Sadly, like many great artists, the late, great Rowland S. Howard didn’t truly get his due until after his death. After his tenures in the pioneering Australian noise rock band the Birthday Party and their Berlin-based/Australia-spawned successors Crime & the City Solution, the Melbourne native was well-known in the burgeoning alt.rock underground as a guitarist of serious note, a player who took blues roots and spaghetti western twang and dragged them through fields of filth-encrusted razor wire on the way to an utterly distinctive, and massively influential, sound. But Howard started his musical journey as a songwriter, and while he flexed those muscles occasionally in his bands, he tended to be overshadowed by iconic frontmen and strong personalities. Once freed from his role as the Keith Richards of scuzz rock, he was determined to forge a path with his own vision at the forefront. Recruiting his brother Harry on bass, his significant other Genevieve McGuckin on keyboards, and his Crime bandmate Epic Soundtracks on drums, Howard formed These Immortal Souls, a group severely unappreciated in their time, but given the star treatment on a set of vinyl and CD reissues.
Originally released in 1987, Get Lost (Don’t Lie) lays out an identity right off the bat, but not necessarily the sound Howard followers might expect. Anyone looking for his dimensional wall-ripping guitar might have experienced some disorientation – the leader keeps his signature sound mostly in reserve, instead sticking to acoustic guitars, a sensually low twang and arrangements that favor atmosphere over licks. Instead, Howard centers the tracks around his darkly sardonic songs and monotonal but personality-soaked singing, as well as shining a spotlight more brightly on the way his bandmates support his vision than on his own fretboard skills. Opener “Marry Me (Lie! Lie!)” sets the scene with a creepy take on devotional folk rock, while “Hide” and the eponymous theme song become examples of Australian rock noir that are as good as anything his old bandmate Nick Cave conceived in his early years. Howard does cut loose when needed – witness the noise rocking screech backing “I Ate the Knife” and the Souls’ take on Alex Chilton’s “Hey! Little Child,” or the bone-slashing riffs in the closing powerhouses“‘Blood and Sand’ She Said” and “One in Shadow, One in Sun.” In the main, though, Howard uses Get Lost (Don’t Lie) as a declaration that he’s got a fully-formed artistic concept, becoming far more than a beloved axeperson on a busman’s holiday through his catalog of unheard tunes.
Having established a singular ideal in one go, TIS returned five years later with an album so strong it may well be its creator’s crowning achievement. His artistic framing device firmly in place, Howard unsheathes his electric sword in full force on I’m Never Gonna Die Again, taking no prisoners in song or deed. With a rock & roll melody to remember and more confident singing than ever, the pounding opener “King of Kalifornia” serves as a sonic signpost of sorts, as Soundtracks’ rollicking drums slam the track forward and Howard slathers it with ragged shards of six-string mayhem. All coiled anger and blazing guitar noise, pitiless rockers like “Hyperspace” and the instrumental “Insomnicide” drill straight through any attempt at restraint in order to back up their writer’s messages (whatever they may be) as vehemently as possible. Howard’s bandmates also up their game, more integral to the sound than any mere sidepepople could be. McGuckin’s keyboards serve as a shimmering counterpoint to the grinding waltz “Shamed” or the darkly beautiful “All the Money’s Gone” and “Black Milk,” almost as if they’re resisting the clouds conjured up by the bandleader’s guitars and melancholy vocals. Soundtracks is a marvel, laying back to on-point timekeeping on the sneering “So the Story Goes” and bashing like an indie Keith Moon on the louder numbers. Harry Howard stays steady as he goes, serving as the anchor around which his fellows swirl. By the time we get to the roaring closing track “Crowned,” These Immortal Souls have taken us on a wild journey through darkness and light, using contrast like a painter uses color and catharsis like a boxer uses finesse. I’m Never Gonna Die Again is a goddamn masterpiece.
But wait, as the cliché goes, there’s more. Extra collects exactly those kinds of cuts, some of which appeared on international editions of the albums. Power waltzes “Bad,” “My One-Eyed Daughter,” and “Up On the Roof” hail from the Die Again era, with the quality of all three being so high it’s a wonder they were excluded from the original album (though they were added to the U.S. version). The Get Lost era cover of Iggy Pop’s “Open Up and Bleed” overlaps vocals to make a hazy, fried musical experience, while the band’s take on Alice Cooper’s “Luney Tune” (a surprising choice) turbocharges the power to near-grunge levels. The album also contains almost a half-dozen live cuts that range from the merely menacing (“These Immortal Souls,” “‘Blood and Sand’ She Said”) to the nearly psychotic (Lee Hazelwood’s “Some Velvet Morning,” “Hey! Little Child”). The live side also includes a scorching, soul-bleeding take on the long-lost title track of Get Lost (Don’t Lie). Extra is an essential addendum to the band’s canon.
Following These Immortal Souls’ dissolution, Howard made guest appearances, produced a couple of artists, and made two absolutely stunning solo records, 1999’s Teenage Snuff Film and 2009’s Pop Crimes, both of which were re-released to much acclaim after Howard’s 2009 passing. They concluded the man’s artistic journey, from invaluable sideman to brilliant auteur in his own right. Seek them out, but absorb this catalog first: These Immortal Souls deserve the same reverence in the Australian underground rock catalog as anything more famous bands from the same scene have done.
