Brad Matthew

This past Monday evening was the debut of my new project Old Stable Hands.  We were fortunate enough to play to an amazing sold out crowd at my favorite Chicago venue Schubas.  Thanks to everyone that made it out that night and was lucky enough to score a ticket!  Special thanks to Ha Ha Tonka for letting me be apart of the eve of the release of their new album, Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South, and to the boys of Blane Fonda for helping the music come to life (oh and of course Keenan Wells, my writing partner).  For those of you that have not checked out either bands new albums, please do, both are quite amazing!

So in other non-music related news, as some of you may or may not know I am heading over to Europe (Sweden in particular) for a while.  I leave July 1 and should be back this fall, but who knows?  To coincide with this change in my life I will be changing the direction of BradMatthew.com to more of a journal of my adventures through Europe.  Yes, some of these adventures include music (Kings of Leon in Copenhegan, Radiohead in Prague), but most will fall in the life category. Two Thousand Nine is a year of change for everyone. As the late Jim Morrison once proclaimed, “I wanna get my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames!”

Is it just me or does MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular, which was released well over a year ago, seem to never go away?  While they might not be all that great live, the album is pretty amazing, making my top albums of 2008 (although it was technically released in late 2007).  Just when you thinkthe buzz for this album is over they release an amazing music video for one of the best tunes on the album, “Kid’s.” The kid staring in this video is gonna have some issues to sort out after this one.  Yikes!  Although, I think he is gonna be just alright considering his mother in the video is the ever-so-beautiful Joanna Newsom.  What a woman!