Howlin' Rain

In celebration of 20 years riding the bus to never-ever land, Howlin Rain delivers Watermelon, a glittering gift of deep-cut cover tunes drawn from a late-night FM transmission that never was, evoking an era when LPs, waterbeds, and bongs sat side-by-side in headshops strewn across the coasts and flyover states. Watermelon sums up band founder Ethan Miller’s long, strange trip from the blown-out Blue Cheer nebula of Comets On Fire, to Howlin Rain’s ongoing love letter to ’70’s rock radio (and their stint with Rick Rubin’s American imprint), then a stopover in the acid-folk lily fields of Heron Oblivion before launching into the ecstatic silver currents of interstellar space with The Odyssey Cult and Orcutt Shelley Miller.

With Watermelon, Miller has reinvigorated Howlin Rain’s ever-changing roster once again, with only drummer Justin Smith from the last couple of lineups, adding Jonny Niemann (keys), Jason Soda (guitar and vocals), Kyre Wilcox (bass and vocals), and notable guests Chris Robinson (The Black Crowes), Ty Segall, and David Nance. The new band doesn’t quite return to the manicured hedges of The Russian Wilds, despite its exploration of some of those AOR tropes, but casts the lessons Ethan learned in the major-label wilderness into a mirror of the band’s more modest, stripped-down roots, refracted back through the tighter psych moves of its more recent Silver Current releases.

Which brings us to the songs themselves, all perfect vehicles for the newly-minted lineup — tracks by Mountain, Judee Sill, Sugluk, Moby Grape, Fairport Convention, Todd Rundgren, Scott Walker, Tim Hardin, and Mountain Bus (who supplies Rosali, the album’s fitting closer, a great Dead-infused jam leading into the cosmic thicket). Silver Paper, the lead-off single, takes Mountain’s earnest, ripped and ragged soul vocal (aptly supplied by the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson) and fretboard pyrotechnics into a (much) higher key. I Am Not Willing discards some of Moby Grape’s narcotic shuffle, but maintains a sort of zombie-shoegaze vibe throughout. 30th Century Man injects the Scott Walker chestnut with exploding fuzz solos and lost, late-night vox (courtesy of Ty Segall, the perfect foil for Walker’s velvet croon). Fall Away, a track from the seminal Native North America comp on Light in the Attic, swaps the inimitable First Nations backbeat with Crazy Horse chug and blasting fuzz.

For those who’ve lost Howlin Rain’s trail over the years, or hopped off in the years following The Russian Wilds, this LP represents a hard reset, a stunning infusion of psychedelic vigor, a glorious reinvention of a band that’s no stranger to new beginnings. Each track of Watermelon opens a new box of surprises, so in fear of killing them with words, I’ll keep them undescribed — all it takes to unlock them is a simple needle drop.

Howlin Rain founder, lead singer and guitarist Ethan Miller on the concept of Watermelon:

“Rather than curate a record like this with universally favorite hit songs, we wanted to try and still please the ears in that way but draw on more esoteric songs and sometimes obscure artists that were meaningful to us, both of which would tempt further investigation into their strange stories and secret worlds. In that way the album is a little bit of a historical and musical jigsaw puzzle. What ties it all together is our inspired interest in this material, that somehow these underground rabbit holes all linked together for us and showed us a connected musical world unto themselves.”

Ethan Miller on Silver Paper (with Chris Robinson):

“I have a crystalized memory of Chris Robinson and me standing over a record player in the desert, slurping down drinks and listening to Mountain’s Climbing at high volume at some ungodly hour of the night. Of all the music that one might hear flying by over 20 years of friendship, that memory and that music has etched fondly in my mind. So you could say our Silver Paper is a dedication and manifestation of that fine, fleeting moment.

I found this unique arrangement on some grossly overlooked and forgotten live cd where Mountain really restructured the tune and really brought this song to life and I thought it would be fun to take it on! CR’s vocal takes it to a whole other stratosphere – when I see Chris play or work with him on music I’m reminded in every way, again and again why his voice and ear is the stuff of legend.”