Matador Records has shared the spoof kids' TV show, What's Up Matador, that accompanied the 1997 double CD/LP compilation of the same title. While the audio component of the bundle--which featured cuts from Spoon, Pavement, Cat Power, Superchunk and Guided By Voices among others--has garnered a cult status among collectors, the Bill Boggs-hosted infomercial-esque show featuring cameos from Liz Phair, Jon Spencer and Yo La Tengo members among others has only made its way to the Internet now. Watch below.
The video was written and directed by Chavez guitarist and Silicon Valley castmember Clay Tarver and featured a fake interview with Liz Phair, a theremin demonstration from Jon Spencer, a pedalboard lesson from Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan, and an illustrated history of the label by Railroad Jerk's Marcellus Hall among other cameos, music videos and overall goofy '90s television fodder.
According to Pitchfork, when the label hired the actual TV host Bill Boggs to host the show they failed to mention it was satire. The video was filmed in front of a live studio audience of elementary school children in New Jersey, Stereogum reports. The result is something similar to Comedy Bang Bang!
Clocking in at just under 27 minutes long, the one-episode spoof show was only available on VHS, and was therefore essentially "lost," until now. The video was shared alongside the launch of the label's new website, This Day In Matador, which chronicles the imprint's 27 year long history.
Apparently the video's first release got lost in the mail for many at first due to an error at the VHS plant. In a recent interview, label co-founder Gerard Cosloy explained: "The video duplication company that was in charge of manufacturing and packaging the VHS tapes was also handling the Michael Flatley Lord of the Dance videos, which were very very popular, he sold hundreds of thousands of those-God knows to who.There was a manufacturing error, and I don't know exactly how many, but a good portion of the early shipments of What's Up, Matador, people got their videocassettes, put them in their VCRs, and instead of seeing Bill Boggs, Ira Kaplan and Liz Phair, they were seeing Michael Flatley dance routines," Dangerous Minds reports.
