Matthew Good is a Canadian singer-songwriter and was the lead vocalist for Matthew Good Band. In the years since the Matthew Good Band's disbanding, Good has pursued a solo career and established himself as a political activist and blogger.
Good released his solo debut, Avalanche, in 2003. The album featured major stylistic differences from those recorded with the previous band, and featured the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on several tracks, including the first two singles, "Weapon" and "In a World Called Catastrophe". Good recorded the album with long-time MGB producer Warne Livesey, who earned a Juno nomination for the effort.
Good's second solo album, the politically-charged White Light Rock & Roll Review, was released in 2004. Video singles included "Alert Status Red" and "It's Been a While Since I Was Your Man". Good encountered controversy with the video for "Alert Status Red". Initially, the video was intended to be a concept piece, directed by Good. However, upon entering the editing stage, he realized he hadn't shot enough footage to make his concept work. He opted to turn all of the footage over to Kyle Davison, who directed the video for "In a World Called Catastrophe", to see if anything could be made out of it. Davison came up with his own concept, edited it together, and sent the finished product to Good. Good approved of the video, and made it available for download on his website. Good, however, was unaware that Davison had utilized several short clips of surveillance footage of the Columbine High School shootings in the piece. Upon hearing about the clips from individuals who felt the use was insensitive, Good pulled the video from his website. After watching it again, he decided to enlist the opinions of others, including MuchMusic, to see if they had any objections. Most felt it was reasonable, granted that the use wasn't exploitative and helped to support the message of the video, a message that they believed was decidedly relevant. Good agreed and returned the video to his website and expressed his support for the work of his co-director.
In April 2005, he entered the studio and recorded two tracks for the Matthew Good best-of, "Big City Life" and "Oh Be Joyful". A compilation of Good's work with the Matthew Good Band as well as his solo material was released in September 2005, titled In a Coma: Matthew Good 1995-2005. The first single from the album, "Oh Be Joyful", was released at the end of July.
Good channeled the emotional turmoil into his next album, 2007's Hospital Music. The album included thinly-veiled allusions to his divorce as well as darker subjects, such as Good's close friend Rod Bruno losing his father to cancer. The album also featured two cover songs, a radically reworked version of the Dead Kennedys' "Moon Over Marin" and Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You in the End". The album's first single "Born Losers" was also a success, peaking at #27 on the Canadian Hot 100. The album debuted at the top of the Canadian albums chart, Good's first number one album since Beautiful Midnight and marked the end of his recording and publishing contracts.
In October 2009, Vancouver was released on October 6, 2009. For about a month prior to its release, the album was made available on his website for free streaming, stating a desire to make his music as accessible as possible.The first single from the album is "Last Parade." The album won for "Rock Album of the Year" and marked the second time Good won the award. He first won the category with the Matthew Good Band in 2000 with Beautiful Midnight.
Good released his fifth album as a solo artist, Lights of Endangered Species in May 2011.