Load Me Up Explained

Load Me Up
Cover:Matthew_Good_Band_Load_Me_Up.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Matthew Good Band
Album:Beautiful Midnight
Released:December 1999
Recorded:1999
Genre:Alternative rock
Length:3:40
Label:Universal Music Canada (Canada)
Atlantic Records (US)
Producer:Warne Livesey
Prev Title:Hello Time Bomb
Prev Year:1999
Next Title:Strange Days
Next Year:2000

"Load Me Up" is a song by Canadian rock group Matthew Good Band. The song was released as the second single from the band's third studio album, Beautiful Midnight. The song reached No. 1 on Canada's Rock chart,[1] and continues to be one of the band's most popular songs. The song is featured on the MuchMusic compilation album, Big Shiny Tunes 5. The song was ranked No. 1 by Vice on their “Completely Biased Ranking of the 60 Best CanRock Songs Ever” list.[2] In 2016, Good released a re-recorded version of the song on his EP, I Miss New Wave: Beautiful Midnight Revisited. Between 1995 and 2016, "Load Me Up" was the ninth most played song by a Canadian artist on rock radio stations in Canada.[3]

Music video

The music video features a dream sequence of all four band members being chased by several school uniformed students. The band runs up the stairs to the roof of a building and jump off the roof into a body of water, to which all the students follow. As they continue to run away in the water, everyone of the band members are tackled into the water one by one by the students. As Good is tackled, the video then cuts to Good sliding into a rain-soaked soccer field. As he gets up, he sees the students at the other side of the field taunting him. One student (the same one who tackled him) spits towards Good from the top of the group. Good runs towards them and jumps into the group of students and is quickly defeated, shown lying on the ground with his eyes closed.

Good then wakes up in his bedroom and sees the girl who tackled him and spat at him in his dream staring at him. The camera then moves behind the girl, showing a large knife in her hand behind her back as the video cuts to black.

Filming

The music video was directed by Bill Morrison and produced by Paddy Gillen. The video was filmed over a three-day period in many popular locations in Vancouver, such as the Pacific Coliseum, the Pacific National Exhibition and the Vancouver Aquatic Centre. The video had the highest budget of any MGB music video, costing an estimated $150,000.[4]

Awards and nominations

Notes and References

  1. Rock/Alternative - Volume 70, No. 19, March 13, 2000. March 13, 2000. RPM. September 29, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20121011091831/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.9260&volume=70&issue=19&issue_dt=March%2013%202000&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=efp72m4csktnscmokpv2andav6. October 11, 2012. dead.
  2. Web site: A Completely Biased Ranking of the 60 Best CanRock Songs Ever, Part 2. noisey.vice.com.
  3. Web site: NIELSEN MUSIC & BILLBOARD PRESENT CANADA 150 CHARTS. bdsradio.com. 13. January 2, 2020.
  4. Web site: Matthew Good Band - Load Me Up (With Commentary). https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/l2y5RzWRgmM . 2021-12-21 . live. . 2010-08-24 .
  5. Web site: MuchMusic Countdown - Fri, Mar 17, 2000. MuchMusic. 2010-05-18.
  6. MuchMusic Awards Pair Kravitz, Guess Who On Canadian 'Woman'. Billboard. 7 October 2000. 2017-01-20.
  7. Web site: Awards. junoawards.ca. 2016-06-14.