Filed by Trevor at 8:10 pm under Pop Culture, The Arts

“With my favorite T-shirt I will try to turn your head, but what makes me a better man can hardly be determined in bed.” — Matt Alber, “The Slow Club”

I had never heard of Matt Alber before attending the Ian Harvie Show last Monday, and his performance was an elegant high point in the middle of an entire evening of elegant high points. Apparently Ian and Margaret Cho have been instrumental in touting Matt’s abilities — I now know why. As I mentioned in my recap of the show, I had the pleasure of meeting him — he is an extraordinarily humble and gentle person, something that transfers beautifully into his music. In my opinion, he has one of the better male voices in the contemporary music scene, a clear, pure voice indicative of his previous involvement in Chanticleer. I’ve had his music playing on a loop all week — it’s addicting.

And he counts Björk as a major influence. Why does this not surprise me?

Matt is the first artist to be signed to the Silver Label, which is the first GLBT imprint in the country. You can listen to some of his earlier work — his new album drops in June — at mattalber.com, and you can also take a peek at his Myspace profile here. While you’re at it, the video below is a live performance filmed at his CD release party at the NancyBoy store in San Francisco: