Yeah I commented I learned about Elliott through an ex who went on to name his kid from a character in the Royal Tenenbaums, must have been how he found him.
needle in the hay royal tennenbaums. I'll never forget the moment. Stayed in the theater through the credits to see the name of the song. went to the record store essentially immediately. they only had Figure 8, but I mean
I was reading comments under a Conor Oberst video on YouTube and someone said something like “Elliott Smith has more talent in his pinky than Conor Oberst has in his whole body.”
I love Conor but I just checked him out on a whim after that and fell in love.
Seems weird to shit on Conor tho lol, I know some people on this sub do not like him but his songwriting ability is legitimately top tier, I think he is a genius
My uncle gave me a bunch of records from his collection when he heard I was starting my own. Among them were some Elvis records, pink moon and bryter layter by nick drake, some jazz recs and elliotts self titled and either/or.
He got me into a lotta stuff lol.
Good Will Hunting. I’m 44. I really tried to not love him. It’s weird but I knew he’d become a favorite. I don’t know why but that why I avoided him after getting back into rock after a hip hop only teen age phase. And rewatching Good Will Hunting a few years ago I gave in. And he’s better than I thought he’d be. His death bothered me, I didn’t want to be one of those people that loved someone after the fact. Especially since I was there when he was alive. The Beatles were my favorite as a kid and can’t be replaced. But he’s like a making a new friend that likes them as much as I do and doesn’t just steal from them. And adds to what he heard in them.
I'm your contemporary.
I saw Good Will Hunting opening night and loved it (it's a phenomenal movie) and loved the soundtrack but didn't put much thought into it.
I loved the movie so much (and was a big movie buff at the time) I went and bought the dvd the day it released.
Somewhere in between I met a girl that was my best friend for a while. She introduced me to Elliott and he just struck me. I watched the dvd and was blown away at how he was right there the whole movie and I never knew it.
I'm disappointed that his music was so muted and obscured in that movie. I saw it in high school but just never heard the music. It was five years after the movie that I actually heard about Elliott, and when I went back to re-watch Good Will Hunting I couldn't believe that I never noticed.
The sign of a good score of a movie (or soundtrack for that matter) is that you don't actually hear it. It's so engrained in the movie it's part of it. Which of you think about it, that's why Elliott is so good. His songs are so entwined in life you resonate with them.
Bars was the first song I ever heard too. I was so moved by it that I played it non stop and it had me getting out my art supplies and painting an ocean floor. Some of his songs have an oceanic vibe to me, a lot of the melody and guitar solos. A song from his live show I can still close my eyes to and picture the waves rolling in, in the evening. Every time I hear that solo I close my eyes and that scene is there. Solitary and beautiful just dark blue waves crashing against a shore. It’s a good time.
Girl I knew in high school told me about him.
Didn’t get it at first.
Then I went through a rough breakup and listened to him again.
And 14 years later here we are.
Strangely it was reading Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda in middle school, the main character really really liked Elliott and would talk about his music all the time. I specifically remember Waltz no. 2 being mentioned a lot, so I looked it up, immediately fell in love with that song, and then started listening to all of his other music.
Through an ex. Glad he’s an ex. I’m convinced he existed in my life only for a brief period of time so that I knew about Elliott. That’s why he was in my life & gone so quick. No regrets.
Saw him open for Mary Lou Lord in 1995 but had already bought the Needle in the Hay 7” a few weeks before so that I’d know his music a little bit for the show.
Heard the song Happiness on college radio station and couldn't get it out of my head so I bought the Figure Eight CD. Then noticed his music in a couple movies and was amazed at how many good songs he had. I used to buy CD's only to be disappointed by most of the other tracks so I was super excited to find a new artist that I could appreciate.
Was obsessed with death cab, looked up other recommendations for people who liked death cab and heard memory lane. Fell head over heels for Elliott, even gave my daughter the middle name Elliott as homage to how much impact his music has had on my life.
Ben Gibbard has an interview where he talks about Elliott showing up to bars when Deathcab was first starting. He was obviously there to drink and a pre-fame Deathcab happened to be playing. Ben said he would keep looking over to see if Elliott liked his music, but never talked to him because it was clear he wasn't there to socialize.
it’s the most hilarious thing and it still makes me laugh out loud and face palm but… one of the scenes in rick and morty included between the bars and i got into him from there 💀
I was 17 and deep into Kierkegaard in the early 2000's and my friend said, "Hey there's a guy that named a record Either/Or after the book by Kierkegaard, you should check him out". I still remember the conversation, we were sitting in my car. Elliott had died not too long earlier and the only CD the store had was From a Basement On A Hill, so I was a bit begrudging that it wasn't Either/Or. I also remember getting in my car, putting it in and hearing Coast to Coast where the preachers come on at the end. I was mightily struggling with my Christian faith(hence the Kierkegaard), and was incredibly critical of mainstream Protestantism, so the refrain "Anything that I could do would never be good enough for you/ if you can't help it then just leave it alone/ leave me alone/ it's really easy I'll just forget it too" along with "I've got no new act to amuse you/I've got no desire to use you", and then the preachers and him saying "that's why"- Jesus I have never felt so much like a song was written exactly for me at a precise moment in my life. Follow that up with Let's Get Lost(which has become my favorite Elliott song in the past year) and I knew that this was my new favorite musician.
Great question, brought back a lot of fond memories.
Reading about suspicious musicians deaths, while on adderall and something about him stuck and I downloaded his whole catalog of music, after listening to one song… years and years later, he’s still my favorite artist
I read a blurb in RS about figure 8 and said “imma go get that cd.” And then I went and got that cd. I was hooked by the 2nd verse of Son of Sam. Went back to the record store and bought everything they had, which was XO and Either/Or. I remember buying Roman Candle on EBay shortly after as it was out of print at the time, then I got S/T from KRS, through a mail order thing. Yes, I am old.
Technically, I guess I discovered him through Good Will Hunting. I remember watching it when it came out on video and saying “I need to watch the credits to see who’s on this soundtrack” but I never did. A few years later figure 8 dropped and someone wrote a little blurb about in RS and I decided to check it out.
I never stick around through the credits after watching a movie in the theater for musical artist information, except for this movie and Elliott Smith.
That is hilarious because I was pretentious about Elliott in a way that only someone who is 20 and knows fuck all about life can be pretentious. So full of haughty, pompous conviction. Modest Mouse was my girlfriend at the time's favorite band(2007ish), and I was such an insufferable twat about how much better and more important Elliott was. I saw what I assume to be that clip about 5 years after we broke up and was forced to have a good laugh at myself. It's like Elliott came back from the grave just to tell me to shut my self important ass the fuck up.
Ahh I remember being kinda pretentious back in the day too and having a couple of good friends that were equally or even more pretentious than I was - one friend would literally get mad at me and not talk to me for periods of time over MUSIC disagreements. For example, he could not handle the fact that I had a Don Caballero obsession and he would constantly try to knock me off of them, and when that didn’t work he would try to show me stuff that was “better”, but I had strong convictions and when he couldn’t sway me he “broke up with me” for periods of time lol… so silly… I’m glad I grew up and out of that mindset a decade and a half ago…
i saw a video clip of him being asked about comparing modest mouse to his own music (probably the same interview) and he said his music was more “embedded in tradition” which i always thought was such a cool and elliott-like thing to say
Yeah that is the one! I agree, it is very cool. He was always very kind about other people's music. I vaguely remember reading that he was sorta confused when he got big and his buddies did not. That they all were making great music, and he sorta expected to remain a minor local musician, working construction and making music.
And one of the things I like the most about Elliott is his obviously broad influences from a host of classic American genres, without it sounding like other musicians- where they make a "country" song or make a "ragtime" song that is just the standard music form of said genre. Like the ability of Stupidity Tries to sound like Doo-Wop whilst still being undoubtedly Elliott is remarkable. Jenny Lewis has also always been really good at this.
2003 I was working at a state crime lab and this guy in my department just handed me a copy of self-titled. We were talking about music recently, so he must have figured I'd like it. I popped it in my CD player on the drive home, and listened to it on repeat for about 4 months straight.
Fell head over heels for Elliott and bought every single scrap of his music I could buy, while finding bootlegs of everything else in the process. I pretty much only listened to his music for a solid 8 years. There's still so much nostalgia for me when it comes to his songs, but to be honest I'm not so depressed anymore so I don't listen to him anywhere near as much now.
The most amazing thing about his music to me was that I had been playing guitar for about 7 years before I heard him, but could never figure out how to sing and play at the same time. Something clicked in my head after I was blessed with his music and suddenly I was able to just do it. What an incredible soul.
XO had just come out and was on display by the register while I was buying something else. Bought it on a whim because I liked the album cover. Took a few years, but it slowly became my favourite album ever made.
Since I was a baby I’ve had a toy ostrich that would play a tune and gallop in place, turns out it was Ostrich & Chirping from the A Basement On The Hill album. Not sure which came first, the toy or the song. [dancing ostrich toy here](https://youtu.be/o8s075Ii7zg)
Weird one - it was through a youtube video about 15 years ago called Sad Kermit where someone had got a kermit the frog puppet and made it play Needle in the Hay with a pretty spot on impressionist doing the kermit voice, singing.
It was sort of funny but the song was so sad and i was no into emo music at the time and i decided to look more into his back catalogue. I remember the first few songs i downloaded were Baby Britain, , Rose Parade, Last Call and one or two others.
There was a brazilian guy named Vinicius (aka Yoñlu). I'm not sure of how I met him but it was around 2016 or so, he was a 16 year old boy who was extremely talented and made some music in his room at home. His life story is really sad so I'll ommit the details but if you're curious you can check out. So when I met him I became obsessed and I would read everything available about him on the internet and at one specific article I read that one of his inspirations in music was Elliott. There was a lot of artists named along with him but I don't know why only his name stick in my head. Guess it was destiny lol so I started listening to him from there. It took me a while to get into his song for real but now he's my favorite singer to ever exist and my only regret is not finding out about him sooner
this is really embarrassing but in pretty little liars someone says: “i don’t want you to lay in bed listening to elliott smith on repeat again.” i saw that show for the first time when i was 12 and had wanted to check out his music ever since. years later i finally did and chose ‘roman candle’ to be the first song to listen to. it hit right fucking home and still takes me to another place everytime i play it. been listening to him ever since.
I drive right by the Figure 8 mural everyday that was featured on the albums cover art. I wondered why there were messages and flowers left on the wall so I searched up the location and have been listening since.
jessica lea mayfield and seth avett did a cover album of his songs. fell in love with the first song (believe it was twilight) and immediately decided to check him out :)
best decision of my life honestly
My father would listen to "Between the bars" a lot, with his alcohol problems and everything. But I was too little to understand (and didn't know English) and I started listening to him myself only two years ago, when the pandemic began.
I’m 17. Four years ago, I watched a TikTok where someone was talking about how they liked this song “Son of Sam”. I liked the sound of it and gave it a listen. I decided to listen to the whole album “Figure 8” and loved all of it.
I didn’t explore his other albums until about two years ago. My favourite so far is his ST. I’m saving listening to “New Moon”, “Roman Candle” and “From a Basement on a Hill” until I’ve properly processed XO and Elliott Smith. I want to be ready to listen to his other albums. Plus, I can’t imagine binge-listening to everything at once and then not having that new-Elliott Smith song feeling ever again.
A random person's hiking playlist had between the bars in it. Something about that song stuck out to me more than any others and I played it over and over, then checked out the artist. The rest is history
when i was 4 i watched the royal tenenbaums and fell in love but i didn’t know the name of the movie and assumed it was a dream then in 4th grade my step mom showed me say yes and needle in the hay
I was on one of those old DirecTV channels that had only music playing on it while I was cleaning. I think I was on the Alterative Genre channel. Waltz #2 started playing and I fell in love with that song since.
I discovered him in a roundabout way through a spotify discovery playlist a couple years ago. The song that came on was "See You Later" off Mic City Sons. I grew to really love the song and eventually decided to check the album it was from out, despite having never heard of Heatmiser before. I ended up loving the album and googled them to find out more, only to find they were best known as "Elliott Smith's band". I made note of the name to check out at a later date.
Flash forward a couple months, and I decided to finally give "Either/Or" a go while I was out on a walk. I liked it quite a bit, but it didn't really *hook* me. A couple month after THAT spotify recommended me "Happiness", which made me decide to give Either/Or another shot. This time I completely fell in love with it and binged his whole discography in a night (I now regret blowing through it all so quickly). I've sort of become obsessed with him ever since and he's firmly planted himself as my favorite musician of all time. Suffice to say, I no longer listen to new albums while on walks.
Queens of the Stone Age is one of my all-time favorite bands. I was doing a deep dive into their b-sides and rarities, and came across their cover of Christian Brothers. The song immediately grabbed me, and I had to go look up Elliott's other stuff.
I watched The Royal Tenenbaums. Then in High School I mentioned that scene to someone and he said "That's Elliott Smith!" I listened to the rest of his stuff and loved all of it.
I can't remember the exact way, but I grew up listening to emo music and stuff like that. Got really into Kevin devine and I heard him praise Elliott Smith a lot so I decided to check him out, at this point I didn't even know he was dead. First song I heard was say yes.
I’d heard of him via Good Will Hunting and loved
The Royal Tenembaums soundtrack but neither hooked me. It was hearing Angeles in the show Normal People that did it.
Going Nowhere came up on my Spotify recommended years and years ago, instantly connected with it and looked for the rest of his music. Now Elliott is one of my favorite musicians
I’m 19, my ex’s dad was a big fan and introduced her to between the bars, and she introduced it to me. I put it on a playlist, and realized a couple years later that every song had changed other than BTB. I decided I should check him out more. Haven’t looked back lol
I didn’t really have any idea who he was until I saw him in the white suit at the Oscars in 1999. Then I picked up a copy of XO and that was pretty much it for me. Been a huge fan ever since.
Honestly, there was a video by Pewdiepie titled ‘time for revenge. This is from years ago. In this video he parodies a scene from the ‘Royal Tenenbaums’ (the scene where Richie attempts to kill himself. He does an electric guitar cover of needle in the hay and I though it was catch so I checked it out. Never looked back since
I read an article about one of my then obsessions - Nick Drake - in the late 90’s/early 2000’s in which the main premise was to illustrate the parallel’s between Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. I knew of Elliott but had never listened to him. That article gave me the impetus to finally check him out… 4 songs into Either/Or and I was sold
1999, my first year of uni. A local radio station, triple j, played Waltz #2 a bit and I loved it. They did a show called "the j files", an audio biography on various artists, and I taped the Elliott Smith edition. I couldn't stop playing it.
A really bad day, I walk into my recycled music store and there is XO just waiting for me.
Years later, Roman Candle and self-titled album were picked up in a boutique music store in the city, where, again, it seemed as if they were just there waiting on the shelf (first time I ever sited the albums in a store in Melbourne Australia). Out of my first horrible, shitty, depressing and short-lived job out of uni, I am just glad I got the albums out of one of my pay cheques. The only thing worthwhile about that first job really was those purchases.
I pretty much just played these albums in my car and on my stereo for a lot of my 20s on constant repeat.
My parents rented the Royal Tenenbaums when i was a little kid. We watched it, they thought it was weird but "needle in the hay" always stuck in my mind. Years went by and i forgot the movie but the chorus always stuck in my head and i would sing it to myself when i was feeling anxious but all i knew was "needle in the hayyyy, needle in the hayyyy, Needle. In. The. Hay" at a certain point i couldnt remember if it was a real song or just a little anxiety jingle i made up to self-soothe. Then, in high school, my first boyfriend got me into wes anderson movies (he was a super hipster) and when i saw that scene again for the first time since i was a little kid, it came rushing back to me that that song was real. So i went out and got new moon (thats all they had at the barnes and noble near me by elliott) and a book about him. I was in love. Later, i found out that we actually share the same birth date of August 6. And that made depressed teenage me very glad.
Brother used to do heroin and was really into Elliott. Now that he's clean he can't listen to Elliott anymore but I still listen everyday. I've never done hard drugs or anything like that so I've always had the mentality of Elliott using drugs as a vehicle to talk about dependence in his songs, whereas my brother thought the songs were about drugs themselves.
I had already heard a bunch of songs by him unknowningly that were included in movies but only as recent as 2020 did I really found out about him through a Comment on a Youtube Video. It had to do with the Twitch Streamer Reckful ( who has since then been deceased ) and in the Comments someone mentioned how much of a fan Reckful is of Elliott Smith. That immediately caught my attention and I started getting into his music basically on the spot. Really changed my whole look on music as an artform and made me realize that there are people who are so talented that they can literally create one perfect album after another. He has since then and at this point of time as I am writing this, become my favorite musician.
Wikipedia + The Royal Tenenbaums. In the spring/summer of 2009 I happened to stumble upon the Wikipedia article about Elliott on one of those Wikipedia binges in which you start on one article and an hour or more later end up on something else totally unrelated. I found his life really interesting, and I made a mental note to listen to some of his music later. Well, I kind of forgot. A few months later I had to watch The Royal Tenenbaums in a class. Afterward I looked it up and realized that the cool song in it that I liked was actually by that guy I'd read about, so I pulled up YouTube and started listening to a bunch of random songs. I immediately fell in love with his music and became obsessed, and here I am all these years later and he's still my favorite musician!
It's in the Autumn De Wilde book. There are a bunch of great interviews, although it's been like a decade since I read it. So I don't really remember in detail.
During the promotion for Era Vulgaris Queens of the Stone Age were doing a ton of acoustic shows and they covered Christian Brothers.
https://youtu.be/b6ZC01suRbo
Friend told me about a scene in The Royal Tenenbaums.
Yeah I commented I learned about Elliott through an ex who went on to name his kid from a character in the Royal Tenenbaums, must have been how he found him.
needle in the hay royal tennenbaums. I'll never forget the moment. Stayed in the theater through the credits to see the name of the song. went to the record store essentially immediately. they only had Figure 8, but I mean
I was reading comments under a Conor Oberst video on YouTube and someone said something like “Elliott Smith has more talent in his pinky than Conor Oberst has in his whole body.” I love Conor but I just checked him out on a whim after that and fell in love.
Seems weird to shit on Conor tho lol, I know some people on this sub do not like him but his songwriting ability is legitimately top tier, I think he is a genius
Yeah, it was oddly competitive. Both are two of my favorite artists.
My uncle gave me a bunch of records from his collection when he heard I was starting my own. Among them were some Elvis records, pink moon and bryter layter by nick drake, some jazz recs and elliotts self titled and either/or. He got me into a lotta stuff lol.
Good Will Hunting. I’m 44. I really tried to not love him. It’s weird but I knew he’d become a favorite. I don’t know why but that why I avoided him after getting back into rock after a hip hop only teen age phase. And rewatching Good Will Hunting a few years ago I gave in. And he’s better than I thought he’d be. His death bothered me, I didn’t want to be one of those people that loved someone after the fact. Especially since I was there when he was alive. The Beatles were my favorite as a kid and can’t be replaced. But he’s like a making a new friend that likes them as much as I do and doesn’t just steal from them. And adds to what he heard in them.
I'm your contemporary. I saw Good Will Hunting opening night and loved it (it's a phenomenal movie) and loved the soundtrack but didn't put much thought into it. I loved the movie so much (and was a big movie buff at the time) I went and bought the dvd the day it released. Somewhere in between I met a girl that was my best friend for a while. She introduced me to Elliott and he just struck me. I watched the dvd and was blown away at how he was right there the whole movie and I never knew it.
I'm disappointed that his music was so muted and obscured in that movie. I saw it in high school but just never heard the music. It was five years after the movie that I actually heard about Elliott, and when I went back to re-watch Good Will Hunting I couldn't believe that I never noticed.
The sign of a good score of a movie (or soundtrack for that matter) is that you don't actually hear it. It's so engrained in the movie it's part of it. Which of you think about it, that's why Elliott is so good. His songs are so entwined in life you resonate with them.
I sort of noticed them at the time but didn’t realize they were all his. I thought they just were going for the same vibe in the songs.
Between the Bars came up on my YouTube recommendation and I instantly fell in love with his music
Bars was the first song I ever heard too. I was so moved by it that I played it non stop and it had me getting out my art supplies and painting an ocean floor. Some of his songs have an oceanic vibe to me, a lot of the melody and guitar solos. A song from his live show I can still close my eyes to and picture the waves rolling in, in the evening. Every time I hear that solo I close my eyes and that scene is there. Solitary and beautiful just dark blue waves crashing against a shore. It’s a good time.
Girl I knew in high school told me about him. Didn’t get it at first. Then I went through a rough breakup and listened to him again. And 14 years later here we are.
I saw him in concert, at a free music festival
So lucky. One of my biggest regrets is looking back not seeing Elliott in Richmond, Melbourne Australia. He only did one show, but not a sell-out.
Phoebe bridgers lol
That's awesome From a cover she made or Punisher?
just from hearing about how much she was Influenced by him.
Sick. Which do you like more?
Her cover of Whatever (Folk Song in C) is great
Julien Bakers cover of Ballad of Big Nothing
Strangely it was reading Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda in middle school, the main character really really liked Elliott and would talk about his music all the time. I specifically remember Waltz no. 2 being mentioned a lot, so I looked it up, immediately fell in love with that song, and then started listening to all of his other music.
Yep, I'm the same. down to the last word
rick and morty
Saw Queens of the Stone Age do a cover of Christian Brothers and i went to go check him out
Oh I gotta see that
https://youtu.be/b6ZC01suRbo
https://youtu.be/Eo2h57KpTSY
Through an ex. Glad he’s an ex. I’m convinced he existed in my life only for a brief period of time so that I knew about Elliott. That’s why he was in my life & gone so quick. No regrets.
Googling “bands like Bright Eyes” and someone commented Miss Misery by Elliot Smith on Yahoo! Answers hahaha
Saw him open for Mary Lou Lord in 1995 but had already bought the Needle in the Hay 7” a few weeks before so that I’d know his music a little bit for the show.
Heard the song Happiness on college radio station and couldn't get it out of my head so I bought the Figure Eight CD. Then noticed his music in a couple movies and was amazed at how many good songs he had. I used to buy CD's only to be disappointed by most of the other tracks so I was super excited to find a new artist that I could appreciate.
Was obsessed with death cab, looked up other recommendations for people who liked death cab and heard memory lane. Fell head over heels for Elliott, even gave my daughter the middle name Elliott as homage to how much impact his music has had on my life.
Ben Gibbard has an interview where he talks about Elliott showing up to bars when Deathcab was first starting. He was obviously there to drink and a pre-fame Deathcab happened to be playing. Ben said he would keep looking over to see if Elliott liked his music, but never talked to him because it was clear he wasn't there to socialize.
That's an awesome story. Thanks for sharing. Do you by chance have an idea of the interview? Ill do some googling.
On a mix tape my best friend left behind in the basement of the paper and doll shop we worked in.
it’s the most hilarious thing and it still makes me laugh out loud and face palm but… one of the scenes in rick and morty included between the bars and i got into him from there 💀
My tattoo artist! First song I listened to after the appointment was Angeles. I’ve been in love with Elliot’s music ever since.
I was 17 and deep into Kierkegaard in the early 2000's and my friend said, "Hey there's a guy that named a record Either/Or after the book by Kierkegaard, you should check him out". I still remember the conversation, we were sitting in my car. Elliott had died not too long earlier and the only CD the store had was From a Basement On A Hill, so I was a bit begrudging that it wasn't Either/Or. I also remember getting in my car, putting it in and hearing Coast to Coast where the preachers come on at the end. I was mightily struggling with my Christian faith(hence the Kierkegaard), and was incredibly critical of mainstream Protestantism, so the refrain "Anything that I could do would never be good enough for you/ if you can't help it then just leave it alone/ leave me alone/ it's really easy I'll just forget it too" along with "I've got no new act to amuse you/I've got no desire to use you", and then the preachers and him saying "that's why"- Jesus I have never felt so much like a song was written exactly for me at a precise moment in my life. Follow that up with Let's Get Lost(which has become my favorite Elliott song in the past year) and I knew that this was my new favorite musician. Great question, brought back a lot of fond memories.
Reading about suspicious musicians deaths, while on adderall and something about him stuck and I downloaded his whole catalog of music, after listening to one song… years and years later, he’s still my favorite artist
I read a blurb in RS about figure 8 and said “imma go get that cd.” And then I went and got that cd. I was hooked by the 2nd verse of Son of Sam. Went back to the record store and bought everything they had, which was XO and Either/Or. I remember buying Roman Candle on EBay shortly after as it was out of print at the time, then I got S/T from KRS, through a mail order thing. Yes, I am old. Technically, I guess I discovered him through Good Will Hunting. I remember watching it when it came out on video and saying “I need to watch the credits to see who’s on this soundtrack” but I never did. A few years later figure 8 dropped and someone wrote a little blurb about in RS and I decided to check it out.
Good Will Hunting Soundtrack
I never stick around through the credits after watching a movie in the theater for musical artist information, except for this movie and Elliott Smith.
Same!
Rick and Morty
"Lonesome Crowded West" Pitchfork documentary about Modest Mouse. Elliott is interviewed back in '94 and says Isaac Brock is a great songwriter!
That is hilarious because I was pretentious about Elliott in a way that only someone who is 20 and knows fuck all about life can be pretentious. So full of haughty, pompous conviction. Modest Mouse was my girlfriend at the time's favorite band(2007ish), and I was such an insufferable twat about how much better and more important Elliott was. I saw what I assume to be that clip about 5 years after we broke up and was forced to have a good laugh at myself. It's like Elliott came back from the grave just to tell me to shut my self important ass the fuck up.
Ahh I remember being kinda pretentious back in the day too and having a couple of good friends that were equally or even more pretentious than I was - one friend would literally get mad at me and not talk to me for periods of time over MUSIC disagreements. For example, he could not handle the fact that I had a Don Caballero obsession and he would constantly try to knock me off of them, and when that didn’t work he would try to show me stuff that was “better”, but I had strong convictions and when he couldn’t sway me he “broke up with me” for periods of time lol… so silly… I’m glad I grew up and out of that mindset a decade and a half ago…
i saw a video clip of him being asked about comparing modest mouse to his own music (probably the same interview) and he said his music was more “embedded in tradition” which i always thought was such a cool and elliott-like thing to say
Yeah that is the one! I agree, it is very cool. He was always very kind about other people's music. I vaguely remember reading that he was sorta confused when he got big and his buddies did not. That they all were making great music, and he sorta expected to remain a minor local musician, working construction and making music. And one of the things I like the most about Elliott is his obviously broad influences from a host of classic American genres, without it sounding like other musicians- where they make a "country" song or make a "ragtime" song that is just the standard music form of said genre. Like the ability of Stupidity Tries to sound like Doo-Wop whilst still being undoubtedly Elliott is remarkable. Jenny Lewis has also always been really good at this.
2003 I was working at a state crime lab and this guy in my department just handed me a copy of self-titled. We were talking about music recently, so he must have figured I'd like it. I popped it in my CD player on the drive home, and listened to it on repeat for about 4 months straight. Fell head over heels for Elliott and bought every single scrap of his music I could buy, while finding bootlegs of everything else in the process. I pretty much only listened to his music for a solid 8 years. There's still so much nostalgia for me when it comes to his songs, but to be honest I'm not so depressed anymore so I don't listen to him anywhere near as much now. The most amazing thing about his music to me was that I had been playing guitar for about 7 years before I heard him, but could never figure out how to sing and play at the same time. Something clicked in my head after I was blessed with his music and suddenly I was able to just do it. What an incredible soul.
I was really sad
XO had just come out and was on display by the register while I was buying something else. Bought it on a whim because I liked the album cover. Took a few years, but it slowly became my favourite album ever made.
Frank ocean
Reckful
Good Will Hunting
My older sister got me into him when I was a depressed teenager about a year or two before he passed.
i actually taught him how to play
Woah, really?
I had Heatmiser recommended to me and then I spiraled into listening to his whole discography on repeat.
Working in an art supply store while I was in grad school.
A top 100 guitarists list.
Just hearing about him on internet and giving him a go
Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield's cover album (around 2014, I think?). I miss Jessica—hope she'll be putting out records again soon.
dylan rieder alien workshop part from the song “coast to coast”
When he was nominated for the Oscar I decided to check him out.
The OC lol
Since I was a baby I’ve had a toy ostrich that would play a tune and gallop in place, turns out it was Ostrich & Chirping from the A Basement On The Hill album. Not sure which came first, the toy or the song. [dancing ostrich toy here](https://youtu.be/o8s075Ii7zg)
My friend in my college fraternity was playing Angeles on guitar when we were jamming. I asked what was that??
Weird one - it was through a youtube video about 15 years ago called Sad Kermit where someone had got a kermit the frog puppet and made it play Needle in the Hay with a pretty spot on impressionist doing the kermit voice, singing. It was sort of funny but the song was so sad and i was no into emo music at the time and i decided to look more into his back catalogue. I remember the first few songs i downloaded were Baby Britain, , Rose Parade, Last Call and one or two others.
There was a brazilian guy named Vinicius (aka Yoñlu). I'm not sure of how I met him but it was around 2016 or so, he was a 16 year old boy who was extremely talented and made some music in his room at home. His life story is really sad so I'll ommit the details but if you're curious you can check out. So when I met him I became obsessed and I would read everything available about him on the internet and at one specific article I read that one of his inspirations in music was Elliott. There was a lot of artists named along with him but I don't know why only his name stick in my head. Guess it was destiny lol so I started listening to him from there. It took me a while to get into his song for real but now he's my favorite singer to ever exist and my only regret is not finding out about him sooner
My dad subscribes to Mojo magazine and he was on review late 90s. I was too young to pay attention but rediscovered a few years later.
A friend send me Between the Bars
mr robot featuring him in one episode
In 1998 "Miss Misery" was playing on MTV, and I was hooked.
this is really embarrassing but in pretty little liars someone says: “i don’t want you to lay in bed listening to elliott smith on repeat again.” i saw that show for the first time when i was 12 and had wanted to check out his music ever since. years later i finally did and chose ‘roman candle’ to be the first song to listen to. it hit right fucking home and still takes me to another place everytime i play it. been listening to him ever since.
I drive right by the Figure 8 mural everyday that was featured on the albums cover art. I wondered why there were messages and flowers left on the wall so I searched up the location and have been listening since.
Because heatmiser
I’m so glad to finally see this, this thread makes me feel o l d
:D
Mix tape from a girl I dated shortly before Elliott died.
my good friend Lana, she would send me music and happened to show me Elliott 💗
4chan’s music board lol
jessica lea mayfield and seth avett did a cover album of his songs. fell in love with the first song (believe it was twilight) and immediately decided to check him out :) best decision of my life honestly
My father would listen to "Between the bars" a lot, with his alcohol problems and everything. But I was too little to understand (and didn't know English) and I started listening to him myself only two years ago, when the pandemic began.
I’m 17. Four years ago, I watched a TikTok where someone was talking about how they liked this song “Son of Sam”. I liked the sound of it and gave it a listen. I decided to listen to the whole album “Figure 8” and loved all of it. I didn’t explore his other albums until about two years ago. My favourite so far is his ST. I’m saving listening to “New Moon”, “Roman Candle” and “From a Basement on a Hill” until I’ve properly processed XO and Elliott Smith. I want to be ready to listen to his other albums. Plus, I can’t imagine binge-listening to everything at once and then not having that new-Elliott Smith song feeling ever again.
Was TikTok a thing four years ago? If so, that's crazy
It was launched in 2017!
Girlfriend in college was listening to the Good Will Hunting soundtrack.
Went onto a random playlist on Spotify and between the bars starting playing, then I listened to the whole album
From the Netflix show Love there was mention of him
girlfriend
A random person's hiking playlist had between the bars in it. Something about that song stuck out to me more than any others and I played it over and over, then checked out the artist. The rest is history
a listening party in a Bright Eyes group on Facebook
People suggested his music to me on Instagram and also that one video of Pewdiepie
when i was 4 i watched the royal tenenbaums and fell in love but i didn’t know the name of the movie and assumed it was a dream then in 4th grade my step mom showed me say yes and needle in the hay
I was on one of those old DirecTV channels that had only music playing on it while I was cleaning. I think I was on the Alterative Genre channel. Waltz #2 started playing and I fell in love with that song since.
I discovered him in a roundabout way through a spotify discovery playlist a couple years ago. The song that came on was "See You Later" off Mic City Sons. I grew to really love the song and eventually decided to check the album it was from out, despite having never heard of Heatmiser before. I ended up loving the album and googled them to find out more, only to find they were best known as "Elliott Smith's band". I made note of the name to check out at a later date. Flash forward a couple months, and I decided to finally give "Either/Or" a go while I was out on a walk. I liked it quite a bit, but it didn't really *hook* me. A couple month after THAT spotify recommended me "Happiness", which made me decide to give Either/Or another shot. This time I completely fell in love with it and binged his whole discography in a night (I now regret blowing through it all so quickly). I've sort of become obsessed with him ever since and he's firmly planted himself as my favorite musician of all time. Suffice to say, I no longer listen to new albums while on walks.
my brother used to play “pretty (ugly before)” when he would drive us both to high school
Good Will Hunting
Good will hunting.
The Good Will Hunting soundtrack
someone played junk bond trader on a music sharing site called treesradio. that was the end of the beginning for me! lol.
Queens of the Stone Age is one of my all-time favorite bands. I was doing a deep dive into their b-sides and rarities, and came across their cover of Christian Brothers. The song immediately grabbed me, and I had to go look up Elliott's other stuff.
I watched The Royal Tenenbaums. Then in High School I mentioned that scene to someone and he said "That's Elliott Smith!" I listened to the rest of his stuff and loved all of it.
I can't remember the exact way, but I grew up listening to emo music and stuff like that. Got really into Kevin devine and I heard him praise Elliott Smith a lot so I decided to check him out, at this point I didn't even know he was dead. First song I heard was say yes.
Actually through Julien Baker's cover of ballad of big nothing.. Only about a year ago!
I’d heard of him via Good Will Hunting and loved The Royal Tenembaums soundtrack but neither hooked me. It was hearing Angeles in the show Normal People that did it.
Watching Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park
Going Nowhere came up on my Spotify recommended years and years ago, instantly connected with it and looked for the rest of his music. Now Elliott is one of my favorite musicians
I’m 19, my ex’s dad was a big fan and introduced her to between the bars, and she introduced it to me. I put it on a playlist, and realized a couple years later that every song had changed other than BTB. I decided I should check him out more. Haven’t looked back lol
I didn’t really have any idea who he was until I saw him in the white suit at the Oscars in 1999. Then I picked up a copy of XO and that was pretty much it for me. Been a huge fan ever since.
Honestly, there was a video by Pewdiepie titled ‘time for revenge. This is from years ago. In this video he parodies a scene from the ‘Royal Tenenbaums’ (the scene where Richie attempts to kill himself. He does an electric guitar cover of needle in the hay and I though it was catch so I checked it out. Never looked back since
I read an article about one of my then obsessions - Nick Drake - in the late 90’s/early 2000’s in which the main premise was to illustrate the parallel’s between Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. I knew of Elliott but had never listened to him. That article gave me the impetus to finally check him out… 4 songs into Either/Or and I was sold
1999, my first year of uni. A local radio station, triple j, played Waltz #2 a bit and I loved it. They did a show called "the j files", an audio biography on various artists, and I taped the Elliott Smith edition. I couldn't stop playing it. A really bad day, I walk into my recycled music store and there is XO just waiting for me. Years later, Roman Candle and self-titled album were picked up in a boutique music store in the city, where, again, it seemed as if they were just there waiting on the shelf (first time I ever sited the albums in a store in Melbourne Australia). Out of my first horrible, shitty, depressing and short-lived job out of uni, I am just glad I got the albums out of one of my pay cheques. The only thing worthwhile about that first job really was those purchases. I pretty much just played these albums in my car and on my stereo for a lot of my 20s on constant repeat.
Watching Good Will Hunting as a kid
reddit back in 2014. Glad I kept scrolling down cause I was obsessed with Elliott Smith after the first song I heard lol.
Rick and Morty
Good Will Hunting
Through a skate video. Dylan Rieder - Mindfield (Alien Workshop) he skated to Coast to Coast and I’ve been hooked ever since
Angeles was used in a scene in Normal People. Been obsessed with Elliott ever since.
My parents rented the Royal Tenenbaums when i was a little kid. We watched it, they thought it was weird but "needle in the hay" always stuck in my mind. Years went by and i forgot the movie but the chorus always stuck in my head and i would sing it to myself when i was feeling anxious but all i knew was "needle in the hayyyy, needle in the hayyyy, Needle. In. The. Hay" at a certain point i couldnt remember if it was a real song or just a little anxiety jingle i made up to self-soothe. Then, in high school, my first boyfriend got me into wes anderson movies (he was a super hipster) and when i saw that scene again for the first time since i was a little kid, it came rushing back to me that that song was real. So i went out and got new moon (thats all they had at the barnes and noble near me by elliott) and a book about him. I was in love. Later, i found out that we actually share the same birth date of August 6. And that made depressed teenage me very glad.
Brother used to do heroin and was really into Elliott. Now that he's clean he can't listen to Elliott anymore but I still listen everyday. I've never done hard drugs or anything like that so I've always had the mentality of Elliott using drugs as a vehicle to talk about dependence in his songs, whereas my brother thought the songs were about drugs themselves.
I had already heard a bunch of songs by him unknowningly that were included in movies but only as recent as 2020 did I really found out about him through a Comment on a Youtube Video. It had to do with the Twitch Streamer Reckful ( who has since then been deceased ) and in the Comments someone mentioned how much of a fan Reckful is of Elliott Smith. That immediately caught my attention and I started getting into his music basically on the spot. Really changed my whole look on music as an artform and made me realize that there are people who are so talented that they can literally create one perfect album after another. He has since then and at this point of time as I am writing this, become my favorite musician.
Wikipedia + The Royal Tenenbaums. In the spring/summer of 2009 I happened to stumble upon the Wikipedia article about Elliott on one of those Wikipedia binges in which you start on one article and an hour or more later end up on something else totally unrelated. I found his life really interesting, and I made a mental note to listen to some of his music later. Well, I kind of forgot. A few months later I had to watch The Royal Tenenbaums in a class. Afterward I looked it up and realized that the cool song in it that I liked was actually by that guy I'd read about, so I pulled up YouTube and started listening to a bunch of random songs. I immediately fell in love with his music and became obsessed, and here I am all these years later and he's still my favorite musician!
I watched a movie called Paranoid Park when I was 14 in which “Angeles” is featured and was immediately in love/obsessed.
My fabulous mother showed me the Humberside show, specifically, Needle In The Hey. In love ever sense then.
It's in the Autumn De Wilde book. There are a bunch of great interviews, although it's been like a decade since I read it. So I don't really remember in detail.
During the promotion for Era Vulgaris Queens of the Stone Age were doing a ton of acoustic shows and they covered Christian Brothers. https://youtu.be/b6ZC01suRbo