The Birthday Party were an Australian post-punk band, active from 1977 to 1983. The group's "bleak and noisy soundscapes," which drew irreverently on blues, free jazz, and rockabilly, provided the setting for vocalist Nick Cave's disturbing tales of violence and perversion. Their 1981 single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential on the emerging gothic scene. Despite limited commercial success, The Birthday Party's influence has been far-reaching, and they have been called "one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s."
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian rock band formed in 1983 by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey, guitarist George Vjestica, touring keyboardist/percussionist Larry Mullins, also known as Toby Dammit, and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos. Described as "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward", they have released eighteen studio albums and completed numerous international tours.
Kicking Against the Pricks is the third album released by the rock music group Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. First released in 1986, the album is a collection of Cave's interpretations of songs by other artists. The title is a reference to a biblical quote from the King James version of the Bible, Acts 26, verse 14.
Anita Louise Lane was an Australian singer-songwriter who was briefly a member of the Bad Seeds with Nick Cave and Mick Harvey and collaborated with both bandmates. Lane released two solo albums, Dirty Pearl (1993) and Sex O'Clock (2001).
Prayers on Fire is the debut studio album by Australian rock group the Birthday Party, released on 6 April 1981 on the Missing Link label in Australia, later licensed to the 4AD label. This was the band's first full-length release on an international record label and the first after changing the group's name from the Boys Next Door to the Birthday Party. It was recorded at Armstrong's Audio Visual Studios in Melbourne and Richmond Recorders in the nearby suburb of Richmond, between December 1980 and January 1981.
Michael John Harvey is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his long-term collaborations with Nick Cave, with whom he formed The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Harvey has also produced and contributed to multiple recordings by different artists and released several albums and soundtracks as a solo artist.
Rowland Stuart Howard was an Australian rock musician, guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with the post-punk group The Birthday Party and his subsequent solo career.
Crime & the City Solution are an Australian rock band formed in late 1977 by singer-songwriter and mainstay Simon Bonney. They disbanded in 1979 leaving only bootleg recordings and demos. In late 1983, Bonney moved to London and in 1985 he formed a new version of the group which included members of the recently disbanded The Birthday Party. They eventually settled in West-Berlin and issued four albums – Room of Lights (1986), Shine (1988), The Bride Ship (1989) and Paradise Discotheque (1990) – before disbanding again in 1991. In 2012, Bonney reformed the band in Detroit with two veterans of its Berlin era and a handful of new members.
These Immortal Souls were an Australian post-punk band formed in London in 1987 by Harry Howard on bass guitar, his older brother Rowland S. Howard on guitar and vocals, Epic Soundtracks on drums and Genevieve McGuckin on keyboards. They issued two albums on Mute Records, Get Lost 1987 and I'm Never Gonna Die Again 1992. The group relocated to Australia in 1995 and played less frequently before disbanding there in mid-1998. Soundtracks died in November 1997 and Rowland S. Howard died in December 2009.
Genevieve McGuckin is an Australian musician, songwriter, film producer and graphic designer who was born in Brisbane. In 1986 she was a founder of These Immortal Souls on keyboards and has collaborated with fellow founder, and sometime domestic partner, Rowland S. Howard, and with his earlier band, the Birthday Party, on their album, Prayers on Fire.
Honeymoon in Red is a concept album by a band of the same name, released in 1988, primarily written by Lydia Lunch and Rowland S. Howard. Honeymoon in Red is sometimes referred to as a band or alternately as a collaboration between Lydia Lunch and members of The Birthday Party.
Mutiny/The Bad Seed is a compilation album by the Birthday Party. It is compiled from 2 EPs, The Bad Seed recorded in October 1982, and Mutiny! recorded in April and August 1983, and both were released in 1983. The Bad Seed and Mutiny! were released as a compilation in 1989. It is written by Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Rowland S. Howard, and Tracy Pew.
Hee Haw is the second release and first EP by the Australian post-punk band the Boys Next Door. The Hee Haw EP was released in 1979 by the independent label, Missing Link Records.
Two of Diamonds is the fourth solo studio album by Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey, released on 23 April 2007 on Mute Records. The album contains both original compositions and covers and was recorded by Harvey over the course of three months in Grace Lane Studio, and later in Atlantis Sound Recording Studios, both in his native Melbourne and The Instrument Studio in London, England.
"Shivers" is a song by the Australian post-punk band the Boys Next Door, who would later become the Birthday Party. It is the tenth and final track from the band's debut studio album Door, Door, released in 1979 on Mushroom Records. It was released as the album's only single in May 1979, backed with the B-side "Dive Position".
Pop Crimes is the second solo album by Australian musician Rowland S. Howard, released on 16 October 2009. The album was released ten years after Howard's previous solo album Teenage Snuff Film, and 2+1⁄2 months before his death from liver cancer on 30 December. Pop Crimes was released in the United States by Fat Possum Records in August 2014. Remastered versions of both Howard's solo albums were released by Mute Records in Europe, Fat Possum in America and Bloodlines in Australia on 27 March 2020.
Just South of Heaven is an EP by Crime & the City Solution, released in 1985 through Mute Records.
Room of Lights is the debut studio album by Crime & the City Solution, released on October 27, 1986 through Mute Records.
Live 1981–82 is a live album by The Birthday Party and released in August 1999. The performances were "[c]ulled from the private collection of founding member Mick Harvey with assistance from super fan Henry Rollins".
Sketches from the Book of the Dead is the fifth studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Mick Harvey, and his first album of all original material. It was released in 2011 by Mute Records. "October Boy" is a homage to his former bandmate Rowland S. Howard who died in 2009.
[1] 