Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - New album PUSH THE SKY AWAY - Anticipate!

!!

by the by

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK59GDfWvsg

Warren Ellis is my spirit animal.

somewhat nsfw album cover: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me5gd3rd0t1qeetdyo1_500.jpg
just another day in the cave household, i assume.

I tuned out a while ago and never clicked with Grinderman further than No Pussy Blues but for some reason I feel kind of excited for this one.

pumped, the grinderman albums and dig lazarus dig were all amazing

would watch a feature-length version of that trailer

How come he's got a full head of hair again?

Warren Ellis is my spirit animal.

Mick Harvey is supporting Neubaten in Australia in February

Actually on that, worth noting that neither Kuepper nor Conway seem to be in that trailer - wonder if there'll be a lot of going off and coming back on stage during the shows for this album

I noticed that as well, basically the same line-up as Grinderman. I may miss the gentle stylings of Thomas Wydler. Didn't see him either.

Wydler was in there.

Nick Cave in a suit next to a completely nude woman is the best visual summation of his schtick that I've yet seen. If only it was in a church.

As for the album, I'm sorta waiting on the other shoe to drop. I've loved every damn thing the man has put out for going on 5 years now, starting with Lazarus or Grinderman, whichever came first. His contributions to the Jeffrey Lee Pierce sessions project, the soundtracks, Lawless - all of it. I want to dislike some of it in the interest of having any objectivity whatsoever about the man.

I took a friend to see Nick Cave on the "Lazarus" tour. My friend had literally never heard of him before (stopped buying music in 1991, had his mind blown back then by the discovery of the Chili Peppers, etc.). To this day, every time I see him he tells me it was the best concert he had ever seen, and he's constantly talking about Nick Cave to other people who have never heard of him, either.

Me, I was very satisfied bringing a total blank slate to something like the Bad Seeds.

i never really 'got' nick cave til i saw grinderman. like i couldn't take the schtick. it's still weird to me seeing him, sometimes, kinda slightly too aware of the artifice, but it was a real white light thing, he was really incredible.

he is a pretty incredible performer, still. the problem for me was that for a while in the mid to late 90s he was a little too straight-faced about the schtick. some time in the early 00s he seemed to stop taking it so seriously, and the band got a little gnarlier than they had been, and by grinderman he'd really fixed on a good combination of arched-eyebrow at his own pretensions and actually still rocking the fuck out.

yeah. i watched that video & it is always weird when you get exposed to him, like he is either just some super genial australian guy or else you are watching him kinda flesh out the vibe too seriously. but his product is good, so. tbh the thought of his new jam being called we no who u r makes me rmde but we'll see i guess.

xpost For sure, there was some switch, where his sense of humor suddenly became more apparent. Think it happened around "Lyre of Orpheus," when he rhymed it with "stick it up your orifice." Grinderman just drove that side further home.

grinderman live was one of the best live shows i've seen in a decade

xpost For sure, there was some switch, where his sense of humor suddenly became more apparent. Think it happened around "Lyre of Orpheus," when he rhymed it with "stick it up your orifice." Grinderman just drove that side further home.

The switch can be pinpointed precisely to Babe I'm on Fire on Nocturama. Following the subdued but adroit Boatman's Call and No More Shall We Part, Nocturama was the first genuinely duff album he'd put out. Sitting at the piano in his office playing po-faced rubbish like Rock of Gibralter on the South Bank Show was the nadir of his career. But right at the end of the album is Babe I'm on Fire - 15 minutes of stupid jokes and dumb riffs that was the most fun and energetic thing he'd done for years. It's kinda obvious he was bored to death by himself up to that point, and that song (and video) was the beginning of him trying to fight his way out of irrelevance.

When I saw him on the Lazarus tour, he sat down at the piano a grand total of twice and he clearly was uncomfortable with it/seemed to know that bummer ballads had become his weakness. I think he tried to play People Ain't No Good (or something in that territory) and gave up after a minute and a half and said "fuck it" and did a rock song.

tbf he did have the same sort of schtick/serious balance in the mid-90s - Let Love In (Thirsty Dog, there) + Murder Ballads going in to Boatman's Call - the shows around then were all-time imo. He's never quite got back there for me - haven't enjoyed the post-Harvey seeds or Grinderman quite as much, but yeah, it's still been a great recovery from 2001-3 South Bank Cave.

I go to Cave for sombre balladry and considered songwriting, not stupid jokes and dumb riffs.

lol Cave >>> considered Cave >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> sombre piano Cave

Man he has some beautiful piano ballads, y'all are forgetting

The Ship Song? ppl are gonna front on that?

ship song is considered but not super-sombre

weeping song is non-sombre

Man, when I look back to the setlist of the last Bad Seeds show I saw, wow:

Hold on to Yourself
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Tupelo
The Weeping Song
Midnight Man
Red Right Hand
The Mercy Seat
Nobody's Baby Now
Deanna
God Is in the House
Moonland
Get Ready for Love
We Call Upon the Author
Papa Won't Leave You, Henry
More News from Nowhere
Encore:
Jesus of the Moon
Hard On for Love
Stagger Lee

I love "The Ship Song," but I'll take this, especially since I got to see him in Grinderman guise the year before and a couple of years after. The first Grinderman show, he encored with maybe five pared down Bad Seeds songs, including "The Ship Song" and "Weeping Song," which was fun to see.

i'm definitely not objecting to ballads (ship song, straight to you) or pianos (watching alice!) or even mostly sombre piano ballads (boatman's call is great (but also funny imo)), he just got a bit dull in the early 00s - samey bad seeds arrangements, lifeless songwriting.

I go to Cave for sombre balladry and considered songwriting, not stupid jokes and dumb riffs.

― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Friday, November 30, 2012 11:30 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

lol Cave >>> considered Cave >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> sombre piano Cave

― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Friday, November 30, 2012 2:23 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is completely backwards!

is the new single some sort of ke$ha response?

haha lex you like the indie cave

haven't enjoyed the post-Harvey seeds

They haven't done anything since Harvey left the band have they?

haha lex you like the indie cave

i only love the boatman's call but i REALLY LOVE it!

xp
I've seen them once since, at a summer 09 festival, but yes, my timings are off - I think my memory's treating the whole Lazarus period + tour as post-Harvey.

Eyeball Kicks OTM about Babe I'm On Fire. It's the only time I've heard the last track on an album repudiate everything that's come before it, like this big blazing "fuck that, let's do this."

His Glastonbury set in 2009 was ridiculously good, especially Papa Won't Leave You Henry. The Bad Seeds looked like a grizzled, demented chain gang with Warren Ellis scrabbling around on the floor amid the effects pedals like somebody who'd just been rescued from years alone on a desert island and forced into a suit in a failed attempt to make him look less wild. Perfect setlist:

Tupelo
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Red Right Hand
Deanna
Midnight Man
The Ship Song
Henry Lee
We Call Upon the Author
The Mercy Seat
There She Goes, My Beautiful World
The Weeping Song
Papa Won't Leave You, Henry
Stagger Lee

xp

at a summer 09 festival

(shifty, vague, trying to pretend I didn't go to Latitude)

xp again

I thought they seemed poor at Latitude, very tired, quite routine. I guess the contrast makes sense (it was a deadish audience & Cave gets extraordinary energy from the crowd), but felt something missing.

hmmm I do get the above argument but all the sombre piano stuff on Boatmans Call completely owns Baby's on Fire (must have listened to that one a good one and a half time). For me his decline started on No More Shall We Part and has more to do with pomposity and lyrical verbosity, rather than being crazy or sombre.

Eh, Boatman's Call obviously contains many much better songs than Babe I'm On Fire. Everyone pretty much likes Boatman's Call. But he did dreary, weaker versions of the songs on that record for a few years after that. He gave the impression that Nocturama has come about through dedication to songcraft and applying to ass to seat and all of that shit, and song after song is just dull. Then comes Babe I'm On Fire, which is hardly even a song, just the band and Nick fucking about for 15 minutes, and it pisses on everything that's come before it. Seemed like something clicked in his head about how he should be going about business.

The reviewer on allmusic puts it well: "Actually, while it may be derivative of his glorious past, 'Babe, I'm on Fire' is a welcome blast of energy; he should have made it 30 minutes long instead of ten and called it his new record. Apart from that track, Cave sounds like a writer on his 15th book with nothing much left to say, nothing left to do but go through the motions, phoning his performance in with a yawn."

Not to underscore the obvious, but didn't he finally kick smack around this/that point, too? That is, wasn't "Lyre of Orpheus" his first totally clean record, or was that "Boatman?"

yeah i never even heard nocturama in full until a couple years after it came out, and only then because someone put babe i'm on fire on a mix cd for me. let's say i have not much returned to it since.

yeah - never much liked Babe, I'm on Fire myself - that sort of clever list rhyming game is easy and a bit dull, doesn't have the energy it needs - but otm about how it seemed to unlock him, gets something working that's put to use on LOO/AB & points onward.

Eyeball Kicks OTM about Babe I'm On Fire. It's the only time I've heard the last track on an album repudiate everything that's come before it, like this big blazing "fuck that, let's do this."

very well put, but Bring It On is good too, and the video is fantastic.

Everyone pretty much likes Boatman's Call.

nah

We No Who U R:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/song-premiere-nick-cave-the-bad-seeds-we-no-who-u-r-20121130

This bores the shit out of me. It sounds like the token ballads on the Grinderman albums - Nick crooning a few lines as Warren Ellis noodles.

Sidenote: He had been figuring out not to take himself seriously before Babe I'm On Fire. "Bring It On," while a slight song, has a *ridiculous* video. Just a normal Cave power ballad, but there are tons of half-naked women shaking their asses for no good reason.

psst Babe I'm On Fire was recorded before the video for Bring It On, they're on the same album (like I said two posts up)

the origin of that video btw: Cave didn't have any idea of his own for it, so he asked Hillcoat what gets played on MTV. Hillcoat said "generally, lots of black women shaking their arses at the camera." Cave went "alright, let's have that then."

Wow, bored as hell with that as well.

that new song is zzzzzzzzz. not writing off the album though

I do wish he'd retire - at least from music. Maybe become a screenwriter or an actor. Move to Hollywood. Or become a teacher of creative writing.

When the well's run dry, Nick, the well has run dry.

His last eight or so albums and film scores have been Quite Good to Amazing though, you're rushing to put him out to pasture after one snoozer

one listen in and i think it is pretty good. i have never been a nick cave fan though he was big in my student days in the mid-eighties in germany. it sounds very laid-back, pretty calm and slghtly bluesy, nothing really new there but like the tindersticks album last year it feels very mature, the kind of stuff for forty-somethings like me who prefer bands who have their own sound and are no boring copycats like most of the bands these days.

Pro recording of last night's show will be up for some hours more so...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fymChgeO00g

Ned you are an angel

Hovering over Berlin in 1987, yes.

<3 exactly

Gotta say that the version of "The Ship Song" on this kills.

tried watching that vid but got out-to-pasture vegas showman vibes. I'll always have a soft spot for cave due to the birthday party being one of the greatest things ever but I'm starting to think if he never made another peep after '84 I woulda been ok w/ that alternate history.

tried watching that vid but got out-to-pasture vegas showman vibes.

Ha, well, he's been essentially claiming that very spot since, I don't know 1986? The cover art of Kicking Against the Pricks at least.

Also how had I missed Ed Kuepper was part of the band now!

WHAT

Sez here:

the phenomenally tight Bad Seeds — multi-instrumental Warren Ellis, guitarist (and co-founder of Aussie punks the Saints) Ed Kuepper, drummer Thomas Wylder, bassist Martin Casey, keyboardist Conway Savage and newly returned multi-instrumentalist Barry Adamson

I mean I like how Randall just puts that in there and I'm all "Wait hold on."

Just checked a couple of other sites and yep.

Wait, I think I knew Kuepper was there, but Adamson is back!?

okay that's awesome

OH SHIT

BAZ TOO?

omg

I can't wait to see this vid now

And Adamson is playing drums?

Ha, turns out I DID know about Ed and the Bad Seeds:

Ed Kuepper -- Search and Destroy, Classic or Dud, whatever you fancy

I had just completely forgotten!

this was a good seeds lineup. I don't think adamson and kuepper are on the album, are they? show was great, although red right hand felt kind of limp.

Needs a bell.

The bell makes that song.

what happened to sclavunos?

If you read the comments at the end of the article, someone states that Wydler wasn't there, it was Sclavunos. I'd love some clarification.

Wydler is on sick leave, I believe, with Adamson his current replacement on drums.

Thank you.

Why can't I see this album title without thinking of the Fraggle Rock theme?

Push the sky away
Worries for another day etc etc

looool

so no-one's commenting on the album itself? i'm sensing very conflicting opinions veering from "mature work" to snoozefest. fwiw I quite like the first single.

New album, in my opinion, can beat be described as "lazy." Not much effort put into these songs.

I enjoyed the live set so much I'm not sure whether I want to hear the album!

i think it is great, the instrumentation is rather sparse and minimalistic but i like it that way. it somehow reminds me of the late johnny cash ablbum produced by rick rubin. in other words a snoozefest i like to sleep on.

albums

I liked that live set! Especially the kids' choir once "Jubilee Street" took off: some
almost JC Vannier "L'enfant assassin..." energy happening with those voices and the band.
Nicely done.

This new record is pretty good, I like it. Could live without hearing Nick Cave sing the word "snatch" ever again though, unless in refernce to grabbing the last donut before someone else.

Finally picked this up.

Feel like it's going to sit with me in the same place No More Shall We Part/Nocturama did. I don't *dislike* it, but it's almost a struggle to actively listen to it? It just seems to want to slip into background listening for me at the moment.

But I've only gone through once, I'll give it a few more spins and see what happens.

yeah I see this as a new Nocturama and will need some convincing before buying it

My Aussie brother in law said he was awesome at the Opera House.

https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=d652dfb56a&view=att&th=13d20820e1576d73&attid=0.1&disp=inline&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P-GCHVMnW7hYvQvR6yVxn3W&sadet=1362075613453&sads=yLiOjC8KuvD5wwar36KIX5glb44&sadssc=1

I can't think of a better place to see him perform

Ah, I'm loving this new record, especially Jubilee Street and Higgs Boson Blues. At times the latter suggests John Cale covering Neil Young's On The Beach. Which clearly would be a wonderful (if counter-intuitive) scenario.

jubilee street is his best song after the mercy seat, i reckon.

say whatnow

"Jubilee Street" is this album's "Babe I'm On Fire" - the best song by far on a weak album. Sorry, I love Nick but an album of ALL mellow ballads save one? Not feeling it.

yeah, this is closer to boring Boatman's Call/Nocturama Nick than i was hoping for. did Grinderman shake all the good loud stuff out of him?

upon further listening it's kinda growing on me. Am especially liking Higgs Boson Blues (lol) and Push the Sky Away, and Jubilee Street. It's a bit of a slow grower.

Bought this on vinyl yesterday and it's totally changed my view of this record, it's got such great subtle arrangement and space, lots of low end too which wasn't coming through on spotify...

Yes. I agree with that. This is a great record. None of the songs really work in isolated internet listening.

Opening date of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds US tour is in Louisville, which I am planning on going to check out. I'm not sure he has really played in this area since the Lollapalooza show in Indianapolis back in the mid 90s, which I saw (they followed The Boredoms).