Willow's Playlist: The Matthew Show Live From Texas

Exclusive to NWN, Willow Caldera covers SL's burgeoning live music scene

A man and his guitar may be one of the staples of in-world music, but Matthew Perreault's rich, warm vocals, wry sense of humour and offbeat lyric choices make The Matthew Show an act that both lulls the ear and amuses the mind. A veteran of the Texas music scene, Matthew began singing in Second Life while caring for his infant son, enjoying the supportive environment after 15 years of real-world gigging.

NSFW Warning: Performance video contains salty Texan patois!

This video was shot by Sound'r at a recent show at The Cup and Spittle and features the original song "Office Suite, Part I", known by many as the soundtrack to lonelygirl15's YouTube video "The Tolstoy Principle".

"I call it nerd pop, because I tend to write songs from the perspective of those on the fringes of society," says Matthew of his music.

"So many people sing songs about the same damned things over and over again, and my goal has always been to cover all the vast subject matter that gets ignored. I also have a burning desire to pull songs from obscurity and get them out into the light so they don't get forgotten. The best feeling is introducing someone to a song they've never heard before, inspiring them to go buy a disc that's been sitting in the cheapo bin for years. There are lots of amazing songs out there, and they shouldn't disappear simply because they didn't make it through the industry meat grinder."

The Matthew Show enjoys regular shows on Saturdays at Triumph Cove and has played a Wednesday night spot at the Luxor Stage since 2007. The latter performances are the ones at which he feels most comfortable and his fans know they can always find him.

"Venues can come and go so quickly that it's hard to build a tight-knit community around physical locations," he says. "I find that the scene is personality-driven, coalescing around people like Circe Broom, Ursula Cinquetti, Crap Mariner, Haroldthe Burrel, Clarissa Pastorelli, Paisley Beebe and such. If the right people are there, it's almost irrelevant what place you're in. Luxor's been around long enough that a lot of those people are likely to be there on any given night."

"The music industry is in the middle of a great tectonic shift, and I'm testing the notion that virtual performance can be an important piece of a viable career for artists. Here's hoping..."

More about The Matthew Show:

• In-world headquarters
• Official website
• UStream Simulcasts
• Album (on Wampus Multimedia)
  
• Facebook page
• MySpace
• Twitter
  

What live music groups should Willow Caldera cover for New World Notes? Suggest groups and performers by contacting her by IM or at sarah@soundr.net

Willow is the creative director of Sound'r, a full-service machinima house - you can read her blog here or see more Sound'r videos here.

Her taste in music is somewhat eclectic, ranging from Tori Amos to Thriving Ivory and Placebo to Massive Attack and Ladytron.

Comments

[Delinda Dyrssen]

Since we first heard him at Perfect World Productions we've been fans and thats why we featured Matthew on our second episode of Live N Kickin at Circe Brooms Luxor Stage.. you can see it here..

http://archive.treet.tv/live-n-kickin-matthew-perreault