It’s been several weeks and things still lack that luster they once held and I know it’s only a matter of time before I’m the person I once was. Realistically, time doesn’t heal all wounds so much as it just helps you to forget. Not entirely, at least not how you wish it would, but the memories you once considered to be extremely painful will become dull, as will those memories of some of the best times of your life.  It’s what makes life bittersweet I guess.

The things that mattered so much in the past seem to no longer matter in the present. What really matters is moving forward and trying not to look back. You have to train your mind to no longer care, to focus on anything else, whether it’s good or bad, just as long as it takes your mind to another place, even for just a small amount of time.  Your friends can help to make the process easier, but there are all those small things out there that can trigger that part of your brain that’s trying to forget, and it makes those fading memories so painfully vivid.   If only time would go by faster.

I’ve seen several photos of Austin’s work, and to be honest he caught my interest, not only because I loved the way he handles his colors, but also because his work seemed very diverse.

I’ve spoken with Austin a number of times and got a small feel for who he is and what he’s like, but his skill level really impressed me when I went into his shop one day and watched as he took a half sleeve that was completely encompassed in another artists vision, a vision was nothing short of chaotic, and made it all his own. This sleeve to which I’m referring to had no general theme, it was full of half-done tattoo’s, to the point where you couldn’t tell where one tattoo ended and another began, and when I looked at it, I was certain of two things: 1. Austin had his work cut out for him and 2. The guy hoping to have his work straightened out was fucked.

I sat in on two sessions and watched as Austin took this project in stride, sitting down with the client and determining the best course of action in terms of how he could accomplish the impossible; allow the client to once again not be ashamed to wear short sleeves in broad daylight.

As I watched Austin work, he began methodically pulling the tattoos together, in a form that can be described as nothing short of mastery. The vision of work the other artist had intended began to surface as Austin saw through the series of half shade jobs and sloppy lines.   He began by adding the background and piecing together the old tattoos, bringing them out from the wreckage and recreating them. His mixture of realism and traditional style turned the half sleeve into art that I couldn’t look away from, not because of the aforementioned chaos that it once contained, but because he had brought order and flow to the work, with the use of defined lines, skilled shading and an impressive mixture of colors. This hyper, loud and energetic artist had drastically turned this piece around, in only a matter of hours.

Austin began tattooing around 2008 and currently works at Adorn West, where you’ll find some of the most entertaining and talented artists, piercers and counter people in the city.  He works hard to please his clients and describes his work as being both flexible and well rounded, with a passion for working on tattoos that focus around dark imagery and the gory.  You can find Austin in the shop Wednesday through Saturday or you can call Adorn West and make an appointment.  To see more work by Mr. Rose you can visit his Facebook Artist page here.

WWW.adornbodyart.com

Adorn West:

9217 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy
Portland, OR
(503) 292-7060

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SRB is a new venue that has started catering to a growing niche of NYC party-goers, namely, the EDM fans that are unwilling to consume budget cocktails. The space was well decorated, spacious & well-lit. Two bars that ran the length of either side wall were staffed and equipped to provide whatever random cocktail combination you could come up, in addition to a presentable beer list. I grabbed my Jameson and turned around to listen to the beat, as the entire venue was just one big dance floor. Nadastrom was just coming on, and they were (along with Drop the Lime) one of the groupds I was here to see. I’m not sure how I manage to continually arrive at clubs & lounges just as the acts I specifically want to see are coming on, but I’m not going to critique my luck any time soon.

Nadastrom was one of the first DJ duos to start spinning moombahton, a combination of house & reggaeton, and has continued to climb both the beatport charts and festival billings. As a long time nervous observer of the nascent genre from afar I welcomed a chance to really hear what the hell this shit sounds like in a live environment. Nadastrom jumped genres almost obsessively, mixing west coast bass, house music, classic funk & soul, with a liberal amount of reggaeton & dubstep. The combination was much less ADD than I thought it would be, and gave the dance floor an almost-breaks feel to it, with different hooks & beats tugging at the crowd for over an hour. The track selection was excellent and the technical aspects of the performance were top notch, with nothing getting in the way of them creating a sound that was super fun to dance to without being heady or getting into the really grimey dubstep and reggaeton that has fueled thousands of alcohol-drenched grindfests across the world as of late.

After watching Nadastrom kick ass all over the decks for a while, Drop the Lime made his way to the stage. Hair slicked back like a Happy Days extra, rocking suspenders over his black T&B shirt, the crazy greaser mastermind of Trouble & Bass wasted no time re-introducing himself to the crowd. His retro take on drum & bass, dubstep and random bass music was pleasantly surprising. There was a strong breaks influence in his spinning style, with hard snare work mixed into wobbly bass. A touch of electro here and and rockabilly there, but the bass did not quit, and neither did his tendency to throw curveballs in when it came to hooks, breaks and beats that came from out of nowhere. This would’ve given an innocent crowd a lot of trouble, but it didn’t seem to bother the peeps that were deep into their grind here. The hipsters mixed in with bass fanatics, and the 21+ nature of the event ensured there wasn’t too much in the way of drunken shit shows.

Juniors & Seniors at NYU and Parsons mingled with Eastern European guidos from Queens, while dubsteppers & junglists tried to chat up fur and headband-wearing hipster chicks smoking Parliament Lights. The promoters, venue guys and other networkers were busy swapping stories on the stage near the DJs and watched people doing shots of tequila at the bar. The place pulsed with irregular bass and heavy drops in a surprisingly fluid way. I’ve always considered this music to be kind of stuttery, and usually the crowd feels the same way, but this time, it all seemed to be part of the fun, as the crowd had been here before, and couldn’t wait to hear DTL and his assembled cohort of bass bandits drop bombs from 10 Pm to 6 in the AM. Sadly, this old timer didn’t manage to close out the party, but there should be more events coming up soon that I’ll be able to ramble on longer about. This is Terry Gotham from radioland, see you after the bass drops.

DJ Mysti & DJ Becka are two jewels in the relatively tiny community of female talent in EDM here in NYC. While there are many amazing DJs in the city, I’ve always appreciated any kind of cultural or gender diversity in any art/craft that I consume. They were 2 of the 4 DJs spinning house, tech house and techno that kept the attractive, basement crowd moving. I arrived during Mysti’s set, greeted by some full, solid upbeat house that reminds you to move to the beat without getting argumentative about it. After ensuring my gracious mistress of sound had a refreshed beverage, I slid through the crowd, chatting with old friends and watching people writhe as groove after groove oozed out of the speakers.

While chatting with a producer who DJ’d a fantastic set of ethnic house and worldbeat for me a few years back, DJ Becka took the control of the decks. Her blend of hard techno and tech house pushed the dance floor into a deeper, heavier mood within minutes.  I’d listened to her mixes recently but it had been a while since I’d seen her on the decks and I was glad I didn’t miss the event. It takes a certain flair for the dramatic matched with a functional if not encyclopedic knowledge of samples and beats to impress me when spinning Tech House, and like Josh Wink, DJ Becka finds that sweet spot.

As I gyrated to the deep, techy sound that you usually don’t hear on this side of the Atlantic, I got a text message from a friend who was about half a mile north of me. He’s at a party that he thinks I’d like: a cyber-goth Luau. Apparently there was some interesting gothy tribal that I’d like, and who was I to turn down a new experience. I’d not been to a goth or even poser-goth style event in years, and I couldn’t help but be curious about what the hell was going on these days.

When I arrived, I was informed by the pixie of a goth girl working the ticket table that the (ostensibly) “board” shorts and “rave” shirt I was wearing qualified me for the costume discount. While I questioned her criteria internally, I happily enjoyed the additional pocket change that would be converted into beer shortly. Moving into the main room of the converted Gramercy Theater, I watched a few brutally dressed peeps maintain an aggressive synthy gothy melody while I waited for my friend. I can’t remember the name of the group, but that’s probably more their fault than mine.

One thing I absolutely adore about The Gramercy, like a handful of other places in the city, is that it’s converted from a movie/concert theater, so there is raised seating. As an old man, I can’t be bothered to deal with a pit or a packed General Audience area usually, unless I’m seeing someone crazy delicious. Most of the time I’m perfectly content to watch the younglings jump around to the good shit while I nurse a beer and make conversation with old friends. My friend arrived and as we got our next round of drinks, Ivardensphere took the stage. A trio of even more brutal (more drum circle-y and less geiger-esque) Goths, they were flanked by an impressive amount of percussion, from synthesizer/keyboards to old styles of drums and a decent amount of wobble/industrial producing devices. Their music began to crank up and the percussion rhythms pushed way past what I used to make fun of New Wave for sounding like.

This was my central issue with a lot of Goth & previous black industrial/EDM. A lot of the time, between the vocals, the extra angsty seriousness and the hilariously old sounding casio-style synth, I really just couldn’t get behind it. So much of previous gothy stuff made me chuckle. This didn’t. It had some decent stompy feel to it and the screamo vocals of the frontman kept things moving along. The crowd was sparse but excited, and it was refreshing to see 3 girly cyber-goth chicks making out with each other right on the railing, wearing gigantic platform boots, glowing hair extensions and plaid skirts.  

I’m always concerned that the best aspects of scenes never translate as time moves forward and the “fuck you I’m gonna do what I want and look good while I do it” that flowed through industrial and goth scenes seemed to be alive and well. And of course, I’d remembered to bring ear plugs, so I was able to be massaged not groped by the bass, which is always a plus. I left the event relieved that even for people that may have missed the decadence of the underground goth community here on the East Coast, you could still find home with a tongue stud and a leather corset on a Friday night in New York.

Terry Gotham: What genre would you define That Noble Fury As? I know it’s a dick question. How do you see the personal genre of the “That Noble Fury” evolving over time, if you could speculate?

That Noble Fury: That’s how we start? I think we’re rock.  Well I think it’s, you kind of find the pool that you’re in and you rotate around things that are part of your life, and what will become part of your future life. So the things that I was exposed to when I was younger have made it what it is now and we move on from there. We don’t exist in a vacuum, that’s a Frank Oz quote. Yea, I mean, when I was in Kindergarten, seeing a dance show, this show of traveling Russian dancers, and Russian music is amazing, saw Fiddler on the Roof, so that whole Eastern European sound, it became a part of me. It came out in like a certain part on this album, but I didn’t really know that’s what I was doing, until you make something, and then it’s like “Oh ok, now that it’s there, now I can become an English student about my own music. Do a report on my own novel…pretentious bastard.”  

That Noble Fury: And then you get hit by new things, when I read a play or see a play or am IN a play, watch a movie, and then all of a sudden, I think about this world differently. I did a reading with John (Astin) when I was in college. It was related to the idea of existentialism and the idea of presence, and totally influences me in this huge way. There are so many people who we come in contact with through their work, or our parents. I mean, John Lennon was dead way before you or I was born, and it’s just absurd. Like he has no sense of how big of an influence he is. He will have no idea that some little kid from Pennsylvania, now living in Astoria, was so influenced by him, and there are so many people who have the same story. He’s such a big part of my life, and that can affect everything.

Terry Gotham: What kinds of environment do you like performing in & why?

That Noble Fury: We love to play where…people want to hear you. I can’t imagine playing for crazy amounts of people. I love playing for anyone who’s listening. Maybe that’s the politically safe thing to say, but it’s the truth. If Tom and I have acoustic guitars, and there’s one person who wants to hear us, we’ll play that show for you, and no one else. And it’ll be influenced by you because you’re there. There’s an energy that a full band, full range of dynamics, percussion that pushes you to the next level. Any situation where people can sing back is great.

Terry Gotham: Was there any kind of shift from the acts you played with before that let you home in on That Noble Fury sound?”

That Noble Fury: I started multi-tracking by myself when I was in HS. I was in a number of groups, but I wanted to be the singer and the song-writer, so, I had to play my own stuff. So I started doing multi-tracking with these external things, because computers weren’t fast enough to do it, at least home computers, at the time. I started with a RadioShack keyboard, plugging that into a tape deck, programming one thing on the RadioShack, then playing that back, then playing another line with a different sound over the top, onto a tape, like a live mix-down. It was pretty funny because nobody told me how to do that, it’s like you find your own little way. Not that it’s that brilliant because it wasn’t, but it was, you seek out what you want, like stories of kids that play on pots & pans. I pulled away from the question…

Terry Gotham:  Just for the record, to keep it relevant, how are you using Social Media right now?

That Noble Fury: We use Facebook primarily, because it’s the easiest way to get in contact with everyone, like the core of the band’s audience. Let me rephrase that, it seems like the most relevant way of connecting with people because you can actually see a picture, you can write something down that not’s limited to a certain number of words. But at the same time you’re not sending someone an email so it doesn’t feel like work. And it’s access to everyone all at the same time. And it’s interactive. I think that’s the best balance of between the email type situation where you can get a lot of content and different kinds of content & Twitter which is just bullet points & Flash. We’re connected to Twitter & we do some Twitter-only things, but Facebook is where we respond directly to people. Email lists don’t feel very personal.

Terry Gotham: Do you weave any politics into your sound? Your lyrics are a lot more inventive than other groups in your weight class?

That Noble Fury: I mean, I’m inspired by a lot of activist music. Dylan was one of the first, I’m influenced by Dylan, in the way that I’m influenced by people that have been influenced by Dylan, Lennon first and foremost. I’m not overtly into politics, because I don’t want to push people away from what we’re doing. Cause I happen to love a lot of people in my own life who believe in all sorts of things that I don’t necessarily agree with one way or the other. But we’re definitely about love, and inclusion. Our music can be very dark, but I like to think that there’s some humor under it. We’re all going through this for the first time, in my opinion, if that’s politics or religion for you. Let’s not take each other down.

Terry Gotham: You have a full live group now. How are you translating from the studio to live?

That Noble Fury: For us, it’s weird. I was playing in a lot of bands in HS, and you rehearse/play a lot. And when you play it live, you can only play it on the instrument you wrote it on. You can use crazy looping pedals or things, or you can back yourself up with a tape, but that’s not really the same thing. I love to play live, Tom and I, when we were at Hopkins we used to play live, a lot. And that was the first presentation people had of what our “thing” was. But people were getting more of the song, without all of the things we were hearing in our head. We came at it as a live group first in a way, but it was this weird thing where I had all this multi-tracking and all these songs and all these things and then we were playing live. Now we can have the best of both worlds because we finally made the full album the way we wanted it and we have the full band we want to have.
That Noble Fury: But a band is tricky, because, there’s a lot of politics that goes on in bands. You see it all the time or you see the fall out all the time. I’m just really lucky that the way that I work with Tom seems to work really well, and we have two new guys playing bass & drums, and their personalities gel so well with us. And that’s a big thing; of course everyone can play really well. I’m looking forward to people hearing this because some of this is going to sound like the record, but there’s going to be a live, changed version. There are some surprises for the people, it’ll be fun.

Terry Gotham: Everyone asks what you like or who your influences are…Are there any sounds you like, actively detest?

That Noble Fury: Full Auto-Tune. Just because I think it’s really going to date this era of music. Only the future will tell but it reminds me of gated drums.  Like “Wow, that’s the 80’s.” or production styles. You listen to some of the stuff recorded in the 60’s, some of it sounds like 60’s, but some of it sounds like it was made in a warehouse in Brooklyn. There are trends, but certain things become classic and certain things fall to the wayside. Versus a Rhodes (Piano), like when they started trying to make electric pianos and it became a classic sound & the same with analog electronic stuff.
That Noble Fury: Like the 808, where the guy had never heard a drum set, and goes in and makes it (this could be a totally false story, but I love it), and it’s probably THE most famous electronic drum sound, and one of the most famous drum sound period. It wasn’t digital, it was a real sound, it was analog. Which are interesting, because analog sounds are not perfect. You can listen to a cello playing one note and you can listen to it for hours because the sound wave keeps changing. You listen to a moog or some synthesizer from the time. MS20 is this awesome Korg board they made, and you hit that button and there are actual transistors and oscillators that are actually making real electric pulses, really being amplified so that you can hear it. And that’s what changed. You look at the waveform it’s just beautiful; it’s so weird and so long. On the album, we recorded on a Rhodes, and you look now, in Pro-Tools, at the waveform because you’re recording to a digital medium, but the original sound is still analog. And you look at it and it’s like a block, one side of it’s straight, and the other is bending down, and it’s just so real. I think that’s really cool. That’s a sound that I like.

Terry Gotham: If you had the opportunity to play one place, anywhere in the world, any festival/establishment. One. Go.

That Noble Fury: Whenever the next Woodstock revival is. To be a part of the next official Woodstock thing. You had the Ed Sullivan Show, here’s the new wave of rock and roll since Elvis Presley, then Woodstock, which is the high point of rock even though rock has gone on and done many awesome things.  Woodstock is like the biggest rock show ever. So to be a part of that in any capacity would be amazing. And because it’s cheating, Addendum: Madison Square Garden/Wembly.

Terry Gotham: Do you feel the idea of “That Noble Fury” is exclusive to you and Tom, or is it bigger than he or you? Could you see That Noble Fury without you?

That Noble Fury: I can’t. One of the things that’s weird about our music is that people can’t pin our music down. They can tell it’s rock, but they can’t say whether it’s this or that, and that’s coming from a lot of people in a lot of different parts of my life. Which is a huge compliment to me, and I think it has to do with how my voice sounds, and how his voice sound, the chords we decide to use, and the weird ways that I play piano makes certain things happen within the band. The way he and I think about how a song should sound. I think those are really vital to making the sound of our music, I know that sounds very simplistic, but it’s true. Our voices tie the whole thing together and we sound like ourselves. Hopefully people will know the songs by our voices. When Freddy Mercury died, what did Queen do? Whoever’s taking his place has to sound like him, because that’s so much of what Queen was. When Head left Korn. To bring it back.

Terry Gotham: Lastly, for all the other artists who will (hopefully) be reading this. Every artist has their own artistic motivation, and it’s flagrantly different depending on who you ask. Any comment for them? Why? Why That Noble Fury, and not like, Excel Spreadsheets?

That Noble Fury: Why? It’s interesting as a quote-unquote artist to think about your life, why the hell do you do this? Not making a crazy amount of money doing this. Why do you have to put yourself out there? There’s so much of your life spent finding out what you can’t do…I’m reserving a given time and this is what I want to present, this is what I have for you now, at this point in time. In 2012 this album came out. This is where I was and I can’t apologize for it. This is what I have, and it’s not perfect by any stretch, but I think it’s beautiful in that way. Regardless of what you think of the aesthetics, there’s something about a band that’s trying to do their best, present what they have. Not auto-tune it to shit and bring in something that’s different or weird. We have a freaking digeridoo on the album. In 2014 I might think differently. God willing, in 2032, I look back on it, and can’t be sorry that I did it.  This is what I had and be proud of what I had at the given time or else you’ll die and you won’t produce anything, and that’s a tragedy. If somebody can pick up this album in 10 years, and they can relate to it on any level, hell that’s a win. Even if it’s just one person.

My companion and I took shelter in the barn on the grounds, which was gorgeously decorated (by Neph, the absolute Mistress of Deco on the Eastern Seaboard these days) as the home of psychedelic trance for the weekend. While all of the electronics/music/stages were shut down due to imminent doom due to electrified water, the crowd was cheery, excited and happy to be there. Ignoring the two 5 foot tall statues of .22cal revolvers  that had been parked inside for the duration of the storm, the denizens of the barn made organic (read: drumming on the barn and using their mouths) music, caught up with each other, and gifted a free bar to those who were toughing it out. To be clear, people were tipping well, but one of the differences between Summer Fest and parties in Philadelphia or New York is that, if you’ve managed to make it, enjoy yourself, and we’ll have something cold waiting for you.

The storm eventually cleared up enough that they cranked the music back up and the event returned to its usual, jovial, roaming & fabulous self. A weekend staked to a previous children’s campground on 200 acres of private land in Maryland, the PEX Summer Festival has managed to eclipse any and all expectations in less than five years. Multiple stages of music, food, art, performance and a sweet ass pool combine with over two thousand people this year, to create a sanctuary that strives to offer tolerance, interaction, and engagement.

The next day, we were reminded of why interaction remains mandatory at PEX, the fact that after 8 AM, much like in Black Rock City, it’s damn near impossible to be in your tent, even if you’ve managed to camp somewhere that has shade. Thankfully, the theme camp we were staying with, Digital Native, was gifting deep house and Bloody Mary’s in the morning. We clawed our way out of our tent and joined our gracious hosts, a plucky, sophisticated crew of North Jersey natives for the continuation of good times.

One of the gems of wisdom uttered that stuck in my mind was “Conversation at PEX is not like conversation elsewhere.” The discussion flowed from house music, to IT security, old weaponry in Ancient times and how balls hot it was outside. To wit, one of the camp members came by with a jug of water hooked up to a spray plant feeder, and was momentarily the most generous and wonderful person in the state of Maryland. After enjoying a beverage (or two), we headed down to the pool. Because, pool. Oh yes, more DJs, house music and some sweet kombucha ale being served, but, let’s be serious, Pool.

The DJs maintained an atmosphere only usually grasped at in Las Vegas or LA. Pool-based dance parties are probably the best thing humanity has invented since the number zero or indoor plumbing. Rows of people in beach chairs, hanging out, drinking juice, beer and water, listening to DJ after DJ drop sexy house, breaks, and world-beat. The pool filled with hot people cooling off, listening to even hotter beats. And a gigantic inflatable hamster ball that was sealed/waterproof such that people played inside of it all day, trying to figure out how to move while in a big plastic ball floating on water.

Once my companion returned from her welding & tinsmithing classes (because there’s nothing hotter than a woman who knows how to arc weld), we moved among the different theme camps and stages, each bringing different energies, music, fashion, and extracurricular activity. In addition to the psytrance barn, Philly was dropping some sick drum & bass (off vinyl of course), dubstep and glitch, the house pavilion hosted a roller disco, with Barney Iller & DJ SmallChange dropping funk, disco, R&B & soul grooves for, and there were aerialist & AcroYoga classes for those jaw-droppingly fit people. Saturday night brought with it a powerful neo-tribal experience, a lake surrounded by fire dancers, a live drumming group that played without stopping for well over an hour and a complex tribal dance, choreographed and performed by two dozen people with astonishing skill. Oh, and a bear in a space suit propelled by fireworks into a 12 foot tall effigy, burned in the spirit of Burning Man. Because celebrating the 4^th of July would be boring without an effigy burn, and an effigy burn would be boring without a bear on a zip line packed with fireworks, colliding with said effigy burn.

The burn bled into essentially twelve hours of music, shenanigans & an all around amazing display of tolerance, self-selection, mature interaction, in addition to, of course, debauchery that made your standard Saturday night in Vegas seem like BINGO night in your local Church basement. Sunday was a collective recovery day for the denizens of PEX, and judging how good a time was had by all the night before, they deserved it. I could go on, waxing philosophical about the nature of America, and the amazing community The Philadelphia Experiment has built over the last 4 years, or dither/drone on about true patriotism & love of country and freedoms, but the phat beats, friendly, welcoming people, inspirational art and true generosity spoke for itself. See everyone there next year. Just make sure you stake down your tent so it doesn’t float away in case of hurricane and/or tornado.

http://www.witchmountain.net/

https://www.facebook.com/witchmountain

http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/

Going through his music is very much like taking a personal look into someone’s journal. At times the lyrics are difficult to read as they describe the abuse he suffered from his Stepfather, his insurmountable trouble with love and his long-term affair with drug and alcohol abuse, which is clearly witnessed throughout numerous interviews and reflected in his writing.

Lyrics from his song needle in the hay openly talks about his struggle with heroine and how lost he felt in the world until he found his fix.  Songs about suicide, such as Division day and last call give you an in-depth look at his state of mind with lyrics like: And I think I’m all done/you can switch me off safely/While I’m lying here waiting for sleep to overtake me/Yeah yeah you’re still here but just check to make sure/All you aspired to do was endure/Like I was as good as she made me/I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me.

These days, his name can still invoke positive memories of music in the scene as fans that still mourn continue to visit the Elliott Smith memorial wall on Sunset in Hollywood, the site where the cover of Elliott’s album figure 8 was shot. The people that were familiar with Elliott Smiths music were not surprised to learn of his suicide, or the dramatic fashion in which it took place.

However, once a coroner’s report was made public, the findings led many to doubt that suicide was indeed the cause of death.

It pisses me off that most writers are so inaccurate about his death, grabbing random details and piecing together an article that’s no better than a filler. That being said, this is how it was reported to have happened: On October 21, 2003 Elliott Smith was rushed to the hospital, suffering two stab wounds to the heart. The incident occurred during a fight with his then girlfriend Jennifer Chiba. Chiba reported they had been arguing at length when she finally couldn’t deal with it any longer and locked herself in the bathroom of the home the couple shared.

Chiba reported hearing a scream shortly after she entered the bathroom, and rushed into the hall to find Smith standing with his back to her. As Smith turned around, Chiba could see a large kitchen knife protruding from his chest. He somehow managed to stumble away, down the hall, where according to the girlfriend; he then falls to the ground. Chiba removes the knife, while calling 911 and performs CPR. Elliott Smith was rushed to the hospital by ambulance and pronounced dead 26 minutes after arriving.

The girlfriend was questioned after a coroner’s report showed lacerations to the palm of Elliot’s hand and forearm. The coroners reported stated that these could be perceived as possible defense wounds and noting there were also no hesitation wounds found, which is not typical in a suicide of this nature.  The mystery still remains as to whether or not Elliott Smith committed suicide or was a victim of a homicide.

One year after Elliott’s death the album from a basement on the hill was released and includes the moving tracks fond farewell and twilight. Most likely due to the fact that this album remained unfinished, From a Basement on the Hill is found to be extremely inconsistent. Several tracks on the album remain unfinished and had the potential to have been incredible pieces of music, with guitar compositions containing awe-inspiring melodic style.

Listening to his music to this day still has the ability to affect my mood for better or worse and always leaves me wondering about the music that might have been.  It’s a familiar thought that crosses one’s mind when listening to the music of the talented that have died tragically and much too soon.

You’ll probably find yourself in the constant act of comparing what’s in front of you to what you’ve left behind.  Whether or not you have a genuine love for the place you’re from, you still make some room to talk shit about where you’re going. Or maybe that’s just me.

You all know how Portland produces those dreary rainy days for months at a time, which can test even the most patient and upbeat person, leaving them feeling that the sun is a distant memory, something you talk about with your friends when referring to a day of hope from forever ago. While the days of constant sunshine can seem few and far between, once you get the urge to get away and venture off to warmer climates you realize that with the rain also came that amazing smell that can only be described as earthy and fresh and then if you’re like me you begin to feel nostalgic and you remember all the other little things that make you call this place home and why. The coffee shops on every corner, the annoying violinist that looks at you with big desperate needy eyes, The assholes that always manage to forget to bring their own cigarettes when they go downtown so they go around asking if they can “borrow” one from you, making you automatically reply with “sorry I bummed this one myself”.  The way strangers tell you good morning or the way you walk around with friends talking shit about all the little hipsters that walk around in herds sporting their PBR slip-ons with their freshly curled mustaches and feminine attire.

Whatever you miss about home seems to be the reason why you felt the need to leave it in the first place, because like an ex, you just don’t realize what you had until it’s gone.

While I plan on going back home ASAP, I’m going to fully take advantage of the sun, friends and whatever else this hellhole has to offer, but I’ll also continue to find myself counting down the days until I can be back home in Portland, Getting up early in the morning and walking to grab a cup of coffee while sighing and wondering aloud “does it really have to rain every day?” because even if it does, I don’t actually give a shit, it’s home.

Eric Cox is an artist from Phoenix Arizona, where he creates his pieces using spray paint, polyurethane and wax pencils.   His creations are nothing less than stunning while being both dark and sensual. A man after my own heart, some of his dark work borders on the morbid and macabre while other pieces are simply breathtaking.   Eric currently has several pieces on display at Framin Works and you can also visit his site Artsy Coxy.

In the Artists own words:

I am currently using oil paint with spray paint, polyurethane, and wax pencils. Combining these different materials grants me the freedom to move paint faster. I wanted to bring drawing back to my painting. The wax pencils cannot be erased forcing me to be raw and honest. No matter the mark it is part of the composition.

This series relates to my struggle with the human condition. In trying to define myself as an artist and contribute to society, I am curious and feel the need to search for the meaning of my process in my art as it mimics my life. Often I want to turn off the news and bury my head to the turmoil and fear that life shows me. Hopefully, these paintings wake me up and inspire the positive side of being human while be honest and open. In sum, I’ve created a series of paintings that are entirely selfish even though it is my attempt to relate to others. Perhaps most of this is an attempt to leave something behind…my legacy.

The art displayed in this article is currently for sale. For more information on one of these pieces please visit his site.