Back in the boisterous, devil-may-care time we have come to know as the mid 1990s, when it was really cool to complete your band name with a numeric, artists like MB20 were tearing up the charts while pimply faced teenage metal heads such as myself scrounged what little money they could find for cigarettes, Spawn Comic Books and the latest Fear Factory album. It wasn’t that kids such as myself wouldn’t possibly be able to enjoy both the metal and the rest, we just didn’t think it was the ‘thing’ to do.

Now I’m not condemning anyone for not liking something they genuinely do not like for whatever reason, I’m simply filling up space in this review, I mean trying to make a point. I hadn’t listened to Matchbox 20, I had only flipped through the stations and dismissed what was on simply because they were popular. It wasn’t until I had no choice but to listen to what my Forensics (Speech and Debate) teammates had brought on a tournament to Prague a few years back because I had forgotten all my CDs to realize that, yes, Matchbox 20 was overplayed and yes, “Push” isn’t some world-changing piece of art, but on a whole, this Florida based band is really not bad at all.

Following my trip, the floodgates opened wide. I have since taken a strong interest in bands such as the previously abhorred Dave Matthews Band and MB20 and they share equal billing to bands such as In Flames, Tiamat, and the like. It’s no longer taboo to try anything once, twice if it’s good, and often if it’s great. Hey, just because your friends aren’t digging something, that doesn’t mean you can’t.

So, to Rob Thomas and co.’s latest, the simply named “ep”. Yep, it’s an ep all right, six “unreleased” songs culled from their seven year, three-album career. I say unreleased in quotes because, really, it’s mostly live material of previously released tunes with the sole exception being the closing track “Suffer Me.” So, what does this open minded, elevated, progressive dink think?

Not bad, not bad, but… you might be wondering, what exactly does this writer's “but…” imply (and why would he be stooping so low for such a cheap joke)? Did he hate it? No, not in the least. There’s a few of the band’s most recognizable tunes, as well as a few less recognizable plus a high-quality thirty-minute live concert accessed through the computer, taken from their “ultra top secret” Cat Box Honey show to kick off the tour. With very good sound and audio quality throughout, it’s a solid disc. But still…

What you basically have here is a crash course in an uninitiated listeners first taste of the band. With the exception of the sprightly “Suffer Me”, these are old songs, if in different forms. And while this would be absolutely awesome as a giveaway at shows, on the radio or through their website (or ours, ba-zing!), to ask people to drop eleven bucks for it seems a little much.

All in all, Matchbox Twenty’s “ep” isn’t a bad line-up of material, with a little bit of variety in terms of ‘unplugged’ versions of popular songs and the 30-minute live performance. It’s even caused me to like “Push”, if just a little bit. And for that alone, we should all be a little kinder to the little ep that could.

Track Listing: Crutch; Push (Live); All I Need (Live); If You're Gone (Live); Disease (Acoustic); Suffer Me

Matchbox Twenty: Rob Thomas - Vocals; Brian Yale - Bass; Kyle Cook - Guitars; Adam Gaymor - Guitars; Paul Doucette - Drums