Posts tagged Matt Nathanson
The 34th & Now: Study Playlist is up to 206 tracks and 13 hours long. Thanks to all the Spotify users who subscribed. Hopefully you guys are enjoying it. Since I spend over 13 hours studying/day and since a lot of you share similar musical interests, if you’ve got any suggestions on mellow, laid-back, study music drop me a suggestion.
Here’s a complete tracklisting for those interested.
Uh, the thing that gets the most media coverage is essentially the equivalent of a bar fight, right? It’s, uh, Kim Kardashian’s ass or Charlie Sheen’s crazy, or you know, name the celebrity…Demi Moore now is having trouble and the world becomes fixated on these people because, um, America thinks that being rich is actually the way to go, and they think that being famous is actually the way to go. That’s what we’re told and that’s what television does, and that’s what movies do. And it’s the idea that like, the self is not important—what’s important is trying to be someone that you’re not. And I think that it’s the exact opposite that’s important in life.
And you know everybody knows this too but its cloudy, fucking cloudy. Looking at magazines and seeing people be rich, and famous, and successful and thinking “I wanna be that person,” but I think what’s really important is the fucked up unique people that we are as individuals. And I think that society keeps telling us that that’s not it, that if you fix your nose or you lose weight or you do whatever the fuck, it’s better and that you need to be somebody that you’re not, when really I think that we all need to teach our kids and teach ourselves that actually being the person you are is actually the most important thing you can do. I don’t want my kid growing up thinking, fucking, that he or she is not the coolest person in the world, you know what I’m saying? That they’re not like—who they are in their weird, wacky—if they have a fucked up nose, or if they’re…like…not good at math, but they’re, you know—if they’re—that kind of unique shit. Playing music you see it more and more, right? I play music and every time I write a song I think, “I’m trying so hard to clear away the shit,” and it’s so hard to write what’s just actually in you.
So I’m not preaching in any way, I’m just saying like as people every day we have to get up and we have to try really hard to be our unique selves. And if people tell us that that’s not cool, then those are the people we don’t fucking hang out with. Seriously, cleaning up the plate a little bit. You don’t need that many friends. So I wrote this song in the hopes that—I wrote it for myself, for those days where you feel like being you is not enough and that’s actually not true at all.
I wore down the replay button with this one. Anyone who reads 34th & Now knows how much I dig acoustic Matt Nathanson performances and this is one of the best recordings of one I’ve seen yet—let’s be real nothing compares to acoustic live but I’m currently stuck in the middle of the Caribbean so….yeah. Anyway, this version of “Run” is, like I said, fantastic. Matt & Aaron Tapp manage to take a pretty highly produced male-female duet (female vocals by Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles on the album) and strip it down to a one-man-vocal acoustic song while maintaining the emotional integrity and sincerity that make the album version a fan favorite.
For the love of good music I strongly insist you reblog this. Hell, I don’t even care if you re-up it yourself rather than a reblog, just make sure it gets spread around. Budding indie/guitar/music enthusiasts (read: potential future music snobs like me) need to hear that there’s more out there than Bieber, Weezy, and Gaga.
9 Hour Study Playlist
Here’s the official 34th & Now Study Playlist on Spotify. It’s 143 songs—so far—and 9 hours long. Most of the songs are laid back and mellow enough for studying/working/reading without being distracted. For the past four days now I’ve gone through the entire nine hours and then some getting ready for our first midterm Monday. I recommend listening on shuffle. It’ll probably be updated regularly as all I do is study.
Artists Featured Include:
Bon Iver
Head & The Heart
Iron & Wine
The National
The Villagers
Rosi Golan
William Fitzsimmons
Matt Nathanson
Mazzy Star
Lydia
The Cinema
Tegan & Sara
The Civil Wars
Joshua Radin
Metric
Frightened Rabbit
Manchester Orchestra
John Heart Jackie
Limbeck
Schuyler Fisk
Mansions
Other Lives
Noah & The Whale
Ingrid Michaelson
City & Colour
Hey Rosetta!
Be smart enough to navigate and too stupid to stop
Matt Nathanson , Livestream Q&A 1/18/12
Matt Nathanson will be performing his duet “Run” live tonight at the 45th Annual CMA’s with multi-award winners and crossover favorite Sugarland. In honor of that, here’s Matt and I debating the merits of Van Halen with David Lee Roth vs. Sammy Hagar vs. Gary Cherone on his personal facebook page the other day. Being a rep since 2004 has it’s benefits.
I know I haven’t posted a “34th & Now Presents” mixtape in a while, so when I realized I’ve been listening to one playlist a ton lately, I figured it was time to bring the idea back.
Named after one of the only lyrics I’ve ever written that I still liked after the fact—This headache’s been pounding for days//And the cracks on the ceiling…they all look the same //So just pour me //Back into my bottle, I’ll wake up next week—“34th & Now Presents: Cracks on the Ceiling” features a collection of 20 songs that I feel are at their best when you turn up your headphones, turn off the world, and just lay somewhere and really listen. You can pick it up as a free .zip file here.
Track List:
Poison & Wine - The Civil Wars
Down In The Valley - The Head and the Heart
Lost In My Mind - The Head and the Heart
Go Henry - Hey Rosetta!
Espirit d’escalier - Hey Rosetta!
The Year You Were Born - Hey Rosetta!
A Thousand Suns - Hey Rosetta!
When You Were Mine - John Heart Jackie
This Place is Deserted - Limbeck
Deer - Manchester Orchestra
Simple Math - Manchester Orchestra
Leave It Alone - Manchester Orchestra
Apprehension - Manchester Orchestra
Kept (Solo) - Matt Nathanson
I Can’t Get To What You Need (Solo) - Matt Nathanson
Help I’m Alive (Acoustic) - Metric
Slow Show - The National
Start A War - The National
Twenty Miles to NH Part 2 - The National
Past 34th & Now Downloads & Track-listings
34th & Now Presents: Cover Me, I’m Going In
34th & Now Presents: These City Lights
34th & Now Presents: Lies, Booze, & Then Deceit
34th & Now Presents: Pound the Pavement
These streets are haunted with ghosts who wait on luck to come. They sleep with hornets and they wonder why they wake up stung…
Here’s one of the photos I shot at the Matt Nathanson show. It was tough to get really great shots as, being such an intimate venue, flash photography is almost always banned.
Matt Nathanson’s new album, Modern Love, comes out June 21st and in preparation he’s been touring the country with country cross-over favorites Sugarland. In recognition of the fact that he got to this point in his career—for the most part—through word of mouth and fan loyalty rather than any major label backing, the singer-songwriter has been putting on very small “Mailing List Only” shows in some of the cities that the larger tour stops through.
In Philly, I got to catch Matt at the Tin Angel, which boasts a capacity of about 80 people tops—I made sure to get there early and was literally 5 ft from the stage. The set list was great and included a ton of fan requests shouted-out on the spot like “Miracles,” which he hasn’t played in years, as well as some new songs. Of the new songs played, my two favorites were the somber “Kept,” a song about entering into a relationship you know is wrong for you and not caring and this titular album track above.
Singer-songwriter, self proclaimed music nerd, and potential “hair metal pimp-daddy” Matt Nathanson (see below) took a minute to sit down with AOL Music at last month’s SXSW to discuss his upcoming album Modern Love which hits shelves this June. Now if you’ve been to 34th & Now before, you know that Nathanson is one of my favorite artists of all time—his guitar playing is phenomenal, his voice is great, and his brutally honest lyrics tend to rattle around in my head for days—so needless to say I’m looking forward to the album.
According to Matt the inspiration for the album came from the failed relationships of friends and examining modern sexuality in the age of Facebook and texting against the backdrop of a more “traditional” viewpoint. The title track, “Modern Love” definitely hits that nail on the head and you can watch live versions here (acoustic) and here (SXSW.)
Oh and the “hair metal pimp-daddy” moniker came about on Facebook after Matt originally posted this link.
Matt Nathanson: folk rock heartthrob? i’ll take that…
Me: Hair Metal Pimp-Daddy must have been taken.
Matt Nathanson has just released “Faster,” first track off his upcoming album, Modern Love. As Matt put it in his email, it features “a little Bo Diddley in the beat, a little sexy time in the lyrics,and some horns thrown in for good measure—cause who doesn’t like horns?!” You can grab it free here by entering code: MNFASTER
Somewhere in between the beginning and the end, September took the tourists, and settled in for good. We could hear the trains again; Brooklyn girls in scarves. Summer left and no one said a word.
- Arkady: Starfish and Coffee is the most random song.
- Me: It's by Prince.
- Arkady: Yeah, he's a weird guy.
- Me: Yeah but he is the best at eye-fucking the audience.
- Arkady: ...
- Me: Really, if you are that good you don't even need an instrument; just stand on stage and get chicks pregnant...with your GAZE.
- Page 1 of 2
- Next »
This blog lies at the intersection of location and state of mind: 34th and Now.
Student at the Ross University School of Medicine addicted to music and caffeine.
