Rowland S. Howard is one of the most distinctive guitarists to emerge from the post-punk movement.His tortured Fender Jaguar was the perfect foil for Nick Cave’s guttural howling in the Birthday Party, and his “Six Strings That Drew Blood” have graced remarkable records by Crime & the City Solution, Lydia Lunch and others.He fronted his own group,These Immortal Souls, who released ‘Get Lost(Don’t Lie!) ’ in 1987 and “I’m Never Gonna Die Again” in 1992.Then things went quiet.….
In 2000, Rowland finally got around to releasing his first solo album proper.Dedicated to the House of Usher(?),he is supported on ‘Teenage Snuff Film’ by old crony and Bad Seed Mick Harvey on drums and Beasts of Bourbon bassist Brian Hooper.The trio form a tight-knit ensemble ‚made all the more powerful by Lindsay Gravina’s crisp production.
The album starts on a somewhat subdued note with ‘Dead Radio’ and the lines:
“You’re bad for me like cigarettes
But I haven’t sucked enough of you yet”-
Rowland’s ability to combine the humourous and the morose is one of his greatest charms.
‘Breakdown(and then) ’ continues in a similar vein and is one of many songs here that appear to address his long-term struggle with drug addiction.However,things really kick into gear with a cover of the Shangri-La’s “She Cried”.Howard infuses the song with a sense of genuine panic and caps it off with one of his trademark shower-of-splinters guitar solos.
‘Exit Everything’ is the albums’ centerpiece-an insistent,almost funky bassline underpinning chromatic violin swoops and reverb-soaked Jaguar stabs in a tale of descent into madness.
With music written by longtime muse Genevieve McGuckin,‘Silver Chain’ is a mournful ballad of eternal sorrow that despite some awkward lyrics reaches a satisfying crescendo.
The real treat here though is a perverse take on Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding’.The ’80’s fist-pumper is transformed into a demented waltz so slow it sounds in danger of grinding to a halt.The lyrics sound as though they could have been Rowland’s own.
‘Autoluminescent” is a transcendent tale of redemption, full of galactic imagery,the calm before the storm that is ‘Sleep Alone’.Driven by fuzz-bass and insistent jungle drums, Howard warns:
‘Shut me off,Shut me down,stop me if you can
My love I’ll show you nothing I’m a misanthropic man’
The album is capped off with a pealing feedback solo ala ‘The Friend Catcher’, neatly tying up the package in a bow of barbed wire.
Rowland S. Howard may never fully escape the shadow of Nick Cave(and a long,dark shadow it is), but with ‘Teenage Snuff Film’ he has more than proven himself as an artist in his own right.