Xixax Film Forum

Non-Film Discussion => Real-Life Soundtracks => Topic started by: modage on May 08, 2003, 05:34:37 PM

Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on May 08, 2003, 05:34:37 PM
didnt see him on here.  but he is certainly one of my favorite artists right now.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: children with angels on May 08, 2003, 06:16:52 PM
I've only got Either Or, but I adore it - he is a wonderful songwriter... Ballad of Big Nothing is one of my favourite songs.

One of the most satisying things in the world = when the drums come in on an Elliot Smith track...! Don't know what it is about it: they're just always so damn... satisying...

Also, he swears better than almost any musician out there. Him, Fiona Apple and E from the Eels have found three superb mellow ways to say "fuck" and sound cool doing it...
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on May 08, 2003, 07:42:51 PM
you should really get XO and FIGURE 8.  they are both fantastic, although if you like the acoustic minimalness of EITHER/OR, be prepared because his more recent albums are more "plugged in", but are really really great.  if you are downloading first, i would recommend listening to WALTZ #2, BOTTLE UP AND EXPLODE, I DIDNT UNDERSTAND, SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW, I BETTER BE QUIET NOW, CANT MAKE A SOUND.  uhh pretty much all of them, but anyways.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Pedro on May 08, 2003, 10:49:25 PM
Elliott Smith is fuckin' great.  XO is amazing.  His self titled album is also a favorite of mine.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: USTopGun47 on May 18, 2003, 07:56:18 PM
Elliot Smith is very amazing.  Very reminiscient of Nick Drake's greatness.  He sure does say fuck beautifully and nonchalantly in his music.  For more mellow fuck - check out "Have You Forgotten" by the Red House Painters.   8)
Title: elliott smith
Post by: godardian on May 18, 2003, 07:59:55 PM
Quote from: USTopGun47For more mellow fuck - check out "Have You Forgotten" by the Red House Painters.   8)

That is absolutely by far my best-loved RHP song. It's mellow, sure, but... it's the tenderness of the whole thing that gets to me. To use the phrase "fucked up" as an indication of tenderness and empathy... that's something fairly unusual in the pop-music world. Definitely not a shock tactic, coming from that source.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: children with angels on May 18, 2003, 08:01:46 PM
See also: 'It's a Motherfucker' by the Eels. Beautiful beautiful song. About the death of his mother.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: jmj on May 30, 2003, 08:45:49 AM
Holy shit...I just noticed this thread.  I love ES.  I first got turned onto to him because of the Good Will Hunting soundtrack.  After that I got ALL of his albums.  Just damn amazing stuff.  I've seen him live several times...always a great show.  I named my company, Beautiful Confusion Films, after the lyrics in one of his songs: Independence Day.

Most of you might be aware of this but just in case there is a great fan site at http://www.sweetadeline.net/

I can't wait for his new album.  Apparantly it's more scaled down than his last two.

For the record, either/or is my favorite album and I think it's the album that will define him 50 years after he's dead.  Man, that song, No Name No. 5 is just...well I don't know how to explain it but it's just pure beauty on wax.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on May 30, 2003, 08:04:33 PM
i was very obsessed with him for a while after Figure 8 came out and still love him (although i am getting a little impatient waiting for the new cd).  i still havent seen him live but i have tickets to see him in NJ next week, if field day isnt cancelled :cry: , at that, and then in Philadelphia a few days after that.  i am very excited.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: sexterossa on May 30, 2003, 09:35:12 PM
rumor is he is out of control. having problems making a new album and writing new songs. forgetting how to play his songs live. drunk at concerts.

but i admire that. i like that he lives the torment that is apparent in his art (his music).
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on June 06, 2003, 02:51:04 PM
Quote from: sexterossarumor is he is out of control. having problems making a new album and writing new songs. forgetting how to play his songs live. drunk at concerts.

but i admire that. i like that he lives the torment that is apparent in his art (his music).

saw elliott smith last nite in hoboken nj.  he was quite messed up.  it was hard to say what from, but it was definetely something.  he only had to abort one song i think "ballad of big nothing".  but did struggle with a few of them including the opener "happiness" to which he could be seen mouthing "fuck" as he struggled to hit the difficult chords.  it wasnt as bad as rumors would suggest, but maybe he's 'better' now.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: SHAFTR on June 06, 2003, 03:34:44 PM
I have either/or and I love it.  I've been meaning to get more of his stuff but I haven't.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on June 11, 2003, 12:04:31 AM
saw him again tonite in philadelphia.  he was sober and sounded much MUCH better.  it was really good.  he said that the new cd will (almost certainly) be a double album and will DEFINITELY be out before the end of this year.  he has 5 songs mixed and about 35 to go, but should be done mixing in about 6 weeks.  it wont be coming out on Dreamworks.  and, now the waiting begins...
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Pedro on June 11, 2003, 12:44:42 AM
Quote from: themodernage02saw him again tonite in philadelphia.  he was sober and sounded much MUCH better.  it was really good.  he said that the new cd will (almost certainly) be a double album and will DEFINITELY be out before the end of this year.  he has 5 songs mixed and about 35 to go, but should be done mixing in about 6 weeks.  it wont be coming out on Dreamworks.  and, now the waiting begins...
:-D  izzzzz ehCITING!
Title: i agree with all of this
Post by: Sprimetv on June 19, 2003, 03:09:52 PM
yea i somehow found elliot's music thru kazaa and couldn't remember where i had heard it before... then i remembered <g>
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Sigur Rós on October 22, 2003, 06:20:06 AM
Elliot Smith died at age 34 last nite. He killed himself. That sucks man!
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Dirk on October 22, 2003, 06:20:20 AM
NME.com

Elliott Smith dies


Singer-songwriter Elliott Smith has died, according to reports.

Fan websites and various radio stations claim that the singer passed away yesterday (October 21) at the age of 34. The official cause of death is currently unclear.

Born in 1969, Smith loved music from an early age. He released five albums, the most critically acclaimed in the mid-90s, titled 'Either / Or' and 'XO'.

His most mainstream success however came when his song 'Miss Misery' from the film Good Will Hunting' was nominated for an Academy Award in 1997.

At the time of his death Smith was working on a new album, which had a working title of 'From A Basement On the Hill', which was set for completion later this year.

A UK spokesperson for the singer is currently unable to confirm the reports. This story will be updated as more details emerge.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Sigur Rós on October 22, 2003, 06:21:54 AM
We posted about his dead at the same time. weird. Anyway this fucking sucks. He was one of the best young songwriters.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Dirk on October 22, 2003, 06:24:53 AM
Oops, I just noticed that there was a thread directly below this about him. Please lock this one up



:cry:
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Finn on October 22, 2003, 07:29:42 AM
This is the biggest shock since John Ritter! 34 years old, that's one year older than PTA!
Title: elliott smith
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on October 22, 2003, 08:44:27 AM
Quote from: SigurElliot Smith died at age 34 last nite. He killed himself. That sucks man!

Fuck you, man! How could you do such a thing? We needed your music...   :cry:
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Newtron on October 22, 2003, 08:46:30 AM
Quote from: RoyalTenenbaumFuck you, man! How could you do such a thing? We needed your music...   :cry:
He didn't owe you shit.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on October 22, 2003, 08:52:15 AM
Quote from: Newtron
Quote from: RoyalTenenbaumFuck you, man! How could you do such a thing? We needed your music...   :cry:
He didn't owe you shit.

Damn you! I was just expressing my shock after I read the news. He didn't OWE me shit, but lately I just can't stand any suicide news. Ever since last week a girl threw herself from the 8th floor in the building next to mine, I just can't stop thinking about the issue and reading that he died was one thing, but reading that he killed himself was another. Of course, it was his choice, butit's my right not to agree with it (and yes, I know when it comes to other people's lifes, my opinion -or anyone else's - is as important as a rock's).
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: coffeebeetle on October 22, 2003, 09:11:31 AM
Fuck, I'm suddenly very depressed....blech.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: aclockworkjj on October 22, 2003, 09:28:53 AM
wow....that sucks....

Pedro, where is that link of all his live stuff you posted one time????
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Ghostboy on October 22, 2003, 10:24:57 AM
I'm somewhat shocked.

And now I'm depressed.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: SHAFTR on October 22, 2003, 11:09:17 AM
ohhh man....I have very little to say except I loved either/or and...wow, this is really unexpected.

EDIT:

Anyone else thinking of Royal Tenenbaums, think that scene will have an even more powerful effect now?
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on October 22, 2003, 11:43:29 AM
im speechless.  and crushed.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on October 22, 2003, 12:32:35 PM
Quote from: SHAFTRAnyone else thinking of Royal Tenenbaums, think that scene will have an even more powerful effect now?

It was the first thing I thought after I read this............ :(
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Pwaybloe on October 22, 2003, 12:47:44 PM
That's a shock.  

When I was browsing around here, I noticed 3 people had elliot smith's avatars, and stupid me, I thought he was coming out with a new album called "R.I.P."  

Anyway, pray for his family and friends
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: modage on October 22, 2003, 01:04:56 PM
in june when i met him he jokingly mentioned killing himself.  he said if the new album isnt out by the end of the year he should just kill himself. i said "no, dont do that."  we laughed.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Rudie Obias on October 22, 2003, 04:04:49 PM
last night, i was @ a gathering of friends when i read the tragic news of elliott smith's death. i went in the other room to tell everyone the news and they were all in shock. we could not believe the news. i went back to the computer to find more news about his death but there was no luck. so i went to the balcony and had a cigarette. i was thinking how much elliott smith meant to me. how much his music and words touched my life. i was thinking about all of this and i started to cry. i could not believe i cried over a person i have never met or even talked to but hearing this news was like hearing about kurt cobain or john lennon's death. then this guy came out on the balcony to join me for a smoke. he saw the look on my face and said "you're taking this really hard, aren't you?" i told with how much elliott smith meant to me. i remember feeling comforted by listening to xo or either/or when i would get my heart broken. and remembering how much elliott smith understood pain and the human condition. unfortunately, understanding and dealing with misery are two different things. he was one of the fewer musicians that made me feel each song he wrote was written especially for me.

a bright light has been extinguished, we'll always remember you and your music...

R.I.P.
elliott smith
1969 - 2003

"do you miss me? miss misery, like you say you do."
- elliott smith's miss misery
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Rudie Obias on October 22, 2003, 04:07:53 PM
elliott smith's life follows that of nick drake's.....

its erie to think of the suicide scene in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS with needle in the hay in the background.  life imitating art or art mitating life....

*rudie*
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Pedro on October 22, 2003, 04:34:49 PM
fuck.  this is the first loss of a celebrity that has really made a serious impact on me.  i'm really depressed about this whole thing.   the live links could be found at http://lido.binaryops.com/ but no longer.  sweetadeline.net, the place for everything elliott is also down.  i don't know what to do.  sorry i can't help...i still have a few shows saved so if you want i'll try and send them to you.  this is devastatingly sad, man.  wow.

im speechless
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Duck Sauce on October 22, 2003, 05:54:11 PM
this is awful awful news, I was just listening to Figure 8. How bizarre, but to be honest Im not suprised. Stabbing yourself, wow.... that takes guts..... and a knife.

Will be missed, wish I could have seen him live.

Sad day.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: A Matter Of Chance on October 22, 2003, 06:43:37 PM
Wow... this is such a shock. I really don't know whatr to say....
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Finn on October 22, 2003, 07:24:29 PM
Geez, I figured that he had died by an accident or something but not by suicide. You gotta be really messed up to do something like that. He seemed really successful and had an Oscar nomination, but I guess it's really hard to know what's going on with people.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Pedro on October 22, 2003, 07:26:34 PM
Quote from: SydneyGeez, I figured that he had died by an accident or something but not by suicide. You gotta be really messed up to do something like that. He seemed really successful and had an Oscar nomination, but I guess it's really hard to know what's going on with people.
read his fucking lyrics
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Finn on October 22, 2003, 07:30:02 PM
Well you could say the same thing about Aimee Mann or any other artist that sings about depression or anything negative. But you don't always see them taking their own lives. Sometimes there's just a lot more going on beneath the surface than what we think. Miss Misery must have really had a lot to do with his own life.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Pedro on October 22, 2003, 07:33:43 PM
Quote from: SydneyWell you could say the same thing about Aimee Mann or any other artist that sings about depression or anything negative. But you don't see always seem them taking their own lives. Sometimes there's just a lot more going on beneath the surface than what we think. Miss Misery must have really had a lot to do with his own life.
yeah...sorry i snapped at you.  but also, in february or around there he was showing up to concerts high or drunk and couldn't really play well...
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: SHAFTR on October 22, 2003, 08:12:18 PM
I think he had an alcoholism problem.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Pedro on October 22, 2003, 08:16:47 PM
Quote from: SHAFTRI think he had an alcoholism problem.
defenitely
http://launch.yahoo.com/read/content.asp?contentID=214937

^^^it talks about it there^^^
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on October 23, 2003, 11:04:25 AM
for anyone else concerned about the fate of the 40 tracks he had been working on for his new double album....

Friends, Peers Mourn Elliott Smith
Source: Billboard.com

The album Elliott Smith was working throughout the last year of his life was an extraordinarily diverse effort that ranged from "phenomenal, experimental soundscapes to the most intimate guitar vocals," his DreamWorks Records A&R man, Luke Wood, tells Billboard.com.

"He was really having fun experimenting with recording," Wood says. "And as always with Elliott, the lyrics were incredibly poignant and very consistent and very beautiful." However diverse, the album -- reportedly titled "From a Basement on the Hill" -- was a focused effort, Woods notes. "It wasn't like a free-for-all."

There's no word yet on what will happen to the recordings. Although Smith had tracked more than 30 songs and was said to have been considering a double album, Wood says it's unclear how many are complete, as Smith had a habit of working on multiple songs at a time. "He was always editing and working," he says. "He always had a large cycle of songs that he was making better, and sometimes that cycle took years."

Yet the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd tells Billboard.com that when he did some casual recording with Smith roughly a year ago, the singer had "tons of stuff that hasn't been released. And I know a bunch was recorded and mixed and all ready to go."

Smith, 34, died Tuesday after apparently stabbing himself in the heart. According to a source, he did so using a steak knife at his girlfriend's apartment in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

About a year ago, Smith built his own studio in Los Angeles, and it was there that he was focusing on "From a Basement on the Hill." Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simins, who occasionally collaborated with Smith onstage and in the studio, says he recently recorded with the singer at his own studio in New York.

Some of the new songs Smith was working on included "Strung Out Again," "Let's Get Lost," "Shooting Star," "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity To Be Free" and "Fond Farewell." The titles seem to suggest he may have been contemplating suicide and revisiting his frequent themes of addiction.

In a highly unusual move, Wood says DreamWorks had reached an agreement with Smith that allowed him to take a "sabbatical" from the label. The singer, Wood says, was looking for a more intimate way to reconnect with the fans who had followed him since his indie days, during which he issued albums for the Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars labels.

"It was sort of like, 'How do you continue to motivate and be a true partner to an artist who's gonna want to take turns and do different things, and reach his audience more directly without going through radio or MTV?'" Wood says. "I think it was really a sense of him being able to feel like he was in control of his own destiny. And he wanted to bring it down and do sort of less promotion, and focus just more on making a record and getting it out."

Smith, Wood says, was going to release "From a Basement on the Hill" on an independent label of his choosing, even though he would have remained signed to DreamWorks. During his five-year tenure with the label, Smith issued a handful of releases on indies. In August, released the single "Pretty (Ugly Before)" as a limited-edition seven-inch on the Suicide Squeeze label.

While it was well-known amongst his friends and peers that Smith was battling alcohol and hard drug addiction and depression -- for which he was on medication, according to a source -- Wood says the singer's suicide was still quite shocking. In the past six months, Wood says, the singer seemed hopeful and excited about completing the album and then launching a tour to support it.

Says Simins, "He seemed to be doing really well lately. That's why it's really sad. We all had a hope that he was in a good way, or at least heading towards that."

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne wasn't so optimistic about Smith's state of mind. He recalled the Lips' show in Los Angeles with Beck last year, where a bloated and clearly frustrated Smith was involved in a scuffle with police and seemed to be clearly losing his fight with addiction. "It really was nothing but sad," Coyne says. "You just sort of saw a guy who had lost control of himself. He was needy, he was grumpy, he was everything you wouldn't want in a person. It's not like when you think of Keith Richards being pleasantly blissed out in the corner."

"I think it points out how unglamorous the whole drug thing really is," Coyne continues. "For the people who knew him, the people who were around him, it was horrible. It's not this glamorous, jetsetting, beautiful lifestyle that everybody dreams of rock'n'roll heaven being. It wasn't like that at all. It was ugly. It was sad."

Adds Drozd, "There's an undercurrent of f***in' real sadness in a lot of his music that just f***in' crushes me. And that's just really the way he was. I hate to sound that way, but he really was. And I can hear it in his music. That's totally him."

Addiction, Wood says, was "a constant battle for him, but I gotta say, I thought it was one he was winning." Wood called Smith the "essence of what we would want DreamWorks as a culture to stand for -- the true song craft, the ambition, the artistry, his performance ability. I think he challenged the rules of songwriting and being a pop artist."

He adds that to Smith, life was "a very beautiful and brutal place, and his songs were that ground in between."

What was lost Tuesday, Simins says, was "someone who was really admirable as a person and as a star. There's so much bulls*** around, so many unhumble people who are all about the glitz and the glam and the bulls***. What we lost is a very, very, very, very truthful, truthful, honest star. I think both as a person and as a musician, as an artist. It's really sad because he was just brutally, brutally honest. And very smart. And if you put the two together, it's undeniably appealing."
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Ravi on October 23, 2003, 12:58:08 PM
That's so sad.  He will be missed. :cry:

Britney Spears, please follow suit.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: moonshiner on October 23, 2003, 01:19:36 PM
i'm saddened, truly shocked and a little disturbed by the little detail released about his apparent suicide...i'm almost hoping he was another place altogether as far as his drug addiction...he had to have been in a dark, lonely place to take himself like that, nothing redeeming about that life, not even his art, because his art was all too much truth   FUCK
Title: elliott smith
Post by: xerxes on October 23, 2003, 01:24:46 PM
i haven't been this shocked in a really long time. i had just started getting into his music this past year.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Film Student on October 24, 2003, 01:26:04 PM
Goddammit.  

Wednesday my sister called me.  She seemed distraught and I was beginning to worry, but when she said "Josh, Elliott Smith committed suicide yesterday", I just laughed.  I laughed because there were so many rumors swirling around about Smith and his numerous addictions and suicide attempts, and it wasn't the first time I'd heard this.  I assured her it wasn't true and we ended up laughing about it together.  Smith's music had such a profound impact on me throughout my teenage years, the thought of him dying was hard to take.  But I was sure it wasn't true.  Then I opened the newspaper thursday morning and realized that it was true.  And I cried.  

More than any other artist, I felt a kinship with the quiet yet somehow hopeful desperation of his music. It helped me get through broken relationships, my parents' divorce, my own fear of the future, and the paralyzing hold that anxiety and depression frequently had on me.  It was the best kind of therapy, and I don't know what I would've done without it.

He will be missed.

"If I didn't know the difference, living alone would prob'ly be okay."
                   -- "I Better Be Quiet Now"
Title: elliott smith
Post by: aclockworkjj on October 24, 2003, 01:47:58 PM
HOLY SHIT!!!...Film Student lives!!!!
Title: elliott smith
Post by: aclockworkjj on October 24, 2003, 02:40:49 PM
Quote from: mogwaiholy shit!! aclockworkjj still lives!!!
you had doubt?
gonna continue to pout?

We done with this yet?    

Elliot...may he sleep sincerely. I am sad, woulda liked a nov. show tho.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.luger.se%2Fbilder%2Falbum%2Felliot1.jpg&hash=a80d749c652e8c41b9eac863a81bcb3ff53c575a)
Title: elliott smith
Post by: GodDamnImDaMan on October 25, 2003, 03:54:56 PM
Ya, believe it or not GDIDM was a huge Elliot Smith fan. I bought the Goodwill hunting soundtrack hoping to steal one of the ballads on it when i came across "Say yes," I love that song. And i grew to love all other Elliot Smith songs. When i was away in Cypruss for a month it's all I'd listen to. One of the biggest regrets i have/had in my life was not going to an Elliot Smith concert in hollywood with my sister a year or two ago...I remember saying "I'll catch it next time."

R.I.P. Elliot Smith
Title: elliott smith
Post by: aclockworkjj on October 25, 2003, 07:18:55 PM
Quote from: Fucko Without a Cause"I'll catch it next time."
same here...my next time just happen to be this coming november...he had become probably one of the best songwriters of this generation...Bright Eyes is the only one I think I can think of right now that might even come close...
Title: Fuck'n A
Post by: blackmamba on October 25, 2003, 09:36:29 PM
Fuck'n A!!!
Why the hell did he have to kill himself?
I heard he was pretty high at the time, but I loved his music.  :(
It's just so sad, if he only had known how awesome he was.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: SHAFTR on October 25, 2003, 09:46:07 PM
Do you think the fact that people like John Mayer are suddenly very popular playing the same type of music, while he is much better (everyone must agree) but not given the same type of attention.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on October 25, 2003, 10:29:28 PM
Quote from: SHAFTRDo you think the fact that people like John Mayer are suddenly very popular playing the same type of music

its not the same type of music.  AT ALL.  

and no, i dont.  he was uncomfortable with success.  i doubt he was envious of john mayer.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: SHAFTR on October 25, 2003, 10:34:35 PM
Quote from: themodernage02
Quote from: SHAFTRDo you think the fact that people like John Mayer are suddenly very popular playing the same type of music

its not the same type of music.  AT ALL.  

and no, i dont.  he was uncomfortable with success.  i doubt he was envious of john mayer.

I would classify them in the same genre.  I love Elliott Smith, and gave Room for Squares one listen and was not impressed.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on October 25, 2003, 10:39:28 PM
well it depends on what genre you are talking about, if its as wide as "singers with guitars" then i guess so.  but i really dont see them as part of the same thing at all.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: SHAFTR on October 25, 2003, 10:50:07 PM
Quote from: themodernage02well it depends on what genre you are talking about, if its as wide as "singers with guitars" then i guess so.  but i really dont see them as part of the same thing at all.

singers with acoustic guitars
but I do see your point, and it likely did not effect him.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: aclockworkjj on October 25, 2003, 11:52:50 PM
Quote from: SHAFTRRoom for Squares
try either/or

edit: opps...I don't know Mayer too well
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Pedro on October 25, 2003, 11:54:55 PM
Quote from: aclockworkjj
Quote from: SHAFTRRoom for Squares
try either/or
um he was talking about john mayer...and if he didn't like room for sqaures he should listen to Inside Wants Out.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: blackmamba on October 26, 2003, 09:47:05 PM
no way are john mayer and elliot smith in the same genre.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Pedro on October 26, 2003, 09:48:15 PM
If you consider being a singer/songwriter a genre then i guess they are...but honestly the two are pretty much uncomparable.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Dirk on October 27, 2003, 01:40:51 PM
From pitchforkmedia.com

The unreleased album that Elliott Smith had been preparing for an early 2004 release might see release on a label other than Dreamworks, according to comments on an hour-long tribute broadcast last weekend on the syndicated radio program New Ground. Host Chris Douridas assembled the tribute from interviews with Kill Rock Stars' Slim Moon, Smith's friend and one-time manager Margaret Mittleman, producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, Dreamworks head Lenny Waronker, and Smith's A&R rep, Luke Wood.

Of the unreleased album, known by its working title From A Basement On The Hill, Wood said that Smith probably had more than 30 songs tracked for the record. "I think there's definitely enough of that record that his family will be able to finish it up," Wood told New Ground. "They're gonna decide where it comes out, because that record was his record-- Dreamworks gave it back to him, and it was gonna come out on an independent label of his choosing, and now that'll be the family's choice. So, you know, hopefully next year we'll all get to hear it."

In the interview, Wood also expressed his surprise at Smith's apparent suicide last Tuesday: "As someone who's spent time with Elliott in the last few months, who saw him... he was really clean, and focused... I really thought that the worst days were behind him, and I felt like his drive to get this record out, you know, was what was keeping him looking forward to the next day."

Wood confirmed on the program that Smith's work-in-progress was meant to be a double album that reconciles the hushed intimacy of his earlier home-recorded albums with the ambitious, layered production that characterized XO and Figure 8. Wood called the album, as Smith envisioned it, a "true summary of all of his records" that veered from the "intimate, brutally honest two-track guitar/vocal-- you know, that certainly signified the earlier records-- to these bizarre, lush, beautiful, hectic, you know, really pushing-the-envelope sort of stereo, spectral, soundscape, multi-track drum songs... [like] something you'd hear off of Pet Sounds, but in the most, you know, creative, pushing-the-envelope moments of Pet Sounds."

Producers Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock remembered Smith's creative drive and an often jovial atmosphere in the studio. "People've been asking me, like, well, was, you know... was [Smith] just a miserable person?" Schnapf said. "And, uh, no... we had a lot of fun making these records. For example, XO, a lot of it was made in a wig... you know, we were wearing wigs... we weren't all depressed, we weren't shoegazing the whole time... it was fun, it was really rewarding."

Rothrock fondly shared stories of recording with Smith at Abbey Road, and shared an unreleased instrumental from the Figure 8 sessions, the Beatlesque "Tiny Time Machine," on the program.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on October 27, 2003, 02:29:44 PM
thank god.  if this record were to never come out, i would explode.  for anyone wondering a little bit of what the new stuff sounds like, i suggest getting the 2 song single he released on vinyl a few months ago with the 2 new songs Pretty (Ugly Before) and A Distorted Reality Is A Neccesity To Be Free on it.  you can find them floating around online.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: aclockworkjj on October 27, 2003, 07:24:09 PM
man...elliot reminds me of nick drake...all too much now. :cry:
Title: elliott smith
Post by: mister mister on November 22, 2003, 12:44:59 AM
I still feel really sad about this.

Does anybody think it's kind of ironic that in The Royal Tenenbaums Richie attempts to commit suicide with Elliot Smith's "Needle in the Hay" playing in the background?

creepy.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: aclockworkjj on November 22, 2003, 01:01:01 AM
Quote from: mister misterI still feel really sad about this
take some of these (http://lido.binaryops.com/).
Title: elliott smith
Post by: mister mister on November 22, 2003, 01:07:54 AM
:cry: Thanks son :cry:
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Rudie Obias on November 22, 2003, 09:03:33 AM
Quote from: SHAFTR
Quote from: themodernage02
Quote from: SHAFTRDo you think the fact that people like John Mayer are suddenly very popular playing the same type of music

its not the same type of music.  AT ALL.  

and no, i dont.  he was uncomfortable with success.  i doubt he was envious of john mayer.

I would classify them in the same genre.  I love Elliott Smith, and gave Room for Squares one listen and was not impressed.

NEVER COMPARE JOHN MAYER TO THE THE BEAUTY OF ELLIOTT SMITH!!!!  they're not the same genre, they're not the same type of music, they're not even the same feelings and emotions.  they don't even have the same fans.  elliott smith was so much more than the flavor of the week, he was a beautiful man that is unappreciated in life and in death.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Rudie Obias on November 22, 2003, 09:18:09 AM
enjoy these pics....  (sorry, i couldn't get them resized)

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Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: cine on December 31, 2003, 12:13:40 PM
Coroner: Elliott Smith death open question

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) -- Los Angeles coroner's officials said Tuesday they could not determine whether the stab wounds that killed Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter Elliott Smith in October were self-inflicted.

An autopsy report appears to leave the nature of Smith's death, which was initially called a suicide by Los Angeles police, an open question.

The body of Smith -- who earned an Oscar nomination and widespread notice for his 1997 single "Miss Misery" from the film "Good Will Hunting" -- was found in October at his Los Angeles home by the musician's live-in girlfriend.

Coroner's spokesman David Campbell said Smith, 34, died from two "penetrating stab wounds" to the chest.

"The trauma that he sustained could have been inflicted by him or by another and the coroner has not been able to make a determination," Campbell said.

Campbell said toxicology tests found no illegal or controlled substances in Smith's system. The singer was apparently taking anti-depressants and medication for attention deficit disorder at the time of his death but was not abusing them, Campbell said.

He said the case would remain open and that coroner's officials would revisit their findings if additional information surfaced.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department said homicide detectives also would "look again" at Smith's death following the autopsy report. He said the case was initially reported to the LAPD as a suicide.
Title: an open case...
Post by: monodynamic on December 31, 2003, 12:38:29 PM
dear god.
do you know what this means!
what is the source?
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: cine on December 31, 2003, 12:41:35 PM
CNN
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: GodDamnImDaMan on January 13, 2004, 12:40:34 AM
I keep arguing this case, there is no way in hell the human body will allow you to stab yourself. At the first response to pain, the knife will be pulled away. I've argued this case and finally others are starting to see it this way.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: swimmingly on January 20, 2004, 05:56:44 PM
Quote from: God Damn Im Da ManI keep arguing this case, there is no way in hell the human body will allow you to stab yourself. At the first response to pain, the knife will be pulled away. I've argued this case and finally others are starting to see it this way.

I agree...I hope they get this all sorted out.

Still, sadly, its not like it will bring him back.  What a major loss :(
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: tpfkabi on February 06, 2004, 09:43:43 PM
i bought Figure 8 a couple years ago. i thought it was ok. i pulled it out every once in a while. then the Royal Tenenbaums came out. listened to it some more. still OK.....i started listening to it a few weeks ago and now it blows me away!......i bought X/O this week and it's great too. i looked for Either/Or tonight, but didn't find it.
how do the first 3 albums compare to the last 2?
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: modage on February 06, 2004, 11:53:01 PM
roman candle is interesting to see where he was starting out, but very very low-fi.  demos recorded on a 4 track in someones basement, songs are okay.  elliott smith (self titled) starts to get a bit better.  there are some pretty crushing songs in there incl.  needle in the hay, st. ides heaven, the biggest lie.  i didnt care for it when i first got it (i started at figure 8 and worked backwards), but its actually really good.  still totally acoustic/low-fi songs are getting better.  either/or is his first great album.  still acoustic and intimate but the songs are fantastic all the way through, highlights being the goodwillhunting tracks angeles, between the bars, say yes.  xo, his first major label is fully instrumented and finds some interesting middle ground between either or and figure 8, his totally lush beatles-esque pop album.  i love 8, xo, eitheror and think they're all really great albums.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Pedro on February 06, 2004, 11:54:39 PM
i dont know what you're saying.  Roman Candle is fucking amazing.  And the low-fi aesthetic works PERfectly with the (great) songs.  But then again, I think I love all his albums...his self titled is probably my least favorite.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: modage on February 06, 2004, 11:57:42 PM
yeah?  i still have not really gotten into roman candle.  i sort of see his songwriting skills developing along the way to either/or when they've fully blossomed and become incredible for the rest of the way.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: MacGuffin on February 15, 2004, 11:17:29 AM
Long road down
Elliott Smith's death is unsolved. The musician's life and lyrics are just as mysterious.
Source: Los Angeles Times

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MAKESHIFT MEMORIAL: A wall outside Solutions, a Silver Lake stereo repair shop, was used on one of Elliott’s Smith’s album covers. Fans now write notes on the wall.

In a bohemian stretch of Sunset Boulevard that winds through Silver Lake, there's a stereo repair shop with an exterior that seems, for some, oddly familiar: The coiling red and blue lines on its external wall served as the cover for an album by a battered troubadour named Elliott Smith, a Los Angeles musician who at the time of the record's release, in 2000, was one of pop's bright lights — someone who combined dark, sometimes self-lacerating lyrics with melody inspired by the British Invasion.

Signed to the DreamWorks label, with a rabid following among critics and musicians, Smith seemed poised to become a melancholic, low-key version of Beck. Fans — for whom an underground musician is often a secret passed from one to another — responded passionately to the delicacy and bedroom-scale quality of his music. It made them feel like he was singing about their lives too.

Since Oct. 22, the day after Smith's sudden death by knife wound to the chest in his Echo Park apartment, the wall on Sunset has come alive with their remembrances of the musician, who moved to town in 1999 after years of wandering. Now, nearly every space on the wall is covered with a scrawled lyric, a fan wishing the singer well, offering condolence ("I guess you just weren't made for these times"), or expressing frustration at his unexpected departure. Candles, melted over the lips of wine and beer bottles, broken wooden speakers and arrangements of flowers sit on the sidewalk, still tended each day by tattooed acolytes.

Interest in Smith has spread far beyond Silver Lake. Tribute concerts are taking place from Atlanta to Dublin; closer to home, a petition is circulating to turn part of Echo Park into a memorial. Magazine stories keep coming, and a New York journalist is working on a biography. His family is making arrangements for a posthumous album.

A cult musician in life, he seems, like English folkie Nick Drake, Joy Division singer Ian Curtis and alt-country pioneer Gram Parsons, to exert fascination in death as well.

Master of ambiguity

Smith's music, much of which was almost nakedly intimate, often concerned ambiguity, ambivalence: He called one record "Either/Or," a title he borrowed from Kierkegaard. At least one song, "The Biggest Lie," which concludes his self-titled 1995 album, is a masterpiece of obfuscation: He sings about a couple that experience joy and sorrow and then concludes, "I just told the biggest lie."

"He never lets you on to which part of the lyric he's lying about — that happiness or the sadness," Luke Wood, Smith's DreamWorks A&R rep, pointed out on a KCRW-FM appreciation. "And that's Elliott." (Wood and many close to Smith, including his family, declined to discuss him for this story.)

The ambiguity of Smith's life has taken on an even deeper meaning with his death, originally judged a suicide but now under investigation by the LAPD for possible foul play. The report by the L.A. County Department of the Coroner refuses to rule on his death because of circumstances "atypical of suicide" that "raise the possibility of homicide," in the words of the deputy medical examiner.

That, says Stephon Lew, the owner of Solutions repair shop, who knew Smith as a customer and friend, leaves the 34-year-old musician's death "a constant mystery to his fans."

For much of last year — during which, friends say, he seemed to be free from drugs and newly optimistic — Smith had talked with excitement about a double album he'd recorded and hoped to release on an independent label.

Yet few people who knew Smith speculate that his death was anything but a suicide. It's easy to see why: He was a well-known alcoholic, depressive and drug addict whose years in Los Angeles were, reportedly, especially harrowing for him.

Wood argued on KCRW that the mythology of his depression and drug use grew inflated beyond reality since the singer used them as metaphors for love, relationships and other topics. Smith himself once dismissed his image as that of a "gloomy cartoon," and some of his music was more wistful than morbid, closer to the Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" and George Harrison's songs than to Goth.

But there's no doubt that he had a dark streak.

"Give me one reason not to do it," Smith sings in an unreleased song called "King's Crossing."

In his heaven, Smith once said, George Jones was always singing.

Ethereal indie records

General audiences know Smith best from his white-suited appearance at the 1998 Academy Awards, where he strummed the song "Miss Misery" from "Good Will Hunting," shortly before Celine Dion belted out the theme song from "Titanic."

For Smith, it was something of an embarrassment. ("I didn't intend to play it," he told Under the Radar magazine last year. "But then they said that if I didn't play it, they would get ... someone like Richard Marx to do it ... maybe Richard Marx is a universal scare tactic.")

Lovers of left-of-the-dial pop, though, already knew Smith from three records on two independent labels. Those albums — of mostly whispered, double-tracked vocals with gently strummed guitar — are so ethereal as to seem to be coming from inside the listener's own head. His two major label efforts on DreamWorks, "XO" and "Figure 8," show Smith playing more sweeping, less insular and in some cases less personal music.

Some talk about these records as belonging to another age — perhaps the era of his beloved Beatles, Kinks and Zombies — though their mix of punk attitude, indie rock reticence and, increasingly, pop grandeur would have stood out as unusual in any decade. Joe Pernice of the chamber pop group the Pernice Brothers calls Smith the finest songwriter of his generation.

It may have been the music's emotional directness — its lack of the hip distance of much '90s indie rock — that inspired what Spin called "a passionate, almost masochistic, fandom."

The passion is now scattered by Smith's unresolved death.

"When someone that big dies — and for the people who loved Elliott his death was as big as Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain or Jim Morrison — there's a sense of wanting to figure it out. It's a way of displacing bad feelings," says Blake Sennett, a friend and guitarist for the band Rilo Kiley.

"Even with metaphors, I've always felt Elliott's lyrics are as open and honest as anyone would be with a close friend," says Charlie Ramirez, who runs the Smith website sweetadeline.net and describes fellow fans as "brokenhearted." Smith's lyrics, he says, "made me feel like someone understood, and it was really comforting."

Benjamin Nugent, a New York-based freelancer who's working on a book tentatively titled "Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing," says the Smith cult comes from "the depth of his songwriting, the timeless artistry and skill," as well as its sense of personal connection.

"His songs provided at least the illusion of great intimacy with the artist," Nugent says. "I think people make the mistake of thinking they afford more intimacy than they do. The real Elliott Smith is a lot more hidden."

Troubled and generous

The real Elliott Smith was shy and troubled but powerfully intelligent and, at times, enormously fun. With his jet-black hair, trademark wool cap, tattoos of the state of Texas and Ferdinand the Bull, he was a frequent sight at Silver Lake bars and clubs like Largo.

Smith was born in 1969 in Omaha, grew up near Dallas, where he lived with his mother and stepfather, years he recalled as unpleasant. At 14 he moved in with his father in Portland, Ore. After graduating from Massachusetts' Hampshire College, where he studied philosophy, and mulling a career as a firefighter, he started a band called Heatmiser and later drifted to Portland, Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. He once said he never stayed put for more than a week or two.

Rob Schnapf, who co-produced Smith's last three albums, described Smith wearing wigs while recording "XO" and loving Schnapf's backyard croquet set. "He would kick my [tail]. He would invite himself over to destroy me."

Smith told his live-in girlfriend, Jennifer Chiba, an art therapist, that Kafka's dour "The Hunger Artist" would help her understand him. But she emphasizes his sense of humor, how excited he got reading a book about the strange properties of zero. "He would read parts of it out loud and it would make us both laugh," she says viae-mail, "the way it was worded, what a nuisance zero was to the world of mathematics."

And he enjoyed break-dancing and moon-walking — "he loved to dance and was great at it" — and had a favoriteT-shirt that said "Bust a move."

Friends talk about his generosity: Chiba, who met the musician in 1999, recalls Smith emptying his wallet every time he came to a freeway exit with homeless people, shedding 20s and 100s. He saw himself, she says, as "a champion of the underdog."

Sennett spent weeks recording an album in Smith's Van Nuys studio with its state-of-the-art equipment, 1940s Swedish microphones and a 1960s mixing board like the one George Martin used with the Beatles. Smith didn't charge the guitarist a dime. "He said he built the studio with the intentions of letting it be a free space for musicians."

The studio and the possibilities of studio technology increasingly fascinated Smith, and he was known to stay there experimenting past midnight, staying up for days at a time.

Whoever Smith really was, his musical success was matched with hard living.

In the last few years of his life, there were press reports of crying jags, rough fights, several interventions for alcohol and drugs, at least one suicide attempt and medication for depression and hyperactivity.

Even so, the coroner's office remains inconclusive about his death; its report describes "the absence of hesitation wounds, stabbing through clothing, and the presence of small incised wounds on the right arm and left hand (possible defensive wounds). Additionally, the girlfriend's reported removal of the knife and subsequent refusal to speak with detectives are all of concern."

Chiba, who told investigators she had a fight with Smith right before his death and found a brief suicide note, says she has spoken to police multiple times and prefers not to comment further on the coroner's report.

She says that while Smith was healthy and happy in his last months, he was dealing with "traumatic memories from his childhood" and "biochemical imbalances ... due to the gradual discontinuation of various psychotropic medications."

No drugs were found in Smith's system besides prescription medication. The Jan. 6 coroner's report is almost as ambiguous as an Elliott Smith song: "Detectives believe that this death is possibly suspicious, however, the circumstances are unclear at this time."

Neither the coroner nor the Los Angeles Police Department has issued any new information. "The case has been classified as an undetermined death," Jason Lee of the LAPD's public affairs department said without elaborating; investigating officer James King did not return calls.

Of Smith's last three years Schnapf says, "I'm not gonna go there."

Focus on songwriting

Smith's music — which won fans from Beth Orton to Beck to Bright Eyes to the Kinks' Ray Davies — was so personal that its influence on other musicians is hard to trace.

Classical pianist Christopher O'Riley, who interpreted Radiohead last year, is now performing and recording Smith's music. Despite his melodic and lyrical gift, he says, Smith was too musically sophisticated to be influential. "It's not like you can emulate that."

But Nugent, his biographer, thinks Smith's example gave alternative rock an important new direction. "What he did was return indie rock to '60s songwriting, both conventional and unconventional. The rest of the 'cool' rock world was moving away from that. In the early '90s, rock conventions were almost heresy — the idea was to get away from anything that resembled a pop song."

Smith's solo career, Nugent says, started with quiet, understated music performed "when grunge was still going on and when he was in the Northwest and in a hard rock band." While it's hard to point to a specific group that bears his stamp, Nugent says, "He was greatly admired and listened to by other musicians," and alternative rock has followed the thoughtful, retro road he paved.

"He was extremely restrained; he didn't make the kind of brash, anthemic statements rock musicians are often given to," Nugent says. "In a way he was an anti-Dylan. He loved Dylan's music and covered 'Ballad of a Thin Man' in concert, but he took it away from strident stances and into a personal, ironic place. And he was different from Kurt Cobain because he was not into youth slogans or grandiose statements."

Danny Preston of the band Wiskey Biscuit, a neighbor who performed several of Smith's songs at a November tribute show that may become an annual event, says he really got to know Smith while learning to play his music.

"He has parts that fool you every time," keyboardist Preston says, describing weird chords, tricky bridges and deceptively simple patterns he learned for the concert. Preston's other band, Future Pigeon, now performs Smith's "Waltz #2" and gets an emotional response from fans afterward.

At the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Long Beach two weeks after Smith's death, several musicians, including Iggy Pop and Modest Mouse, performed songs by Smith and there was a tribute by Sebadoh's Lou Barlow leading Smith's old band.

"It's gonna stay with people a long time," Preston says of the impact of Smith's music. "It's gonna be timeless."

Creative control

By most reports, Smith's four years in Los Angeles were fraught. His earliest concerts were brooding but effective alone-with-the-guitar events, while his DreamWorks tours often saw him with a full band and a more extroverted style. By the end, his playing could be unsure and his between-song banter disconnected.

After the tour for 2000's "Figure 8," a bigger, more lavish record, Smith went through a bad period. "Nothing was very good," he told Under the Radar magazine. "It touches on drug use. I got caught up in that for almost two years." He cleaned up about a year before his death, at Beverly Hills' Neurotransmitter Restoration Center, which flushes a patient's system with amino acids and saline solution.

The trouble wasn't all physical. According to musicians who knew him, the pressure of a major label — to sell more records, make videos and tour more often — sometimes became too much for him, and Barlow has said that Smith's last record was rejected by DreamWorks. (Wood disputes this and has called the album "a sabbatical" from his DreamWorks contract.)

In a 2003 interview with Filter magazine, Smith expressed aggravation with "other people [telling] you what songs should be on it." "He was very frustrated with DreamWorks," says Wiskey Biscuit's Preston. "He wanted out of his contract long before that."

The new album, which includes enough material for a double record, has been described as a summing up of his career. Titled "From a Basement on the Hill," it comprises a mix of stripped-down, guitar-and-vocals numbers with sumptuous arrangements that friends say recall the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds." Smith described it to Under the Radar as "impressionistic" and "a pretty big departure."

"Lately I've just been making up a lot of noise," he said of a song that "has no structure in and of itself." Some of the songs, available in pieces on the Internet, sound likely to satisfy fans of his austere, beatific early work. Smith's family will soon choose a label for the release.

"It will help people to hear him say goodbye personally," says Rilo Kiley's Sennett. "But people are still reeling."Besides his music, Smith's legacy includes the Elliott Smith Memorial Fund, which helps fund a foundation for abused children, and the possible Echo Park memorial.

Rick Fein, who began the petition for the memorial, was inspired by Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial in Central Park. He hopes future generations will be "inspired by the incredible harmonies, the 'wall of sound' that he mastered, and of course the lyrics."

Will the new material, or the memorial, ease fans' pain? So far, the shrine on Sunset hasn't.

"When they come to the wall, they're not happy coming," says Solutions' Lew, who watches fans come and go. "They're not happy leaving. You're left with these mixed feelings."
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: tpfkabi on February 15, 2004, 01:47:52 PM
thanks for posting that.
his producer, Rob, is working with a band called Eisley now. he told them there were 58 songs to sift through for the new record. the fact that people are comparing the arrangements to Pet Sounds is good to hear......can't wait to hear it!
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on April 29, 2004, 07:45:04 PM
according to elliott's family...

"Now, the new cd. we are beginning the final mixing and production phase in mid-may and are planning for a september or october release. we will know the name of the label by the end of the month and i'll let you know just as soon as the final decision is made."
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on May 08, 2004, 01:46:47 PM
Rob Schnapf(sp?), Elliott's friend and producer of his last few albums, is mixing the album right now. He's working with a band, Eisley (which is where my avatar comes from), and they took a two week or so break so he could finish mixing. I think at one point there might have been 50 or so songs possibly for the album. That must be really tough to have to listen to your friend's voice after they're gone.

I have recently become a pretty big ES fan. I bought Figure 8 a few years ago, and I just thought it was 'alright.' Last December or so I began listening to it again and really liking it. Then I read the Switchfoot singer, Jon Foreman, say something about X/O. So, I got that and loved it. Next I got the self-titled and loved it. Then I got Either/Or and loved it. All I'm missing, as far as full lengths, is Roman Candle. How does that album compare with the others?  At some point I think I want to order the 7" singles of Division Day and Pretty (Ugly Before). I would like a copy of Miss Misery, but I hate to buy the entire soundtrack just for one song.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Finn on May 09, 2004, 02:24:14 PM
He was really a terrific singer/songwriter. No wonder he was a big influence on Aimee Mann.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: El Duderino on May 09, 2004, 04:55:41 PM
i really like the good will hunting soundtrack, that's all i've really heard of him.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: moonshiner on May 16, 2004, 09:38:29 AM
ben folds does a really sad song about elliot smith called Late, you can find a live version at this site http://www.pitchpipe.org/ben/

it's supposed to appear on his next LP, heartbreaking stuff

"it's been too late for a long time..."
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Pedro on May 31, 2004, 09:18:58 PM
http://svc111.bne117v.server-web.com/music/concerts/elliottsmith/index.html
live elliott video if you're intersted
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on June 01, 2004, 06:09:48 PM
thanks, that's pretty cool.
unfortunately i have a 56k, so it's just still pictures changing from time to time with clear audio feed.

i guess you can't dowload it?
i would like to see how he plays guitar.......chords fingered/movement

has everyone checked out this site?
http://lido.binaryops.com/
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Finn on June 01, 2004, 09:34:14 PM
Wow! Thanks!
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on July 15, 2004, 10:47:53 PM
best thing ever...

Elliott Smith's Final Album Due In October
Source: MTV NEWS 07.15.2004 6:03 AM EDT  

Nine months after Elliott Smith's death, his final album is being prepared for an October release.

From a Basement on the Hill is slated for an October 19 release on Anti- Records, nearly a year to the day after Smith's death. The singer had almost completed the album before he died from knife wounds suffered in his Los Angeles apartment on October 21 (see "Singer/Songwriter Elliott Smith Dead; Friends, Fellow Musicians Pay Tribute"). Although initial speculation pointed toward suicide, the circumstances of his death are the subject of an ongoing investigation.

The album was assembled by Smith's longtime producer, Rob Schnapf, and Joanna Bolme, Smith's onetime girlfriend and current bassist for Stephen Malkmus' band, the Jicks, who worked on his 1997 breakthrough album, Either/Or. Smith's family commissioned the pair to help finish the album, which Smith had recorded over the course of three years.

Using a combination of detective work, instinct and notes and demos Smith left behind, Schnapf and Bolme carefully steered the album in the direction they believed Smith intended.

Originally conceived as a double album, the final version of From a Basement on a Hill has been pared down to 15 tracks that run the gamut of Smith's musical styles.

Lyrically, the subject matter is less impressionistic than Smith's previous album, Figure 8, and more direct and confessional about his tumultuous life and drug abuse. "Shooting Star" and "Fond Farewell" all contain allusions to his troubled final years. ("The cold comfort of the in-between/ A little less than a human being/ A little less than a happy high/ A little less than a suicide" — "Fond Farewell.") "Strung Out Again" conveys the fallout of drug addiction: "Just looking in the mirror will make you a brave man/ I know my place, hate my face."

Musically, the album reconciles Smith's two musical identities — the haunting, raw-nerve acoustic work of his early records and the more expansive, psychedelic and symphonic pop of his later material — taking its aural cues from the lo-fi aesthetics of 1997's Either/Or while maintaining the exploratory nature of his final albums, XO and Figure 8.

While the songwriting is sophisticated, the sound is intentionally rough around the edges, with a distinct element of controlled chaos.

Some tracks are uncharacteristically heavy and build to crescendos of explosive guitars and drums ("Coast to Coast," "Shooting Star"). Musically, "Strung Out Again" bridges these two worlds, beginning with delicate acoustics before bursting open with abrasive drums and fuzzy, swirling guitar overdubs.

Opening with a droning interlude of mumbling spoken-word passages and ghostly noise, "Coast to Coast" is one of Smith's most ambitious studio creations. The oblique opus soon erupts with a distorted cacophony of drums played by the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd and former Beachwood Sparks member Aaron Sperske.

Conversely, the most emotionally arresting track, "Twilight" — a vulnerable, melancholy acoustic number — harkens back to Smith's seminal Either/Or disc. Other songs also closely cling to spare and raw minimalism ("Little One," "Let's Get Lost"). Ardent fans will recognize many of the album's songs from Smith's stark acoustic performances over the years.

The album concludes with an alternate, updated version of "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free," the B-side to Smith's last single ("Pretty [Ugly Before]") that was originally released on Suicide Squeeze Records in August of 2003. The new version, free of the "Strawberry Fields"-ish organ, is still Beatlesque but contains drastically different, vaguely political lyrics: "It's so disappointing, first I put it all down to luck/ God knows why my country don't give a f---."

The track will be available a few months before the release of Basement (August 10) on the Future Soundtrack for America, a compilation assembled by Barsuk Records and McSweeny's Publishing to benefit Moveon.org and similar organizations.

Thirty-four tracks were recorded for the From a Basement on the Hill sessions, and currently there are no specific plans for the remaining 19 songs. B-sides and unreleased material from Smith's two previous albums fall under his contract with DreamWorks Records (which is now owned by Universal Music Group) and it is presently unknown if and when that material will see the light of day, though demoed material for XO called "The Jackpot Sessions" has recently leaked online. Basement is being released on Anti- because Smith's contract with DreamWorks allowed him to release albums on smaller independent labels.

From a Basement on the Hill track list, according to Smith's longtime publicist:


"Coast to Coast"
"Let's Get Lost"
"Pretty (Ugly Before)"
"Don't Go Down"
"Strung Out Again"
"Fond Farewell"
"King's Crossing"
"Ostriches & Chirping"
"Twilight"
"A Passing Feeling"
"Last Hour"
"Shooting Star"
"Memory Lane"
"Little One"
"A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free"


(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sweetadeline.net%2Fimages%2Ffaothcd.jpg&hash=d4ffda7c50be2c6c38f65fedfdcb412e26e5b24f)
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on July 16, 2004, 06:56:57 AM
i can't wait to hear this. that description for Coast to Coast sounds amazing. i don't understand why they wouldn't make it a double album if that's what Elliott intended. my guess is that maybe the 15 they chose were tracks they felt were close to how Elliott would release them.......i don't know.........i hope they release all the rest of the songs, finished or not.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Finn on July 16, 2004, 11:27:25 AM
Great to hear!
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Redlum on July 16, 2004, 11:40:38 AM
Yeah. I'm so stupid for not listening to him sooner. I loved Miss Misery as soon as I heard it GWH but never looked any further. This sounds like a perfect mix. I know some people have criticised Figure 8 for being over-produced (well, in comparison with Either/Or) but I love both  styles equally. 'Angeles' and 'Son of Sam' were in my playlist constantly last month.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on July 17, 2004, 11:14:03 AM
i've been listening to Figure 8 a lot this week. i saw a Biography on Son of Sam, David Berkowitz and i led me back.
i really wonder what Elliott was trying to say with that song?

is that the final cover for the album?
i don't think Elliott would have approved that.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Finn on July 18, 2004, 06:21:56 PM
I was just thinking about Elliott Smith's death again...so tragic. I suppose everyone rules that his death was a suicide, since I never heard anything about it being something else (even though the coroner's report was in question). I think my favorite album of his was XO, but I also really like Figure 8. My favorite song from Either/Or is probably Alameda. Looking forward to his album in October.

RIP Elliott Smith
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: cron on July 18, 2004, 08:41:56 PM
what's the link for that article, MacGuffin?
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: MacGuffin on July 18, 2004, 08:59:57 PM
Quote from: cronopiowhat's the link for that article, MacGuffin?

I don't know or remember. The Los Angeles Times keeps articles up for about a week, then stores 'em the archives where you then have to pay to access them, which is why I copy and paste articles.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: tpfkabi on July 18, 2004, 10:10:42 PM
Quote from: InsomniacI was just thinking about Elliott Smith's death again...so tragic. I suppose everyone rules that his death was a suicide, since I never heard anything about it being something else (even though the coroner's report was in question). I think my favorite album of his was XO, but I also really like Figure 8. My favorite song from Either/Or is probably Alameda. Looking forward to his album in October.

RIP Elliott Smith

i have exactly the same Elliott taste as you. a lot of people say Either/Or is their favorite, but i like X/O. Figure 8 is great. i like Either/Or a lot, but the second half kinda loses me a bit.......it's not bad, but just not as strong as the first.......i like Alameda and Pictures of Me a lot.

yesterday i made a mix CD and i put all of my Elliott non-album tracks on there. it has A Living Will, Angel in the Snow, Brand New Game and some b-sides. Brand New GAme is labeled as a Figure 8 demo, so that means some people have the complete demos for that album......anyone know how i can get that and/or what the other 2 songs i mentioned above are from?
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: modage on July 18, 2004, 10:22:25 PM
handful of b-sides here...

http://www.geocities.com/smithdownloads3/linkspage.html

either/or demos here...

http://www.sweetadeline.net/audio/

recently leaked 'jackpot' xo sessions here...

http://www.blamonet.com/vb/showthread.php?s=01c48f99b0a62b004070eb0dd14c5d0f&threadid=51510

i'm still looking for all the figure 8 sessions stuff on soulseek.  anyone wanting to help me out would be appreciated very greatly.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: tpfkabi on July 18, 2004, 10:37:59 PM
oh, wow, that's awesome Mod!

i'm not sure what Angel in the Snow comes from, but it sounds like its from around the time of his self-titled album.
Some Song and No Name #6 are free downloads from Kill Rock Stars or Suicide Squeeze, i can't remember.

i'm downloading a song, Placeholder, from elliottsmith.com right now.
Title: Elliott Smith R.I.P
Post by: Finn on July 18, 2004, 10:46:37 PM
Thanks!
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on August 09, 2004, 04:51:15 PM
the final Elliott Smith album has leaked, (although apparently an un-mastered version).  i dont know if its wrong to download it early, but for anyone who just cant wait, its out there....
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Pedro on August 09, 2004, 05:17:59 PM
Quote from: themodernage02the final Elliott Smith album has leaked, (although apparently an un-mastered version).  i dont know if its wrong to download it early, but for anyone who just cant wait, its out there....
sexilicious.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on August 09, 2004, 09:24:03 PM
have you heard it yet?

i just got Roman Candle and the Pretty(Ugly Before) 7" today.
if the 7'' is any indication, (which of course it is) the album's going to be amazing......i've read that the version of A Distorted Reality on the full length has different lyrics and a different arrangement........its hard for to think that there could be a better version.

and the vinyl sounds tons better than what the mp3's did.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Finn on August 13, 2004, 06:54:16 PM
I really like his live recordings of Jealous Guy, Alameda, Walk Away Renee...man he was great!
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on August 13, 2004, 11:55:34 PM
i finally got to listen to Roman Candle. it's pretty solid too, just a little short.

does anyone know anything about the Jackpot Sessions?

also, i was reading in his last interview that someone stole copies of his early sessions of Basement........now, i'm not talking about what has just leaked, this had to be first half of 2003 at least............have these surfaced anywhere?
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on August 14, 2004, 11:42:03 AM
Quote from: bigideasdoes anyone know anything about the Jackpot Sessions?
yeah.  they are his XO studio sessions (although they just leaked) and contain alternate versions of songs on the album as well as songs that never made it (or turned up as b-side) and a beatles cover for good measure.  its good.  

21 tracks are....

1. division day (alt)
2. bled white (alt)
3. i didnt understand (alt)
4. amity (lp)
5. miss misery (alt)
6. waltz #1 (alt)
7. untitled (seen how things are hard)
8. georgia
9. how to take a fall
10. some (rock) song
11. bottle up and explode (alt)
12. nothing has changed (w/neil gust)
13. the enemy is you
14. no name #6
15. amanda cecilia
16. a question mark (instrumental)
17. silver chain (instrumental)
18. untitled (instrumental)
19. revolution
20. a place to stay (w/mary lou lord)
21. i figured you out (w/mary lou lord)
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on August 14, 2004, 04:16:32 PM
http://www.geocities.com/smithdownloads3/linkspage.html

ok, then maybe i've heard a lot of them through the page above. i remember I Didn't Understand sounded really great with piano.

have you downloaded Basement yet? i think i'm going to wait.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on August 15, 2004, 11:29:15 AM
yes i did.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on August 15, 2004, 02:03:01 PM
Quote from: themodernage02yes i did.

...................andddddduhduhduh?

Coast to Coast sounds amazing from the description

are the Jackpot Sessions up anywhere for download? i thought they were up at Sweet Addy, but i didn't see it in the music section.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: imawombat on August 16, 2004, 02:31:31 PM
yes...

how is it?  i'm dying to know.  my old computer doesn't have the capacity to download and i used to do it at work, but my job ended.

in any case, i love the jackpot session stuff.  especially amanda cecilia.

oh, and you are right-that a lot of stuff is on sweet addy if you search for it.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on August 16, 2004, 10:21:59 PM
so there an actual page with the mp3's or are you talking about searching through the messageboard?

i downloaded Amanda Cecilia through that page i linked above, as well as those different versions of X/0 songs. i have yet to make a CD for them yet.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: imawombat on August 17, 2004, 11:52:33 AM
i think you may have to search through the board for the thread about that.

however, try //www.somesongs.net  for some live shows.

there are some great ones there.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: bigperm on September 08, 2004, 03:52:45 PM
New DVD out in November.
http://www.fattvideos.com/dvd_video/67150/SMITH_ELLIOTT_OLYMPIA_WA
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Pedro on September 08, 2004, 05:15:58 PM
Quote from: the dvd descriptionthis was one of the last shows to feature Smith alone on stage.
ha.  lies.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on September 10, 2004, 11:39:29 PM
if you didn't know, you can now legally download an official track from the album, Twilight, at Sweet Adeline.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Finn on September 27, 2004, 07:27:10 AM
I just downloaded his new album off Winmx. It's really great. At least now I won't have to wait until October :wink:
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Rudie Obias on September 27, 2004, 04:03:49 PM
the new elliott smith is amazing!
Title: elliott smith
Post by: MacGuffin on October 09, 2004, 12:52:31 PM
Striking revelation in epics, vignettes
Elliott Smith's posthumous album scores 4 stars. Source: Los Angeles Times

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.calendarlive.com%2Fmedia%2Fphoto%2F2004-10%2F14579248.jpg&hash=92faf7cac3528e4d62957a63fbdca26e8a3c723b)

Elliott Smith
"From a Basement on the Hill" (Anti-)

The title of the venerated singer-songwriter's posthumous album pairs contrasting perspectives — the image of the basement suggests digging below the surface, while the hill evokes the idea of taking in a wide view.

Both viewpoints are in force on the album, with some songs penetrating deep into a character's private psychology and others observing emotional activity from a more detached, narrative vantage point.

The album, which Smith had finished recording but hadn't mixed or sequenced, comes out Oct. 19, almost a year to the day after he died of a knife wound in his Los Angeles apartment. For someone who enjoyed an unusually intense bond with his audience, that's not nearly long enough for his presence to fade, and his lingering memory will probably color the way many listeners hear some of the album's especially revealing lines.

But in its ramshackle glory and musical wanderlust, "Basement" reaches far beyond the cult that coalesced around Smith during his decade-long evolution from isolated confessional auteur to one of the most widely admired troubadours of his generation.

Smith, who started in punk rock, chafed under that stereotype, and "Basement" — conceived as an independent release during a temporary break from his DreamWorks/Interscope contract — served as a revitalizing break from the normal career cycle.

Freed from the more formal sound and circumstances of his previous work, Smith indulged without being indulgent, and the revelation here is the exuberant, instinctive, playful and daring sonic pilot who was hidden inside the meticulous craftsman of such albums as "XO" and "Figure 8."

Time after time, Smith drops his poignant, enticing melodies into musical maelstroms fashioned from fuzzed and distorted guitars, clattering rhythms and layers of sounds ranging from keyboards and string arrangements to chattering voices to the chirps of birds and crickets.

These bracing, unruly epics are balanced by more gentle, intimate reveries, but no matter where you go, the thematic terrain is pure Smith, following the music's swings from euphoria to despair. Smith is unmatched at capturing the futility of a life dogged by toxic relationships and detox clinics, a life whose promises of solace evaporate like phantoms.

Even though his singing is freer and more forward than ever, its plangent timbre always carries at least a trace of pain. By the end, you know what it's like to feel everything so intensely that it just hurts too much.

— Richard Cromelin
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Redlum on October 14, 2004, 04:03:53 AM
You can hear the whole album here:
http://www.mtv.com/music/album_preview/elliott_smith/from_a_basement_on_the_hill/index.jhtml

The last track is amazing. Im gonna wait for the cd but I listened to this cause I have an old version of it. Sooo goood....
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on October 14, 2004, 09:39:49 AM
its also available now for download on iTunes if anyone is interested in that.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: cine on October 14, 2004, 11:31:25 AM
iTunes: If It's Got Audio, We've Got It.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: kassius on October 19, 2004, 06:57:09 PM
Quote from: themodernage02didnt see him on here.  but he is certainly one of my favorite artists right now.

Damn straight...

When Elliot Smith died
Murder with no alibi
Wild hotel ride
LA suicide
Stabbed himself with a sword they say
But lately he's been sounding good anyway
Sometimes it takes a little blood maybe
But for whatever reason
I've been listening to Elliot Smith

Seems like a lot of times
When a man turns to suicide
His fame'll spread far and wide
Like when Van Gogh or Kurt Cobain died
And you can even include James Dean I guess
Though his death was an accident, more or less
But for whatever reason you didn't hear much
About the death of Elliot Smith

Yeah but I got reasons to hang about
Wanna see how the Kobe thing comes out
I've never seen an Australian moon
I got tickets for the Giants in San Francisco this June
My van's been running pretty well
Every Sunday there's a new king of the Hill
I wanna prove that Bush and Bin Laden are in cahoots
Iowa beat Florida in the Outback Bowl which should help with recruits
I learned how to make tortilla chips and my bike has new gears
Churchill never held office 'til his 60th year
And mostly you just never know who with
Or where you're gonna find your bliss
Maybe today your gift
Is listening to Elliot Smith

Well if fame and fortune ain't the bride
Don't go along with suicide
If all the tears so quickly dried
When Elliot Smith died
Well I guess there's less reason than you think
For mixing pills, depression, and drink
If death and greatness has no link
Well too bad--
Too bad about Elliot Smith
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on October 19, 2004, 10:31:27 PM
this sheds some interesting light.......

http://www.sfbg.com/39/02/art_music_elliott_smith.html
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Ghostboy on November 25, 2004, 01:40:03 PM
The last of my brief Thanksgiving morning musically related posts concerns this fine, fine final album from a great musician. I'm hesitant to call it his best work yet...but actually, I think it is. Maybe it's knowing his fate that makes it so moving, but I think this is the most tears-inducing album I've heard in ages. The opening measures of Twilight put a lump in my throat almost instantly.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Film Student on December 03, 2004, 05:12:39 PM
agreed, ghostboy.

The most difficult moments for me on the album are "Strung Out Again" and "King's Crossing", the former a hopeless portrait of Smith's own view of himself ("just looking in the mirror will make you a brave man/ I know my place/ I hate my face/ I know how I begin and how I'll end/ Strung Out Again"), while on the latter Smith first says "I can't prepare for death any more than I already have", then follows that with maybe his most explicit image yet of heroin abuse ("It's Christmas time and the needle's on the tree, a skinny Santa is bringin' somethin' to me"... then "but I don't care if I fuck up, I'm going on a date with a rich white lady, ain't life great?").  

Overall, the album just seems a lot more exuberant and emotional than his previous releases.  One minute he's a melancholic romantic desperate to get lost, the next a depressed junkie with nothing to lose, the next a knight in shining armor saving a girl from tyrannical parents, the next an angry cuckold, etc.  

This is my personal favorite of his, with Either/Or and XO in a close second.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on December 03, 2004, 05:30:26 PM
elliott smith is/was one of my favorite artists but i find this to be maybe his weakest album.  the main reason for me is that it sounds like a work in progress.  which it is, and i'm glad to have the album in its unfinished/truncated form rather than nothing at all, BUT it makes me sadder at how great it could've been had he finished it.  i've had most of these songs in their raw live acoustic form forever and when i heard them on the album, they just didnt seem like they were finished.  i dont know how else to say it.  there are moments of beauty, and it is still one of my favorite records of the year, but it is perhaps his most depressing/bleak album and most inconsistent.  

there a huge article on him in the new SPIN with u2 on the cover and i just read it.  its horribly depressing.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Redlum on December 08, 2004, 10:12:47 AM
I love the bit in Kings crossing just before the "rich white lady" bit, which goes "open your parachute and grab your gun/falling down like an omen, a setting sun/read the part where we turn out fine/its a hell of a role if you can keep it alive".

Anyway. There are some very cool live videos on http://www.elliottsmith.com/ , now
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Reinhold on October 13, 2005, 01:01:48 AM
i listened to my entire elliott smith library last night. and again today. good stuff.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on October 13, 2005, 09:36:05 AM
are you trying to get back in my good graces?  :elitist:
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Figure 8 on October 13, 2005, 04:11:16 PM
Quote from: Reinhold Messneri listened to my entire elliott smith library last night. and again today. good stuff.
Which ones does that include?

And man, going back now seeing this thread, reading some of these posts, it's really, really depressing.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on October 17, 2005, 03:35:56 PM
Nearly Two Dozen Unreleased Elliott Smith Songs Leaked Online
Source: MTV 10.14.2005 5:48 PM EDT

Just a week shy of the second anniversary of Elliott Smith's death, a bounty of unreleased material — including tracks from the sessions for the singer/songwriter's final LP, From a Basement on the Hill — has leaked online.

The 22 tracks are being circulated under the title From a Basement on the Hill II and are purported to be songs dropped from the LP. However, much of the material is believed to date from long before the album's sessions, some of it going back as far as the mid-'90s. Charlie Ramirez, Webmaster for the official Smith site SweetAdeline.net, says, "I think some of them might have been considered for Basement, but not necessarily."

Smith died from an apparent suicide on October 21, 2003 ("Singer/Songwriter Elliott Smith Dead; Friends, Fellow Musicians Pay Tribute").

Originally conceived as a double album, Basement was ultimately released in October 2004 as a single 15-track LP ("Elliott Smith's Final Album Due In October"). According to a publicist for Smith, 34 songs were recorded during the album's lengthy sessions, although various interviews and accounts put the figure closer to 50 tracks.

Ascertaining an exact number may not be possible, since Smith began recording the album in 2001 and its sessions spanned a troubled period for the singer, during which he descended into drug abuse and virtually disappeared from the music world before recovering. He was tweaking and recording songs for the album right up until his death.

According to Ramirez, tracks that are definitely outtakes from Basement sessions include "Abused," "The Worst Part Is Almost Over" and possibly "High Times," "New Disaster" and "Riot Coming." Other leaked tracks like "Placeholder," "See My City Dead" and "Georgia" date from the Either/Or era (1996-97). Much of the leaked material is in Smith's traditional folk mode, though "Abused" explodes suddenly with rockist tendencies and features the lyric "You feel bruised now/ Body and mind/ You feel used now almost all of the time."

Basement was originally to be produced by Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Kanye West), who played on both X/O and 2000's Figure 8. But according to Benjamin Nugent's 2004 unauthorized biography, "Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing," the sessions ground to a halt when Brion could no longer tolerate Smith's spiraling drug abuse. Smith himself alluded to this in his last interview, which appeared in the Los Angeles-based magazine Under the Radar, where he said the early Basement sessions had been scrapped because of a botched friendship.

While Smith's family asked longtime producer Rob Schnapf and Smith's ex-girlfriend Joanna Bolme to put together the final version of Basement, producer Dave McConnell — who recorded more than half of the songs that appeared on the released album — said he was disappointed that he wasn't asked to participate. He said he'd kept "about three years' worth of notes" regarding Smith's plans for the material's mixing and presentation, but was never asked for them. He notes that "Ostrich & Chirping," a whimsical instrumental that appears on the album, was actually performed by him, not Smith, and was probably not meant for inclusion on the record.

"I think it was one of those situations where the family was so sad and taken down by the loss of their son that I think they wanted to work with somebody they knew," McConnell said, referring to Schnapf and Bolme. "Somebody that would be there emotionally as well as doing the work ... and I can't say I blame them, really."

According to McConnell and Nugent, three songs were removed from the proposed final version of From a Basement on the Hill at the family's behest, presumably for their lyrical content: "Abused," "Suicide Machine" and another track.

In response to the inevitable question about how Smith might have felt about the released version of Basement, McConnell said, "I think maybe after a long fight and kicking and screaming for a few weeks, he might have acquiesced. I don't think he would have delivered [that] record. The record he would have delivered would had more songs, would have had different mixes and [been] a little more in your face."

The number of reported Basement outtakes extends into double digits and includes still-unreleased songs like the rocking "Mr. Good Morning," the intimate "From a Poisoned Well," "Dancing on the Highway," the driving instrumental "See You in Heaven" and "True Love," a track McConnell said was recorded with Brion.

Smith's material has been in the headlines quite frequently in recent months. His covers of Big Star's "Thirteen" and Cat Stevens' "Trouble" — the latter is believed to be one of the last songs he completed before his death — were released on the "Thumbsucker" soundtrack (see "Elliott Smith, Polyphonics Bring Balance To 'Thumbsucker' Soundtrack"), and pianist Christopher O'Riley is recording an album of Smith songs.

Additionally, a tribute album called To: Elliott From: Portland due in February, was recently announced and features Smith covers by Portland, Oregon-based artists including the Decemberists, the Thermals, Swords, the Helio Sequence, Eric Matthews and Sean Croghan.

Croghan covers "High Times," a song that, up until the recent leak, few people had ever heard. "After Elliott died, I spent a lot of time listening to these tapes he had given me of various recordings he made at home," Croghan says in the album's liner notes. " 'High Times' hit me like a brick in the face." Matthews' performance is based on the original arrangement of "Needle in the Hay" (which he played on), which included horns, harmonica and drums before Smith scaled it down to the voice-and-guitar version on his self-titled sophomore disc.

At press time, a spokesperson for Smith's estate had no comment about the leaked tracks.


Unreleased - 22 tracks

get it quickly here:

http://s63.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=280N3V6P8NOHZ2QCCBS4JH1U4A

or here:

http://www.filefarmer.com/raindog/elliott/basement2/

or here:

http://www.elliottsmithbsides.com/BasementIIDemos.htm
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Figure 8 on October 17, 2005, 04:43:20 PM
Thank you so much.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: JG on October 17, 2005, 05:00:11 PM
ive been listening to this for a week.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: modage on October 17, 2005, 05:10:17 PM
thanks a lot, asshole.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ on October 17, 2005, 08:35:17 PM
Quote from: JimmyGatorive been listening to this for a week.

Where were you a week ago on posting that, then?
Title: elliott smith
Post by: JG on October 17, 2005, 08:55:45 PM
yeah sorry about that.  i was really going to but the link i downloaded it from was all used up and i tried to yousendit and it didn't work.  i was about to make the post too...

and i've kinda been away for the computer since then.

i do feel like a jerk now.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ on October 17, 2005, 09:00:17 PM
Quote from: JimmyGator

i do feel like a jerk now.

Don't worry about it.


It has some high points, but the first track is pretty horrible quality... even for a demo.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: JG on October 17, 2005, 09:13:28 PM
High Times and Track 16 are great.  It's cool cause I never heard "Either/Or"  and i'm loving that.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Figure 8 on October 17, 2005, 09:53:45 PM
I thought the cover of Thirteen was pretty damn good, too.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Reinhold on October 18, 2005, 12:13:50 AM
Quote from: Figure 8
Quote from: Reinhold Messneri listened to my entire elliott smith library last night. and again today. good stuff.
Which ones does that include?

Either/Or
Figure 8
XO
Roman Candle
From a Basement on the Hill
Title: elliott smith
Post by: ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ on October 18, 2005, 12:34:04 AM
Get his Self Titled ... STAT!
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Reinhold on October 18, 2005, 12:35:34 AM
ken somebuddy pleez host it 4 me?
Title: elliott smith
Post by: Garam on October 18, 2005, 04:00:17 AM
This news makes me very happy. I hope they release it. The sound quality's a little iffy.
Title: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on October 29, 2005, 01:13:16 AM
i've downloaded mp3's of placeholder, angel in the snow, amanda cecilia, and thirteen for sure. maybe i don't think i'm ever going to figure it out and no name #6 as well. i just wondered if these are the same files?

p.s. if i had a fast connection i'd just download and see, but i'm still 56k.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: MacGuffin on February 01, 2006, 12:09:13 PM
Elliott Smith still sings to his studio's keepers
Two musicians and one sound engineer keep the flame burning for Elliott Smith at New Monkey Studio.
Source: Los Angeles Times

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.calendarlive.com%2Fmedia%2Fphoto%2F2006-01%2F21715666.jpg&hash=a98688b4644c5b0b0524e58fc4a29682cc44a3d6)

With the white candles, reverent words and hushed tones, it could almost have been a religious service. And in a sense it was: The two musicians and one sound engineer gathered in a tight warren of rooms in the San Fernando Valley were, among other things, paying homage to a departed saint, battered troubadour Elliott Smith.

The trio has spent the last 18 months or so fixing up New Monkey Studio, which Smith owned for the last three years before his 2003 death from stab wounds to the chest and where he recorded some of the songs on the posthumous album "From a Basement on the Hill" as well as others unreleased.

"Elliott's away for a while," says drummer and music manager Robert Cappadona while leading a visitor through the studio he owns with guitarist Joel Graves of the band Earlimart. "We're just minding the store."

The neighborhood is decidedly mundane, conveying neither the indie-rock-cool Smith embodied nor the morbid chill that has clung to him since his death. (The L.A. County coroner has never closed the book on whether it was suicide or homicide, saying there was not enough evidence to rule either way.) Wide, charmless Van Nuys Boulevard is lined with countless new car lots; a vacuum cleaner repair store sits a few doors down.

And the studio itself is modest. With its Persian rug on hardwood floors, small refrigerator and TV it could be a neater-than-usual dorm room. On entering, only an original mid-'60s poster for the Who's "I'm a Boy" single suggests that there's something unusual here.

But inside are artifacts that would excite any serious music fan — especially an enthusiast of the British Invasion rock that served as the foundation for Smith's music, even when his work was at its most fragile and haunting. "It's an amazing collection of gear," Graves says, "that we didn't want to see disassembled and sold off on EBay."

The studio's key piece is a console made in the early '70s at London's Trident Studios. According to Mike Terry, the Grammy-nominated engineer who has helped Graves and Cappadona refurbish the studio, only 13 were made, and they were used making records by Rush, Queen and AC/DC.

"It leads to a really big, round rock sound," says Graves. "We were told the selling point for Elliott was that some of [George Harrison's] 'All Things Must Pass' may've been recorded on this console."

But most of the pieces come from the more hand-crafted tradition of 1950s and '60s analog equipment, like the studio's classic '50s tube microphones, or the 1959 limiter (a device that helps prevent distorted recordings), both the sort of equipment favored by the Beatles.

Graves describes these pieces as producing analog sound with "a natural warmth to it — what people love about vinyl records."

And Terry, who was nominated for a 1999 Grammy for his work with the Foo Fighters, points out that the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds," revered for its studio wizardry, was recorded in a studio as small as New Monkey.

Still, while they describe the refurbishment as a labor of love, it's also been, as Graves puts it, "a battle" to get some of this old machinery working properly.

Graves, Cappadona and Terry are hoping to attract others with an ear for that sound. Members of Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes and Modest Mouse have recorded in various configurations, and Earlimart has begun work on its next album at New Monkey.

So far the studio, which has recently allowed outsiders in to record, is filled only a few weeks a month.

"I'd like to see it working every day, with people in and out of here," says Cappadona. "To allow bands that might not be able to touch this kind of equipment come in here and make records." He's referring in part to the studio's relatively low rates: $500 for a 12-hour day.

Smith's fans — who tend to have an intense and personal connection to his music and persona — seem to have warmed to the project. The studio's opening, for instance, has been announced approvingly on Smith's website, www.sweetadeline.net.

Charlie Ramirez, who runs the site, says he has heard only good words from other fans, some of whom hope to record in the studio.

"Elliott created that studio not only for himself but to help his friends and other musicians to have a place to record with pretty much no boundaries," he says. "I think Joel, Robert and their friends really understood what kind of environment Elliott was going for."

The trio suspects that the New Monkey name, which doubles as their website domain name (newmonkeystudio.com), came from Smith's sense that the studio where he spent many a day and night tinkering in his final years had become the new "monkey on his back."

For an artist whose tangles with drugs and alcohol were legendary, it's a reminder of the dark magic the place still embodies.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: modage on February 14, 2007, 11:21:19 AM
Exclusive: Elliott Smith Rarities Due on Kill Rock Stars
Source: Pitchfork

Happy Valentine's Day, Elliott Smith fans! Kill Rock Stars has delivered a priceless gift, better than chocolate, flowers, and diamonds combined. On May 8, the label that helped launch Smith's career will release New Moon, a two-disc collection of songs recorded in 1995-1997, the period concurrent with the making of Smith's classic KRS albums Elliott Smith and Either/Or.

KRS will also release New Moon on vinyl, while Domino-- which treated audiences outside North America to Elliott Smith and Either/Or-- will serve up New Moon there on May 7.

A portion of the proceeds from sales of New Moon will go to Outside In, a Portland, Oregon social service agency helping homeless youth.

New Moon was mixed by Smith's longtime friend and collaborator, producer/engineer Larry Crane, who also serves as the archivist for Smith's estate.

In a press release, Kill Rock Stars noted that the Los Angeles Police Department's investigation into Smith's death on October 21, 2003 remains open. The mystery and legend of Elliott Smith continues to grow.

New Moon tracklist:

Disc One:

01 Angel in the Snow
02 Talking to Mary
03 High Times
04 New Monkey
05 Looking Over My Shoulder
06 Going Nowhere
07 Riot Coming
08 All Cleaned Out
09 First Timer
10 Go By
11 Miss Misery (Early Version)
12 Thirteen

Disc Two:

01 Georgia Georgia
02 Whatever (Folk Song in C)
03 Big Decision
04 Placeholder
05 New Disaster
06 Seen How Things Are Hard
07 Fear City
08 Either/Or
09 Pretty Mary K (Other Version)
10 Almost Over
11 See You Later
12 Half Right
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on February 17, 2007, 11:48:46 PM
i'm glad they're doing this. hopefully there will be several of these releases. the titles i recognize are pretty good songs as far as i can remember.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on October 28, 2007, 02:29:52 PM
that Autumn de Wilde is everywhere in music photography.

Spoon thinks she's auGumn though.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: Robyn on April 16, 2012, 08:27:28 AM
I did a tattoo

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Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: tpfkabi on April 17, 2012, 08:27:31 PM
Just wondering the other day if they are ever going to release a New Moon type comp for the stuff after 1997.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: Pozer on April 17, 2012, 10:06:59 PM
Quote from: KarlJan on April 16, 2012, 08:27:28 AM
I did a tattoo

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdesmond.imageshack.us%2FHimg440%2Fscaled.php%3Fserver%3D440%26amp%3Bfilename%3Dtumblrm29y5vzjqn1r9jmhg.jpg%26amp%3Bres%3Dlanding&hash=b955a23c319eaa9511e8a4ac2a9b197c65cd7235)

knife in a heart woulda been cooler.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: Pubrick on April 17, 2012, 11:10:51 PM
Scribbling XO on a t shirt would've been wiser.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: Robyn on April 18, 2012, 03:39:17 AM
Quote from: tpfkabi on April 17, 2012, 08:27:31 PM
Just wondering the other day if they are ever going to release a New Moon type comp for the stuff after 1997.

Yeah, they probably will at some point. Kill Rock Stars is sitting on alot of unreleased (and leaked) songs and they would just be stupid if they never released them. Have you listened to the Grand Mal: Studio Rarities? If don't, do it! It's a great compilation.

Quote from: Pubrick on April 17, 2012, 11:10:51 PM
Scribbling XO on a t shirt would've been wiser.

Yeah, but i'm not very wise am i?
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: 72teeth on April 18, 2012, 03:51:21 PM
i like those tats man,  nice tribute...

and if you grow to regret 'em, know that your in good(?) company... i tattooed 'dwp' on my ankle one drunknite "cuz i was badass, maaan!" I thought it was cool til I tried to impress a girl woman with it and only got her shitty-face in return.
Then i hated it and considered it a huge mistake. But now, i love it and see it as a token from a youth-mentality ill (hopefully/sadly) never return too. It's almost like graffiti from a past life saying "That's right, MAAAN, i did this shit, ME was here!" It's like young me can flip me off for growing up every time I look at my ankle.
Silly ankle. Silly Me. Miss you young me...

Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: wilder on May 20, 2015, 02:10:19 PM
Blu-ray (http://www.amazon.com/Elliot-Smith-Heaven-Adores-You-Blu-ray/dp/B00WHZZBTQ?SubscriptionId=AKIAIY4YSQJMFDJATNBA&tag=bluray-012-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00WHZZBTQ&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER) of the documentary Elliot Smith: Heaven Adores You on July 16, 2015
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: modage on July 01, 2015, 09:59:23 AM
Huge Elliott Smith fan but "Heaven Adores You" is pretty bad, which is a shame because they have a good number of interviews with close friends and collaborators and it's all competently shot and assembled (never looks cheap like some docs) but narratively it really misses the mark. If you took out the shots of landscapes and ambient music, you could literally cut the running time in half. The film's biggest problem is it just feels so padded out. Make a 40 min film, no need to add an extra hour of nonsense. The other problem is the interviews just don't seem to know what they're going for, letting non-answers stay in the film, refusing to probe subjects for answers and information that might enlighten. The film never touches on Elliott's abuse by his step-father, his girlfriend at the time of his death (who was suspected of potentially killing him) and stays extremely vague on his drug problems in general. It's like the filmmakers wanted to make a documentary about him while also respecting his privacy? Which a decade+ on from his death, is really sort of worthless. This is unfortunately the anti-"Montage Of Heck."
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: mogwai on July 01, 2015, 12:42:06 PM
Montage of Heck sucked donkey ass.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: modage on July 01, 2015, 12:53:13 PM
Quote from: mogwai on July 01, 2015, 12:42:06 PM
Montage of Heck sucked donkey ass.
But what if it didn't?
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: mogwai on July 03, 2015, 02:50:22 PM
There are better documentaries than that pile of shit. Have you seen the "About a son" doc or read "Come as you are"?

And I'm all behind Buzz Osborne's recent comment about the "Montage" doc. Google it, son.
Title: Re: elliott smith
Post by: modage on July 06, 2015, 10:28:12 AM
No and no but I read the Buzz stuff and it didn't bother me at all. Regardless of whether those stories are true, Kurt still told them and I appreciated Montage Of Heck as an impressionistic portrait more than straightforward rock doc.