RIP Rowland S. Howard, ex-Birthday Party

At the risk of bumming out everyone and kind of turning this into an obituary page, I still feel that I have to write about it.

Rowland S. Howard, the former guitarist in two Nick Cave’s previous bands, The Boys Next Door and the seminal post-punk band The Birthday Party, has passed away from complications from liver cancer. Howard was 50.

Howard was a big part of The Birthday Party and since its disbandment, he has consistently worked by collaborating with various artists like Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins and Nikki Sudden of Swell Maps. He released his last solo album, Pop Crimes, last October.

This is turning out to be bleak Christmas for the music world.