Matt Bell profile picture

Matt Bell

...may you never die till I kill you...

About Me


I play lead guitar in the band Five Dollar Friend , am one of two lead guitarists in The Jeff Canada Band , occasionally play and sing with the cover group The Elroys , and have shared the stage with other incredible artists ranging from Deep Ella to Paul "Poppy" Sanchez of Cowboy Mouth fame.
I taught myself to play guitar at age 12 and shortly thereafter began writing my own songs. Although most of my musical effort these days is applied toward writing lead for and/or performing other people's material, I do get around to playing my original songs from time to time in clubs around central Texas. As of yet I have not found the time to properly lay down recordings of much of my material and the recordings I do have are quintessentially low-fi, consisting for the most part of me just plugging my guitar directly into my pc microphone jack and then tracking vocals back over that with a cheap mic.
Before long I will hopefully have a few recordings I am proud of to post here, but in the interim I will post what I do have so at least you can get a taste of the melodies echoing in my mind.
If you know me and/or have questions or comments about my music, other people's music, philosophy, psychology, Epicurean ethics, ontological empiricism, applied behaviorism, or life in general, please feel free to drop me a line on AIM. My screen name is MattBellatUH.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/12/2006
Band Website: 5dollarfriend.com
Band Members: Matthew Bell - vocals, guitar, etc.

Influences: Epicurus
Mahandas Gandhi
Oliver Sacks
Bruce Lee
Thales of Miletus
J.D. Salinger
Jorge Luis Borges
Francisco De Goya
Pablo Picasso
Diego Velázquez
Dave Grohl
Robert Rodriguez
Alan Alda
Bill Cosby
Thomas Behr
Ross Lence
Alex Varkey
Spain
Wine
Good Beer

Musicians You’re Probably Familiar With:

The Counting Crows
The Dave Matthews Band
Damien Rice
Better than Ezra
The White Stripes
Sublime
John Mayer
The Presidents of the United States of America
Metallica
The Offspring
Nirvana
Blues Traveler
Silverchair
The Smashing Pumpkins
Cake
Rage Against The Machine
Cherry Poppin' Daddies
Simon and Garfunkel
Jason Mraz
Weezer
Soundgarden
The Raconteurs
Alien Ant Farm
Vertical Horizon
Foo Fighters
Led Zeppelin
Fryderyk Chopin

Musicians You Should Be Familiar With If You’re Not Already:

Jude (Christodal)
Cowboy Mouth
Death Cab For Cutie
Bright Eyes
Jack Johnson
Dashboard Confessional
The Mars Volta
Bad Religion
Social Distortion
The Living End
Pulley
Refreshments
Ten Foot Pole
Rancid
Tom Waits
Panic! At The Disco
Local H
The Spill Canvas
Brand New
Ryan Adams
Joseph Arthur
Gary Jules
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Son House

Musicians You Might Not Be Familiar With, But Should Be:

The Mountain Goats
Paul Sanchez
Mitch Hemann
16 Horsepower
Woven Hand
Jolie Holland
Low Stars
Caroline’s Spine
Kid Lightning
Casey Reid
Dana Immanuel
Slim Cessna's Auto Club
The Guild of Funerary Violinists
DeVotchKa
Cohen

Local (Central Texas) Musicians You Should Check Out:

Toadies
Burden Brothers
Blue October
Bowling for Soup
Del Castillo
Five Dollar Friend
The Literary Greats
Cedar Boy Bailey
Spain Coloured Orange
SkyBlue72
Lazlo
Jeff Canada
Deep Ella
Blowing Trees
Zed Daniels
Los Skarnales
Rachel Loy
Jude Ross
Sara Van Buskirk
The Civilians
All Hail
Jennifer Grassman
Aves Wing
Nothing More
Raindrops & Mary Poppins
Yorkk
Archer Avenue
Arthur Yoria
Reverend Glasseye
Dave Ransom

Sounds Like: an after dinner mint with a creamy misanthropic center
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Frank Zappa on Crossfire

This is an interesting episode of Crossfire from 1986 with Frank Zappa talking about censorship. I find it a fascinating paradox that the political party in this country that is constantly r...
Posted by Matt Bell on Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:26:00 PST

What Sarah Said

Analogies of angels crying aside, there is something that feels very apropos about rain following a funeral. My good friend lost his mother a few days ago. Her service tonight was about fifty yards ...
Posted by Matt Bell on Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:24:00 PST

Computer Stuff

I recently had to do a complete reinstall of windows on a friend's computer. I also just ordered a new laptop for myself (an hp tx1000z), so I'll be having to do it all again pretty soon. It occurred ...
Posted by Matt Bell on Thu, 03 May 2007 12:30:00 PST

Los Pinturas Negras de la Quinta Del Sordo

Why individuals create art in all its myriad forms fascinates me. Of particular interest I find art seemingly unfettered by concerns for the observer, created solely for the benefit of the creator not...
Posted by Matt Bell on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 01:38:00 PST

Who Knows What Is Good Or Bad?

What follows is one of my favorite Taoist parables:   "Once there was a farmer whose horse ran away. His neighbor came over to tell him he felt sorry for him only to be told in return: 'Who knows...
Posted by Matt Bell on Wed, 13 Sep 2006 01:42:00 PST

Prelude to Korsakoff's

Sometimes a man is visited by a dream that brings him a kind of euphoria like no other.  His pulse is quickened, his smile gaping, his heart and soul feel alive, and more than anything else he fe...
Posted by Matt Bell on Sat, 26 Aug 2006 09:06:00 PST

taciturnity

It is not an enviable position is it?  To idly stand by and watch a person so deliriously happy, enraptured, all the while knowing their fulfillment is predicated on false assumptions, based on f...
Posted by Matt Bell on Wed, 13 Sep 2006 01:09:00 PST

ataraxis

afloat in the ataraxic wake of a cathartic storm.  i didn't dream long, but they were invaluable;   the thoughts, the images...i have worn a coin to nothing through compulsive vigilance...
Posted by Matt Bell on Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:22:00 PST

3 am

There is silence but no quietude in Mariana tonight.  Myriad thoughts swirled through her head for weeks and months turning back in on themselves countless times over again like waves in the ocea...
Posted by Matt Bell on Sat, 20 May 2006 01:34:00 PST

O Seigneur, s'il y un Seigneur, suarez mon âme, si j'ai una âme.

Even when I've found myself immersed in the deepest of doubt in the good of humanity, in myself, in God, in the very notion that there is anything transcendent, in the idea of an order or reason for e...
Posted by Matt Bell on Wed, 19 Apr 2006 03:47:00 PST