New Oral History Celebrates Matador Records

With Matador 21, the venerable indie label's anniversary bash, set for this weekend in Las Vegas, MySpace Music has created an oral history featuring Matador co-founders Gerard Cosley and Chris Lombardi, Liz Phair, Pavement's Bob Nastanovich and more. Part one covers the label's beginning and the success of Phair's Exile in Guyville and Pavement's Slanted & Enchanted; part two focuses on the label's cult artists, like the Fall and Unsane, and it's parterships with major labels. Part three is forthcoming.

Inside Matador Records' All-Star Birthday Bash

Matador vets Pavement, Sonic Youth, Guided By Voices (with their "classic lineup"), Spoon, Liz Phair, Cat Power, Belle & Sebastian, the New Pornographers, Yo La Tengo, Girls, Superchunk and countless more will all perform this weekend at the Palms — and Rolling Stone will be streaming all of the sets as they happen, plus shooting video on site, posting reviews by Rob Sheffield, and keeping you up-to-the-minute on all the news coming out of the event.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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