♥️
Hard to believe it's nearly twenty years old now.
Three things stand out for me, reading it again today. Took like 3 months of reporting, or so, to get it all done.
1) The Courtney Love vignette from the Shins' show at the Hollywood Bowl (it was all very Ab Fab and unintentionally hilarious). She is every bit the piece of work she was described to be.
2) James was living in a house in Portland, OR that Elliott Smith used to live in. We smoked pot in the basement and he showed me the washer/dryer that was basically where Elliott four-tracked the "Roman Candle" album.
3) He had a guitar hanging in his home studio that had "You'll be Dead" spray painted on it -- a line from Star Wars (I think his brother, an artist I worked with at Starbucks, did that). I used to have a photo of that but IDK what happened to it.
It was a fun era to be writing about rock music.
Apr 5, 2024
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This could be a very long post, given the personal connection, but will try to make it short. Two stories.
1) the Shins' James Mercer used to live in a house in SE Portland that Elliott lived in, back in the day. the basement laundry room is where he recorded "Roman Candle" -- when I was interviewing James for a Magnet story he walked me down to the basement to show me where it had happened and actually put the album on in the background for ambience.
2) I own the guitar Elliott used for this album -- it's a cheap little thing called "Le Domino" that his then-girlfriend JJ Gonson (lovely human) bought for him at a place in Portland called Artichoke Music. I haven't changed anything about it -- I haven't even re-strung it (though it desperately needs to be). it came with a little lipstick pickup that you can fit into the sound hole of the guitar -- this is exactly how I remember Elliott playing gigs at that time, you can hear the guitar and his very first PDX solo outing at a long-forgotten place called Umbra Penumbra as part of the extra tracks appended to the re-release of his second (self titled) solo album.
Needless to say, I still miss him. This record meant everything to me for a long time.
Jul 14, 2024
"I don't really care where I fit into anything, or if there's even anything to fit into. I like music, that's the thing. It's very uncomplicated."
There's a lot I could write here about this film, about Elliott himself. Who was actually VERY complicated even if his attachment to music was not.
I'm actually in the movie (that's where this site's profile photo comes from).
But then again, lots of his Portland friends from that time period (early to mid 90s) are in the movie and typically never talked about Elliott publicly after he passed: Pete Krebs (Hazel), Tony Lash (Heatmiser), Joanna Bolme (Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks), Sean Croghan (Crackerbash), the amazing Larry Crane who serves as the archivist for the Elliott Smith estate and built his studio Jackpot! with Elliott's help. Autumn DeWilde. Jon Brion. The list goes on. Most of us never really went on-the-record about him again. We trusted the makers and let this stand as thee best/final/most definitive word on Elliott.
I will just leave it at this: watch the film.
Nickolas Rossi and Kevin Moyer did such a terrific and respectful job of allowing Elliott's music to speak much more loudly than his well-publicized troubles ever did.
I miss Elliott all the time. I miss his music even more.
I wrote a bunch of things about him over the years but perhaps this one remains the most emotionally true way of remembering him, at least for me: https://magnetmagazine.com/2003/10/27/the-moon-is-a-lightbulb-breaking-in-memory-of-elliott-smith/
Apr 26, 2024
As entertaining as you think it would be, and more. (Dude is a fantastic and funny conversationalist; even better over a Spanish coffee or four).
One snippet I fully support (ha) --
Stephen, you’re a pretty beloved figure at this point—does that annoy you at all?
Malkmus: No way. For all that shit, I still wouldn’t want to be taking strays from people, or if it got back to me that there’s people saying I’m a dipshit or I don’t tip well enough or whatever, just this internet world. If people are like, “I met that guy, he’s a fucking dick,” that shit hurts. I’ve had people come to me with preconceptions occasionally, and it was no fun. Not like I needed a bodyguard or anything, but still, it’s just like, Dude, you don’t even know me. You want to have a clean record if you can, unfortunately. [laughs]
Maybe another reason why [being a big-headed rocker] doesn’t completely work now is that musicians get more rapid feedback, and sometimes it can be beneficial. In the ’80s, some musicians made these bloated albums that just them and their seven friends thought were brilliant. But now people are instantly like: “You’re old and you suck,” or, “Your jams are flaccid”—and it can help! I’m not saying [the Rolling Stones’ 2024 album] Hackney Diamonds is a genius record or anything. [laughs] But I bet Robert Plant’s new music is better because of the internet.
Sweeney: Because it’s keeping him in check?
Malkmus: Yeah, or he’s listening to younger artists. I mean, Robert Plant seems to be genuinely interested, and he’s a fan of bands like Low—unlike Eric Clapton, who just says he likes the newest guitarist, and then his records sound awful.
Feb 1, 2025
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Hey tyler hopefully this doesn’t violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I can’t wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! ❤️
Mar 27, 2024
“Songs Of a Lost World” coming to a goth listening station near you Nov 1 🖤
The fr FW Me Friday the 13th the world was looking for
Sep 14, 2024
I will fail to explain just how much this band meant to me in the 90s.
So I will borrow from AV Club who did a fine job of distilling it:
“Unwound is the best band of the ’90s. Not just because of how prolific, consistent, and uncompromising it was, but because of how perfectly Unwound nested in a unique space between some of the most vital forms of music that decade: punk, post-rock, indie rock, post-hardcore, slow-core, and experimental noise. That jumble of subgenres doesn’t say much; in fact, it falls far short of what Unwound truly synthesized and stood for. Unwound stood for Unwound. But in a decade where most bands were either stridently earnest or stridently ironic, Unwound wasn’t stridently anything. It was only itself. In one sense Unwound was the quietest band of the ’90s, skulking around like a nerdy terror cell. In another sense it was the loudest, sculpting raw noise into contorted visions of inner turmoil and frustration.”
R.I.P. Vern Rumsey.
This is their finest song, from their finest album.
I really can’t say enough about the sheer bloody minded genius of this group. 🖤
Mar 23, 2024