Birdman Records is now accepting pre-orders for the vinyl version of The Good Life EP.  Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Limited to 1,000 copies, so first come, first served.

Pre-order your copy from the Birdman Records Website.

Hello Friends! The Good Life EP has released in digital format.

Buy it here from iTunes.

Album cover artwork by Alan Forbes and David D'Andrea, 2010.

Hello Friends,

As we prepare to embark on a tour of the UK and western Europe throughout December I am proud (thrilled, relieved, short circuiting) to announce that Howlin Rain have a new release coming into the world. No, this is not our long awaited 3rd album, though we are nearly done tracking the new record, making great sounds and progress and should see it's release in summer or fall of 2011. November 30th we will be releasing "The Good Life" EP, 3 songs, nearly 20 minutes of new music. 

After almost two years of pre-production work with producer Rick Rubin for our next album we found ourselves with an over abundance of material and an increasing gap of time between the forecast release of our next album and our last record "Magnificent Fiend". On the eve of hitting the studio and beginning to record #3, Howlin Rain took a week to step into a studio and complete this mini album or EP. It was envisioned as both an introduction to the forthcoming full length due in 2011 (the songs are exclusive to this EP) and as a piece that cold stand on it's own in HR's catalog as a trilogy of songs that present their own unique journey and sonic arch. After such extended rehearsals and pre-production work we were interested in taking this opportunity to try and produce high quality recordings and performances off the cuff and against the clock that could capture a blend of immediacy and sonic intrigue. All three songs were tracked in one evening live in the same room at Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco by Trans Am's brilliant Phil Manley and taken back to Louder Studios to be overdubbed and mixed by Tim Green in a handful of days. From the time we set up at Lucky Cat to the time the EP was completely mastered and ready to go was a week and a half. In the midst of a journey to complete an album that will have been years in the making, the Good Life EP is a catharsis of immediacy for us blasted down from a long highway, a postcard from the outer regions where we've been navigating now for a lot of moons. 

The digital version of the The Good Life EP, by American Recordings will be in gloriously sharp 1's and 0's, the details of our analog recording reproduced and represented in digital for your convenience, each kilobyte of information meticulously placed and crafted by a giant black computer, the only one or its kind, deep inside of the Columbia Records building in Beverly Hills. 

The analog version of the EP, released by Birdman Records is a limited edition of 1000 vinyl package. It was printed by RTI on beautiful heavy black vinyl and comes in a silk screened sleeve designed by Bay Area psychedelic artists Alan Forbes and David D'Andrea and printed at Monolith Press in Emeryville. 

The digital release date is November 30th via our website, iTunes and almost any other digital outlet. The vinyl will follow at a later date but we will have it on the merchandise table with us throughout the UK and Europe. See you then! 

best and love

Ethan

Hello Friends,

On Monday the 26th of July at the Castro Theater, under the nom de plume "The Moab Strangers", members of Howlin Rain, Comets on Fire, Colossal Yes, Paula Frazer, Oranger and Hiss & Hum will perform a live soundtrack for the 1920's silent film "Hungry Hearts" as part of the 30th Anniversary SF Jewish Film Festival. Join us for great cinema, fantastical soundtrack madness and drinks after the screening/performance!!!

• RSVP on Facebook.
• Buy Tickets Online.

More Information Below...

Hungry Hearts...

1922 | USA | Director: E. Mason Hopper | Languages: Silent, w/Eng. Subtitles

This don’t-miss event combines a classic Lower East Side silent melodrama with a brand new commissioned score performed live on the Castro stage by the Moab Strangers. Composer Ethan Miller (Howlin Rain, Comets on Fire) and a slew of talented Bay Area psychedelic and folk heroes provide an inspired, cutting-edge soundtrack to the 1922 restored silent Hungry Hearts. The film is adapted from the short stories of Anzia Yezierska, a Jewish writer whose rags-to-riches tales of immigrant hardship led to her nickname, the Sweatshop Cinderella. Produced by Samuel Goldwyn and shot on location in New York, Hungry Hearts is a vividly drawn portrait of a struggling Jewish family, at once tragic and richly comic.

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Website.

More info here.

Hello Friends,

As the last time we spoke, Howlin Rain are still deep in pre-production for our 3rd album. After 15 months of writing and rehearsals we are coming out of the cave for a little fresh spring air. On April 24th we will be in Norfolk, Va. and on May 5th in Oakland we will playing our own set as well as performing with Terry Reid as his backing band at the New Parish. It goes without saying this will be an incredible experience and we are thrilled at the challenge of performing some of our favorite songs off “River” and “Seed Of Memory” with the man himself! We have also confirmed our performance at Belle & Sebastian’s ATP in December in England and we’re currently working on surrounding dates in Europe.

That's pretty much news from our rehearsal cave in East Oakland as we draw slowly and steadily closer to putting our Opus onto tape! Check in with the Silver Currant Blog for Howlin Rain and related performances, rarities and musical candy, I will continue to post gems from the vault there.

Be well,

Ethan