Mark Matos & Os Beaches

Words of the Knife is the latest release from Mark Matos, the former front-man of the Tucson-based group, Campo Bravo. Musically, Words of the Knife demonstrates that Matos has the spirit of a wandering soul, a trait likely passed down to him from his father who moved to the Bay Area after having been drafted into the Portuguese Army in the late 1960s. During his time serving in Africa, his father became a committed pacifist and left Angola, where he had been stationed, to move to San Francisco to start a new life. Once in the Bay Area, his father and grandfather founded one of the Bay Area's first Portuguese marching bands and hosted a radio show on a Portuguese radio station in San Jose. It was a bold move, and one later repeated in spirit by Mark. Inspired by the minds of the beat generation such as Jack Kerouac, after graduating from high school, Matos spent the next decade traveling across the United States performing odd jobs and playing music in Alaska, Boston, Tuscon, etc. Upon returning to the Bay Area, Matos began his new project with Os Beaches and subsequently recorded Words of the Knife. It is an exciting collection of psych pop tunes characterized in part by leisurely melodies infused with rootsy Americana. When listening to Words of the Knife, there is a definite sense that Matos' music is heavily infused with the experiences, philosophies and environments of his decade of travels as well as those passed down to him from his family. The result is an album that is both personal and intriguing.

Mark Matos & Os Beaches open Words of the Knife with one of their most straightforward tunes, the downbeat and country-tinged "Hired Hand," which features slide guitar, evocative Americana inspired keys, and sparse percussion. A few tracks later, "High Priest of the Mission" stands in the clean-up spot, and with good reason: it is the album's first power hitter. Indeed, although "High Priest of the Mission" isn't necessarily the album's best song, it is satisfyingly inviting and certainly the album's catchiest track. A wonderfully descriptive character sketch with an upbeat melody, this is a song that will invite you to stick around and take some time to revel in the richness the album has to offer. And sticking around is quite rewarding, especially in the final collection of songs beginning with the sprawling, beautiful album highlight "Warrior & The Thief." The cut clocks in at over 10 minutes, but never feels lost or excessive. Next "Tras-os-Montes" is a complex and sonically-rich instrumental that flows into the crisp and slinking "I Come Broken." - http://musicalpairings.blogspot.com

It’s about as cold as it gets in San Francisco right now. It just snowed in the East Bay and my hair froze this morning on my way into work. Winter’s clutches are barreling down, and the core of the city seems to be caught off-guard, hunkered down behind space heaters and under blankets, complaining bitterly about it every way you turn.

I know this sounds melodramatic, particularly to those of you who face brutal winter weather for months on end. But at this juncture, early on a Tuesday morning at the very beginning of the winter season, it’s easy to feel like we’re never going to make it through. Daylight saving time seems like it was eons ago. I haven’t sprawled out in a park with a bottle of wine in years. And the best way for me to remind myself that those months aren’t too far gone, or so far in the future, is to bask in the reminiscences and reminders of that sunny, summer feeling that we retain in different ways, in memories, in photographs, in the music that invokes those bygone days.

Usually, I tend to wallow in times of distress, withdrawing behind my headphones to listen to Bonnie “Prince” Billy or Elliott Smith; dark, deep, and desolate stuff. It’s easy to turn to songs of sympathy, ya know? But right now, it’s early enough in the season that I still have the impetus to ward it off. The winter doldrums have not yet engulfed my psyche. (Give me ’til rainy season kicks in for that to start.)

Mark Matos and Os Beaches is the stuff of the summer months. Mark Matos is a Bay Area-bred singer-songwriter who previously led the group Campo Bravo, and Os Beaches is his band here made up of locals, including Matt Adams (Blank Tapes), percussionist Dave Mihaly (Jolie Holland), and Tom Heyman (Maps of Wyoming, Court and Spark). This warm, rustic portrait is laced together by Matos’ bucolic vocals and his Hammond B-3 and piano playing, with pedal steel and guitar intertwining the honeyed instrumentation, sweet and comforting to the ear as the temperatures drop outside. Mark Matos and Os Beaches offer through Words of the Knife a perfectly piecemealed ensemble recalling summer daydreams and beach front picnics, providing a hazy instrumental backdrop for its winsome lyricism. Pedal steel-laden opener “Hired Hand” invokes John Steinbeck’s laboring, California coast: “I am a liar, I am a cheater, though I ain’t no thief / I am a hired hand though I aim for brighter things,” and provides a perfect opening to the rest of the album, which is a sort of literate take on our idyllic yet sentient existence here in the land of milk and honey. “You never said you were unhappy / You never said you would rather be somewhere in Montana / Where the birds meet the trees / I just kind of felt you moving away from me,” from “The Moving”, supports a notion of that geographical conflict.

The album moves along rather lackadaisically, coasting on tinges of psychedelia and entrenched in Americana and folk—a softly invigorating blend that could just help you make it through the depths and chill of winter, to remind you of the easy days at hand. This is not challenging music, which is exactly the point. The anchor of the record is perhaps the most meandering track of the bunch, the lovely and lilting “Warrior and the Thief”, a 10-plus minute song that encompasses all the seasonal flavor of Words of the Knife in one sitting, straddling both our complacency and progressive idealism, the push and the pull that defines many of the constituents, myself included, that reside along these golden shores. “And what kind of warrior would I be? / Would I be brave or would I seek solitude in the shadows?”

It’s probably not enough to rescue anyone from the blizzards or ice storms that define the real winters of North America. But for those of us here in Northern California, these sons of San Francisco have recorded a pleasing soundtrack to score these dimmer days, so allow it to provide some light to soothe you through the season. - Crawdaddy

There's something very Pavement-y about this Mark Matos track, "High Priest of the Mission." Perhaps the resemblance resides in the vocals, which remind me a bit of Stephen Malkmus' solo stuff. But with the warm organ melodies and the extra handclapped beats, Matos makes this upbeat pop tune all his own. It's lines like "he doesn't want to push your buttons, but his hands get in the way" that help paint the portrait of this hipster priest with "laser beam" brown eyes.

The song comes off Matos' Words of the Knife, which came out last month on local (Mission-based) label, Porto Franco. You can read our profile of the neighborhood-supporting label here. - SF Weekly

3/5 It's a bit strange to say it, and Mark Matos might not want to be burdened with the comparison, but there's something about Words of the Knife which suggests an alternate future for Beck sometime after 1998 or so. Admittedly this is a forced connection, but there's something about the easygoing and open embrace of frazzled classic rock, downbeat country twang, flecks of tropicalia (part of a larger Brazilian influence immediately evident in his backing band's name), and a quiet murkiness that doesn't so much suggest all the possible forebears there as it does said earlier genre-fuser and popularizer. It's not the only role model at work -- vocally Matos occupies a space familiar to fans of Kurt Wagner and Mark Knopfler more than anything else, a comparison that also pretty crisply describes the album's strongest character sketch and upbeat number, "The High Priest of the Mission." The overall sense of the album is pleasant but not exactly deathless -- world-weary, contemplative, winsome, yearning, something that aims for storytelling and a full-bodied sigh, with occasional organ flourishes (as on "Warrior and the Thief") that feels like Dylan-and-the-Band inspirationalism more than once. No question it's all nicely done, but there's little to suggest that it might go further from there.
- All Music Guide

What do you get when you combine bay-area love-folk and southwest obscurity with a pinch of world music influence? Well, all corniness aside, you would have Mark Matos & Os Beaches and their album Words of the Knife. Mark Matos, formerly known as Tucson-based folk vagabond Campo Bravo, brings a stellar collection of ParrotHead friendly tracks that make him sound like a Portuguese Jimmy Buffett. Alongside Os Beaches, here is an album you will be humming to yourself for days to come.

For some, “Warrior & The Thief” is sure to be the highlight of Words of the Knife. It’s a 10-minute opus of relentless power and obscurity. For others, a simple folk melody like “Hired Hand” will turn up the foot tapping soul machine. There is a bit of everything here for everyone. For the latter, “I Come Broken” might be an even better example. This is the indie rock Jack Johnson track the “bro’s” can dig into without falling victim to harmful stereotypes.

Mark Matos once set off on a journey across the country in the spirit of Jack Kerouac or Neil Cassady. He’s journeyed through Alaska, Seattle, Baltimore, etc. And on Words of the Knife, it is clearly apparent that his experiences through this life have had a great influence on his art. His creativity explodes through finely tuned country-esque songs that can really make you feel sublime. Like Siddhartha searching the earth to find himself, Mark Matos appears to still be on his journey. He may not be there yet. But, he’s obviously on the right path. - Fencepost.com

The well composed Words of the Knife from San Francisco’s Mark Matos & Os Beaches is out today. The record leans heavily on songcraft secured by the partly withdrawn delivery of Matos. “Imaginary, Winnipeg,” has a piano and steel laced country rock vibe that can be seen in part at other stops on Words of the Knife. I’m not sure if “Pelavras De Faca” makes me feel like I’m floating or watching things float by, though the ukulele is the only thing missing from this island. Elsewhere, “High Priest of the Mission” shows some Lou Reed phrasing aided by pumping organ, while “Tres-os-montes” is a slice of breathing earth instrumental. Good work. - Parasytes and Sycophants blog