know
(C) 2007 Matthew C Good

Do you remember
how I felt?
Dear, I forgot.

Was I a little
washed up,
or was I a lot?

Did it look like
I was distressed?
I don't recall

Did it look like
I had all the time
or had none at all?

Won't you please let me know, let me in?
Darlin.
Where do we start, where do we end?
baby.

How do you know what it's like
if you can't remember a thing?
How do you know it happened?

How do you look in the mirror
if you don't remember your face?
how do you know its you then?

How is that time is unkind?
an inevitable decline
how does it know to hurt you?

Why do you stand in the rain
as if it will wash away
the scars it put there in the first place.

---

Yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Had some trouble with the lyrics on this one. It was like 11:00. I was about halfway done with the lyrics... And I still had no idea what the heck this song was supposed to be about. Form is also sorta wierd. Might need to tweak it if I do a "real" version someday. Comment... Let me know if this is cool or not.

Posted by pedalboy at 1:17 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 3, 2007

Conrad has a SHOW!

This is almost unprecedented!

I have a show lined up in Champaign on April 14th in connection with High Anxiety Records' launch party. I'll supposedly be appearing with a backup band (which may or may not feature a certain high-profile member of the kordix network...) - I'll be playing several songs from The Shortest Distance, as well as a few surprises hopefully.

High school people - It would be great if you could come and I could see you guys again. Rumor has it certain of you will be there. Anyway it would be neet if you guys could make it and see what I've been up to lately.

Greenville people - OOOOOOOOOOH PLEEEEEEEEEASE! I played like ONE show while I was at greenville. you should see me again. I love you all. Its not that far away. Reba, you don't read my blog, so I don't know why I'm calling you out on this. but I want to see you there. Chase.... I want you in my band. ha. i'll message you in case you don't see this. maybe we can work that out.

Those of you I don't know very well... but wanted to - You know those kinds of people? The ones you see and you're like "I could be friends with them." But you aren't for one reason or another? Maybe you're not in the right friend group or you are really at your maximum of relationships or you don't have classes with them or whatever... Well if you've ever thought that about me, I'd like to see you there. Come up to me, say hi. And if you've ever thought I might have thought that about you, you might be right. Even if you can't come, if you're one of these people, drop me an email or IM. contact info should be on my website. I'm always looking for new, interesting people.

anyway, please come. Support Ralph Petrella. And me. And plus it will make me a lot less nervous and stressed if I have some friends there and its not just like 500 drunk emo fans.... who i'm gonna go play some sentimental folk songs about longing and distance to. eeeks yeah come please!

Posted by pedalboy at 12:50 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

March 1, 2007

On a Desert Island, In the caribbean, preferably near the Mayan Riviera

Dan's post was such a great idea that I had to quickly order my thoughts and put together my own version... So here you go...

My top ten desert island recordings:

  1. OK COMPUTER (Radiohead, 1997) - In my opinion, the best album of the 1990's, hands down. While many critics agree, some put Nirvana's Nevermind in this spot. While Nevermind had quite an explosive popularity, I think time has borne out Ok Computer to be the more influential and lasting album. People still talk about Ok Computer. People talk about about Kurt Cobain. But not really Nevermind. (Flame on if you disagree.) I love this album. Life is not worth living without "Let Down" and "No Surprises."
  2. Lost In Space (Aimee Mann, 2002) - This... album... blew.... my mind. Notice the space theme in my song-a-weeks? Notice the lofi guitar sound? Notice all the isolation? This is precisely what all that wants to be but will never achieve. The art on this album is incredible as well - done as sort of a graphic novel from the people at drawn and quarterly. Nobody sings about drugs, depression, and loneliness like Aimee Mann sings about drugs, depression, and loneliness. Nobody.
  3. Heartbreaker (Ryan Adams, 2000) - I don't care if you've heard a drunk Ryan Adams whining to a music critic about his bad reviews... Whenever I hear Ryan Adams sing, I get the unmistakable impression that, if I pay close attention to what this man is saying, he will tell me how to live. Perhaps even the secrets of my own soul. Most of the time I'm not even sure what that even means, but i'm convinced Ryan will tell me. This album has more iconic songs in it than discotheques have high white boys trying to dance. What kind of an island would this be if I couldn't pretend I had a beautiful woman dancing with me when the stars go blue?

    A crappy one. That's what kind of island. I'm taking this friggen album with.
  4. Schubert's "Trout" Quintet (Piano Quintet, Op. 114) - I found this record in my basement when I was a small child. I played it over and over on the crappy record player I bought at a garage sale. Then I lost the record. Then I bought it on cd. Then I lost the cd. Then I bought this version of the cd. I've pursued this piece like a lover. I love chamber music anyway... I care a lot more about the expressiveness of a small group of individuals than how friggen loud an orchestra can get playing wagner. This is also just a terrific piece of music, played expertly. I'm in love.
  5. Pet Sounds (Beach Boys, 1966) - If you aren't in love with this album, go to your library and listen to it. If you have already heard the album and aren't in love with it, go to a doctor, there is something wrong with your soul. I wasn't a real big fan of the beach boys till this record. I didn't really care about guys loading surfboards into Woodys and driving real fast with girls named baraba ann. But I do care about this album. It is beautiful. Breathtaking, in fact. And... i'm noticing a trend here... ultimately about naivety giving way to loneliness. At least that's how I hear it now. I do not want to live in a universe without "God Only Knows."


    ---------


    That's the top 5. A pretty good list. If I only had those five records to comfort me, they would be enough. However, i would not want to risk playing them so much that they lose their "specialness." And so we add five more...




  6. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Wilco, 2002) - The classic David and Goliath story of the music business, this is the album that a critically acclaimed, mildly successful band made themselves in a loft in chicago, spilling endless reals of tape, playing each song about twenty different ways, which was eventually rejected by their label. The same record that, when streamed off their website, generated so much fan attention that they sold it back to a record label owned by the same parent company for more money. If you've heard of Wilco, this is probably the album that let you know. Incredible songs, wrapped in a peripheral sonic universe... But pop. So pop that you don't even realize what Jeff Tweedy means when he sings "Oh distance has a way of making love understandable" until the 3rd or 14th listen through. Also has the bonus of containing one of the better love songs written, in my opinion (reservations).


  7. KID A (Radiohead, 2000) - After a bit of a nervous breakdown (quite literalyl) and a hard time dealing with the press, themselves, and a two years in a wood shed trying to make a record, out came KID A. So radical a departure from Ok Computer, most fans threw the disc across the room after they got through two songs without hearing either a guitar or Thom Yorke's unprocessed voice. And subsequently the music industry spent the next 4 years or so looking for the "next radiohead." At least some good came of that - I personally think that gave us Coldplay (which is a very, very good thing). It was only after new radiohead fans without the ok computer bias (like me) got their paws on the record before everyon sorta realized how great it was. Yeah, this album really cemented Radiohead's reputation as being a profoundly wierd band (true, in all sense of the phrase), this album was really a harbinger of doom. In 2000, we were still in the dot com days. We were not at war in Iraq. Does the album make more sense now? Maybe. But it made sense to me then. I was reading Kafka at the same time I was listening to this album. And it does sortof feel like waking up as a bug. Anyway, what's the sense in talking about something that has resorted to the "wierd" to express what can not be expressed in words? This album is important to me. That's about all I can say. I don't think its all that wierd. I think its incredible. I owned two copies of this album before I owned any other Radiohead cd. Two copies.


  8. Blonde on Blonde (Bob Dylan, 1966) - Wow, I just realized this was released the same year as Pet Sounds. Sounds NOTHING like it. Doesn't seem like the same decade. When you compare the two, this album doesn't seem to have aged as much. I had a hard time choosing between "Blonde on Blonde" and "Bringing It All Back Home" - but, for as great as Mr. Tambourine Man is, I could not leave songs like "Visions of Johanna," "I Want You," and "Just Like A Woman." I used to absolutely HATE things that were out of tune. Now I like Dylan. Go fig.


  9. String Quartets 1-13 (Dmitri Shostakovich, 1906-1975) - Recorded by several of the same musicians that premiered these works (as well as getting drunk at bars with Shostakovich), these are the prefered recordings of these songs. Aside from my unnatural love for all things Russian, I am a HUGE fan of all Shostakovich. I haven't heard music that better expresses the tense, nervous, sniveling, frustrated undercurrent of such a paranoid time. Again, chamber music. And Shostakovich is a FREAKIN good writer for string quartet. He really exploits all the marvelous things you can do with a string instrument... The music is surprising in the variety of articulations it contains. Its like a sugar-high. Of course, Shostakovich's life is quite the mystery, wrapped up in communism, shadows of dissidence, hints at Dada and the holy fool, and controversy. He even spelled his own name in his quartet in C minor. Wikipedia him if you're intruiged. If you've never heard this music, it may surprise you... Especially if you thnk "classical" is somethign you fall asleep to. I don't listen to hardcore music when I am angry. I listen to Shostakovich.


  10. This American Life - Stories of Hope and Fear. Okay so this isn't a music cd. This is a 2-cd set of radio shows from NPR. But this show. This American Life. Is more entertaining than TV. Is better than 95 percent of music out there. Is surprising. Is halarious. Is completely unbelievable. Is new every week. And, is completely true. True stories. You almost can't believe. About people. Really really interesting people. Things that will surprise you. Don't complain about where the art of storytelling went... It's right here. I can NOT describe how great this show is. I can barely make it through the work week without an episide or three of this show, how could I survive on an Island without it? Incidentally, I just picked this collection at random because it has a cool name, visually interesting cover, and three stories I haven't heard yet.


----------


There's the desert-ten. This was a very very hard list to make. Albums that were close runners-up are listed below... because they deserve some kind of mention.



Lets hope someone else on this friggen island has ten cds of their own...

Posted by pedalboy at 11:28 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack