(above image provided by the wonderful Emerald Green, whose Instagram is here )
(above image provided by the wonderful Emerald Green, whose Instagram is here )
First, some bio information as of 2007, pulled directly from the now-defunct but wayback-machine-accessible mattybones.com:
Matt Douglas was born in Richmond, VA to a pair of lovely parents, one of whom is Canadian. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 8 and hasn't learned when to quit. After struggling through the humiliation of being a jazz summer-camper in high school, he went to New York University in New York City where he recieved a Bachelor's degree in Jazz/Contemporary Music Performance. There he studied with such geniuses as George Garzone, Ralph Lalama, Frank Kimbrough, John Gunther, and Tony Moreno. In 2000, he helped establish what would soon become the renound organ trio The Duggs. The Duggs recorded an album called "Tumid" and released it in the fall of 2001. Extensive touring of the East Coast followed. Matt has been seen on stage with prominent New York musicians such as Tony Barba, Dave Treut, Brook Martinez, Liam Hurley, just to mention a few. He has been a guest sax player for Bobby Bare, Jr., Josh Ritter, and Mike Wexler, just to mention a few. In 2002-2003 he worked with the children of P.S. 15 leading an after-school group, while packing art in the mornings. In January of 2004 he moved to Budapest, Hungary to explore the music scene of Central and Eastern Europe. In the summer he was selected to be a Fulbright Scholar for the 2004-2005 year. During this period, Matt studied Hungarian/Transylvanian folk music and incorporated it into a series of compositions that he recorded in March, 2005.
In June of 2005 Matt moved to North Carolina and started a band called The Proclivities. The Proclivities is an indie rock, anti-folk, slam-pop outfit that streamlines Matt's eclecticism. In the Summer of 2006 they released their first record "Predispositions" to critical acclaim, and have performed shows with Josh Ritter, The Old Ceremony, among others. In the Fall of 2006, Matt started writing Proclivities music for a short film called "Coney Island" which was written and directed by Ramen Cromwell with Blackwater Films. The soundtrack was released in March of 2007 and is available now.
And from his current website, continuing biographical info from 2009:
In Early 2009, Matt teamed up with country singer and songwriter Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown, Tres Chicas). Their relationship developed into a songwriting collaboration, out of which they formed The Small Ponds. Their first album was released on Last Chance Records in September of 2010. Matt also makes up one-third of the instrumental power trio The Hot at Nights, alongside longtime collaborator Chris Boerner on 8-string guitar and Nick Baglio on drums. Throughout 2015, Matt was on tour as a multi-instrumentalist with The Mountain Goats to promote the album Beat the Champ. In 2016, Matt joined The Mountain Goats as a permanent member.
Matt continues to live and work in Raleigh, North Carolina as a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.
In addition to playing in the Mountain Goats, Matt has shared the stage with Hiss Golden Messenger, Josh Ritter, Erin McKeown, Bon Iver, Superchunk, Bhi Bhiman, Ari Picker, Chris Stamey, Ani Difranco, Tift Merritt, Nicolay, The Rosebuds, Jeanne Jolly, Jenn Grant, The Old Ceremony, American Aquarium, Kenny Roby, Laura Cortese, and many more.
You're probably wondering --- isn't this a website for Sonic Enemy and Shrimper and stuff like that? Isn't this specifically not a Mountain Goats fansite? Well, true. I am determined not to cover the full Mountain Goats catalog on this website. I love those guys, genuinely, I get out to see them whenever I can. But my god the SEO and the sudden vulnerability of my email address to unfiltered mg fanbase energy. Imagine email pouring out of the computer onto a human face, forever. I don't really want to be treated as an information source on the Goats.
THAT BEING SAID. In the interest of lovingly building more web for the band's composite parts, and appreciating the musical turn the band has taken in recent years, I'll be covering (in my own way) some of the stuff that's been going on since they launched 2017's beautiful, moody, guitar-less album Goths. And a crucial element of their work now is Matt Douglas expanding the sound (like Jon Wurster before him). While I get some work together on all that though, this is just a page for what Matt Douglas has done outside the band.
Matt's old website had a few CDs listed:
You can also read up on the Duggs Trio's CD Tumid:
Matt also has an ambient woodwinds album, Affirmation (with Discomfort) and a 2-song release (Manage My Mind) on Bandcamp, which I don't have index pages for, but these thumbnails will take you to their Bandcamp pages:
Matt is also active in instrumental jazz-rock trio The Hot At Nights, but there's not much to say about those albums except go listen to them. I haven't done scans of the Caitlin Cary collab album yet but I may cover that one here down the road.
Lastly, to hear some of Matt Douglas's live work with the Mountain Goats, you can visit Emerald Green's website where she's made several compilations of live Mountain Goats recordings, including an album of different recordings of "Tidal Wave" which is my favorite thing of all time.
And of course, you can find Matt Douglas out on tour playing many many many instruments with the Mountain Goats a few months of the year, not to mention playing on the records, which are only getting better every year. You can always pick up copies of the guys' most recent stuff from the good people at Merge Records.
any images, lyrics, song titles, etc are property of the original artists, where at all possible images are pulled from my own scanned copies and any found/submitted images are noted and credited. this is a fan site without ads, trackers, or even so much as one of those site counters from the late 90's. if you see your intellectual property here and want it removed, email away. thanks. affirmation with discomfort thumbnail image on this page pulled directly from https://mattdouglas.bandcamp.com/album/affirmation-with-discomfort with artwork by Josh Ritter. manage my mind thumbnail image on this page pulled directly from https://mattdouglas.bandcamp.com/album/manage-my-mind, photo by sam kassirer