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Matthew Good shines his Lights

Award-winning Vancouver musician plays GLC on Tuesday
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WHO: Matthew Good with Daniel Wesley

WHERE: GLC

WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 22, 8 p.m.

 

Matthew Good is in Edmonton. It's November and, again, he's in Edmonton. Anybody who's familiar with Good's media persona will know he exudes the same frosty character as, well, Edmonton in the winter.

But that's just exterior, man. Edmonton has soul, you know. It can be nice . And Good can too, when you actually talk to him. Sure, they're both a bit chilly but once you explore a bit you'll find a few things to report home about.

Good is as comfortable talking politics and sociology as he is about music, and he's outspoken about all three. Over the course of 20 minutes he discusses Israel's aggressive campaign against Iran's nuclear missile program, his profound love of jazz music and his disdain for Whistler in the winter.

Wait... what?

Good says, "I can't stand it in the winter. It's just... I don't man, it's just one of those things. I skied for many years before I hurt my back and I'll be honest I went to Baker," he laughs. "Because at least at Baker there were guys in multicoloured suspenders holding up their Gore-Tex pants, back when Gore-Tex pants weren't worn by anybody, with a flask of Jim Beam. And they were all unbelievable skiers but it was just all about fun."

Whistler's gone and has killed that concept of fun. He's not into all this "showy this, or showy that and the rest of that nonsense," which, you know, fair enough. So it's ironic that he's headlining the GLC during Whistler Blackcomb's opening week.

"I have no problem playing up there. That's cool," he says.

Good famously holed up in a Whistler hotel for three weeks in 2001 to write what would become the final Matthew Good Band album, The Audio of Being . That was in the summer, when he says the town sheds all the showboating and becomes a "great" little mountain town.

"I love it in the summer. It's great!" he says, almost merrily. "That's kind of the hidden treasure, don't you think?"

Good came to prominence in the late '90s while fronting the Matthew Good Band. Founded in Coquitlam, MGB became one of the most successful Canadian rock outfits of their era. They won awards; they sold a lot of records. MuchMusic played "Time Bomb," "Apparitions," and  "Everything's Automatic" on heavy rotation for years and MGB set the bar high for Canadian rock that was unparalleled until indie rock became a "thing" and Arcade Fire swept the world over.

After MGB broke up in 2002, Good released a string of solo albums. Always considered a grump by the press, and now free from the constraints of his former band members, Good seemed to throw all that misanthropic pathos into his solo work. Every release strayed further from MGB's brand of commercially viable alternative rock toward what he calls "weirder" music.

But by 2006, the crushing realities of success and the music business had taken a toll. Good's wife had left him. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (for which he became quite vocal about in the press) and developed an addiction to Ativan. His 2007 album Hospital Music was written during his recovery from an overdose of the drug.

In 2009, he released Vancouver , a reflection of his experiences and opinions of his hometown, particularly about the impoverished Downtown Eastside. Now, two years after that record was written, recorded and digested by the masses (it won a Juno Award earlier this year), his anger toward the state of the city has yet to be relieved.

"Everyone has to be honest about where they grew up," he says. "It's a different place. Anyone who lived there for two decades of probably its most significant change in that city's history, would agree with that. They have to. It is."

But Vancouver 's in the past. Good's touring in support of his latest album, Lights of Endangered Species , released in May.

It's his most challenging album to date, littered with haunting chord progressions, and intense introspection and arguably his most visceral record, - no mean feat for a man who's been singing with his heart on his sleeve for nearly 20 years.

But as expected, it's not performing too well in the charts. It debuted at number four in May and has been seen in the Top 100 for months.

"I don't write anything that's commercially viable on purpose. I just have certain things at the time that influence me as a songwriter. I look at the tools that I have at my disposal and I go from there. Obviously it's a different era and a different day and age, but there's a reason why the Beatles did their best work after they stopped touring."

Good, for his part, spent two months recording Bright Lights , finding the right instrumentation. It's rife with horns, strings and woodwinds. He wrote all the songs on the piano rather than on guitar, as per usual, which he says shaped the direction and sound the album would take.

For the first time, he's playing to his influences more than he ever has - from big bands to Thelonious Monk to Talk Talk. The latter's final two albums in particular were of significant influence on this album, which dictated that Bright Lights is without a doubt, his most non-rock'n'roll record he's made (there are no stompers), but it might be the best record he's made. The Canadian music press seems to agree. And Good certainly thinks it is.

"I absolutely believe it is. From beginning to end I think it is. Absolutely," he says.

He adds, "I think interestingly enough, I've gotten more critical acclaim for this record than anything I've ever put out, which honestly doesn't surprise me, given what kind of record it is. It's about as far away from, I guess, me as one would ever get. With that said, it's been an either love-it-or-hate-it thing with fans on the bubble."

Good will be playing songs both new and old at the GLC this Tuesday. Daniel Wesley will open. Tickets are on sale for $39.50 throug