Daily Jam - Tomorrow Tomorrow

It's Thursday afternoon, the day after Christmas.  Thinking about what to do with the rest of the day and listening to Elliott Smith.  Here's "Tomorrow Tomorrow," our Daily Jam.

body / negative Covers Elliott Smith and Tim Buckley

Fresh off of last year's excellent "everett" LP, LA artist body / negative just dropped two wonderful stripped down and lo-fi covers of Elliott Smith's "Twilight" and Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren."  Check them both out below and download them here from Track Number Records.

Daily Jam - Bottle Up and Explode

This is not an article about suicide, though being that it’s about an Elliott Smith song, it most certainly should be addressed. This is not some kind of confessional or deep think piece either, though in my adolescence I certainly harbored my fair share of suicidal thoughts. But a lot of teenagers do. It doesn’t make you special, or strange, or alone. It just makes you human. And there is something in Elliott Smith’s music, in his songs, in his voice that speaks to that humanity. His melancholy, world-weary, little pop songs feel like odes to your own soul.

It’s like he’s singing to you at the end of a rough day. Like he’s singing to you when you feel out of place or abandoned. Like he’s singing to you when you feel like you’re down to your last option. Maybe its his cadence, or his lyrical imagery, or his soft, sweet voice that can still hit like a freight train. Maybe it’s the sincerity of his work. Maybe it’s his tragic end. I don’t know. But there really are so few artists who sound like they’re not just carrying some weight of the world on their shoulders and souls, but rather YOUR specific, nervous, trembling, angsty weight. It all feels so personal, like talking a friend down from the proverbial ledge, a deep conversation long into the early hours of the morning.

“Bottle Up and Explode!” comes from Smith’s 1998 album XO, a time that really found him hitting his stride as a recording artist, but also found him faltering to his inner demons, depression, addiction, and an attempt to end his life. Lyrically, the song is about hurt feelings or suspicions in a relationship that the protagonist buries or hides from view, never revealing and allowing to simmer, until they, of course, explode to the surface. Set to a heavy-hearted but poppy, mid-tempo melody, the song acts as a kind of soothing balm for the woebegone. It’s an earworm that’s instantly relatable, and there’s a really quaint beauty to all its bottled sorrow.

Smith died in 2003, the result of self-inflicted stab wounds to the chest*. I was never a rabid fanatic, or devoted follower, or anything like that, just a fan. But his pointless death hurt and moved me, and continues to do so. His music can feel haunting or prescient because of it, but still beautiful.

Again, this is not an article about suicide, though most of us have certainly been touched by it in some way. Whether through our own thoughts and fears, or the thoughts and fears of friends, family, loved ones, idols, role models, or acquaintances, suicide is a very real and tragic part of our culture. And we all have to confront it in some manner. About a two decades ago, a friend/acquaintance of mine took her life, and I’ve never really been able to put into words what my feelings are about it. I remember being at the funeral, and seeing her family, and recognizing this different kind of grief that hung heavy over the room. It was a different kind of sadness, something that felt infinitely worse, a dark, abyssal sorrow. And that’s what suicide is to me.

It still makes the music all the more haunting.

*There is some debate as to whether or not Elliott Smith actually committed suicide or if he was murdered, but I’m not going to get into any of that...because it's stupid.

Check the track out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Coast to Coast

These weekends go by way too fast.  Here's some Elliott Smith for your Sunday.  Listen to "Coast to Coast" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Sweet Adeline

I'm a little hungover today.  Whoops.  I certainly didn't mean for that to happen.  So here's some Elliott Smith to get me through it i guess.  Listen to "Sweet Adeline" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Let's Get Lost

Several years ago, i began outlining an idea for a sci-fi/horror/western/adventure script about an outer space mailman who crash lands on a desert-like planet in the midst of a zombie outbreak.  I eventually abandoned it, but every now and then it will cross my thoughts when i listen to music i would have wanted to put in it.  One of those songs is Elliott Smith's "Let's Get Lost," a beautiful and melancholy lament that i would have paired with our protagonist's ship crash landing in a barren wasteland.  Maybe i'll go back to it some day.  In the meantime, listen to the track below, our Daily Jam.

Ruth Radelet Covers Elliott Smith

It's been a few months, but we're all still very sad around these parts about the end of Chromatics.  But, it appears the band members are slowly re-entering our ears via solo projects.  We already heard from guitarist Adam Miller, and now we've got a wonderful Elliott Smith cover from singer Ruth Radelet.  The song comes from "Stars Rock Kill (Rock Stars)," a massive compilation of covers celebrating the 30 years of the Kill Rock Stars label.  I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the artists on the comp, but we do get tracks from Xiu Xiu, Tele Novella, Mike Watt, Deerhoof, and more, as well a whole lot of Elliott Smith covers.  Check out Radelet's sweet and dreamy version of "Twilight" below and download the whole collection here.