Howlin Rain, who spent four years recording one ill-fated album for Rick Rubin’s American Recordings a decade ago, have released ‘Under The Wheels: Live From The Coasts, Vol. 2‘. The album comes as small consolation for Australia fans of the band, which was meant to touring here with Endless Boogie (for Love Police) at this very moment. The tour would have been group leader Ethan Miller’s first Australian tour since one of his other groups, Comets on Fire, blazed a trail across the Southern sky and lit up Meredith with an unforgettable appearance at Golden Plains in 2007.
‘Under The Wheels: Live From The Coasts, Vol. 2’ is the second edition in a planned series of Howlin Rain live album recordings, on Millier’s Silver Current Records. Formats include a one-time, small pressing of limited edition color vinyl variants that feature deluxe metallic rainbow foil jacket printing with stoner’s delight album cover art by long-time Howlin Rain-affiliated artist Arik Roper, as well as, cassette and digital formats.
On ‘Under The Wheels, Vol. 2,’ Howlin Rain’s trademark rock ‘n’ roll bombast and intricately woven, extended improv passages swirl into a distinct form of storytelling, expressed through spiraling energy and a near constant flow of form and melody. As a companion to its Vol. 1 predecessor, this latest offering is also drawn from North American coastal tours in 2018 and 2019 that came in support of the band’s most recent studio album, ‘The Alligator Bride’ which Miller has said was “indebted to classic rock formations like the Grateful Dead’s Europe ‘72 and Free’s masterpiece of atmospheric, minimalist blues, 1969’s Fire and Water.” Jack Kerouac was also an inspiration: “The guiding principle for The Alligator Bride was to create ‘Neal Cassady Rock’. Which is to say, high energy, good-times adventure music, driving the hippie bus, shirtless and stoned, up for four days straight, and extremely fuzzy around the edges.”
Enjoy the new album, and let’s hope we’ll finally see Howlin Rain out here soon.
