Either Or Album

[Ronald Gruzinsky]

DirectorGus Van Sant was highly impressed with the album, incorporating three of its songs; "Between the Bars", "Angeles" and "Say Yes" along with a new song, "Miss Misery", into the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. "Miss Misery" was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1998 Academy Awards, and was performed at the televised ceremony in an abridged version by Smith, backed by the house orchestra, briefly propelling him into the international spotlight. In 2020, the album was ranked at 216 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Smith wrote and recorded a song entitled "Either/Or" during the sessions for this album, but it was not included on the final release; however, the song was later included on New Moon, a posthumous compilation of previously unreleased material by Smith.

The album's title derives from the Sren Kierkegaard book of the same name, in which "either/or" refers to the contrast between aesthetic/subjective experience and ethical/objective being. This existential title is reflective of Smith's interest in philosophy, which he studied at Hampshire College in Massachusetts.[8]The lyrics contain many references to Portland such as the neighborhood of Alameda, Division Street and the Portland Rose Festival.

Smith would briefly be cast into the international spotlight early the following year when he performed his song, the 1997 standalone single "Miss Misery", at the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony, following the song's appearance in the major motion picture Good Will Hunting and its subsequent Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. Following this appearance, Smith was signed to major label DreamWorks and started work on his fourth studio album, XO.

In its retrospective review, Tiny Mix Tapes opined: "Simply put, the songs on Either/Or are Elliott Smith's best".[9] Trouser Press called it "even more fully realized" than Elliott Smith.[31]

The album inspired Gus Van Sant to invite Smith to contribute to the soundtrack of the film Good Will Hunting. Three Either/Or tracks were incorporated into the soundtrack, as well as a new song, "Miss Misery." Smith was briefly pushed to the forefront of popular culture after performing "Miss Misery" from Good Will Hunting at the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony. Van Sant later also used "Angeles" in his 2007 film Paranoid Park. The song was again featured in the 2020 series Normal People.

Director Gus Van Sant was highly impressed with the album and incorporated three of its songs, along with new Elliott Smith material, into the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, propelling Smith into the international spotlight.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Either/Or, the third album by my late friend and co-conspirator Elliott Smith. I was asked by his family and label, Kill Rock Stars, to oversee the remastering process for this record [Either/Or: Expanded Edition], source and mix bonus tracks, as well as to come up with text for the liner notes. What follows is an adaptation of the liner notes, along with extra information added about the recording process and the gear Elliott, and his co-producers Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock [Tape Op #9], used in the making of this well-respected release. All quotes from Elliott are from the interview I did for Tape Op #4, as he was wrapping up the sequencing of Either/Or before the original mastering by Don Tyler at Precision Mastering in December 1996.

Elliott Smith labored over Either/Or through the years 1995 and 1996, while simultaneously finishing Heatmiser's Mic City Sons (the third, and last, album by the band he'd started in 1990 with Neil Gust and Tony Lash), promoting his second album (the self-titled Elliott Smith), and embarking on various solo and band tours. It's important to note that Mic City Sons and Either/Or not only were written close to the same time frame, but both share the co-production of Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock. Heatmiser had signed to Virgin Records in 1995, and rented a house in Portland, OR, to record in, known as The Heatmiser House (SE Ankeny at 20th Ave.).

Elliott: "We got the check from Virgin [Records], and we were on a big do-it-yourself kick. We were totally paranoid going into that deal. We held out for a year, for total control, and then went so far as to buy our own equipment. They [Virgin] never bothered us at all."

Rob: "I know we had been talking about doing something together for a while. Possibly recording at my house, like we had for parts of Beck's Mellow Gold, but it didn't come together. Elliott called me and said they were in a bind on the Heatmiser record. I pitched Tom on the idea, and off we went. It was a lot of fun conquering the limitations (drums in the dining room, guitars in the kitchen) and making a cool record." Heatmiser's other songwriter was the talented Neil Gust.

With this makeshift studio accessible to the band members, Elliott also began recording songs that would end up on Either/Or, possibly "Punch and Judy" and "Cupid's Trick." He also wrote, recorded, and produced "I Figured You Out" for Mary Lou Lord at this house (for her Martian Saints EP). His earlier demo version of this song (which Neil plays "doubled drums" on) graces the bonus disc of the reissue.

In January of 1996, Elliott signed a deal with BMG Music Publishing. The advance payments allowed him to quit his day job and focus on writing and recording. His housemate and friend, fellow musician Sean Croghan, shared two different homes with him during this time.

Sean: "Once Elliott got some money for publishing, he invested in recording gear. He was spending days learning how to use his new gear. He was recording himself, with perhaps the help of Joanna [Bolme] and Neil. The bulk of Either/Or was recorded in our house on NE 16th Ave., north of Fremont Street. We set up the basement for recording, as well as for band practice. He would record and mix to cassette, and then walk around listening to what he was working on on his Walkman."

Elliott: "The [first two solo] records were totally limited, and there was no choice about what to use [gear-wise]. Then I got an 8-track [Tascam 38], and I had a choice between a couple of different mics. I got a compressor [Behringer Composer] and one of those [digital effects] boxes that will make any effect that you have the patience to try to program [Digitech TSR 24S]. Most of [Either/Or] was done at my house, some was done at Joanna's house on a 4-track, and some on 16-track in California... The rest of this article is only available with a Basic or Premium subscription, or by purchasing back issue #118. For an upcoming year's free subscription, and our current issue on PDF...Subscribe for free here Or Learn More Sponsored Sponsored Listen Now New! EP95: Madeleine Peyroux Sponsored Sponsored Sponsored More Interviews Interviews No. 27 BS2000: Amery Smith & Adam Horovitz by Steven Nereo BS2000 recently released their new album, Simply Mortified, of lo-fi dance hits and keyboard jams. The band consists of Adam Horovitz (of the Beastie Boys) and Amery Smith and their new record was...

Not sure how you tried to delete, but try using the Mac Finder to delete the entire album (making sure you have a backup copy somewhere on your system). Then, within Roon, go to Settings/Library/Clean Up Library/ Clean Up Deleted Files. Finally, re-add the album files to the folder used to import into Roon.

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This year marks the 20th anniversary of what many consider Elliott Smith's best album, Either/Or. To mark the occasion, Kill Rock Stars is releasing an expanded version of the late singer's record, with remastered versions of the original songs, live recordings and previously unreleased bonus tracks.

On this week's All Songs Considered +1 podcast, I talk with Smith's longtime friend, engineer and archivist for Smith's estate, Larry Crane. He's the one who put together the deluxe version of Either/Or. Through the course of our conversation, he shared a lot of personal memories about Smith, about his warmth and playful sense of humor, his feverish work pace and what it was like to be in the studio together. You can hear the full interview with the link at the top of the page, or read edited highlights below.

"We would just be sitting around the studio laughing when we weren't recording ... then we'd go have drinks and we'd laugh and laugh. If he was here, he'd be making jokes and laughing. I mean, he used to run around playing the guitar and singing 'Autumn Almanac' by the Kinks: 'Yes, yes yes, it's my autumn alman-yack!' And he did the 'yack' part really exaggerated and he thought it was hilarious. I think that's really indicative of ... a very rounded person delivering the lyrics and the music and the art. I mean I think of people like John Lennon, you can think of humor in his songs, you can think of just love in his songs, you can think of all these different feelings, and there's a wider scope of humanity than represented just like, you know, 'Baby, I love you, let's dance.' And I think Elliott had that. You feel that it's not just one narrow view of life."

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