The Matthew Sweet Discography
Revision 3.33n (27 March 2013)
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This document is a discography of:
Matthew Sweet
Copyright © 1993-2012 by John Relph.
The latest revision of this discography can be found at:
http://idiot-dog.com/music/sweet.matthew/
Visit the relaunched official MatthewSweet.com pages:
http://matthewsweet.com/
Visit the official site of The Thorns:
http://thethornsmusic.com/
Subscribe to the Matthew Sweet mailing list! Send e-mail to:
<matthew-sweet-request@robomod.net>
For further information, merchandise, details on Matthew Sweet, write to:
Matthew Sweet Fanclub
c/o Russell Carter Artist Management
315 West Ponce De Leon Ave., Suite 755
Decatur, GA 30030
U.S.A.
Many thanks to Scott Byron and Linda Witfoth for their generous help with
this discography. Thanks also to Linda for the artwork.
Special thanks to: (in alphabetical order)
Marc Ackerman, Gary Adkins, Paul Altemus, Mark Beecham, Peggy Bell,
Nancy Benecki, Adam Beston, Robert Beverly, Baer William Bradford,
Jason Brantley, Chris Bray, Mike . Brown, Todd Cameron,
Court Carney, Mike Cohen, Romeo Cologne, Julian Cone, Mike Conroy,
Mike Corso, Stuart Crisman, Eric Dahl, Laura "Davanita",
Rachel Elizabeth Dillon, Tonya Erwin, Chigusa Fujioka, Rob Gale,
Mike Garrett, George Gides, Greg Gratson, Ed Grossman, Brian Harris,
Alexander Joseph Henry, Emiko Iwasaki, Xiao Jinhong,
Christina Kairos, Richard K.
Lloyd, Tim Long, Shanna Marceau, Brookes McKenzie, Lucie Melahn,
Jordi Meya, Christy Michael, Michael P. Mikesell, Bryan Moore, Jeff
Nassiff, Gene O'Neal, Michael Ng, Phil Ord, Jasmine Osorio-van
Wijgerden, Ernest P., David A. Pearlman, Moise Potie, Doug Powell,
Benjamin D Pringle, Steve Rader, Shaun Ramsey, Karl W. Reinsch,
Konrad Scherfer, Frank Schima, Adam Scholder, Michael Schuster, Mark
Sellers, Elizabeth Setler, Rebecca Shapiro, Anita Sharifi, Brad
Shigenaka, Mark Sieffert, Ole Skjefte, Jason Snell, Bryan Sperrazza,
Stephen John Spey, Joe Starmans, Blaine Stevens, Matthew Stevenson,
Robert A. Szkolnicki, Diana Tenery-Fisher, Jonathan Turner, Mike
Whaley, Andrew Widdowson, Mark Wilding, Cheryl Wolf, Dan Wuori.
Plain-text discography available upon request.
Girlfriend is the inspiration for a play by the same name written by Todd Almond. The world premiere will be April 9, 2010, directed by Les Waters for Berekeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley, California.
A working title for Sunshine Lies was Rock Bottom.
Guitar Hero II, a PlayStation game with a controller that somewhat resembles a real guitar, features “Girlfriend” as one of its songs.
An interview with Matthew Sweet is featured in the book Behind The Muse: Pop and Rock's Greatest Songwriters Talk About Their Work and Inspiration by Bill DeMain. The book features interviews with over 40 successful and respected songwriters (including Brian Wilson, Andy Partridge, Suzanne Vega, Aimee Mann, Todd Rundgren, Nick Lowe, Neil Finn, and others).
Matthew Sweet and Jeffrey Foskett were originally slated to perform “Telephone Line” on the Lynne Me Your Ears: A Tribute to Jeff Lynne compilation. Apparently these plans fell through (Jeffrey Foskett performs the song sans Matthew Sweet).
Matthew Sweet is credited with ‘Psychedelic Band Sequences’ in the movie Austin Powers as part of the band Ming Tea. The band appears briefly in transitional scenes, as well as in the video for “BBC”.
Matthew Sweet was chosen to be one of the judges for the 1996 Musician Magazine Best Unsigned Band Competition.
Matthew Sweet sang on the “Always Coca-Cola” commercial in 1995.
The video for “Where You Get Love” was directed by Andy Fleming (The Craft). Cameron Crowe worked on a treatment for a video of “The Ugly Truth”.
Promotional videos have been filmed for the following songs:
Save Time For Me 1986 Easy 1989 Vertigo 1989 Girlfriend 1991 Evangeline 1991 I've Been Waiting 1991 The Ugly Truth 1993 Ugly Truth Rock 1993 Time Capsule (titled b&w) 1993 Time Capsule (untitled color) 1993 Superdeformed 1993 Sick of Myself 1995 We're the Same 1995 Come to California 1997 Where You Get Love 1997 The Thorns: I Can't Remember 2003
In April/May 1995 Girlfriend went gold (over 500,000 served).
Matthew Sweet chose the following manga as his favorites in the liner notes of 100% Fun: Akira, Dirty Pair, Lum, Cobra, Outlanders, Crying Freeman, Bubblegum Crisis, Ranma 1/2, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Caravan Kidd.
Snapdragon perform a song called “Matthew Sweet” on their album Drinking Watermelon Sugar (CD US 1995.06.13 Pound PDR-1019).
Bowling For Soup covers “Sick of Myself” on their album Bowling for Soup Goes to the Movies (CD 2005.11.15 US Jive ?). Milton Mapes covers “Your Sweet Voice” on the Sweetheart: Our Favorite Artists Sing Their Favorite Love Songs compilation (CD 2005.01.19 US Starbucks Hear Music ?). Saint Etienne recorded a cover of “Are We Gonna Be Alright” which was released on their Built On Sand (Rarities: 1994-1999) fan club collection (CD 1999.12 UK Mantra MNSTET1). Matthew Sweet co-writes the song “Worst Enemy” on the Velvet Crush single of the same name (C5 1999 US ?). Ric Menck covers the Matthew Sweet song “Are We Gonna Be Alright” on his album The Ballad of Ric Menck (CD 1998 US Summershine SHINE-US16). Springfields cover the Matthew Sweet song “Are We Gonna Be Alright” on their single Sunflower (7"? US Sarah 10). Velvet Crush cover the Matthew Sweet song “Something's Gotta Give” on their album Teenage Symphonies to God. Matthew Sweet arranged and co-wrote the music to “Everything's Different Now” with Jules Shear, who wrote the words, from the album of the same name by 'Til Tuesday (CD 1988 US Epic/CBS 0 7464-44041-4-0). Chris Cacavas and Junkyard Love cover “Someone to Pull The Trigger” on their album Dwarf Star (CD 1995 DE Return To Sender R T S 14), which also includes Robert Lloyd on mandolin.
Matthew Sweet ‘produced’ the 1991 Velvet Crush album In the Presence of Greatness (CD UK Creation CRECD 109), featuring Ric Menck and Paul Chastain, sometime-members of Matthew Sweet's touring band, actually some demos recorded at his house. Matthew Sweet also co-produced the Velvet Crush Ash & Earth EP (7"? US Bus Stop 011). Ric Menck and Paul Chastain were also responsible for The Briar Rose EP (12" 1988 UK Subway 20T) and the High EP (12" 1988 UK Subway 23T) by Choo Choo Train, released together on CD as Briar High (CD 1995? UK Suborg 15 CD), featuring two songs penned by Matthew Sweet, “Briar Rose” and “My Best Friend”. In fact, Matthew Sweet's involvement with the Velvet Crush has been such that it is difficult to determine which releases feature him and which don't. You're on your own.
In order to use the Tuesday Weld cover photo, Matthew Sweet agreed to change the title of his album from its originally planned Nothing Lasts to its released title of Girlfriend.
On Jan. 1, 1992, the ‘Modern Rock’ station KITS San Francisco (Live-105) broadcast its list of the ‘Top 105.3 of 1991.’ Matthew Sweet's “I've Been Waiting” reached number 105. The 1991 Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll listed Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend album as the seventh best of 1991. The USENET Top 100 of 1992 Poll listed Girlfriend as the 31st best of 1992.
In the spring of 1987 Matthew Sweet toured as bass player for The Golden Palominos.
Matthew Sweet sang with the Community Trolls (along with Michael Stipe of R.E.M.). A single was released but did not include the songs featuring Matthew Sweet. Some Community Trolls songs are available on R.E.M. bootleg recordings. During an R.E.M. set in 1983, Community Trolls did four songs: “Tainted Obligations”, “Pale Blue Eyes” (Velvet Underground), “6 Stock Answers for 74,000 Questions”, and “Your Roof, My Roof”. The songs were probably co-written by Matthew Sweet and Michael Stipe. “Tainted Obligations” was intended for an 1986 compilation called Don't Shoot, but it was rejected, so it didn't appear.
Recent changes to this document are indicated by green type.
num. numbered ltd. limited ed. edition
p/s picture sleeve std. standard s/s stock sleeve
s/l slimline j/b jewel box promo promotional
c/n catalog number g/f gatefold p/d picture disc
b/i back insert p/b paperboard w/s widescreen
Album: full album release, in one or more of the formats below:
LP 12" vinyl long-player (33 1/3 RPM)
CD Compact (digital) disc (std. j/b unless otherwise indicated)
CT (Mini-) Cassette tape
8T 8-track tape (obsolete)
RT Reel-to-reel tape
DC Digital Compact Cassette tape
MD MiniDisc (digital magneto-optical)
CR CD-R (CD Recordable or Read-Write)
SA Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD)
DA DVD Audio
DR DVD-R (DVD Recordable or Read-Write)
DD Digital Download (see Other Formats below)
Single: single or EP release, in one or more of the formats below:
7" 45 RPM vinyl
10" 45 RPM vinyl
12" 45 RPM vinyl
C3 CD-3, 3" (8 cm) CD single
C5 5" (12 cm) CD single (s/l j/b unless otherwise indicated)
CS (Mini-) Cassette single (p/b p/s unless otherwise indicated)
EP Extended play single or mini-album (vinyl, usually 33 1/3 RPM)
F7 7" flexi-disc, flexible vinyl single (usually one-sided)
Video: video release, in one or more of the formats below:
VHS VHS-format video tape
Beta Beta-format video tape
BRD Blu-ray Disc
UMD Universal Media Disc (Sony PlayStation Portable)
HVD High-Definition Versatile Disc (HD DVD)
DVD Digital Versatile (Video) Disc (including DVD-ROM)
VCD Video CD, popular in Asia (MPEG1)
CLV Video disc in Constant Linear Velocity format (8" or 12")
CAV Video disc in Constant Angular Velocity format (8" or 12")
LDS Laser Disc single (Japan)
VHD Video High Density, obsolete laser disc format (Japan)
NTSC Video format for U.S.A. and Japan
PAL Video format for the E.C. (except France), Scandinavia, Australia
SECAM Video format for France
Other Formats:
ROM CD-ROM, computer-readable disc
MP3 Layer 3 MPEG encoded audio
WMA Windows Media Audio
Pub A publication: a book, songbook, pamphlet, magazine, etc.
Definitions:
Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4 Calendar quarters: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall.
Radio Show A release specially recorded for radio airplay.
Interview An interview transcription disc.
Collection A collection of tracks by this artist, usually previously
released on various albums and singles.
Compilation A compilation of tracks by various artists.
Soundtrack Soundtrack to a film or play released in Album format.
Box Set Box set of previously released and/or unreleased material.
Songbook Book of words and music.
Bootleg Unauthorized release of previously unreleased material
consisting of concert recordings, studio outtakes, and
radio or television broadcasts.
Pirate Unauthorized release of previously released material
without attempting to make the album look like an original.
Counterfeit Unauthorized copy of an officially released album.
Country codes are InterNIC domain names, except for the following:
AA Australasia AS Asia BX BeNeLux
EU Europe (EC/EEC) SC Scandinavia SO South America
WG West Germany (prior to August 1990) WW Worldwide
Please do not ask me where to find rare recordings, bootlegs, videos, or other releases listed in this discography. Please do not ask me where you can get scans of artwork for these releases. This discography is a list of releases that have been made available over time, not a list of my personal collection. Just because any given release is listed in this discography does not mean that I own that release, nor does it indicate that I am willing to trade, sell, or make tape copies of that or any other release. If you are looking for such recordings, try attending record shows, reading collector magazines, and hunting in used record shoppes.
While the existence of unauthorized recordings may be documented herein, I cannot advise on the legality of such recordings, nor can I advise where such recordings can be obtained.
All singles and EPs have a picture sleeve (p/s) unless otherwise noted. Unless otherwise noted, CDs come in a standard jewel-box and CD-singles come in a slim-line jewel-box. An “obi” is the paper strip (literally, the “sash”) that comes wrapped around most Japanese LPs and CDs.
Song authorship is denoted by names enclosed in braces, e.g., “{Blegvad/Moore}”. Where possible, the name of the lyricist appears first.
Information flagged with a question mark has not been verified (a guess, a rumour). If you have further information about these or other related releases or if you can supply missing artwork, please write me.
Many CD track times were found using my compact disc player and the time indicated on your CD player may vary slightly (± 1-3 seconds), due to the way different machines calculate track times.
Address all correspondence to:
John Relph <John.Relph
at alumni dot usc dot edu>
This list was compiled and formatted by John Relph.
While information about particular releases is not copyright and may be used without permission, the compilation of this information in this discography in this format is copyright and may not be published in any form whatsoever without the permission of the author. Just ask.
This discography may be distributed electronically and otherwise if and only if the entire copyright notice and attributions are included.
