Sam Mullins Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Saw this on Slate....Paul Thomas Anderson posted a VHS dub of The Jon Brion Show pilot he directed in 2000. This is pretty loose, but fun for fans. They do Independence Day with Smith singing, Brion on harmonium and Mehldau on piano. I know some of you are Brion and/or Mehldau fans so I thought I would post. As I said, it's a VHS dub so the quality is marginal and it has a bit of dead air at the beginning. [video:youtube] Yamaha CK88, Arturia Keylab 61 MkII, Moog Sub 37, Yamaha U1 Upright, Casio CT-S500, Mac Logic/Mainstage, iPad Camelot, Spacestation V.3, QSC K10.2, JBL EON One Compact www.stickmanor.com There's a thin white line between fear and fury - Stickman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana. Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Thanks for posting. I'd forgotten this existed. Looking forward to watching this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Mullins Posted January 18, 2013 Author Share Posted January 18, 2013 Watched the whole thing after I posted last night. It's mostly centered around Elliott, which is always a mixture of delight and sadness for me. In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that he is ill. I'm a Brion fan (both his pop work and film scores) but I had never really seen him cut loose on piano. On the closing number (around 39:30), at the request of the audience he does a "classical" improvisation on the Hollie's "Bus Stop". The boy has chops. Yamaha CK88, Arturia Keylab 61 MkII, Moog Sub 37, Yamaha U1 Upright, Casio CT-S500, Mac Logic/Mainstage, iPad Camelot, Spacestation V.3, QSC K10.2, JBL EON One Compact www.stickmanor.com There's a thin white line between fear and fury - Stickman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana. Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I've seen him bust out some Fats Waller a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABECK Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I was one of the Engineers on 'Pretty (Ugly Before)' from the posthumous "From A Basement on a Hill" release. Elliott Smith was on tour at the time and booked time in the studio I was working in during one of his days off. He was an interesting fellow. At first he was very standoff-ish and seemingly unfomfortable around people he didn't know. But he was a total gear-junkie and warmed up quickly when we started talking about equipment. He had just recently got a Line 6 delay pedal (the green one) and was excited to use it on the recording because of the simulated backwards reverb setting. You can hear it at the end of the tune. I remember laughing and giving him a thumbs up from the control room when he kicked the pedal in at the end of the take. He responded with a great big smile (which was awesome to see from him). When it came time to do vocals, he didn't want anyone in the room with him. So, we set up a U67 in front of the console, closed the door and ate dinner with the rest of the band. Elliott punched himself in, double tracked, harmonized, etc....By the time dinner was done, so were the vocals. And, they were great. Other interesting factoids: The studio rented an upright for his pianist. We took the top and front off and mic'd with a pair of AKG 414s. The pad at the beginning was from a Casio SK-1. The keyboard player sampled himself singing a C, then played the part on the tiny keys. Because I was the second engineer, I had to scramble around to find a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter (we didn't typically run across scenarios where we needed connect anything to an 1/8" output.) I'm not sure if I rigged something or found something, but we got it to work. The result was cool - sounds kind of Mellotron-like. Elliott told us the tour he was on was for his band mates. To get them exposure. He said he could have gone out alone, but really wanted to do this for them. Nice guy. Oh, also it was mother's day and ALL the band members called their mothers from the studio. It was touching. [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD_jog6h7z8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Mullins Posted January 18, 2013 Author Share Posted January 18, 2013 Interesting story..thanks! I think I still have an SK-1 in the basement that I bought for me eldest son when he was 3-4 years old. Yamaha CK88, Arturia Keylab 61 MkII, Moog Sub 37, Yamaha U1 Upright, Casio CT-S500, Mac Logic/Mainstage, iPad Camelot, Spacestation V.3, QSC K10.2, JBL EON One Compact www.stickmanor.com There's a thin white line between fear and fury - Stickman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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