Matt Costa
I've encouraged a lot of my friends to get hip to Matt Costa before, but now it's time to really drive the message home to the masses. Costa, just 25 years old, is already on the last step of the Jack Johnson accidental rock star system:
Step 1: be on the cusp of turning pro in an extreme sport (surfing/skateboarding)
Step 2: suffer career ending injury (smash face on reef/shatter leg on concrete)
Step 3: write a bunch of good songs during rehab (Brushfire Fairytales/Songs We Sing)
Step 4: learn from a well-established music veteran (Ben Harper/Tom Dumont of No Doubt)
Step 5: take over the world
His new album Unfamiliar Faces comes out on October 2nd and it's going to be a classic if the few songs he's previewed already are any indication. Here are some videos of varying quality for you to peruse of his new stuff:
"Unfamiliar Faces" (scroll down to 'New Unnamed' or just listen to the whole thing, it's worth it)
"Downfall" (I'm most excited to see how this one turns out)
"Miss Magnolia" (hopefully the energy of this one comes of as well in the studio as it does live)
"Vienna"
And I'm not sure if this song (starts about 8 minutes in) will be on the new album, but it's part of a pretty cool interview that will give you a good sense of his background story. He also has a new song on the Arctic Tale soundtrack called "If You Took To Me" and you can hear a sample of it in iTunes.
I saw him live in Burlington this past December and he was awesome (the picture is from the show). It was funny watching the Interface videos because that was the day after the concert in Burlington and I'm pretty sure he's wearing the same clothes. And if you read item #5 on the list of Five Things About Matt Costa, it all becomes clear why he's wearing the same clothes.
So there you go. Now you're all familiar with the guy behind Unfamiliar Faces.
Update: The release date for Unfamiliar Faces has been pushed back to January 15th. D'oh!
Update #2: Check out some of the new songs Matt's been previewing at his recent shows.