Howlin Rain keyboardist Joel Robinow, drummer Garett Goddard, and lead vocalist/guitarist Ethan Miller share what they found at Amoeba. Howlin Rain performed at Amoeba San Francisco on February 4, 2008 and Amoeba Hollywood on February 6, 2008. Click here for pictures from the More
Howlin Rain keyboardist Joel Robinow, drummer Garett Goddard, and lead vocalist/guitarist Ethan Miller share what they found at Amoeba. Howlin Rain performed at Amoeba San Francisco on February 4, 2008 and Amoeba Hollywood on February 6, 2008. Click here for pictures from the San Francisco show and the Hollywood show.
“Mixing Steve Miller and Creedence with Crazy Horse and Blue Cheer, it’s a sort of log-cabin boogie with just a dash of Zep...The sort of side-project that gives indie psych-rock supergroups a good name.” - Time Out, London
Having recorded a fistful of critically acclaimed -- and increasingly successful -- albums with neo-psychedelic pioneers Comets On Fire, frontman Ethan Miller lit out for fresh musical territories, located somewhere between the Santa Cruz, CA-based band’s familiar sonic maelstrom and a more organic, melodic, groove-oriented rock that hearkened back to his halcyon daze growing up on California’s “Lost Coast” (Humboldt County), home of lumberjacks, college students, unreconstructed hippies, and off-the-grid botanists.
Enlisting drummer John Moloney from fellow “New Weird America” outfit Sunburned Hand Of The Man and bassist/former high school bandmate Ian Gradek, Miller christened the trio Howlin Rain, whose self-titled debut was released by Birdman in 2006.
Magnificent Fiend is the second album from Howlin Rain and the first to be issued under a joint agreement between multi-platinum record producer Rick Rubin’s American label and San Francisco-based indie Birdman Records. Creating the richly textured, densely layered sounds found on Magnificent Fiend required additional players: drummer Garett Goddard, guitarist Eli Eckert, and multi-instrumentalist Joel Robinow.
Aside from Howlin Rain’s willingness to delve deep into the metaphorical sonic spice-rack for certain signature sounds that’d had all but vanished from the contemporary musical landscape -- Vanilla Fudge, Henry Thomas, Wishbone Ash, Eddie Hazel, Procol Harum, Leslie West, Delaney & Bonnie, Atomic Rooster, Super Wolf, and Jim Ford, for openers -- Magnificent Fiend is a study in contrasts that reflects the duality in humanity, in the form of the people who made the record, who inspired the record, and the rest of us.
-Bio by Don Waller
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