Silkworm is my favorite band in the entire world. To those who have been paying attention, this has been quite well documented. Tim Midyett is one of their founding members—their bassist, baritone guitarist, frequent frontman, and unofficial administrator—and Mint Mile is the name of his current songwriting vehicle. The band was founded in late 2014 by Midyett and former Songs: Ohia drummer Jeff Panall. This happened to occur right around the time that I began devouring Silkworm’s oeuvre, so I have been fortunate to keep up with them every step of the way. I vividly recall asking my local record store at the time—Vertigo Music in Grand Rapids, Michigan—to order me a copy of their 2015 debut EP, In Season & Ripe, marveling at Tim’s seamless foray into pastoral, even quasi-psychedelic textures compared to the arid brutality of his previous groups.
Two more EPs trickled out over the years until the band settled into a definitive lineup, finally releasing their monolithic double LP Ambertron in March 2020. The timing for this release—coinciding with one global COVID-19 pandemic—was unfortunate, to say the very least, but it ended up becoming the soundtrack to many of my locked-in days, ultimately serving as an inestimable influence on my own work. More time passed by, and Mint Mile released yet another long-player in 2024, the compact and tightly arranged Roughrider. I recall hearing from Tim around this time that the band had had enough material for another double LP, so I was somewhat surprised by the relative brevity of this effort. However, that would soon be rectified.
In early 2024, longtime Silkworm engineer/friend/fan Steve Albini invited Mint Mile to join him at a recording seminar in France, where they brought a handful of new songs that were ready to be put to tape. They knocked them out in a few whirlwind sessions and went their separate ways. A few days after the sessions, Albini had passed away; the cause was heart failure.
One of the songs recorded in France was the Jason Molina–penned “Can’t Be the First One,” written in 2005 for Tim Midyett and Silkworm guitarist Andy Cohen after the passing of their drummer and soul brother Michael Dahlquist. Reportedly, Midyett had sat on this track for around fifteen years before realizing that he had the right band to bring it to life. Given that Mint Mile drummer Jeff Panall had toured the world with Molina—himself deceased since 2013—it only seems like a natural extension to hear their take on his source material.
Perhaps presciently enough, Mint Mile’s sixth record andwhichstray—again released via Comedy Minus One—is informed by the inevitability of death and the transience of memory. The liner notes enumerate a list of individuals whom Midyett has loved and lost in recent years. However, the album plays like anything but a funeral march. If anything, this is Mint Mile at their most rollicking, stripped down to their essence as a lean rock quartet. Midyett commits some of his best-ever vocal performances while the band locks into a series of thick, mountainous grooves behind him. When side A closer “Why Far You Be” comes into view with its country-leaning acoustics and plaintive harmony vocals, it’s a welcome reprieve, a warm blanket offering comfort and solace.
Side B is, according to this author, the true heart of andwhichstray, featuring the aforementioned “Can’t Be the First One” as well as the guitar overdub-happy “This ‘n’ That”—incidentally, the leading single for this record. Here, the band is joined by Panall’s son Silas on percussion and additional drums while Midyett plays a series of layered and heavily distorted guitars. It’s a triumphant show of solidarity to those whose sexual orientation or gender identity is simply none of your fucking business, the band’s sincerity of heart shining through with every note. Founding Silkworm member Joel R.L. Phelps also joins Mint Mile for the album closer “Summer’s Mostly Wasted,” contributing a symphony of otherworldly alto saxophones to their Hendrix-via-Wilco backdrop. The album is at once their most immediate and their most gradually rewarding, and it’s a joy to hear Midyett and co. continuing to find beauty and acceptance amidst the various ebbs and flows of the human condition.
Written by Jacob Simons
