Some souls just weren’t made for this world. You can hear it in their voice, see it in their eyes—their shoulders simply aren’t strong enough to bear the weight of gravity, and their hearts are simply too tender, and they come and go from this our mortal coil leaving behind the sense, no matter how much they accomplished, that they were never here at all.
Such is the feeling I get from listening to guitarist/vocalist Rowland S. Howard, who obviously found life on this planet one long and painful trial. His 2009 masterpiece Pop Crimes makes reference to “this planet of perpetual sorrows,” on not one but two songs, which he must have felt was necessary to get his point—that living is a nightmare from which we cannot escape—across. But if Howard, who passed away very shortly after the release of Pop Crimes at age 50, harbored a bleak and Baudelairian view of existence, he didn’t let it stand in the way of making lots of great music with lots of different people.
His list of accomplishments is remarkably long, especially for someone who battled drug addiction for as long as he did. He began his career with Nick Cave in Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party, went on to become a member of Crime & The City Solution, and finally founded Thee Immortal Souls before launching a solo career. Over the course of his too-short life he also worked with artists as diverse as Lydia Lunch, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Henry Rollins, not to mention numerous others.
His voice is fraught with pain and his unique reverb-drenched guitar sound was responsible, as his friend Kid Congo Powers told me, “for launching a gazillion bands.” The combination has a hypnotic effect, as demonstrated on his cover of Talk Talk’s propulsive “Life’s What You Make It,” which is basically one mesmeric groove, free of choruses and bridges and all that nonsense.
Dayton, OH | Dayton’s Not Dead: Blind Rage Records: Blind Rage Records opened in the music-driven city of Dayton during the coronavirus pandemic. They sell vinyl records from punk and hardcore artists from their location on Watervliet Ave. Musician and Blind Rage Records owner James Downing-Groth named the store after his independent record label of the same name. The Blind Rage moniker was earned through one of the owners’ projects. Downing-Groth came up with the idea for the store about three weeks before its opening because of an overabundance of the label’s records sitting in his house. “I’ve sold at record fairs for the past fifteen or so years, and I was already sitting on boxes and boxes of records for that, so we had an easy start,” said Downing-Groth. He did not inform anyone about the store’s opening until the week before. Blind Rage Records is unique for an 
Milwaukee, WI | Autographed copies of Shawn Mendes’ ‘Wonder’ album are showing up at record stores, including in Wisconsin: It looks like Shawn Mendes has something extra wonderful planned for super fans, and for independent record stores across the United States. Mendes released his fourth album “Wonder” on Friday, but on Wednesday, copies of the album, with Mendes’ autograph on the booklet, appear to be showing up at record stores with little advance warning. At noon Wednesday, The Exclusive Company chain in Wisconsin posted that it had limited quantities of the autographed CDs for sale at all seven of its stores. At about the same time, The Record Exchange, a store in Boise, Idaho, tweeted about having copies of autographed “Wonder” CDs. Another fan Wednesday afternoon shared a pic of an autographed CD on Twitter she said she picked up at St. Paul, Minn. Mendes posted on Facebook Tuesday that he signed a bunch of “Wonder” CDs that would be shipped to independent record stores. He appears to be working with Record Store Day on the promotion, which has a web page where people can look for copies at 
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Winston C.W., Good Guess (Whatever’s Clever / Ruination Record Co.) Winston Cook-Wilson sings, plays keyboards and writes the songs in Office Culture, an outfit that’s been described as “literary soft-rock,” a designation that effectively communicates music of sincerity rather than schtick. This scenario, the sincere, the soft-rock, continues on this solo effort (as a trio) by Cook-Wilson, though really, Good Guess is a cosmopolitan singer-songwriter paradise, the atmosphere deepened considerably by the upright bass of Carmen Rothwell; Ryan Beckley completes the band on electric guitar. You’ll notice the exclusion of drums, which is fine, as the songs don’t require them. What’s in abundance is a leisurely contemplation, and seriousness to go along with the sincerity. Soft-rock, or maybe better said, downtrodden urbanite piano pop circa the late ’70s, remains the foundation, with the style magnified in the up-tempo “Birds,” but there are stretches, such as “Swing Time” and the closing title track, where Cook-Wilson pushes outward to splendid effect. A terrific surprise. A-
Carly Johnson, S/T (sonaBLAST!) The strength of Johnson’s voice is undeniable. Based in Louisville, she’s sung jazz in duo with guitarist Craig Wagner, fronted a notable Heart cover band (I Heart Heart), and backed My Morning Jacket, Houndmouth, and Norah Jones, but this is her solo debut, featuring her own compositions co-written with her college roommate, Charlotte Littlehales. Along with the Wilson sisters, another of Johnson’s cited inspirations is Whitney Houston, which is reflected in the presentation here, as the bold expressiveness, if not hampered by slickness, is surely vivid in a manner that embraces commerciality. But stylistically, Johnson is reminiscent of Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones, with the overall thrust of the set being old-school soul and R&B (another prime influence is Etta James). And as the songs unwind, an undercurrent establishes it as a Southern record in the best sense; it’s tangible in the instrumental verve and Johnson’s versatility. Will Oldham, who once guested with I Heart Heart, engagingly duets with Johnson on “For You.” An album as assured as it is powerful. A-
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICK: Divine Horsemen, Live 1985-1987 (Feeding Tube) These days, Chris D is best-known for forming and fronting the essential Los Angeles punk unit The Flesh Eaters. In fact, his stature in relation to that outfit has been pretty constant since the release of their two back-to-back masterpieces for Slash in the early 1980s. But by the second half of that decade, he had moved on to Divine Horsemen, a band that initially cohered to back Chris on his 1983 solo album for Enigma, Time Stands Still. In ’86-’87, Divine Horsemen cut three LPs and an EP as part of the 15,000 or so releases SST Records was putting out back then. By ’88, they were done. This is when I first heard them, at roughly the same time I got hip to The Flesh Eaters, with this overlap of discovery fitting, as the two bands shared some personnel and had a few songs in common. In fact, the name Divine Horsemen is also the title of the last song on The Flesh Eaters’ ’81 monster A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die.
Brisbane, AU | Vinnies Dive Bar expands, opening Vinnies Record Store on the Gold Coast: Launched last night when The Chats headlined their Feedback Festival appearance, Gold Coast venue Vinnies Dive Bar have expanded to offer a 100 per cent independent record store. Situated at the back of the venue, Vinnies Record Store will offer a selection of local, national and international records with punk, rock and hardcore vinyl set to be the store’s bread and butter. “There just aren’t that many record stores left operating along the Coast anymore,” venue manager Glenn Stewart says. “You can still go to JB Hi-Fi and pick up the latest LP releases, but for someone that’s after something a bit more niche, that can be harder to find nowadays. We want to help change that.” Like most great ideas, the initial seed of opening a record store came about by chance. “The record store idea started by me ordering a Private Function record from Disdain Records – who is a mate of mine down in Melbourne,” Glenn says. “He asked if I’d take a few and just sell them at Vinnies, which 
Emma Swift: In a world where digital is king, I released an album on my own label and sold it as a physical-only product: At the beginning of the pandemic, like many musicians all over the world, I lost my job. One minute I was on a tour of the United States, with about 100 shows scheduled for the rest of the year, and the next I was twiddling my thumbs back in Nashville, watching my savings evaporate. With no chance of support from the government and no fallback plan in place, I made a decision that at once seemed logical and also just a little bit crazy: I would release an album on my own label and sell it as 
Elephant Tree formed in London in 2013, with the lineup heard on this recording featuring Jack Townley on guitar, Sam Hart on drums, Peter Holland on bass, and John Slattery, the most recent addition, on guitars and synth. Townley and Hart are the cofounders, with Holland entering the fold a little later, after the three met for the second time at an Om show. Their set offers similarities to the heavier side of the ’90s Alt-rock sound, which could’ve proved a toxic situation.
St. Louis Park, MN | SolSta Records Needles Into a New Location: On the eve of their 4 year anniversary, SolSta Records is doing something unique, especially during difficult times. The City Pages “Best Place to Buy Vinyl” winner is moving into a new location in St. Louis Park, expanding to over 2,000 square feet of retail space. For Phil and Hannah Borreson, the growth is bittersweet. Their cozy Minnehaha neighborhood location was a proven successful start to the business, filling their shelves, basement, and a blue Rockin’ Roller Bus with vinyl records. But they also see the potential of more retail space as a way to expand their inventory and grow their “Live at the Record Room” venue space. For many audiophiles, the new location will feel familiar. The Needle Doctor moved to the 6006 Excelsior Boulevard spot in 2010 and closed in November 2019 after being the resource of a wide array of turntable components, including record player needles, or styluses. SolSta Records will fill out the store with turntables, vintage magazines, cassettes, clothing, and an ever-growing collection of 
Tucson, AZ | Around the Corner: The birth of Hurricane Records: Hurricane Records is a well-known record store located along Historic Fourth Avenue in Tucson, Arizona. This shop is owned by Tucson local, Rich Hopkins and is recognized for its new and used vinyl records, CDs, turntables, speakers, compact amps, vintage receivers and more. The birth of Hurricane Records can be linked back to a fifth grader’s Christmas present. When Hopkins was 11 years old, he woke up Christmas morning pleased to see that one of his gifts consisted of the Beach Boys record, Surfin’ Safari. As a young musician, this sparked his interest in the world of music and eventually led to the start of 
