After a 20+ year hiatus, Australia’s Crime & the City Solution are returning to music and to the stage here in Los Angeles on October 23rd at the Fonda! They began as a post-Birthday Party outlet for Rowland S. Howard and Mick Harvey, along with Harry Howard and vocalist Simon Bonney. Over the years many players have come in and out, but in its latest incarnation Bonney’s deep and dark voice remains along with violinist Bronwyn Adams, guitarist Alexander Hacke as well as Dirty Three’s Jim White and former 16 Horsepower frontman David Eugene Edwards. If you want tickets to see Crime & the City Solution, make sure to e-mail me at michael[at]meltingpotblog.com before 5pm on Monday, October 22nd!!!
It’s been over 20 years so you might need some refreshing, especially since we don’t get new music from the collective until 2013, so here are three of my favorites from the band’s history:
“Six Bells Chime”
One of my favorite “gothic” styled songs, perhaps because it’s featured in one of my favorite films of all-time, “Wings of Desire,” which is where this video comes from featuring Rowland S. Howard careening from side to side on stage, playing as if he’s fighting the guitar and stalking around like a tiger as all that beautiful feedback washes out.
“The Kentucky Click”
More fire from the Rowland S. Howard period of this band, almost a “Tramp” like groove on this one amid all the darkness.
“The Adversary”
My favorite track from the later period of the band, one of the last recordings until their recent re-emergence. Also finds it’s way into a Wim Wenders film, and sounds like pure menace until everything brightens mid-way through.