Matador Records Retrospective Box Set

Originally posted on June 25, 2008

Matador Records has been a presence in this decade for alternative rock, post-post-neo-post, or whatever you want to call the kind of rock that can be raw, chancy, slickly subversive, retro in a post sort of way, metal with a brain, and other things too. Their anthology Matador at Fifteen contains an overview of their releases between 1999-2004.

Of course, it is selective (how could it not be?). There's a CD of greatest hits by folks like Mission of Burma, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, and Mogwai. There’s a CD of unreleased material, remixes and rarities. And there’s a DVD of videos. Now I know I am archaic, but rock videos don’t generally do much for me, and so I watched with less enthusiasm than some people might. The music, however, pulled me in and held me there. This is rock that can get attention and still be on the creative edge. What’s the use of one without the other?