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Good times

Canadian activist rocker clears his throat and his name
mattgood

Who: Matthew Good with Wil

Where: Garfinkel’s

When: Sunday, Aug. 8

Tickets: $26.50/$30

British/Irish wordsmith Rebecca West once famously asserted: "people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat."

Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Matthew Good can take the defence to heart.

Since bursting onto the Canadian music scene in the mid-1990s the West Coast rocker has acquired a reputation that precedes him for being ill tempered, an irrepressible cynic armed with malicious sarcasm.

It’s not entirely unwarranted. Good’s forthrightness could easily be confused with contempt. His manner is anything but disarming. Let’s just say, he’s no smooth talker.

Even so, he counters that things have gone too far.

"I would say I’m probably a far more positive person than a lot of people think but I temper that with being a bit of a realist as well," states the frank Mr. Good. "The media invents crap about people. To most Canadians I’m just this mainstream guy that has a bad attitude and is capable of flying off the handle and has done all this horrible stuff."

Keep in mind this is Canada. Britain gets Johnny Rotten’s sneer and snot attacks on the Monarchy. Norway gets clans of Viking-channeling death-metal pagans burning Lutheran churches and attacking their fans with sheep remains. It’s somewhat fitting that to draw attention in Canadian music, you simply have to distinguish yourself, as Ms. West once did, from a doormat.

Good’s un-doormat-like qualities stem from an unwavering dedication to human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and unwillingness to keep his mouth shut on political matters. He’s held fast through six full-length albums, starting with 1995’s The Last of the Ghetto Astronauts . The 2003 album White Light Rock & Roll Review – his latest – is a musical molotov cocktail aimed at the Bush administration disguised as radio-friendly, edgy emo-pop driven by his instantly recognizable anxious vocals.

According to Good, the activist and the musician/artist are inseparable.

"I do a lot of writing, I play music, and I’m involved in a lot of activism. One is completely and entirely involved in the other," he states. "To me they’re the same thing. One influences the other and they can’t be separated from each other."

In that sense he confesses to being put off by the sudden outburst of pop culture politics, even though the ends do justify the means by spreading awareness.

"As an activist, you have to take the good with the bad," Good says. "The negative aspect is that a lot of people in the entertainment industry use it as a promotional tool. People flip-flop. When the U.S. invaded Iraq the majority of American entertainers supported the troops. Now they’re against the war.

"In a perfect world that wouldn’t be the case. In a perfect world they would be educated enough to know that it was wrong in the first place. Unfortunately, in the entertainment industry that’s very common, and it’s very common thing for people to have beliefs but as soon as someone wags 100 grand under their nose, they lose ’em."

Of course, he’s quick to point out he can’t claim total immunity in this arena. There have been tours sponsored by big tobacco and other such foibles.

"You try to justify it to yourself but at the end of the day, it’s wrong," Good confesses. "You shouldn’t do it, period. Or you should try very hard not to. So obviously, no one is guiltless, but I definitely think there’s extremes."

His ideals, he claims, were the catalyst for the dissolution of his previous band, The Matthew Good Band.

The front man band moniker leads to the assumption that he has been a solo artist from day one. But in reality, the band was indeed a band, the name an attempt to capitalize on the surprising momentum of the debut album which had been produced independently under the name Matthew Good.

But the bane of many bands before it – front-man syndrome – can cause tension in even the most laid back of groups. When the front man is innately abrasive and decidedly outspoken, there’s really no hope.

"It was a headache from the second that decision was made until the band broke up," says Good.

"We were basically one of the biggest bands in the country and everyone had their head up their ass.… It just came to the point of – ‘what the hell are we doing here? This isn’t about making good music anymore, or saying anything.’"

Now that he’s on his own, Matthew Good can say whatever he damn well pleases. There’s no band tacked to his name anymore to contradict, disappoint or clash with him.

A natural next step would appear to be a career in spoken word such as the path taken by punk rock politico Jello Biafra, but Good says he’s not planning to go that route, preferring conversation to oration, at least for now.

The concept of leaving a mark on the world he considers presumptuous.

"Humans tend to be very impatient people," Good explains. "What they don’t understand is, if you start working for change now, if your grandchildren accomplish it, that’s extremely fast. So you have to have an open mind. In everything in your life do what you can and work to change things for the better but you can’t be disheartened if it doesn’t happen overnight."

I don’t harbour any illusions that I’m going to change Matthew Good’s mind about the ominous forces of the media overnight. Nevertheless, I decide to offer the olive branch on behalf of a loose collective he claims has grossly misrepresented him. I offer to print, exactly, word for word, whatever he wants to say. Three lines free. Take it away Matt. You have the Conch.

He’s slightly taken aback, but recovers, springing into activist mode.

"Get on your computer and visit www.amnesty.ca and if you don’t have a computer try to get your hands on some literature from Amnesty International," he says. "Get involved."

Matthew Good’s show this Sunday evening at Garfinkel’s is a chance for fans to catch him at a more intimate venue than is his usual. A local favourite, blues rocker Wil Mimnaugh, plays the opening set. The Calgary-based performer is known for playing his trusty acoustic guitar with awe-inspiring, string-breaking intensity. Tickets for the show are $26.50 in advance from the Electric Daisy Internet Cafe, the Circle and the venue, increasing to $30 at the door. For more information go to www.mountainpromotions.net.