#Blake mills

[rickybaby]

Who’s your best friend inside the paddock?

The guy I spend most time with is Blake [my manager] and his last name is ironically Friend. I would say that’s probably an obvious one because we spend a lot of time together. Lando [Norris] is one where like, our first year at McLaren, it definitely took us a little bit of time to probably get to know each other and warm to each other a bit. It’s probably no secret that it took us a little bit to become, let’s say, mates.

Who’s your best friend outside the paddock?

Actually, it’s funny. I laugh because I’ve got two Blakes who are very close in my life. Blake who works with me and probably my best friend is Blake who I raced go-karts with…

Do you call them Blake 1 and Blake 2?

Ha. He’s really tall so I’ve called them ‘Tall Blake’ and ‘Manager Blake’. But I raced go-karts with Blake so we’ve known each other since we were like nine years old and we always competed against each other for a long time. He’s always visited me, come to races, visited me when I was living in Italy and wherever I was, and remained a really close friend. I think in those friendships it was easy for him to be like, ‘S**t, you made it, I didn’t’, and there could be like this weird kind of envy or jealousy, and he never had that, he always just stayed a really honest and true friend. We were coming up together and we were both trying to make it ultimately, and I think just the way he handled me kind of living our dream careers, that also could have made our friendship turn and it never did. I also really valued him for not letting that get in the way and we’re super-close.

[fionaapplerocks]

Blake Mills with Fiona Apple in 2012

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Joni Mitchell and the Joni Jam - “Both Sides Now” (Live, 2024 Grammy Awards)

The sound of Joni Mitchell’s satisfied laughter may be the best thing to come out of her recent return to the stage.

That’s not to say her better-than-anyone-could-reasonably-expect performances aren’t delightful and poignant. They are both. But Mitchell’s laugh, deep and full of life’s experiences like her modern singing voice, is what proves beyond doubt she’s back in the spotlight out of desire and nothing else.

She performed “Both Sides Now” at the 2024 Grammy awards with the Joni Jam, featuring friends and acolytes including Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, Jacob Collier, SistaStrings, Lucius, Blake Mills and others and the just-released professional video of the event gives hope life’s second side can bring as much joy as the first. It ain’t musically flawless, but it is kinda perfect in non-musical ways.

Grade card: Joni Mitchell and the Joni Jam - “Both Sides Now” (Live, 2024 Grammy Awards) - B

3/15/24

[nofatclips]

Savior Complex by Phoebe Bridgers from the album Punisher - Video starring Paul Mescal, directed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge [Behind the scenes here]

[anotherlimb]

I was really feeling it and tried to make it work on X (formerly known as Twitter) but damn how much access I gotta grant to make a picture show up. Tumblr don’t be like that

[visions-of-clarity]

It always takes me a while to wind down after seeing a band I love…. therefore, YouTube vortex. You’re welcome.

[caviarsonoro]

Blake Mills - Summer All Over

[rastronomicals]

10:35 AM EST November 11, 2024:

Blake Mills - "Vanishing Twin" From the album   Mojo Presents In My Life: The New Singer-Songwriters (August 18, 2020)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

[sinceileftyoublog]

Jake Xerxes Fussell Live Show Review: 10/17, Empty Bottle, Chicago

Jake Xerxes Fussell

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Over the years, Jake Xerxes Fussell's repertoire and sound have expanded, though he's never lost sight of his exploratory ethos. On his self-titled debut and sophomore effort What in the Natural World, he introduced himself as a contemporary troubadour, an interpreter who used original arrangements to surface the universal meaning out of old songs. 2019's Out of Sight was his first record with a full band, 2022's Good and Green Again his first to combine traditional songs with wholly original compositions. In July, Fussell brought it all together on his debut album for Fat Possum, When I'm Called; it's an album featuring a murderer's row of collaborators and songs that Fussell constructed backwards, coming up with melodies and riffs before adapting them to folk songs that fit.

On When I'm Called, legends Fussell knew who may or may not have met each other, like cowboy artist Maestro Gaxiola and painter, musician, and folklorist Art Rosenbaum (a mentor of Fussell's who passed away in 2022), are intimate bedfellows. Fussell lifts from the public domain, Benjamin Britten, and found poetry on a scrap of paper. Returning are close collaborators like James Elkington, in the producer's chair and playing seemingly everything from synth to harmonica, as well as Joan Shelley, singing alongside Fussell's baritone on "Cuckoo!". Uniting with Fussell for the first time are guitar luminary Blake Mills, whose abstract tones nestle between Fussell's acoustic guitar and Elkington's pedal steel on "Going to Georgia", and Hunter Diamond, whose woodwinds pop up just when you need them most, like a consistent smiling face around the neighborhood. In general, on When I'm Called, more than ever, the band gets room to meander, to take in their surroundings.

Fussell & Ben Whiteley

How, then, would Fussell, who usually plays solo, adapt the arrangements not just to a live stage, but for a crowd who has had months to take in the recorded versions? Indeed, Thursday's show at the Empty Bottle featured the youngest crowd I've ever seen at a Fussell headlining show. Some of that, perhaps, had to do with the venue itself and the start time of his set (after 10 P.M.). But something tells me, at this point, people are less inclined to hear beloved old songs and more amped for Fussell specifically, the guitar player who picks bright-eyed on "Jump for Joy", the singer who belts, "Well, wake up woman, take your big leg off of mine," on "Have You Ever Seen Peaches Growing on a Sweet Potato Vine?". (I went to get a beer at the bar as he sang, passing by a crowd member cackling, turning to their friend and declaring, "I love that line!") Well, for one, Fussell didn't play solo this time. He was always accompanied by bassist Ben Whiteley, who plays on When I'm Called. Whiteley's steady plucking eased us into "Michael Was Hearty", and his rhythms buoyed Fussell's chugging guitars on an unexpected, but great cover of Nick Lowe's new wave classic "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass". As we were in Chicago, Elkington, too, joined Fussell on stage for a number of songs, providing contrasting guitar textures on "Cuckoo!" Even The Weather Station's Tamara Lindeman, all the way from Toronto, was in the crowd and came on for backing vocals.

Fussell

It's easy to say that what is usually a lonesome affair turned into a party, given that the number of people on stage at any given moment quadrupled from its usual number. The more I thought about it, though, whether it's four musicians crowding around each other or just Fussell perched on a stool, his shows are always communal. On Thursday, the most affecting and memorable moments of the night were spontaneous. Out of Sight's "Jubliee" started as a singalong and felt like a full-on hymnal towards the end, the crowd repeating, "Swing and turn, Jubilee / Live and learn, Jubilee," like it was a mantra of keeping-on. And then there was "Donkey Riding", a traditional song which does not (yet) have a studio version, inspiring the biggest, and somehow still most polite sing-and-clap-along of the night. The moment the crowd seemed to get a tad too rowdy, we shushed each other so we could hear one last instrumental flourish, one last guitar lick from the artist who continues to give us gifts we didn't even know we already had.

[nonesuchrecords]

It was 10 years ago today: Conor Oberst's Nonesuch debut album, Upside Down Mountain, was released. The album features many of his friends, including producer Jonathan Wilson, engineer Andy LeMaster, bassist Macey Taylor, multi-instrumentalist Blake Mills, and the vocal duo First Aid Kit. You can hear it here.

"A sumptuous immersion in '70s California folk pop, it is the most immediately charming album he has ever made." —Rolling Stone

"All of Mr. Oberst’s gifts align on Upside Down Mountain." —New York Times

[fionaapplerocks]

Joni Mitchell with one time Fiona Apple band member/collaborator Blake Mills

[morningwalksposts]

08.05.2024

wednesday ~ 08.05.2024

blake mills - suchlike horses

blake mills - highway bright

blake mills - jelly road

blake mills - skeleton is walking

[turtleriffic]

Time unfolding isn’t quick / Time unfolding is a trick

[nofatclips]

Without You by Perfume Genius from the album Set My Heart on Fire Immediately out on @matadorrecords - Director: Kristin Massa