Mia Doi Todd
Folk / Alternative
Los Angeles artist Mia Doi Todd has released four albums of her own genre-defying music. The first three, The Ewe and The Eye (1997), Come Out of Your Mine (1999), and Zeroone (2001) were solo acoustic recordings. Her last album, The Golden State on Columbia Records (2002), was produced by Mitchell Froom and explored a wider sonic landscape. When her contract wasn't renewed with Sony, she found her way back to the world of independents and signed with Los Angles label, Plug Research. That brings us to her fifth album, Manzanita and by far her best to date.
Many of the songs on Manzanita are still just voice and guitar or voice and piano, but others are totally rockin' and the album as a whole has a much more full sound than previous albums. To achieve this sound, Mia brought in Brent Rademaker (Further, Beachwood Sparks, Frausdots) and Rob Campanella to help her produce and record the album. Besides helping Mia produce the album, Brent played bass as well as some guitar and piano, while Rob engineered and played electric guitar, piano, dulcimer and the mandolin. A slew of other musicians came stopped by to help including Hunter Crowley, Rick Menck and Nelson Bragg on drums and percussion. In addition members of Dead Meadow, Brian Jamestown Massacre, The Tyde and Beachwood Sparks made cameo appearances and helped bring to life this classic collection of songs, as did the entire band Future Pigeon who backed Mia up on the rock-steady track, "Casa Nova." The pinnacle of the recording session is highlighted best with on the track "The Last Night of Winter," a track that utilizes Mia's vocal talents with melodies reminiscent of a Nick Drake song.
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