Released December 1999 Genre Alternative rock | Recorded 1999 Length 3:40 | |
Label Universal Music Canada (Canada)
Atlantic Records (US) Writer(s) Matthew Good, Ian Browne, Dave Genn, Rich Priske | ||
"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 #1 on Canada's Rock chart, 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 #1 by Vice on their “Completely Biased Ranking of the 60 Best CanRock Songs Ever” list. In 2016, Good released a re-recorded version of the song on his EP, I Miss New Wave: Beautiful Midnight Revisited.
Contents
Music video
The music video features a dream sequence of all four band members being chased by dozens of 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 at Good from the top of the group. Good runs towards them and jumps into the group of students, only to be quickly defeated, shown lying on the ground with his eyes closed.
The controversial ending of the video features Good waking up in his bedroom and seeing 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.