Category Archives: We Love Music

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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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Hot Ticket: Linkin Park, the Honda Civic Tour @ Jiffy Lube Live, 8/11/2012

photo courtesy of Linkin Park

This post is contributed by our guest writer/photographer Andrew Markowitz.

Formed in 1996, Linkin Park has been producing hit hard rock songs for over a decade.  Easily distinguishable due to their vocal tandem of Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, they have released critically acclaimed albums such as Hybrid Theory and Meteora and sold over 50 million albums worldwide.

Now they bring their eclectic blend of metal and rap to Jiffy Lube Live on Saturday night, touring on the strength of their recently released fifth album “Living Things,” which debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts earlier this summer.    This is sure to be one of the hottest shows of the summer and tickets are still on sale.  If you grew up in the late 90’s banging your head to Linkin Park, this is surely a concert you won’t want to miss! Get there early to catch openers Mutemath, who put on a great show.

Linkin Park

w/ Mutemath

Jiffy Lube Live

Saturday, August 11/8pm/$40 & up. Find tickets here!

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Millie Jackson @ Howard Theatre, 8/3/12.

all photos by Jason Coile

There couldn’t have been a better venue than the Howard Theatre to experience a Millie Jackson show, circa 2012. The renewed and revitalized room, shiny and clean, big and bright with lights and giant screens, was abuzz last Friday evening as the mostly middle-aged patrons took their tables and finished their drinks and meals. When the curtain came up to reveal a ten-piece band, I know I was relieved, since the opener had sung solo to a music track. And when Millie made her entrance as the band went into “Breakin’ Up Somebody Else’s Home” I was also relieved, as I could tell she was fierce and ready for her first DC show in many years.

Millie Jackson is a 68-year-old R&B legend, whose biggest hits were in the 70s, but who never really disappeared, releasing recordings herself when no one else would. She is known as a comedienne as well as a singer – her albums and shows are filled with hilarious monologues about gender wars and politics, as on 1979’s Live and Uncensored, that round out her expressive vocals. Friday night’s show was no exception. Her banter and rapport with the audience was pointed and personal, by turns dirty and sharp. She has figured out how to undergird her comedy and great singing with an occasional seriousness which lends a layer of integrity to the whole shebang.

And it’s her smokey singing that still shows an incredible range.   Her set falls into four kinds of songs: her original 70s hits (“If Loving You is Wrong”, “Hurts So Good”, “Put Something Down on It”), latter day songs culled from her 90s output and 2001’s Not for Church Folk (“The Lies that We Live”, “Leave Me Alone”, “I Wish It Would Rain Down”), and a truly interesting choice of cover songs (Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”, and her opener “Breakin’ Up Somebody Else’s Home”). And then there’s the comedic ones (“Phuck You Symphony”, “Old Bitches Got it Goin On”)

Just based on her encore alone, where the crowd got up from their seats and rushed the stage as she came back on, barefoot, and closed with the torchy and climactic “I Wish It Would Rain Down”, it’s hard not to feel a performer like this, who breathlessly throws such a generous show, needs to be seen by more people. She told me in our interview that it’s getting harder and harder to book shows, since it’s hard to find openers, and her contemporaries have slowed down or stopped. It would be great for her to expand her audience somehow. The whole night, I kept thinking how wonderful it would be for a younger performer, either a hip-hop star or an R&B star, to just hire her as an opener, and take Millie around the country to perform for their younger demographic, so more people can see what this original can still do.

Interviews, Music, Night Life, People, The District, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with Ryan Mitchell of Shark Week

photo courtesy of Shark Week

DC-based rockers Shark Week have energy, sexiness, style and swagger to spare. Their sound blends garage-rock/psychedelia/blues & surf, with a punk-rock attitude. Check out their surfy-bluesy jam “If You Want Me To Stay (for a while)” from their new EP. You can experience the awesomeness that is Shark Week live for yourself this Friday, August 10th at their EP release party at Montserrat House. This week WLDC’s Alexia Kauffman got the chance to ask frontman Ryan Mitchell a few questions, and here’s what he had to say.

Alexia: How did you first start playing music?

Ryan: Motley Crue. My neighbor when I was thirteen was John Corabi, the second singer of Motley Crue. His son was pretty close to the same age, and happened to be an amazing drummer. Still is, actually. I guess it was worth it to let me borrow his fender and a practice amp so his son could have someone to jam with…
 
Alexia: Was there any artist or album or song in particular that first made you fall in love with rock music?

Ryan: Hard to say, I mean, I remember really liking the Offspring when I was eleven. But we never had cable so I was always way behind my highly cultured cousins at the time who were educated by Beavis and Butthead and MTV. I remember my county’s NPR station would play blues roots all day on Sundays and I would press record on a blank tape and get these great early American folk and blues gems which fit in really well with the punk music I was getting into at the time. It was easy for me to tie Woody to The Clash or something like that. So I really think I benefitted from having over-sheltering Christian parents in my youth. They shielded me from terrible pop and somehow I was still able to get punk tapes from my friends.  Continue reading →

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, Night Life, We Love Music
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Q&A with Millie Jackson

photo courtesy of Weird Wreckuds

Readers here might not know much about her, but Millie Jackson was a giant in the R&B world in the 70s – a skilled, smokey-voiced singer as famous for her raunchy on-stage monologues as she was for her lush, beautifully produced albums for Spring Records, most of which were recorded in storied Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama. While 1973’s “It Hurts So Good” was one of her biggest hit songs, appearing on the soundtrack to the blaxploitation hit Cleopatra Jones,  her breakthrough album Caught Up was a rule-breaker –  a soul concept-album with a cohesive gender-war narrative threaded through the covers and self-penned originals.    That and two of her other albums from that period went gold; Feelin’ Bitchy and Get it Out’cha System.  While these came out years before the beginnings of hip-hop, the genre eventually drew on Jackson for influence, as her spoken-word style and fierce, don’t-fuck-with-me energy laid the groundwork for decades worth of female rappers.

Her show Friday night at the Howard Theater is her first ever at the venue, since it had already been shuttered during her heyday.  It should be a good one, since the 68-year-old legend still knows how to throw down in her live set.  She tours with a large band, sings her old-school hits, as well as more recent songs (she never really stopped recording until 2001), and is always ready to break it down with stories or advice in her monologues, which draw her songs out into extended jams, and make her shows as comedic as they are soulful.

I spoke with Ms. Jackson on the phone the other day.  She can be as funny in an interview as she is serious, telling me about the state of R&B music, and laughing at contemporary production technique.  She just recently ended a 13 year run as drive-time host on a Dallas soul station, so messing around with her interviewer is second nature…

Jonathan Druy: Have you spent a lot of time in DC at all?

Millie Jackson: My horn players are from DC.  And Bill Washington used to bring me into Constitution Hall all the time. I played the Warner.  I think I played, what club used to be under the Warner?  Encore?  I can’t believe I remember that.  The name of the club! I had my strawberries today!

JD: How often have you been touring lately?

MJ: Usually I do some weekends with a Summer Soul/Blues Tour, but this year I did four weeks with them, so I’ve worked more this year already than I did all of last year. Continue reading →

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We Love Music: Paint The Music

Photo Courtesy of Paint The Music

Bringing two different art forms together for one performance is Dan Fisk’s goal with his new Paint The Music performance series. The concept is simple: four painters are matched with a performance artist and each painter has the duration of a full night’s worth of music to complete the visual interpretation of the performer’s first song.

The idea came to local singer-songwriter and program organizer Fisk who was inspired by a story he heard from a DJ friend in San Diego. “I remember her telling me about a show that she did years ago where an artist was painting whatever he felt like during the show,” Fisk said. “He let the music inspire his art. I thought it was a great idea!”

It has always been something Fisk wanted to bring to DC but – according to him – it had to wait until he had enough time to give the project the attention it deserved. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, People, The District, The Features, We Love Music
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Hot Ticket: Black Hills at Rock & Roll Hotel, 7/30/2012

photo by Stephanie Breijo

DC’s own Black Hills play tonight at Rock & Roll Hotel. They are opening for British electronic-rock duo The Big Pink.

Black Hills is the dreamy electronic project of Aaron Estes, former front-man of the now defunct DC indie-rock group Bellman Barker. If Air, Royksopp, and Goldfrapp had a beautiful, iridescent love-child, it would be Black Hills. A few months back I interviewed Estes- you can check that out here. I also couldn’t stop gushing in my review of Black Hills’ performance at the Black Cat in May- read that here. While the songs on the EP Black Gold (which you can hear here) are all written/produced by Estes, the live show features a full band, and is a must-see/hear. Do your ears, heart, and soul a favor and go check out Black Hills tonight!

Black Hills

opening for The Big Pink

doors 7pm/show 8pm

$13 advance/$15 door

Rock & Roll Hotel

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We Love Music: Iceage, Dirty Beaches and Give @ Black Cat — 7/24/12

Photo courtesy of draugurinn
Iceage @ Iceland Airwaves 2011
courtesy of draugurinn

So I went into last night’s show with some misplaced expectations (therefore you should read the rest of this review with a grain of salt). Punk Danes Iceage played unfortunately predictable hardcore while Taiwanese noise popper Dirty Beaches presented a surprising cowboy score that sounded like machines meeting nature.

I read some press, listened to a few songs, and counted on some familiarity with the catalog at the label What’s Your Rupture? to get me started with Iceage. And so I was anticipating a post-punk band with hardcore overtones but instead I got a straight up hardcore band with a bit of melodic deftness.

Certainly, hardcore kids Iceage are not to blame for my misplaced anticipation. The four young men from Copenhangen thundered through roughly 10 two-minute songs, whipping up a good old-fashioned mosh pit in a sold-out show in the backstage of the Black Cat on Tuesday night.

Continue reading →

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We Love Music: Chromatics @ Rock and Roll Hotel — 7/19/12

Ruth Radelet and Johnny Jewel of the Chromatics

As synthesizers became more widely available in the 1970s, more and more European musicians adopted their use to various effects, sometimes leaving an indelible print upon their national music scene. Nowhere was this more true than with Italo disco, a synthesized extension of disco music to take root in Italy in the late 1970s.

The impact of the genre was significant, ultimately circling back to feed the cradle of the disco genre in New York City and clearing the way for the manifestation of mature new wave music — and especially New Romantic music. (There is not a New Romantic soul that does not absolutely adore the collaborations of Italo disco grandmaster Giorgio Moroder with disco queen Donna Summer.) In hindsight, Italo disco can be seen as building very important bridges across not only these genres but into Europop and Hi-NRG in general.

It is wholly welcome then that the spaced out dance beats found in Italo disco should continue to find acclaim and a home with the assistance of specific labels and projects. Perched atop this Italo disco survival is independent record label Italians Do It Better, out of Bayonne, NJ. One of the key movers and shakers in that label is Johnny Jewel, space synthmaster extraordinaire, who lends his talents to the bands Glass Candy and the Chromatics, among other efforts.

Continue reading →

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Q&A with Dan Scheuerman of Deleted Scenes

 

photos courtesy of Deleted Scenes

Deleted Scenes is an indie-rock quartet based in DC. Their debut album Birdseed Shirt was released in 2009 to much critical acclaim. (They are beloved by Pitchfork and NPR alike.) I arrived late to this party, but I’m happy to have made it. I met singer/guitarist Dan Scheuerman by chance a few weeks ago after seeing his brother Vince play a show at The Hamilton. (Vince is also a super-talented musician- he fronted the DC power-pop-rock group Army of Me, and alt-Americana leaning River James. Coincidentally, I interviewed Vince recently, and you can check that out here!)

Deleted Scenes just released their sophomore album, Young People’s Church of the Air last week on Park the Van Records, once again to great acclaim. It is a work of complexity and beauty, dancy yet reflective, light and dark. I sang its praises last week on WLDC, and you can read that here. Deleted Scenes is currently on tour in support of their new album, and will be making a hometown stop this Saturday, July 21st at Red Palace. I got the chance to chat with Dan recently*, and here’s what he had to say!

Alexia: You come from a musical family, how did you first start playing music? 

Dan: My Mom and Dad both played guitar in church and sang, and we’d have these big family sing-alongs on Saturdays, and we all sang. Well I have five brothers, so it was actually very Von Trapp- we’d all sit in the living room and play, like, religious songs and sing in these huge harmonies. That was very natural.

Alexia: Oh, that’s really cool! Was your brother Vince an influence on you at all when you started playing music?

Dan: Yeah! Well I used to go see his band all the time- they were called Linus and they were called Cactus Patch, and then they were called Army of Me. But in the Cactus Patch days I used to go to all their shows. Yeah, it was inspiring and he kind of showed me how to do it myself, you know? I was in I guess grade school and he was older so he would teach me to make CDs in the family CDR drive, and printing CD labels, and flyering shows, and just kinda, like, showing me how to get started. That was definitely a big influence. And I used to go see his ska band all the time. I was a big fan!

Alexia: How did Deleted Scenes come together as a band?

Dan:Me and Dominic, the guitar player, and Brian, the drummer, and Matt, the bass player, we all grew up playing in bands together in high school and grade school. Then we all went off to college, and when we came back it was just natural to play with each other again. I think we’re all pretty shy dudes, so we kinda gravitated back towards one another. It was kind of like a family, I guess, since we’d started playing together so young, but it was basically a totally different band than it would have been back then. We played in like, crappy alt-bands. Me and Matt and Dominic and Brian played in a band that sounded like Incubus, back in high school. Continue reading →

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We Love Music: Listen Up! 2 albums you should hear.

courtesy of These United States

It’s not super often that I come across albums I can’t stop listening to, can’t get out of my head, and just can’t stop thinking about. If I’m lucky it happens a few times a year, and it’s what I live for. So, for it to happen with two different albums in the course of one week has kind of blown my mind, and I feel it’s my responsibility to share this joy with the world, or at least the We Love DC readers.  The albums are Young People’s Church of the Air by Deleted Scenes, and These United States, self-titled.  Coincidentally both bands have DC connections- Deleted Scenes are based in DC, and These United States started here. These albums have totally distinct sounds, they live in different spots on the musical spectrum, but both are beautiful and brilliant in their own way.

I’ll start with These United States, self-titled. I first became aquainted with the music of These United States several years back, when they were first starting out, and based in DC. I saw them live at Iota, probably around 2007, and their enthusiasm and energy, combined with the charisma of frontman Jesse Elliott was exhilarating. Fast forward five years and just as many albums…the group no longer calls DC home, they are based partly in New York, and spend lots of time on the road. Their fifth studio album, These United States came out in June on Colorado-based United Interests records.

This record makes me want to stomp, holler, daydream and dance. The record is beautifully produced, a shining example of Americana- a lively blend of country sounds, folk, and rock. Jesse Elliott’s lyrics and vocals take you on a journey, weaving and winding from the fast-pasted “Dead and Gone” to the dreamy “Miss Underground” and quiet contemplation of “The Park.”  The sounds that come from J. Tom Hnatow’s guitar and pedal steel are like caramel- so rich, sweet, soulfully delicious. They add a decadence to the recordings that almost makes my ears feel guilty. It’s hard to pick favorites from a record this good (there are no bad songs on this album) but my top songs at the moment are the soulful “Miss Underground”, the classic-rock tinged “Let the River In”, and the jubilant stomp-fest of “Dead & Gone.” But don’t just track-hop this album- it deserves a start-to-finish listening. (Last week I got to ask TUS singer Jesse Elliott a few questions. Check out what he had to say here.) Continue reading →

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We Love Music: …And We Love Bartenders (RIP, KT)

Photo courtesy of furcafe
035144-02
courtesy of furcafe

A very lovely woman passed away on Tuesday. Her name was KT Robeson. If you met her randomly, you would see she was very statuesque. If you knew her better, you would learn she was sassy and fun — and she loved to dance. She loved to go to places like Marvin, the Black Cat, DC9 and the Rock and Roll Hotel. She also happened to have worked at some of those places.

Like us, she loved music. I personally met her acquaintance because, not too long ago, she worked as a bartender and a manager at the Rock and Roll Hotel and especially DC9. I only ever became a casual friend to her but I enjoyed talking to her. I continued to run into her regularly when she came around to see her true friends and family: her fellow nightlife industry compatriots — the bar owners, bar managers, bartenders, bar backs, bouncers, technicians and DJs who make up that tight-knit community responsible for any successful music venue, dance hall or dive bar with a good ol’ jukebox.

We sometimes take these folks for granted if we don’t work in the industry ourselves because we are all very busy. But they serve as our hosts, entertainers, cooks, protectors, janitors and sometimes our nannies. Sometimes they become our acquaintances, fellow jokesters, confidants or just good listeners. Sometimes they truly become friends. They generally are good people that don’t mind doing a job that essentially ensures *we* get to have a good time.

Continue reading →

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Q&A with Girl In A Coma

photos courtesy of Girl In A Coma

This week We Love DC guest writer Greg Svitil got a chance to chat with bassist Jenn Alva of rock trio Girl In A Coma about life on the road, music as catharsis, Amanda Lepore and more.  Girl In A Coma will be playing at Red Palace on Friday, July 13th.

Greg Svitil: You seem to be touring non-stop lately.  How has spending so much time traveling and playing shows grown your connection as band mates and as friends or sisters? 

Jenn Alva: We do tour a lot and luckily, we love what we do. The girls and I have always been great friends from even before GIAC had begun. That was an advantage in becoming band mates. We were able to communicate calmly about band decisions and writing. The amount of time we spend touring has really helped as well. We are a tight team. We are family.

Greg: You manage to squeeze a lot into your time on the road.  Beyond nightly shows, you’ve been doing a lot of radio shows such as NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, and Nina has been playing solo as well.  How do you balance everything and maintain your energy level? 

Jenn: We try to do as much as we can on the road. We actually feel like we should be doing more. Our energy levels remain high because we adore our latest album Exits & All the Rest, and fall in love again with old songs we dust off and place in the set. Which keeps us excited to play day or night. Continue reading →

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We Love Music: Howard Jones @ The Howard Theatre — 7/5/12 (or “Howard at The Howard”)

Photo courtesy of zannaland
IMG_0139
courtesy of zannaland

Once upon a time, Howard Jones rolled through the DC metro area and played some of his familiar hits.

It was Oct. 3, 2007, actually. He performed at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., and it was frankly not the greatest show I ever had seen. The famously camera-shy Englishman played acoustic piano, strumming keys to lyrics he had written some 20 years previously, only to stop frequently and poke fun at his own songwriting abilities and the occasional curious rhyme. He had become Howard Jones, The Lounge Act. All in all, it was a bit of a disheartening experience.

Continue reading →

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Q&A With Pilesar

photo by Ashleigh Mullinax

While Jason Mullinax comes to music originally as a percussionist, his current project Pilesar (pie-LEE-zur) explodes into much more than that, and is bringing DC’s music scene a one-man electro-force that blends keys, synth, guitars, vocodor, noise and loops. And he sings too! His free show Sunday evening at H St.’s Sova Espresso & Wine Bar should show off this noise-artist’s sonic prowess.

A veteran of DC’s Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music, Mullinax has been playing around town quite a bit with his new release, “Stereo Space”, which brings to mind a lo-fi 60s/70s techno psychedelic time-warp. His range combines proggy atmospherics with krauty electro-cinematics, and 80s new-wave-hip-hop-samply goodness. On songs like “Absolute Zero”, “Spider Bait”, and “Keith’s Drum Machine”, his playful personality shines over it all, giving the noise a light touch. Throw in a guitarist and all sorts of other sound, and you have something that rewards repeated headphone listens. His extensive back catalog, including his previous release “Radio Friendly”, has less straightforward vocals but the same kind of electronic/noise fun.

A native of Columbia, South Carolina but now living in Takoma Park, Pilesar is another reason to believe that DC music is experiencing some sort of renaissance. I talked to him the other day about what it is he’s doing.

Jonathan Druy: How long did it take you to record “Stereo Space”?

Jason Mullinax: It took over a year, and a lot of that was making the songs, and getting the songs right. I had the thing mastered five times before I signed off on it. I’m really happy with it, and I think this is the first album that is really representative of what I do in this moment. Continue reading →

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Q&A with These United States

Jesse Elliott, photo by Tamara

These United States play exuberant, uplifting alt-Americana rock & roll. They formerly called Washington,DC home, but are now based in New York, and spend copious amounts of time on the road. The band recently opened for country legend Willie Nelson, and are touring now in support of their fifth studio album, the eponymous These United States. They’ll be making a stop to play Black Cat this Saturday, July 7th. This week TUS frontman Jesse Elliott offered WLDC’s Alexia Kauffman a little peek inside his mind. Check it out here.

Alexia: How did you first start playing music?

Jesse: Honestly, it was like soccer, or math club, or all these strange things we got signed up for when we were very young and couldn’t possibly know any better and they turned out to be these beautiful human endeavors that people had been doing for centuries, just a goal and a ball and a bunch of other humans to kick it all around between. 
 
Alexia: Was there any artist or album that first sparked your love of rock music?

Jesse: The Who. 
 
Alexia: You all were based in DC for a while- what was the catalyst for your move?

Jesse: We were moving around so much, it just made sense to keep moving. we had one foot on the platform, at one point, and then all of a sudden both of them were on the train, and we couldn’t say why, but even the platform looked perfect in the distance, from that far away – so why not?  Continue reading →

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Q&A with Jesse Malin

photo by Danny Clinch

New York rocker Jesse Malin has been playing in rock bands since the tender age of twelve, starting out onstage at New York’s legendary CBGBs, he went on to front the glam-punk band D Generation for years, touring with Green Day and others. He has performed as a solo artist for years now, as well as with his band St. Mark’s Social, and has released three solo records. He’s currently on a small solo tour, and is making a stop in DC this Saturday, June 30th, at The Hamilton. We Love DC’s Alexia Kauffman got the chance to chat with Jesse recently, and here’s what he had to say.

Alexia: So you’ve been playing in bands since you were a kid, right?

Jesse: Yeah, I started when I was twelve years old, we did the audition night at CBGBs. Monday nights were the audition nights, and me and all my friends from Queens, New York drove in and piled up in cabs and cars and we did the audition showcase. We ended up starting a band called Heart Attack, doing a few records til I was sixteen, doing some touring, that kind of stuff. Continue reading →

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Q&A with Vince Scheuerman

all photos courtesy of Vince Scheuerman

Vince Scheuerman has been a hard-working musician in the DC area for years. Not always part of the “scene”, he fronted the successful power-pop-rock band Army of Me for many years, riding a rocky road of successes and pitfalls, before starting the band River James in 2010. This spring after touring extensively with Nashville-based band Canon Blue, alongside MUTEMATH and The Boxer Rebellion, Vince decided to move to Nashville. He’ll be returning home on Saturday, June 30th to play a solo acoustic set at The Hamilton, opening for New York rocker Jesse Malin.

We Love DC’s Alexia Kauffman got the very busy Vince on the phone for a chat, and he talked about how he got started, the rough road of an artist on the rise, his plans for a new album, and more! Continue reading →

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The Winning Ticket: Young Magic, Quilt, & The Tender Thrill @ Comet Ping Pong

Poster via Lindsay Johnson www.theLAjohnson.com

Today we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Young Magic, Quilt & The Tender Thrill at Comet Ping Pong, Friday, June 29th!

Young Magic played at Black Cat a few months ago, opening for Korallreven. Their performance was enthusiastic and energizing. The trio, currently based in New York City is comprised of Australian ex-pats Isaac Emmanuel, Michael Italia, and Indonesian-born Melati Malay. They mixed dreamy vocals and ambient guitar with tribal-sounding rhythyms and hypnotic, thumping beats.

The Tender Thrill are classic americana rock & roll, and their debut LP is out now on Cricket Cemetery.

Quilt are art school duo pop. Their self-titled debut LP is out now on Mexican Summer.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9:00am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 4pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email in 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

The winner will be on the guest list at Comet Ping Pong. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. This is an all-ages show!

Sasha Lord and Micah Greenberg Present…
Friday June 29th, Quilt, The Tender Thrill & Young Magic
$10, 10pm and All Ages at Comet Ping Pong

Entertainment, Interviews, Media, Music, Night Life, People, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with Blake Mills

photo courtesy of Blake Mills
You may not have heard the name Blake Mills before, but there’s a good chance you’ve hear his playing. As one of the most in-demand session guitarists in Los Angeles he has recorded with Weezer, Jakob Dylan, Danger Mouse, Rick Rubin, Norah Jones, Andrew Bird, and many others. He has toured with Cass McCombs, Lucinda Williams, Jenny Lewis, Band of Horses and Julian Casablancas. He recently contributed a cover of the song “Heart of Mine” for the Amnesty International tribute to Bob Dylan. He recorded a solo album Break Mirrors in 2010, and though it was never formally released, it gained a cult following among friends and people in the know.
He is currently on tour opening for Fiona Apple, as well as playing guitar in her set. He’ll be at the Warner Theater tomorrow night, so if you’re going to see Fiona Apple, make sure you get there early to catch Blake’s set!
We Love DC got the chance to chat with Blake during a break in his busy schedule, and here’s what he had to say. Continue reading →