• Jenny Lewis Tells the Smoking Section About Her Lone LSD Trip

Because of its green-and-brown facade, Jenny Lewis' house in L.A. is known as Mint Chip. Not only is Mint Chip where the singer-songwriter lays her head, it's also where Lewis and her friends congregate to jam and write. "Sometimes I have to kick people out," says Lewis, 32, who is also the singer for indie-pop quartet Rilo Kiley but first found fame as a child actor on sitcoms and in B movies. "Things can get a little wild." It was inside these walls that Lewis wrote her second solo album, Acid Tongue, in which she confidently delves into folk, rock and country. Lewis' delicate vocals are boosted by guest spots from a fat Rolodex of acquaintances that includes Zooey Deschanel, Chris Robinson and Elvis Costello, who also asked Lewis to cameo on his latest record, Momofuku. Harmonizing with Costello, says Lewis, "was one of the coolest moments of my entire life."

When you were a baby in Vegas, your parents had a revue called "Love's Way." What are your memories of that?
I don't have too many, because their marriage ended and, sadly, the band broke up. My dad played harmonica and my mom played bass, and they had an early drum machine. They'd play soft hits of the Seventies — the Carpenters, Sonny and Cher. Supposedly, my mom went into labor with me while onstage. My baby sitter was a female Elvis impersonator.

Sounds like a very musical childhood.
Yeah. In California, my mother, sister and I had a group that would perform in our kitchen. We'd sing Barbra Streisand, Lou Reed and old country songs. I was obsessed with Annie, but nobody would sing those with me.

And the name of your girl group was . . .
Oh, gosh. We referred to ourselves as the Valley Girls.