“I’ve been on indie labels and a major label before, and people at Virgin and Kill Rock Stars were real nice.” “Some people go around weeping about big corporations, but I don’t care,” Smith told me at the time. I didn’t have any idea that Matt Damon and Minnie Driver would be making out with one of my songs in the background.”Įither/Or was also his final effort on an indie label before moving to DreamWorks, a situation that had some indie purists whispering “sellout.” The fact was, Smith had already been affiliated with a major label before, since Heatmiser were signed to Virgin, although their final album came out through indie affiliate Caroline. “I didn’t have any idea that they would be playing in a big movie theater.
“Most of those songs were recorded in a friend’s warehouse space on 8-track,” Smith told me in a January 1998 interview for Billboard, just prior to his Oscars performance. Three of the songs on the album ended up on the soundtrack to Good Will Hunting (along with that Oscar-nominated new song “Miss Misery” an alternate orchestral version of “Between the Bars” orchestrated by Danny Elfman, who composed the film’s score and “No Name #3” from Smith’s 1994 solo debut, Roman Candle). Related: Great Indie-Rock Moments in Oscar HistoryĮither/Or - named for Søren Kierkegaard book of the same name, which Smith studied Hampshire College as a philosophy student - marked a turning point in in his career. It would bring him an unlikely Oscar nomination for the song “Miss Misery” from the Gus Van Sant film Good Will Hunting and an even more unlikely spot performing on the Academy Awards on the same broadcast that featured Celine Dion belting out her Oscar-winning Titanic theme song “My Heart Will Go On.” He had previously gained some notice fronting the four-piece rock band Heatmiser, but it was through his intimate and confessional solo work that his considerable talent shined the brightest. 25, 1997, Either/Or was Elliott Smith’s third solo album and second for the Portland-based independent label.
It’s that audience Kill Rock Stars hopes to tap into with the March 10 release of a remastered version Either/Or, which includes a bonus disc featuring five previously unreleased live tracks and four studio outtakes. More than 13 years after his death, Elliott Smith’s music continues to resonate with longtime fans and new converts, including such unlikely followers as Frank Ocean, who tapped Smith’s influence on his acclaimed Blonde album.
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