Our Friday MP3 gift to you is a doosey— a rare unreleased
Elliot Smith track entitled "Cecilia/Amanda." A tragic example of the tortured artist, Smith was a revered songwriter and musician long before his untimely death. Since then his sizable back catalog has been anything but forgotten, and posthumous releases have abounded.
New Moon, the last one, was a great double-disc of unreleased material. Now Kill Rock Stars plans to release a remastered
Roman Candle, and in honor of the move of Smiths entire independent catalog to the label, they've released this free download. Check it out after the jump.
"Cecilia/Amanda" was recorded at Jackpot! Recording Studio in 1997 by Larry Crane, editor of
Tape Op Magazine and archivist for Elliott's family. The song is a reworking of a Stranger Than Fiction (Smith's high school band) record called "Time is Ours Now." Crane also headed up the remastering of
Roman Candle and explained his reasons for doing so:
The intention that I had was to make the album more listenable. I felt that a lot of the guitar "squeaks" were jarring and very loud, and that many of the hard consonants and "S" sounds were jarring and scratchy sounding. I felt by reducing these noises that the music would become more inviting and the sound would serve the songs better. When I went to Roger Seibel's SAE Mastering, he proceeded to equalize the tracks a small amount and to make the volume slightly louder. We never tried to make this CD as loud as current, over-limited trends, but just to match the volume of the rest of Elliott's KRS catalog in a graceful way. Please note that none of this album is "remixed" from the master tapes - it is still composed of the mixes Elliott created himself.
Grab the track and stay tuned for more information about
Roman Candle and other Smith reissues. -
joe puglisi
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MP3: Elliot Smith - "Cecilia/Amanda"
Elliot Smith on Myspace