Matthew Sweet, Abe Partridge @ TD Music Hall, April 13

Matthew Sweet will be playing songs from his forthcoming album with Debbi Peterson, Paul Chastain and John Moreman.

Here's the scoop...

Matthew Sweet recently played his first shows in nearly four years, selling out his Midwest run and garnering rave reviews. For his first show in Toronto since 2019, Matthew will be bringing a full band with Debbi Peterson (The Bangles) on drums, Paul Chastain (Velvet Crush) on bass, and John Moreman (The Orange Peels) on guitar. Alabama songwriter/podcaster and visual artist Abe Partridge will open the show. Get tickets for Matthew Sweet's show at TD Music Hall on April 13th while you can right here. 

The power pop pioneer is hard at work writing and recording his next studio record, due out in 2024. In addition to new material, Sweet just digitally released a live recording of one of his most fabled performances, Live at Grant Park Chicago July 1993. Originally recorded by Metro Mobile Recording for Chicago radio station WXRT, the blistering 17-song set includes hits and fan-favorites including “Girlfriend,” “I’ve Been Waiting,” “The Ugly Truth,” and a spirited cover of John Lennon’s “Crippled Inside.” Matthew is backed by Richard Lloyd (Television) on lead guitar, Will Rigby (the dB’s) on drums, and Tony Marsico (Cruzados, Bob Dylan) on bass and background vocals. 

Remixed and remastered from the original DAT source by engineer Brian Kehew, known for his work with The Who, The Pretenders, The Stooges, Crazy Horse, and The Replacements, the live album captures Sweet live at the peak of the alternative rock takeover when he first achieved commercial success with a series of gold and platinum records that still hold up today. Sweet’s loyal fans will be delighted to know he recently launched a Patreon page which you can check out right here. Sweet regularly shares writing demos, visual art and sculpture (cats!), livestreams, and more. 

Check out Matthew Sweet's Grant Park show from July 4, 1993, two recent performance clips of opener Abe Partridge followed by a list of tour dates. 

Matthew Sweet Tour Dates:

FR 12 Apr   Buffalo, NY - Electric City

SA 13 Apr  Toronto, ON - TD Music Hall

MO 15 Apr  Boston, MA - The Wilbur Theatre

TU 16 Apr   Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live

TH 18 Apr   New York, NY - City Winery Pier 57

FR 19 Apr   Jersey City, NJ - White Eagle Hall

SA 20 Apr   Washington, DC - Lincoln Theatre

TU 23 Apr   Cincinnati, OH - Ludlow Garage

WE 24 Apr  Plainfield, IN - Hendricks Live!

Matthew Sweet plays TD Music Hall on April 13 – tickets on sale Thursday!

Tickets for Matthew Sweet's upcoming Toronto show go on sale this Thursday (February 29) at 10 am right here. 

90s Nostalgia: Matthew Sweet with Robert Quine on the Dennis Miller Show

Here's the great Robert Quine of Richard Hell's Voidoids knocking out a brilliant lead for Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" in 1992.

Matthew Sweet vs. Kate Bush

Somehow Matthew Sweet managed to make Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" sound like one of his own tunes. 

Here's the scoop...

Matthew Sweet just released his version of Kate Bush’s landmark 1978 single, “Wuthering Heights,” on all digital platforms. This is the first new recording from Sweet since his January 2021 album Catspaw, which was recorded pre-Covid. Sweet, known for his collaborations with hotshot guitarists over the years, plays the searing guitar solo on the track as well as all the additional instruments save for the drums, played by longtime Sweet sideman Ric Menck. 

You can get Matthew Sweet's version of "Wuthering Heights digitally right here. 

Listen to both versions of "Wuthering Heights" below. 

Writes Matthew Sweet:

"As the latest season of Stranger Things (Netflix) came and went this year, it was hard not to notice the resurgence of Kate Bush’s song "Running Up That Hill" in this Covid recovering world of 2022. 

"I do love that song, but this got me thinking about a piano and vocal demo I once made of "Wuthering Heights," the 1978 hit that first brought the 19 year-old Kate to the attention of the world of music. Like Kate herself, I have a strong amount of Irish blood in me, as my mother, like hers, was 100% Irish. In fact, I have dual citizenship between Ireland and America. Maybe this helps account for my always feeling a mystic kinship with Kate, despite our music being worlds apart in so many ways. Regardless, my wife recently urged me to dig up that demo of mine, and although I couldn’t find a multitrack of it, I did locate a rough of the song I had bounced down many years ago. And so it is I came to overdub some guitars and other instruments and produce this single track for release in tribute to Kate. In this streaming world we live in, there is nothing to stop me from doing so. My friend Ric Menck played drums on this originally, and as it’s turned out, I have played everything else. The track has no background vocals, in keeping with the original, to preserve the very personal nature of the lyrics and song. It is worth noting that despite the literary origins of the lyrics, Kate is, in fact, the Cathy of the song. She was born to the name, referred to by it throughout her early years, and didn’t ask to be called Kate until she was nearly 12 years old. Although Kate’s range for singing is quite high on her version, I had only to sing the song an octave lower in the original key and it worked well for me. Hopefully somebody out there might enjoy it, and be led back to Kate’s own very special music." — Matthew Sweet, 2022

 

Matthew Sweet releases new Catspaw album

Matthew Sweet recorded Catspaw with longtime collaborator Ric Menck. Check out the trailer and an interview below. 

Velvet Crush's stellar debut album gets reissued in October

Glass Records label honcho Dave Barker shows off the turquoise vinyl version of the Velvet Crush's 1991 classic. 

On October 19, Glass Records' Glass Modern subsidiary is reissuing the debut Velvet Crush album In The Presence Of Greatness, originally released on Creation Records in 1991. In The Presence Of Greatness was recorded on eight tracks by Rick Menck, Paul Chastain and Jeffrey Borchardt with their pal Matthew Sweet in his basement in Princeton, New Jersey 1990-91. Repackaged in a new sleeve with photographs from the original session by Michael Lavine. Initial copies of the 180 gram pressing will be on turquoise vinyl. You can pre-order the Velvet Crush's 90s indie rock gem from Forced Exposure right here after listening to a few magical tracks below.

Velvet Crush reunite for one song in Boston