Matt Pless – The Return Of The New Forgotten Son

“You can put out my record if you want to. The music “industry” is rotten to the core”.

Album Review: Matt Pless – Catch Me If You Can

Album Review by Joseph Timmons – IndiePulse Music Magazine

“You can put out my record if you want to. The music “industry” is rotten to the core”.

When we first heard Matt Pless, we were blown away, his music invoked feelings and emotion that woke up out bohemian / activist sides and filled our minds with images of the NY folk scene of the late 50’s and 60’s, of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchel, Alan Ginsberg and the other great minds and fired spirits that sought peace and equality in the great social revolution. And now, in these time, times of unrest and contention, we need a voice like Matt, a voice that speaks of and to a generation verging on lost, falling into technologically hastened oblivion, where social media, digital media and online news services (not including us, were too jaded to become political puppets) take the place of reason and taken for fact.

The album Catch Me If You Can is unlike any youth anthem, agro political album you may have heard, well written, well composed, light hearted and sweetened with soft acoustic rhythms, it sounds more like a Simon and Garfunkel album of love songs, but love of life, of humanity and of doing right by your fellow man.

Catch Me If You Can has its Hilarious moments, like the song The Cigarette Song , I too have struggled with quitting smoking, “so what’s so big about that” you may ask, well if you have ever tried kicking an addiction, you get it.

Cinnamon and Honey , Bloodshot Baby Blues, When the Frayed Wind Blows, Shots Fired, Pretty When You’re Mean and The Wedding Song – all songs that have soulful and deep meaning that mean something different to each person that listens to and experiences the music of Matt Pless.

On his Bandcamp page, we found a quote that sums up the philosophy of this album–

“This album is the all night sounds of New York City, a battle cry for troubled times, the crumbling of a broken heart, the fast lane amphetamine rush of a stimulant highway, the lonely melody that dances softly in the bloodshot dawn, and the fury as the frayed wind blows.”

From the Article on our sister publication Xombiewoof Magazine

“From the start, the music of Matt Pless reminded me of another soft-spoken radical that would, without intention wind up changing the world and the way people think, yet unlike Dylan, Matt Pless would come from a more angst ridden generation, with an ideology that is intertwined with an abundant humor and is uniquely his own. From his bio, Matt is “a musician who can’t read music, an artist who can’t stand most aspects of the pretentious art community, and a writer who usually has fairly poor grammatical skills” yet his articulation in verse is admirable if not savant.”

Combining elements of folk, punk, pop and roots rock, Matt Pless can lyrically turn a phrase with the best of them. He has been compared to some of the top songwriters of our time, including John Lennon, Paul Simon, John Prine and Bob Dylan. Known for his engaging, thought-provoking, witty, word labyrinths, his music spans topics from love and loss to social commentary, to ethereal train of thought abstractions and everything in between.
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Matt’s DIY work ethic has seen him tour the US many times playing coffee shops, clubs, basements, living rooms, sidewalks…wherever there are people who want to hear his music. Along the way he has managed to share the stage with Maroon 5, Fallout Boy, Ani DiFranco, Rilo Kiley, Alkaline Trio, NOFX, Arlo Guthrie, Bad Brains, the late Pete Seeger and many others.

Matt was the inspiration for Occupy This Album which grew out of the Occupy Wall Street movement and both wrote and performed the opening song for the compilation. This disc combined both well-known and unknown artists and featured Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Yoko Ono, Willie Nelson, Deborah Harry, Loudon Wainwright III, Arlo Guthrie, and many others.

A consummate performer with a high-energy stage presence, Matt’s universally relate-able songs will make you tap your foot, and ultimately tap your mind.

Check out this enigmatic artist at one of his upcoming performances.

August 20   6pm
House show
428 Bark Street
Pittsburgh, PA  15214

August 21   5-11pm
Taco Dan’s
119 1/2  S. Prospect Street
Granville, OH  43023
​Click here for details

August 22   1pm
w/Whitney Flynn, Abby Finch, C is for Cadaver
The Foxhole
666 Whiskey Lane
Terre Haute, IN  47801
​Click here for details

August 23   7pm
Cousin Boneless Homecoming Show
Pittsburgh, PA
​Click here for details

September 1   6:30pm
House Show
Butler, PA

September 3
House show
94 Decatur Street
Brooklyn, NY
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September 29
Century
1350 S. 29th Street
Philadelphia, PA   19146

 

Find and Follow Matt Pless on Facebook and visit his Website, get his music at Bandcamp