Tag Archives: Comets on Fire

Howlin Rain, The Russian Wilds (American Recordings)

This week’s LEO Weekly ran my review of the new album by Howlin Rain, The Russian Wilds:

Not so many years ago, Ethan Miller’s band Comets on Fire provided a perfectly psychedelic shot in the arm — their loud, histrionic MC5-style rock ruled the day, and it seemed like a number of copycat bands have since sprung up in their wake. Nothing good lasts forever, though, and while Miller has a new band, Howlin Rain, they pack a much less potent punch. To add to the potential misery of the overly long retro retreads on their new album, The Russian Wilds, which features a number of miscues and missed opportunities, the most egregious is an embarrassingly poor faux-Latin coda (think recent Santana) on “Phantom in the Valley.” Produced by Rick Rubin, who once tried to turn The Cult into AC/DC, The Russian Wilds is thankfully no longer than an hour, though it’s an hour that unfortunately seems much, much longer.

Buy it here.

SHORT SUMMER SABBATICAL

Been sorta M.I.A. lately, and I don’t mean some lame Elastica groupie who can’t dance wearin’ a “Golden Girls” outfit that blogger types jerk off to. Apologies for that (the not-posting, I mean — M.I.A. fans can continue to suck at the tit of mediocrity). No explanations forthcoming. Trust me, you don’t wanna know. But more stuff is on the way soon, I promise. I was thinking that, in light of the Tony Conrad review below, I may restart my long-abandoned goal of publishing the Tony Conrad Project (as it is colloquially known on teh interweb) on this here blog, in chapters. But I dunno. We’ll see. I am a lazy man. Aside from, like, booking shows, djing secret Comets on Fire shows and weird parties with swimming pools inside apartments, running around Midtown buying stuff for my friend who makes guitar straps, fulfilling orders, avoiding any mention of the name “Kaz Ishii,” buying groceries, collecting obsolete computers and peripherals, and reading. In the meantime, take a gander at Tony’s very fantastic and fun-filled new site.