Elliott Smith

Latest Articles

By | January 01, 0001

Nervous guy

Rhett Miller’s anxious and irresistible pop songs
In his better solo songs and the majority of the material he’s made with the alt-country band Old 97’s, Rhett Miller is a big-mouthed wannabe playboy on the verge of collapse.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | March 24, 2010

Quasi | American Gong

Kill Rock Stars (2010)
I don't know what it is about the top left corner of our country that moves its indie-rockers to cuten up their miseries into adorable little creatures (see: Death Cab, Built To Spill, Elliott Smith, and my favorite specimen, Quasi), but it's a trick that just keeps working.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 23, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Bard in the USA

Next season's greetings from the American Repertory Theatre
"You know," Paulus observes, "we are the American Repertory Theatre, and we haven't spent a lot of time in the repertoire on American drama."
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 15, 2009

Papercuts | You Can Have What You Want

Gnomonsong (2009)
Hidden under reverb and aggressive analog production, the first sung lyrics on You Can Have What You Want belie what seems to be a cheery record title: "Once we walked in the sunlight three years ago this July."
By DEVIN KING | April 14, 2009

This way out

Hudson Eakin's solo project reaches for the Bandages
This week, we study the Portland diaspora, and Hudson Eakin has gone to Worcester, of all places. Isn't that like all the worst parts of Maine and none of the best?
By SAM PFEIFLE | March 25, 2009

Hot Box experiment on themselves

Lab Rats
We’ll get to Stolzenberg’s band in a minute; right now I’m engrossed in her PhD work at Boston College.
By MATT PARISH | March 23, 2009

Live free or die!

Wild Light will be in New Hampshire if you need them
If I asked you to name six bands from New Hampshire, you'd probably draw a blank. Understandable.
By RYAN STEWART | February 18, 2009

Dig it!

Diamond Mines shine all month at the Plough
According to the invoice, 500 copies of the Diamond Mines’ brand new EP, Pave the Whales for Oil , were sent from Syracuse to Boston on January 6 — two whole days ahead of the projected ship date!
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 28, 2009

Review: Drew Brown | Tiago La Is Losing the Plot

Lex (2009)
You know how Brian Eno is supposed to have said something like, "Only 5000 people ever bought a Velvet Underground album, but every single one of them started a band"?
By GUSTAVO TURNER | January 13, 2009

Dirge overkill

The sad songs of Winterpills
Against the grainy mix of plucky guitars and water-drop bells in "Burning Hearts," Flora Reed recalls a long-ago tryst that she traces from Paris cafûs across tarmacs and ancient ruins.
By MATT PARISH | December 09, 2008

Fest lite

The return of the International Pop Overthrow
From Thursday, November 20, to Sunday, November 23, the International Pop Overthrow (IPO) makes its annual trek to Boston.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | November 14, 2008

Cerf-Volantes

Music Seen: The Dooryard, August 4, 2008
At its climax, those emotions were fully realized as Frederick broke into a three-part harmony, nearly screaming repeatedly, “Ready or not.”
By SONYA TOMLINSON | August 05, 2008

Campaign lies

Letters to the Boston editor, August 1, 2008
It’s impressive that your editorial in favor of the national popular vote did not even hint at any possible downside.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 30, 2008

The call of the wild

Wolf Parade get instinctual
It’s not easy being in a band whose two primary songwriters have quite different ideas about how to write an indie-rock song.
By BEN WESTHOFF | July 28, 2008

Funny business

As the AltCom Festival arrives at the Somerville Theatre, we look at the roots of the indie comedy boom.
“Ashlee Simpson’s new album sold so poorly,” snorted the headline on Yahoo! this past week, that “it was beaten by a comedy album.”
By MIKE MILIARD | May 08, 2008

The power of love

A respected music critic contemplates Celine Dion and has a crisis of conscience
Carl Wilson’s recent entry into Continuum’s esteemed 33 1/3 series — a series of books by critics and musicians devoted to canonical pop albums — is framed by an irresistible concept.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | March 19, 2008

Less is best

The spare science of José González
González possesses the will power and the patience to dig into each of his songs until he has exhumed its bleeding heart.
By SHARON STEEL | March 04, 2008

Easy, tiger

Reconsidering hipsterism, sensitivity, and Ryan Adams’s legacy
It’s been interesting to, however briefly, listen to songs I’ll likely still enjoy in twenty years.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | September 12, 2007

Three for the road

Herbie Hancock, Renee Rosnes, and Luciana Souza
Maybe it’s Larry Klein’s world and the rest of us just live in it.
By JON GARELICK | August 21, 2007

So wrong they're Righteous

These brothers make their own rules
Less than two years into their existence, the Self-Righteous Brothers already have a press kit worth of raves.
By BRETT MILANO | July 25, 2007

Joan as Police Woman

Real Life | Cheap Lullaby
Ex-Bostonian Joan Wasser spent more than a decade carrying other musicians’ trains.
By RENÉ SPENCER SALLER | July 02, 2007

Couples

Kiki & Herb; Lucia’s Chapters; Our Son’s Wedding
The Eternal Feminine gets a workout this week.
By CAROLYN CLAY | June 19, 2007

The bright stuff

The indie-pop smarts of Winterpills
After putting in calls to a manager, a publicist, and a record label to set up an interview with Winterpills, I’m finally on the phone with their vocalist and keyboardist. Winterpills, "Hide Me" (mp3)
By IAN SANDS | April 17, 2007