Bill Orcutt, Steve Shelley, Ethan Miller :: S/T

There’s serious rock and roll firepower at play in this inaugural disc from three grizzled, amp-damaged veterans. You know Bill Orcutt from his noise-jamming youth in Harry Pussy or his more recent coruscating solo electric albums or his generation-spanning and revelatory Four Guitars Quartet with Wendy Eisenberg, Shane Parish and Ava Mendoza. Steve Shelley comes direct from drumming through free-form grooves with Winged Wheel and, before that, from his work with Sonic Youth, the acknowledged acme of cerebral guitar interplay. And Ethan Miller is the man behind the 21st century’s last practicing classic rock band, Howlin’ Rain and, before that, the sky-scorching Comets on Fire. He’s playing bass here, as he did in Heron Oblivion, of which the only bad thing to say is that it didn’t last very long…

Diversions :: Howlin Rain

Ahead of the release of The Dharma Wheel, Ethan Miller of Howlin Rain discusses the dark comedy of Ottessa Moshfegh, adventurous music by King Crimson and Stevie Wonder, Thomas Pynchon’s V, Capote, and the genre unto itself filmography of Almodovar.

Noah Lekas & Ethan Miller of Howlin’ Rain :: Transmissions

This week on the show, we’re joined by poet and music journalist Noah C. Lekas and Ethan Miller of Howlin’ Rain and Comets on Fire. They’ve got a new collaboration featured on Sounds From the Shadow Factory, a 10″ record from Blind Owl: a rock & roll adaptation of “Saturday Night Sage,” the poem from Lekas’ recent book of the same name. The two joined us for a discussion about spoken word, their paths in psychedelia, blue collar mysticism, and the current state of the counter culture. Heading deep underground, this week on Transmissions.