Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds It is my turn to tell you something about my favorite musician(s). Of course I have got many different musicians I admire, but at the moment I am going trough a Nick Cave fase. As some of you might have noticed the past months. Maybe I will have a different topic in a year time. Who knows. In this topic I won't focus on The Birthday Party, Grinderman, or Blixa Bargelds band EinstÃÆÃâÃâürzende Neubauten (who have released a new album a couple of months ago! It's called Alles Wieder Offen, and you should listen to it! Really.) Anyway. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds came forth from a band called the Birthday Party, that band lived from late seventies, till 1984, and two of its members were Nick Cave and Mick Harvey. Well, then they met a few people, among them was Blixa Bargeld, and some others of course. The band has had a lot different people with them, it's hard to keep up with everybody who has done something on an album. And I don't really care either. The interesting [hide] boo.[/hide] thing about Cave and his band is how they changed troughout the years. In each album they've become a bit 'lighter', or less violent, that might be better way to put it. Because if there is something that it's not it is light. They're a bit hard to market. In all honesty, I don't really know what to write. But the contradiction attracts me. I listen to the music, and when I listen to it I transform. With every song I become somebody else. If I listen to the Murder Ballads album the one song I am a raving lunatic preforming a bar-massacre, then I am desperate husband whose wife and kids are murdered or am I the murderer? Then it is me who is murdered because I am in love with another woman. Sometimes, when I play From Her to Eternity I am obsessed with a woman, howling in my bedroom, just fled out of her nightmare, right back into mine, and an hour later I am a devoted Christian singing to God about my life. They are going from extreme to extreme effortlessly it seems. Whatever they do, it completely gets to me, I get sucked in. I will give you a discography here, and with each album picture there's one or two key-songs from the album that you can listen to. From Her To Eternity, well, it started here. It opens with a Leonerd Cohen cover Avalanche, which is really dark. It's followed by a personal favorite Cabin Fever! it's total madness. There's no logic in the song, out of rythem singing (not just cave) weird industrial effects (you'll also hear those on from her to eternity, the song), and then an Elvis cover (in the ghetto) other than that there are a lot of blues orientated songs on it. Giving it a bit of a weird feel. After all you don't come across a combination of blues, avant-garde and punk every day.
(live at the Paradiso) (This one is, if possible, even more over-the-top, the song is from the debut album From Her To Eternity)
(from the album The Firstborn is Dead) Hey Joe (From the cover-album Kicking Against the [puncture]s the famous Toots Thielemans on Harmonica, fantastic cover)
(A FANTASTIC Live version from the Paradiso, song is from the album Your Funeral, My Trial, Stranger than Kindness is another key song from that album, but couldn't find it on youtube.)
(from the album Tender Prey this is most likely their best known song. Video clip version by the way. John Cash made an excellent cover from it on one of his American Recording albums.)
(Vocals shared with Blixa Bargeld. Hilarious video-clip with a wink at Fellini's Casanova.It's from the album The Good Son) Straight to you (From the album Henry's Dream. It's one of the easier albums. The song Papa won't leave you Henry is fantastic as well. Too bad I couldn't find it on youtube.)
(from the album Let Love In) Now we will come at, I think, my favorite album by the group. A little side-project and it is called Murder Ballads, and as the title suggests it are songs about death. Interesting uh? The album was very popular back in the day, and that's most likely because of the hitsingle Where the wild roses grow with Kylie Minogue, no less. Every song on this album is great, and everybody should have this album. Because not everything is available on youtube I'll give you the videos, and one sound only clip. hehe. One of the creepiest songs ever made.
. Have fun.
. Hehe, ever heard anything like it? The end is pretty ***** great.
together with that lovely P.J. Harvey. Fantastic clip, great song. Do we need more? Where the Wild Roses Grow With Kylie Minogue, the big hit. The 'older' ones among us might remember it from t.v. After Murder Ballads they came with The Boatman's Call which is a very personal album, mainly based on relationships he had in the past. It's completely different to the earlier work because a lot of that was really over the top, dark, and generally 'bigger'. while this is mostly piano guided, a timid guitar in the background etc. Fantastic album, no bad tracks, and perfect for those dark nights. Into my arms Are You the one that I've been waiting for (fantastic.)
Then after a bit of a break came No More Shall we Part in 2001.
(great video, great song, wonderfully sung) Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow
(one of my favorite tracks) I don't know anything about Nocturama, so I'm going to skip that one. You can always check it out yourself, if you're curious. I bet you all know how the internet works. So, then we go to Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. Which I liked a lot in the beginning, but in the end I got over it pretty quick. It's alright, but a bit too tame. But I shouldn't whine, it's still very good actually, now that I hear some stuff from it again.
And there's a lot more great material on that record. Then, some of you might be curious and you want to check something out. I suggest starting out with something like Tender Prey, Murder Ballads, Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Oprheus, Henry's Dream. They've got a bit of both. From there on you can decide what you prefer; rough or more calm. If you know you want rough first go with From Her To Eternity, if you prefer calm from the start go for Boatman's Call or No More Shall we Part. It's all gold, really. Those interested in live material I can recommend the album Live Seeds, the God is in the House tour DVD, the CD/DVD combination of the Abattoir Blues Tour and of course The Road to God Knows Where (tour documentairy)/Live at the Pardiso dvd. The videoclips DVD is a recommendation as well. The hits, and each video has a little introduction by the members, it's a bit goofy, but nice for the fans. Not every video is a succes, but there are a few jems there. Well. Next year his new album Dig, Lazerus, Dig!!! comes out. On the first of March, I believe. And I'm looking forward to it. I'm sorry I can't give more information. It feels kind of akward talking about somebody I admire, I don't like to do it in real life, and I guess it's the same on the net. Hard to bring my thoughts to words, that could be it as wel. So i guess that's why it's more music than words. but hey, that's it's about of course. The post isn't as good as Klankoas, but I hope that I made at least 1 person a bit enthousiastic. For biographies, trivia, album info etc. check out wikipedia. here's a link: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Nickcaveandthebadseeds.com (here you can hear the new single Dig, Lazerus, Dig!!!) Nickcaveonline.com Grinderman.com (website for side project Grinderman) EinstÃÆÃâÃâürzende Neubauten.org The Birthday Party _______________________________________________________________________________ Past Archive Thousand Foot Krutch by kalphiteman4 Brand New by ktmcf121 Rush by klankaos