Lydia Lunch & Rowland S. Howard - "Shotgun Wedding" CD

Classic swamp-blues rock from some legends

This is an expanded, remastered reissue of Lunch & Howard's classic 1991 album, which in my book remains a linchpin of either artists' separate careers. In fact, I'd wager this to be Howard's finest work since his Birthday Party days. It's a shame he's not around to add to that fine legacy. Still, "Shotgun Wedding" is a swampy post-punk affair full of dark edges and seductive textures. J.G. Thirlwell's dry, raw production is perfect, capturing an essential tension and junkie back-alley sinew. In short, this is a great album.

Opening with the iconic and slithery "Burning Skulls", the album moves forward to a gloriously gloomy (and bluesy) cover of Led Zeppelin's "In My Time Of Dying". "What Is Memory" is a skeletal showcase for Howard's prickly, twangy guitar-work. "Pigeon Town" is another highlight, being a rowdy swamp-blues affair, again highlighted by Howard's tight guitar. The album's closer is quite possibly the pinnacle, being Alice Cooper's magnificent "Black Juju" -- a slithery, snake-like trance rock track that hits some intense and dynamic highs. Between Howard's potent riffs and Lunch's cynical, aggressive vocals, "Shotgun Wedding" is a marvelous and memorable dark-edged rock trip, and one that just gets better with age.

This reissue adds Lunch and Howard's fine studio cover of Lee Hazlewood's "Some Velvet Morning", as well as 5 live recordings of fair to bootleg quality. And although these bonus additions aren't quite up to the quality of the album itself, it's certainly worth a look for serious Lunch or Howard fans. 

Atavistic Records

Lydia Lunch dot com

Rowland Howard dot com

Lydia Lunch - "The Gun Is Loaded" DVD (directors: Joe Tripician and Merrill Aldghieri)

Hmm. An 80s-era film starring Lydia that's not directed by Richard Kern. And wildly less-successful this one is, too. A surreal mix of stage monologue and documentary, "The Gun Is Loaded" basically allows Lunch to rant and rave at the state of the world, America, greed, sexism, and so on. To be honest, her shrill tirades grow weary quickly. With a backdrop of stage and streets, and with interspersed news footage, this film is a platform to exhibit Lunch's critical gripes and anger at the world around her. The soundtrack is the sole attraction here, being a subtle and fittingly dark score by Lunch's former partner J.G. Thirlwell (aka Foetus). I can't say I enjoyed this one much. And at a paltry 45 minutes, there's not much else to recommend. (MVD Visual)

Lydia's official site

J.G. Thirlwell - "The Venture Brothers - The Music Of J.G. Thirlwell" CD

It's kind of refreshing to see an uber-talented composer like Thirlwell getting some major exposure scoring this Adult Swim animated series. What some fans may not know is that he's been active for 30-ish years, recording weird industrial/big-band/soundtracks as Foetus and/or Steroid Maximus. Regardless of his past, this set of tunes from the several seasons of the 'Venture Brothers' series runs the gamut from feisty space-age lounge to tribal jungle swagger to swingin' hard-boiled spy thrillers ('Tuff') to tense classical ('13 BigMon/Boys As Transformers'). Thirlwell's been duly inspired by the music of Carl Stalling (think the original 'Looney Tunes'), as well as some far-out avante garde noise, so expect a lively, upbeat, and intensely visual set of tunes that bumps and grinds like Quentin Tarantino caught in a go-go bar after ingesting far too much peyote. 'Node Wrestling' is packed with gyrating funk -- and is almost humorous, it's so over the top. 'Damion' is a dark little gem worthy of a Tim Burton film. The charmingly-titled 'Assclamp!' is a frenzied bit of drum-and-bass techno with dramatic strings and brass. 'Warped Carousel' is just that - a scary surreal carnival trip. I could go on and on. Suffice to say, this is a wildly-diverse album with more thrills and chills than a rollercoaster. Wow. (Williams Street)

Foetus.org (Thirlwell's official site)