Mrs Howl Randomness

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Where Laurel’s DOLLY PARTON obsession started

My parents LOVE to tell this story that happened when I was about 2 years old. Back in the ‘80s Dolly Parton had her very own variety show on Saturday nights.  I would CRY and pitch the BIGGEST fit to stay up and watch it.  It was impossible to wake my toddler self up the next morning, because I had partied ALL LATE, it was after 9pm of course, too late for a little kid to be up.  My parents had no choice... they had to come up with a solution.  They decided to tell me a little white lie.... They moved Dolly from Saturday nights to SUNDAY mornings.  All they needed was a VCR and their fib could be pulled off.  It worked like a charm.  No more grumpy toddler staying up past her bedtime.  All was well with the world.  I was so OBSESSED as a little kid, it carried over as I grew up. Here’s one of my favorite clips from the show.

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Laurel’s amazing 7 Ingredient Blue Cheese Bake

What ya need: 1 head of cauliflower,  1 can of tomatoes, 1 container of crumbled blue cheese, cinnamon, fresh garlic, olive oil and Cajun seasoning. Instructions: Cut cauliflower into small florets.  Spread on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. In a cast iron skillet, saute the garlic in some olive oil.  When it starts to get brown, add the tomatoes.  Set aside. After 20 minutes, toss the roasted cauliflower in with the tomato mixture.  Sprinkle about 2 table spoons of cinnamon and as much seasoning as you’d like... then dump in the entire container of blue cheese. Bake for 20 minutes.   Enjoy!  MMMMM!

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The 6 Drummers of Mrs Howl

When you have a guitarist who works in TV and gets transferred a lot, it’s bound to happen.  We started the band in San Antonio, TX and have relocated to both Seattle and Phoenix.  The good news is, we have always found a drummer quickly when we needed one.  I’m sure the only reason we’re around still, is because each new member, breathes so much new life into our band.  1. Josh

Josh was our first drummer.  He is an excellent songwriter.  He wrote half of the songs on our very first demo, including this awesome song “Call Me If You’re Lonely.”

 2. Alfonso 

Alfonso was the drummer who is credited with crafting the “Dance-Punk” sound we’re known for today. 

3. Christine

And then came Christine... Everyone knew her as the guitarist for San Antonio band Langton Drive.  We asked her to do double duty as our drummer.  She took our song writing to another level.  We recorded one of our favorite albums, “Dance Inertia” with her.

4. Mario

Saying goodbye to the San Antonio music scene was one of the hardest things we’ve ever had to do.  They packed our shows, danced all night with us and turned out to be great friends.  We were VERY lucky to land Mario when we moved to Seattle.  He was definitely that “friend” we were missing from San Antonio.  Plus, out of ALLLLLL the white people in Seattle, we had to find the one hispanic drummer, to carry on the tradition! hehe! Mario is so awesome.  He wasn’t used to playing dance beats at all, but he worked his butt of and within one month we were playing our first Seattle show.  

Then Mario got a job promotion... and moved to Spokane.  We were sad.  Then came... 5. Yoshi 

Yoshi is one of the most talented drummers we have ever had.  He literally learned all of our songs in one practice.  He also is friends with Motion City Soundtrack and got us onto their tour bus.  That’s why we’re grinning ear to ear in this photo! See us play live with Yoshi << here >>   (We’re out of video options) Then, Laurel got a kick ass job offer and we moved to Phoenix...enter...

6. Angela

Thanks to our friends Pinata Protest, we literally found a drummer within a week of living here.  We knew she was the one because when we met her, she was wearing our pals FEA’s t shirt.  We’re looking forward to writing new music with Angela!  We hope that you will come to see us Jan 16th at Time Out Lounge for our first show! 

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The Many Band Tees of Angela

Angela is like the QUEEN of band tee shirts.  We decided to be total creepers and stalk her Instagram to find all of our favorites.  Not only did we find that she likes a wide variety of genres, but she’s also changed her hair a lot.  

AND-- of course, we saw her reppin’ our band! <3

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5 Songs Every New Mrs Howl Fan Should Hear (Picked by fans)

Hello! If you’re reading this, then that means you have liked our page! We totally appreciate the support!  We’ve been around for 4 years and so we have quite a few albums that you’re going to want to listen to... but we know that can be time consuming.  We’ve made it a little easier!  We polled 10 of our biggest supporters and they ranked their top 5 favorite songs!  All of these songs are FREE to download, along with all our albums on our BANDCAMP PAGE.

5. French Kiss

4. The Greenhouse

3. Sweeter Kinney

2. Herstory

1. Yellow Lamp

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5 Things You Don’t Know About Laurel’s Childhood

1.  She was born and raised in a TINY little Cajun town called Gueydan, Louisiana.  The town does not even have a stop light.  Seriously!

2. She’s a Catholic school girl.  She wrote “St Philamina” about a rumor that she heard the entire 8 years she was there.  The rumor was supposedly confirmed shortly after we released the single!

3. She started playing basketball when she was in the 3rd grade.  She was the state free throw champion 8 years in a row.

4. She won her first songwriting award when she was 10.  She wrote a 4-H theme song for her school in an Achievement Day contest.

5. She learned how to play the guitar at 10 years old and played in church while leading her class’ masses at St Peters. 

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FREE SHOW THIS WEEKEND!

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3 Venues That Told Us To “Turn Down” on Tour

We only have drums, guitar and vocals.... how LOUD can we really be?  Apparently VERY!  While we were on the road, the first three venues in California told us to turn down, WAY down.  

1. The Palms at Eureka Inn, Eureka CA OK, so this place IS a HOTEL.  A fancy one, but we warned them, we are a PUNK rock band. “We have punk rock shows here all the time” was their response...We did get paid VERY WELL for only getting to play 3 songs, so we weren’t mad! They also gave us food, drinks and a room at a good price.  We approved.

2. Bocci’s Cellar in Santa Cruz, CA First off, lets just say this venue is AWESOME! The staff treated us like rockstars, fed us and paid us well!  We were just too loud for the room. 

3. Ham and Eggs Tavern in Los Angeles, CA HOW CAN A PUNK ROCK VENUE TELL YOU TO TURN DOWN?  The owner at the time was a total douche. He kicked the last band off stage, and almost refused to pay us because the crowd we brought was a little rowdy.  That rowdy crowd fueled your bar sales for the night, buddy.   It was a cool space, hopefully the new peeps who took it over are nicer.  We met our favorite pals Karate In The Garage here, so are glad this show happened! <3

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3 Reasons We LOVE Playing At Chopper Johns

We’re playing a FREE show on November 6th at Chopper Johns! Our pals Sol Drop are coming all the way from Flagstaff! Here are 3 reasons EVERYONE should LOVE seeing LIVE MUSIC at Chopper Johns! 1. SHOWS ARE ALWAYS FREE (Is there really a BETTER reason?)

2. They always have awesome DRINK SPECIALS! 

3. The bartenders are super cool! They work extra hard to keep drinks in your hand, no matter how packed the place is.  BONUS: They have the most eclectic crowd in town.

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Vintage Halloween pic, scanned from my collection.

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I wish Halloween costumes still looked like this! Our vintage costumes are much creepier!

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Laurel Says  You Need These 5 Sleater Kinney Tunes On Your Playlist

There’s no doubt, that Sleater Kinney is one of my biggest influences in music.  I’m even surprised that I found them when I did. I come from a very very very small town in Louisiana where it’s all pop and country stations.  I happened to come across one of their albums in Best Buy. I liked the cover. I picked it up, and that was the start of this beautiful relationship.  The album? “Call The Doctor.”

1. Good Things “One of their most underrated songs, EVER.”

2. All Hands On The Bad One

3. Combat Rock

4. Step Aside

5. Surface Envy 

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#ThrowbackThursday to the softer side of Mrs. Howl 

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4 Things You Didn’t Know About Mrs Howl’s First Album

1. It was released on cassette by a record label called DIY Noise.  It also came with limited edition sticks.

2. It has a cover version of Stacy Q’s 1986 hit “2 Of Hearts.”

3. We recorded it ourselves in the most ghetto way possible.  We used an M-Audio 2 channel USB interface and our PA as a mixer.

4. You can download a #FREE version HERE!

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3 Songs You Wouldn’t Expect To Be On Chelsea’s Spotify

When it’s time to hit the road, we can always count on Chelsea to have the craziest mix of music on her playlist!  Here are the 3 that surprised us the most on our last road trip. 1. Tupac - Hail Mary

2. Oingo Boingo - Weird Science

3. Jolene - Dolly Parton