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

Rowland S. Howard "Autoluminescent" trailer

Back in December, the world lost one of it's visionary guitarists and a true rock legend. Rowland S. Howard, best known as primary screech-noise guitarist for the Birthday Party, died, but not before this documentary was filmed. I don't have details on release dates or anything (just did a bit of a search), but this extended trailer shows what looks to be something worth looking into...



Rowlandspace

Rowland S. Howard 1959-2009

Legendary Boys Next Door & Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard, also widely-known for his work with These Immortal Souls, Crime & The City Solution, Lydia Lunch, and solo, has passed away today at the age of 50 from liver cancer.

Howard's unusual swampy-blues-noise guitar work defined the Birthday Party as much as Nick Cave's histrionic wails did, and his loose, cutthroat style and trademark junkie-chic swagger was influential on a burgeoning generation of post-punk bands, yesterday and today.

He had recently released a well-received solo album, "Pop Crimes", on Australia's Liberation label, which featured the participation of former Birthday Party bandmate Mick Harvey.

Rowland was a one-of-a-kind guitarist who made a tremendous contribution to the world of original rock music, and his presence will be missed but never forgotten.

Rowland's space

Lydia Lunch - "Video Hysterie 1978-2006" DVD

The career of the enigmatic Lydia Lunch has been one of constant reinvention. Her work has plumbed the depths of the human condition and (especially) the more violent nature of sexuality. Her own claim that she uses 'sex as a weapon against man' is a tall, and entirely necessary order even today. Her confrontational persona has likely intimidated many an audience, but in reality, this sharply witty and intelligent artist has done a huge part in empowering females in outsider culture, particularly in the face of adversity at the hands of, uhm, men. Sure, you can argue that her softcore films with famed NYC sleaze director Richard Kern may have backfired in some ways, but her tireless and polarizing work has gone on, and this collection of video clips attempts to convey a sense of Lydia's scope and influence over 30 years of recording, writing, and performing.

Beginning with the wildly tuneless no-wave noise-punk of her early band, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and continuing to her more musical swamp-a-billy act 8 Eyed Spy (both with her characteristic monotone vox), we are then steered into what I think has been her finest hour, perhaps. Namely, her brief collaboration with the Birthday Party's Rowland S. Howard. Howard's distinctive and unusual junkie-cool guitar shrapnel fit perfectly with Lydia's seductive 'black widow' sensibilities. And live, it seemed to work as well as on record (check out their marvelous 'Shotgun Wedding' CD - if you can find it). We are treated as well to a blistering rock tour-de-force with German group Die Haut (which featured future members of the Bad Seeds and Einsturzende Neubauten). Another highlight there, for sure.

Her 90's era spoken rants follow this, and with stylish musical backing from folks like Joe Budenholzer, they're transformed into a kind of sound poetry (as opposed to primal feminist rally-cries). In fact, this era shows Lydia's work even approaching a kind of elegant mystical and ambient meditational quality (again, in contrast to her early abrasiveness and audience-baiting). 'Knives In My Drain' (with Terry Edwards, Ian White, and others) is even a cool bluesy number that is a kind of spiritual cousin to greats like Nina Simone or Diamanda Galas. A nice twist.

Now, the quality of some of these clips is kinda poor, being mastered from old VHS recordings, but 'Video Hysterie' does as good a job as possible in documenting some of her raw and early music and live performances. It's just a shame that the best part of this 80-minute set isn't even officially a part of the programme. The 15-minute 'Flashpoint' featurette documentary, which traces Lydia's path in music and ideology far better than the bootleg-quality smattering of live clips could ever hope to do, is the definite highlight here. If that were expanded to a feature-length doc, I would be most impressed. So, a bit of a letdown here, but still necessary for anyone who wants to get to 'know' Lydia Lunch without resorting to buying an assload of recorded works. (MVD Visual)