Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
Group Members: Simon Bonney, Epic Soundtracks, Rowland S. Howard, Danielle De Picciotto & Alexander Hacke, Mick Harvey, Alexander Hacke
All Music Guide:
Despite roots dating back as far as 1978, Crime & the City Solution did not truly emerge until 1984, coming to life in the wake of the dissolution of the seminal Birthday Party. The group was led by the evocative singer/songwriter Simon Bonney, a Melbourne, Australia native who led a series of bands under the verbose Crime name throughout the late '70s and early '80s; a longtime friend of the Birthday Party, he contacted former members Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard after the group's breakup, and following the addition of Howard's brother, bassist Harry Rowland, the most successful and famed lineup of Crime & the City Solution was born.
In 1985, the quartet debuted with The Dangling Man, a self-produced EP quickly establishing the band's moody, atmospheric blues-based aesthetic. Former Swell Maps drummer Epic Soundtracks joined Crime after the EP's release, freeing Harvey to alternate among a variety of instruments for the haunting follow-up, Just South of Heaven. Their full-length bow, Room of Lights, appeared in 1986 and featured the remarkable "Six Bells Chime," which so impressed the acclaimed filmmaker Wim Wenders that he invited the band to perform the song live in his 1988 masterpiece Wings of Desire.
By the time the film appeared, however, the incarnation of Crime & the City Solution presented onscreen was no more; after Room of Lights, the Howard brothers and Soundtracks exited to form These Immortal Souls, leaving Bonney, Harvey, and violinist Bronwyn Adams (also Bonney's wife and songwriting partner) to relocate to Berlin, where they recruited a number of local musicians, including Einsturzende Neubauten guitarist Alexander Hacke, to cut 1988's ornate, intoxicating Shine. Even more Baroque was the follow-up, 1989's The Bride Ship.
In 1990, Crime returned to the studio one final time to record Paradise Discotheque, a record built around Bonney's ambitious four-part suite "The Last Dictator," a song cycle inspired by the downfall of Romanian warlord Nicolae Ceaucescu. After contributing "The Adversary" to the soundtrack of Wenders' Until the End of the World, Crime & the City Solution disbanded; while Harvey rejoined former Birthday Party mate Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds, Bonney began work on his 1992 solo debut, Forever.
Wikipedia:
Crime and the City Solution is an Australian rock music band, formed by the Australian singer and songwriter Simon Bonney.
They had four distinct line-ups: Sydney in 1977–78, Melbourne in 1979, and two groupings in Berlin from 1985–1990. The only common member in all four line-ups was Bonney.
Other members included: current and former members of The Birthday Party (Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard); former Swell Maps drummer Epic Soundtracks; and Alexander Hacke from Einstürzende Neubauten.
Crime and the City Solution completed four studio albums and a number of E.Ps during its existence, and a live album has since been released. Further early recordings have surfaced on the internet. Bonney released two solo albums in the 1990s.
In late 2011, Bonney announced that Crime would re-form to record a new album for Mute Records in 2012. Personnel will be Bonney, Bronwyn Adams, Alexander Hacke, David Eugene Edwards of the American bands 16 Horsepower and Woven Hand, Troy Gregory, Matthew Smith, Jim White of the Australian group Dirty Three, and Danielle de Picciotto. Recording will take place in Detroit.
