For those who don't like to read a lot: Fuck off and read. This is the only blog post I've ever preemptively written for, for reasons explained in the first paragraph.
It's weird to say that I feel emotions so strong for a person I'll never meet in my life, but that is is really what it boils down to when it comes to a guy like Matt Davis. Honestly, the music his bands have created have really brought me through some incredibly tough times in my life, and for that I can only thank him immensely. It's weird to know that I feel like I have some emotional connection with a person that I never even heard of until 5 or so years after his passing. I'm not writing this post only as a tribute to an obvious great example of what the human race can produce, but as a personal and heartfelt thank you to Matt Davis, you may never know how much what you've made means to me, but everything you've been a part of has touched me in someway during my life, no matter when I've heard it; and by that I mean everything you've been apart of, the most obvious being The Vidablue/Ten Grand, but also you're mostly forgotten other projects of Sergio Leone and Lets Drown Each Other.
I've been thinking about how I wanted to break up the bands Matt was apart of, and I guess the shitty block format is all I can think of.
Only Ten Between Us: Youth Crew/Hardcore band that featured Matt on guitars and only that. I've only listened to this band a couple times just for a reference in what Matt's done, and it sounds like what you think a bunch of teenagers playing hardcore would sound like.
Brazil: This featured Matt on Guitar/Vocals and two dudes from other bands (oh god I can't fucking remember right now what bands they were from). This is a lot more straight forward than the stuff that would eventually be the The Vidablue/Ten Grand. Still enjoyable to hear Matt wail along though, no matter how shitty the quality of the rip.
The Vidablue/Ten Grand: Holy fucking shit I can go on about this group forever. What I would call my favorite group of all time, this band literally changed my thoughts and perceptions about music as a whole, and what I thought fury in music could be. Before this, I really only recently started listening to screamo (hardcore, whatever the fuck you want to call it) with bands like Saetia, City of Caterpillar, what have you. I don't remember how I exactly came upon The Vidablue's first album "Our Miracle Point of Contact," but I remember being sort of jaded about the album. It was just, strange fucking alien music to my ears. The music was fast, heavy, but it would change into slower paces without warning, and man, that guys fucking voice! It sounded awful to me at first, and as usual, I didn't know how wrong I was. I pretty much kept this album, along with the other two albums they later released as Ten Grand, stashed away, probably never going to listen to them again because I just couldn't stand what I was hearing.
Ten Grand- "Grave? Shovel! Let's Go."
Basically, the biggest punch in the face I'll ever experience.
I don't remember what fucking day it was, but the song "Grave? Shovel! Let's Go." came on, and my fucking god. I'll never remember being so floored by fucking fury in a song, just feeling every note going through me and going absolutely ape shit to the song in my little computer chair, it was like nothing at all I've experience yet! Maybe it was just a right time at the right place sort of thing, but whatever it was, it has stuck with me, and will continue to stick with me. My whole concept of music changed that day; I thought I had an idea of what music could create (being a douchey teenager who thought he knew god damn everything), but that all went down the drain upon hearing this one track. I could go with the "rest is history..." line here, but that would be selling myself short on the impact this band has had on my life. I can't imagine another band I listened to as much during the time my Grandmother passed away, relentlessly shouting along the words I at least knew (shit, the lyrics wrote in their inserts for records didn't even match what they wrote, they just said what they felt in the heat of the moment, and I always thought that was extra fucking cool). And to this day, that sentiment still reigns supreme in me, that The Vidablue/Ten Grand is really music fully realized in what it can be, the ferocious energy of the band was shown in their records (but only truly experienced during their live shows, something I'll never feel); and I really feel like it's a crying shame that this band at least wasn't more well known, this is the most influential music to me and my young life, and I think it is something special that I would love to share with everyone else.
Ten Grand- Live at the Che Cafe sampler
And it is for this band most, above all else, that I thank Matt Davis and the rest of the band for most. I really wish I could thank him to his face for all his words expressed through the medium of music that was The Vidablue/Ten Grand. I would also like to tell him that I don't think a harder breakdown exists than "I Know It Works," it still fucking slays me every time I hear it, and I can't help but thrash along relentlessly as it goes on.
Sergio Leone: An ambient project of Matt Davis and M. Freeman. Very ethereal, and nice to listen to if you're trying to clear your mind. I feel like there is a lot of great stuff present on here, and it's really awesome to see Matt expand himself beyond the boundaries of hardcore music. I also think it's cool that the tracks were recorded in the attic of a haunted house, and the live tracks were recorded in a somewhat haunted venue.
Lets Drown Each Other: I came across this and the Sergio Leone CD by relentlessly fucking nagging someone for CD-r versions of some tracks (actually the Sergio Leone CD, I was sent a cd titled "Lets Drown Each Other- Unreleased along with this randomly). I have to say, after The Vidablue/Ten Grand, this is without a doubt my favorite stuff of Matt's. It's just him and an acoustic guitar for 6 tracks (and 1 transition track, I guess?). It's really heartbreaking to hear his voice creak along with the acoustic guitar, and the roughness of the recording really only adds to listening to it. This along with The Vidablue/Ten Grand has been a great way to relieve stress throughout my life.
In an effort not to become a whirlpool of writing redundancy, I'm going to stop here. Before ending this post, I want to thank Matt Davis for everything he has released and been a part of, and I wish I could tell him what an affect he has had on my life. I have never heard a bad story about this guy from whatever internet reading I could find about him, and to be honest, I don't think I ever will. The guy obviously cared about every single thing he passed through his life, and I wish more people were like that in the world. Never give up for what you live and love for.
And for that Matthew Davis, I thank you from the bottom of my fucking heart, I hope to meet you one day.
RIP (12.16.76 - 08.10.03)
Only Ten Between Us-
Brazil-
The Vidablue/Ten Grand-
What I Should Have Said Vol. 1 (compilation of old demos and splits)
Live at the Che Cafe (spent a fun filled day turning this from video to audio)
Sergio Leone-
Lets Drown Each Other-
Hey, what a great post you put together. One of the best shows I ever played was opening for The Vidablue in '99 in Rock Island, a couple years before they changed their name, in a packed VFW. Matt was one of the coolest people I ever met in the music scene in the last 20 years, and is sorely missed.
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