So, here's the thing, about five years ago, at my very first SXSW, I was sitting on the grass at Po-ke Joe's with songwriter Bill Foreman and my editor George Zahora, getting quietly blitzed (they were selling beer tickets 10 for $10) at the Hideout showcase of Chicago artists, and Chris Mills came on stage. It was just one guy with a guitar, how interesting could that be? And indeed on the slower songs, the word of the day was zzzzzzzzz. But the rock songs were something else altogether, more visceral and exciting and able to pierce through a thick fog of warm weather and alcohol. They still are, on the evidence of Mills' latest album Living in the Aftermath, reviewed today in PopMatters.Chris Mills, Living in the Aftermath (Ernest Jenning)Chicago songwriter Chris Mills has been around for a decade or so, alternating his sensitive, guitar-man ballads with kicking, rocking countrified romps. These latter songs are way more fun, and it’s good to see him delivering a passel of them in Living in the Aftermath. “Atom Smashers” is clearly the best, a biting indictment of poseurs and criminals, from Hitler and Tojo, all the way down to the Gitmo softball team. “All’s Well That Ends” is almost as good, a horn-charging, piano-banging rampage through rock and Americana territories. The title cut swaggers and struts through a country mile of political metaphors, swaying slightly in a headwind of drunken fiddle, banjo and organ. Mills is backed on this and other cuts by a cracking band—David Nagler on piano and organ, Silos regulars Drew Glackin and Konrad Meissner in the rhythm section and Bloodshot resident pedal steel genius Jon Rauhouse sitting in. The slower songs—“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” and “Such a Beautiful Thing”—are pretty enough, but feel a little diluted, like just adding water to Okkervil River. Still if you like a little political acumen and dry humor with your Saturday night wreckage, the hard-living, whiskey swilling rock songs on this album are just the ticket. [Amazon]