Matador Records, Year Four: 1993

Don't even dream of singing this at me, you savages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsXllD0pRuI

it pains me deeply to put Infotainment Scan ahead of Admonishing The Bishops, but I must

oh fuck I didn't see Guyville, good lord

let the record show one vote transferred from Fall to Phair

This you can sing at me forever and a day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzNe1NeFzRE

My heart says Unrest, but my head sez Liz

This you can bury me with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74o92AGYAUQ

Sleeve, don't feel bad! I don't know what I'm voting for yet, there are at least five viable options

Painful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ocCHBtTCGw

Thought it was Painful until Liz snuck up on me. That's like an all-time top 20 album for me.

I could never take Jon Spencer remotely seriously after PG broke up and, y'know, there were Royal Trux albums to listen to

Royal Trux have been near the top of my I Don't Get It/You People Are Bullshitting Yourselves list for 30 years.

Too much nostalgia for On the Mouth, I have to vote for it.

Too much nostalgia for On the Mouth, I have to vote for it.

Too much nostalgia for On the Mouth, I have to vote for it.

Lots of great stuff but have to go with Moonshake!

Did Matador go on to release any other Teenbeat stuff after the two albums this year? No, right(?)

Fun fact: records from these lists that I procured before 1993 were invariably UK issues via Big Cat, Paperhouse, Permanent, Too Pure, etc. On The Mouth would have been the first time I saw an actual Matador logo on anything (early in 1993, as juvenile me dug "Mower" despite barely grasping a word of it lol.) Then Guyville and Painful continued the trend and the, er, brand identity was firmly established somewhat belatedly.

Oh fuck I voted before I read the whole list. What an awesome year. The expanded US version of ‘Eva Luna’ with the ‘Secondhand Clothes’ single was a key record for my musical journey.

Same as nag, on the mouth was my first matador and also my first vinyl as a teen.

I was at some matador showcase thing in the spring / summer of this year at Irving plaza in nyc. Bailterspace and I think YLT but I fell In love with Liz Phair

Must have been this

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/31/arts/review-rock-moonshake-one-band-many-sounds.html

I didn’t know pavement or silver Jews yet, may have left early, my bad

don't you pass me just to slow down
i have precision auto

The expanded US version of ‘Eva Luna’ with the ‘Secondhand Clothes’ single was a key record for my musical journey.

True for me as well. This list is just scattered w gems but I do kinda have to vote for Exile over Eva Luna

Also shoutout to Baseball Trilogy Dock Ellis is def one of my favourite songs of 93

Painful without a pause, but I love the Moonshake, and at the time enjoyed Infotainment Scan and Robot World.

I vaguely recall some quaint minor controversy around 1993 when Matador hooked up with Atlantic in some way.

That was later

nah, it was '93.

My bad

Yeah, because I remember interviewing Ira from Yo La when Painful came out (I was a college freshman and ... he may have been my first interview?) and as a snotty indie snob at the time I'm 99% sure I brought it up with him.

Also in '94 when Crooked Rain came out they didn't want an Atlantic logo on the record

lol, speaking of snotty indie snobs.

I was prob thinking of when they hooked up with Capitol

i dunno major labels hooking up with indies back then was a huge deal and not really snobbery at all. might seem normal now but back then it seemed pretty wild

also pretty sure Matador picked which artists "went" to Atlantic, probably with the help of artists themselves but it's not like anyone was expecting Railroad Jerk to hit it big

think Pavement got "distroed" by Capitol on one of their last two records

Wiki:

1993 also saw Matador enter into a partnership with Atlantic Records which lasted for several years. In 1996, Capitol Records purchased a 49 percent stake in Matador, which Lombardi and Cosloy bought back in 1999. Beggars Group purchased 50% of Matador in 2002 and took over the label's worldwide marketing.

The extra 1% was for Interpol.

rad song imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T0zrQA6I7A

listening to that moonshake record for the first time in ages. it's pretty good!

Whatever happened to Guy Fixsen? He really knew how to make a record sound good.

the moonshake rhythm section is so inventive, also wondering what happened to them.

bass player is currently in the hangovers with Simon fisher-turner, Gina from the raincoats and Joe dilworth from th' faith healers

wait no fake news, my sources are twenty years out of date :(

The dude singer from Moonshake tho.

He’s on the Wolfhounds and put out a solo record in 2021.

In

feel like i've said this before, but this one song off the uzi record is one of my favourite things ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyHFkLqdMVY

uzi of course were thalia zedek's band from the mid-80s and preceded her work with live skull and come. bit of a goth thing going on with their sound thanks to that bass tone

originally came out on homestead records btw, good on cosloy for giving it another chance on matador

The Fall - Why Are People Grudgeful

^ underrated fall single, i think that beat sounds hilarious and i love it

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Admonishing The Bishops

"Hurricane" is one of my favorite songs so...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

thought Exile would walk this.

me too. pleasantly surprised.

ok I guess I need to re-listen to Painful? iirc it's nowhere close to Electro-Pure or ICHTHBAO

it's pretty close

on the mouth, of course, should have won tho

it's like a proto version of electro-pura but i prob have more affection for it.

on the mouth is great but i didn't hear it until much later in life.

Good poll, that Uzi EP deserved a vote.