Oh no--I just read that Elliott Smith may have committed suicide. Horrible, horrible news.
Pitchformedia.com:
"Will Bryant reports:
Elliott Smith has died at age 34, according to an obituary posted late Tuesday on Sweet Adeline, Smith's official website. Rumors had been circulating on the Internet all day about Smith's apparent suicide; by early evening, the overwhelming traffic from well-wishers and fans was crashing Sweet Adeline's discussion board. A handful of posts indicated that representatives from Smith's label, Dreamworks, were attempting to contact Charlie Ramirez, the webmaster for Sweet Adeline.

Within hours, Ramirez posted the following: "As you probably realize, I'm pretty devastated about having to say goodbye to Elliott... it's never easy to put into words what someone means to you... Elliott was such a lovely man... I will always have his love, kindness, intelligence, humbleness, creativeness, greatness and so much more in me forever because that's what he was and i'll always love him for being who he was... I'll miss you so much. We will all miss you. See you in heaven, Elliott."

Smith had been working on his sixth studio album, From A Basement On The Hill, since late 2001. At various points, the self-recorded album was being shopped to indie labels and later, tentatively scheduled as a double-disc offering on DreamWorks' 2003 schedule.

More on this breaking story as information becomes available."

Sad news....I read about it this morning.

Quote:

Songwriter Elliott Smith Dead at 34 By RYAN PEARSON, Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES - Elliott Smith (news), a singer-songwriter whose dark, introspective songs won him critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination, has apparently committed suicide, his publicist and coroner's officials said Wednesday. He was 34. Smith was found by his live-in girlfriend Tuesday, Los Angeles County Coroner Records Supervisor Marsha Grigsby told AP Radio. He sustained a single stab wound to the chest that appeared to be self-inflicted, she said. Smith's New York-based publicist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also confirmed his death. Smith released five solo albums that received widespread acclaim from rock critics and garnered modest commercial success. His song "Miss Misery," recorded for the film "Good Will Hunting," was nominated for an Academy Award in 1998. Smith's songs were often compared with those of Alex Chilton (news), Nick Drake and the Beatles, his favorite band. They were marked by intricate melodies written over unorthodox chord changes. Lyrically, they addressed such dark subject matter as drug addiction, troubled relationships and loneliness — though Smith tried to distance himself from the label of confessional songwriter. "I don't feel like my songs are particularly fragile or revealing," he said in a 1998 interview in the Los Angeles Times. "It's not like a diary, and they're not intended to be any sort of super intimate confessional singer-songwriterish thing." Smith was born Steven Paul Smith on Aug. 6, 1969, in Nebraska; his mother was a singer and his father was a psychiatrist. He spent most of his childhood with his mother in the suburbs of Dallas and then moved to Portland, Ore., in high school to live with his father. Smith studied piano and guitar as a youth and began composing songs when he was 13. He began calling himself Elliott in middle school, he later explained to a reporter, because Steve sounded too "jockish." Smith graduated Hampshire College in Amhert, Mass., with a degree in philosophy and later joined a Portland punk band called Heatmiser. On the side, he recorded several solo albums — "Roman Candle" (1994), "Elliott Smith" (1995) and "Either/Or" (1997), all on independent labels — that won him a devoted underground following. In 1997, he moved to New York City, where film director Gus Van Sant (news) approached him with an offer to use several of Smith's songs on the soundtrack to "Good Will Hunting." The movie was a hit, bringing Smith's music to a mainstream audience. Smith subsequently signed with Dreamworks Records and recorded two albums with bigger budgets that featured denser arrangements than his early work. "XO" (1998) and "Figure 8" (2000) continued Smith's critical winning streak, and took him to the middle reaches of Billboard's Top 200 albums chart. "I don't really have any goals as a songwriter," he once said, "other than to show what it's like to be a person — just like everybody else who's ever played music does." Smith had recently spoken in interviews about his struggles with alcoholism. "When I lived in New York I was really a bad alcoholic for a few years," he told Under the Radar magazine in an interview published in June 2003. In an effort to quit drinking, Smith told the magazine, he had undergone treatment at the Neurotransmitter Restoration Center in Beverly Hills, which administers an intravenous solution meant to clear the bloodstream of toxins. ___ Associated Press writer Justin Glanville in New York contributed to this report.

Oh man, just checked out CNN.com on my lunch, and came straight over. Loved his music. Why so violently?

Dude..Isn't that called Hari Kari? Or am I thinking of something else.I remember it from Harold and Maude..Remember that movie? Anywho, I was bummed when I found out! My friend had twins and she got to name on and her man got to name the other one..She named one son Elliott Bek..Ha! She loved Elliott Smith so much..I feel really bad for her..

I totally thought of the Hari Kari thing too. So this must be the new trend who can kill them self in the most exotic way, and become a legend. Not to sound calous just an observation of people I DO consider legends...now. Kurt, Elliot, etc.

for some reason I can't think of others, but I know there are.

My personal message to all musicians out there don't do it. Like Dave Grohl said, "I'll stick around, I'll stick around...".

god, that was just so sad. my friend emailed me the link at cnn. i can't believe it. he is so talented and his music means so much. that was really touching what his friend wrote. it was strange because joey just mentioned him on subterranean the other day. it is truly a loss for all those who loved him. it is truly a loss for music.