is this the official elliott smith site?

yes it is! elliott asked on 1.28.03 if we consider being the official site and it was a big yes.

what will happen with all the unreleased music elliott created?

at this time, there is no plans for a future release or what will happen with the songs. i’m not sure why the rumored 15 other songs that was supposedly to be on the record, ‘from a basement on the hill,’ were not released. there is a good chance a lot of those were not completed by the time elliott passed away.

where can i buy elliott smith posters, tshirts and merchandise?

elliott’s estate has set up a store on cinderblock that has merchandise. you can visit the site by going here: the official elliott smith online store

also you might be able to find a nice person at a local record store who is willing to give out extra posters or promotional items, but for the most part elliott never sold merchandise except on his figure 8 (and when he was in heatmiser) tour where he sold t-shirts. sometimes promotional items do show up on ebay.com. i would highly suggest going there too if you are looking for stuff like official shirts or promo posters from the past.

where is the figure 8 wall where i can pay my respects?

thanks to stephon (the owner of solutions!) for letting us fans pay respect at the wall. if you are interested in visiting it, the wall is in los angeles. here is the address: 4334 sunset blvd., los angeles, california.

where can i get songbooks or sheet music for elliott’s music?

at this time there are no full songbooks of elliott’s music. there is a couple of songbook collections that include son of sam and waltz #2 (xo). you can find them here: i have only seen 1 song as sheet music and that is miss misery. i’m not sure if it is in print anymore. acoustic guitar also tabbed out sweet adeline in an issue after elliott’s xo record came out. i’m not sure if there are any plans to release any songbooks or sheet music of elliott’s music.

what kind of equipment did elliott use on tour and in the studio?

guitars: 2 gibson es-330’s, a pre-1969 red one in standard tuning and a ‘69 or later sunburst one in open d (dadf#ad) (the difference between the pre and post 1969 is the fret at which the neck joins the body, the post at the 19th fret and the pre at the 16th, but that’s probably more than you want to know).

the old gibson acoustic is actually a 60’s j-45 and he uses a fishman rare earth soundhole pickup with it. he also uses a cheap 70’s yamaha acoustic.

the top hat amp he uses is a model k-35 (king royale). he used a vox ac-30 on conan o’brian.

the pedals of course are the dl-4 and the budda phatman tube overdrive.

other guitars seen on record covers and pictures:
fender telecaster front cover of xo
fender mustang inside cover of xo
epiphone crestwood in a guitar player article
gibson les paul deluxe in strange parallel
fender precision bass in strange parallel

connections: monster cables

this was also taken from gearbox:

when it comes to musical equipment, prolific songwriter elliott smith doesn’t need a lot of bells and whistles; he prefers to keep things fairly simple. his main acoustic guitar is a yamaha, the model number of which escapes him. “it’s a real standard-looking guitar,” he says. “it’s big and loud and made out of light wood. i don’t use a pick when i play most of the time, and i chew my fingernails, so it’s a good guitar for me because it’s really loud.” he recently expanded his collection with a norman 12-string (la si do, 4240 sere st., st. laurent, pq h4t 1a6, canada; [514] 343-5560; sales@lasido.com).

smith uses john pearse medium-gauge, phosphor-bronze strings. “they seem to last longer,” he explains. “i get mediums because i tune all the strings down a step. that happened by accident a couple of years ago. i didn’t have my own guitar for quite awhile, and i’d play my girlfriend’s guitar. i don’t have perfect pitch and i didn’t realize that it was way lower, so the e string was actually a d, the a string was a g, and so on. so, nowadays i just tune that way, and when i play older songs that were written in normal tuning, i put a capo on.”

as far as amplification is concerned, smith sees no need for pricey, complex equipment. “i go direct,” he says. “i have one of those pickups that fits in the soundhole, a lawrence. it was real cheap, like 40 bucks. it’s the only one of those i’ve seen that has a metal cover instead of wood or plastic. i like it a lot better than a bridge pickup. it doesn’t sound glassy or slick.” (editor’s note: the lawrence acoustic pickup is no longer available.) — roger len smith

finally, you can also a list of equipment elliott used at his recording studio, new monkey, by going here: newmonkeystudio.com

what other places can i find elliott news?

other than the great elliott smith sites out there, there is a mailing list to get on which has great info about elliott, stories personal opinions and occassional fights. it’s called the elliott smith yahoo group. go to the yahoo groups, search for elliott smith and you will be able to join or click here.

what is that song that is in the beginning of lucky three?

it's an acoustic and slowed down version of baby britain.

what does pitseleh mean?

i heard it’s a yiddish word. its a term of endearment that means “little one”

i saw something about elliott being in a movie or something?

elliott has two films that he is featured in. the first is called lucky three by jem cohen. it follows elliott around portland and it includes between the bars, thirteen, and angeles. it’s only about 11 minutes long

the other film is called strange parallel. it follows elliott around portland and nyc with interviews with friends. it also has a funny robot hand storyline too. directed by steve hafnt and is about 30 minutes long. steve also put elliott for a split second in his movie, southlander

where can i get a copy of strange parallel, lucky three, and southlander?

lucky three appears on a video comp called kill rock stars video fanzine #1

strange parallel is not available to purchase. as of this time its only a promotional tool and has been distributed only to media related services. sometimes promo copies show up on ebay.com but rarely. it has been easily available in bootleg trading circles

southlander is available to order from your favorite dvd outlet.

where can i find miss misery other than the good will hunting soundtrack?

you can find miss misery on a couple of official elliott smith albums. one is the promo cd called a brief history which has tracks from his earlier albums, xo and 7?s. it shows up on a promo cassette with waltz #2 (xo) as well. finally another place to find it on is the japanese import version of xo

what did elliott think about places where i download music (like napster)?

“i like the idea…sure, people should be able to trade musically with each other, i mean people do anyway…there’s arguments to be made…but i don’t really have an opinion…i’m not one of those bands that sells millions of records and then gets mad at napster”

what did elliott think about bootlegs?

“i think it’s nice people want to take the trouble to record music that apparently they seem to like. i don’t have any problem with that.”

how can i get live recordings?

you can easily obtain recording online nowadays and one of the best places to start out is on the elliott smith internet archive which elliott's family has approved! here is a directly link: http://www.archive.org/details/ElliottSmith (thanks rae)

i do not sell live recordings on this site and discourage any selling of live recordings at all. i am extremely against anyone making profit illegally on elliott’s behalf! please do not support people who sell bootlegs!