Of Moles and Cardinals: The Richard Davies & Eric Matthews Experience

Online since June 1, 1998



Welcome to Of Moles and Cardinals, your source for news and information on those twin musical wonders known as Richard Davies and Eric Matthews. To get started, click on one of the links below to transport you to a different region of the Richard Davies/Eric Matthews universe...



RICHARD AND ERIC's MYSPACE PAGES UP! CARDINAL REUNION OFF! AND ERIC ENTERS "THE IMAGINATION STAGE"!


(1/14/09): For once, Richard Davies has something new going on, so we'll start the "update" (if you can call these horribly out-of-date news items to be "updates") with him. Richard has a new MySpace page. There. That's it. No new album or anything. Sorry. But there is a new song from Guns N' Richard's long-delayed epic, "Tonight's Music," on the page, so it's a start.

Not to be outdone, Eric also has his own MySpace page. Oh, and what update would be complete without the acknowledgement of the most recent EM CD, which in this case is 2008's "The Imagination Stage." On it, Eric rediscovers strings! Yay! Here's what Denise Sullivan of Crawdaddy had to say about the CD:

Hearing Eric Matthews for the first time was one of those unforgettable, frozen in time moments for me: It was 1995, I was in England and in a dance club in Northampton. Or maybe it was Wolverhampton. Okay, so maybe I've forgotten some of the details but they aren't as important as the music, which I remember first hearing in a discotheque. As I walked across the dance floor the DJ cross-faded into the opening notes of the perfectly titled "Fanfare”, which opens with a conquistador's trumpet. I was struck dumb in my tracks as the song's atmosphere unfolded to include careful orchestration and Matthews's subdued vocal, beckoning me to come in just a little bit closer. Now I'm lucky the club was nearly empty, because the piece of music evoked such a theatrical response from me that I proceeded to play out a mime routine. First I looked upward, in an effort to ascertain if I had died and gone to heaven. I then looked side to side, maybe did a 360, trying to figure out where the angelic sounds were coming from and, finally, located a DJ booth. The reason I mention any of this is that I'm usually the one who likes to stay cool but I became so undone by Matthews's music that it sparked a pantomime...

["The Imagination Stage" opens] with the woozy yet well-painted "Well Known Liar", I'm reminded of all the things that grabbed me about "Fanfare": the layered production and the melody and arrangement that tips its hat to jazzy '60s pop, while the whisper of a vocal borders on sounding like an afterthought (not in a bad way). "That Kiss of Life" bears more telltale evidence of modernity than the first track with its electronics and synthetics on the surface, but fused to its breezy retro melody, it could be mistaken for a Burt Bacharach/Hal David outtake. Further blending points of reference: Matthews sounds English (which may explain the Scotsman in Wolverhampton cottoning on to him from the beginning), though he was born in South Central Los Angeles and he has roots in '60s and '70s R&B that show through. And then there are those odd jazz shapes that radiate throughout the album.

 And so on. I put that excerpt up in lieu of actual EM press, which Eric does not seem to have done for this record. He also has slowed down on answering your official EM website guestbook posts, though he does still weigh in every now and then. I'm still archiving his past posts, by the way, so there's another updated thing for you all.

Finally, in the time that it took me to update this site, Richard and Eric evidently reunited as Cardinal, recorded three songs, and then broke up again. No word on whether or not these tracks will surface anywhere. In other words, no "Cardinal II: Orchestral Boogaloo" is on the horizon.

And now if you'll excuse me, it's time for another three-year vacation from this website. Check out the updated discography at the bottom of the page. And the link to that mysterious "semi-official" RD site even further below. Cheerio!

(10/28/06): Last time I updated this site, Eric had a new album out...and now he's at it again! This time, it's a 17-track opus called "Foundation Sounds," available wherever good music is sold. Though it might be difficult to find amongst all those adjacent Dave Matthews releases.

There's a 5-track EP out there as well, making it 22 new EM songs in general release.

In other news, the Cardinal reissue (with bonus tracks, including the entire "Toy Bell" EP) has now been out for over a year, some lost EM Christmas songs were briefly put up on the Empyrean Records site late last year and Richard's "Tonight's Music" is still nowhere to be found. The discography (link at bottom) has been updated to reflect some of this activity.

Why not all of it? Because me lazy.

But no so lazy that I haven't been able to compile almost all of EM's guestbook musings into one convenient MS Word file. Now you have no excuse for not knowing exactly what Eric thought of Luther Vandross' funeral!

(3/5/05) More info on the new Eric Matthews CD can be found at the official Eric Matthews website. In particular, check out the guestbook, which has all sorts of tidbits from Eric himself. Eric clears up one point of confusion: the conflicting release dates stem from the different shipping dates for independent record stores/online retailers (available for purchase on the 1st) and retail chains (the 8th.) At the same time, he adds to the confusion by writing about the non-U.S. versions of the CD, which will contain one or two bonus tracks. (My previous entry has been updated to reflect this new information.) Eric also talks about why the CD's running time is so short (it's a marketing decision by the record company), offers up a tentative release date for the Cardinal reissue (summer 2005) and floats the idea of a 'rarities' CD to the assembled guestbook-signers. So by all means, check it out.

(3/4/05) Eric Matthews' first album in eight years was released on March 1st. It's called Six Kinds of Passion In Search of an Exit (a Twilight Zone reference, perhaps -- "The Lateness of the Hour" also derives its title from a TZ episode) and has been issued on Empyrean Records. Here's the tracklisting:

1. Worthy
2. So Overblown
3. Cardinal Is More
4. Underground Song
5. Do You Really Want It
6. You Will Be Happy
7. Black To Light Brown Sea
8. The Big Side of You (UK/Japanese bonus track)
9. So Clean (Japanese bonus track)

Here is a recent Billboard story on the new album. Note the update on the Cardinal reissue and an intriguing throwaway comment about Matthews' future plans. The article says March 8th is the release date, but CD Universe and ICE magazine beg to differ, so majority rules.

After spending almost a decade out of sight, pop craftsman Eric Matthews will re-emerge this spring with a long-awaited new album and a lost classic.

On March 8, Matthews will release "Six Kinds of Passion Looking for an Exit," his first solo album since 1997's "The Lateness of the Hour," via Wishing Tree Records' Empyrean imprint. And in May, Empyrean also plans to reissue the self-titled release from Cardinal, Matthews' 1994 collaboration with Australian singer/songwriter Richard Davies.

The seven-track "Six Kinds of Passion," which features Matthews playing almost all the instruments, doesn't include the lush strings and arrangements of his two previous outings for Sub Pop, but the intricate, Brian Wilson-style compositions remain.

The album took extra time to develop after some of Matthews' recordings for a planned third album were bootlegged. He also held out hope he'd have the budget to once again orchestrate his songs. In the meantime, the artist made occasional guest spots on records by Tahiti 80 and Ivy principal Andy Chase's Brookville project.

Finally, "enough years had passed, and the right person came along and seemed to believe in me, and believe in this set of songs enough, that I was able to suck it up and make this record," Matthews tells Billboard.com. "And I'm happy with the result."

One of the new songs is "Cardinal Is More," which discusses Matthews' estrangement from Davies and confesses, "You said I hated you / but it just wasn't true." Their album together as Cardinal won critical raves for its orchestral pop, but Matthews and Davies fell out after its release and haven't worked together since.

But Matthews says after he and Davies regained ownership of the album last year, a reissue "couldn't happen if Richard and I were still strangers." After the ice was broken, "lots of good phone conversations and friendly e-mails" have resulted, and the two are even contemplating a future collaboration.

One thing Matthews hasn't reconciled himself to, however, is touring. He hasn't planned any shows in support of his new album, preferring to follow the example of studio-bound influences like Wilson and XTC. "They were like extra heroes to me," he says, "because they just stayed home."

Matthews' own studio archives, meanwhile, will be raided for the Cardinal re-release, which will feature 11 bonus tracks appended to the original 10-song running order. Included will be the contents of the long out-of-print "Toy Bell" EP, as well as some unreleased material.

"There are a couple of things I discovered," Matthews says, "that are just mind-blowing."

-Dan Leroy

 NEWS: (2/3/05): No real news to report, except to note that Rare and Weird never did come out on vinyl. You can only buy it with the Moles' On The Street 2 CD set.

(10/10/03) Comprehensive discography finally up (go to the bottom section of this page.)

(8/21/03) Much in the same way that celebrity deaths are purported to happen in threes, good news for Richard Davies fans is coming forth in triplicate. First up: a 2-CD compilation of pre-Instinct Moles material entitled On the Street, is in stores now on Wishing Tree Records, the new custodian of Davies' back catalog. The first disc will consist of songs from Untune The Sky and the What's The New Mary Jane EP. Disc 2 will be a 9-song selection of rarities and unreleased tracks. Here's a track listing, kindly provided by Wishing Tree publicity man David Silva:

CD1

1. Whats The New Mary Jane
2. This Is a Happy Garden
3. Bury Me Happy
4. Curdle
5. Lonely Hearts Get What They Deserve
6. Lets Hook Up and Get Some
7. Wires
8. Crown Souls
9. Accidental Saint
10. Saint Jack
11. Tendrils and Paracetamol
12. Breathe Me In

CD2 "Rare and Weird"

1. Bury Me Happy (early version)
2. Flex
3. Drink Talking
4. With Body Wifes Seven Days
5. Untune The Sky
6. Surf's Up
7. Europe By Car (different version)
8. We Need an Electric Guitar
9. Mystery Song

For those of you who already own Untune The Sky and Mary Jane, you needn't worry: the Rare and Weird portion will be released separately on vinyl.

In newer new news, Davies is finishing up his fourth solo record, "Tonight's Music", set for release early in 2004. At least one live show is on the itinerary, as Davies will be opening for Guided by Voices when they come to Northhampton, MA. More dates will be announced soon.

Rounding out this trilogy of exciting news is the announcement that the self-titled Cardinal record will be re-released in a "deluxe" format. Presumably that means that the very rare, long out of print Toy Bell EP will be appended to this classic, if nothing else. Don't know for sure, however. Expect it to reappear in stores sometime next year.

(thanks to David Silva for the info)

(8/7/03) It's the year 2003, and everything's going out of print. Davies' old label, Flydaddy, is no more, taking with it the Cardinal record, both Moles records, and his first two solo albums. Barbarians is still available, but only through the Kindercore Records website and online in mp3 format through emusic.com. His official Flydaddy and Kindercore websites have been taken down, leading me to wonder if maybe he really has gone back to practing law (as suggested by this interview .) Actually, his old Flydaddy site leads to something called Becky's Free Live Cam. Becky, you see, is a 19-year old student (presumably in college), and she likes to "show off her webcam" (I assume she's showing off stuff recorded with the camera, and not the actual camera itself) at AmateurGirls.TV when her folks aren't at home. Oh, that naughty Becky!

By contrast, pretty much everything Eric has done is still in print (in both CD and vinyl formats, no less), though Sub Pop's online store has stopped selling the Fanfare single. That eternally forthcoming third record of his is, ahem, still forthcoming.

Also, if the signature is to be believed, Eric has signed this site's guestbook. No doubt he took a look around and was impressed by the site's out-of-date content. My thanks to Mr. Matthews for stopping by and seeing how a professional website is not done.

OLDER NEWS: Richard Davies' latest album Barbarians (CD/LP) may still be in a store near you! But not bloody likely. Also out: the Flydaddy reissue of The Moles' Untune The Sky (CD only) with all the material from the What's The New Mary Jane double 7-inch tacked on as bonus tracks! See if you can hunt down a copy! Davies' cover of Band Aid's "Feed The World" is on the Kindercore Records holiday/Christmas album Christmas Two, available for online download at emusic.com. Two can play the covering game, however, as Eric Matthews' cover of "Lonely Sea" is on Caroline Now!, a Brian Wilson tribute album released back on August 22, 2000.