It's all self-recorded, basically, with a little bit of help from Tony Lash and Leslie Uppinghouse. The two songs that people always react to are "Needle in the Hay" and "Christian Brothers." Technically, is not the best-sounding thing.
But he had already written a lot of the stuff that would be the second album. So are really the start of him playing out live, one of his earliest shows. But at that point, I don't think Elliott played any shows solo, or at least I don't have any record of it. My manager bought Elliott's album, and I was like, "Oh, it kind of sounds like Nick Drake or something." It was cool and moody. I was working in a pub at that time, and we always had a budget to buy CDs to play at the pub. JJ is the one that instigated all that, of course. Roman Candle came out on Cavity Search Records, which our friends Denny and Christopher ran. Who cares?" When grunge hit and ruined Seattle, it didn't initially really affect Portland much and everyone would start bands here that were unique, like Crackerbash, Calamity Jane, Sprinkler, and the Spinanes. But I remember seeing Heatmiser and thinking, "Oh gosh, another guitar band. 5 for a little magazine called Snipe Hunt that was going then. In fact, I think I even wrote a review of Yellow No. I saw Heatmiser play a few times when I moved to town, but I’ve got to admit, I wasn't that interested. So we’d all end up in the same places, hanging out and the same venues, seeing the same kind of underground music. We'd be at some party and they'd be like, "Oh, Neil Gust from Heatmiser is here." It used to be you’d go downtown or to a few places on the East side to see shows and there weren't even that many bars or pubs that weren't working class, blue collar, working dude bars.
Even when I first moved to town in ‘93, I remember being at parties with my roommates. I didn't know him, but I would see him around.
Larry Crane: I wasn't even friends with Elliott at that point. And we'd sit there and talk about music and art. Elliott and Neil, when they first came from college, would come in and sit at the coffee bar where I was a baker, and we would just all hang out because we were kids not doing our jobs. To honor the duality of image and sound that comprises the 25th anniversary re-release of Elliott Smith, Crane and Gonson reflect on their relationships with the songwriter, the record’s origins, the process of assembling the anniversary edition and Smith’s impact on their lives-and ours. Her kinetic photographs have been beloved the world over for their ability to document an entire world these are not pictures of an artist, but rather a life story of the emotions, experiences and memories of the moment.
ELLIOTT SMITH EITHER OR PHOTOSHOOT FULL
The package also includes a coffee table book full of handwritten lyrics, notes written by peers about the album's creation and a series of previously never-before-seen pictures by the artist behind the cover image-another close friend of Smith's, JJ Gonson. Not only does the bonus disc share an up close and personal account of Smith at his rawest, but Crane's experience at the venue and deft hand editing the original cassette tape bring the man behind the legend closer into focus. The reissue also includes Live at Umbra Penumbra, the earliest known live recording of Smith performing as a solo act. The remastered take on the record itself was overseen by producer/engineer Larry Crane, a friend and collaborator of Smith's who has since become the official archivist for the Smith family. The reissue is a document of Smith's heart and mind, but also of the tight-knit community surrounding him. Smith mined his darkness and exposed it for the world, redoubling Heatmiser’s cleverly twisted songwriting and Roman Candle's homemade flame. Released in 1995, Elliott Smith found the songwriter gaining an increasing profile in the Portland, Oregon, scene and far afield.
The expanded release allows those closest to Smith to share intimate memories and experiences with fans, and for fans to understand the real person behind the music. The 25th anniversary reissue of his self-titled album, due Aug. 28th via Kill Rock Stars, aims to bridge that gap. Since his untimely death at 34 years old in 2003, Smith's closest friends and family have seen his masterfully empathic songwriting give that intimate companionship to countless fans. The longer Elliott Smith has been gone, the closer his listeners have felt to him.
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