Matt Costa Overload This Week

HEADS UP
Matt Costa @ Fingerprints Records, Long Beach Tues 1/22
Matt Costa @ Active Westwood Thurs 1/24
Matt Costa @ Troubadour Sat 2/1
Matt Costa @ Troubadour Sun 2/2

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Is it a help or hinderence that Matt Costa’s pro skateboarding past is invoked to help package his music? Why pigeonhole him to a small subculture when he has an appeal broad enough for the masses? Case in point, his in-store this Thursday at Active Ride Shop in Westwood. Great chance to see him for free, up close, but might not be doing his career any favors. The Huntington Beach-based half Porteugese singer-songwriter’s new album, Unfamiliar Faces (out today), is damn good and a breezy listen, nary a dud tune on it. There is a solid foundation of 70′s AOR along the lines of fellow artists with Southland ties, Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman. I daresay it sounds more of an “LA record” in the classic sense than, say, Weirdo Rippers. But this is not necessarily stuff you’d expect to hear when browsing decks at Active. Then again, maybe it’s a good thing for those Active kids to get their ears around something that isn’t the usual sub-Linkin Park rap-metal.