Grinderman

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• Grinderman

  It is almost absurd to think that there is such a group that exists for the sole purpose of Nick Cave releasing material considered too aggressive for the Bad Seeds. Anyone remotely familiar with the work of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds know how intense and macabre their sound can be. Grinderman suggests they can take it further and somehow they manage to do so.

  This description of Grinderman actually makes sense in a different context. Over the past decade Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have mellowed out quite a bit. Some of their albums such as Nocturna saw an emphasis on piano ballads. Their double album “Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus” illustrated the group’s dichotic nature of blistering intensity and calming beauty. Eventually it seemed as though the raw and dark side of the Bad Seeds took on the alter ego, Grinderman, and the softer and subtly haunting part enveloped the entirety of the group. This is particularly evident on their latest album “Push the Sky Away”.

  There are no restrictions placed on Grinderman and while this tactic leaves the group vulnerable to self-indulgent experimentation it also opens the possibility for the band to make some of their most creative and exciting music. Fortunately the latter has become a reality.

  When I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds I thought that it was one of the most visceral and dramatic performances ever to be witnessed. Nick Cave and company were dressed in serious black suits and moved about frenetically under hellish red lights. At one point he even jerked one of the audience members on stage like a rag doll. There were some welcomed quiet moments in the performance as well and over all the show was a diverse and interesting range of material. At a Grinderman show you can expect their to be one level of music and that is complete insanity. Distorted guitars howl throughout the performance, Nick Cave yells like a manic preacher and at time Warren Ellis seems like Charles Manson having a conniption fit. What is even more wild about these shows is that they are often performed in intimate settings meaning that the majority of the audience is going to be fairly close to the action. During one part of the performance at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, Georgia Warren Ellis was laying on his back kicking his feet in the air crazily and spontaneously swinging his head up to the microphone shouting none other but the word “EVIL!” It was a terrifying but completely grappling experience. If you are looking for a raw rock concert with full throttle energy there is perhaps none better than a Grinderman show.

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  by wjmcc

• Grinderman was established in London as a side project for Bad Seeds frontman Nick Cave. It was a chance for Cave to get out from under the weight of the immense success of the Bad Seeds and explore musical styles that saw him returning to his early days in the eighties playing with The Birthday Party, with a grungier, No Wave sound. Grinderman's Records were rawer than the work of the Bad Seeds, and allowed Cave, and his Bad Seeds bandmates, to have a little more fun with their compositions, on which they all worked, rather than the Cave-centric Bad Seeds. Both of their releases saw critical acclaim and their tours reflect that, regularly packed to the rafters, heavy riff-laden guitar blasting out into the crowd. Nick's narratives and his Idiosyncratic drawl underpin every track they feature on, and whether it be Bad Seeds or Grinderman, they are his children, and in turn are ubiquitously Cave-ian. Grinderman fans are die-hard, and are just as much a part of the atmosphere at shows. The interplay between Cave and his audience is electric, with the Grinderman sound reverberating in and around the whole Crowd's heads and taking them over, sending them into something of a frenzy. A chance to see Cave and the Grinderman crew is something you dont't pass on lightly, it's an entirely different animal to your run-of-the-mill show, they are storytellers and performances unrivalled.

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  by matthookuk