When I was about 10 years old we used to sneak into my friend's brother's basement and leaf through his albums. They all seemed so cool and it smelled really funny down there. Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Zeppelin, and friends. That was my introduction to rock music. It also was my introduction to a couple of ass-kickings. He didn't like us going through his shit. No other band has brought me back to that basement like Howlin' Rain. I caught them down in Austin but the sound and mix at the venue [...]
Howlin Rain - Magnificent Fiend ( American ) Inspired by the second-tier, opening act arena rockers of the 70s, not the headliners.
Think Cream's sonic punch, the heaviness of Mountain, the layers of Procol Harum, the overdriven blast of Vanilla Fudge, echoes of San Francisco Bay Area bands like Oxford Circle and Kak, and the folk/country influences of early Grateful Dead.- Artist Direct ...'nuff said; Ethan Miller has hit classic jam rock gold with this release. mp3: Dancers At The End Of Time [...]
Holy crap , people! How many times do I need to explain to you how great Howlin' Rain is? Please! Get on board! Every single one of their shows should be a writhing mass of freak-out. Buy. Go. Throw. Love, Kevin Howlin' Rain - Dancers At The End Of Time from Magnificent Fiend ( insound / amazon CD / amazon mp3 / itunes ) [...]
While recent reports show CD sales dwindling - if not nose-diving - you would hardly know that from the spate of new releases this week, faithfully compiled by Largehearted Boy . Must owns include: Steve Malkmus & the Jicks, Born Ruffians, The Gutter Twins, and What Made Milwaukee Famous. Also worth considering: Jim White, These United States, Cadence Weapon, Howlin' Rain, White Hinterland, and a whole lot more! And what? Bauhaus has a new album? And it's white? ... You had better run quickly and pick these up - the apocalypse approaches! Hopefully, there's still time, though, [...]
A couple of months ago, Drinking Buddy referred to Matt Pond's latest release as a turkey sub from Subway. Well in keeping with that spirit, Magnificent Fiend by Howlin' Rain is a mile-high corned-beef on rye with cole slaw and mustard dripping from the sides. This release is a sprawling classic that revels in everything that was good about rock and roll from the 70's. Songs bounce between unbridled jams and delicate interplay between guitar and organs. No gimmicks, no bullshit. Just good old fashioned rock and roll played about as well as it can possibly [...]
Spaceland's 13th Anniversary party was a lot of fun. The Broken West played a couple of new songs that made me excited to hear the new material that they're working on. The Radar Bros. revealed their new lineup. The drumming was a little harder and faster which isn't a bad thing for a live show. I hadn't seen the Little Ones in over a year and they were just as good and infectious as I remembered. Wiskey Biscuit played a classic Wiskey Biscuit set that reminded of the days when they'd pack Spaceland and have everybody moving. It was the [...]
howlin' rain's self-titled debut was one of my favorite albums of 2006, but their forthcoming follow up, magnificent fiend , is even better...by easing up a bit on the distortion & adding a few new elements (the hammond b3 in particular), they've created an incredible sound that's more or less a rough take on the best psychedelic blues rock of the early seventies...think extended jams from the likes of traffic, cream, or even the grateful dead, but with a little more noise thrown in...some of the best stuff i've heard all year, magnificent fiend comes out [...]
In appliance to both musical and personal relationships, break-ups are generally regarded as an unavoidable aspect of life. Regardless of talent, mutual beliefs, or even natural chemistry, it is rare to find an individual who has never experienced detachment from someone they previously worked with or felt strong emotions for. Most of the time, the previously involved parties go their separate ways, pursuing new projects (or mates) in an effort to move on with life in an efficient manner. At the beginning of 2007, the fate of Howlin Rain looked like it had been decided by a few [...]
"Howlin' Rain make music to beat the steering wheel of your van to, or sing along with while drinking whiskey in the bathtub, on a Saturday night, with your dog." - Ethan Miller (Howlin' Rain) Yeahhh, bring on the rock show. The above quote was taken from the initial Birdman Records press sheet, upon the release [...]
hey, gang, just a few additional points to add to the part 1 write up: obviously there have been too many bands involved in each of these posts to give each the deserved attention within the confines of this particular project; that said, many if not all do warrant - and likely will someday receive, fingers crossed and all that jazz - their own posts. in the meantime, consider yourselves officially encouraged to visit the bands' websites or to nose around in the archives of this site , which does a better job keeping us [...]
Ethan Miller and Co. take their Comets side project further with a new album and an unexpected move to American Recordings. Still mining the same laconic 70's boogie rock vibe that permeated their debut, Magnificent Fiend further washes the fiery remnants of Comets influence away from the project. Miller really lets his melodic side shine through and carries his Creedanc/ Allman torch high with working man's blues, a tumble of piano and the smoothe sheen of horns that wash the album down like domestic draft. I've gotta admit that the debut grabbed me harder with its balance of [...]
Howlin Rain's new record Magnificent Fiend will appear March 4th, on Birdman Records, in correlation with American Recordings. Howlin Rain features Comets On Fire's Ethan Miller and Drunk Horse's Joel Robinow, amongst others. Full fledge psychedelic, post-folk pyrotechnic freakouts, that will ruff up your brain, right before they smooths it over. audio: Dancers At The End of Time (imeem) Roll On The Rusted Days.mp3 video: live San Fran [...]
Howlin Rain is one of my favorite acts to emerge in recent years. They will be releasing a new LP, Magnificent Fiend , this year on Rick Rubin's American Recordings . Their 2006 debut made our top 25 list in 2006 and judging from the first tune, "Dancers At The End Of Time," that is streaming on MySpace, Magnificent Fiend should find its way to our list in 2008. We also received confirmation that they will be strutting their stuff down at SXSW. I have never seen them live but they are at top [...]
DOWNLOAD: Howlin Rain - Roll On the Rusted Days (MP3) Oakland, CA: Howlin Rain , the epic spin-off project of Comets on Fire (Sub Pop) co-founder and lead singer Ethan Miller, has just been signed by Rick Rubin to American Recordings. Progenitors of the heavy psych/folky sound that has been branded "The New Weird America" by the press, Miller has put together an outfit that exudes the magical musical legacy of their Bay Area blues-driven homebase (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Grateful Dead), taps into [...]
jagjaguwar is currently offering up black mountain's new 8-minute epic "tyrants", from the group's forthcoming album in the future (only ten days after the track first popped up on sucka pants )...bang your heads, people...the label also announced that the band will embark on a north american tour in febuary along with howlin' rain (whose self-titled release was one of last year's best)...there are currently only a couple west coasts dates confirmed, but here's hoping they make it through the windy city, cause i'm still a little sore i missed them the [...]
I've got three pairs of tickets to go see the Howlin' Rain show on Saturday night at The Echo here on the Eastside. I really love these guys - it's like a 21st century '70s rock band, but, you know...now. If you have seen these guys before, than you know the band is [...]
Sunday, July 8th: Great Northern @ Little Radio Featured many times here before, Great Northern play Little Radio's continuing summer BBQ series. w/The Coco B's ad The Upsidedown Great Northern - The Middle ( mp3 ) Tuesday, May 22nd: Entrance @ 6th Street Warehouse I caught Entrance's set at the 6th St. Warehouse a couple months back and was pretty taken a back by how awsome they were. w/The Moon Upstairs and Fist Fite. Entrance [...]
Hurricane season doesn't "officially" start until June 1st, but you'd think it was getting an early start judging by this image. The water temps are still about 5-6 degrees too cool to support a formation, but it has brough us a little much-needed rain to try and extinguish a couple of the over-200 fires currently burning in the state. You can see a couple of them to the west of the storm in the photo. You might remember the adventurous hurricane season of 2004, when Florida was zorroed by a half-dozen storms in rapid-fire succession; from what I've [...]
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