Tag Archives: Nick Cave

LAZY COLTS ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE & VIDEO FOR ‘TWENTY TWO’ + DEBUT ALBUM ‘TROJAN’ + EAST COAST TOUR – August 2016

Lazy Colts 2 (2)
Cinematic alt-folk group, Lazy Colts have today announced the release of their brooding new single, Twenty Two, the second taste of their debut LP, Trojan, set for release on August 5. They’ll be hitting the road in August to celebrate the new LP, kicking off in Melbourne on August 6 and moving on to Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney then wrapping up in Katoomba on September 4.
Continue reading LAZY COLTS ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE & VIDEO FOR ‘TWENTY TWO’ + DEBUT ALBUM ‘TROJAN’ + EAST COAST TOUR – August 2016

Grinderman @ The Tivoli, Brisbane on January 24, 2011 [Photo Gallery]

Photographer: Matt Palmer
Click the image to view the photo gallery

[Photos: Matt Palmer]
Continue reading Grinderman @ The Tivoli, Brisbane on January 24, 2011 [Photo Gallery]

Grinderman – New Single ‘Heathen Child’ Out August 27

  Heathen Child, the new single from the band Grinderman, will be released on 27th August. The premiere offering from their new studio album Grinderman 2, Heathen Child will be released through Mute with the complete album following on 10th September.

The song Heathen Child cuts a deep seductively heavy groove interjected with dazzling squalls of saw-tooth distortion. It abounds in lyrical imagery at turns lascivious, paranoid, philosophic, absurd and flat out abusive.

The video, vividly directed by long-time collaborator John Hillcoat, brings the ominous sensuality and surreal malevolence of the lyrics to life; but it also demonstrates clear evidence of the fun and imagination Grinderman have working together.
Continue reading Grinderman – New Single ‘Heathen Child’ Out August 27

Live Review: ATP NEW YORK 2009 Curated BY The Flaming Lips & ATP – September 2009

Author: Elize Strydom
Imagine a festival on the set of Dirty Dancing. Or the Shining. Or a combination of both. Imagine a festival where there is no branding or on-site sponsorships. Where the crowd only reaches 3000 people, max and you don’t have to line up for hours and purchase a beer with a drink ticket. Where there are no VIP areas or back stage hangs and the artists mix it up with the punters. Where all shows are indoors and the weather doesn’t matter. Add to that sets from three Australian bands (The Drones, The Dirty Three and Bridezilla) as well as Animal Collective, The Jesus Lizard, Sufjan Stevens, Suicide, Deerhunter and the Feelies. It’s not a dream, it’s All Tomorrow’s Parties New York. Elize Strydom and a bunch of other Aussies managed to score cheap flights and experience the magic.

Photos of the live performances: The Drones, The Feelies, The Dirty Three feat. Nick Cave on piano, Panda Bear, Iron and Wine, Suicide, The Jesus Lizard and David Cross.

Review: Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Day 2

By: Elize Strydom

Day two! I arrive at the site to find it virtually deserted. I’m here early for good reason. I’ve been hanging out to catch Townsville collective The Middle East and they’re first up on the GW McLennan stage.

Their tunes The Darkest Side and Blood have been getting considerable airplay on triple j and a friend of the band handed me a copy of their record but I’ve been told they MUST be seen live. Five guys and one girl walk on stage and take their places behind various instruments but they won’t be there long. Throughout the set each member will put down his guitar and take up a trumpet, stop tinkling the ivories in favour of the flute, or accordion, or tambourine and on it goes. Rohin Jones takes the role as front man for much of the set. He’s smiley and gracious and thanks the audience for waking up. One minute the sound is gentle, spacious and delicate the next it’s raucous, crashing and emotive. Bree’s sweet vocals weave in and out of the softer tunes and I’m reminded of Bright Eyes during their more country rock moments. As I watch them I picture myself writing this review and just know I won’t do the Middle East justice. I haven’t. See them for yourself, post haste!
Continue reading Review: Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Day 2

Review: Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Day 1

By: Elize Strydom

The clouds have cleared and it’s a sunny 21 degree-er in Byron Bay. I’m at Splendour In The Grass but there ain’t a lot of green stuff on the ground at Belongil Feilds. No matter, no one really comes to this festival to hang out on the lawn, right?

I make my way through the gates sans sniffer dogs and my friend and I head over to the Supertop. “Let’s watch Manchester United!” I enthuse.

“Um, okay.” He says, “Not sure who they’re playing this weekend. But I know Manchester ORCHESTRA are about to play on this stage.”

Uh, yeah, that’s what I meant!

Manchester Orchestra look nothing like I expected – and no, I wasn’t expecting a real orchestra. Lead Singer Andy Hull reminds me of Joaquin Phoenix post identity crisis – a massive mop of hair, unkempt beard and wild eyes. He and his four band mates play long rock jams (with two drum kits!) with minimal lyrics and not a whole lot of interaction with the audience. I’m way up the back and people around me are into it, despite the fact that for most this is the first they’ve seen or heard from the Atlanta quintet. When they break out with triple j fave ‘I’ve Got Friends’ the crowd goes wild. It’s pretty different from the rest of their set. The song has the distinct structure of a ‘single’. When it’s over a bunch of people clear out but I stick around to the end and am not disappointed.
Continue reading Review: Splendour In The Grass 2009 – Day 1

Sunday Selection: Texas Tea : 14 June 2009

LifeMusicMedia’s Sunday Selection is your weekly view to Queensland Artists

Texas Tea    Texas Tea are a two piece alt-country act from Brisbane, Australia.

Texas Tea’s debut album, Take A Sip, featured heavily on radio from it’s release in 2006, including ABC, Triple R, PBS, Triple J, 4ZZZ. In 2006 and 2007 Texas Tea took out the Hot 100 on Brisbane’s 4ZzZfm with tracks ‘Macy and Me’ and ‘Whiskey and Wine’.

These tracks also featured as finalists in the Q Music Awards and in 2007 APRA Songwriters Award. Tracks from Take A Sip have been used in several film projects including a film by Tropfest Winning Director Steve Baker and more recently in feature film written and directed by John Jarratt – Savages Crossing.

Continue reading Sunday Selection: Texas Tea : 14 June 2009

Nick Cave Exhibition @ Tony Gould Gallery, QPAC Brisbane : 24 March – 9 May 2009

New QPAC exhibition showcases Aussie cult musician

Iconic Australian musician, songwriter and author Nick Cave is now the subject of his own exhibition at QPAC starting this month.

Delving behind the music and into Cave’s imagination and the sources of his unique vision through original lyrics, notebooks, artwork, photography and books; as well as objects from the musician’s own library and office, Nick Cave – the exhibition is on at the Tony Gould Gallery at QPAC Museum, from 24 March to 9 May 2009.

  nickcavetheexhibition

Continue reading Nick Cave Exhibition @ Tony Gould Gallery, QPAC Brisbane : 24 March – 9 May 2009

Mélanie Pain @ The Zoo, Brisbane 17 March 2009

Delivering confessional folk-pop chansons in English and French with the coy, breathy vocals of an ingénue, Mélanie Pain has the sort of oeuvre and style that inspire descriptions like “sugar and spice”, “naughty but nice”. As one of the main voices of Nouvelle Vague since their debut album in 2004, she seduced audiences with sassy sweetness on originals and covers like This is Not a Love Song,    Mélanie Pain

Teenage Kicks, Killing Moon, Ever Fallen in Love and Dance with Me. Now Mélanie has come up with My Name, her own debut solo album which incorporates personal reflections and influences such as Françoise Hardy, Nick Cave, Claudine Longet, Nancy Sinatra and Leonard Cohen in an intimate, Continue reading Mélanie Pain @ The Zoo, Brisbane 17 March 2009

San Valentino Bordello Show @ The Globe, Brisbane 14 February 2009 – Review

Review: San Valentino Bordello Show at The Globe, Brisbane 14 February 2009
Author: Lisa Lamb

Who knows when the fifties revival began? Maybe with *The Stray Cats* in the eighties, maybe in the seventies with Grease and Happy Days, or maybe The Wintersun Festival helping bring modern rockabilly rebels and greaser bands in to the limelight, such as Paulie & his Crazy Rhythm Boys, who opened the show on the foyer stage in authentic fifites style with thier double bass, duck tails, pants and guitars under the armpits. Some music is simply meant to be heard live, and rockabilly is one of them! The energy just makes you want to get up and shake to the rythm. It was like a scene from Back to the Future and this was the McFly band discovering Rock n Roll.

On the main stage The Wretched Villains stand out from the crowd sounding like an alternate gothic rock band from the late eighties, with influences from Nick Cave and Siouxie & the Banshees. Drawing upon the deep swamp blues and British post punk they produce a dark, classic and haunting sound giving a good contrast to the lightweight fifties sounds in the foyer.
Continue reading San Valentino Bordello Show @ The Globe, Brisbane 14 February 2009 – Review

All Tomorrow’s Parties – Riverstage, Brisbane 15 Jan 2009 Review

All Tomorrow’s Parties – The Riverstage, Brisbane
January 15, 2009
Author: Stephen Goodwin
nickcave14
Photo:Matt Palmer – Click here for full ATP Gallery

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Saints, Spiritualized, Robert Forster, The Necks, James Blood Ulmer

“And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow’s parties”
– The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967

The sun blasts Brisbane’s Riverstage bowl with pitiless intensity. The eyes almost hurt, and punters stake-out the little shade that exists as soon as they come through the gates. It’s a piercingly bright summer day that feels more suited to a day at the beach (or a Gunslinger showdown, for the more dramatically inclined) than the latest instalment of All Tomorrow’s Parties – the festival often dubbed “the ultimate mixtape”. Yet with the sun barely past the meridian, blues-jazz auteur James Blood Ulmer seats himself near the front of stage without fanfare and begins to play.

The open space and bright light of the Riverstage is a world away from the smoky, intimate bars that birthed the blues, yet Ulmer is unperturbed. His be-ringed hands glide languidly across his guitar, generating poignant echoing blues music to make the hardest soul melt. In a way, the fierce afternoon heat assists, forcing the few hundred early arrivals to seek the shade at the front of stage. His talented fingers and crooning, quavering voice do the rest. Katrina – she “ran a whole lotta people outta town” – is, perhaps, the highlight, but every song is greeted with generous applause and by the time he departs the initially reserved Ulmer seems to have almost warmed to both crowd and setting.

Avant-garde rock minimalists The Necks seem to confuse as many as they delight with a performance that’s not so much a set as a single instrumental movement. Over 45 unbroken minutes, pianist Chris Abrahams, double-bassist Lloyd Swanton and drummer Tony Buck construct, and then deconstruct, a hypnotic piece that blends their three instruments into a slowly evolving ocean of sound. With Abrahams facing away from his fellows, Swanton with eyes tightly shut, and Buck hunched studiously over his kit, there’s the overwhelming sense that the transitional cues are aural rather than verbal. But the true testimony to their skill is the organic fashion in which their initial gossamer web of piano and cymbals evolves into a portentous mass of deep bass tones and kick-drum thumps. By the end, we’re back to the start and wondering whether the intervening 45 minutes were merely a dream.

Robert Forster tempers his patrician loftiness with a boyish enthusiasm and playfulness that’s quite endearing. Seemingly so excited to be at ATP that he kicks off five minutes early, he and his band members squeeze out 11 summery pop songs to perfectly match the balmy late-afternoon. The selection leans heavily to Go-betweens tracks, but Forster skips the hits for obscurer choices such as Head Full Of Steam, German Farmhouse and Make Her Day. Surfing Magazines and Quiet Heart form a lovely duo of charm and tenderness, while Darlinghurst Nights and the rollicking Here Comes A City illustrate why Oceans Apart garnered critical acclaim. It’s left to If It Rains, Pandanus and Heart Out To Tender to hold the fort on behalf of Forster’s impressive solo repertoire.

J Spaceman’s (aka Jason Pierce) Spiritualized, incarnated for ATP as a seven-piece complete with a pair of wonderful gospel singers, bursts out of the blocks with the frothing, squalling admonishment of You Lie, You Cheat. What follows leaves the crowd spell struck, and proves a mere 45 minutes is hardly enough to fully appreciate the complex beauty of a sound that threads together rock, psychedelia, gospel and blues. Word wankery aside, it’s divine, and choosing a highlight is nigh-impossible. The bliss-out space-rock of Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space? The plaintive, hopeful poetry of Shine A Light? The anthemic grandeur of Soul On Fire? Or perhaps the wonderful, country-inflected rendition of Spaceman 3 classic Walking With Jesus? By the conclusion, if I wasn’t already, I think I’m in love, because the gospel singers just own Come Together, for all that they leave stage before the wig-out finale of guitar cacophony.

Surely no act on today’s ATP bill is more anticipated than The Saints. Billed to perform their seminal debut album in order, in its entirety, and with original members Ivor Hay and Ed Kuepper joining Chris Bailey, there’s a palpable feeling that the home-town performance could prove one for the annals. Anticipation peaks as the band emerges to the strains of bagpipes and Kuepper and Hay fire up. The joy is short-lived though. They open not with (I’m) Stranded, but Swing For The Crime – a cut from 1979′s Prehistoric Sounds. Shock and surprise soon turn to deflation and disbelief as they transition into This Perfect Day and it becomes clear that, somewhere, there’s been an unannounced change of plans.

In the end, only five out-of-order songs from (I’m) Stranded feature in the brief eight-song set. Criminally, not one is the title track. Equally mystifying, the mix is nothing short of appalling, reducing the crisp, ferocious beauty of Kuepper’s guitar to indiscernible droning sludge. The best moments come from the bluesy Kissin’ Cousins and a slow-tempo version of Messin’ With The Kid where Bailey’s acoustic guitar helps rather than hinders. But the verbal abuse sections of the crowd hurl at the departing band after they conclude with a disappointing rendition of Nights in Venice highlights how much of a letdown they were tonight. Know your product? Apparently not.

After The Saints, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds are left with a lot to do. Fortunately, their 90-minute set is an absolute barn-burster that completely erases the sour taste left by the The Saints‘ lead balloon. All energy, gusto and unignorable charisma, Cave prowls the stage, alternately treating his guitar with violent disdain and imperiously lashing the audience with his evocative lyrics. It only takes a few songs to grasp that the act of creating Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! has propelled the Bad Seeds’ passion for live performance into the stratosphere. Dual drum kits intensify the bottom end while the regular mandocaster wig-outs of Warren Ellis push many a Bad Seed classic to the edge of mania. And even if there’s a touch of greatest hits about the selections, there’s a frightening intensity in the delivery. Tupelo, The Mercy Seat, Papa Won’t Leave you Henry, The Weeping Song – all are simply searing.

Red Right Hand benefits from a softer club-lounge re-arrangement of soft ivories, brushed drums and finger-plucked fiddle – dramatic yet intimate. Then, in a flash, it concludes in a mania of sawing violin, mashed piano and crashing cymbals. Love Letter and The Ship Song form a quieter mid-set interlude, and amidst the older material, tracks from Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! emerge needle-sharp and glorious. The title track, as well as Midnight Man and More News From Nowhere, show signs of becoming instant classics. Only the demented We Call Upon The Author strikes an off note in its awkward transition into Ellis’s post-chorus funkified loops, but Cave’s vocal delivery is so fluid and poetic that it more than balances the ledger. Anyway, it’s surely nothing a pair of scissors can’t fix.

Cave demands audience participation as the band encore. But the crowd’s ragged call-and-response effort for Lyre of Orpheus prompts him to remark sardonically at the end: “Well, that was messed up”. The unrelentingly fierce rendition of Get Ready For Love that follows feels almost like a punishment for our collective misdemeanour. Unfortunately, all good things must come to the end, but the Bad Seeds have arguably saved the best for last, finishing with the stunning murder ballad Stagger Lee. From start to finish, it’s been a tour-de-force of no equal. And as we all drift off into the night, I muse that, bar a single act, ATP has been peerless too.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – ATP 2009 Photo Gallery

All Tomorrow’s Parties
January 15, 2009
The Riverstage, Brisbane
Photographer: Matt Palmer
Click image for full gallery
NickCave16-M

Continue reading Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – ATP 2009 Photo Gallery

Leonard Cohen Australian Tour 2009

leonard-cohen

“He is our Shelley; he is our Lord Byron!” – Bono

Leonard Cohen was the first artist I discovered by myself. He is the symbol of my musical independence. The sadness of Cohen was inspiring; it gave me a lot of energy. I always remember all this when someone says that my records are morbid or depressing.” – Nick Cave

“I tell you who I also think is wonderful is a chap called Leonard Cohen. Do you know him? He’s remarkable. I mean, the orchestration is fantastic and the words, the lyrics and everything, he’s a remarkable man.” – Prince Charles

“Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld/ so I can sigh eternally.” – Nirvana, “Pennyroyal Tea”

The Frontier Touring Company and Roundhouse Entertainment are honoured to present the legendary Mr Leonard Cohen in his first Australian concert tour in almost a quarter of a century. The tour will include a series of indoor arena concerts plus a day on the green winery shows.
Continue reading Leonard Cohen Australian Tour 2009

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – ATP 2009

For the inaugural Australian series All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP) have announced that arguably the most significant Australian export of the last twenty years Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, are to make their curating debut. The Bad Seeds intimate knowledge of all things Australian (music and otherwise) coupled with their innate sense of the weird and wonderful will – we are sure – make for a series of very unique events.

Performers already chosen to appear at All Tomorrow’s Parties 2009 include seminal Australian punk band, The Saints – featuring original members Ed Kuepper, Chris Bailey and Ivor Hay performing their first Australian shows (outside Brisbane) since 1977; British transcendentalists, Spiritualized; avant-blues artist, James Blood Ulmer (US); krautrock supergroup, Harmonia (Germany); electro-terrorists, Fuck Buttons (UK); pioneering synth-minimalists, Silver Apples (UK); psychotic space rockers, Afrirampo (Japan); Ex-Swan M. Gira (USA), the jazz-noir stylings of the Laughing Clowns (Aust), former Go-Between Robert Forster (Aust), the synth-punk of Primitive Calculators: former Birthday Party guitarist, Rowland S. Howard (Aust), post-grunge/noise devotees, The Stabs (Aust), classical-rock teenagers Bridezilla (Aust) & the sublime ambience of The Necks (Aust)

Continue reading Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – ATP 2009

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Bio

nickcaveandbadseedpromo
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds available at Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Arguably Australia’s most successful cultural export of the last twenty years, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – both collectively and individually – are also the most prolific. In the last eighteen months alone, Nick Cave, alongside fellow Bad Seeds; Warren Ellis (violin, mandocaster) Martyn Casey (bass) and Jim Sclavunus (drums), have released an album and toured under the name Grinderman – a bump and grind exaggeration of the Bad Seeds groove. Warren Ellis and Nick Cave have also written and released the soundtrack to the Brad Pitt produced movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; bassist Martyn Casey has revived his former role in the reunited Triffids performing at last year’s Sydney Festival; and the longest serving Bad Seed, Mick Harvey (guitar and organ), has released a solo album (his fourth) entitled Two of Diamonds. Harvey has also performed as guest musician at The Triffids reunion shows and most recently has been remixing the entire Bad Seeds back catalogue in 5.1 surround sound.

Continue reading Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Bio