Elliott Smith is a very big subject for me. It goes back to 1993 and Heatmiser shows for five bucks at La Luna. And later, when I was about to graduate from high school and this quiet little record called Roman Candle comes out and wallpapers my life. I really think that my love of Elliott Smith runs so deep and is so closely tied to my love of Portland that sometimes I wonder if I can tell the two apart.
After he left Portland, I never loved his LA records. They sounded, I don't know, hollow somehow. It was still him there but like a ghost of him. I would always listen to Figure 8 or From A Basement and try to think hard back to one particular time I saw him live. That magical show at The X-Ray Cafe when I brought my first love who had just broken my heart. Maybe 50 people there, tops, and all siting on the floor, cross-legged. It was like being with our Dalai Lama; we worshipped. He was so quiet and gentle and insanely talented and we just sent love in waves and waves. People left that show dazed.
Today I was having a blue day and I saw the new Elliott record up on iTunes. Lots of old stuff, b-sides and demos, etc. And there it was: Magical Elliott. I could hear that day when he played "Clementine" when I asked and remember what it's like when the music that makes you sad is also the music that has made you the happiest ever.
Plus, the cover art is great.
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