Lupine Howl were a rock band formed in Bristol, England in 1999, by Sean Cook (vocalist, bassist), Mike Mooney (guitarist) and Damon Reece (drummer). The three had been dismissed from their respective roles in Spiritualized by that band’s frontman, Jason Pierce. The “Vaporizer” single led to their signing, and is from their 2001 album The Carnivorous Lunar Activities Of Lupine Howl. A sharply paranoid song about “being on tour, being on drugs and dealing with customs”, “Vaporiser” slid a tight Spencer Davis Group groove around a recycled Parliament riff to devastating effect. When it subsequently went on to shift three and half thousand copies in two days, the band were shocked. 

“Lupine Howl essentially take the bluesiest moments of past Spiritualized records and use them as the starting point for their sound, placing the emphasis on gritty rock rave-ups, and adding another Marshall to the stack for every orchestra member Pierce hired for Let It Come Down. The sound actually ends up landing closer to the dark, swirling shoegazer sessions of Pierce’s old band, Spacemen 3, than it does to anything Spiritualized have put their name on lately.” – Pitchfork