Artist description I sing about things that used to scare the hell out of me, but now breathe life into my every cell. I try to sing about my life as it compares to the lives I've seen, in an effort to quell my inherent bias. I'm totally full of crap, and I have no idea what I'm talking about. Maybe you know what I mean...

Music Style Hollowed-Out-Wood Rock

Musical Influences Soundgarden, Primus, old Rush, Jane's Addiction, Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges, Michael Manring, Stanley Clarke, Tom Waits, etc.

Similar Artists If Keller Williams set out to play the music of Chris Cornell with Les Claypool, that'd probably be like me.

Artist History I have played all the most annoying places in Chicago, as well as consenting to a few intimate, quiet, introspective-type places. I've played about a billion open mic nights, and will likely play many more, as I love those things. You meet the most interesting people at open mics. And on certain nights, you see better music than you could EVER see on a proper stage, because some of those people would NEVER play a real gig, and they are still totally amazing. I recorded my first CD, "Vice Verses," in Summer 2002, and played all the instruments myself, for lack of a band at the time. I have since found a couple of cool cats to jam with, and we try to sound a bit like the CD when we play out, complete with hand percussion sounds, funky bass, and busy acoustic rock guitar. We started getting around quite a bit in late 2002 and through 2003, eventually playing some more reputable Chicago joints, like the Cubby Bear, the House of Blues, etc., and things are movin' right along. Keep yer eyes peeled.... Indianapolis has become a home away from home for me, and we've played a bunch around there, too. As time passes, I add more and more towns to my "gotta come back to this place" list.

Group Members I play solo, and also have currently have a working trio. My bassist is Erik Swanson (of the Cathy Richardson Band) and my rhythmist is Ian Narcisi (ex-Ghettobillies). Ian plays a Roland V-Drum kit, which is an electronic drum set, with all the pads programmed to emulate various percussion instruments. Pretty unique stuff.

Instruments Vocals, acoustic/electric guitar, bass, various hand percussion

Albums Vice Verses

Press Reviews "Scottish McMillan is a disciple of the manic guitar-picking school of Leo Kottke, from which he borrows a fast-strumming, fast-picking style of rapid rhythmic fits and starts, which causes most mere mortals to lose complete track of whether the pick is coming or going, pickin' or astrummin'. Meanwhile, instead of merely singing a steady melody over the ever-changing bed of rhythm, McMillan flat-out becomes the rhythm. One measure he's yelping like a Scottish Terrier, the next measure he's spitting out half-spoken wisecracks, the next he's bellowing or whistling, the next he's slow-dancing a dirge. And, equally impressively, McMillan the manic Man-Rhythm is also McMillan the drummer, bass guitarist, baritone guitarist, one-man-band. He may be Scottish, but McMillan's Midwest-accented voice (vaguely reminiscent of Don Conoscenti, or Bruce Cockburn in his upper register) doesn't sound much like Scotland. Outside of a fondness for acoustics, the music on this cleverly titled Vice Verses album doesn't draw much from the land of bagpipe and reel either. He surrounds his manic acoustic guitar with an array of other sounds: slide guitar; funky Red Hot Chilli Peppered bass; bubbly electric guitar that will remind most fans of Paul Simon's Graceland; thick fuzzy electric guitar buzz; an Andy Stochansky-style layer of manic percussion forever underneath. And almost all of it he plays himself. Don't let the dull cover art fool you; or the fact that McMillan's gigging has been limited mostly to a (large) variety of Chicago and Indiana clubs. To these ears at least, he sounds deserving of a broader audience. McMillan's rhythmic guitar playing is very similar to that of the widely traveled, talented Boston-based funk-folk poet Peter Mulvey, who is also a student of the School of Kottke. McMillan's songwriting is more simple and less ambitious than Mulvey's Waits- and DiFranco-influenced brand of cerebral urban poetry. Less urbane reflection, more plain-spoken cleverness. But if ever McMillan's unpretentious clever upbeat word choices lack anything in complexity or profundity, he more than covers up the deficit in the ingenuity of arrangement. You won't care much what he's singing, but when you come out of the daze of trying to follow all the hyper chord and rhythmic changes, you'll find he's been singing some pretty entertaining lines, too. Upflifting, chuckle-provoking, occasionally even moving. With all the right phrases perfectly punctuated by sudden bellows and howls." [The Bottom Line:] Four stars -- I dug it. Reviewer: Darryl Cater, Music Reviewer, www.chicagogigs.com

Additional Info scottishmcmillan@netzero.net

Location Des Plaines,, IL - USA

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