Music Grinderman
Grinderman
Nick Cave’s new work retains all the creative power to delight and energize.
|
|
|
It’s now over 25 years since the Birthday Party, possibly the most riotous assembly that Australia has yet produced, splintered under the weight of its own excesses. The subsequent trajectory of Nick Cave, the Party’s frontperson, is well known – leading the Bad Seeds, Cave is commonly recognized as an heir to a literary tradition of musicianship led by Dylan, Cohen and Cash – and his new work with Grinderman retains all the creative power to delight and energize.
Named after a Memphis Slim line, the Grinderman quartet – a slimmed-down Bad Seeds featuring Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos – is a début that opens up many new lines of enquiry. Outbursts on Cave’s last studio album, Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus indicated that singer’s interest in new formats, and Grinderman benefits. While Cave is to the fore, the gravity lent by his co-Grinders is influential. Percussionist Sclavunos gets a chance to show off his Greek rembetika interests on ‘Electric Alice’, while the electronic textures that Cave has been doing on side-projects with violinist Ellis, are put to good use on ‘When My Love Comes Down’. Rawer than Cave’s recent work – a line-up reconfiguration which has the singer on guitar helps – Grinderman thrives on its rough edges. ‘Get It On’ and (ahem) ‘No Pussy Blues’ are rampages, the latter full of Cave’s best black humour: ‘ I bought her every type of flower/ I played her guitar by the hour/ I patted her revolting Chihuahua...’ If these songs are bluesy affairs, ‘Honey Bee (Let’s Fly to Mars)’ is an adrenaline rush: guitar, organ, utterly compelling. But Cave being Cave, the sad songs never go away. ‘Man in the Moon’, slow and short, ranks among the most beautiful and sonorous songs he has ever written. Grinderman is a band of four parts, but this song is Cave at his superlative best.
- Product information
- Grinderman
- Star rating
- Product link
- www.mute.com
- Product number
- (Mute LC05834 CD)
- Publisher
- Mute
Join over 10,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, issue alerts, contests, and more!
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
New Internationalist (NI) workers' co-operative exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice.
Except where otherwise noted, images on this site are copyright of the photographer/illustrator or representative agency.Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
