Rowland S. Howard was an Australian musician most famous for his work with the band Birthday Party and his subsequent solo career. At a mere 16 years old, Howard penned the infamous teen anthem "Shivers" for the Young Charlatans: Through the 1980s, he gained a small cult following when he joined up with Birthday Party (whose singer happened to be Nick Cave) and began to define the band's sound with his discordant guitar. Howard left the band because of creative differences with Cave, just as the band was transforming into the Bad Seeds. Howard collaborated with various artists throughout the late 80s and the 90s such as Henry Rollins, Thurston Moore, Nick Cave (again), and Gun Club. In 1999, Howard released his masterpiece album Teenage Snuff Film. While this album made only a tiny splash on the music industry of the time, it's influence is now beginning to be felt. Faster Louder magazine has this to say about the album: "The sad irony of Rowland S Howard is that he’s become more popular in death, than in life. Original vinyl pressings of his 1999 masterpiece, Teenage Snuff Film, have sold for hundreds of dollars on eBay, but at the time of its release on defunct local label Radio One, it just about shifted its run of 500 copies. “Like with Shelley or Modigliani, we’re ashamed these people died poor and relatively anonymous,” said Lindsay Gravina, who produced the album at Birdland and Sing Sing studios in Melbourne. Thanks to a vinyl reissue through Liberation and a surge of interest following acclaimed documentary Autoluminescent, Teenage Snuff Film is no longer an obscurity. But for an album that captured all the danger, sex and dark mystery of rock’n’roll, “cult classic” seems barely enough, especially for someone best known for being Nick Cave’s offsider in the Birthday Party and penning that great teen anthem ‘Shivers’ as a 16-year-old. For one, there’s Howard’s remarkable “guitar noir” tone that sounded like he had plugged his battered Fender Jag “directly into his soul” (Gravina’s word). At times tender, at times depraved (the album’s closer ‘Sleep Alone’ ends with four minutes of violent scree), it’s unmistakably his, inspiring a new generation of artists from Jack Ladder to Kirin J Callinan and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, who recently confessed to ripping him off. Combined with Brian Hooper’s tough bass lines (upon which tracks like ‘Exit Everything’ are built) and Mick Harvey’s drums, this was a formidable power trio, who gave the music just the right amount of space it needed to breathe. Teenage Snuff Film is all about atmosphere; a tense nocturnal vibe that never lets up. Strings heighten the drama of the spaghetti Western ‘Dead Radio’, which opens with the eminently quotable, “You’re bad for me like cigarettes/But I haven’t sucked enough of you”, while his covers of ‘She Cried’ (popularised by The Shangri-Las) and Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding’ are arguably more definitive than the originals. Howard’s droll delivery makes a song like ‘Breakdown (And Then…)’ sound utterly horrific (“Loading the gun again,” he coldly drawls). And then there’s the majestic ‘Autoluminescent’ and its notorious proclimation, “I’m bigger than Jesus Christ.” He bloody well should’ve been. – Darren Levin" In 2011 (Two years after his death), a documentary called Autoluminescent was released, chronicling his life and times. IMDB says this in the film's summary: "From myth to legend Rowland Howard appeared on the early Melbourne punk scene like a phantom out of Kafkaesque Prague or Bram Stoker's Dracula. A beautifully gaunt and gothic aristocrat, the unique distinctive fury of his guitar style shot him directly into the imagination of a generation. He was impeccable, the austerity of his artistry embodied in his finely wrought form, his obscure tastes and his intelligently wry wit. He radiated a searing personal integrity that never seemed to tarnish. Despite the trials and tribulations of his career, in an age of makeover and reinvention, Rowland Howard never 'sold out'..." Here are two songs that best represent Howard in my opinion, the dramatic "Dead Radio" and his definitive cover of Billy Idol's "White Wedding": Let me know what you think. Also, any feedback and input would be great! Suggestions about what I should cover next are always welcome too.
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