Blake Mills

There was once a band that called themselves Simon Dawes. Simply put, they were fantastic. According to their MySpace page a couple of years ago, the band decided to take "an extended hiatus from Simon Dawes so that [they could] focus on expanding [their] individual musical efforts." Simon Dawes was led by two of the most brilliant musicians I have ever had the luxury of seeing mature: Taylor Goldsmith and Blake Mills. Taylor Goldsmith and bassist Wylie Gelber went off to form the almost unfairly incredible band Dawes. Post-Simon Dawes, Blake Mills had a brief stint playing guitar with Band Of Horses and Julian Casablancas while also perusing around Los Angeles every so often to give spectacular solo performances. Talk of a solo album has been spreading for quite some time. I even heard one musician who had heard some of Blake's top secret studio recordings nearly a year ago say it was some of the best music he had ever heard (woah). To be frank, I have been so excited, yet so plagued by anticipation for something, anything, from Blake that I've just about put my head through a wall a dozen times. Well kids, the time is now. It has been officially announced that Blake Mills will release his first solo album this April via Record Collection. What a fucking treat. I'll be sure to post it as soon as I get my greedy little hands on it. Blake recently stopped by Daytrotter and recorded a great four-song session which you can check out here. So until April you'll have to make due with that and the three tracks on his MySpace.

Just for fun I've decided to throw in Dawes' cover of Joe Cocker's version of "With A Little Help From My Friends." It's incredible. Watch it and try to disagree. HD on and volume all the way up on this one.

Wonder Years Troubadour from Evan Romoff on Vimeo.