What's Up Matador

Tracks:

Tom Courtenay - Yo La Tengo
Texas Never Whispers - Pavement
Catholic Education - Teenage Fanclub
For Tension - Superchunk
Vandal X - Unsane
Splat - Bailter Space
Pat's Trick - Helium
Nude As The News - Cat Power
Tomboy - Bettie Serveert
Couldn't You Wait (Acoustic) - Silkworm
Don't Buy The Realistic - Spoon
Stratford On Guy - Liz Phair
Twiggy Twiggy - Pizzicato Five
Hey Student - The Fall
Bang The Drum - Railroad Jerk
In/Out - Come
Dang - The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Son Of Sam - Chain Gang
Adam & Steve - The Frogs
Unreal Is Here - Chavez
Motor Away - Guided By Voices
Still? - SF Seals
My Pal The Tortoise - Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Water Cuts My Hands - Mecca Normal

Tracks:

Back Of Your Head - Cat Power
Strike - Come
One Step Forward - Railroad Jerk
Dig My Shit! - The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
My Thoughts Are A Gas - Guided By Voices
Telamon Bridge - Spoon
Killing Moon - Pavement
Hangman - Silkworm
Don't Say A Word (Demo Version) - Yo La Tengo
The Blood Of Feeling - Barbara Manning
Life Is An Imbecile - Bettie Serveert
Stuck On An Island - Liz Phair
Alfredo's Welcome - The For Carnation
Days Away - Run On
Hurricane Watch - Mecca Normal
Lucy - Helium
Theme From 'For Russ' - Chavez
Small Parade - Tobin Sprout
The Trail - Bardo Pand
Happy Birthday - Pizzicato Five

Amazon.com

With its sardonically intelligent liner notes, this 2 CD (Favorite Tracks and Unreleased Tracks, respectively) collection is the ultimate introduction to the record industry's harbinger of hip. Home to indie-rock integrity, Matador has helped usher critic's darlings like Liz Phair, Guided by Voices, Yo La Tengo, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and others to cult status, just as Matador cofounder Gerard Cosloy's Homestead Records provided a haven for groups like Dinosaur Jr. and Big Black in the '80s. If Homestead's The Wailing Ultimate ably summed that label's influence before Cosloy's departure, What's Up Matador is doubly impressive. Besides, where else can you hear Pavement's lazy-cool version of Echo & The Bunnymen's "Killing Moon"? -- Mark Woodlief

Customer Reviews:

First and Best of the Matador Comps.......2005-11-30

44 tracks for $10 is an incredible value. Besides classics from Matador mainstays like Pavement, Yo La Tengo and Guided By Voices, this 2 CD set also contains great tracks by lesser known bands like Helium, Railroad Jerk and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. The liner notes are also fun. Consider buying a used copy for a couple bucks and loading it onto your MP3 player.

Sleater-Kinney isn't a Matador band.......2005-09-27

An earlier review contains an extremely obvious error: Sleater-Kinney isn't on this compilation because S-K IS NOT on Matador!

It's pretty sad when reviewers attempt to sound authoritative when they don't know even the basic facts.

What's up?.......2005-09-20

Matador Records is known for its selection of outstanding musical artists -- the bands that are/were signed to them range from indie-rock legends to obscure gems.

"What's Up Matador" is a good compilation of some of Matador's highlights -- it's not only a good cross-section of the best and most timeless work here, but also a fun listen, and a good introduction to some good music. It's missing a few of the best and bravest, but is still an excellent place to start on some cool indie-rock.

Several indie-rock staples were signed onto Matador over the years, and they are given places of honor: the gone-but-never-forgotten Pavement, excellent Guided by Voices and Spoon, as well as other outstanding bands like The Fall, Cat Power, Superchunk and Yo La Tengo. Often these bands get more than one song.

But Matador also gives the spotlight to lesser known bands and artists. For example, the quirky Japanese pop band Pizzicato Five. Also present are the rough-edged rock of Silkworm and Railroad Jerk, a couple of songs by Liz Phair before she went teeny-pop, the trembling lo-fi of Helium, the energetic pop of Bettie Serveert, and the aggressively weird Mecca Normal.

Okay, sprinkled here and there are a few duds. I have to admit that Chavez is not my favorite -- I can only take a few explosive chords at a time, unless Billy Corgan is playing them. And there are a few glaring omissions -- where are Nightmares on Wax, Solex, Sleator-Kinney?

Fortunately, those omissions are compensated for by the excellent -- sometimes ingenious -- music that surrounds them on all sides. Pop, electronica, rock -- it's all here. Matador plays it safe with some of the songs, such as Pavement and Teenage Fanclub, but also plays risky by including so many songs by little-known bands.

Like the other Matador compilations, "What's Up Matador" is a good place to start on the voyage of indie rock bliss. Smooth sailing.

What else do you expect?..........2001-03-27

It's a MATADOR compilation. Since the label is immune to signing bad bands, you won't find a bad track on this disc.

An excellent sampler, but works just as well as an album. If you prefer to have your sounds mixed, you'll love the variety of this album.

Particularly good?: GBV, Pavement, Pizzicato 5, Chavez, Helium, and Yo La Tengo(as usual).

I WASN'T DUMB BUT I WAS SO NAIVE..........2000-10-16

What an amazing collection! I bought it because I wanted to have Liz Phair's stunning and fun "Stuck on an Island"... for me, the bargain price was worth it just for her! But the rest of this 2 CD collection is stellar! Yo La Tengo is a consistent favourite, Pavement's super cool version of Echo and the Bunnymen's "Killing Moon" is exquisite, the Pizzicato 5 tracks are **SO FUN** (especially the cute "Happy Birthday"), and Cat Power is always a subtle and subdued hue of brilliant ("Nude as the News" is one of her louder songs and is also just... breathtaking)! Other treats here: Teenage Fanclub, the much overlooked Bailter Space, The Fall and Guided by Voices. Nothing bad about this collection... and if you are lucky you will find something new to love! There is definitely enough variety here to please everyone.

Music:

Music

music

Music

Life Is Sweet

Serenade / Te Deum / Dona Nobis Pacem

Sargent Conducts English Music

Stranger In Your Life

Clear the Tracks

Past/Present Future

Something Got a Hold on Me

Nessun Dorma [Import]

Rock for Food [Import]

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Out on a Limb [Import]

Slow But Sure

Mundo de Sueños

Coming Into His Presence

At the Blackhawk, Vol. 1