Photo by Peter Seay
Matt F. Basler
In order to get a sense of how Matt F. Basler spends a week, we asked that he verbally provide a list of his activities and projects. While he makes it through a good half-dozen different involvements, he doesn’t tick off every one of them at first, leading to a few follow-up prompts; that’s not surprising considered the pace of his varied interests. We’re not even sure this list is comprehensive. Apologies for anything missed. Here we go...
He plays bass in a rock ’n’ roll band called Tok, which he and his brother Bryan founded when they were tweens. He’s also the drummer of Middle Class Fashion, a more recently joined group, while holding down bass for the Beastie Boys tribute act My Posse in Effect. He hosts a popular trivia night at Main & Mill Brewing in Festus. He runs a business called Basler Screen Printing, which specializes in, as you may guess, screen printing. He hosts the Matt F. Basler podcast, the only appropriate person for that job. He creates promo videos for his own musical projects and those of others. He also writes and records music under his own name, Matt F. Basler.
The latter’s important this week, as he’ll be playing a show at the Grove’s lil’ Bootleg, joined by Boreal Hills and Pono AM for Matt F. Basler’s Cassette Tape Download Code Release Show. As the name suggests, the Friday show will see the very literal release of a cassette tape featuring a download code, though even that doesn’t do full justice to the brilliant absurdity of what the namesake’s up to with this release of his EP Anything Can Be a Song. Cassettes will feature Basler reading you release codes. Unless they don’t; there will be ringers in the bunch. Your cassette may, for example, send you to a local business; that’s where you’d pick up the download code. Or the cassette, itself, may yield clues, some so cleverly embedded that you’ll be driven to the edge of madness.
You can also skip all of that and just buy the album online for $500.
“The idea was spawned from seeing people put out music on antiquated technology, on tape or vinyl or whatever,” he says. “I think that’s sort of funny, so I thought ‘I’m going to make this even harder for you, make it as difficult as possible for the listener.’ How many steps could there be before you get this music? In this world of convenience, let’s go the complete opposite way with it.”
And here’s where the simple, yet expensive, option’s available.
“It’ll be on Bandcamp exclusively for a little while,” he says. “Eventually, it’ll be free everywhere. But at this time, the price point’s $500. Eventually, it’ll reach the price point of $250, which is a steep discount.”
The six songs for the project, well, he undersells them as only he can. After pondering whether or not the phrase “power pop” still has descriptive power, he tackles the EP’s meaning in a unique manner.
“There’s nothing special about them,” he says, pondering the release’s six songs. “I probably shouldn’t say that. I wrote songs that I like, I guess. They feel good together. Seems like they’d hang out. Part of what I’ve been trying to do is get a collection of music up as fast as possible. I do so many things that are Matt F. Basler–related that people don’t always know what I’m talking about. This might not give them a clear indication. And people haven’t really been asking for this music. But this musical part of Matt F. Basler I want as a full band. I won’t be playing these at acoustic shows or anything. Technically, it’ll be a full band, Matt F. Basler.”
And it’ll be a full band playing the tracks at the release show this weekend. He’s got goals beyond this one, including one show that’s so intricate, we won’t go into the details here, though we will tease that he imagines wearing a shock collar for the event, with all audiences able to access an app. Your imagination can sort out the rest.
Basler says that “I have a friend who says it’s possible,” referencing such a person as a friend. Demented. Delightful.
There’s also a special coming to Off Broadway, in which he’ll revisit the idea of playing the rock radio staple “Smooth,” this time for 20-straight plays.
“We did it 10 times and now, for the 20th anniversary, we’ll do it 20 times,” he says of the June 15 show. “To me, I’ve proven that I’m committed to the joke. Now I’m really just testing everyone else’s commitment to it.”
First comes his own release show. Asked to help contextualize the event, Basler’s game.
“It really depends on what you value more,” Basler says. “The album’s there for $500, or you can possibly run around the city on a scavenger hunt. It’s all about what’s more valuable to you. People have been pretty nice about this, though it’s a hard thing to message. I don’t want to trick anybody. I want everyone to know there’s no music on this tape. I mean, this music could’ve have been put out normally, they’re good songs. But music can be an opportunity to do something that’s a bit more fun, silly, over-the-top, whatever. I like to do silly, fun things, and I like jokes. I like that the more people who can hear the joke, the more fun it is and a music release is a chance to involve more people in on the joke.”
A couple of folks will get outsized versions of this joke, as noted. One will involve an intricate website prank, another an actual cassette itself. To say any more would be to destroy these particular gags, which are quite detailed, indeed.
“I think there was a point in time where if you were a serious musician, you couldn’t be a funny guy,” he adds. “People would present themselves as serious musicians all the time. The internet allows you to see more, that people are multifaceted. Maybe Black Sabbath put out some funny songs, but they had to look like Black Sabbath all the time. The internet now allows you to be whatever you want to be.”
For more on Matt F. Basler (and the F. stands for Felix), you can listen to the recently recorded edition of Shane Presley’s prolific Rock Paper Podcast.
