WHAT’S MATTHEW BEEN UP TO? A LOT:
1. The exclusive Japanese record is done. It’s called Kimi ga suki * Raifu – it has 13 songs on it and probably won’t be out til early next year in Japan, on Avex (big Japanese label). He has the rights for a release to the rest of the world after one year. It was recorded at home with Matthew Sweet mainstays Ric Menck, Greg Leisz, and guitar God, Richard Lloyd, as the only guest musicians. Yoshitomo Nara, a famous Japanese artist Matthew met while in Japan last summer, is doing the cover.
2. He just finished a vocal trio “Crosby Stills Nash”-type group called “The Thorns” with Pete Drodge and Shawn Mullins. It is very old school acoustic guitar with interesting three part singing all the time. They’ve been offered a deal by Aware/Columbia, and will probably make a record in the next couple of months for release next year. They spent two weeks on a ranch out in California and wrote 12 more songs.
3. He’s nearly completed a second homemade record, which he’s not yet sure what he will do with, shop or put out. Van Dyke Parks is coming to play on it later this week. He’s an old hero of Matthew’s. He wrote the legendary Smile record with Brian Wilson and played on the Byrds’ 5d
4. Mixed in with all this he’s also been very busy with the book he and his wife are writing about big eyed art/Margaret Keene type of stuff. They’ve become afficiandos in that genre and have made some interesting friends through it, such as Tim Burton. Preorder the book from amazon.com.
5. He sang with Chris Stills and Gary Louris on a Jayhawks record a couple of weeks ago. That should be out later this year.
6. Austin Powers is coming out, finally. Some of you have probably seen Matthew in the video on MTV. He’s Sid Belvedere (sp?). Matthew had a big hand in the musical parts of the soundtrack, plus the Ming Tea song “Daddy Wasn’t There.” Order the Soundtrack from amazon.com.
7. At some point they will reschedule touring for the Image live DVD, but with so much brewing they are holding out for a while. This was the show that was postponed last May. (It’s about time we had a Matthew Live DVD)
8. Columbia and others are intested in signing him as a solo artist, but he’s held off, as he is not sure if he doesn’t want to be fully independent. Right now he is free to sign wherever he wants or to put out his own records. He’s still weighing the options.
😀 MATTHEW SWEET NEWS!!! SWEET!!!
(pun intended)