were one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s, creating bleak and noisy soundscapes that provided the perfect setting for vocalist
's difficult, disturbing stories of religion, violence, and perversity. Under the direction of
and guitarist Rowland S. Howard, the band tore through reams of blues and rockabilly licks, spitting out hellacious feedback and noise at an unrelenting pace. As
's vision got darker and the band's songs alternated between dirges to blistering sonic assaults.
Originally, the Australian band was called
the Boys Next Door, comprising
Cave, Howard,
Mick Harvey (guitar, drums, organ, piano), bassist
Tracy Pew, and drummer
Phill Calvert. After the
Door Door album and
Hee Haw EP under that name, the band moved to London and switched its name to the deceptively benign
Birthday Party. Once they arrived in Britain, their demented, knotty post-punk began to gel. They released their first international album,
Prayers on Fire, in 1981, earning critical praise in the U.K. and U.S. While the band was preparing to record the follow-up,
Pew was jailed for drunk driving; former
Magazine member
Barry Adamson,
Harry Howard, and
Chris Walsh filled in for the absent
Pew on 1982's
Junkyard.
After the release of
Junkyard,
the Birthday Party fired
Calvert and moved to Germany, where they began collaborating with such experimental post-punk acts like
Lydia Lunch and
Einstürzende Neubauten.
Harvey left in the summer of 1983. The group briefly continued with drummer
Des Heffner, but it soon disbanded after a final concert in Melbourne, Australia.
Cave had the most successful solo career, recording a series of albums in the '80s and '90s that maintained his status as a popular cult figure;
Harvey joined
Cave's backing band,
the Bad Seeds. Howard joined
Crime & the City Solution, which also featured his brother
Harry and
Harvey.
–
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi