Elliot Smith died last week after committing suicide via a self-inflicted stabbing to the chest. He was 34. His dark, introspective folk-punk songs were not the stuff of your average top 40 listener. Smith tackled issues such as drug addiction, troubled relationships and loneliness in his songwriting and had publicly discussed battles with alcoholism in interviews.

Smith started out in Portland punk band Heatmiser, but flourished as a solo artist building up a small, but devoted, fanbase during the mid-1990s. His big break came with an offer from Gus Van Sant to use Smith's songs on the the film 'Good Will Hunting'. The film was a consequent hit and Smith's music reached a mainstream audience after ’Miss Misery’ received an Academy Award nomination in 1997. He was subsequently signed to the Dreamworks label, releasing XO (1998) and Figure 8 (2000).

Smith was working on a new album called 'From a Basement on the Hill', which was planned to be released later this year.

Recommended sites:

Official site

sweetadeline - fan-based Elliot Smith site

Elliot Smith MP3s

Elliot Smith tablature