Elliott Smith would have been 38 today had he not died of an apparent suicide/unsolved death depending on your beliefs on the matter. We’re big Smith fans and co-wrote a rather lengthy feature on him right around the time of his death that literally made us lose hours and hours of sleep. It turned out ok.
Anyhow, to commerate his death Kill Rock Stars released the track, “Angel In The Snow” as a free download taken from the recently released KRS compilation of outtakes and unreleased songs, New Moon.
Which is great, but fans have had this song for years.
Better news is the anonymous Deep Throat source, who has been slowly leaking unreleased Smith tracks around every major Smith anniversary in the last few years, has let another unreleased track out of the their bag of unheard goodies.
Now it’s the song “Place Pigalle,” a track that doesn’t sound unlike Brion’s work on “True Love,” and a tune that’s been floating around in live form for some years now.
Last year around the 3rd year anniversary of Smith’s death, the long-awaited “True Love,” produced by Jon Brion, leaked (The song was sometimes known as “True Love Is A Rose”‘; the identity of the source is probably one of 3-4 people, but they’re not unobvious and frankly, it could be a number of these suspects leaking clips and not just one source). A rare Elliott Smith video of footage from on the road during the XO tour in 1999 leaked in early July.
Happy birthday Elliott. Fans of Smith should buy Autumn De Wilde’s photo book/live CD when it comes out in November. Titled Elliott Smith, the book features a foreword by Beck and Death Cab’s Chris Walla.
Download: Elliott Smith – “Place Pigalle”
Download: Elliott Smith – “True Love”
