Check it out! Matt created a mixtape of music he loves and it’s pretty awesome.

Restless Heart Mix from MattHires on 8tracks Radio.

Bob Matthews

The first time I saw Matt in concert, I volunteered to work the merch booth at Jammin Java in Vienna, VA. I arrived early that evening and was met by Aaron Bishop, who I knew was the bass player touring with Matt. Aaron is a sweetheart who thanked me profusely for helping them out, and he showed me where everything was, and how much to charge, etc.

As I waited in the booth for the action to start, I decided to go up to the bar for a beer and a hot dog. After placing my order, a good looking, tall, and bearded man slid up next to me. I said “Hi” like I knew him because I thought maybe I did…he looked familiar. He said HI! very enthusiastically and when I said I would be working the merch booth, he offered to buy my beer.

The beer never made it back to the merch booth. When went back up to the bar, Bob was standing there with my friend (and co-Edge blogger) Liz Lemon. I asked where my beer was and he told me I was demanding and laughed, explaining that he got distracted and forgot.

Come to find out, this friendly, if forgetful fellow is actually Bob Matthews, a talented drummer playing and touring with Matt. Bob is charismatic, a flirt, a clown, sometimes a cynic, has a killer smile and a devilish grin. He’s so much fun

Bob and the Tour Monkey after a long night

to interact with and I love watching him play the drums. He’s someone who obviously loves life and likes people. I look forward to hearing from him on Facebook and Twitter because he is both outrageous and silly.

So here’s to you, Bob Matthews. I hope your birthday is filled with awesome surprises and much happiness!

This cover has a very “Indigo Girls” vibe that works nicely with the song. It’s great to see someone appreciating some of Matt’s newer material!  You can hear more of Melissa’s music on her facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/melissawhelanmusic).

A to B is available on Matt’s latest EP (the link is in the right sidebar).

With GRO in Denver…I’m not so sure the mic is actually turned on (ref: Bob Matthew’s screaming “Do you need anybody?” is barely audible). But Matt is technically singing and it’s a cover song so it counts.

GRO, Matt Hires, & Crew – Bluebird Theatre Denver, CO – 4/26/10

It’s a bit harder to pick Matt out in this one, recorded on April 30 at El Corazon in Seattle, but when he does appear on screen, it’s a bit closer than the first one. And our friend Maniac was at this show, so I keep watching to see if I’ll catch a glimpse of her dancing on the table in the corner by the stage. It could’ve happened, trust me.

In a recent interview with CosmoGirl, Matt answered the question “Who is on your iPod right now?” with a list of artists including fellow Floridian Tom Petty, adding:

Tom has been 75 percent of what I’ve listened to this past year.

Sure enough, he included Petty’s “Even the Losers” on the playlist he sent us last month.. Given Matt’s love of Bob Dylan, and given Petty’s undeniable awesomeness, this is one “Music Matt Likes” that should come as a no-brainer. I threw a little Mudcrutch onto the end of this playlist for some extra goodness.

You may need to create a lala account to listen to this list. It’s free to create the account and it’s free to listen to each song once through. Thereafter, you’ll need to add the files to your own lala account for 10 cents a piece, after which you can listen to this player indefinitely.

I absolutely love this cover I found on YouTube. Boys with guitars and FEELINGS ~ Love.

(cover) You Are The One

It seemed only fitting that today, the last day of the State Lines Tour (tears) we spotlight the guys that have been helping Matt rock venues across the country and entertaining us via twitter. We are really gonna miss “The Shady Bunch!”

via twitter

credit:Jason Tang Photography

“I started playing bass in 8th grade….was a band geek in the high school Jazz Band and started to take music seriously then. My high school band (which Bob Matthews was in) started gigging frequently around Orange County, CA. Opening for major touring acts and actually making money doing what we loved….it was then I knew I would do this as a career. I started playing with a guy named Tyrone Wells during my last year of college and have been with him for over 5 years now. Since I became a musician professionally I’ve played in every situation imaginable…outside in 15 degree Colorado weather playing bass for Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, learning 12 songs in 12 hours for a last minute gig with Keaton Simons, church gigs, bar gigs, playing to 10 people in a mexican restaurant to playing for 3,000 people in an amphitheater. I will continue to do this as long as life allows it. It is an amazing job and I love every minute of it!!”
Aaron’s resume includes performing and recording with Kate Voegle, Jay Nash, Jason Reeves and many many others.

Reprinted with permission from Castrocopia (ahem, me). 

For many of us here, getting to know Matt Hires on the State Lines tour has far exceeded expectations. To be frank, we went for Jason Castro, but we ended up falling in love with Matt Hires (MATT HIRES!!). If you missed the memo, Jason is not going to be performing at the last 3 tour stops (tonight through Sunday), but if you are lucky enough to be in Houston, New Orleans or Birmingham, get yourself a ticket to one of those shows and go go go! How can you understand why Castrocopia has become a hotbed of MattHiresism (Hiresology? Hiresophilia?), if you deny yourself that experience? 

And believe me, I speak from experience here. Just a couple of months ago, I was compiling our end of year playlist, which Matt had sent us a contribution for. I recall trying to think of something to write about him and I confess I was a little stumped. All I had to go on was a CD and the promise that he would be touring with Jason… Otherwise, I just thought he was a guy with some music. A cute guy with good music that has been featured on several different popular prime time tv shows… but still more or less an enigma wrapped in a black box. *facepalm* 

(Continued after the jump). 

Matt is often compared to different artists such as Jack Johnson, Matt Nathanson  and Wilco. That is all in the ear of the beholder, and I have no idea how Matt feels about such comparisons.   What interests me more is music that inspires Matt, or just the junk he likes to listen to.  I don’t want to rely on what the wikipedia tells us but from what Matt himself has let drop in interviews, on twitter, or face to face. 

To kick it off, I present Sufjan Stevens.  

I tweeted Matt one night and asked if he likes Sufjan and he responded that he LOVES him.  I wasn’t surprised. Sufjan is a quirky but brilliant songwriter, with a gift for painting vivid images with a wide brush. Unfortunately, he hasn’t followed up on his project to create one album to represent each of the 50 states, but he did give us Greetings from Michigan and Come On Feel the Illinois. With ridiculous titles such as…

Prairie Fire That Wanders About

and…

The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!

and…

The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, ‘I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!’

… you have to figure that the music is going to be a kind of different experience.

He has recently branched out into movie scores, to much acclaim. His BQE project has earned him serious praise.

Sufjan may not be what you’re used to, or what you think you like. I know I didn’t get him at first listen. Maybe he’s an acquired taste… but it’s definitely worth taking the time to get to know him, if only for the simple fact that he has crashed through musical boundaries with reckless abandon and inspired a new generation of musicians to question limitations imposed by a lazy music industry and a listening public conditioned to accept nothing special.

You may need to create a lala account to listen to this list. It’s free to create the account and it’s free to listen to each song once through. Thereafter, you’ll need to add the files to your own lala account for 10 cents a piece, after which you can listen to this player indefinitely.