Twittering Machines

Roland S. Howard
(24 October 1959 – 30 December 2009)

The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, Lydia collaborator and These Immortal Souls.

Nancy & Lee, Lydia & Rowland. Here’s what Nancy & Lee have to say:

Q. What does “Some Velvet Morning” really mean?
A. We don’t know. The words “Velvet” and “Morning” rhyme in our heads. Phaedra sounds like an “upper” that doesn’t quite make it.

I think Lydia & Rowland know exactly what they mean. Same goes for Blixa’s cover of Lee’s “Sand”. Eerie druggie hippie sexie Americana cowboy loner weirdness. John Ford by Werner Herzog, Edward Hopper by Joseph Beuys, J.D. Salinger by Peter Handke.

Lee:
Some velvet morning when I’m straight
I’m gonna open up your gate
And maybe tell you ’bout Phaedra
and how she gave me life
and how she made it in
Some velvet morning when I’m straight

Nancy:
Flowers growing on the hill
Dragonflies and daffodils
Learn from us very much
Look at us but do not touch
Phaedra is my name

Sand

Young woman share your fire with me my heart is cold my soul is free
I am a stranger in your land wandering man they call me Sand

…

At night when stars light up the sky oh sir I dream my fire is high
Oh taste these lips sir if you can wandering man I’ll call Thee Sand

Honeymoon in Red
s/t

What do you get when you mix Lydia Lunch, Rowland S. Howard, Genvieve McGluckin, Tracy Pew and Mick Harvey? Oh and Nick Cave. And Thurston Moore. A Sonic Party?A Bad Youth?

These songs were originally recorded in 1982 for what I’ve read was to be a new band but everything fell apart mainly between Lunch & Cave/Harvey. So the later duo pulled out (wonk) and left Lydia with the tapes. She dusted them off 5 years later and had Thurston Moore and Clint Ruin (aka J. G. Thirlwell of Foetus) spiffy up a few tracks which includes Thurston overdubbing some guitar and wa la! A Honeymoon in Red released in 1987 by Dutch East India Trading.

Actually this LP sounds very much like you’d expect – the earlier untouched songs are all Birthday Party jangly and nasty and the later retouched Moore’d tracks have more of that Lydia cabaret vibe going on. Overall another nasty tasty treat.

There’s some viscous liner notes by Lunch calling Nick & Mick “False Profits & baby-fat-kings” and they both refused to be credited on the LP. So we have in their stead “Lydia Lunch and her dead twin”and “…& a drunk cowboy junkie” on vocals and “Dick Strum”. Nice. My LP also came with a 12 x 12 poster of Lydia ready for honeymoon action. Saucy.

The Boys Next Door
Door, Door

Before he had bad seeds and a birthday party, Nick the Stripper was one of the boys next door. Formed in 1973, this LP from 1978/79 has me wondering. And I’m wondering why I never thought to buy this record before. Well water under the bridge I have it now and it’s a treat. It’s a treat because you can hear all sorts of Nick Cave’s in this one record; hints of many future Caves to come.

What’s as interesting, and I admit I’m conjecturing on this, is the later appearance of Roland S Howard as a boy next door seems to have nudged the boys away from their new wave-y pleasantries toward a harder edged, raw-er sound. The ‘other’ player as muse has followed Nick, I’d argue, throughout his career with Blixa taking up that role in the Bad Seeds for many years followed by the mad violinist and one of a Dirty Three Warren Ellis.

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Crime + the City Solution
Room of Lights

1980′s Berlin. Another music-in-film connection, this time Wim Wenders’ achingly beautiful Wings of Desire. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds & Crime + the City Solution are featured as themselves in the ‘club scene’. While Nick arguably stole the show (and continues to do so), I really love this record (nostalgia?) which is their first LP, released in ’86. Simon Bonney – vocals, Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard – guitar (both x-Birthday Party players and Mick is a current Bad Seed), Harry Howard – bass, Epic Soundtracks (great name!) – drums and featuring Simon Bonney’s girl Bronwyn Adams on violin.

I saw them back in ’86 (or so) at Maxwell’s in Hoboken and was one of a few people there for an amazing show.

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The Birthday Party

12″ EP 45RPM from 1983 on 4AD records. Early Nick Cave when his seeds were ever so much badder. I love this stuff (& this record sounds amazing). “Release the Bats” with Nick doing his best Elvis ever “sex bat horror vampire cool machine. bite“, “Blast Off”, “The Friend Catcher”, “Mr. Clarinet” and “Happy Birthday”. Features Nick, Rowland Howard, Mick Harvey, Tracy Pew on bass and Phil Calvert on drums. (great cover too)