Member Since: 6/23/2005
Band Website: cdbaby.com/found?allsearch=kenny+howes
Band Members: The new band, The KENNY HOWES ROCK QUARTET, are:
ERIC HARTMAN on Rickenbacker bass
KENNY on Rickenbacker guitars and lead sing-a-long
JEFF MARINO on drums
CHUCK VAUGHAN on Rickenbacker 12-string
These Kenny-related acts are also worth mentioning:
- HAUTEWERK
- The ULTRASUEDE
- The POPDUDES
These projects kept Kenny off the streets and in the recording studio for a while. Some good stuff there, have a listen!
While you're at it, check out:
- ORANGE HAT , with whom KH played Vox organ for many many years
- LINDSAY SMITH , whose last CD Kenny produced and played lots o' guitar on
Influences: British Invasion, Garage, Power Pop, '80s pop. The Who, Cheap Trick, The Beatles, etc. You know what I mean.
Some reviews:
"Kenny Howes' Lady Friend contains some of the finest tunes the guitar ace has ever committed to tape." - John Borack, Amplifier magazine
"The new Kenny Howes album Lady Friend totally rocks." - kErrY kOMpOsT, kompost.blogspot.com
"Lady Friend is no-frills pop-rock with traces of glam, indie and garage thrown into the mix...impossible to ignore." - Kevin Mathews, Going Underground
"Kenny Howes...is an indie power pop classic who straps on his 12-string Rickenbacker and rips up the power pop genre to release the stoic, staid pop fan from getting those hands stuck in his/her pockets and releasing them to the joys of a unbridled hook attack."- Not Lame Recordings
"Some people get their hands on a Rickenbacker and they start making these really wussy, twangy sounds. Howes puts it through a cranked up class-A amp, hot to a 2" 16 track board...the man first caught my attention at The Troubadour in L.A. a few years ago when he tore the place up on a scorching version of The Who's "The Seeker" with Pat DiNizio from The Smithereens and an absolutely bashing Clem Burke from Blondie. That's where he's coming from...this is SO my cup of tea."- Corin Ashley, The Big Takeover (Issue 52), July 2003
"Kenny is a star with real panache and an exhilarating live presence."- Robin Wills, UK magazine Bucketful of Brains (Issue 63), Jan 2003
"No two ways about it, Kenny Howes writes and performs some excellent power pop...fans of power pop everywhere will find much to love in Howes' work." - Patrick Schabe, PopMatters Associate Music Editor, May 2002
"...the fact that Howes hails from Tallahassee almost makes up for that city's foisting the intolerable Creed upon a shallow and gullible world...Howes digs his old Who and Big Star records and channels that enthusiasm into rousing, unpretentious rock 'n' roll with a pronounced '60s and '70s bounce." - Steve Dollar, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Mr. Kenny Howes with his band The Yeah! took the stage and managed to kick more ass than an entire class of TaeBo enthusiasts."- reviewer Anna Borg, 2000
"Although I'd never heard of Kenny Howes until I got [his] compilation of remixed and remastered songs from his first 3 CD's (all originally on AAJ Records and now out of print); one trip through The Right Idea and I was heading to eBay to try to find the originals...hopefully someone out there will have sense enough to reissue the originals, because this stuff needs to be heard." - Geoff Melton, In Music We Trust, June 2001
"Weaned on the masters of power pop, Howes' sound evokes classic artists like The Beatles and The Who while retaining his own identity. His pen is sharp; put downs like "Thought You'd Never Go" are as clever as they are irresistibly hummable." - Bill Holmes, Cosmik.com
"Kenny Howes is my hero. Why? Because he consistently creates music that is evocative of the pop spirit born in the likes of The Beatles and early Who and Kinks while often charging things up with the raucousness of Cheap Trick - and often with reverence for all points in-between...with a past like this, the future can only be bright." - Claudio Sossi, Shake It Up! , June 2000
"The songs are smart and just the slightest bit familiar, even if you have never heard them before." - babysue magazine, June 2000 issue
"A champion of all things pop, Howes now shows [with the release of Back To You Today! ] that he can indeed be as evocative and calculating a songwriter as he wants to be...a tremendous lack of pretension in his music, often making the listener as exuberant and enthusiastic as he is." - Claudio Sossi, Shake It Up! magazine
"It's no wonder this guy has become a favorite among pop music reviewers across the country. I can't figure out why a record company has not signed this fellow, as his material is eons better than most of the pop slop that comes into this office..." - babysue magazine, September 1998 issue
"Rickenbacker-wielding pop star Kenny Howes is a talent deserving your ear time. " - Bill Holmes, Consumable
"...an innocent and delightful tribute to an age when pop meant popular, and choruses were meant for singing along to."- Hal Horowitz, Atlanta Press
"The way things are going in our [Atlanta] scene lately -- with unexpected success stories such as Sevendust and Shawn Mullins -- Howes is bound to be as big as what's-his-name from Good Will Hunting, singing a song about misery underneath the big bright light on Oscar night." - Gregory Nicoll, Creative Loafing
"When Howes hits his mark, i.e. a bullseye on the perfect pop target, there's no reason he shouldn't be selling as many records as Evan Dando or Matthew Sweet. Any thirsty pop fan will be satisfied with Kenny's winning way with a melody. Catch Howes at a show and buy his CD. He could use the support, and Lord knows we can use the tunes."- FOCUS magazine, June 1995
"Understand that Howes is an artist with evolutionary capabilities and growth, THEN understand he has written a work that embodies a lot of that potential." - Notlame magazine/catalog, Spring 1996
"These songs are honest and memorable." - MOON magazine, May 1995
"Howes offers personal glimpses with a simple delivery and refined songwriting talent. Every song on nothing wrong with that could be a hit, with infectious progressions that are both meaningful and frivolous, in a variety of sonic settings." - JAM magazine, April 1995
"Howes is good at what he does, and it's obviously a labor of love." - JAM, March 1996
" 'Girls With Glasses' [from Kenny Howes' Second Album] is a joyous pop romp, and one of the best pure power-pop tracks of the past year or two." - John Borack, Popsided
"<[u>Kenny Howes' Second Album] is, overall, a stellar album, and already one of my favorites for '96." - Ink Nineteen, April 1996
Sounds Like: Kenny Howes
Record Label: currently unsigned
Type of Label: None