Newsletter #3: Lola Kirke, Momma and Covers
Hi,
Welcome to the third of our monthly-ish newsletters. The aim of these is to give you a few extra bits and pieces that you may not get from listening to the regular show. This one includes some exclusive clips from episodes 5 and 6 - with Lola Kirke and Momma - as well as extra covers we’ve been sent by listeners. We’ll have more on our most recent episode with Joshua Burnside in our next newsletter.
If you have any questions, comments, feedback (positive and negative, do your worst), or something you just want to get off your chest, you can send it my way at rob@myfavouritelliottsmithsong.com.
Hope you enjoy reading this.
Rob
Episode 5: Lola Kirke
We were delighted to welcome Lola Kirke as our guest for episode five of this season. As an actor, Lola has starred in a range of TV shows and films. While, musically, she has released two albums, with her latest, Lady for Sale, coming out in April this year.
We connected with Lola via her PR team and for her interview she selected Son of Sam (a song we covered back in season two with Ben Langford Biss). I think it’s fair to say that Lola wasn’t the biggest Elliott Smith fan we’ve had on the show - a point she was happy to concede when the interview got underway:
Lola’s eighth grade boyfriend’s approach to being a teenager sounds like it was fairly similar to mine - sending a potential love interest a selection of sad songs and not hearing from them again after that. I just hope that, unlike me, he didn’t carry it on into his 20s (or indeed 30s).
What I really enjoyed from listening to the interview was how Lola neatly summarised the feeling you get when you listen to Elliott Smith: how he can immediately make it seem like you’re at the centre of a compelling story, even as a more casual listener:
You can listen to our episode with Lola Kirke on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode 6: Momma
Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten’s band Momma have had an amazing 2022 so far. They’ve been tipped as the next big thing by several music publications, they’ve toured with Snail Mail and their third album, Household Name, received widepsread acclaim when it was released in June. They probably didn’t think it could get much better… until they were asked to appear on My Favourite Elliott Smith Song.
I’m a big fan of Momma, so I was very happy to hear they were Elliott Smith fans and keen to take part. I was also excited to learn that they wanted to discuss Christian Brothers, and particularly the Heatmiser version. It’s a song that they’ve been playing live for a while now (the first voice you hear in this clip is Etta, followed by Allegra):
The interview was also a good opportunity for me to learn more about the drink Christian Brothers. It’s not something that is particularly accessible in the UK, so I’ve always been curious about what it’s like. Fortunately, Etta and Allegra are somewhat expert in this particular area (this makes them sound like alcoholics, I just mean they’ve had the drink Christian Brothers before):
One thing I always really enjoy about interviewing musicians is hearing who influences them and what they’re listening to. Not only does it widen my own knowledge, but it also makes me sound a lot cooler than I am when I pass off these references as my own at parties.
Here’s what Momma are playing at the moment:
I do very much recommend checking out Momma if you haven’t listened to them before, and do give our episode a play too if you like - you can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.
Covers
As we can’t play every cover we get sent in episodes, I thought here’s a good place to share a few we’ve been listening to.
I like this take on Roman Candle from Guillaume Gonin:
Finally, here’s Terry Toland with Kings Crossing. According to Terry, he recorded this shortly after From a Basement on the Hill came out - still sounding great 19 years later!
Before you go…
Why not check out episode 7 with Joshua Burnside. We’ll have more on this one in newsletter #4 which will be out in October: https://pod.fo/e/13f595
Thanks for reading this and supporting the podcast! Please do remember to share with friends or enemies that may be interested.