Interview: Matt Scottoline of Hurry talks about covering Weezer and what’s in his fridge

At this time last week, Matt Scottoline was playing in a Weezer cover band with members of Bleeding Rainbow and Blowdryer. Not because he didn’t have anything better to do than spoon down Little Baby’s Ice Cream and practice “My Name is Jonas” a bunch of times. (But that does sound like a delightful life…) His real band Hurry, which features members of Philly rock panjandrums (look it up!) Univox and Psychic Teens, released its second record Everything / Nothing this Tuesday on Hot Green Records. You can buy and listen to the feedback and fuzz here.  The trio also made time to record a Space Jam Session of album single “Oh Whitney,” which you can check out below. I caught up with Matt over email and asked him some weird questions about stuff that anyone would find interesting, like, for example, the contents of his fridge. Here are the fun results:

The Key: What’s the deal with Say It Ain’t Froyo – did you guys break up? Why are there no more concerts coming up? I’m your number 1 fan!

Matt Scottoline: Unfortunately, we are on hiatus. Actually, I don’t know why there are no more concerts scheduled. Was the show good? It took me a lot of time to learn those guitar solos, and I only got to play them publicly once! But I would really love to do it again. If you’re reading this, and want a bunch of idiots to play the entire Blue Album by Weezer, let me know. Any time.

TK: Where is your favorite place to play in Philly?

MS: The first place that comes to mind is the Golden Tea House. It has just always been a very positive, warm, and enthusiastic experience for our band playing there. It sounds cliche, but the DIY shows are always more fun. That isn’t to say playing places like Union Transfer or Johnny Brenda’s aren’t fun – we’ve had amazing experiences there as well. But somewhere like Golden Tea House, or the First Unitarian Church just feels more real and representative of our band. We sound better when we’re loud. A lot of times, the “real” venues don’t want that. That’s not a complaint. Just a fact. We aren’t complainers. [Writer’s note: This is a fact.]

TK: Who has been your favorite person to interview on your WKDU radio show?

MS: The most thrilling was interviewing Ira Kaplan (of Yo La Tengo). He’s a person who is on my short list of musical idols, and being able to talk to him one-on-one for 45 minutes was really great. There’s always a lot of fear for me in meeting someone I respect or admire, because it’s always difficult to live up to an expectation, and you don’t want your feelings on their art or whatever spoiled by that. But he was a really wonderful guy. Yo La Tengo forever.

TK: Name three items in your fridge you would recommend to everyone.

MS: Hummus is important to me. I eat hummus for a meal almost every day. I’m also vegan. I don’t know if those things correlate. I’m also lazy. They probably correlate. I recently started buying almond butter, which feels luxurious and scary, but I think it’s worth it. And tortillas. They are good vessels for both of those things. And other things. This feels like a weird answer.

TK: What’s your favorite bar in Philly?

MS: If I’m going to a bar, I enjoy going to Lloyd in Fishtown, since it’s around the corner from my house. Proximity is another thing that is important to me.

TK: What’s a record that means something very different to you now than it did 10 years ago?

MS: That’s a tough question. Maybe “Band on the Run.” 10 years ago I didn’t care at all. Thought it was “dad music.” But now I absolutely love it. That’s true of almost all Beatles records for me really, though. As a kid and teenager, I had your typical insane amount of exposure to the Beatles. I liked it, but I didn’t care. The older I get, and the more songwriting I do, the more I appreciate those records.

Hurry play with Neighbors and Blowdryer this Saturday, October 11 at Hazzard Hall.