Monday, August 17, 2026

Everything Reminds Me Of Her



The bizarre journey of discovery towards the summer 2026 re-release of What Needs No Myth in Eratio I've already told elsewhere. The journey starts at Personal Mythologies II at KWH in 2003. Elliott Smith's life ended in 2003. Elliott Smith was a singer-songwriter from the Pacific-Northwest who lit up the Nineties into the early Aughts with a series of highly melodic, if melancholy, records. Everything Remind Me of Her, from Figure 8 from 2000, hits a note not far from Alex and Third/Sister Lovers. Musically detailed enough to satisfy purists, Elliott Smith was big enough to be a sizable cult star by the time of his 2003 suicide. Over twenty-three years, the records he made seem to be lost in the shuffle. All the records from the early Aughts- remember Conor Oberst? Jack White? Stephen Merritt?- have that quality now. The point of bringing up Elliott Smith is to do a Time Warp back to 2003, and announce that yes, like it or not, the Bush administration were just as hated as the Trump administration is now. Bush was NOT okay with everybody. The Elliott Smith records were heard by Mary and Abby and everyone in my circle. They, especially Figure 8, do a wash over my memories of Logan Square at the time, and color them. So, when we got home from KWH on September 20, 2003, this is a record we might've put on. And mourned, also, that the difference between the mythology of what the rock biz is supposed to be and what the rock biz actually is, is what killed Elliott Smith. The records themselves needed no myth. The music was there, and still is. 

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