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

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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