Jammin' With the Howard Brothers Band

EV: Introduce the band and tell us where your from and how you all got together.

HBB: I am Aaron Howard and I play Bass, I am Tim Blankenship and I play the drums, and I am Steve Howard and I am the guitarist/vocalists. We are family. Aaron and Steve are brothers and Tim is our uncle. We all pretty much grew up on the east side of town in Loveland and Milford. Steve and Tim have been in bands together on and off for the last twenty years

EV: Eastside Howard Brothers Fans have been talking about your debut CD “Catch The Party Train”. Tell us about the making of it and when was it released?
HBB: The CD was released in August of 2008 and was almost entirely recorded in our home studio. We had so much fun putting this material out. We got to bring in our friend Pete Laub to play some percussion. We are excited to start the progress over again as we have really played it out hard over the last year with extensive weekend warrior like touring all over the region. It was a long strange trip leading up to that release. Some of the songs from Party Train were written the very first day Aaron picked up the bass over 5 years ago.
Back then they had more of a Candlebox, Extreme, and Tesla type vibe. Steve and Aaron then went on to play in a metal band (Severed) for a couple of years and it wasn’t till that came to an end did we decide to create the Howard Brothers Band. When the brothers recruited Tim back to jam is when those songs really took shape and became what they are today. While the songs have been totally re-done (and sound nothing like they did when they were first written) they actually go back some time.

EV: We have to say, the CD rocks! We love how the track “Better” is reminiscent of a Tesla tune, one of the best (and most under rated) 80’s bands ever. Tracks “Remember” and “When I’m Gone” are definitely Trowerish (that’s always a good thing). Another cool tune “Devils Reign” incorporates a didgeridoo and tribal drum intro to a heavy Trower-esque guitar riff with tough Soundgarden like vocals stapled to it. Very cool. The title track “Party Train” combines hard edged spinning metal riffs with rap like vocals, another tune with a fresh 2009 flavor. The track “Want” is perhaps the down and dirtiest one of all, screaming solos and cool effects make this tune stand out too. “Passing Time” is an introspective endeavour, it may even qualify as the CD’s ballad (heavy but perhaps it still qualifies as a ballad nonetheless). Overall the CD has a 2009 sound steeped in powerful classic rock riffs with pedal to the metal guitar and rock solid rhythm. Bottom line, we dig brothers, we dig.
Share with us the feedback you’ve had so far on this original creation.

HBB: First of all, wow, thank you for all of those kind words. Some of the comparisons are new and very complimentary; we love all of the bands you mention. We got a lot of similar responses as far as the Trower. We got a lot of Gov’t Mule as well. The response has been great world wide. We are currently on the radio across Europe and a few places in America including New York and our own WEBN and ClassX. Our online CD sales in Europe are actually better than in the States. We get a huge response from our live shows, which is where we shine. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. We look forward to putting out the next round of ideas and seeing if they are as accepted.

EV: We get a lot of local bands making comments about “Cincinnati doesn’t like original music” and the like. If your a reader you already know we focus on original music (and we’re in Cincinnati so there). We also get more feedback from original artist’s work than cover bands. How do you see the Cincinnati music market in terms of popularity of original artists?

HBB: Cincinnati is rich with very talented musicians. For all of us in the biz we see it easily, and I think bands do a great job of promoting too. The local media like Eastside Vibe keep it alive for sure. Over all the music scene is hurting locally in the terms of fan turn out. Could be a sign of the financial times but it seems to have been this way for quite a while. We play out a lot and we hit big cities and small towns. We would go as far as to say, Cincinnati bands can hang with any of the bands we have seen on the road.
Bottom line is Cincinnati has great original bands that I would put up against any other city, just not enough people getting out to appreciate it. So in my best Bootsy Collins voice I would like to encourage everyone to get out and see a band you normally would not by saying You got to Catch The Party Train, Baby.

EV: What percentage of your live show is originals vs. covers? What drives the set list?

HBB: It Depends on the style of the show. We play 100% original usually for “concert” style shows. These are usually about 60 to 90 minutes. We also do “cover or bar style” shows, that run from about 10pm - 2am that always includes our originals as well. If we are told we can’t do our originals, we don’t play that venue. So for those it is probably 70% cover. HBB has played over 70 shows with approximately 40 of them being the all original “concert style” and the remainder the cover or bar shows. When you like to play as much as we do those bar shows are a necessary evil to fund the traveling and the recording and the partying. Those shows tend to become real party’s.

As far as what drives the set list? High energy all the time. We like to smack you in the face from the first note. Each set is a concert in an arena to us. We don’t care if we are playing for 20 or 2,000. Our goal is to win anyone over that has not seen a live HBB show. Guitar oriented Rock and Roll drives the list.

EV: You guys are all over town, playing electric and acoustic, any particular favorite places to play? Any memorable moments/shows that really stand out?

HBB: For the East Side, definitely J&B’s Tavern and the acoustic shows at Mama Vita’s have reached legendary status on the party meter. Branching out I would say Bogart’s, Northside Tavern, Southgate House and Madison Theatre. Our favorite places are where the people are having a good time and enjoying the music, no matter where its at.

There are lots of memorable shows but a lot of them we can’t remember. We have been blessed with playing with some big national acts. We did a show at the Mad Frog with our heroes from the Screaming Cheetah Wheelies who are now the band Stack, and they were very complimentary to us and our music. Very good feeling! Also, we went on the road with our good friends Grooveshire who are also from the Nati, and needed liver transplants by the time we got back. The Charleston and Pittsburgh shows were memorable to say the least. That show is always a party. The response from the Robin Trower show was also special.

EV: What’s coming up in the Howard Brothers Band live show schedule?
HBB: We have a few shows left before we bring it down a bit to go back into the studio. We are looking forward to playing Grooveshire’s EP release show. We have another Acoustic show at Mama V’s in August. We’re doing a festival with The Sonny Moorman Group and another Bike event for Harley Davidson and that is about it for the year. All of the best HBB updates and show schedules can be found at www.howardbrothersband.com and we encourage everyone to sign up for the mailing list there.

EV: We love your blog entry titled “HBB sells Shady O’ Grady’s out of 5 kinds of beer” is this true? Are you going for 6 next time?

HBB: This is absolutely true. Our fans drink a lot. We think our music encourages and makes
it easy to get sloppy drunk.

Are you going for 6 next time?
We set alcohol records frequently. We sold 5 1/2 (1.75 liter) bottles of Jager at the Last Mama Vita’s show and have two on the hall of fame that the band drank by ourselves. Mom should be so proud.

EV: We’re sure with your schedule you don’t get much personal time on the other side of the stage but share with us some of your favorite local bands to see?

HBB: As we have mentioned before we really like Grooveshire and what they do. There are so many to mention but off the top of my head I really enjoy Bob Cushing, Scotty Bratcher, Pearlene, Dallas Moore, Noctaluca, The Ohms, Buffalo Killers, Heartless Bastards and I could go on and on. And we apologize up front to all of those who we spaced when answering.

EV: Good list! Check out their website (or ours) for upcoming shows.