What's Up Matador CD

Bardo Pond,Come,Bettie Seveert Liz Phair,Pavement,Jon Spencer

Personnel: Jean Smith, Robert Pollard, Sue Garner, Thalia Zedek (vocals, guitar); Tobin Sprout (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, drums); Isobel Sollenberger (vocals); Alan Licht (guitar, organ); Chris Brokaw, John Gibbons , Michael Gibbons (guitar); Giovanni Fusco (keyboards); Rick Brown (synthesizer, marimba); Joe Culver, Joe Buben, Kevin Coultas, Peter Jefferies (drums).
Audio Mixer: Bryce Goggin.
Recording information: Bearsville Studios, Woodstock, NY (10/09/1992-01/??/1997); Blac Dir (10/09/1992-01/??/1997); Cro-Magnon (10/09/1992-01/??/1997); Fort Apache, Cambridge, England (10/09/1992-01/??/1997); Idful, Chicago, IL (10/09/1992-01/??/1997); Tin Pan Alley, NY (10/09/1992-01/??/1997).
Unknown Contributor Roles: Chris Wagner; Michael Dahlquist; Andy Cohen; Joel Phelps; Joey Waronker; Alain Johannes; Marquis.
Once Sub Pop's roster broke through to the mainstream in the early '90s, its reign as America's premier independent label drew to a close, leaving Matador Records as the definitive indie label of the decade. Matador's period of greatest impact was between 1991 and 1997, which is the time that the double-disc set What's Up Matador chronicles. The budget-priced compilation is designed as both an introduction and as a collector's dream, containing one disc called Favorite Tracks and one disc of unreleased songs. Matador didn't have a signature sound, preferring to cultivate a loose aesthetic that permitted its artists to do whatever the hell they wanted. So, there's the nervous punk of Superchunk, the jangling pop of Bettie Serveert, the fractured pop of Pavement, pure weirdness from the Frogs, mathematical rock from Chavez, disco from the Pizzicato Five, the avant rock of Silkworm, hardcore punk from Unsane, psycho-blues from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Railroad Jerk, and lo-fi from Guided By Voices and Spoon, along with singer/songwriters like Liz Phair, Helium's Mary Timony, Cat Power, and Barbra Manning/SF Seals. It's an eclectic roster, but it's a rich one, containing many of the best and most important bands of the decade. The first disc runs through the hits quite effectively; for anyone curious about Matador specifically and American indie rock in general, it's an excellent primer. The second disc is for collectors and fanatics, and it does not disappoint. Many of the bands on disc one contribute unreleased songs that never sound like throwaways, and some of the label's newer bands that didn't make the first disc -- Run On, The For Carnation, and Bardo Pond -- are included. With its abundance of strong music and its complete Matador discography, What's Up Matador is an essential purchase for anyone curious about '90s indie rock. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Spin (1/98, p.117) - 6 (out of 10) - "...In relation to the larger musical landscape, WHAT'S UP MATADOR means to be the anti-Disneyland: a theme park where the real and authentic are valued over fantasia and spectacle....But a confabulated realness is still confabulated--and worse, it's a small world after all."
Entertainment Weekly (12/19/97, p.79) - "...this double disc paints a colorful portrait of distorted-guitar indie rock of the '90s, and the rarities collected on its second half include choice leftovers from [the Jon] Spencer [Blues Explosion], Cat Power, and Tobin Sprout, among others."
- Rating: B