Matt McCluer starts band, IHOP closes

ILLUSTRATION by JOE MCGARRY

Two years ago Matt McCluer released his last official solo record—at least he says it was his last. A Good Day to Rock was 15 home-taped pop songs with ooh-ahh harmonies, double-tracked vocals and therapeutically selfish breakup lyrics, opening with “I fell off the earth/but I promise I’ll come back when you start making sense.” Soon after McCluer went into radio silence—thanks to high costs, he’s done no official releases since then.

In the meantime, Costa Mesa died: friends moved, record stores closed, Starbucks swallowed up Diedrich and even a pancake just isn’t what it used to be—“IHOP is gone!” says the longtime resident. “It’s like Pancakes ‘R Us or something. We’re just gonna start calling it North Irvine.”

But his band the Sweet Sweet Things are probably the best argument against McCluer’s fears. They’re classic American power-pop with elegant glockenspiel and lively major-key Big Star chords, all played by Costa Mesa fixtures: singing and guitar by McCluer, bass and guitar from Bobby Perez and C.J. Brion, the Flying Saucers’ D.A. Humphrey on guitar and keys and then drums by Joel Williams, also part of Brian Jonestown-connected band the Quarter After. (Matt says his friends have thrown dozens of Jonestown comparisons his way over the years: “A friend came over to my house with a video of Anton Newcombe and said ‘This guy is exactly like you at your worst times 10—all the time!’”)

The Sweet Sweet Things were formed in 2007 as an outlet for McCluer’s new material and as a device to filter his 80-songs-over-five-albums discography—which includes those two full albums he can’t afford to release—into his 10 best live songs: “It’s kind of like a Matt McCluer greatest-hits band,” he says. “I picked the most well-written and catchiest songs: the ones where the composition kicks ass.”

Sifting for gold like that is easy to do for songwriters who only manage to really do their best once or twice a year. But McCluer’s catalog is preternaturally consistent—he’s a backyard-and-bedroom auteur whose precisely composed pop songs almost never falter. Cherry-picking just 10 is occasion for headache and heartache. Maybe he could include “I’m Still Here,” with its “Needle in the Camel’s Eye” chorus bookended by a more-straightforward Built to Spill verse, or “Moody Roommate Man” from She’s a Revolution, as earnest as Jonathan Richman recording in an empty church with the worship band. Or the title track on Revolution: heavy Hendrix Experience psych with just enough humor. Or Good Day’s “My Own Thing,” which is like sad Kinks with guitar-and-keys harmonies that make the lyrics (“I can’t hang around with anyone who’s not expecting a miracle . . .” ) all the glummer. Picking just a few is daunting, but McCluer finds the joke in it: “I’m bad at everything!” he says. “All I do is write good songs. That’s how it’s been.”

His new record—with the Sweet Sweet Things—will be called We’re Not Cool, and is set to come out this month or next. It marks his first time in a studio and he couldn’t be more excited about it: “Some of those songs have as many as 30 tracks on them,” he said. “So that’s fucking rad.”

He says that once it’s out, he might consider following in the footsteps of his CM ex-pat friends and head north. But for now his love for his hometown runs too deep: “My house is kind of like a park. I have a huge backyard and I can record in the living room,” he says. “I haven’t really left my house in like a year!”

THE SWEET SWEET THINGS WITH THE FLYING SAUCERS AND GHOST TOWN JENNY LA CAVE | 1695 IRVINE AVE | COSTA MESA 92627 | WED JUNE 11 | FREE | 21+ | LACAVERESTAURANT.COM

Tags: costa mesa, la cave, matt mccluer, Music, the sweet sweet things