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Local psych favorite Howlin Rain headlines Eli's

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay Area guitar hero Ethan Miller leads his powerhouse psychedelic roots-rock outfit Howlin Rain through songs from the the band's latest album 'The Dharma Wheel' at Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland Sunday.

One of the leading lights of the Bay Area's psychedelic revival for over two decades ever since first rising to notoriety as a founding member of unhinged psych-punk group Comets on Fire in 1999, Miller has had an important hand in a number of significant bands to emerge from the region's fruitful scene.

For the better part of the 2000s, Comets on Fire stood at the forefront of San Francisco's modern resurrection of mind-altering musical mayhem. Founded by childhood friends Miller (guitar and vocals) and Ben Flashman (bass) in Santa Cruz just before the turn of the millennium, the group forged a chaotic sound matching Miller's corrosive guitar destruction with his wildly effect-drenched vocals that were pushed into sonic chaos by Echoplex manipulator Noel Von Harmonson.

Brainwashed.com: The Eye - Comets On Fire by Jon Whitney on YouTube

After the addition of powerhouse drummer Utrillo Kushner and Six Organs of Admittance mastermind Ben Chasny on second guitar, Comets on Fire earned a deserved reputation as one of SF's most ferociously transcendent live acts. Two stellar albums for Sub Pop Records (Blue Cathedral in 2004, followed by what would be the band's last studio effort to date, Avatar, in 2006) further established the quintet as major players on the global psych scene.

It was during Comets' rise mid-decade that Miller decided he wanted a new outlet that let him explore a more melodic sound that drew on the laid-back style of SF psychedelia that inspired him while growing up on the Lost Coast. Forming the first line-up of Howlin Rain with longtime friend Ian Gradek and Sunburned Hand of the Man drummer John Moloney, Miller would delve into the kind of extended freeform improvisation favored by such Bay Area standbys as the Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service mixed with the earthy, southern-tinged guitar choogle of Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Allman Brothers.

Howlin' Rain - "Calling Lightning With A Scythe" (Official) by howlinrain on YouTube

Built around Miller's songs and raspy, soulful vocal delivery and still corrosive guitar tone, Howlin Rain quickly found an audience that only grew in scope and reach with the release of the band's eponymous 2006 debut and sophomore album Magnificent Fiend two years later that was released on noted producer Rick Rubin's label American Records. With Comets on Fire going on an extended hiatus from activity, Howlin Rain would become the guitarist's main outlet.

Howlin Rain - Dancers at the End of Time (Live at Amoeba) by Amoeba on YouTube

Supported by an evolving group of players that included members of local left-field hard rockers Drunk Horse Eli Eckert and Joel Robinow on the latter album, Miller worked closely with Rubin on the follow-up effort, sifting through dozens of songs before coming up with the tracks that made up the ambitious opus Russian Wilds that finally came out in 2012. Tracked with an explosive quintet the guitarist and Robinow put together that featured former Drunk Horse and Saviours bassist Cyrus Comisky, talented Earthless guitarist Isaiah Mitchell and drummer Raj Ojha (who would later form Once and Future Band with Robinow), Russian Wilds featured some inspired playing and songs, but the drawn-out recording process had already taken its toll.

Robinow would depart, leaving the band as a four-piece as it toured the globe to support an album that due to a label shake-up wasn't getting much support from American Records. While the concert document of that version of the band Live Rain showed off the pyrotechnics of a fiery ensemble that highlighted some ferocious interplay between Miller and Mitchell, after the tour the group would dissolve, essentially leaving the bandleader without a band.

Howlin Rain - "Roll On The Rusted Days" (Official) by howlinrain on YouTube

Miller occupied some time with a brief reunion of Comets on Fire in late 2013 that was spurred by members of the band collaborating with guitarist Chasney on an album and tour, but he eventually turned his focus back to Howlin Rain, putting together songs that would make up the 2015 effort Mansion Songs, the first of a proposed trilogy of albums from the band. That low-key effort featured support from Heron Oblivion, a new band Miller had formed with relocated Philadelphia musician Meg Baird (who has her own solo career in addition to playing with Philly psych/folk band Espers), longtime collaborator Harmonson and Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound guitarist Charlie Saufley, but at the same time, the guitarist was also putting together a new live line-up of Howlin Rain with LA-based musicians Jeff McElroy and Dan Cervantes.

HOWLIN' RAIN - "Rainbow Trout" (Live at Huichica Music Festival 2018) #JAMINTHEVAN by Jam In The Van on YouTube

If anything, Miller has ramped up his activity in the several years since Mansion Songs came out, recording and touring with both Heron Oblivion (who put out their acclaimed debut for Sub Pop in 2016) and his blistering psych-punk power trio Feral Ohms, and releasing his first solo ambient/noise guitar recordings under the moniker the Odyssey Cult as well as two volumes of surrealist poetry through his imprint Silver Current Recordings. In the summer of 2018, Miller hit the road with Howlin Rain for the first time since the release of Mansion Songs with a new drummer (Justin Smith) and the electrifying collection of songs The Alligator Bride that returns the band to the melodic, blues-drenched psychedelic roar of its earlier recordings.

Howlin Rain - Missouri - (Official Video) by howlinrain on YouTube

The band put in steady road work since the album 2018 release, touring both coasts extensively and putting in a blistering set at that year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. While the pandemic would curtail Howlin Rain's touring activity, Miller has remained industrious through the shutdown with archival releases via Silver Current, issuing a second volume of live recordings made with the Alligator Bride line-up (Under the Wheels Vol. 2) that showcase some of the blistering stage performances Howlin Rain captured in recent years as well as the compilation of unreleased material Lost at Sea: Rarities, Outtakes & Other Tales from the Deep, a collection of demos recorded for the band's debut as well as new recordings by Oh Sees and Growing.

Howlin Rain - "Don't Let The Tears" (Live at Palomino) by howlinrain on YouTube

The group had plans to record and release a sprawling triple album featuring some songs that the band had been playing regularly onstage before COVID curtailed recording sessions (and the touring that funded them), but Miller decided the band had enough completed to issue the first batch of songs with their latest effort, The Dharma Wheel. Featuring additional contributions from keyboardist Adam MacDougall (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, the Black Crowes) and onetime Dylan collaborator and violinist Scarlet Rivera, the songs find Howlin Rain further exploring its unique sonic cosmology, especially on the album's epic 16-minute title track. More recently, the band collaborated with singer Robinson on a limited 7-inch single featuring covers of two songs by Mott the Hoople.

Miller and the current line-up band with Smith on drums, guitarist Jason Soda and bassist Kyre Wilcox return to the Bay Area to headline this early show at Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland Sunday, joined by Santa Cruz psych heroes Mamatus. Founded in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 2005, the heavy psych outfit has evolved dramatically from its riff-rocking, robe-sporting early days playing house parties and dive bars.

The group's founders -- Emmert brothers Nicky (guitar) and Aaron (drums) -- had played together in earlier projects before teaming with bassist Chris Freels and second guitarist Mike Donofrio. It was the influence of Freels that led Mammatus to start adding elements of Bay Area experimental punk and doom acts like Neurosis and Sleep to their already lumbering Sabbath/Zeppelin riffage.

Mammatus - Live on KFJC (11.17.2007) [ Full Set ] by AnyJive on YouTube

Quickly embraced as part of an established Santa Cruz neo-psych scene that included such notables as Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire and Residual Echoes, Mammatus recorded a demo that soon had the band signed to deals with San Francisco-based Holy Mountain Records and British imprint the Rocket Record Company.

The band's eponymous debut and follow-up effort The Coast Explodes both showed off a sludgy, bludgeoning approach to epic psychedelia that was augmented live by the band's wizard costumes, burning incense and an auxiliary staff-wielding member/mascot. The band toured the states with like-minded groups such as the aforementioned Residual Echoes and Japan's exploratory psych legends Acid Mothers Temple. But before long, Mammatus would go on an extended hiatus as band members settled into having jobs and families.

MAMMATUS - Brain Drain. by adamgochnauer on YouTube

Finally returning as a trio after the departure of Donofrio, in 2013 Mammatus released Heady Mental through the Spiritual Pajamas label. The experimental album introduced new aspects to their sound, building songs around Emmert's extended finger-tapped arpeggios (think Eddie Van Halen guitar pyrotechnics meets minimalist composers Terry Riley and Phillip Glass) and adding Tangerine Dream style drone to the mix.

MAMMATUS at Great American Music Hall (1 of 3). by adamgochnauer on YouTube

The band's new ambient/prog approach was hailed by critics and the band would be invited to perform at festivals like 2015's stoner/doom celebration Psycho California. Mammatus would issue its most recent effort, Sparkling Waters, that year. Recorded with Phil Manley, the album continues the group's exploration of shimmering drones and extended progressive psych on its four 15-20 minute plus tracks, this time echoing Brian Eno's ambient work while still delivering plenty of head-nodding rock grooves.

Mammatus - Sparkling Waters Part One by CultOfDoom on YouTube

While the group went through another period of inactivity, there has been some activity between live shows and new music. In 2018, guitarist Emmert released Eminent Blade, a collection of languid solo guitar recordings that mirrors the ambient approach of the band's latter era. More recently, Mammatus has been releasing archival demos and unreleased material from throughout its career. Opening act Low Plateau is an Oakland project featuring Drunk Horse and Once & Future Band guitarist Eli Eckert collaborating with Winfred E. Eye bassist Aaron Calvert, Sweet Chariot and ex-Parchman Farm drummer Chris LaBreche and Miller's old Comets on Fire bandmate Utrillo Kushner (who also leads his own group, Colossal Yes) on keyboards. Howlin Rain also headlines a North Bay show Saturday at the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley. Veteran local psych/shoegaze outfit the Asteroid No. 4 kicks off the proceedings that night, playing tunes from their recent album Tones Of The Sparrow, their first to feature singer/keyboard player Camilla Saufley (Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, Golden Void).

Howlin Rain with Mammatus and Low Plateau
Sunday, Sept. 4, 6 p.m. $20-$25
Eli's Mile High Club

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