Elliott Smith: August 6, 1969 - October 21, 2003

Elliott Smith

Today marks the anniversary of Elliott Smith's passing. He was 34 when he took his life. Such a sad thing when an artist is so haunted and tormented. From his official website, sweetadeline.net, the biography pages unveil the poetic soul named Elliott Smith. The text begins to read "April 15, 1998. It was an unseasonably sultry night in Cambridge. I pushed my way cautiously through the crowd at the famed (but still gloriously tacky) Middle East, relieved to see lots of faces as nerdy, socially ill-at-ease and psychically overdrawn as my own."

Socially ill-at-ease. That is the key description. What is the attraction and charm of the music of Elliott Smith? To me it is that quiet and gentle reveal of vulnerability that pierced it's way through his voice and his lyrics. As the author writes "With Elliott, I had found someone who gave voice to the outsider's way of looking at the world."

The world is a little less poetic without his special contribution to art and music. And yes Elliott, we do miss you.

Woxy - the future of rock and roll!

Woxy Online Radio

I just heard The Connells "Get A Gun" and I haven't heard that since 1993. Also heard The Smiths, proving that WOXY is saving my day in the cubicle.

New Cat In Town

American singer-songwriter - great voice - totally Lucinda Williams-esque, Cat Power is Chan (pronounced Shawn)Marshall, born in 1972, she provides a unfussy, Southern sound, backed by piano,guitar and dependable drum beats. Check out her music on her website. At the top of the site you can navigate the music player.

Cat Power

Wolf Parade

Somewhere in between Modest Mouse and Ween and Flaming Lips...Wolf Parade... And the video of Modern World reminds me of Blur's "Good Song". I don't know why. It's weird I guess.

Wolf Parade

Don't forget Pete...for God's Sakes!

Okay, with all the new music being thrown my way, I've gotten a little lost. It's true, some of these bands are sounding the same! They're probably are all the same band! You know who I mean: Snow Patrol-Keane-Cold Play...I can't dicifer em all.

So, let's go back to 2003 and Mr. Pete Yorn and his fantastic album "Music for the morning after". Yeah. Now that's good music. MMMKAY!

A bit of Mat Kearney

He's so cute I could just bite him.

Mat Kearney @ The Media Club

Collins and I attended Mat Kearney's gig at the Media Club Monday night. It was an A+ show. Such an intimate, unpretentious venue. We ran into several folks, like Dick Hardy from Sony, Terry David Mulligan, Joe Leary from City and some other infamous local bloggers. Pretty young crowd though. According to Dick, I better get over that one. He's older than I, and because of working for Sony, he goes to a million shows a year. We were talking about that and he says that's the market, they're the ones who go to concerts. He's absolutely right. People in their mid to late thirties and beyond, too busy with families I guess. Anyways, I now have to revise my 7 out of 10 review rating. Mat was absolutely fantastic live. He's got great vocal ability and even on the teeny-tiny stage at The Media Club, he and his band did a really great job. We even got to meet him after the show. It made for a fun Monday night. Next time though, I'm moving my car down to the venue. Walking back from Cambie Street to Alberni and Thurlow at 11PM was stupid and my shoes were killer on my feet.

This song is one of his slow ones.