#where's teenage snuff film by rowland howard

[dealgemeneverwarring]

De Algemene Verwarring #100 - 30 October 2023

The hundredth episode of De Algemene Verwarring was broadcast on Monday, October 30, 2023, and you can listen to it by clicking on the link below that will take you directly to the Mixcloud page:

Pictured below is The Fall and I can't think of a better band to be featured in the hundredth (pronounce thàt) episode of De Algemene Verwarring (well, there is one other band). Anyway, here they are in their 1988 line-up, the line-up that recorded the albums The Frenz Experiment and I Am Kurious Oranj, with Brix, Marcia Schofield, Craig Scanlon, Steve Hanley and Simon Wolstencroft. The Frenz Experiment is, I think, a rather under-estimated album by the band, at least it's not mentioned that much when people talk about the best Fall albums. However it features one of their biggest hits, the cover of The Kinks' "Victoria", but that is not even the best song on the album, it has also "Hit The North", "Carry Bag Man", "Oswald Defence Lawyer" and "Bremen Nacht" and those are all classics in my ears. I got first acquainted with The Fall thanks to the Kortrijk library, where in those mid-to-late eighties I picked up copies of Perverted By Language and This Nation's Saving Grace (PBL still being my all time favorite Fall record). In general, the Kortrijk library had an excellent selection of vinyls in those days, I owe a great deal of my musical memories to them. In the nineties I kind of lost connection with The Fall, it was the period that they incorporated more electronics into their music which didn't appeal that much to me and in all honesty, in the nineties I was more of a hipster indie boy listening to Sebadoh and Palace Brothers. I came back to the band in the noughties when they released excellent albums such as Fall Heads Roll and Imperial Wax Solvent, and finally got to see them live in Porto, of al places. Anyway, The Fall, probably the best band in the world, had a great influence on my musical taste, I still got lots of love for repetitive music (be it from Swans or from Lungfish or even Emeralds) and Mark E. Smith is a fookin' legend.

So, episode 100 is filled with 22 cover songs, featuring "Victoria" by The Fall, amongst others. I've added the band who recorded the original version in the playlist. Hope you enjoy it. And thanks for listening 100 times to my "duiding". And beneath the photo you can find the playlist for this show. Enjoy!

Playlist:

New Bomb Turks: I Hate People (Anti Nowhere League) (split 7” with Entombed “Night Of The Vampire/I Hate People” on Earache Records, 1995)

Complications: Stuck In A Cave (Chrome Cranks) (LP “Play Loud… & Pray Lords…” on Screamers Records, 2013)

Killdozer: Unbelievable (EMF) (7” “The Pig Was Cool/Unbelievable”  on Touch & Go Records, 1993)

Cows: You Are So Beautiful (Joe Cocker) (cd “Amphetamine Reptile >>Peel Sessions<<“ on Strange Fruit, 1992)

Sonic Youth: Hot Wire My Heart (Crime) (lp “Sister” on SST Records, 1987)

The Fall: Victoria (The Kinks) (lp “The Frenz Experiment” on Indisc, 1988)

Alaska Y Los Pegamoides: Doctor Spock (Spizzenergi) (lp “Subnormal Girls - DIY Post-Punk - 1979-1984 Volume 3” on Waiting Room Records, 2018)

The Rogers Sisters: Object (The Cure) (cd “Three Fingers”, reissue on Too Pure & Troubleman Unlimited, 2005, originally released in 2004)

The Raincoats: Lola (Kinks) (cd “Rough Trade Shops: Post Punk 01” on Mute Records, 2003)

The Vanishing: A Forest (The Cure) (7” split with Something About Vampires And Sluts “The Shameless Kiss Of Vanity (A Tribute To The Cure Volume 2) on Release The Bats, 2003)

US Girls: Bits + Pieces (The Dave Clark Five) (LP V/A “The Statement” on Clan Destine Records, 2012)

Rowland S. Howard: White Wedding (Billy idol) (lp “Teenage Snuff Film” on Mute Records, reissue 2020, originally released in 1999 on Reliant Records)

Skin: Black Eyed Dog (Nick Drake) (LP “Ten Songs For Another World” on Young God Records, 1990)

Einstürzende Neubauten: Sand (Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra) (2LP “Strategies Against Architecture II” on Potomac & Reihe EGO, 1991)

Roy Montgomery: Superstar (The Carpenters) (LP “That Best Forgotten Work” on Grapefruit Records, 2021)

Carla Dal Forno: Blue Morning (The Kiwi Animal) (LP V/A “A Short Illness From Which He Never Recovered” on Blackest Ever Black, 2019)

De Portables: No Bones (Dinosaur Jr) (LP “It’s Time To Leave This World Behind” on Almost Halloween Time Records, 2012)

Sebadoh: Riding (Palace Brothers) (CD EP “Beauty Of The Ride” on Domino, 1996)

This Mortal Coil: Fond Affections (Rema-Rema) (cd “It’ll End In Tears” on 4AD, 1984)

Thomas Bush: Private Dancer (Tina Turner, geschreven door Mark Knopfler) (2LP V/A “Labyrinth Of Memories” on Kashual Plastik, 2021)

Neutral: Japanese Superheroes (Le Forte Four) (7” “Neutral” on I Dischi Del Barone, 2017)

Chromatics: Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush) (cd “Night Drive” on Italians Do It Better, 2007)

[female-malice]

spotify still doesn’t have sappukei. are you kidding me with this shit. there are only 4 number girl albums. how do you only have one. and its not even sappukei

[aut0luminescent]

I love being a crazy Rowland S Howard fan! I love displaying my Six Strings That Drew Blood Boxset like it's a piece of historic art! I love buying vintage Coca Cola memorabilia and holding it in front of my Six Strings Boxset sometimes and singing Dead Radio to myself! I love how my Teenage Snuff Film CD looks like it's been through hell because I very often decide to take it impractical places where I would never need a copy of Teenage Snuff Film. I love putting Rowland pins on everything I wear! I love listening to Nancy Sinatra, The Gun Club, Ricky Nelson, and Gloomy Sunday! I love drawing his white Fender Jaguar on my notes for school or in the unused corners of my sketchbook! I love defaulting to drawing him whenever I'm art-blocked! I love listening to Shivers and wondering how the hell anyone could write something that good at 16! I love only sharing his music with people I really love! I love screaming along to Undone and Sleep Alone and involuntarily crying at the chorus' to Shut Me Down and Silver Chain! I love the comfort I get the moment I hear the unmistakable sound of the crying jag!

[dustedmagazine]

Andrew Forell 2020: A Year in Music

Irreversible Entanglements. Photo By Bob Sweeney

Suffice to say it’s been a time. Between the pandemic and its attendant toll of illness, death, isolation and unemployment; ongoing state violence against black and brown citizens, immigrants and refugees; the legitimization of white extremism; the utter cruelty and incompetence of the powers that wannabe and the fool on the hill dynamiting what’s left of the adjacent beacon before skulking off, music has been a vital salve during the dog days of this benighted, multi-plagued year. Whether it spoke directly to the issues of the day or not, it seems everything was filtered through the quarantine, the daily shenanigans in DC and the Black Lives Matter movement. Without live gigs, clubs and physical records listening was an even more solitary and disconnected experience than usual and yet felt more important as a connection to the world. Working alone onsite throughout this year meant IPod and headphones on the subway and streets, then blasting through speakers at work. In early March I started listening to the 15,000 some tracks on the pod in alphabetical order; as I write this we’ve reached “Towers Of Strength” by Died Pretty. Maybe there’s a message in that but then again. At home we had music going constantly. Old favorites frequently revisited, new music absorbed for enjoyment and review despite those periods of lethargy and distraction where concentration goes out the window and hours drift by without registering. 

Below are the records of 2020 that have stayed with me, been on high rotation and spoken with redemptive force, escapist joy or consoling intimacy. They are loosely grouped in a way that makes sense to me and I hope to others.

Irreversible Entanglements — Who Sent You? (International Anthem)

Aquiles Navarro & Tcheser Holmes — Heritage Of The Invisible II (International Anthem)

Moor Mother — Forever Industries (Sub Pop) 

Irreversible Entanglements as a collective of musicians have produced several records that have been on high rotation. Who Sent You?  is for me the most essential, electrifying and inspiring record of 2020. As I said in my review, it is an extraordinary statement both lyrically and musically which encompasses history, politics, religion, violence and most importantly how structures of power entrap everybody, warping both the oppressed and the oppressors, tainting us all with lies, complicity, delusion and self-censorship. 

The band’s trumpeter and drummer Navarro and Holmes’ release Heritage Of The Invisible II explores community and identity through a collaboration of deep empathy and music intelligence. Vocalist/lyricist Camae Ayewa AKA Moor Mother remains a vital voice fired by fierce intelligence and clear-eyed dissections of structural inequality. Her EP Forever Industries combines visceral poetry and experimental electronica in two short tracks. A mention also to bassist Luke Stewart’s Exposure Quintet for their eponymous album on Astral Spirits and Ayewa again twice for Circuit City and with Mental Jewelry as Moor Jewelry the rather excellent, punishing punk of True Opera both on Don Giovanni.

 Speaker Music — Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry (Planet Mu)

Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry by Speaker Music

Moodymann — Taken Away (KDJ)

SAULT — Untitled (Black Is) (Forever Living Originals)

Shabaka & The Ancestors — We Are Sent Here By History (Impulse!) 

Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry speaks directly to the Black Lives Matter with a coruscating collage of poetry, found sound jazz, and fractured techno; it is a summation of the darkness at the heart of the American experiment. Speaker Music seeks not to preach, not to salve but to show and by showing force us to listen and to see and to act.  

Moodymann, SAULT and Shabaka and The Ancestors dug deep into techno, funk, soul, gospel and jazz to produce outstanding albums that spoke to the Black experience here and in Britain.Taken Away is riven with betrayal and anger even as the music lifts with transcendent beats, voices and strings. Untitled (Black Is) is both direct and elliptical in its range of styles and voices but never less than compelling and We Are Sent Here By History is fire music for the 21st Century steeped in the lessons of Shepp, Coltrane and Fela Kuti.

Wire — Mind Hive (Pinkflag)

The Cool Greenhouse — The Cool Greenhouse (Melodic)

Fontaines DC — A Hero’s Death (Partisan)

Ganser — Just Look At That Sky (felte)

Kvalia - Scholastic Dreams Of Forceful Machines (Old Boring Russia)

Protomartyr — Ultimate Success Today (Domino)

Tvii Son — Tvii Son (MIC)

It’s been a good year for Post Punk and adjacent bands. Mind Hive arrived early and stuck through the year. As I said in February “35 minutes of Wire is enough to fuel a multitude of pretenders.” Not that the rest of this section are that. The Cool Greenhouse’s shambolic, rollicking, sarcastic songs will hit a chord with fans of Half Man Half Biscuit, Sleaford Mods and The Fall. Fontaines DC’s second album was an unexpected pleasure after Dogrel failed to excite. Ganser’s combination of exhilaration and enervation, Kvalia’s intense, industrial thump and Tvii Son’s bracing detachment hit different nerves but with inescapable precision. Protomartyr expanded their palette to create, as Tim Clarke said on these pages “a thrilling and brutally effective” album. Shopping, Las Kellies, Hypoluxo, Sweeping Promises, Peel Dream Magazine and Lunchbox also released records that held the ears.

Quicksails — Blue Rise (Hausu Mountain)

Blue Rise by Quicksails

Autechre — Sign (Warp)

William Basinski — Lamentations (Temporary Residence)

André Bratten — Silvester (Smalltown Supersound)

Oliver Coates — skins n slime (RVNG)

Dinorwic — Llyn Y Cwn (Cold Spring)

Davey Harms — World War (Hausu Mountain)

Fire-Toolz — Rainbow Bridge (Hausu Mountain)  

Hausu Mountain continues to release high quality, challenging experimental albums that are both immensely entertaining and thought provoking. Blue Rise is an amniotic oasis. World War and Rainbow Bridge are always on hand to jolt one out of the doldrums and focus the mind. On days when the temptation to drift with the passing time or succumb to darkness presses, the homeopathy of Basinski’s swoon, Bratten’s obsidian depth and Dinorwic’s environmental calm provided accompaniment, guide and consolation. Coates conjures bleak beauty from his enhanced and manipulated cello while Autechre untangle some of their knottier inclinations without letting the listener completely relax on a relatively straightforward return to the album format. 

 Archival releases and reissues:

Melt Yourself Down — The Complete Leaf Recordings 2013-2016 (Leaf)

Pole — 1,2,3 Box Set (Mute)

Pylon — Box (New West)

Rowland S Howard — Teenage Snuff Film (Fat Cat)

Stalker — Empire2020 (Ruf Kutz)

Thelonious Monk — Palo Alto (Impulse!)

Various Artists — Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987 (Captured Tracks)  

Andrew Forell

[iamdangerace]

Rowland S. Howard died too young (he was 50), too cool, and too beautiful for this square world, on December 30, 2009. Howard was an early member of Nick Cave’s first punk outfit, The Boys Next Door, which became the scabrously sexy noise-rock band, The Birthday Party. While Cave is the most famous musician to come from this scene, Howard was an equally talented songwriter. At 16, he wrote “Shivers” (for his then-band, The Young Charlatans; it ended up on the only Boys Next Door record, Door Door) a uniquely stirring pop song that he came to resent as his best-known work. Luckily, Howard had stirring pop songs to burn.

After The Birthday Party, Howard spent the next few decades collaborating with like-minded artists; playing in Crime and The City Solution, with Nikki Sudden’s band, and with his own band These Immortal Souls. He also made a number of extremely fine recordings with his kindred spirit, Lydia Lunch. In 1999, the Australian record label Shock, put out Howard’s first solo album, Teenage Snuff Film. Twenty years later, it gets its first proper North American release via Fat Possum, as a double LP remastered by original producer Lindsay Gravina.

Relatively under-appreciated by the mainstream, Howard’s influence, both as a player and songwriter, on the guitar-centric dark music margins is incalculable, and Teenage Snuff Film is considered his masterpiece. Spoon’s Britt Daniel loves it, and Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace called it her “favorite record of all time” in a Reddit AMA. Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner says that Howard was “probably the most influential minimalist/maximist guitar player to me, the way he plays and rings out a chord or violently strikes one note is still mesmerizing.” Of Teenage Snuff Film in particular, he says, “I feel like [the album] had more effect on my life than my playing—that record is perfect, but also like a secret handshake, an admission to a smoky club where you can snugly bond with any other member.”

Assisted by Mick Harvey on drums and Beast of Bourbon’s Brian Hooper on bass, Howard’s lyrics and guitar playing on Teenage Snuff Film are unflinchingly honest. Performed with a plaintive yet understated croon, lines like “You’re bad for me like cigarettes / But I haven’t sucked enough of you yet” and “I’ve lost the power I had to distinguish / Between what to ignite and what to extinguish,” from opener “Dead Radio,” land with self-lacerating wit and crushing pathos. There’s a weight to the album, which proceeds as a uniformly mid-tempo dirge that might scan as affectation in lesser hands, particularly on covers of Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” and The Shangri-Las’ version of Jay and The Americans’ “She Cried.” Throughout, Howard’s singularly sharp riffs embroider each song’s fabric. On a few tracks, like the lovely “Exit Everything,” his guitar turns silvery in tone and becomes a bit more fluid, a mournful counterpoint to his vocal delivery.

Howard would put out one more solo album: 2009’s misanthropically beautiful Pop Crimes, released two and a half months before he died of liver disease. But even if he hadn’t, even if he hadn’t written “Shivers” and so many stunning Birthday Party songs, Howard’s gift would be set in stone by Teenage Snuff Film. Hopefully, this reissue will serve as minor justice for his too-often-overlooked life and art. Bandcamp Daily