The Mattoid "Blue Suede Shoes"

Thursday, June 29, 2006

It’s refreshing, if not a bit strange, to hear someone sing passionately and confidently about his irreversible fate. It’s wholly entertaining and a bit fascinating, though, to hear Finnish singer The Mattoid croon “when it’s time for me to die, I’m gonna do it with a smile on my face/I’m gonna be high on drugs and booze, I’m gonna be wearing my blue suede shoes” in the song “Blue Suede Shoes” (mp3) from his debut album Hello. Not only because of his organization and advance planning, but much more because of his uniquely spotty appropriation of American 1950’s and 60’s rock and roll culture. Like a lounge singer from the cutting-room floor of a David Lynch film, he addresses his future demise over a chugging rhythm copped from “Gloria,” seeming all the while to regard the the canonical version of the rock and roll lifestyle as one bound to end in drug-doused tragedy. Which, if one’s experience with the music and culture is strictly limited to a number of cautionary tales and Behind the Musics, is completely understandable, when you think about it. Let’s hope, for Mattoid’s sake, that Jesus is in fact a nice fellow, and they end up getting along well. For Jesus’ sake.

Buy Hello from Cleft Music here, or just as good, on a new compilation (along with Tunde Adebimpe and Schneider TM) from Mission Label here.

3 Comments

• 6/30/06 @ 10:31 pm GiL says:

  im converted.

• 7/1/06 @ 2:31 am Joe says:

  atheist

• 7/3/06 @ 7:51 pm DM says:

  Yes! The Mattoid! You gotta get Eternifinity, too. “Crazy Muthas” is the jam.