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chumpradio
06-11-2006, 02:16 PM
Yeah, I stole this idea off a series of threads made by (I think) Brian and Vince a few months ago.
The idea of this is that I will recommend a couple of bands/artists who aren't pop punk, but I believe that are great, so I tell you about them in hope you will start listening to them.
I am not claiming to have a really broad taste in music, I just want to get some of the users here into a few of my favourite artists.
I don't know how many issues of this I will do, but I will just make the occassional random thread.

Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith is a singer/songwriter who wrote a lot of amazing albums in the 1990's/early 2000's, until his unfortunate death in 2003, which has still not been fully determined for the cause of death. A lot of people believe that Elliott took his own knife by stabbing himself in the chest twice, but his girlfriend/wife/whatever is a suspect for what could have been a murder.

Elliott's first famous band was the band Heatmiser, who are one of the major influences of Jimmy Eat World. Elliott's solo stuff, however, was mainly just him and his acoustic guitar, although he did occassionally include other instruments, such as piano, drums and electric guitars.

His music was a mix of acoustic/folk/rock, and he was a very talented guitarist. His guitar playing was amazing, and his voice was in my opinion, one of the best that I have ever heard. He wrote lyrics about his past exeriences and troubles, especially regarding love and drug problems.

Elliott became more famous worldwide after his song Miss Misery was nominated for a Grammy as it was included on the soundtrack for the film Good Will Hunting, and although he lost out on the award (the theme from Titanic won), he performed at the awards ceremony, and gained a lot of new fans.

Throughout his life, Elliott was troubled with a lot of drug addictions, and paranoia, which could have been linked with his unfortunate demise. Elliott believed that his ex-record label were out to get him, and frequently worried about it.

I will include his album's XO and Roman Candle in the daily upload thread sometime in the week, so look out for these. I highly recommend you get into one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived, in my opinion.


Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley is also a solo artist, whose music is mainly slower and acoustic orientated. He had an amazing vocal range (over 3 octaves), and unfortunately died in 1997 by drowning. It is thought that his death was accidental, although there are suspicions by some that he commited suicide.

I ownly own his debut album, Grace, but it is safe to say that from this record alone, Jeff Buckley was a truly amazing songwriter. Perhaps his most famous track is his cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, which is widely thought to be much better than the original. You may have heard a different version of this song if you have seen Shrek, but that is by Rufus Wainright, and is nowhere near the quality of Buckley's version.

Buckley would frequently play small shows under various pseudonyms, as he missed the fact that he could play at a café, and not have it full of kids who were there to watch him. He just loved playing music, and "irritating and/or entertaining" who didn't know him or know anything about his music.

I will upload his album "Grace" for the Daily Upload thread sometime this week, so make sure to download it. And when you do download it, listen to the track "Hallelujah", because even though the lyrics are religious, it is one of the most amazing songs I have ever heard; his voice, his guitar playing - everything about it is amazing.



Yeah, this may not be as popular as I hoped, but if I can get even one or two people into these two artists, then I will be happy. If this is relatively successful, I may end up making a few more threads over the next few weeks. And thanks to Vince and Brian for making these threads ages ago and giving me an idea that I can steal and take credit for. :p

Discuss these two artists if you've heard them/what you think of this thread/other artists who are similar that you can recommend.

Angry Balled Fists!
06-11-2006, 02:25 PM
Good work chris, nice write up :D

Dead Star
06-11-2006, 02:41 PM
Thats good work Chris, I've always been meaning to write some of these.

I could always write a Muse one and send you it if you want :p

Tjebby
06-11-2006, 02:51 PM
Ellliot Smith is good. To bad he killed himself.

Mute Print
06-11-2006, 02:56 PM
So basically, Chris likes artists who commit suicide.

:p

Nice write-up Chris. I'll be sure to check out the albums that you said you were going to upload for the mailing list.

BringHomeTheBacon
06-11-2006, 03:38 PM
2 awesome people. I'd like to hear some of Elliott's early work and his stuff with Heatmiser. I've heard his last 4 albums and like them a lot. As for Jeff, Grace is an awesome album.

chumpradio
06-11-2006, 05:05 PM
2 awesome people. I'd like to hear some of Elliott's early work and his stuff with Heatmiser. I've heard his last 4 albums and like them a lot. As for Jeff, Grace is an awesome album.
Which of Elliott's cds do you have?
I have them all I think, and I plan to upload them all to the Daily Upload if the first 2 go down well.
Roman Candle was on early cd, do you have that? I'm uploading that tomorrow.

And you win this thread so far by liking both of these artists already. :thumb:

BringHomeTheBacon
06-11-2006, 07:59 PM
Which of Elliott's cds do you have?
I have them all I think, and I plan to upload them all to the Daily Upload if the first 2 go down well.
Roman Candle was on early cd, do you have that? I'm uploading that tomorrow.

And you win this thread so far by liking both of these artists already. :thumb:
I have XO and Either/Or and rented Figure 8 and From the Basement from my library. So yea, I haven't heard Roman Candle or his self titled album. I don't have my email on the daily upload, but I'll add it.

chumpradio
06-12-2006, 11:54 AM
Alright everyone, I uploaded Elliott Smith - Either/Or and Roman Candle, and Jeff Buckley - Grace.
They will be in the Daily Upload hopefully today if Brian can put them in, so please download them, and tell me what you think.

The Mother Standard
06-13-2006, 03:26 AM
Hey, why do the URL links in the e-mails start like "hxxp" something? I mean, I know why you'd do that, but if they're posted on private e-mails, shouldn't it be no problem to post the URL as it normally is?

Not really whining, just wondering. :)

Thanks for today's issue! I didn't know that Elliott Smith guy.. He's alright.

chumpradio
06-13-2006, 05:02 AM
I just did it because most other people on the upload seemed to, so I thought I might as well.

Pazz
06-13-2006, 02:29 PM
They have hxxp instead of http because the upload site will sometimes find the link and cancel it if they notice a lot of people downloading off of it.

chumpradio
06-15-2006, 03:11 PM
Did anyone even bother to download these albums?
Come on guys, give them a listen and tell me your opinions. They are really amazing cds.

I probably won't do another issue if there isn't anyone actually listening to the cds, except one or two people I've seen in a couple of threads.

Gnarmageddon
06-15-2006, 03:32 PM
Nice work, Chris. A friend of mine used to love Elliott Smith, and I heard a few of his songs in her car, but I'll have to check some of it out on my own.

As for Jeff Buckley, I'm not a huge fan.

Kif
06-15-2006, 03:33 PM
I haven't had a chance to lately, but I'll be sure to download them and listen to them tomorrow. I miss threads like this, where people introduce other people to music they don't normally listen to. Then again, the recommendations thread never picked up here.