Howlin Rain

Dave Katznelson (Mr. Birdman) stuffs this one in our faces that claims to be for fans of “The Dead, Allman Bros., Richard Brautigan, Exuma, Terry Reid, CCR, Blue Cheer, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, CSNY, and Hendrix”. Huh? Okay, I’ll throw in The Gris Gris, and Rod Stewart and the Faces for good measure. This is a project of a guy from psyche noiseters Comets on Fire. Man does it sound like hippie dippie music, straight from the soundtrack to Woodstock (think “going up the country….”) until all of the sudden a noise lead to make Merzbow, Black Flag or Sonic Youth ashamed of themselves drops out of nowhere. I don’t know what kind of fuzzbox he’s using but I want one of them. And for that matter, if these guys are on more than Humbolt skunk weed I want some of that too. Brilliant. Makes me almost appreciate the grateful dead.

1) why does this remind me of Country Joe and the fish or something from the Woodstock soundtrack?
Cuz its soulful 60’s tinged folk rock, retro at its finest
2) upbeat smiling sing-along feel, more of a folk-blue grass feel with the acoustic guitars and banjo figuring heavily, gets destroyed by the balls-out acid drenched noise guitar lead in the middle, whoa!
3) upbeat hippie feel with a kickass guitar melody/tone in the chorus
4) upbeat again, with lots of searing psyche guitar
5) mellow ballady
6) upbeat Dead music again, yippie!
7) slower psychey dark mood
8) Allman Bros type lick starts and this definitely sounds like Georgia peach music transplanted to northern California