The setting was a dingy basement psychiatric ward in Boston, MA. somewhere around 2005. I was in and out of psychiatric units often in those days, as they still really hadn’t discovered the elusive combination of anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers, and narcotics it took to keep me invested enough in a common shared reality to maintain a proper human lifestyle. I am usually not too much in a social way during these ‘tuneup’ visits but there was an interesting fellow in there with me that I seemed to have a natural rapport with and we quickly became friends. This fellow was very imaginative and was a visual artist and musician so we had plenty to talk about. 20 years later we are still good friends. At one point we tried to start a band together, and it would have been great, but for the geographical distance barrier which ultimately proved to be too much.

The short lived project had Matt on bass and vocals, me on guitar, and my brother on drums. We jammed a few times at the Hive (more about the hive soon) and were starting to sound pretty good. We were playing songs Matt had written and recorded most, if not all of the instruments and vocals. I had a lot of fun learning his off kilter, jangly, and somehow both dissonant and melodic guitar style. At first all the chords and fingerings felt very strange and were hard to remember, but after some time they became very natural in some absurdly unique way. The songs were oddworthy and catchy, the vocals were expressive and confident, and the lyrics were creative, funny, and memorable. It is these recordings from which I was learning to play his songs that I want to show here today.

Ultimately Matt wound up singing with a group in Providence, RI. and I put together Blood Drive in Boston, MA. We would invite each other to play shows together in our respective cities for the next several years. All of us in Blood Drive really loved getting invited to Rhode Island as we got to play at some really great venues with some equally great bands. Having fun was the priority over taking things too seriously, so we let loose. It was rock n roll.

Have a listen to the Silver City era collection below if you feel like being highly entertained. Some of my favorite tracks off this album are Future Former (which I used for the music in a video game I made that eventually turned into Space Smuggler Blooze), Holy Shit Her Hands (which really showcases Matt’s creative songwriting and lyrical prowess), That Girl (great juxtaposition of humorous and light with heavy sludgy parts), and Conjunction (strange and captivating). Also if you are a big Bee Gees fan like I was when I was 5, you won’t want to miss this classic rendition of Gotta Get A Message To You.

Currently Matt is singing for Magic Thinking Ape. They have a new album and it is great too, but that is a tale for another day. Meanwhile give the album below a try and if you are interested in learning more about Magic Thinking Ape their Instagram is here. Enjoy the good tunes!