Heatmiser

This article is about the alternative rock band. For the character from The Year Without a Santa Claus, see Heat Miser.

Heatmiser
Origin	Portland, Oregon, USA
Genres	Grunge Post-grunge Alternative Rock
Years active	1991–1996
Labels	Cavity Search Frontier Virgin Caroline
Associated acts	No. 2 Quasi Elliott Smith
Past members
Elliott Smith Neil Gust Tony Lash Sam Coomes Brandt Peterson

Heatmiser was an Alternative rock band that originated in Portland, Oregon in October 1991. Consisting of Elliott Smith (guitar and vocals), Neil Gust (guitar and vocals), Brandt Peterson (bass; later to be replaced by Sam Coomes, frontman of Quasi), and Tony Lash (drums), they were known for their well-crafted lyrics and songs often featuring the juxtaposition of melancholic and cheery words and melodies. The pop-oriented songs of Elliott Smith were a contrast to the darker songs of Neil Gust, while both Smith and Gust's songs touched on subjects such as anger, alienation, loneliness and despair.

Biography

Neil Gust and Elliott Smith met and formed the band; both were attending classes at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts at the time. In clubs in nearby Northampton, the pair would perform original songs, as well as covers of songs by Ringo Starr and Elvis Costello.^[1]

Upon their graduation from Hampshire and return to Portland, Smith and Gust reconfigured the band into the line-up it is known for today. Brandt Peterson played bass on the albums Dead Air and Cop and Speeder, the EP Yellow No. 5, and several singles. Peterson left the band in August 1994. Sam Coomes, a friend of Smith's, was brought in to play bass, and played on Heatmiser's last album Mic City Sons and on tour. Tony Lash went to high school with Elliott Smith, and played flute in the school band and drums in Smith's band Stranger Than Fiction. He left Heatmiser in late 1996, prior to what would be their final tour. John Moen (later of The Decemberists) was brought in to play drums.^[2]

Brendan Benson was the opening act for Heatmiser on that tour. Reporter Jeff Stark's article about a date on that tour, a December 1, 1996 show at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill club, recalled Smith as "part charismatic rock star, part bar-band regular, oozing nonchalant confidence".

Heatmiser also had a less-serious side:

“

Somewhere in the middle of the set the band started goofing off; Gust pushed Smith down in the middle of a song. Later, Heatmiser tossed self-effacing cracks at the audience, perhaps to parody Smith's reputation for despondence. Between songs, bassist Coomes proclaimed, 'We've got Søren Kierkegaard on guitar.' To which Smith jokingly announced, 'This one's called Fear and Trembling.' I suppose I should have known that any band named after the claymation villain in the dated The Year Without a Santa Claus would have a sense of humor.[3]

”

Heatmiser was labeled as a "homocore" or "queercore" band by the mainstream press, because of the themes espoused in the songs of the openly gay Gust.^[1] It was also speculated that Gust and Smith were lovers. Elliott Smith repeatedly denied this in interviews or that he was even gay. In one interview Smith said he "would probably be a lot happier if [he] was gay." Smith also said that Gust's being gay was "not a big deal, [nor] anyone's business".

Elliott Smith later dismissed the group's music as "loud", and his own singing on their first album as "an embarrassment". Smith also bemoaned that being in Heatmiser changed the songs he was writing at the time into "loud rock songs with no dynamic."^[1] Heatmiser also frustrated the members of the band. In an interview, Smith recalled:

“

I was being a total actor, acting out a role I didn't even like. I couldn't come out and show where I was coming from. I was always disguised in this loud rock band. [In the beginning] we all got together, everyone wanted to play in a band and it was fun, then after a couple of years we realized that none of us really liked this kind of music, and that we didn't have to play this way. You didn't have to turn all these songs you wrote into these loud... things." He continued: "It was kinda weird – people that came to our shows, a majority of them were people I couldn't relate to at all. Why aren't there more people like me coming to our shows? Well, it's because I'm not even playing the kind of music that I really like.[1]

”

Later in his career, Smith believed that his blatant dismissal of the band in interviews for his solo albums hurt Neil Gust and led to discontent between them. The success of Roman Candle and Elliott Smith caused tensions in the band, especially between Smith and Gust, and led to the band's break-up.^[4]

The band broke up in the fall of 1996. Gust went on to play in the band No. 2. Coomes carried on as half of Quasi, as well as playing as a guest musician for Built to Spill and Sleater-Kinney. Lash currently keeps himself busy as a producer. He produced the first two albums by Dandy Warhols and he helped with the production of Death Cab for Cutie's first two studio albums (Something About Airplanes and We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes). Peterson currently teaches anthropology at Michigan State University.^[5] Smith went on to a successful solo career before his death on October 21, 2003.

The Music of Heatmiser

The Music of Heatmiser
EP by Heatmiser
Released	1992 (US)
Genre	Grunge
Label	Self-Released
Producer	Heatmiser
Heatmiser chronology
The Music of Heatmiser (1992) Dead Air (1993)

The Music of Heatmiser is a six-song demo cassette, recorded on April 29 and 30, 1992, at Sound Impressions in Milwaukie, Oregon. It was made available only at shows or by mail order.

Of the six tracks, "Lowlife", "Bottle Rocket", "Buick" and "Dirt" were re-recorded for Heatmiser’s first full-length album, Dead Air, while "Just a Little Prick" and "Mightier Than You" didn’t make the final cut.

The version of "Mightier Than You" on this release was later included for release on the Puddlestomp compilation.^[6] A live version of the song was released on the compilation 25 Years On the Edge: A Benefit For Outside In.

The Wedding Show

On November 21, 1992, Heatmiser played a wedding reception at the Edgefield Powerstation Theater in Troutdale, Oregon. The bride and groom (Joseph and Jennifer Amie) were friends of the band; two tattoo artists who did Elliott's Ferdinand the Bull tattoo (bride) and his sun/Texas tattoo (groom). The set list comprises songs featured on Dead Air and Yellow No. 5, and is notable for featuring four unknown songs not played live again after that show. It is not known whether the unknown songs were recorded later in the studio.

Discography

Studio albums

• Dead Air (1993 - Frontier Records)
• Cop and Speeder (1994 - Frontier Records)
• Mic City Sons (1996)

EPs

• The Music of Heatmiser (1992)
• Yellow No. 5 (1994 - Frontier Records)

Singles

• "Stray" (1993; B-sides: "Can't Be Touched", "Wake"; Cavity Search Records)
• "Sleeping Pill" (1994; B-side: "Temper"; Cavity Search Records)
• "Everybody Has It" (1996; B-side: "Dirty Dream"; Cavity Search Records)

Compilation and soundtrack inclusions

• Zero Effect: Motion Picture Soundtrack (1998) (Song: "Rest My Head Against the Wall")
• Puddlestomp (Song: "Mightier Than You [Demo]")
• 25 Years On the Edge: A Benefit For Outside In (Song: "Mightier Than You [Live]")
• Live at the X-Ray (Song: "Bottle Rocket [Live]")
• Pet Sounds, Volume 1 (Song: "Junior Mint")
• Kamikaze: Music to Push You Over the Edge (Song: "Stray")
• How low can a punk Get, Caroline Records compilation (Song: "The fix is In")

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} sweet adeline | biography - page 5
2. ^ Willamette Week - Timbre
3. ^ San Francisco - Music - Anti-depressants
4. ^ Under the Radar - News - Elliott Smith - Better Off Than Dead, Elliott Smith Comes Clean
5. ^ 07FACLTY.VP
6. ^ [1]

External links

• Heatmiser at Allmusic