rebecca LANDO

sometimesagreatnotion:

Elliott Smith’s set at Lou Barlow’s going away party, 01.04.98.

• Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands - with almost totally different lyrics; aborted halfway through (“Supposed to finish [writing] that still.”)
• Division Day 
• Waltz #2 (XO)  - early lyrics
• Say Yes
• I Didn’t Understand
• Bled White - after telling a story about almost losing his foot on the subway
• Clementine - audience request, “But I might fuck it up…but I’m not gonna get get in a bad mood and storm off, I promise.” (He pauses once to retune but doesn’t fuck it up.)
• Waterloo Sunset - aborted, then restarted, after a faulty monitor is unplugged
• Rose Parade - aborted with a smile for a new song instead
• Shooting Star
• Angeles - aborted halfway through
• Miss Misery

A lot is said about Elliott’s messed-up shows, the ones where his voice was frail or he couldn’t finish the songs or whatever. The aborted songs in this show speak to Elliott’s perfectionism, not drug dependence; he aborts them because he’s unhappy with his voice or because of audio issues (the faulty monitor, a bulky Yamaha that won’t stay in tune). He’s in a good mood and in control of his show; he’s laughing, smiling, bantering with the audience, taking requests, making fun of himself. It’s not one of his best shows but it’s a great example of how great he could be.

(Source: youtube.com)

markcoatney:

fred-frederator-studios:

My wife, Robin Sloane, is getting some great props in the new book by Craig Marks and Rob Tannebaum, I Want My MTV!, for her role in some groundbreaking music videos like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Here’s an excerpt from New York Magazine: 

(Photo: Jeff Kravitz/Filmmagic/Getty Images)

Nirvana
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991) 
Seattle punks start a revolt, and snuff hair metal.

---

Robin Sloane, Geffen Records Exec: Kurt Cobain was the only artist I’ve ever known who had brilliant, fully realized ideas he could express in one sentence. With “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Kurt said, “My idea for the video is a pep rally gone wrong.” He looked at director Sam Bayer’s reel and loved it, so I hired Sam. But there were a lot of problems between Sam and Kurt. 
Courtney Love: Kurt hated Sam Bayer. For “Teen Spirit,” Kurt wanted fat cheerleaders, he wanted black kids, he wanted to tell the world how fucked up high school was. But Sam put hot girls in the video. The crazy thing is, it still worked.
Dave Grohl, Band Member: The idea was, the kids take over and burn down the gymnasium, just as Matt Dillon did in Over the Edge, with the rec center. Kurt was a huge fan of that movie. We walked into that whole thing really cautiously, because we didn’t want to misrepresent the band. There were certain things we found to be really funny about videos—tits and ass and pyrotechnics, shit like that—and when we showed up at the shoot, we were like, Wait a minute, those cheerleaders look like strippers.A lot of people we worked with didn’t understand the underground scene or punk rock. 
Samuel Bayer: I scouted L.A. strip clubs for the cheerleaders. Kurt didn’t like them. I couldn’t understand why he wanted to put unattractive women in the video. I think Kurt looked at me and saw himself selling out. So anything I did was construed as corporate. But to me, these were nasty girls. They had rug burns on their knees. In my eyes, the whole video was dirty. It’s all yellows and browns. It was the opposite of everything on MTV at the time; every video was blue and backlit with big xenon lights. I was a painter. I was trying to rip on Caravaggio and Goya. 
Sloane: All the kids in the bleachers were drunk.
Grohl: We did a couple of takes, and the audience just started destroying the stage. The director’s on a bullhorn screaming, “Stop! Cut!” And that’s when it started to make sense to me: This is like a Nirvana concert. 
Bayer: The day of the video shoot was pure pain. Kurt hated being there. Maybe it was his venom coming through, but I’ve been on 200 music-video sets since, and that was the best performance I’ve ever seen. 
Amy Finnerty, MTV VP of Programming: Initially, my boss said, “Look, the visuals are great, and they have a catchy name, but beyond that, I don’t really know what this is gonna do.” I said, “I understand why we’re playing Paula Abdul and Whitesnake. But if there isn’t a place for this, I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
Love: The first time Kurt and I slept together was at a Days Inn in Chicago. We were having our first postcoital moment, and we’re watching MTV and the video came on. I pulled away from him, because it was his video, his moment, he was the king of the fucking world, and he put his arm around me and pulled me closer. Which was symbolic, like, “I’m letting you into my life.” That really endeared him to me. The next time I saw the video with him was at the Omni Northstar Hotel in Minneapolis. I’d flown there to fuck Billy Corgan, who still had lots of hair. I didn’t even know Nirvana were playing that night. Kurt and I wound up at the Northstar, and our daughter, Frances, was basically made that night. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was on MTV every five fucking minutes.
Bayer: That video gave me a career. Everyone wanted to do a Nirvana-type video: Ozzy Osbourne, Johnny Lydon, the Ramones.
Kip Winger, Hair-Metal Singer: I watched “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and I thought, All right, we’re finished. 
Kevin Kerslake, Director: “Teen Spirit” crossed the Rubicon. Nirvana became the mold for success, the way Poison had been four years before. There are many ironies within the history of MTV, and that is one of them: The revolutionary fights the dictator, and ultimately becomes the dictator. It’s just swapping chairs.

Adapted from I Want My MTV, by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum (October 27; Dutton, a member of Penguin Group [USA] Inc.). Copyright © 2011 by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum.

Really nice.

Also, “The next time I saw the video with him was at the Omni Northstar Hotel in Minneapolis. I’d flown there to fuck Billy Corgan, who still had lots of hair” is perhaps my favorite Courtney Love quote ever. 

americanroutes:

Dylan and Donovan, from D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back. Donovan plays “To Sing for You” and Dylan follows with “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”.

We spoke to D.A. Pennebaker recently for American Routes at the Movies. Listen to the interview here.

spytap:

andrearosen:

whiskeyandgoatsmilk:

clubsoda:

Julia Nunes from Rochester, NY made it on Today’s Big Thing for her Justin Bieber + Supremes mash up. I’ve played at a few open mics on the same night as her and she really is phenomenal.

Rochester, NY people, head to Boulder Coffee on Alexander St. on Wednesday nights and she’ll most likely be performing.

*Via TBT

:D im gonna play this on repeat until someone kisses my face (ps shes playing in brooklyn in a few weeks! who’s in? ROCHESTER FRIENDS??)

I like mashups and tiny pianos and I like this a lot.

Julia Nunes is one of my auto-reblogs. I really do heart the crap out of her.

officialbeastieboys:

here’s the trailer for the long ass video thing. and as they say in Uruguay “nothing silly”.

Not that it took selling, but I’m so sold.