REVIEW: Dave Miller, Dave Miller

Dave Miller, Dave Miller (Tompkins Square)

There are several above-the-line qualifiers to Chicago-based guitarist Dave Miller’s new album that could be misleading. He’s a guitarist who has logged plenty of time in avant-garde and jazz outfits in Chicago, a city that has produced a long line of harsh, microtonal shredders with a penchant for inaccessible experimental music. The promotional notes cite Neil Young and Marc Ribot as influences, which suggests a certain amount of fuzzed out sloppiness. Instead, Miller’s self-titled plays like the psychedelic record Booker T and the MGs never made. Filled with loping grooves and tight-as-a-drum melodies, the record is a showcase not just for Miller’s garage-bound shredding but also for his more down-the-middle jazzy fretwork. Just when its studied library-music grooves start to feel like they might get repetitive, Miller busts out a new trick. 8/10 Trial Track: “Bison Boom”

For more about Dave Miller, see his website.

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