Music

The Weekly playlist: Matador edition

Image
Guided By Voices’ “Alien Lanes”

Brush up on the label before it hits town:

Pavement, “In the Mouth a Desert” (Slanted & Enchanted, 1991) The band’s first U.S. show in over a decade featured 11 cuts from Pave’s Matador debut, so if you buy one disc between now and October, Slanted oughta be it.

More

The New Pornographers, “The Bleeding Heart Show” (Twin Cinema, 2005) Special request: Bring Neko Case and Dan Bejar with you. Partial Pornos just aren’t the same.

Mogwai, “Ratts of the Capital” (Happy Songs for Happy People, 2003) We hear the Scotsmen declined a Lost Weekend invite, but here’s hoping the ear-destroyers turn up anyway.

Liz Phair, “Stratford-On-Guy” (Exile in Guyville, 1993) How better to celebrate birthday 21 than with a straight-through rendition of Exile’s 21-and-over material?

Guided By Voices, “My Valuable Hunting Knife” (Alien Lanes, 1995) Okay, Robert Pollard isn’t into playing live these days—and GBV hasn’t been active since ’04. But something tells us Bob might enjoy Vegas’, um, offerings.

Sonic Youth, “Walkin Blue” (The Eternal, 2009) Tempting as it was to choose something off ’80s touchstone Daydream Nation, the band’s only been with Matador since 2008.

Cat Power, “I Don’t Blame You” (You Are Free, 2003) Chan Marshall, a Matador mainstay since the mid-’90s, played Vegoose without incident in 2006. Guessing she’ll be back.

Mission of Burma, “Donna Sumeria” (The Obliterati, 2006) Their best work occurred well before Matador’s ’89 creation, but the band’s ’00s LPs deserve space next to the early stuff.

Yo La Tengo, “I Heard You Looking” (Painful, 1993) No band screams “Matador” more than YLT, a Jersey trio that’s spent 17 years on the New York label. Still, they’ve never set foot on a Nevada stage.

Share
Photo of Spencer Patterson

Spencer Patterson

Get more Spencer Patterson

Previous Discussion:

Top of Story