Matthew Sweet w/Richard Lloyd - Someone To Pull The Trigger - 93 MTV 120 Minutes

Excellent performance of Matthew and his '93 band, with some very fine playing by Richard Lloyd during this period.

[@CSGPhotos]

This song still comes up out of the blue and hits me in 2024.

[@robrob1723]

Richard Lloyd can turn this Sweet ballad into a rocking tune . Just fucking brilliance

[@cloudbudget]

Wow is Richard Lloyd uniquely awesome!! His style goes so well with Matthew Sweet's compositions. It's not easy to have a recognizable style at the top of a profession. Thank you Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Sweet.

[@andrewessig5356]

Achingly beautiful song, and incredible performance here. Sweet is such an underrated rock/pop artist.

[@randychepigan5861]

This song represents the only time I ever lent a girl an album and was goofy enough to ask her to listen on one track specifically. Almost 25 years later, we're still married, so I guess she did.

[@dougsmith7083]

Hopefully Matthew has seen this...I'm sure that he would be pleased that two people were brought together from his working out the deep pain of his relationship ending

[@carmenlawson3990]

What a lovely story, I went to high school with him in Nebraska. : )

[@edscerbo]

❤

[@walterrizotto8668]

Wonderful!

[@scottyb7979]

Such a powerful song. Never gets old.

[@nickfanzo]

richard lloyd laying down the law. great guitarist and teacher.

[@dougsmith7083]

Great guy too

[@TheMarkness99]

@@dougsmith7083 On all counts.

[@joederbesy9796]

Love Lloyd. What a maniac

[@TR-yi8up]

I know Sick of Myself got some airplay and sales, but how did the world seem to not notice how goddamn amazing this guy was in his prime? Just the fact that Lloyd and Quine were on board should have told us all enough.

[@wingracer1614]

Girlfriend was his biggest hit. Still gets played on the radio and in stadiums today. Plus guitar hero gave it a boost. I've been waiting also got some airplay from that album. This album had Time Capsule as the closest thing to a hit. Got some limited airplay on MTV. Possibly my favorite song ever. After this Sick of Myself got a little traction. Blue Sky on Mars has songs that pop up in the weirdest places. For instance I often hear Come to California played as an intro or outro to California NASCAR races on TV. Then In Reverse is one of the best albums ever made by anyone anywhere at any time. Yet no one outside of a few diehard fans seems to know it even exists. But what do you mean "in his prime"? The guy is still making great music today.

[@shadowknight9807]

Agreed - he gets some of the best guitarists around him. I love the assortment of great guitarists on "Sunshine Lies". Once again, Richard Lloyd, but also Greg Leisz and Ivan Julian. Julian does some pretty bizarre stuff. I listened to that album over 100 times!

[@TR-yi8up]

@@wingracer1614 eh, I can’t say he’s making anything on par with his early 90’s stuff. I enjoy the covers with Susanna, but it’s not reinventing the wheel or anything. Since you seem to be a big fan, and I know next to nothing about him outside of the music, but how is his health? I got a little concerned recently watching some of his newish videos (this is sincerely not me wanting to dig on the guy or anything)

[@TR-yi8up]

@@shadowknight9807 not sure if you know Terry Reid, but this is some great, old footage of Greg playing in Terry’s band kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYqQqmqXd8aCbsU

[@wingracer1614]

@@TR-yi8up Yeah he has gotten huge in recent years and I don't mean his sales unfortunately. And while I agree the first half of the 90s gave us his best work, there is great stuff after that. I still say In Reverse (1999) is a masterpiece. The greatest hits album in 2000 had two new and fantastic songs on it. His collaboration with Mullins and Droge The Thorns (2003) is excellent. Kimi Ga Suki (2003) is quite good. Since then he's gone a bit weird. Definitely not for everyone but worth a listen, there are some gems in there

[@stewtube1]

Maybe just once I'll hear this song without crying my eyes out, but judging by my track record with it, that's not likely to ever happen. True emotion and lyrical brilliance. Classic example of powerfully superb song writing. I can't say enough about what a timeless keeper this is and what a shame it is that more people have never heard it. I applaud any of you out there who's had the great fortune to experience such a wonderful poetic treasure, and share with you the melting effect that it has on the heart. Thank you Matthew for exposing your heart so transparently and I believe the sincerity in every last word you're delivering here. It's not too hard to see that you wrote it from true first hand experience, and I'd venture to say judging by its perfection that the song practically wrote itself.

[@dangiela13]

Plus Devil with the green eyes/my hymn and Thought I knew you ..uff..chillis and onions combo, Niagara falls..all at once..

[@nokie2]

These are my feelings as well about "Someone to Pull the Trigger". One of the greatest love songs ever written. Sweet writes great tunes fer sure but I like his ballads best. This one is at the top of the heap.

[@SingleMalt77005]

Agree 100%

[@bvaljalo]

I saw him on this tour, as well as GF and 100% Fun ... all at small clubs in SF. Slim's, at least of two of the times forget where the other one was offhand ... 1991-1995 I was way into Matthew. And the Pumpkins. And Soundgarden and PJ and Nirvana and NIN and Teenage Fanclub and My Bloody Valentine and ... well ... lets just say that was a golden era for grunge, power-pop, and general guitar rock of the non-hair-band variety ...

[@edscerbo]

❤

[@donramonito]

Superb Matthew Sweet song. They were at the top of their game with this song and when Altered beast was released.

[@dancher7640]

Hard to choose but probably my favourite MS song.

[@KevKavanagh]

That's...just...something else! Was witness to a number of shows on the Australian tour by this lineup in August '96. Can't remember Lloyd playing a chord, he just soloed over every song...because he could...and it was glorious!!!

[@maggieo]

Matt + Richard = magic.

[@jpc443]

Spine tingling! Absolutely stunning! ♥️

[@ikkenhisatsu7170]

Man, Matthew Sweet did some incredible records back then. Amazing combination of pop melodies and adult music.

[@michaelgraham9774]

Richard was in top form here.

[@gtf2648]

Girlfriend, Beast, Fun, Mars, etc ALL are frickin great albums. I can't go 2 days without listening to Matthew Sweet. His music puts me in a good mood.

[@joepaul1644]

You have company there.

[@richalderson6069]

One of Matthew Sweet's top 5 songs for sure. A classic.

[@exexalien]

Happy 20th birthday Altered Beast! Just finished listening to it for the first time in a quite a while, great album full of amazing guitar work by Lloyd as well as the late Robert Quine. Nice to see this for the first time after listening to the album, much appreciated, thank you!

[@mikhorstman]

Excellent version of his band, great song, great peformance

[@jmarshall70]

i really like the mood of this live version

[@robertfergison9921]

I wore that out back then. Such a great collection of tunes./

[@tamoore77]

beautifully played

[@princesskami666ify]

Haven't we all felt this way before? Great playing and singing... perfect!

[@speculawyer]

Altered Beast was Matthew's 2nd best after Girlfriend, IMHO. Love this song. Richard Lloyd really was key to Matthew's success .. . good combo of his writing and Richard's shredding.

[@DaveAnchovies]

I think Altered Beast blows away Girlfriend. Way more consistent.

[@leebarbie]

Will Rigby from The dB's on drums.

[@carmenlawson3990]

It is SO lovely to see nice comments about my past school mate... Rock on Matt

[@ayngemac]

I love this song.

[@shawnfloyd6542]

Word !

[@aaaaaa-dr9ye]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@bluecloudrevs6383]

💚💚💚🌎🌍🌏

[@jordimateubartroli951]

You need to read Richard Lloyd's memoirs: Everything Is Combustible. Maybe you don't know, but you need it.

[@martyfour]

tasty tasty tasty it's all tasty

[@duffbaker9554]

Does anyone know who the bassist is here?

[@jbrophy4539]

Duff Baker Believe Tony Marsico

[@KevKavanagh]

Correct

[@andresalvarado3319]

❤🩷💕❤💜🤎🩷

[@bluecloudrevs6383]

Is that it?

[@user-nu3du9ty5s]

This comment is in response to many others I've read... For the record, Robert Quine was no slouch on lead guitar (far from it), and he had such a huge impact on early Matthew Sweet recordings and live performances, which were cut short by his suicide. Richard Lloyd was good (kinda lazy in this performance), but he was no Robert Quine. He knew it, Matthew knew it, and anyone who knows anything about music, knows it!

[@brianritchie8146]

What a silly comment. Both equally and immeasurably great.

[@BrianTKessler]

@@brianritchie8146 You know who else was a good musician? That bass player from the Violent Femmes.

[@jameskaihatu6209]

Neither Quine nor Lloyd were in Sweet's band by the time Quine died, so this comment is quite wrong (Lloyd appeared on one other album in 2008). In fact, Quine had repudiated Sweet publicly for not hiring him for "Blue Sky On Mars," while Lloyd understood (according to his website) that Sweet wanted to handle a lot of the guitar work himself (in fact some of the guitar solos on "100% Fun" were Sweet's). Pitting one guitarist directly against another is also silly and reveals you know very little about how a hired-gun guitarist is still expected to fit into a band, so the remainder of your comment is nonsensical.

[@slowuncle]

@@jameskaihatu6209 Yes, thank you. Both great guitarists: music is not a zero-sum cage match ffs.