by SHANE SINNOTT

n the mid-’90s, Elliott Smith began to make the whispery acoustic music that brought him, and many others in the Pacific Northwest, fame. After recording a handful of albums and battling drug addiction, he ultimately killed himself in October, 2003. This week sees the release of his second posthumous album (From a Basement on a Hill was released in 2004), titled New Moon. A collection of recordings made between 1994 and 1997, New Moon is a windfall for fans of his early, starker work, as well as his famous “spiderweb-thin” delivery.

By the time you read this, I imagine the album will be completely leaked online, but for now, pay a visit to the creatively-named Neiles Life blog, where the blogger has posted three excellent tracks, “Angel in the Snow,” “Georgia, Georgia” and “High Times” (www.neileslife.blogspot.com/2007/04/new-moonpart-two.html).

Recently, while gritting my teeth at every mention of “Web 2.0,” I visited some more social music sites (in a previous column I looked at ilike.com and last.fm). The sites try to help you discover new music by comparing what you like against a database of what others like. The most interesting was Pandora (www.pandora.com). You go to the main page and begin by typing in an artist. I put in “Elliott Smith” and the site began to give me a “lesson” on what Smith was all about, and then started to play “Beggars Might Ride” by Destroyer. While it did so, the following message was displayed: “From now on we’ll play songs in the musical style of Elliott Smith, which features mellow rock instrumentation, major-key tonality, prominent organ and acoustic rhythm guitars.” What the fuck? I’m not sure how educational it’ll prove to be, but Pandora is definitely worth exploring if you want to see what the Web 2.0 fuss is all about.

This Saturday, be sure to try to get your hands on some tickets to Daniel Johnston, the legendary songwriter and mental-illness sufferer whose idiosyncratic ’80s recordings have been praised far and wide by types like Sonic Youth, the Flaming Lips, Kurt Cobain and many others. Representative of that era, “Wicked World” is available here: www.bernie-music.blogspot.com/2007/04/upcoming-concerts-its-kind-of-hard-to.html.

Wicked! ssinnott@gmail.com