Matt McIntosh

"Armed with little more than an acoustic guitar, backing track and more street cred than a Times Square hobo, longtime proponent of the American hardcore-punk movement, Matt McIntosh emerges from New England's sideroads with a homegrown effort of genre-defying strength and depth.

McIntosh, along with a handful of artists who also came up in that venerable scene during the 80s and 90s, seem to reflect what is fast becoming a potent new generation of American singer-songwriter."

-Tim MacGregor / AltNation

Matt McIntosh
'The Basement Demos'
SK1Media

"Singer-songwriter Matt McIntosh, known chiefly for his longtime involvement in punk and hardcore circles, purportedly recorded this batch of songs on the fly, with crude gear, in the cellar of his childhood home just weeks before vacating. And for the most part it shows, as the sound quality of tracks on 'The Basement Demos' can at times be uneven and inconsistent. Luckily for us the songcraft herein is the caliber of that which transcends such technicalities and keeps an artist's name in the mouths of listeners for years.


Acoustic guitars, orchestral components, stirring lyricism and edgy arrangements are just a few of the strengths that pepper this homespun release. And although his punk rock chops were always well above par, and at times even inspiring, McIntosh seems to have pedestalled an intriguing new muse in recording under his proper name, whether he meant to or not.

< Favorite track: New England Rain. McIntosh's brusque romanticising of his home turf can make him as relevant to it as The Boss is to The Garden State."
8 out of 10 stars.

-Pete Jeffries / Mediaphile