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Rowland S. Howard: RIP
12.30.2009
02:17 pm
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Sad news from Australia: Rowland S. Howard, the guitarist for post-punk legends, The Birthday Party, died of liver cancer on December 30th, 2009. Since the Birthday Party’s break-up in 1983 over his “creative differences” with Nick Cave, Howard’s distinctive, angular, “broken glass” style of guitar-playing has featured in groups such as These Immortal Souls, Crime and the City Solution, Nikki Sudden and the Jacobites and in collaboration with Lydia Lunch on their astonishing goth-tinged cover version of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood’s classic, Some Velvet Morning.

Howard told the Australian edition of Rolling Stone that he had liver cancer and was on the waiting list for a donor. “If you’re trying to write about the human condition there is only so many things you can choose from. Being told that you’ve only got a couple of years to live without a transplant is a pretty frightening experience and certainly changes the way you feel about your life, [it] makes things so much closer.” Howard was 50.

Below: The Boys Next Door (the original name of The Birthday Party) with a young Rowland S. Howard and Nick Cave, perform their cult hit Shivers:
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.30.2009
02:17 pm
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Nick Cave’s Bunny Munro, The Cat Piano
09.10.2009
12:56 am
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A trove of enticing Nick Cave news spotted over on Pitchfork:

The Death of Bunny Munro, the new novel from Nick Cave, is the story of a sex-addicted salesman, and it reads something like Charles Bukowski with a raging boner and an obsession with MTV Hits.  But since we’re living in the multi-media age, the book itself is only part of the story.  So: The Death of Bunny Munro isn’t just a book.  It’s also an audio recording!  And an iPhone app!  And a tour!

The iPhone app for the book, available now, features not only the book itself in text form but also the audiobook (read by Cave and featuring music by Cave and Bad Seed Warren Ellis) and video clips of Cave reading from the book (see above).

In the coming months, Cave will also take the book on the road.  On September 14, next Monday, Cave will come to New York, appearing at Barnes & Noble’s Union Square location alongside journalist Katherine Lanpher.  And Cave will spend the fall touring Canada, the UK, and Europe, appearing alongside fellow Bad Seeds Warren Ellis and Martyn Casey.  The shows will mix readings with live music, and Cave will take questions from the audience.  And finally, in non-Bunny Munro news, Cave has also narrated “The Cat’s Piano,” a new short film from the People’s Republic of Animation.

You can watch the animated short below, but I can’t wait for some of that live stuff to trickle L.A.‘s way!

 
Official site for Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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09.10.2009
12:56 am
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Wrapping Cats With Bad Boy Bubby
08.27.2009
04:44 pm
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Instead of Hal Ashby, what if Nick Cave (circa And The Ass Saw The Angel) directed Being There?  It might look something like Rolf de Heer‘s Australian ‘93 cult comedy, Bad Boy Bubby.  We first meet Bubby (fearlessly played by Nicholas Hope) as a 30-something man, imprisoned by his mother all his life in a shitbox room for reasons never fully explained.  Maybe it’s ‘cause “mum” so enjoys bathing and having sex with him?

Anyway, even as an “outside-fearing” captive, Bubby’s got his hobbies: he’s a gifted mimic, and he enjoys wrapping cats in cellophane.  To say any more might spoil this film’s many, often moving, surprises.  The arc of Bubby does, though, follow the familiar “holy fool” trajectory: change brings growth and maturity, which almost by definition entails some loss of innocence.  Still—cellophaned cats!

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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08.27.2009
04:44 pm
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On/Off: Mark Stewart from The Pop Group to The Maffia
08.19.2009
03:40 pm
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If not tomorrow night in Los Angeles, here’s a documentary I still very much plan on catching.  From Cinefamily:

This one’s a must for all post-punk junkies!  The name of singer/industrial hip-hop pioneer Mark Stewart may not be instantly familiar, but his influence is felt the world over.  From his early days with confrontational post-punk pioneers The Pop Group to his myriad collaborations with acts like Trent Reznor, Massive Attack and Primal Scream, Stewart has provided ghostly beats and haunting vocals for over thirty years, and shows no signs of stopping.  German filmmaker T?ɬ?ni Schifer, who followed Stewart with a camera for three years, has crafted a detailed, intimate portrait of the artist, supplemented by interviews with Stewart himself, his Pop Group co-horts Dan Catsis, Gareth Sager and John Waddington, Keith Levine (P.I.L.), Janine Rainforth (Maximum Joy), Douglas Hart (The Jesus & Mary Chain), Fritz Catlin (23 Skidoo), Daniel Miller (Mute Records), Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Massive Attack and many others, plus some terrific never-before-seen vintage performance footage.

Well, as post-punk authority Simon Reynolds says, reading an interview with The Pop Group was like “having your brain set on fire.”  And If that’s not enough enticement, here’s the trailer for ON/OFF:

 
More On Mark Stewart/On-U Sound

Director T?ɬ?ni Schifer on MySpace

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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08.19.2009
03:40 pm
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Louis Wain: The Man Who Drew Cats
07.26.2009
10:57 am
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Often held up as THE classic example of a schizophrenic artist, in recent decades there has come to be greater respect for the talents of Victorian-era illustrator of anthropomorphic cats, Louis Wain.

Wain’s famous felines were born of his efforts to amuse his wife as she was dying of breast cancer. Wain would draw their cat, Peter, with eyeglasses, pretending to read. This style was developed over the years and eventually Wain’s cats began to walk upright and wear contemporary clothes. They engaged in activities like smoking, fishing, playing musical instruments and having tea parties. It’s important to remember that at this time, cats were not widely kept as household pets, mostly they were kept around to eradicate vermin.

Wildly popular in Victorian England, for several years Wain’s drawings and postcards were all the rage, but eventually his popularity began to… well, wane.  After being taken advantage of in several investment “opportunities,” Wain’s mental health deteriorated and he was interred at a mental hospital in the poverty ward. News of his circumstances were publicized by H.G. Wells, who organized the funds to move Wain into a nicer hospital with a colony of cats, along with Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald who personally intervened on Wain’s behalf.

In the final years of his life, Wain’s cats became more abstract and less whimsical. His once playful cats began to resemble fearsome, almost kaleidoscopic, Hindu deities. Many psychological textbooks feature drawings from various stages in the artist’s career to show the progression of Wain’s schizophrenia.

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Beginning in the late 60s, Wain’s work came into fashion again and has become sought after by collectors. In 2009 Nick Cave, a Wain enthusiast since the late 70s, organized the first showing of Wain’s work outside of England when he exhibited his work as part of the All Tomorrow’s Parties concert series in Australia. Artist Tracy Emin and musician David Tibet are also prominent collectors of Wain’s work.

The Chris Beetle Gallery is a good source for buying an original Wain.

Catland: The Art of Louis Wain

Louis Wain bio

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.26.2009
10:57 am
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