A
stranger walked up and handed me a package. It was a standard press kit stuffed
with CD, photo, and bio. I waited for the big pitch that usually follows, but
it didn’t come.
“This
is not me,” he said simply.
Needless
to say, I was intrigued.
“This
is Cash Mattock,” he said.
Cash
Mattock is a character, a persona that allows his creator to make music and get
perspective on a sordid past from the safety of anonymity. Cash Mattock is the
mask for a man seeking resolution — maybe even redemption — through his
music.
Mattock’s
debut release, Sexy 21st Century Beast,
is an album almost 10 years in the making. It comes from a dark place.
“A
lot of these songs I wrote for this record were written during a very
unfortunate time in my life,” Mattock says, “in which I was hanging out with
some very bad people. I actually went through some life-changing things,
including bad experiences with drugs and things like that.”
Sexy 21st Century Beast is a concept album focusing on this period — one night in particular — that
included chemical excess, jealousy, rage, rape, and a host of other human
vices. Mattock approaches it quasi-satirically.
“It’s
about relationships with people, relationships with your friends or girlfriend
or whatever,” he says, “and how this all revolved around this underground
community and how it’s skewed and how people are kind of just living in this
fantasy world.”
Mattock’s
creator has been in and out of the Rochester music scene for years. Creating
Cash Mattock allows him to get away from expectations.
“Any
attachments to anything else I’ve ever done I just don’t want to bring to the
table,” he says. “It’s nothing that’s really important or that should have
anything to do with it.”
“Each
band has its own exploration,” he says, “its own focus on a different genre.
Everybody has their own way. I want to do something that’s me, something that’s
original. I didn’t want to do what’s already been done and I thought this would
be a unique way to control what was going on, using the studio itself as an
instrument.”
Mattock
started work on the project four years ago. He bought a computer and began
creating samples.
“It
was a different writing approach,” he says. “I wanted to approach it from a
collage perspective.”
So
besides exorcising, Mattock was exploring uncharted waters. He employed the
help of Ryan Kemp (Moviees, El Destructo), Paul Morabito (Lovematics, Moviees,
Chesterfield Kings), Keith Parkins (Quitters, Duke Galaxy & the Pipeliners,
5 Watt Bulb), Chris Kemp (Phoenix Red, The Q, Hello Goodbye, Asyd Malaise), and
producer and multi-instrumentalist Chris Cimicata.
What
wound up on Sexy 21st Century Beast was a sonic, borderline industrial assault of profound intensity and anger. The
acoustic detours sound Brit-pop — like a less ecstatic XTC, an even angrier
Paul Weller, or Paul McCartney with his wings pulled off.
Lyrics
notwithstanding, the music itself churns and writhes. It’s more turmoil than
pain. The vocals are raw and one shade shy of homicide.
“There
was a lot of intensity required,” Mattock says. “I mean, I couldn’t have
portrayed the songs and just sing them. When I recorded a song it was almost a
performance, even though you’re not seeing a performer.”
Each
performance is listed on the back of the album next to the name of the vice it
illustrates.
“Every
single one of these words reads a fault in the human persona,” he says.
Revenge, addiction, exploitation, obsession, madness, doubt, vanity, jealousy,
confusion… the list goes on. And each is addressed on its own cut with
mounting, palpable rage.
You
can hear his frustration on “Indecision”: “Somewhere between love and hate / I
don’t deserve this fate / Now I’m just a half a man / I know I started this
ride / I threw my arms up, didn’t try to hide / But man this wasn’t part of the
plan.”
You
can hear the imminent danger on “Hot Pair Of Knives” when he sings, “I’ve been
banging my head against the wall / suddenly I don’t feel so tall.”
Hopefully
this album has put some of the demons to bed.
“Seeing
the songs together from the perspective I have now, it definitely tells a story
and gives a lesson,” Mattock says. “I always write something so it’s tangible,
so I can have control over it. Because then it becomes something that’s on
paper or something that exists in a musical realm where I can take it out and
explore it whenever I want, so I can have control over it. Instead of it having
control over me.”
Cash Mattock will have a listening party for Sexy 21st
Century Beast Thursday, December 30, at the Bug Jar, 219 Monroe Avenue, at
9 p.m. Tix: $10. Open bar 9 to 11 p.m. Free CDs for everyone through the door.
454-2966
This article appears in Dec 29, 2004 – Jan 4, 2005.
