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from
a basement on the hill the album brings together songs that elliott worked on while on tour for the figure 8 tour in 2000 to the work he did in his own studio, new monkey, in 2003. with the help of rob schnapf and joanna bolme, who mixed the album, elliott's family, loved ones and friends over the years were able to finalize the album recently and here is the final tracklisting for the record: coast to
coast elliott did play most of these songs live at one point of his career and pretty (ugly before) will be the same version as the 7" single that was released in 2003 by suicide squeeze. last hour though might be the fan named, make it over while the music/lyrics for ostriches & chirping and twilight might have never been heard in any form until now. the album also includes guest appearance by elliott's friends and loved ones. steven drodz and aaron sperske played drums and two unknown poetic men spoke on "coast to coast." elliott's tour mates on the figure 8 tour: sam coomes played bass and sang backup, scott mcpherson played drums, and aaron embry played keyboards on "pretty (ugly before)." finally, fritz michaud, whom elliott recorded with in 2003 at new monkey, played a drum track on "king's crossing." the artwork includes the nice tradition (except for xo) of having elliott's handwriting on the record and includes cut out type by autumn dewilde who also did artwork for figure 8. the cd booklet will also include photos by renaud monfourny, paul heartfield, dominic disaia and elliott's sister, ashley welch. above is the album cover. as you can see as well, the album is now confirmed to be 'from a basement on the hill' and not 'songs from a basement on the hill.' hopefully as we come closer to the release of the record we will learn more about the record and the work elliott's friends and family did on it to bring it together and what the future has in store in elliott's memory. thank you to them. i can't imagine the sacrifice it took by everyone to release this record in elliott's memory. hopefully i can speak for a lot of people and say that we are so thankful that you all would share them with us and we will cherish them always. well, if we get anymore information about the release of the record including the promotion of it, we will try to post them asap. don't forget: october 19, 2004. also please check out mtv.com. they have a news story about the record as well! (7.15.04) now, the new cd. we are beginning the final mixing and production phase in mid-may and are planning for a september or october release. we will know the name of the label by the end of the month and i'll let you know just as soon as the final decision is made." gary smith (4.26.04) thanks to pitchforkmedia.com for posting this: The unreleased album that Elliott Smith had been preparing for an early 2004 release might see release on a label other than Dreamworks, according to comments on an hour-long tribute broadcast last weekend on the syndicated radio program New Ground. Host Chris Douridas assembled the tribute from interviews with Kill Rock Stars' Slim Moon, Smith's friend and one-time manager Margaret Mittleman, producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, Dreamworks head Lenny Waronker, and Smith's A&R rep, Luke Wood. Of the unreleased album, known by its working title From A Basement On The Hill, Wood said that Smith probably had more than 30 songs tracked for the record. "I think there's definitely enough of that record that his family will be able to finish it up," Wood told New Ground. "They're gonna decide where it comes out, because that record was his record-- Dreamworks gave it back to him, and it was gonna come out on an independent label of his choosing, and now that'll be the family's choice. So, you know, hopefully next year we'll all get to hear it." In the interview, Wood also expressed his surprise at Smith's apparent suicide last Tuesday: "As someone who's spent time with Elliott in the last few months, who saw him... he was really clean, and focused... I really thought that the worst days were behind him, and I felt like his drive to get this record out, you know, was what was keeping him looking forward to the next day." Wood confirmed on the program that Smith's work-in-progress was meant to be a double album that reconciles the hushed intimacy of his earlier home-recorded albums with the ambitious, layered production that characterized XO and Figure 8. Wood called the album, as Smith envisioned it, a "true summary of all of his records" that veered from the "intimate, brutally honest two-track guitar/vocal-- you know, that certainly signified the earlier records-- to these bizarre, lush, beautiful, hectic, you know, really pushing-the-envelope sort of stereo, spectral, soundscape, multi-track drum songs... [like] something you'd hear off of Pet Sounds, but in the most, you know, creative, pushing-the-envelope moments of Pet Sounds." Producers Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock remembered Smith's creative drive and an often jovial atmosphere in the studio. "People've been asking me, like, well, was, you know... was [Smith] just a miserable person?" Schnapf said. "And, uh, no... we had a lot of fun making these records. For example, XO, a lot of it was made in a wig... you know, we were wearing wigs... we weren't all depressed, we weren't shoegazing the whole time... it was fun, it was really rewarding." Rothrock fondly shared stories of recording with Smith at Abbey Road, and shared an unreleased instrumental from the Figure 8 sessions, the Beatlesque "Tiny Time Machine," on the program. The tribute is archived by NPR affiliate KCRW on their website linked below. New Ground: http://www.kcrw.org/show/gz |
thank
you so much to elliott's family and felice for sharing with us information
about the upcoming and anticapated release of 'from a basement on the
hill.' 15 of elliott's final songs will be released on october 19th
by the indie label, anti- records, who have also released music by tom
waits and nick cave.