Matthew Sweet Acoustic Trio

After spending the ’80s as an up-and-coming jangle pop multi-instrumentalist with acts like Oh-OK, Lloyd Cole, The Golden Palominos, and The Buzz of Delight, Matthew Sweet emerged as the leading figure of the power pop revival with the release of his platinum-selling breakout record Girlfriend in 1991. Sweet adhered to traditional song craft, yet subverted the form by adding noisy post-punk guitar and flourishes of country-rock, resulting in an amalgam of the Beatles, Big Star, R.E.M., and Neil Young. Girlfriend became a word-of-mouth critical and commercial hit with its title track reaching the Top Five on the Modern Rock charts and its anime-styled music videos entering heavy rotation on MTV.