Fact #125405
When:
Short story:
Elliott Smith releases his final LP, Figure 8, on DreamWorks Records in the USA.Full article:
I thought I knew about Elliott Smith. I'd listened to a couple of his earlier albums and pegged him as a lo-fi troubadour, intelligent but a bit dirge-like. Then, a couple of months back, I went to see the movie American Beauty and was blown away during the end credits by a gorgeous, light as helium a capella version of The Beatles' Because. Turns out it was by Elliott Smith. This new album, recorded at Abbey Road and occasionally utilising the piano McCartney played on Penny Lane, reveals Smith in a whole new set of clothes, no less emotionally engaging but much more accessible, with a bright and airy zip to the production that lets his melodies fly free. Even unpromising titles like Junk Bond Dealer turn out to be skewed likeably-cynical pop, and the honky-tonk piano underscoring the close harmonies of In The Lost And Found is a touch of genius. So, if you thought you knew about Elliott Smith, forget it. He's even better than that.
Johnny Black
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Elliott Smith : I played everything on most of the songs. There’s four songs with someone else playing the drums and four songs with Sam Coombe (Quasi member, former member of Smith’s old band Heatmiser and part of Smith’s tour backing band) playing bass. Oh, and there’s one song where someone sung a backup vocal at the end of the song, but most of it’s me… trying to play everything!
It’s really fun doing it this way! The object is not to make it sound flawless … and especially because it’s so much fun to play the drums for example. But, yeah, Pete Thomas from The Attractions plays on some of the songs, and I could not believe how great he sounded. The extent that I can play drums at all comes from is what I learned from him, having heard those records when I was at high school, so that was a really big deal for me. [Laughs] Yeah, and clearly he’s a much better drummer than I am.
Pete didn’t call up like, 'I want to play on that Elliott Smith record', but he’s really nice. Really tall and really fun. But for me, it’s really funny to think like a drummer, think like a bass player. It just makes it more interesting rather than if I just played one instrument and hired a bunch of people to who generally play flawlessly to pile up a bunch of perfect parts over imperfect songs. I mean, I don’t even really play the guitar very well, you know.
It would be nice if I felt proud of this record, but I think it’s good that I don’t exactly feel like that. That would just be piling up another assessment on it, and all that fear of judgements and assessments that comes with it. So I don’t know if I am proud. I dunno.
(Source : not known)
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Johnny Black
---------------------------------------
Elliott Smith : I played everything on most of the songs. There’s four songs with someone else playing the drums and four songs with Sam Coombe (Quasi member, former member of Smith’s old band Heatmiser and part of Smith’s tour backing band) playing bass. Oh, and there’s one song where someone sung a backup vocal at the end of the song, but most of it’s me… trying to play everything!
It’s really fun doing it this way! The object is not to make it sound flawless … and especially because it’s so much fun to play the drums for example. But, yeah, Pete Thomas from The Attractions plays on some of the songs, and I could not believe how great he sounded. The extent that I can play drums at all comes from is what I learned from him, having heard those records when I was at high school, so that was a really big deal for me. [Laughs] Yeah, and clearly he’s a much better drummer than I am.
Pete didn’t call up like, 'I want to play on that Elliott Smith record', but he’s really nice. Really tall and really fun. But for me, it’s really funny to think like a drummer, think like a bass player. It just makes it more interesting rather than if I just played one instrument and hired a bunch of people to who generally play flawlessly to pile up a bunch of perfect parts over imperfect songs. I mean, I don’t even really play the guitar very well, you know.
It would be nice if I felt proud of this record, but I think it’s good that I don’t exactly feel like that. That would just be piling up another assessment on it, and all that fear of judgements and assessments that comes with it. So I don’t know if I am proud. I dunno.
(Source : not known)