Utility Fog

Sunday, 26th of October, 2003

Very sad to hear of Elliott Smith’s death this week. That someone of his talent was so depressed that he couldn’t see any point going on is quite an arresting thought… Although I wasn’t a fan as such (I’m only starting to discover more of his music now), I thought he wrote beautiful songs, and the song I started with today is an absolute pop gem. I can only quote the man himself:

I’m never gonna know you now
But I’m gonna love you anyhow

Wes Anderson chose Elliott’s “Needle in a Haystack” for the (attempted) suicide scene in The Royal Tennenbaums, but rather than depress us with more thoughts of suicide I decided to play the beautiful Nico song Anderson also included on that soundtrack. It’s a Jackson Browne cover, and I’ve now discovered that Elliott actually played a cover of it live, in his hometown of Portland in 1999. Through the magic of filesharing, I might play it on next week’s show.
Also included tonight was a protest song (inspired by George Bush’s visit) by Jim O’Rourke with Glenn Kotche (a cover of a song by Bill Fay - here’s an “unsung review” by Julian Cope of the album it came off), and the focus later was more on the jungle side of things than “breakcore” as such.
In any case, the usual mix of organic and digital followed.

Elliott Smith - Waltz #2 (XO) [Dreamworks]
Nico - These Days [Verve Records]
L’Altra - Ouletta (Side B version) [Aesthetics]
Jim O’Rourke & Glenn Kotche - Pictures of Adolf [Protest Records - free mp3 download!]
Machine Translations - Parismatic [Spunk]
Savath + Savalas - Transportation Theme [Hefty Records]
Manual - Nova [Morr Music] {The Manual link is to an interview @ Pitchfork. Scroll down to read him discuss what a huge influence Talk Talk’s last two albums (featured in earlier Utility Fogs) were on him.}
Ms. John Soda - If Someone Would Know [Morr Music]
The For Carnation - A Tribute To [Neatly Folded Music/Touch & Go]
Slint - Darlene [Slint/Touch & Go]
Slint - Washer [Slint/Touch & Go]
Papa M - Plastic Energy Man [Drag City/Domino]
Greg Davis - Doras [Grounded Records]
Marxist Real Estate - Waves Breaking [excerpt from self-released one-track 30-minute CDR entitled The Secret Machines of Life]
Themselves - Livetrap (remixed by Hood) [Anticon]
Ms. John Soda - No. One [Morr Music]
Themselves - Out In The Open (remixed by The Notwist) [Anticon]
Chronomad - Sefid [Alien Transistor]
I-Wolf - Inna Meditation [dublab via Hefty Records]
Cul de Sac - Mirror II (Mae and Elena) [Strange Attractors Audio House]
Cul de Sac - Frustrated Seduction (”Wash It Off!”) [Strange Attractors Audio House]
Electro Organic Sound System - Carrot (Hrvatski’s Night Vision) [Varunee Recording Group/Bliss Recordings]
Cujo/Funki Porcini - Z Cars (Superintadude mix) [Ninebar]
Electro Organic Sound System - Magical Condition [Varunee Recording Group/Bliss Recordings]
The Black Dog - Babylon (Hard as Stele, Jamac remix) [Warner ESP] {Note: only appeared on promo release}
The Black Dog & Black Sifichi - Voodoo (The Black Dog’s Baron Samedi mix) [Hydrogen Dukebox]
Plaid - Zeal [Warp Records]
The Black Dog - Chesh [Warp Records]
Venetian Snares - Einstein-Rosen Dub [Planet µ]
Jack Planck - Simi Valley Death Park Phenomenon [One Little Indian]
Amorphous Androgynous - The Mello Hippo Disco Show (Jacknife Lee mix) [Artful Records]

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