Our last giveaway of 2011 and it’s for what should be a nice way to close out the year as Matthew Sweet celebrates the 20th anniversary of his stellar breakout album Girlfriend by performing the album from start to finish at the Echoplex on December 30th! Girlfriend remains one of my favorite albums of all-time from this period and was my gateway to classic NY bands like Television and Richard Hell & the Voidoids because of the out of this world guitar playing of Richard Lloyd and the late and exceedingly great Robert Quine (whose birthday was December 30th, making this a fitting tribute). If you want to see the show, just let me know via e-mail at michael[at]meltingpotblog.com by Wednesday, December 28th and Happy Christmas!
“Girlfriend” for me is one of the few perfect pop songs from this generation of musicians. Robert Quine’s guitarwork is like a rock’n’roll version of Eric Dolphy in the way the notes swoon and careen. One of the rare “modern rock” tracks that I never ever get tired of hearing:
…in tracking down other videos for this post I ran across this live performance of “Girlfriend” which features the one and only Robert Quine…how could so much sonic fury come from such a pedestrian and stoic looking dude! Simply one of the most under-rated guitar greats America has ever produced.
“I’ve Been Waiting” showcases a little of that darker side of Sweet’s songwriting. Is it just a straight and sincere love song, a May-December romance or is there something a bit more sinister in those lyrics…