As we revealed last month, The Passport Label is proud to be issuing the new single from legend of Australian rock, Rowland S. Howard. Set for release in the UK on August 24, Pop Crimes is also the title track from his first solo album in ten years, to be released in Australia this September.
Rowland S. Howard is a musician whose distinctive style and sound has resonated across the underground rock landscape for three decades. His bands have included The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, These Immortal Souls, Crime and The City Solution, Honeymoon in Red, and his collaborations have involved such dissidents as Lydia Lunch, Thurston Moore, Nick Cave and the late Nikki Sudden.
To the delight of his local following, Howard made a rare appearance at the Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Australia earlier this year. It was at these shows that he presented the astonishing new songs from his forthcoming album in a set that encompassed everything from the stunning Shivers which he penned in the late seventies through to material from his acclaimed 1999 album Teenage Snuff Film.
The Passport 7” single features the dramatic Pop Crimes as well as the magnificent duet, (I Know) A Girl Called Jonny. Joined by long-term collaborators Mick Harvey (who has played with Rowland for over 30 years), JP Shiloh (Hungry Ghosts) and producer Lindsay Gravina, Howard is out front on guitar delivering his weary, almost journalistic vocal, dispassionately sitting amidst the sweaty panic of the music, adding to the ill ease.
The band lurch in to Pop Crimes as if dragging a rain soaked body across a muddy field. The ghosts of Lee Hazlewood, Snatch, Sergio Leone, The Shangri-Las and nameless guys from a never known chain gang watch on. Within the first few breaths, Howard references Stalin, Calvary and genocide, whilst razoring guitar lines, the current crop of post-punk revisionists could only fantasize about.
(I Know) A Girl Called Jonny sees Jonnine Standish from HTRK sidle up to the microphone for a duet that will melt even the coldest of hearts. It’s a glorious missing link between the New York girl group sound and the street smarts of Suicide.
Rowland S. Howard makes a fabulous character study of sheer longevity and creativity in the face of commercial blandness. Not to be outshined by his former associates, here he proves his timeless genius as an inspiration to lovers of darkness everywhere.
Hear Pop Crimes and (I Know) A Girl Called Jonny now on the Passport audio player.
