There are reports on the net of an apparent suicide.
This really sucks.
For those of you not familiar with the mans music he won an Academy Award for his song Miss Misery from the GoodWill Hunting soundtrack and his albums XO, Either/or and Figure 8 are essential.
Brilliant songwriter, beautiful singer, fucking sad day.
NOTE : That should read Nominated for an Academy Award - of course he didnt win.
Elliott Smith Dies at 34
Elliott Smith Dies at 34
Last edited by Mike Boom on Wed Oct 22, 2003 11:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
That's really sad. I was wondering what happened to him. I guess maybe he was having problems. It's unclear from the reports I have read whether or not it's a suicide though.
RIP Elliott, you were way too young
RIP Elliott, you were way too young
Last edited by BlueChair on Wed Oct 22, 2003 6:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jackson Doofster
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perfectblue
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elliott and elvis were my top 2 musical obsessions. i don't have any words right now.
rip, elliott. did the white lady love you more?
xo.
i need a hug. a big koala hug. fuck...
(he should've gotten the oscar... who got it? celine?)
rip, elliott. did the white lady love you more?
xo.
i need a hug. a big koala hug. fuck...
(he should've gotten the oscar... who got it? celine?)
Last edited by perfectblue on Wed Oct 22, 2003 9:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair
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spooky girlfriend
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perfectblue
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I'm impressed at how deeply upset you are all.
I actually haven't heard much of his work, but have been curious for some time. I particularly liked his cover of "Because" that was used in "American Beauty."
It's just a sad fact of life that many -- though by no means all -- artists are sort of driven to it by intense personal pain.
I actually haven't heard much of his work, but have been curious for some time. I particularly liked his cover of "Because" that was used in "American Beauty."
It's just a sad fact of life that many -- though by no means all -- artists are sort of driven to it by intense personal pain.
http://www.forwardtoyesterday.com -- Where "hopelessly dated" is a compliment!
I was listening to XO on the way to school this morning. It's definitely one of the best albums of the past 20 years in my opinion. He definitely had some of the tortured-soul aspect that Nick Drake had, though he was a lot more Beatlesque in his presentation of that vision.
I need more of his albums.
I need more of his albums.
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
I just thought of something really eerie.
In The Royal Tenenbaums, the song playing in the background when Richie tries to kill himself with a razor blade is "Needle In The Hay" by Elliott Smith.
In The Royal Tenenbaums, the song playing in the background when Richie tries to kill himself with a razor blade is "Needle In The Hay" by Elliott Smith.
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
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Misha
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I have no experience with this guy's music, but maybe I should get some. You all have some pretty good taste.
Sorry this guy is gone, but I really hope they investigate this well...Stabbing oneself in the chest is not anywhere near the top ten of suicidal procedures. They may be saying it is a suicide now, but you can bet it is under investigation. OR, at least should be.
Artists have a hard time with all the passion and pain they feel.
Sorry everyone.
Sorry this guy is gone, but I really hope they investigate this well...Stabbing oneself in the chest is not anywhere near the top ten of suicidal procedures. They may be saying it is a suicide now, but you can bet it is under investigation. OR, at least should be.
Artists have a hard time with all the passion and pain they feel.
Sorry everyone.
Where are the strong?
Who are the trusted?
Who are the trusted?
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perfectblue
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From Billboard.com:
Friends, Peers Mourn Elliott Smith
The album Elliott Smith was working throughout the last year of his life was an extraordinarily diverse effort that ranged from "phenomenal, experimental soundscapes to the most intimate guitar vocals," his DreamWorks Records A&R man, Luke Wood, tells Billboard.com.
"He was really having fun experimenting with recording," Wood says. "And as always with Elliott, the lyrics were incredibly poignant and very consistent and very beautiful." However diverse, the album -- reportedly titled "From a Basement on the Hill" -- was a focused effort, Woods notes. "It wasn't like a free-for-all."
There's no word yet on what will happen to the recordings. Although Smith had tracked more than 30 songs and was said to have been considering a double album, Wood says it's unclear how many are complete, as Smith had a habit of working on multiple songs at a time. "He was always editing and working," he says. "He always had a large cycle of songs that he was making better, and sometimes that cycle took years."
Yet the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd tells Billboard.com that when he did some casual recording with Smith roughly a year ago, the singer had "tons of stuff that hasn't been released. And I know a bunch was recorded and mixed and all ready to go."
Smith, 34, died Tuesday after apparently stabbing himself in the heart. According to a source, he did so using a steak knife at his girlfriend's apartment in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
About a year ago, Smith built his own studio in Los Angeles, and it was there that he was focusing on "From a Basement on the Hill." Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simins, who occasionally collaborated with Smith onstage and in the studio, says he recently recorded with the singer at his own studio in New York.
Some of the new songs Smith was working on included "Strung Out Again," "Let's Get Lost," "Shooting Star," "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity To Be Free" and "Fond Farewell." The titles seem to suggest he may have been contemplating suicide and revisiting his frequent themes of addiction.
In a highly unusual move, Wood says DreamWorks had reached an agreement with Smith that allowed him to take a "sabbatical" from the label. The singer, Wood says, was looking for a more intimate way to reconnect with the fans who had followed him since his indie days, during which he issued albums for the Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars labels.
"It was sort of like, 'How do you continue to motivate and be a true partner to an artist who's gonna want to take turns and do different things, and reach his audience more directly without going through radio or MTV?'" Wood says. "I think it was really a sense of him being able to feel like he was in control of his own destiny. And he wanted to bring it down and do sort of less promotion, and focus just more on making a record and getting it out."
Smith, Wood says, was going to release "From a Basement on the Hill" on an independent label of his choosing, even though he would have remained signed to DreamWorks. During his five-year tenure with the label, Smith issued a handful of releases on indies. In August, released the single "Pretty (Ugly Before)" as a limited-edition seven-inch on the Suicide Squeeze label.
While it was well-known amongst his friends and peers that Smith was battling alcohol and hard drug addiction and depression -- for which he was on medication, according to a source -- Wood says the singer's suicide was still quite shocking. In the past six months, Wood says, the singer seemed hopeful and excited about completing the album and then launching a tour to support it.
Says Simins, "He seemed to be doing really well lately. That's why it's really sad. We all had a hope that he was in a good way, or at least heading towards that."
Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne wasn't so optimistic about Smith's state of mind. He recalled the Lips' show in Los Angeles with Beck last year, where a bloated and clearly frustrated Smith was involved in a scuffle with police and seemed to be clearly losing his fight with addiction. "It really was nothing but sad," Coyne says. "You just sort of saw a guy who had lost control of himself. He was needy, he was grumpy, he was everything you wouldn't want in a person. It's not like when you think of Keith Richards being pleasantly blissed out in the corner."
"I think it points out how unglamorous the whole drug thing really is," Coyne continues. "For the people who knew him, the people who were around him, it was horrible. It's not this glamorous, jetsetting, beautiful lifestyle that everybody dreams of rock'n'roll heaven being. It wasn't like that at all. It was ugly. It was sad."
Adds Drozd, "There's an undercurrent of f***in' real sadness in a lot of his music that just f***in' crushes me. And that's just really the way he was. I hate to sound that way, but he really was. And I can hear it in his music. That's totally him."
Addiction, Wood says, was "a constant battle for him, but I gotta say, I thought it was one he was winning." Wood called Smith the "essence of what we would want DreamWorks as a culture to stand for -- the true song craft, the ambition, the artistry, his performance ability. I think he challenged the rules of songwriting and being a pop artist."
He adds that to Smith, life was "a very beautiful and brutal place, and his songs were that ground in between."
What was lost Tuesday, Simins says, was "someone who was really admirable as a person and as a star. There's so much bulls*** around, so many unhumble people who are all about the glitz and the glam and the bulls***. What we lost is a very, very, very, very truthful, truthful, honest star. I think both as a person and as a musician, as an artist. It's really sad because he was just brutally, brutally honest. And very smart. And if you put the two together, it's undeniably appealing."
-- Wes Orshoski, N.Y.
Friends, Peers Mourn Elliott Smith
The album Elliott Smith was working throughout the last year of his life was an extraordinarily diverse effort that ranged from "phenomenal, experimental soundscapes to the most intimate guitar vocals," his DreamWorks Records A&R man, Luke Wood, tells Billboard.com.
"He was really having fun experimenting with recording," Wood says. "And as always with Elliott, the lyrics were incredibly poignant and very consistent and very beautiful." However diverse, the album -- reportedly titled "From a Basement on the Hill" -- was a focused effort, Woods notes. "It wasn't like a free-for-all."
There's no word yet on what will happen to the recordings. Although Smith had tracked more than 30 songs and was said to have been considering a double album, Wood says it's unclear how many are complete, as Smith had a habit of working on multiple songs at a time. "He was always editing and working," he says. "He always had a large cycle of songs that he was making better, and sometimes that cycle took years."
Yet the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd tells Billboard.com that when he did some casual recording with Smith roughly a year ago, the singer had "tons of stuff that hasn't been released. And I know a bunch was recorded and mixed and all ready to go."
Smith, 34, died Tuesday after apparently stabbing himself in the heart. According to a source, he did so using a steak knife at his girlfriend's apartment in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
About a year ago, Smith built his own studio in Los Angeles, and it was there that he was focusing on "From a Basement on the Hill." Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simins, who occasionally collaborated with Smith onstage and in the studio, says he recently recorded with the singer at his own studio in New York.
Some of the new songs Smith was working on included "Strung Out Again," "Let's Get Lost," "Shooting Star," "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity To Be Free" and "Fond Farewell." The titles seem to suggest he may have been contemplating suicide and revisiting his frequent themes of addiction.
In a highly unusual move, Wood says DreamWorks had reached an agreement with Smith that allowed him to take a "sabbatical" from the label. The singer, Wood says, was looking for a more intimate way to reconnect with the fans who had followed him since his indie days, during which he issued albums for the Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars labels.
"It was sort of like, 'How do you continue to motivate and be a true partner to an artist who's gonna want to take turns and do different things, and reach his audience more directly without going through radio or MTV?'" Wood says. "I think it was really a sense of him being able to feel like he was in control of his own destiny. And he wanted to bring it down and do sort of less promotion, and focus just more on making a record and getting it out."
Smith, Wood says, was going to release "From a Basement on the Hill" on an independent label of his choosing, even though he would have remained signed to DreamWorks. During his five-year tenure with the label, Smith issued a handful of releases on indies. In August, released the single "Pretty (Ugly Before)" as a limited-edition seven-inch on the Suicide Squeeze label.
While it was well-known amongst his friends and peers that Smith was battling alcohol and hard drug addiction and depression -- for which he was on medication, according to a source -- Wood says the singer's suicide was still quite shocking. In the past six months, Wood says, the singer seemed hopeful and excited about completing the album and then launching a tour to support it.
Says Simins, "He seemed to be doing really well lately. That's why it's really sad. We all had a hope that he was in a good way, or at least heading towards that."
Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne wasn't so optimistic about Smith's state of mind. He recalled the Lips' show in Los Angeles with Beck last year, where a bloated and clearly frustrated Smith was involved in a scuffle with police and seemed to be clearly losing his fight with addiction. "It really was nothing but sad," Coyne says. "You just sort of saw a guy who had lost control of himself. He was needy, he was grumpy, he was everything you wouldn't want in a person. It's not like when you think of Keith Richards being pleasantly blissed out in the corner."
"I think it points out how unglamorous the whole drug thing really is," Coyne continues. "For the people who knew him, the people who were around him, it was horrible. It's not this glamorous, jetsetting, beautiful lifestyle that everybody dreams of rock'n'roll heaven being. It wasn't like that at all. It was ugly. It was sad."
Adds Drozd, "There's an undercurrent of f***in' real sadness in a lot of his music that just f***in' crushes me. And that's just really the way he was. I hate to sound that way, but he really was. And I can hear it in his music. That's totally him."
Addiction, Wood says, was "a constant battle for him, but I gotta say, I thought it was one he was winning." Wood called Smith the "essence of what we would want DreamWorks as a culture to stand for -- the true song craft, the ambition, the artistry, his performance ability. I think he challenged the rules of songwriting and being a pop artist."
He adds that to Smith, life was "a very beautiful and brutal place, and his songs were that ground in between."
What was lost Tuesday, Simins says, was "someone who was really admirable as a person and as a star. There's so much bulls*** around, so many unhumble people who are all about the glitz and the glam and the bulls***. What we lost is a very, very, very, very truthful, truthful, honest star. I think both as a person and as a musician, as an artist. It's really sad because he was just brutally, brutally honest. And very smart. And if you put the two together, it's undeniably appealing."
-- Wes Orshoski, N.Y.
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
Elliott Smith may have been murdered:
JANUARY 8--Los Angeles investigators probing the recent stabbing death of alt rocker Elliott Smith could not classify the incident as a suicide because several aspects of the knifing were not consistent with suicide and "raise the possibility of homicide." According to the below autopsy report, police discovered what appeared to be a suicide note--written on a Post-it note--when they responded to his home on October 21. "I'm so sorry-love, Elliot God forgive me," the note read, according to the report (a coroner's official told TSG that Smith's first name was misspelled in the report). And, the report concludes, Smith's history of depression and the "location and direction" of two stab wounds "are consistent with self-infliction." However, other aspects of Smith's death have caused investigators to wonder whether the performer was killed. The autopsy report cited the absence of "hesitation wounds," the presence of "possible defensive wounds," and "stabbing through clothing" as atypical of suicide. In addition, the actions of Smith's live-in girlfriend, musician Jennifer Chiba, were of concern to investigators. Chiba initially told cops that she had argued with Smith, 34, in their home and, at one point, locked herself in the bathroom. Chiba emerged when she heard Smith scream, and saw him standing with "a knife sticking out of his chest." The medical examiner noted that Chiba's "reported removal of the knife and subsequent refusal to speak with detectives are all of concern."
JANUARY 8--Los Angeles investigators probing the recent stabbing death of alt rocker Elliott Smith could not classify the incident as a suicide because several aspects of the knifing were not consistent with suicide and "raise the possibility of homicide." According to the below autopsy report, police discovered what appeared to be a suicide note--written on a Post-it note--when they responded to his home on October 21. "I'm so sorry-love, Elliot God forgive me," the note read, according to the report (a coroner's official told TSG that Smith's first name was misspelled in the report). And, the report concludes, Smith's history of depression and the "location and direction" of two stab wounds "are consistent with self-infliction." However, other aspects of Smith's death have caused investigators to wonder whether the performer was killed. The autopsy report cited the absence of "hesitation wounds," the presence of "possible defensive wounds," and "stabbing through clothing" as atypical of suicide. In addition, the actions of Smith's live-in girlfriend, musician Jennifer Chiba, were of concern to investigators. Chiba initially told cops that she had argued with Smith, 34, in their home and, at one point, locked herself in the bathroom. Chiba emerged when she heard Smith scream, and saw him standing with "a knife sticking out of his chest." The medical examiner noted that Chiba's "reported removal of the knife and subsequent refusal to speak with detectives are all of concern."
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
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BurnishedGold
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I don't know anything about him, but there's a great site called The Smoking Gun for all kinds of celebrity/tabloid info. All the info is legit.
Here you can see the autopsy report:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/esmithaut1.html
Here you can see the autopsy report:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/esmithaut1.html
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noiseradio
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Yay! You knew he was murdered!! Woo-hoo! In your FACE!!!
Last edited by noiseradio on Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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LessThanZero
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noiseradio
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This article was posted on MTV's website in January:
Elliott Smith's Family To Girlfriend: Don't Speak For Us
When Elliott Smith's girlfriend claimed his family "knew the truth" that the late singer/songwriter's death in October was a suicide, she may have assumed too much.
A lawyer representing Smith's estate issued a statement on Wednesday (January 14) stating that no one should speak for Smith's family regarding his death, which continues to be investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department.
"Elliott's family has every confidence that the ongoing investigation will determine the actual circumstances of Elliott's death," the statement provided by attorney Conrad Rippy read. "Until such time as their investigation has concluded, however, and especially in light of the recently published coroner's report, neither Elliott's family nor anyone else can claim to know 'the truth' about Elliott's death, and any statement to the contrary mischaracterizes the family's position."
The statement is in response to an interview Smith's girlfriend Jennifer Chiba gave to MTV News on Friday, a day after the Smoking Gun (http://www.thesmokinggun.com) posted the entire coroner's report online (see "Elliott Smith's Girlfriend Insists No Involvement In Death"). The presence of cuts that appeared to be consistent with defensive wounds and the claim that Chiba had at one point "refused to speak with detectives," two occurrences that were not publicized until the report surfaced, may have presented Chiba in a new light to some.
Although she said she had not been questioned recently by police, Chiba nonetheless felt like a suspect, if only in the public's perception.
"His sister and his parents and everyone close to him knows the truth," Chiba said, "so I'm not worried about it."
The Smith family's statement closed by noting that the family will have no further comments on the investigation, and they would appreciate the public "respecting our privacy during this time of grief."
Rippy specifically represents Smith's father, who lives in Portland, Oregon; his mother, who lives in Denver; and his half-sister Ashley, a resident of Los Angeles.
Elliott Smith died October 21 from two penetrating stab wounds to the chest. A coroner's report completed December 31 could not determine whether the wounds were self-inflicted (see "Cause of Elliott Smith's Death Still Unclear, Coroner Says; No Illegal Drugs Found").
For more on Elliott Smith, check out the feature "Elliott Smith: One Of Us Is On The Moon."
—Joe D'Angelo
Elliott Smith's Family To Girlfriend: Don't Speak For Us
When Elliott Smith's girlfriend claimed his family "knew the truth" that the late singer/songwriter's death in October was a suicide, she may have assumed too much.
A lawyer representing Smith's estate issued a statement on Wednesday (January 14) stating that no one should speak for Smith's family regarding his death, which continues to be investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department.
"Elliott's family has every confidence that the ongoing investigation will determine the actual circumstances of Elliott's death," the statement provided by attorney Conrad Rippy read. "Until such time as their investigation has concluded, however, and especially in light of the recently published coroner's report, neither Elliott's family nor anyone else can claim to know 'the truth' about Elliott's death, and any statement to the contrary mischaracterizes the family's position."
The statement is in response to an interview Smith's girlfriend Jennifer Chiba gave to MTV News on Friday, a day after the Smoking Gun (http://www.thesmokinggun.com) posted the entire coroner's report online (see "Elliott Smith's Girlfriend Insists No Involvement In Death"). The presence of cuts that appeared to be consistent with defensive wounds and the claim that Chiba had at one point "refused to speak with detectives," two occurrences that were not publicized until the report surfaced, may have presented Chiba in a new light to some.
Although she said she had not been questioned recently by police, Chiba nonetheless felt like a suspect, if only in the public's perception.
"His sister and his parents and everyone close to him knows the truth," Chiba said, "so I'm not worried about it."
The Smith family's statement closed by noting that the family will have no further comments on the investigation, and they would appreciate the public "respecting our privacy during this time of grief."
Rippy specifically represents Smith's father, who lives in Portland, Oregon; his mother, who lives in Denver; and his half-sister Ashley, a resident of Los Angeles.
Elliott Smith died October 21 from two penetrating stab wounds to the chest. A coroner's report completed December 31 could not determine whether the wounds were self-inflicted (see "Cause of Elliott Smith's Death Still Unclear, Coroner Says; No Illegal Drugs Found").
For more on Elliott Smith, check out the feature "Elliott Smith: One Of Us Is On The Moon."
—Joe D'Angelo
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.