Posts Tagged ‘Silver Current’

Popular Posts Tagged ‘Silver Current’

Ethan Miller – Inspirations for Alligator Bride
·1,748 View
Wooden Shjips – “Flight (live in San Francisco)”
·463 Views
Feral Ohms
·303 Views
Howlin’ Rain – “Death Prayer in Heaven’s Orchard” (live)
·236 Views
Howlin Rain
·229 Views
Feral Ohms – “Teenage God Born To Die”
·202 Views
Howlin’ Rain announces Under The Wheels Vol. 2
·86 Views

Howlin’ Rain announces Under The Wheels Vol. 2

by on ·Bits & Pieces, News

With us all in stasis regarding the reinstatement of live shows, Howlin’ Rain’s second installment of their live album series couldn’t come at a more opportune time. Under The Wheels: Live From The Coasts, Vol. 2 is drawn again from recordings across the band’s 2018 and 2019 tours and it boasts another vital link to Howlin’ Rain’s ability to expand on their catalog once under the lights. Incidentally, the last show I saw before quarantine was Howlin’ Rain. It seemed worth the couple hour drive to head down to Brooklyn from Upstate NY for the night to see them pack out Union Pool and I was proven right time and again as the band tore into many of the songs that appear on this volume. Like its predecessor, this one’s on limited colorways and wrapped up in Arik Roper cover art. They’re leading with a scorched version of “Calling Lightning Pt 2” from 2008’s Magnificent Fiend that you can preview below. Live Rain, rainbow foil printing, crazy color vinyl, what’s not to love here? Official pre-orders start on Friday to coincide with this month’s Bandcamp ‘no fee’ day.



Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

0 Comments

Howlin’ Rain – “Death Prayer in Heaven’s Orchard” (live)

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Tracks

The last couple of years have laid down some rather great live albums from the likes of Wooden Shjips, Ty Segall & Freedom Band, and Circuit des Yeux. Not to mention the Castle Face live series, which has been a defining moment for San Francisco psych and garage as well. Adding to the pantheon of great official live sets is Howlin’ Rain, whose Ethan Miller released the Shjips’ album earlier in the year on his own Silver Current Records. The label will now embark on a series of LPs from Miller’s own band and they’re kicking it off with Under The Wheels: Live From The Coasts (Volume 1). The first of a two-part set (Volume 2 is scheduled for Fall 2019) this volume focuses on the band’s improvisational jam side, seeing them turn album and crowd favorites from their catalog into smoldering sets of Cosmic Americana – reigning down honeyed ash on the crowds.

The band sent over an 8+ minute version of the great track “Death Prayer in Heaven’s Orchard,” the scorching opener from their 2006 debut and you can check it out below.
The song’s always been a killer, but here it stretches out, toasting the edges in amplifier fallout and highlighting the worn-in soul that Miller imparts to the song. The first volume lands August 30th, and you can experience a good portion of these as the band embarks on a new tour with fellow guitar greats Garcia Peoples.

Continue Reading →
0 Comments

Wooden Shjips – “Flight (live in San Francisco)”

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Tracks

While the Shjips are crushers in the studio, its always been true that they conjure a very specific spell live in the room. Its a heady, sweaty, thick as potato soup frozen in amber type of feeling that comes at you in waves. Up until now the true solution to landing in this particular haze has been to seek out the asylum of a Shjips show as release schedules dictate and get lost in the fuzz-drenched deluge of sound. However, this month Silver Current and the band have paired to bring the first official live LP to the band’s catalog. Shjips in the Night: Live in San Francisco: June 8, 2018 captures the band in their element – divining the cosmic thrum and channeling it through the speakers in cascading waves of pure aural bliss.

The set is, as the label states, “the capture of a single live performance, multi-tracked at Slim’s in San Francisco by Eric Bauer and Damien Rasmussen and in a unique creative twist, was mixed by the band’s friends and colleagues in underground psych rock; Heron Oblivion, who hand out the Nitrous balloons and bring their own subtle (and not so subtle) enhancement of the show’s dark but kaleidoscopic color palette to the Shjips’ universe through performance mixing and post-production effects worm-holes, all the while keeping the Shjips’ long time band chemistry and natural sonic power at the forefront of the listener’s experience.”

The set’s available in limited press blue and purple and standard black and will be available in a special RSD version on red and yellow (ltd to 650) as well as cassettes. If you were super early there was a handmade edition as well, but those are long gone. Check out first listen to a live version of West’s “Flight” below, expanding on the track’s natural reverberation and setting the venue on fire with some firelight guitar work. The LP is out on April 12th.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Continue Reading →
0 Comments

Howlin Rain

by on ·New Albums, Reviews

Howlin Rain has always made their bed with the prospect of bending staples of ‘70s rock radio to the whims of something wilder – a dial that’s more psychedelic and free. While they dash through territories left vacant by Steppenwolf, Crazy Horse, Humble Pie, and The Band, in a post-radio world where influences seep in through deep dives and algorithmic suggestion they’re picking at bits of the fringe like Fat, Mighty Baby or Josephus as well. They dress shades of unrestrained early ‘70s Dead in heavier boots, whiskeying up their acid runs with the grit of Southern Rock. Ahead of quite a few other contenders this year, Howlin’ Rain is leading the edge of Cosmic Americana – pure and easy as a Sunday bar-b-que on the surface, but with a glint of madness in their eyes. The band is equal parts block party and bike club bonfire and that’s what makes The Alligator Bride burn so bright.

Perhaps spurred on by another fire eater project from Miller in the form of Feral Ohms, the core of Howlin’ Rain hasn’t felt this ragged in years. The past two albums in particular sanded the rough edges that marked early Rain, focusing on the tender blues beneath the tumult, but with The Alligator Bride we see Miller and co. back to the business of distilling lightning into choogle. The record is propelled by the bass in a way that rock hasn’t tapped into since Grand Funk and The James Gang shuttered their stores. Buoyed by the groove, the record snakes through southern charms and country’s arms to find purchase on the banks of the Mississippi. It’s mud covered with a howling heart.

If Howlin Rain was conceived as the comedown, slow-simmer backing to Comets On Fire’s coin, then they’re working their way back towards the fire with this album. That melodic heart is kicking strong as ever and there’s rhythm in their blues – swingin’ in the ways that lead the Stones down to Alabama to find their own country soul. It’s what Howlin Rain does with that soul that takes their aesthetic from throwback to evolution though. There’s no shelter to give them because they’ve burnt down the barn and are eying the house. With The Alligator Bride the band have let the danger back into their sound and that flash of the knife is just what’s needed to draw blood.



Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

0 Comments

Ethan Miller – Inspirations for Alligator Bride

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Features

There are a lot of great artists I’ve had on the wishlist for Hidden Gems but Ethan Miller has been hovering near the top for some time now. The psych vet’s been holding down time in a rogue’s gallery of great bands over the past few decades – Comets on Fire, Heron Oblivion, Feral Ohms, and Howlin’ Rain. The latter is back with their first album in three years and its one of their best yet. I finally snagged Ethan to run down a pick for Hidden Gems but he’d done me one better. In this special edition of the feature, the songwriter rounds up some deep cuts that inspired the direction for the upcoming Alligator Bride and he delves into their influence on his own writing. As expected there are quite a few nuggets from the ‘70s rock canon but also as many surprises in the running as well. Check out the picks and a playlist from Ethan below.

Continue Reading →
0 Comments

Feral Ohms

by on ·New Albums, Reviews

Not one second of Feral Ohms’ debut lets up. The trio doesn’t give the listener a minute to catch a breath, and thank the Norse gods of thunderous destruction for that. It’s an acid bath for the soul of the universe, stripping away layer after layer of tar long since calcified and crusted into the shape of society. It appears that Ethan Miller has returned to the his position as frenetic lightning rod for amp fired chaos and it’s damn good to have him back slinging scorch. The world needs this eponymous long player more than we could ever know. As mentioned here previously, Miller found solace away from the white ball of fury that burned bright in Comets On Fire, but began a creep back with Heron Oblivion last year. Feral Ohms asserts his permanence in the pantheon of psych.

The band’s been building a clutch of singles since around 2013, but it wasn’t until Castle Face prefaced the album with a live shot that they sprang into wider consciousness. All of the live cuts find their way onto the album as well as the majority of their singles, albeit re-recorded with a technical lineup that speaks to a top tier of heavy psych sound work (Eric Bauer, Phil Manley, Chris Woodhouse and JJ Golden). It’s very possible that repeated spins of the album could melt speakers into a twitching puddle of gelatinous matter. That’s not even hyperbole, I’m worried about your system. Baton shit down and buckle up. 2017 has proven that despite long lingering reports to the contrary, the guitar still has a place of vitality in music. Few other albums assert this as definitively as Feral Ohms.





Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

0 Comments

Feral Ohms – “Teenage God Born To Die”

by on ·Bits & Pieces, Tracks

Been excited for this one since the live LP dropped onto the Castle Face roster last year. Though Ethan Miller has been involved in a cadre of psychedelic endeavors over the years (Heron Oblivion, Howlin’ Rain) his legacy has always been the wild spark of Comets On Fire. Early Howlin’ Rain had flashes of scorched riffs, but they mellowed over the years into something that had less of Comets’ DNA and more debt to ’70s radio rock. Heron Oblivion lit up psych-folk last year with a set of acetylene tracks that smelled of the same brimstone fueling Miller’s amps of yore, but it’s Feral Ohms that have truly brought his catastrophic nature hurtling back. “Teenage God Born To Die” is a wild, feral lob into the chaotic soul of heavy rock. The song threatens to tear itself, any set of speakers lucky enough to shuttle it’s fury and every waking body within earshot to pieces. Miller has woken the beast that lurks in the psychedelic heart and it’s clearly hungry. This one’s going to be hard to beat in 2017. Sweatin’ with anticipation.


Support the artist. Buy it HERE.

0 Comments