Nick Cave : Classic or Dud ?

went out, found Boy On Fire on the shelf in the local chain newsagent. So bought it despite being broke, cos t was cheaper than I think I'd heard it was elsewhere. (Oh yeah had access beyond the front of the shop to the shelfs that people haven't been near since the start of the year.)
Then got home and heard that Anita who must feature heavily was dead. Sorry to hear that.

RIP. Had never heard her version of Sexual Healing before ( w / Nick Cave on backup vocals).

(Johannes Beck & Moritz Wolpert are credited as the "choir" on that. Barry Adamson plays vibes, though.)

Rob Sheffield obit for Rolling Stone.

Memories by Nick: https://www.theredhandfiles.com/tell-us-about-anita/

Standing on the street in a baby-doll dress, surrounded by sunshine, laughing and radiating a piercing beauty of such force you stop breathing.

I could not believe my eyes.

Later, at my kitchen table drawing things, she had a quickness of touch and a clear, light line full of humour, throwing each drawing away and starting another, charged with a rampant, unstable, fatal energy that would follow her all her life. My line, amateur and ponderous.

Everyone wanted to work with her but it was like trying to trap lightning in a bottle. Mick Harvey managed to coral her into the recording studio, but these precious offerings are a fraction of what she was.

She was the smartest and most talented of all of us, by far.

Walked into the most prestigious art college in Australia — on a whim — and talked her way into being given a place there. Bought an easel, some butcher’s paper, some crayons, put on a dress, did her hair and never went back in.

She thought the best ideas were the ones that never saw the light of day.

She was the brains behind The Birthday Party, wrote a bunch of their songs, wrote ‘From Her to Eternity’, ‘The World’s a Girl’, ’Sugar in a Hurricane’ and my favourite Bad Seeds song, ‘Stranger Than Kindness’, but was much more than that.

(more in the link)

I'm late to hearing it, but I think Carnage is a fantastic record and one of my favorites in recent years. The individual songs are great on their own, but this is a case of all of them being elevated by the overall running order - the back half being one extended comedown from the frantic peak of "White Elephant" is really, really well done.

Carnage is really great, I listened when it first came out and it didn't really do much for me, but I've been playing it a bunch the last couple of days & really getting into it

I almost didn't even pick this one up because I'd filed it mentally as another of their film score things, so glad I righted that, it really is terrific.

LP is due to arrive to me today so I am excited to listen to the physical thing.

Pro-tip: Cave on a recent Red Hand Files (which I don't even know why I read these anymore) did this deep-dive/close read of the lyrics for Carnage and I would say avoid it all costs becuz as much as I love the music & his lyrics he recently has been making me insane by explaining what songs are about specifically and imo, he has no fucking clue what his songs are about or he's just wrong.

Don't explain the songs.

...could you elaborate?

I cannot

Goodness I'd forgotten about this. I've barely digested Ghosteen. Is it a tough one to get into? I suppose it doesn't matter, I should get it.

It's not tough, mainly just pretty.

it's probably most similar to skeleton tree, but i prefer it to that

he has no fucking clue what his songs are about

what does this even mean

this? https://www.theredhandfiles.com/such-a-beautiful-sad-song-carnage/

oh wait - avoid clicking on that link at all costs!

https://pitchfork.com/news/nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds-announce-b-sides-and-rarities-part-ii-share-song-listen/

oh this seems really interesting - there weren't much in the way of non-album tracks from the last few albums released so there's a ton of completely unreleased outtakes & alternate versions here it seems like

The limited edition 7-LP vinyl box sold out already. Knowing Nick and his one-night-only films and never-to-be-repeated online shows, I'll just get a copy when it gets a general release.

I had the original 3-CD version that went up the 2000s or something, and I sold it cos it was basically a black box with 3 CDs in it. No notes, booklet, nothing. It didn't feel any different from owning a bunch of burnt discs. So anyway, I can't wait to get it back on vinyl plus the new stuff for £140 haha.

opium tea from the first b-sides one is class!!

has anyone been to see cave & ellis on this tour yet? am i to expect a playthrough of carnage, or...? i bought tickets thinking it was the bad seeds!

don't think the tour's started yet. i would be expecting most of the new album + a bunch of bad seeds & maybe grinderman tracks in some sort of relatively stripped down form

they're performing with one extra musician & some backing singers, to give you an idea of how stripped down it'll be compared to the bad seeds

They added a load of extra dates, including Glasgow, but at £90 for any decent seat I'm going to give it a miss.

Nick has more thoughts about woke culture

https://www.nme.com/news/music/nick-cave-says-hes-repelled-woke-cultures-self-righteous-belief-lack-humility-2557386

Ugh.

stfu old man

“Antifa and the Far Right, for example, with their routine street fights, role-playing and dress-ups are participants in a weirdly erotic, violent and mutually self-sustaining marriage, propped up entirely by the blind, inflexible convictions of each other’s belief systems. It is good for nothing, except inflaming their own self-righteousness."

Actually Nick, one side is more propped up by the police. And it's not a marriage, you might be thinking of Batman and the Joker.

oh this is actually the same stupid one I saw before, at least he didn't write a new one

Yeah that's the one from 2019, which doesn't make it good or anything, I was just expecting an even dumber doubling down or something.

^^ same

nick cave and the bad screeds

oh sorry i missed the date :(

no worries, definitely worth another round of mockery

modern classics or dud?

https://i.imgur.com/TVoASfg.jpg

samples are here. I have to say I'm not encouraged

https://www.juno.co.uk/products/nick-cave-sings-the-modern-classics/846639-01/

ok actually the 2nd track sounds kinda good. "disco 2000" sounds dire. "sweetest embrace" sounds like kicking against the pricks style lounge classic, as does "suzanne" though honestly is there really call to cover "suzanne" some more, or "here comes the sun" for that matter

Are these new recordings or is this just a covers comp?

It's a bootleg

sure, but what are the sources here? the instrumentation, based on the samples, sounds largely from a single session

Someone should email that photo to Cave's fan question thingie - he'll probably cringe and make a good joke about it.

All The Pretty Horses sounds ripped straight from the track on the Current 93 album that Cave sang on.

Same with Cave singing Disco 2000 from the Pulp Bad Cover Version EP

so i'm guess it's a comped bootleg of obscure covers

(Not to digress, but has anyone been to the current tour with Warren Ellis?)

sure, but what are the sources here? the instrumentation, based on the samples, sounds largely from a single session

JCLC you might enjoy TOWERS OF SONG: a Nick Cave Sings Covers listening thread and poll

His Disco 2000 is lovely.

I love the Pulp cover as well - and it makes sense when put in context with the Bad Cover Version ep

I don't even have a functioning turntable currently but I had to grab one off Discogs. I'll frame it if nothing else.

(Not to digress, but has anyone been to the current tour with Warren Ellis?)

they added a second show in Oakland and I thought about going, there are still decent seats, but it's pretty pricey (as is every major tour these days). Not sure; I love Cave and at one point wouldn't have thought twice, but his cultural dominance in the past few years has been a little tiring to me. I'm sure it will be great though; I saw him with just Ellis many years ago and it was one of the best shows I'd ever seen up to that point in time.

those are all previously released covers. i can't tell if that collection it's an actual bootleg or they're just trying to make it seem like one as a bit - i guess stores like juno mightn't be stocking it if it was actually unauthorised (?), but there's no mention of it from any official source. looks like it first got released last year, and the label it's on ("b-vis") doesn't seem to meaningfully exist and is alternatively described being from spain or poland.

gotta be one of the best crowd reaction shots ever pic.twitter.com/rXguEzDMMd

— Sam Fishell (@SamFishell) March 9, 2022