“Waiting for the End of the World”
written by Elvis Costello; performed by Heatmiser
1990-1991 // Produced by Heatmiser
KEVIN MOYER: “Waiting For The End Of The World” is a cover of an Elvis Costello song performed at a Heatmiser show at Hampshire College in 1990-1991. This was a super early incarnation of the band, before Elliott and Neil moved to Portland and before Tony Lash joined the group. Again, Elliott was a big Elvis Costello fan, so them doing this song live makes sense I think. This was taken from a really rough fan recording of the show.
NEIL GUST: Elliott just sang. Dylan and me played guitar. Can’t remember if Zeb was with us then. I don’t remember last names! Another guy named Billie Greene played drums. I think that’s his name. He died many years ago.
“The Byronic Hug”
2013-2014 // SCORE // written and performed and produced by Kevin Moyer
NICKOLAS ROSSI: I wanted to use this melody as a breath from the previous rock track. It paired with the images of the big band figurines (the band) in the film as a gentle sway us into a dream like memory of the Portland past.
KEVIN MOYER: This was a pretty little repeating riff that I made and we used as score music. I have to say, it’s a really weird, but really good feeling to hear something that you recorded alone sitting on the edge of your bed, to hear it in a crowded theater on a giant screen and on a big sound system. It wasn’t really written for any certain part of the film, rather I sent a whole bunch of stuff over with the intention of perhaps any of it could be used in the background, you know behind the people talking as just background sound, or for where we couldn’t afford to use any more Elliott music. Just lots of random little riffs, sounds, some looped patterns, some scraps that I pulled from other stuff, and just orphan pieces of music. But this one is really simple and pretty and it was nice to hear and see it paired with the Portland imagery. This score piece is used in the film where we talk about Heatmiser getting interest from labels after making a demo and Lisa Fancher and Jeremy Wilson taking the guys to dinner at an italian restaurant to try to sign them, and afterwards Elliott says “that was the first time my art ever bought me dinner”.
LISA FANCHER (owner of Frontier Records): Just like it was yesterday, I can remember getting a phone call from the Dharma Bums’ Jeremy Wilson, who was enthusing that he just produced a demo for a band called Heatmiser and I had to hear it. When I got a call like that from the Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey or Jeremy, I had no doubt their enthusiasm would lead to great things. After hitting the post office to pick up the cassette—try to imagine a time when you couldn’t email an MP3— I tore the package apart and played the demo over and over on the way home. It was seriously so good that I felt like someone broke a bat over my head! It’s one of those decisions that makes itself: there was no continuing to live if I didn’t release a Heatmiser record. I can’t remember exactly which month I flew to Portland to meet with them (sadly the Dharma Bums were defunct by then) in 1993 because I made it known to their manager, J.J. Gonson, that I was desperate to sign the band so this next step was a voir dire of sorts. Jeremy and I showed up to J.J.’s apartment and Elliott arrived a few moments later… Other than Guy Kyser from Thin White Rope, I don’t think I ever met a quieter person. Not that either one didn’t have volumes to say, they just waited to see if you were worthy of their thoughts. Jeremy, J.J. and I were blabbing about everything imaginable as we drove to a restaurant that probably isn’t there anymore. Jeremy and I reminisced about our various hangovers after Bums’ shows here and abroad and other important history. Elliott listened or laughed, but barely spoke. At long last Elliott turns to me and says—Did you really put out the Circle Jerks’ “Group Sex” album? He said it was a life changer for him, and I suddenly felt like there was hope for me.
As I would find out quickly, Elliott was hilarious, silly, hyper intelligent and extremely introspective. And was often depressed, as we all are, but it did not define him. I did sign Heatmiser and released two albums (Dead Air, Cop and Speeder) and an EP (Yellow No. 5) on Frontier Records. I bought the band a van and they toured as much as they were able to. I saw many shows and we generated our own hangovers in Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, and at SXSW. Heatmiser had two phenomenal songwriters in Neil Gust and Elliott Smith, they were ferocious live and yet criminally under-sold despite the great reviews.
I was genuinely pretty good friends with everyone in the band, I think. Things took an unpleasant turn when Heatmiser told me they were going to sign with Virgin. After a falling out with American Music Club a few years earlier, I learned to let go before legal wranglings ruptured my soul. I will admit that the disappointment of it was overwhelming and haunted me for years. As I saw Elliott’s burgeoning fame as a singer/songwriter on Kill Rock Stars and then Dreamworks, I was happy for him because he’s a genius and deserved his fame but, at the same time, I knew he was not going to bask in the limelight. Though Elliott and I didn’t speak to each other anymore, our mutual friends passed on our well wishes to one another from time to time.
“Why Did I Decide to Stay?”
written and performed by Heatmiser (Gust, Lash, Peterson, Smith)
May 1994 // Produced by Heatmiser
CHRIS SLUSARENKO (Portland musician, shot videos for Heatmiser): In the early 90s, Heatmiser were my favorite Portland band–they kind of came out of nowhere yet seemed to play every couple weeks in some club or warehouse. And although they were steeped in the sound of the times they were way way better than all that. I did a quick 8mm film video for “Blackout”–one of Elliott’s songs. I was happy when Neil said the video made them look like the best live band in the world. But they were pretty close. Live they were all motion, machinery, tight and with incredible hooks. Definitely a gang. But the leap between their first album “Dead Air” and “Cop and Speeder” (with Yellow No. 5 as a knowing stopgap in between) seemed massive. They weren’t just relying on live energy anymore. These energetic goofballs were starting to write amazing songs. Songs that were more about speaking in the back of your ear rather than shouting at your face. I used to listen to Elliott’s “Collect to NYC” over and over again. I directed a video for a song from that album with Marc Greenfield called “Why Did I Decide To Stay?”. It was one of Neil’s songs and at the time it showed that it didn’t matter who wrote. Neil and Elliott would celebrate each other’s songwriting and push each other forward. There was a quote in a local magazine about Heatmiser writing “songs about girls” that bummed them out. So Neil wanted his friend dancing around Old Town in Portland, a somber little story line about two male lovers and some vague band footage. We shot it over 21 years ago.
KEVIN MOYER: I think this is a great moment in the movie because we talk about the video for the song and the introduction of Marc Swanson kind of gives the audience permission to laugh and opens the floodgates for that reaction to some of what is on screen later too… it’s almost like the audiences up to this point are unsure if they are allowed to laugh and this part of the film seems to be where the majority exhale and giggle, helped along with the “Swanson, Like The Dinner” joke that Neil makes too. Which is great because I think by the end the audience comes out realizing they laughed a lot more often than they expected to going into a movie about an artist that the general media all too often prefers to paint as sad and melancholy. As all the people who were close to him will also tell you, Elliott was really funny and loved a good laugh and wouldn’t want to be painted as such a sad sack, so this story about the making of the video is a light but also important part of the film.
MARC SWANSON: They asked me to dance in the video. I said ‘You want me to do what?”. I was a huge Heatmiser fan and was really good friends with Neil and Elliott and would see as many of their shows as I could. But they were a loud band and dancing for their video seemed like an odd request. But Elliott and Neil both liked the way I would dance. We would all go dancing and Elliott told me that he liked to watch me dance. So I agreed to do it and it was a super hot day and I was wearing wool long sleeve shirt and black pants, and it was just way too hot. And so we would just drive around town filming me dancing at different places to the music from a stereo, I think it was from the Heatmiser van. At one point we found a popsicle cart on the street and I was so hot I grabbed a popsicle and put it in my mouth, but it was so frozen it froze to my lips and I remember Neil yelled “NOOOOOO” as I pulled it out of my mouth and it ripped the skin off my lips and blood gushed out.
TONY LASH: I remember having a good time shooting the video (I wasn’t around for any of the non-band parts), and being very happy with the final result. As far as recording it goes… We tracked the basics for Cop & Speeder very shortly after coming back from a tour, and as a result we were in great shape as a band. All of the songs were done in one or two takes (maybe three on a couple). On top of going for a more raw feel performance-wise, we were also experimenting with varying guitar sounds more and changing textures. I think we all felt the need to loosen up the somewhat cloying and monotone aspects of Dead Air’s production.
“Untitled Soft Song in F”
written and performed by Elliott Smith Fall 1993 // Produced by Elliott Smith
KEVIN MOYER: This another unreleased instrumental and the song name “Untitled Soft Song In F” is actually Elliott’s given title for this track. It’s on a cassette with “Carl’s El Camino” (which was an early version of the song “Kiwi Maddog 2020”), “Last Call”, “We’re All Friends Now”, and “Don’t Call Me Billy” which we heard and talked about earlier.
LARRY CRANE: I love some of these instrumentals that I came across while archiving. While I’m sure many were just waiting for words to be fit to them, they always have a mood and feeling that suggests what the song could have been but also could just stand alone as is. There’s also a cinematic quality to many of these tracks, and it made me happy to know they could be used in a movie soundtrack.
