Bad-Seed News (Ir)Regularly updated notes and information Notes from this month are on this page. For previous months, view the previous month's archives. See also the disclaimer and the links to previous years' archives and to other sites that provide news. Known and rumoured tour dates are also available.

Monday, October 18, 2004   Original Seeds Vol. 2: Songs that inspired Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds The Age, Saturday 02/10/04 Various Artists Rubber Records/Shock Both as a romantic visionary and genre-defying musician, Nick Cave has excelled himself again on his new double album with the Bad Seeds, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. Its release coincides with a new unauthorised compilation of Cave's sources over the years - a timely appraisal of the many less-travelled musical paths that have led to his seemingly unique body of work. As on Volume 1 (also reissued this week), compiler Kim Beissel has selected songs with clear significance to the band - as covered by various members, for example - or with profound links in mood, subject or sound. They span from 1939 to 1987, from the potent work songs of Leadbelly and Harry Belafonte to soul-scraping laments and excoriating proto-punk. The a capella ache of Nina Simone's Plain Gold Ring contrasts with the Stooges' paint-stripping Loose. Tim Rose's hair-raising version of Hey Joe nudges Bob Dylan's marital post-mortem Sara. From Elvis Presley to Lou Reed and Tom Waits, heavy hearts and furtive souls are unburdened... - Michael Dwyer On sale now www.rubberrecords.com.au posted by Ross Monday, October 18, 2004 Sunday, October 03, 2004   A great Interview with Nick came from the New Zealand Herald: Just in the time of Nick 11.09.2004 By FIONA STURGES Read the full article. An Excerpt is below: Looking back, he realises his parents were very supportive despite his best efforts to undermine their expectations. His father, who died when he was 19, was an English Literature teacher and helped nurture his son's love of books. Was starting up a band an act of rebellion? "It may have been but I don't think he saw it that way," Cave replies. "I remember showing him my first record which had a song on it called Masturbation Generation. He just looked baffled, which was quite crushing but at the same time I understood his reaction. In some fucked-up way I probably encouraged it. "He thought literature was at the very top of the learning pyramid and that Shakespeare was there balancing on the top. He may well have thought that all his efforts that he had put into me had been squandered. And then he died, so he never got to see where that kind of stuff went." Cave's mother, to whom he is close, is a much-valued critic of his work. Of his own role as a parent Cave says: "I do make some efforts to guide [my children's] interests but I also encourage them in whatever they want to do. My game plan as a father is non-existent. It's only when you become a parent that you suddenly realise that your own parents were winging it day by day as well and that's enormously reassuring." It has taken nearly 25 years for him to become comfortable with his position, if not as an icon, then as a singer and songwriter of acclaim. "I suppose I can write musician on an immigration document as my profession without blushing with shame," he says grudgingly. "I've come to understand music better in the last 10 years, and my place in it. For a start I can play it better - I'm a better pianist and singer, and with that comes a certain confidence. For most of my 20s and 30s I just felt like an impostor." posted by Ross Sunday, October 03, 2004

News | Previous Months | Previous Years | Links