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| Pitchfork |
 For more than 20 years, Matador has been at the forefront of a thorny, heavy, heady crop of American indie rock. And throughout that time, the label has never forgotten the "rock" part. That's on the face of it an obvious statement, but much of what reaches indie fans these days isn't or doesn't rock: It's bedroom electronics, it's folk, it's born out of underground disco, or indie pop, or synth-pop, or it's what once would have been called new wave or classic rock. No disrespect to other labels, but I couldn't imagine Matador releasing records by, say, Iron & Wine. Instead, they're the large indie who signed Jay Reatard, Fucked Up, and Times New Viking; the label who welcomed old-school rockers Ted Leo and Sonic Youth back into its fold; the label whose rising folkie star is an emotionally raw and brave performer like Perfume Genius, who is never going to get a song in a Previa ad. Sure, they acquired an imprint, True Panther, that gathers some of the best of the bloggier end of indie-- Balearic synthpoppers Delorean, or California indie pop band Girls. But Matador proper still keeps one foot planted in noisy rock.Considering the way indie has grown up in the past few decades, it made a weird kind of sense that Matador celebrated its 21st birthday with a series of once-in-a-lifetimes shows in Vegas. They're also giving back to fans, as well as a handful of charities, with this affordable, limited-edition 6xCD box set: five discs of the best of Matador and a sixth disc of live performances, mostly of Pavement (they also throw in some poker chips.) The set is arranged chronologically, and its compilers make no qualms about where the label was at each stage of the box, naming each disc after the relative fortunes of Matador at the time. In short, the first disc is how the label started; the second is the codification of indie rock itself; the third finds it branching out to a wider range of sounds; the fourth is a retreat back to its wheelhouse, in time for the Internet to help push indie rock toward its peak commercial potential; and the fifth is where Matador is today. Interestingly, it's the middle period that stands out immediately: It was a relatively dark time for Matador, if only because they were for once pointing toward the future rather than setting the agenda for the present. The disc starts with Boards of Canada, a group so above its like-minded peers it made them almost irrelevant. It goes on to forays into hip-hop (Arsonists, Large Professor), as well as other spheres of eventually quite trendy electronic music: the proto-microhouse of Burger/Ink, Pole's dubby minimalism, Matmos' conceptual experimentalism. In the end this stuff never became Matador's defining sound-- and it wasn't anywhere as close to a part of the indie conversation then as it is now-- but you can't fault the label's instincts. Even the guitar artists here, for the most part, were ahead of or helped set prevailing trends: Belle and Sebastian, certainly-- their songsmithery, collectivism, and classicism were oddly out of step at the time but have become a defining strain of 21st century independent music. Spoon as well, with their tight rhythms and love of post-punk already lockstep in place. Even Yo La Tengo and Pavement sound here more like 2000s indie than stuff from the 90s....full text |
| Latestmusicheadlines |
| Matador celebrates 21 years as a label with an eclectic limited-edition box that collects highlights plus a disc of live material. Tellingly, the Matador at 21 set has no designs on being a collection of the label’s best songs; instead, it’s more like an oral history– messy and haphazard, with imperfectly remembered details. Matador would likely tell the story a little bit differently each time it attempted, and in that way it feels as good a document of the past 20 years of indie rock as you could create....full text |
| Insound |
| VINYL FORMAT. Comes with a digital download! A budget LP option to coincide with the Matador at 21 6xCD Box Set, this 2xLP contains the entirety of disc five, one of the discs of re-mastered songs from the label's history ? titled Matador Today (2008 - ). Think of it as a greatest hits of Matador today! Featuring Fucked Up, Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile, Yo La Tengo, Jay Reatard, Harlem, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Cold Cave, The New Pornographers, Times New Viking, Girls, Interpol, Shearwater, Cat Power, Esben and the Witch, Delorean, Magic Kids, Perfume Genius, and Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks!...full text |
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