Legendary ’90s indie-rock group Heatmiser—comprised of the late, great Elliott Smith, Neil Gust, Tony Lash, and Brandt Peterson—have announced The Music of Heatmiser, a new 29-song compilation of previously unheard recordings, out October 6 via Third Man Records. Alongside this announcement, the band have shared a version of “Lowlife” from their 1992 demo cassette along with a live video filmed during a 1993 performance in Fort Collins, Colorado.
“Tony found a bunch of forgotten recordings and started mixing them and sending them to me,” Gust shared of the release’s origins. “We were struck by the freewheeling energy of the band; you could hear how much fun we were having. In 1992 we could barely afford the studio so it all had to be done really fast. When we put the cassette together, we wanted it to start like a punch in the face. That’s ‘Lowlife.’”
The track, formally released in 1993 on Heatmiser’s debut full-length Dead Air, comes from the band’s initial demo set, The Music of Heatmiser, recorded in the summer of 1992 in Portland and sold at local record shops and shows to build hype for the upstart group.
Check out the “Lowlife” performance below, and pre-order The Music of Heatmiser here.
