The on-again, off-again soap opera that is the Matthew Good Band is over.

Universal Music Canada confirmed that the multi-platinum group, whose internal problems have been played out in public and on the Internet, have called it quits.

A source at the label said Good will continue to record for the company and is writing new music. But it's too early to say whether Good will continue as a solo act or launch a new group with a new name.

Word that MGB is over draws to a close a tortured recent history for the band.

Last August, news first broke that guitarist Dave Genn had left the band, and Limblifter guitarist Ryan Dahle was mentioned as a replacement.

But days after the story broke, Genn was back in the fold. In September, while doing press to promote the group's current album "The Audio Of Being," Good revealed that the band had, in fact, split during the making of the album, but all was now good in the Good camp.

"With me, it was too stressful. For me, the writing and making of ("The Audio Of Being") were beyond stressful ... I basically went 'f--k this.' What is the point? I'll just start another band or do something else," Good told JAM! Music at the time.

All was said to be in order until the release of "The Audio Of Being." Good participated in an on-line chat with JAM! Music in November, and confessed he had mixed feelings about the album, that the group had no plans to tour, and that he had already begun working on a solo album.

Two weeks later, Universal confirmed that Genn was once again gone, but that bassist Rich Priske and drummer Ian Browne would push on with Good as the Matthew Good Band, and a tour was being discussed for spring.

The source couldn't say whether Priske would continue playing with Good, and couldn't confirm reports that Good had already assembled a new combo.

In June 2001, Good told JAM! Music that he had been putting together a West Coast supergroup (which he half-kiddingly dubbed Supergroup) with Dahle and 54-40's Matt Johnson, although the status of that effort is unknown.

Meanwhile, in other news, you can scratch Big Sugar frontman Gordie Johnson off Good's Christmas card list, and add him to the growing group of fellow Canadian musicians who've expressed their displeasure with Good's combative ways.

Good's caustic remarks about fellow musicians, including The Tragically Hip and Nickelback, haven't endeared him to his colleagues, and Johnson went public with his take on Good during a recent call-in show.

Last Friday, during an on-air session with Halifax's Q104 host Tom Bedell, a listener called in to ask Johnson for his views on Good and his sniping at fellow Canadian musicians.

"Matt Good? You mean Matthew Average," Johnson quipped.

While he conceded Good writes "pretty good songs" and likes the other members of the Matthew Good Band, the polite language pretty much ended there.

"I don't want to slag the guy, because his music is really good. But why does he have to be such an idiot?

"Matthew Good is a twerp. He is not nice to anybody," Johnson declared.

"He doesn't have to be mean to people. He's nasty to his fans, he's nasty to the press, he's nasty to the record label, he's nasty to the guys in his band.

"Wake up! You're Matthew Good. You are not Matthew The Great. You're just good. It takes far less energy to be good, he might find," Johnson said.

"There are two categories in life, Matt Good, if you are listening ... There is food, shelter, water on this side of the ledger. On the other side, there is TV shows, snack food, and rock 'n' roll. Guess which category you fit in? Man, he is such a twit."

When the host suggested Johnson's safety could be jeopardized, Johnson said: "Bring him on. Come on up here, Matt Good! I'll put him down. Come on over here and say that. My mother said 'Never say anything about somebody that you wouldn't say to their face'."