[ATTENDED: October 21, 2019] Milly
It turns out that there are two bands named Milly that are currently active.
One Milly is the musical project from Seth Milberger and Johnny Grushecky. (The Composure, The I Drive). The two formed Milly in 2014 in Pittsburgh, PA. After a few years of crafting their songs and cutting their teeth on stage, [they released] their debut album Place In My Mind in 2018.
Milberger describes the band: “Milly is a little more simple and pop-driven with overlays of some oldies meshed with a fresh, modern, familiar sound.”
This is their logo on the left.
The second Milly is from Los Angeles. This Milly is the lo-fi slowcore project of Brendan Dyer, and they’ve released two singles via Dangerbird Records with a new EP out in November. (That’s the EP up on the right).
It was this second Milly that opened for Swervedriver, and they were an excellent choice (not the least of which was because the rhythm guitarist was wearing a Swervedriver shirt.
The problem was that they were really late to the show!
When I arrived at Milkboy, Swervedriver were still doing a soundcheck. When they opened up the doors to let us in, the guy at the door said the show would start as soon as the opening band got there.
They arrived a moment or two after 8 and quickly set up their gear. I was actually surprised they didn’t jump right into their set. They started around 8:30.
Dyer apologized for being late and said they’d be putting on an abbreviated set. I was a little surprised that they didn’t play their whole set as Swervedriver didn’t go on immediately after their set anyhow.
They played about six or seven songs.
They opened with “People Are Forever.” I really enjoyed the melody and the guitar sound. In fact I liked just about everything in this song. However, I found the nearly endless repetition of the title to be a bit grating. I really liked the way it got big and grungey by the end of the song but they were still singing the same three words over and over. It’s somewhat surprising to realize the song was just over 3 minutes.
Brendan never introduced the band, although I have learned that the rest of the band is Spencer on guitar and backing voclas, Yardin on bass and Zack on drums.
Up next was “Birds Fly Free” which opens with some nice intertwining guitar riffs and a propulsive baas. I enjoyed Spencer’s echoing rhythm guitar while Brendan’s lead was also echoey but in a different way. Spencer took lead vocals on the first verse and I found his voice to be a little more enjoyable. But Brendan’s really long solo was pretty cool.
They played “Talking Secret,” which I rather liked as well.
I don’t know the names of many songs (they have only officially released four songs). I liked the angular starts and stops in this song. and I really liked the way Brendan sang along to his lead guitar riff in this song.
I think they also played an instrumental which I really liked.
Before the last song Brendan apologized for being in a really bad mood and he hoped it didn;t translate into the songs. He said there was some kind of van trouble–such a cliche–and he was in a really bad mood that they were late.
He introduced “Crazy Horse” which proved to be a much slower song. I assumed there’s be some kind of Neil Young vibe to it, but I didn’t hear one. I really liked the way this song and some of the others more or less just stopped–with just a drum beat–for a measure or so before starting again–a cool live dynamic.
You can watch a three-song show at Paste Magazine studios here. It’s interesting how different the songs sound in the studio than live with me. “Birds Fly Free” in particular–Brenda’s lead lick is much more echoey and Spencer sings the entire first verse by himself.
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