The duo of Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet may be the perfect assimilation of vocal chops and instrumental savvy, as shown on a pair of recent albums titled Under The Covers (Shout! Factory), with volume one re-examining big hits from the ’60s and volume two tackling the ’70s. The track record for Hoffs and Sweet speaks for itself. Hoffs’ band, the Bangles, was the only member of the hallowed Paisley Underground scene to sell more than a handful of records, cracking the national top-30 no fewer than eight times from 1986-89. Sweet’s breakthrough album was 1991’s Girlfriend, which paved the way for later power-pop classics like Altered Beast and 100{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191} Fun. The pair plans to take an acoustic version of their Under The Covers act on the road in September, but in the meantime is guest editing magnetmagazine.com all this week. Read our Q&A with them.
Matthew Sweet: So unbelievably cool, even though we really know so little about it. I love that new explosions are just visible here after happening billions of years ago across space and time. I never forget that we are all infinitely tiny and insignificant. It is a great feeling to accept this truth, and it kinda takes all the pressure off a little old human like me. We’re spared for the time being, but the Earth will, in fact, fall into the sun. I love the book The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. I like when the time traveller is in the future where (when?) all that he’s known is gone. Grim but cool.
