Comments on: Gus Van Sant, Mary Lou Lord & More To Appear In ‘Searching For Elliott Smith’ Documentary

By: georgia k

georgia k — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:41:17 +0000

I saw the film at CMJ, here's my review, which has been circled around many other sites and was up on the Sweet Adeline message board as well.

Thanks, Georgia

http://microphonememoryemotion.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/searching-for-elliott-smith-should-actually-be-called-the-vindication-of-jennifer-chiba/

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:47:00 +0000

I remember hearing some of the Jon Brion/Elliott tracks on the Largo PA on 2/14/01 after Jon and Elliott played that night. It makes me beyond sad to think that might be the one and only time I ever hear those songs. (Really glad to hear Mary Lou is involved in the project. She's great.)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:01:00 +0000

CORRECTION on your "overstatement" theory.
"Searching for Elliott Smith" DOES contain the first posthumous interviews with Smith's peers that are released to the general public. There may be other posthumous, on cam interviews out there(including yours), but I think Reyes' are the first to be seen by movie audiences (first in NY, then in Argentina). Please correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:41:32 +0000

Thanks for clarifying.
I read reviews of this documentary and they are unequal, but some are really criticizing the fact that it was a vehicle for the vindication of Jennifer Chiba.

By: rodrigoperez

rodrigoperez — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:18:58 +0000

nothing of that nature. nothing to do with his death. i prolly shouldn't have thrown that tease in there. It's in the aforementioned piece, it's all there, we just had to paraphrase a few times rather than let the person speak for themselves in quotes.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:14:31 +0000

When you are saying: "several sources were tracked down and some things said on the record were so controversial they had to be cut" you are obviously arising my curiosity.
I don't know if you can elaborate or not.
Even though 6 years have passed, his death is still an open case and there is still an homicide detective in charge.

By: rodrigoperez

rodrigoperez — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:36:26 +0000

Definitely a compromised effort. The family wanted two ppl who didn't work on the record (Bolme, Schnapf) to put it together cause they felt comfortable with those two, meanwhile ppl like McConnell, one of the last ppl to record with him -- though so was Fritz Michaud and Smith did recordings on his own too -- were shut out, therefore the intentions were unknown.

Brion's holy grail from those sessions, True Love Is A Rose -- a track McConnell told me he wished came out on Basement From A Hill -- came out last year, so i wonder what recordings anon is talking about. I guess I stopped following about a year or two ago, so more tracks might have leaked.

I'd love to hear just Brion's version of the records, but not sure that's possible anymore.

Things were even clearly labelled when Schnapf and Bolme put that together.

in fact, that 'Ostritches' instrumental track on the album is actually something McConnell recorded himself and because they didn't ask, they put it on the album thinking it was a whimsical little thing Elliott put together.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:26:29 +0000

There are a lot of unreleased recordings floating around the web that paint a greater picture of what Smith was up to in those final sessions. 'Basement on a Hill' as it was released is in my opinion a poor compilation of that period and doesn't reflect that the intended album was.

By: rodrigoperez

rodrigoperez — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:00:11 +0000

No Brion. Would like to hear the about half a dozen or more version of Basement Under The Hill tracks that were recorded (though pieces made that album -- McConnell told me back in the day that album was severely frankensteined after his death, drums from this session, guitar from here, etc.)

Brion basically called out Smith on his drug problems during a session and that destroyed their relationship right there and then. Smith actually even threatened to destroy the master tapes of their recordings.

By: kevinjagernauth

kevinjagernauth — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:51:23 +0000

Was Jon Brion involved in the doc? I know he and Smith worked quite closely together.

By: rodrigoperez

rodrigoperez — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:45:13 +0000

don't think you understand the context there dude or are reading into that.

Smith was still in recovery at the time. Mills said his work was slow and his work on the project intermittent.

Of course he can competently cover a Cat Stevens song. If that's what you're complaining about.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:36:34 +0000

"Able to pull off"? Really?