ace 14.

 

Elliott Smith — Basement tl Demos

By Brady Ehler

 

Basement II Demos is a “new’’ collection of Elliott Smith B-sides,

rarities, and demos that contains a wealth of previously unavail-
able tracks from the late Elliott Smith. I should mention that
Basement II is not an official release; it is in fact a bootleg.
However there ate a few things that separate this collection from
the common pirated recording. Despite its massive size, (22
tracks) there are no throw-aways on this collection and the pro-
duction value is generally very good. With the expectance of one
or two tracks, all still sound great by bootleg standards.

Though some of the song titles are recognizable, such as
“Thirteen,” which was featured on the TV show Gié/more Girls,
“No Name #6” from the Division Day single, or “The Last
Hour,” which made the cut for Smith’s final studio album: Songs
From a Basement on a Hill, most of the songs haven’t been on an
official release. This is a little confusing; given the name of the

collection, one would think this is an archive of tracks from Songs

From a Basement on a Hill, but hey, ’'m not complaining.
and 2003, which

spans the time from the Ezher/Or era all the way up to the year

The songs were all recorded between 1997
of Smith’s mysterious death. After Ezther/Or, Smith began releas-
ing albums with bigger, more complex, brightly produced songs,
but most songs on this collection, whether because they are in
demo form or for some other reason, feel like one-off tracks
from Smith’s earlier work. Personally, I was always a bigger fan of

the earlier stuff, and always wished there was mote of it, so when
I discovered this album I was very happy indeed.

Most of the arrangements are sparse, featuring only Elliott’s
vocals and a couple guitar tracks, although there are a few tracks
here and there with drums, pianos, synths, etc. This album
shouldn’t be dismissed as merely a collection of songs not good
enough to go on an official album. It actually contains some of
Smith’s best work, and frankly ’m shocked that most of these
songs didn’t make the cut sooner. My favourites are the haunting
“Going Nowhere,” which sounds like a later era Smith song, but
with early era production. The short, quick, and moody “Almost

Over,” displays Smith’s guitar virtuosity on the electric and

acoustic guitars, and the smooth and mellow “Fear City,”
which boasts one of the catchiest Smith choruses ever.
I’m sure by now many of you are wondering where
you can find this little gem. Well, I’m not going to fuck-
ing tell you! Just kidding, it’s available on the Internet for

Poi a ia etl te

Be aes
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FOR THE SELF-DETERMINATION

free and get this: you don’t even have to use a torrent
tracker, or one of those shitty P2P programs, you can
download it directly at:
http://www.elliottsmithbsides.com/BasementIIDemos.h
tm

 
      
 

  
   
    

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