Blake Mills

Any takers? Just saw him in San Francisco and he and his band were killer. Fiona Apple showed up for a few songs as well.
Dude is a ridiculous guitar player, but super understated. New record is amazing and his previous one Break Miirrors is one of my favs of the last decade or so. All around good stuff.

not many takers
Blake Mills - Break Mirrors

Fantastic fall album. I could do without the long instrumental near the end though. I wouldn't be surprised if this album got no traction on ILX, I'm pretty sure I like this partly because I have a soft spot for post-Dave Matthews singer-songwriter shit though, which I'm sure v few people on here share w/ me.

Oh yeah, Fiona Apple is on two tracks, if anyone cares

"Curable Disease" is my favorite track at the moment. It just sounds so nice. I wouldn't be surprised if some Cass McCombs fans weren't down with this. Totally different personas but I get a lot of Wits End vibes from it musically.

i first heard of him cause he played guitar with cass. i've been curious about his stuff since then, but nothing has made much of an impression on me. though "it'll all work out" does pop into my head from time to time. his voice kinda sounds like jeff tweedy at times.

His songs are OK, but he's a phenomenal guitar player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlskErEWuRI

Marc Maron is a taker
"I don't know who you are @BreakMirrors but this 'Heigh Ho' album is some astounding stuff. #deeproots" - Marc Maron

finally on Maron I see. Heigh Ho still great.

yeah his production on the alabama shakes new album is pretty great too

Just came across this in an old algorithm playlist and really digging it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDzab8ZzrO0

Is it Phoebe Bridgers on backing vox?

Absolutely love all his albums, including the instrumental one that came out last year. But Break Mirrors and Heigh Ho both rate super high in my favorite albums of the 10s.

I've seen a few new tracks show up on spotify in the last month or two so I assume that means a new album is on the way.

Is it Phoebe Bridgers on backing vox?

― Together Again Or (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, May 1, 2020 bookmarkflaglink

It's Jesca Hoop. Her album from a couple years back, Memories are Now is also really good. Mills produced it.

i like this new album by blake mills

Haven't listened yet but looking forward to it.

I was surprised by the BNM on Pitchfork today - doesn't seem like he was an artist who was really on their radar before now. Wonder what changed?

his last album got a glowing review, don't remember the score.

new album is incredible

(never listened to Break Mirrors actually but i love Heigh Ho, Look, and this new one.

his last album got a glowing review, don't remember the score.

― sleight return (voodoo chili), Friday, May 8, 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Oh yeah, your're right. But it was so different from his first two which are so much more songwriter records (and which the review today points to - obviously the reviewer knows the material well).

Ripersnifle - Break Mirrors is awesome and highly recommended!

Hey this is really nice. Continues the streak of anything he and/or Shawn Everett is involved with becoming high-rotation listening on weekend mornings.

this sounds very very good

"vanishing twin" is astounding. every sound on this album is so gorgeous.

Definite Mark Hollis feel to this new one...Lewis' "L'Amour" even.

He's on both the new Dylan and the new Phoebe Bridgers album, I believe.
Have to dig deeper into the catalog. Still obsessed with this one tune. Love how the dig into the second half/extended outro on this live version, which ends up sounding a lot like "Rhiannon."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMmSU70fDAo

sorry to bring up vulf, but i love blake's playing on this. the pinkie volume control is so cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH1ZxoEkv84

Mutable Set really hits in California fall

just gonna leave his Guitar Moves episode here in case anyone missed it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlskErEWuRI

Nice, thanks!

The cuban stuff from that video haunts me

it’s the microtonal stuff for me, but the entire thing is just outrageous. I have to limit my views bc there’s a high risk if I watch too often I’ll burn all my guitars.

good god, I think I better stop playing

That was great. This sounds silly but I’m most impressed by how he uses all ten of his fingers to play. He’s almost like a piano player. It’s mesmerizing. He is so effortlessly good and yet not at all flashy. You can watch Matt Sweeney (who’s not a bad guitar player!) just watching and trying to keep up with a guy who is way out of his league.

Relating to him using all his fingers, have you seen any footage of him with his pinky hanging loose to make any on-the-fly tonedog/OCD volume-knob adjustments? Pretty wild:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH1ZxoEkv84

Whoops, sorry, didn't catch the double-post, my bad

Ha, that’s amazing.

And the best part is he doesn't seem particularly interested in being a 'guitar guy'

Btw I had no idea that this series turned into 'Guitar Power' and that there are a bunch more: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIiglibBY3g_KSAPobV-1cY-9A05hcdr3

ohh dang... ty Jordan I also did not know this. looks like there's a new Blake Mills episode (which I have not watched yet but...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g-NIaG47jU

btw i love that this has become the guitar nerd thread

Guitar and bass guitar and electric sitar and horn and string chart and production nerds rejoice (just posted this advance single on Rolling Jazz but this hybrid-genre collab w/ Pino's obv a better fit here)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQTtUmmjqbI

by far my favourite of these so far: "Ekuté"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXQUVKko5J8

I clip I saw of his combo showed Mills sticking to guitar synth (!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im-Avcv7deE

This is my most anticipated album of the year so far--am really looking fwd to hearing how it all fits together in sequence.

"Ekuté" is very good. I too am looking forward to the album.

Another bumpworthy new live-in-studio teaser vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-wIMlVt5IA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=178rmbHNAgM

This is out now in some countries!

loving this, a lot more genuinely groovy than I was expecting

not sure what i expected from the blake/pino album but it's super cool, especially loving the grooves in "ekute" and "chris dave" (i'm assuming that's him on drums? either way the percussion is aces on that one)

Ooh I keep forgetting this actually came out, must listen soon

Based on the above video clips I thought I would love this album more than I do. It could grow on me, but I'm not so much feeling the production. It sounds overproduced less in the "polished" sense and more in the "too many overdubs and things happening at once" sense. I've only listened once though so this opinion may change. The playing on this is, of course, magnificent. I just wish I could focus more on that aspect.

Very fair criticism--have only listened to the new album proper at work through speakers, though, so am wondering if a headphone listen will reveal some add'l production treats.

A complete 'live' album with just Mills/Palladino/Gendel off the rehearsal-space floor would accordingly be a nice contrast.

I'm really enjoying it. It's definitely a studio record, there's always different little parts & instruments popping in & out. It feels a little hyperactive in that sense, even though the vibe is relaxed and you can feel everyone's light touch.

Also seems like it should really have been billed as Palladino/Mills/Gendel, or even Palladino/Mills/Gendel/Dave.

(and if I was Sam Gendel, idk if I would have wanted "Artwork & Design by Sam Gendel" on that cover)

Well if Sam Gendel made the design of the cover then I’m guessing he was who added it.

lol I know

I do like the idea of emphasizing the credits, since these are all session players and album credits have been so endangered. But it's a little too matter-of-fact even for me, and I love a basic minimal cover.

I've also been enjoying this and blake's muted producer anti-guitar mode

This goes down so easily, I don't even know how many times I've listened to it today. 30 min LP was a good choice.

A couple more recent podcast appearances by Blake on his own (am glad that I was recently hipped to Pablo Held via his interview only a few weeks ago with Chris Weisman, who gets appropriately bigged up at a certain point here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ4r60YFacc

...and Guitar Moderne, who I'm glad have made the move to posting video interviews since I've enjoyed their old-school blog/website print interviews w/ adventurous guitarists in jazz and beyond for a while now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CTwGbXkw0o

enjoying this record but Just Wrong is by far the standout. And I wish that Chris Dave beat on it lasted a little longer than four bars but I guess that's the concept lol

As far as Blake, ingenious guitar player, once in a generation, and of the type that I feel a little like the universe doesn't even quite know what to do with. Surprisingly good songwriter for an instrumentalist of his stature but still not a *great* songwriter, like hasn't quite reached that Hendrix level of being able to write a really good single that's also a guitar vehicle (although If I'm Unworthy is a pretty decent stab at it).

I also feel like he gets kind of put in the American Roots/Blues festival music box because that's the box he can be marketed in, and it's a really boring box and I wish there was a better place for him to fit. Like his playing style is not overly reverent, and I wish the same was true of the total package he is sold as, if that makes sense.

I think he could be marketed better in jazz or experimental electronica circles. I know he doesn’t fit either but there’s enough sound design to fit better in there than in the roots/blues circles. He’s closer to say Brian Eno than Jeff Tweedy at least on record.

Yeah. The new record does kind of seem like it's pushing in that direction -- no "hey man you like Elmore James?" vibes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri-pr4Egzng

love this new track, pretty tremendous extended guitar solo. looking forward to the new album, which is a collaboration with chris weisman (a pairing that makes a whole lot of sense)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGIt3EL1He8

i feel pretty optimistic about this album

nice

gives me a little of a milton nascimento vibe (other than the understated singing)

pretty wonderful record

I put it on quietly yesterday morning and it seems extremely juicy, looking forward to spending some time with it.

One listen so far. I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting a continuation from Mutable Set but that’s what this. After his first two albums I find it interesting how much he’s settled into this very subdued kind of sound. He likes to meander and simmer. I like it, but as with Mutable Set I definitely need a few more listens.

I've been absolutely obsessed with this LP. So, so deep musically. Can't decide between Mutable Set and this. They're both stunning.

It has a song called “Wendy Melvoin”?

Apparently she plays some guitar on the record.

Cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPVw3sFaVKY

Great deep dive on the Pablo Held podcast for the new LP!

Absolutely absurd...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N77uVZSdLRE

Yeah these live duo versions are really nice...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB4j4dqa_JU

^Thanks for the share. Man, "Unsingable" is gorgeous!

He was part of the “Brandi Carlile and Friends” concert at Hollywood Bowl over the weekend. She brought him out and he played what I believe is a new song —
It has a line something like “things are always clearer when everything’s fucked”. It was just him and his guitar, plus a drummer and Brandi singing backing vocals.

I am really not one to be awed by a “virtuosic” guitarist… but I am in awe of Black Mills. His technique was brilliant and he was so locked in with the drummer. I don’t know how to explain it but his way of playing just exposed how much space there is within a measure of music. He was so effortless and unpredictable, yet the song itself was very muted and relaxed. And can I just say there were 16,000 there—and none of them came to see Blake Mills do one of his own songs—but they were rapt watching him play. The confidence he had to play so quietly in front of such a massive crowd! He was impressive.

Found it, of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvC3jlZ8ftk

While I’m at it, major props to Brandi Carlile who has to be one of the most generous and egoless performers I’ve seen. This was her show and she brought out guest after guest and just allowed each person to showcase themselves. She never once tried to insert herself into anyone’s performance beyond some basic backing vocals. And even when Joni Mitchell came out, she just seemed totally concerned that Joni was taken care of, everything else came second.

Unsingable is a real tune isn’t it? Love that rendition above

Thanks pgwp, that's great. That's "Press My Luck" off Jelly Road btw.

I was listening to his first interview on Pablo Held's podcast, where he goes through the Pino Palladino album, and he took great pains to say how uncomfortable he is in any "jazz" context, how he barely understood the chord structures on that record (his chord parts when they played live were just upper extensions, not the actual chord being split up among different instruments). Obv he's being humble but the whole thing was really interesting, and it was nice to go back to that record.

I went back to Jelly Road this morning and connected with it more deeply than I had earlier this year, though it’s still my least favorite of his. And I realized that, yes, “Press My Luck” was there all along.