Why hello there, NYC

We're heading into the city tomorrow night to see Matt Nathanson in concert. I CANNOT WAIT!

This will be the third time I've seen him live. I've gushed about his music repeatedly, but really. He is just so very talented: upbeat songs that have you tapping your foot, no matter what your mood is; insightful, clever, and emotionally-charged lyrics; quiet songs that touch the deepest parts of you, equally heartbreaking and hope-filled.

His first big label album is Beneath These Fireworks. If you're looking to start at the beginning, I recommend starting here. He has several earlier albums but a lot of them are the same songs recycled from one album to the next and almost all of the best ones are on Beneath These Fireworks in what I feel is their best versions (with the exception of some really excellent stripped down live acoustic versions I've heard of a few of the songs). In any case, I fell in love with Matt on this album. Really great, insightful lyrics backed by solid music.

After that came Some Mad Hope. OH MY GOD HOW I LOVE THIS ALBUM. I wrote this about it in '08 when it came out: "I'm *madly* in love with Matt Nathanson's latest CD, Some Mad Hope. I can't recommend it enough. Great melodies, Matt's enjoyable everyman voice and clever lyrics that are swelled with hope even as they're prodding at those bruised places inside you."  The song Sooner Surrender is one of my all time faves to this day. Even if you didn't buy the album, you might recognize the song Come On Get Higher. It got a loooooooooooot of air time.

Matt is touring now to promote his latest album, Modern Love. It's a great album and I definitely recommend giving it a sample on Amazon or iTunes. There are some really great songs on it. Two, in particular--Kept and Kiss Quick--absolutely kill me. And he's got this great rock song called Mercy. Like I said, it's a great album.

I'll stop my fangushing now and leave you with this video of Matt performing his current single, Faster (a fun sexy song), on Conan earlier this week.