DON'T LET ME BE CARRIED AWAY

If there's something to thank a person for, music is one of them. Karen is one person I owe endless fruit baskets to. That girl has turned me onto more bands than anyone apart from my brother Lawrence.

Right now I owe endless thank yous to BrandonR for finally being able to turn me onto Elliott Smith. Yes, Elliott Smith. Welcome to 6 or 7 years ago, Sarah.

Back in 1999 I went to see Elliott and had a really bad experience with someone that turned me off to him. Everytime I listened to him I thought about this bad experience and couldn't detach the two. I convinced myself that he was overrated. So dumb. Even after reading that great piece in SPIN a few months back, I couldn't bring myself to listen to him.

But then, about a week ago, BrandonR decided that I had to listen to an Elliott Smith song or two. He thought carefully about what to play me and chose the song that he had been singing on and off for the past hour: "Pretty (Ugly Before)".
"i felt so ugly before. i didnt know what to do."

I sat on my couch, stoned and focused. When that was over he declared "I want to play another one for you," and stuck "King's Crossing" on. I recognized that one since I remembered how in the Spin article the writer wrote about how Elliott's sister and girlfriend sang a line on that song and immediately after reading that I listened to that one song only once or twice.
"Give me a reason not to do it."
"Because we love you!"

I know I'm so late on this. I know it's so lame that i'm JUST NOW DISCOVERING HOW GENIUS Elliott was. But I guess it's better late than never, right?