Friday Feature Special: Elliott Smith

This one time listening to my favorite record label's Spotify list, I came across with a song called Roman Candle. It captivated me from the first second until the very end. That song changed it all.



I remember sharing the first few songs I listened from him to my friend, who after the second time asked: "What's this Elliott Smith thing you got going on now?"

After two years I still can't say what hit me. Obviously, he was a talented artist and had the most angelic voice, but I guess it's the emotional factor. Elliott's debut album was there to accompany me when I had left many dear friends and a dear place. Misery loves company, they say.

Each new song I heard, I was like wow. It didn't take too much time for me to think that this guy was actually better than Bon Iver and Iron & Wine, the two other singer-songwriters I love a lot. And that is a lot said. A lot.

I wont' be listing any facts about Elliott, Wikipedia is for that. This is more of trying to explain why I like his music so much. As you can read it's not that easy- not everything can be everyone's cup of tea, which is what I said to a friend who didn't get Elliott's music. Yet, in my mind I was thinking "dude, how can you NOT GET IT?".

Last autumn when I spent my days writing my thesis I placed six of his albums in our CD player, so I'd have suitable music in the background playing repeatedly. You could just hear how the music had developed from album to next. It had developed in a way that it took me until this summer to hear all the beauty the latter records had to offer. Man, his skills.




At the moment I'm reading a book by Autumn de Wilde (who directed the video above), a famous rock photographer and a friend of Elliott. The book has all the pictures used in the video and many interviews with people close to the artist. It's funny how we often make assumptions of people we don't know at all! Or in this case no assumption at all, but still to get to know more about his personality makes his music even more worth-while. The book makes you laugh and cry. Sometimes at the same time.

The most surprising thing of all was to realize that he had been nominated for an Oscar. That moment in 1998 and when Arcade Fire won a Grammy for best album in 2011 are probably the biggest moments in indie music.

The first thing Elliott said to me after the Oscars was that it didn't matter that there were a hundred million people watching and a huge audience and that it was on TV. The only person he could see was Jack Nicholson sitting there staring at him. He said it just freaked him out. He couldn't get past the fact that  Jack Nicholson was just sitting there right in front of him.

-Dorien, Elliott's roommate in New York

I'm not going to wrap this Special Feature with my favorite Elliott song, but with an unreleased instrumental. The "story" behind it is kind of interesting- it might be that he made it as a homage for himself or it simply is unfinished. Well, either or the song is wistfully optimistic and I'd like it to be played at my funeral.

Friday Feature Special: The Carpenters

I keep on listening to new music. I'm keen on finding out if there's a band, which could shook me like my all-time favorites Interpol, Nirvana and Bloc party, just to name a few. The chances are small, as it's become hard to stick with one act for no more than a week. Not to mention every single band, which is labeled as indie has started to sound just the same as the previous and the next ones. It's like tasting so many different beers that in the end you can't taste the difference anymore.

Then you move on to the wine.

Sitting in a hot van for several hours, many days straight and the same record on repeat... It's a scenario I could see governments using for human torture. But if you have good speakers and great pop tunes playing, it's a brain wash I kindly accept. Suddenly, the van was not an unpleasant place to be in.

It's sad that I'm not one of those kids, who had gone through their parents' record collection and discover something magical (MTV did it for me). There simply wasn't much to find, except for a couple of Abba and Queen cassettes. But this time I was sure that I'd find something to get excited about, so I asked my mother: Don't you have The Carpenters at home?, with a spark in my eyes. The spark died, when she replied no.

Off to an unexpected record shopping then.

As the new proud owner of a 40th anniversary 40 track edition album and DVD, I showed everyone what I got. My sister asked me if it was for our mother, to which I replied slightly offended no. It is weird, though, to be the one to have this on my record collection. All I knew was that January was dedicated to The Carpenters.

Watching the DVD surely shocked me, as I've never seen live footage of the brother and sister duo playing. Learning that Richard played the piano instead of the guitar (not too dramatic) and Karen not only singing and being a pretty face, but playing the drums as well (WTF!) gave an even more interesting aspect to one of the most successful music acts of all time.

According to Richard, Karen had always thought herself as a drummer who sang. One year she was chosen as the best drummer by a music magazine, leaving Led Zeppelin's drummer second on the list and very pissed off. Another thing what surprised me was the fact that they were the first bands to include electronic guitar solos in their songs. This, on the other hand, angered some of their fans, who called the band sell outs. It's hard for me to imagine something like that happening in the 70s, but then I didn't think that women played drums either. 

Although, to hear that many of The Carpenters' hit songs are actually covers or taken for example from commercials, was quite disappointing. Then again, if it wasn't for Richard's composing and arrangement skills and Karen's killer voice, the songs wouldn't be what they are today- an influence to the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys and many more.

The Carpenters recorded 11 albums and toured massively. In 1974 they did over 200 gigs, which is astounding, since successful musicians didn't have to perform as much, as records were bought- the complete opposite of today. Consequently, the exhausting life on road and personal challenges took a toll on the duo. Especially on Karen, who tragically died at the age of 32 of a heart failure caused by anorexia in 1983. At that time there was little knowledge of eating disorders, but Karen's death urged for a change. It even helped celebrities, like Princess Diana, to openly talk about their sickness. 

Richard considers himself lucky, because they were not only able to make timeless music, but also that his sisters is regarded as one of the greatest female singers of all time. I will always be amazed of how she was able to use her voice in the way she did. And to keep the whole band in rhythm at the same time. Pff.

The longer you keep a wine, the better it will get.

And perhaps the strangest song I've heard: