Grinderman

Grinderman

[4.5/5] Since his early days fronting the seminal Australian outfit the Birthday Party, singer/songwriter Nick Cave’s career has polarized audiences. Well, pick a side, friends, because you’re either with Grinderman or you’re riding the blandwagon. Cave (this time on guitar and organ) and Seeds associates Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos deliver 11 tracks that scorch the earth lesser bands traipse on. There’s plenty of free-range psychosis running amok here (“Depth Charge Ethel” is the B-Party’s “Zoo Music Girl” all grown up and significantly damaged), and even when the proceedings get dialed down significantly (“Man In The Moon”), there’s still a sense of devastation in the air. This time out, Cave’s lyrics alone are worthy of their own separate review (“Two-thousand years of Christian history baby, and you ain’t learned to love me yet”), filled with an arrogance and swagger usually emanating from drifters and organized crime bosses.

As Cave intones on “Go Tell The Women,” “We are tired/We got nothin’ to believe in/We are lost/Go tell the women that we’re leaving.” Grinderman have no intention of saving rock ’n’ roll: They’ve chosen to stuff the corpse with dynamite and get it the hell out of the way of progress. Young pups and old-timers who have lost their way, take note. (ANTI-) Jason Pettigrew

ROCKS LIKE:

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ From Her To Eternity

The Birthday Party’s Mutiny

Sonic Youth’s Bad Moon Rising

IN-STORE SESSION with NICK CAVE

Grinderman are made up of longtime principals of the Bad Seeds. So why a different band name?

We wanted to make a record that was just the four of us. We’d been playing together a lot on projects outside of the Bad Seeds-my solo gigs, a couple of film scores, theatrical productions. We felt that the four of us were developing a sound that only we could do, and if we added the other Bad Seeds members, it would be another kind of sound. It seemed like a natural thing to do; plus, I get to play guitar.

The disc has an urgency that sounds like there were a lot of first takes.

If we’re doing a third take of something, we usually go back and find what’s wrong with the song. With the first take, there’s something that you can’t get again.

In terms of energy and immediacy, Grinderman sounds a lot like the first Seeds album, 1984’s From Her To Eternity.

It has a lot in common with [that record], not sonically, but that record was a group of musicians going into a studio without any fucking idea as to what we wanted to do. We wanted to be a band; we had no idea what kind of music we wanted to make. Grinderman has a similar feel to it. For all the records I’ve heard it compared to, I’m glad it’s that one, specifically for that reason.

You’ve set up the Bad Seeds as a vehicle that’s quite majestic sounding. Are there any non-musical influences that stopped this from being a proper Bad Seeds record?

I’m very proud of what the Bad Seeds have done and continue to do-it’s the mothership. We wanted to make a different record: As soon as you get eight musicians into the studio, the record changes completely. We wanted Grinderman to get away from that majestic sound you’re talking about.

So it’s impossible to do it as…

Look, it would be very impractical for me to walk into a Bad Seeds rehearsal and say, “I’m going to play guitar now, and this is the new record…”

But it’s your band.

It is my band, but I think certain members of the Bad Seeds might go, “Fuck off.”

Then you say, “Fuck you, I write the checks.”

This is why I’m a successful bandleader and you’re a journalist. -Jason Pettigrew