Stranger Than Fiction- Any Kind Of Mudhen (1985)

  

If you are a fan of Elliot Smith, last week was special with the unveiling of a collection of six albums Elliot Smith recorded in high school with his band's, Stranger Than Fiction, A Murder Of Crows and Harum Scarum from 1985-1989. These aren't some crappy sounding recordings made in his bedroom, they are fully realized, mature, good sounding recordings of quality original songs written by the teenage Smith (Steven) and his bandmate, Garrick Duckler. Smith was sixteen when they recorded the first of six cassette tapes that were given to friends and sold at performances and Smith had jokingly dismissed the existence of these tapes and distanced himself from his younger self, "I really promised myself a long time ago I would keep [them] from ever seeing the light of day,”. Thanks to an Elliot Smith super-fan in Texas, Cameron McCrary relentlessly tracked down remaining copies of the tapes and archived them to share. They can be heard and streamed on YouTube, but I wanted to track down copies for myself, hopefully in lossless format. Lo and behold, it took me less than 10 minutes to track them down online and I downloaded all six albums in FLAC. If there is an interest, I will share them all here on the blog. I'm a fan of Elliot Smith and I'm also a fan of listening to early works of interesting and intriguing artists, such as Smith, so this is...special.

 

Recommended reading:

The Untold Story of Elliot Smith's Teenage Band

Six Albums By Elliot Smith While In High School Surface Online

The first album, Any Kind Of Mudhen is actually quite good. Some piano ballads, some drum machines, New Wavy in parts and not unlike solo Elliot Smith, though maybe a little more upbeat. It's interesting the maturity in the music and I never would have suspected this was a group of teenagers on their first recording. Man, I wish I had the original cassette release, but I'm glad this saw the light of day and shared with music fans everywhere. Included in the file are scans of the j-card liner notes and I will emphasize I do NOT have a physical copy of the tape.

Enjoy!

Stream on YouTube: Any Kind Of Mudhen

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy format, except for personal use

Please share!

STRANGER THAN FICTION
Any Kind Of Mudhen (1985)

01. Halfway To Forever (Autumn Signs)
02. Looking At My Watch
03. The Machine
04. Joy To The World
05. Uncertainty
06. Another Letter
07. It Was A Sunny Day
08. Wind Through My Life
09. Pbida
10. Chemisty
11. Nothing To Do With You
12. Pull Me Through
13. To Build A Home

Self-released cassette
1st release from Elliott Smith and Garrick Duckler's songwriting partnership.

Recorded during the summer of 1985.

 

Stranger Than Fiction- Any Kind Of Mudhen (1985) FLAC. rar