Article Contributed by Calabro Music Media
Published on 2026-09-17
Photography by Kristy Walker
In celebration of 20 years riding the bus to never-never land, Howlin Rain delivers Watermelon, due November 13 via Silver Current Records. The nine-track collection is a glittering gift of deep-cut cover tunes drawn from a late-night FM transmission that never was, evoking an era when LPs, waterbeds and bongs sat side by side in headshops strewn across the coasts and flyover states.
Listen to “Silver Paper” and preorder Watermelon
Watermelon sums up band founder Ethan Miller’s long, strange trip from the blown-out Blue Cheer nebula of Comets On Fire to Howlin Rain’s ongoing love letter to ’70s rock radio—including a stint with Rick Rubin’s American imprint—then a stopover in the acid-folk lily fields of Heron Oblivion before launching into the ecstatic silver currents of interstellar space with The Odyssey Cult and Orcutt Shelley Miller.
With Watermelon, Miller has reinvigorated Howlin Rain’s ever-changing roster once again, retaining only drummer Justin Smith from the last couple of lineups and adding Jonny Niemann on keys, Jason Soda on guitar and vocals, and Kyre Wilcox on bass and vocals. Notable guests include Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes, Ty Segall and David Nance.
The new band doesn’t quite return to the manicured hedges of The Russian Wilds, despite its exploration of some of those AOR tropes, but casts the lessons Miller learned in the major-label wilderness into a mirror of the band’s more modest, stripped-down roots, refracted back through the tighter psych moves of its more recent Silver Current releases.
That brings us to the songs themselves, all perfect vehicles for the newly minted lineup. The record features tracks by Mountain, Judee Sill, Sugluk, Moby Grape, Fairport Convention, Todd Rundgren, Scott Walker, Tim Hardin and Mountain Bus, whose “Rosali” serves as the album’s fitting closer, a great Dead-infused jam leading into the cosmic thicket.
“Silver Paper,” the lead single out today, takes Mountain’s earnest, rough-hewn soul—aptly channeled by The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson—and fretboard pyrotechnics into a much higher key.
“I have a crystallized memory of Chris and me standing over a record player in the desert, slurping down drinks and listening to Mountain’s Climbing! at high volume at some ungodly hour of the night,” remembers Miller. “Of all the music that one might hear flying by over 20 years of friendship, that memory and that music have etched themselves fondly in my mind. So you could say our ‘Silver Paper’ is a dedication and manifestation of that fine, fleeting moment.”
“I Am Not Willing” discards some of Moby Grape’s narcotic shuffle but maintains a sort of zombie-shoegaze vibe throughout. “30th Century Man” injects the Scott Walker chestnut with exploding fuzz solos and lost, late-night vocals courtesy of Ty Segall, the perfect foil for Walker’s velvet croon. “Fall Away,” a track from the seminal Native North America compilation on Light in the Attic, swaps the inimitable First Nations backbeat for a Crazy Horse chug and blasting fuzz.
“Rather than curate a record like this with universally favorite hit songs, we wanted to draw on more esoteric songs and sometimes obscure artists that were meaningful to us, both of which would tempt further investigation into their strange stories and secret worlds,” continues Miller. “In that way, the album is a bit of a historical and musical jigsaw puzzle. What ties it all together is our inspired interest in this material—that somehow these underground rabbit holes all linked together for us and showed us a connected musical world unto themselves.”
For those who have lost Howlin Rain’s trail over the years, or hopped off in the years following The Russian Wilds, this LP represents a hard reset, a stunning infusion of psychedelic vigor and a glorious reinvention of a band that is no stranger to new beginnings. Each track on Watermelon opens a new box of surprises—all it takes to unlock them is a simple needle drop.
Watermelon will be released November 13, 2026, on vinyl, CD and digital formats via Silver Current Records.
