skylash media lab - fall 1997








'Elliott Smith had everyone crowded down front for his acoustic set, so visibility was nonexistent. "What's he look like?" a girl asked her tall boyfriend. "He's short, wearing a blue stocking cap...pale...has sort of a craggy face...not handsome, but good-looking in kind of a meek way," he replied, squinting over the heads. Elliott played through a string of his bruised, but tender compositions, while the usual wags went on about how he sounds like Paul Simon. Sheesh! There are some tonal similarities, but Elliott's voice has a rawness that Mr. Simon would surely avoid. Smith's voice is like alleyways full of broken glass, peopled with soon-to-be ghosts. Paul Simon is a luxury condominium with the air conditioner blasting. Nobody ever gives Richard Thompson shit because he sounds like Gordon Lightfoot...' (c) 1997 John Chandler