Guitarist and composer Dave Miller has been a prominent fixture in the Chicago music scene for nearly two decades. His last record, Old Door Phantoms, hailed by Audiophile Audition as “the multi-genre instrumental album of the year”, as well as “a complex and beautiful piece of work” by New City, explored themes of nature, spirituality, and the human condition through the lens of an instrumental psychedelic garage rock band. Echoes of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and guitarist Marc Ribot continue into Miller’s new album, Dave Miller, though he has expanded his focus to now include detailed arrangements and more refined production techniques. With the opening of Miller’s new recording studio, Whiskey Point Recording (co-run with ace pianist/engineer, Dan Pierson (V.V. Lightbody)), Miller’s music has become even more alive and exploratory. Beautiful mellotrons collide with fuzzed out guitars over swampy drums and non-ironic bongos, as if Brian Wilson got into a bar fight with The Meters and Link Wray before realizing they were kindred spirits, with Miller composing the score. Miller’s music, above all, aims to create its own utopic universe where all the cool music coexists. With the words of Mary Halvorson: „Dave Miller has a penchant for melodies that stick with you, in a good way. His latest album provides the joy and the lift we all need right now, through his bad ass guitar playing, a myriad of unexpected shifts reveal a brilliant sonic universe.“ And with the words of Michael Engelbrecht from the June 2020 edition of „Klanghorizonte“: „Gentle does it, strange, too. And I love non-ironic bongos.“ The album will be out on May, 22. Via Tompkins Square.
Dave Miller – guitars
Matt Ulery – fender bass
Dan Pierson – keyboards
Devin Drobka – drums
Juan Pastor – percussion
Mikel Patrick Avery – tambourine