Billy Matheny

A People's History of Billy Matheny & The Frustrations:
Usually, singer/songwriters don’t add multi-instrumentalist musician to their resumes, or vice versa. But for Billy Matheny, that diversity catalyzed his development into a solid live and studio performer. It’s also allowed for plenty of shows in different types of venues, such as college campuses, coffee houses, bars, and larger music clubs.
Because of those aforementioned experiences, his songwriting spans the genres of rock-n-roll, garage-punk, bluesy-country, acoustic folk and bluegrass, sometimes all at once. Since breaking onto the Morgantown, WV college-music scene in 2001, Billy has played solo, as part of an acoustic/electric duo and in several bands, including a few he’s fronted. He’s also opened for national acts like Joseph Arthur, Malcolm Holcomb, Lucero and Dick Dale.
His style of songwriting draws comparisons to that of Jeff Tweedy, Scott Miller and Neil Young, to name a few. Most of the tunes are flexible enough to play out alone or with band members. Matheny consciously strives for this variety, which is evident in both his CD releases, as well as his live sets.
Released in 2003, Billy’s self-titled debut EP earned praise from several publications, including WV Graffiti magazine and The Dominion Post newspaper. Matheny solely recorded all six songs on eight different instruments, showcasing his diverse songwriting and musicianship.
A year later, he released a 7” single, “I Won’t Be Around”. He split sides with Morgantown artists, The Emergency, as part of a benefit for Habitat for Humanity, in conjunction with WWVU-FM. This particular song received constant and consistent airplay on the university radio station in the Fall of 2004.
In October 2006, Matheny teamed up with a backup band, The Frustrations, to release the CD, “Born of Frustration”. Critical acclaim on print (Athens News, Racer X magazine Charleston Gazette), as well as online (Couchesonfire.blogspot.com) soon followed. A steady stream of local and regional live shows in support of the album boosted an already loyal following.
When Billy’s not playing solo acoustic sets, he regularly can be seen with one or more of The Frustrations. As a duo, many fans liken Matheny and Haley Slagle (vocals, guitar) to performers such as Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris and Black Francis/Kim Deal. When you add Adrian Larry (bass) and Adam Jones (drums), the resulting mix evokes images of Wilco, The Replacements and Big Star.
Whether it’s the band, the duo or solo act, Billy Matheny & The Frustrations travel for mini-tours in between frequent hometown shows. Currently, Billy is working on the follow-up to “Born of Frustration”.
-- Raj Chandran
The printed word:
I first heard Billy Matheny a couple of months ago at a singer/songwriter benefit concert in Marietta. Like the other artists on the bill, Matheny did only two songs, but he managed to stand out even in a lineup of mostly fine performers. I bought a CD from him after the show, and popped it in the deck on the drive home; by the time I got to Athens, I was a hardcore fan.
Matheny, who comes from Morgantown, W.Va., brings his band the Frustrations to the Casa Cantina tonight. Sharing the venue will be Erin Condo and the Talls. I would strongly recommend catching this show.
"Born of Frustration," the newest CD by Billy Matheny and the Frustrations, is a bracing gust of hard-charging, melodic pop-rock, with just a dash of country and a wee bit of acoustic folk. In terms of musical innovation, there's nothing on the record that hasn't been done a zillion times before - but Matheny and his band-mates play it all like it's some wondrous new toy, fresh out of the box.
On his Web site, Matheny lists The Replacements and Big Star among his influences, and you can hear those bands in the way his tunes drive pop hooks and soaring harmonies through a jangly, punky guitar storm.
The first band that came to mind when I heard the album, though, was Dramarama. The Frustrations give off a very different vibe, but with the same sense of a group that finds basic, tuneful rock music the most natural vehicle for the unique thing it's doing.
Though only 22, Matheny has been kicking around in various bands since his teens (including Cheap Truckers' Speed, The V-Necks and The Bookhouse Boys), and his songwriting is smart, confident, and alive with insight and feeling.
In "One Story Town," the most striking number on "Born of Frustration," he tells about a woman, not so young any more, who's had some lousy men in her life, and is now hunting for a new one. She finds a babysitter for the kids, gets dolled up, and hits the local music club, where she can feel the stares and derision from bartenders and half-dressed girls half her age.
"But she swears to God she's not gonna let it bring her down/the way the people talk, in this one-story town," Matheny sings, in a voice that seems to quiver with equal parts sarcasm and sympathy. "And she swears to God she's not gonna let it change her mind/but the search keeps getting harder, time after time." The drummer slams away ecstatically behind him, the harmonies lock in, the guitars snarl and chime, and the tune breaks your heart while it makes you dance.
The standouts on the record are mainly in this mode of hard-edged-pop-tune-with killer-chorus. "I Won't Be Around to Say I Told You So," for example, could be some undiscovered gem by the Grass Roots or the Hollies, fired up with a torrent of twangy guitar.
Other tunes pack more garage-band punch, like "Christless Streets," which spits out a refreshingly bad attitude right from the drumstick count-off: "None of my radio stations are tuning in/So it looks like I'm gonna have to settle for cassettes again," Matheny sneers. "There's faded writing on my five-dollar bill/It says 'In God We Trust and we always will'/But you know I think I'll spend it anyway/'Cause I never really thought my money had much to say."
On "Friday Night Alienation," Matheny takes his inner folksinger out for some air, in a world-weary finger-picked number that mockingly complains: "It seems like every sign can only say/I'll be an old man before my time one of these days/But I don't want to talk about it/The band's just starting to play."
Guitarist Haley Slagle adds strong second vocals to many of Matheny's tunes, and ends the album on a slightly bluesier note with her lead vocal on "Reckless," a torchy guitar ballad.
While still a relatively well-kept secret, when Matheny does come to a critic's attention, he tends to earn reviews even more enthusiastic than this one. A February 2004 notice in Graffiti magazine is typical, raving, "This kid is off the hook. He's a rockabilly folk hero who's one part Dylan, one part Alex Chilton and five parts gin and tonic. In the over crowded field of faceless, sound-alike James Taylor wanna-bes, Matheny stands out as an unbreakable wall of sincerity and spunk." Yeah, what they said.
-The Athens News
Area music fans should be thankful for Billy Matheny’s apparent lack of coping skills. Matheny’s new 12-song CD “Born of Frustration” is a rock & roll blueprint of high-powered garage rock and bluesy-country acoustic charmers, with lyrics mainly about being on the outs when it comes to living and loving.
The 22-year old Morgantown native has used negatives to provide an uplifting narrative in art. On “If You See Him Tonight,” a bluesy ballad with power-chord sing-along choruses, he sings I don’t like this phase I’m going through, but, fans will have to admit, he’s put out a great CD. “When you put out any piece of music like this, it’s a relief to have it finished, but you’re pretty excited about it, too,” Matheny admitted over the phone. “I’m happy with it. It captured enough of my different styles of songs: it has rock, country, and some punk songs,” he said.
After playing piano and guitar for over 15 years, his diverse musical talents are on display: he plays guitar, piano, bass, organ, drums, and even some bells on the CD. He also did it D.I.Y style: the CD is put out on his own record label, Gyroscope Records.
Joining Matheny on “Frustration” are…The Frustrations! The band (aka American Sound Syndicate) of the same name includes Adrian Larry on bass, Haley Slagle on guitar and vocals, Kim Monday on bass and piano, and Rick Ravenscroft and Woody O’Hara on drums. Mark Poole, who recorded and produced the CD at Zone 8 Studios in Granville, adds some guitar feedback on “Don’t Feel Guilty,” and did an outstanding job on the production…the songs come through clear and powerful.
Of course, the credit goes to Matheny, raised on a musical diet of the Beatles, the Boss, and more recently Wilco. The CD blasts off with “Christless Streets,” an uptempo punk-tinged roots-rock stunner. Matheny sings in manic fasion: Never mind radio stations tuning in/so it looks like I’ll have to settle for cassettes again…Somewhere in this Christless town, there’s gotta be some kind of savior hanging around.
“I Won’t Be Around (To Say I Told You So)” and “If You See Him Tonight” keep the rock coming, the latter song a mixture of bluesy intro riffage and pedal-stomped sing along choruses. It really feels like Matheny is comfortable working with others on the CD. The backing vocals on the songs provide enough “ooohs” and “ahhs” to let you sing with those if you can’t sing.
On the bluesy, piano-soaked bar ballad “I Hope I Don’t See You Today” Matheny does a duet with Slagle. This song would quite likely get lighters up and patrons swaying if deployed in a venue. Slagle lets out some sultry vocals on her own. On the closer, the sullen, lovelorn acoustic number “Reckless,” Slagle sings it alone. Matheny may be frustrated, but giving others space on the CD proves he’s not insecure.
He’s also not limited in his musical repertoire. “About halfway through the recording, I had some doubts about recording an album with so many different genres, but eventually I realized that no matter how unique I think a song is, it’s all going to sound like me.”
Matheny’s style of rock truly spans genres and decades. Most of these songs would be good from the 50’s to now. How his music spans the genres of classic rock and blues/country to indie punk is on display between the songs “Hang On, Maureen” and “I Came In,” a Cramps-flavored old-time, punk rock ditty. The diverse musical influences and styles are a good thing, says Matheny. “Unless you’re AC/DC, no musician should stick to the same sound or else they’ll just become redundant.”
Two of the best songs are saved for last. “Friday Night Alienation” is a folksy acoustic number that has Matheny singing warily about a new sensation, happening across the nation, and on the chorus, some great lyrics: and it seems like every sign, can only say/I’ll be an old man before my time one of these days/but…I don’t wanna talk about it/the band’s just starting to play. The song has some cool guitar distortion, or atmospherics at the end, more would’ve been even more experimental, maybe a nod to Wilco, an admitted influence — a great song. “One Story Town” is really about a woman with kids, who gets a babysitter and goes out to the bars Friday nights, trying to find a good guy. An example of some great lyrics about barflys: and the young girls in their half-shirts, even though it’s only 20 degrees.
This CD will probably cost a couple of dollars, but it’s definitely worth it. And, all that angst? Not so fast, says Matheny: “Everything has been coming up roses. I have a new CD out and all of the shows have been going extremely well,” he added “Maybe I’ll change the name of the group from the Frustrations to the Upbeats.”
-TheGazz.com
Born of Frustration, the new release from Billy Matheny and the Frustrations, is forty rock solid minutes of good old American rock n’ roll. With each track Matheny moves from rock to folk to country to punk, leaving the listener with twelve tracks chock full of grit, twang and pop sensibility.
Backed by a contingent of musicians spread over nearly incarnation of the Frustrations, Matheny has at his disposal nearly every tool needed to bring his songs to fruition. The standout contributor is Haley Slagle whose soulful voice graces a number of the album’s strongest tracks such as the duet, “I Hope I Don’t See You Today”, and the Slagle-sung closer, “Reckless”. The later evoking the feelings of a lonely broken hearted night spent driving around listening to Patsy Cline fade in and out on AM radio. Thematically, the soured relationship permeates the album, but the songs come off neither whiney nor overly melodramatic. More than anything, like so many other songs which hold a place our hearts, the listener is never left pondering where Matheny falls into the equation: the songs aren’t about him. They’re about you.
The two dueling Matheny alter egos, the punk rock kid and the folksinger, both appear prominently on Born of Frustration. Whether the breakneck thrashing of “I Came In” to the up close and personal quiet folksiness of “Friday Night Alienation” Matheny seems equally at ease. The album’s standout track, “If You See Him Tonight”, bridges the two, by alternating effortlessly between twangy tear in your beer sentimentality and crashing distorted guitars. It is as if the man wants you to lend him your ear so he can draw you in close and deliver a punch to the gut. The end result is twelve tracks that engage and entertain the listener.
The harshest criticism that can be leveled at this record is that it’s strongest three tracks are buried at the very end, but that seems to be a trivial matter at best. The truth is that this is a real good piece of work and has the mark of a seasoned songwriter all over it. It could be very easy to view Born of Frustration as the end product of a period of growth and development for the man Matheny. But this ain’t the end folks. This is just the beginning.
-Couchesonfire