Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
The band performing on stage, 2008.
Background information
Origin	Melbourne, Australia
Genres	Alternative rock, post-punk
Years active	1983–present
Labels	Mute, ANTI-
Associated acts	The Birthday Party, Einstürzende Neubauten, The Cramps, Grinderman, Die Haut
Website	www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com
Members
Nick Cave Thomas Wydler Martyn P. Casey Conway Savage Jim Sclavunos Warren Ellis
Past members
Mick Harvey Blixa Bargeld Barry Adamson Hugo Race Anita Lane Kid Congo Powers Roland Wolf James Johnston

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne in 1983. The band is fronted by songwriter Nick Cave and has featured international personnel throughout its career.

Following the demise of his group The Birthday Party, an artistically influential but obscure post-punk band, Cave has led the Bad Seeds through the corners of underground circuits into commercial success. With a dark and brooding sound alternating between explosive and introspective tendencies, the band developed a style equally indebted to avant garde and traditional music within an alternative rock context.

They are best known for "Where the Wild Roses Grow", their 1996 collaborative single with Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue from the Murder Ballads album which peaked at #11 on the UK charts, but the band has enjoyed a large cult following surrounding their 14 studio albums and extensive international touring. After the departures of founding members Blixa Bargeld and Mick Harvey in 2003 and 2009 respectively, the band became centered around Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, keyboardist Conway Savage, bassist Martyn P. Casey, and percussionists Thomas Wydler and Jim Sclavunos.

History

Formation and early releases (1983–1988)

The new, post-Birthday Party project was formed late in 1983, several months after the former group's demise, by two of its founding members: vocalist and songwriter Nick Cave and multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey. The new group marked a shift in Cave's songwriting style from expressionism to detailed lyrical narrative. Cave and Harvey were joined by an initially fluid group of band mates, including guitarists Blixa Bargeld (of Einstürzende Neubauten) and Hugo Race, and bassist Barry Adamson (of the English group Magazine), although the lineup began to solidify early the following year.

After some studio work with producer Flood, who would become a long-standing studio collaborator with the group, the band's debut public performance was held on New Year's Eve, 1983 in Melbourne, under the name Nick Cave – Man Or Myth? Even though the band was "in the wilderness" and without management, they followed this with a short tour, featuring guest bassist Tracy Pew of the Birthday Party replacing the unavailable Bargeld. The band then briefly performed under the name Nick Cave and the Cavemen before adopting the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds moniker, in reference to the final Birthday Party release, The Bad Seed EP. They released their debut album, From Her to Eternity, in 1984 on Mute Records, who released all subsequent Bad Seeds records. Cave's former girlfriend Anita Lane was credited as a band member on the record; although she and Race left the group shortly after the album's release, both later reappeared on future albums as guests.

Cave and guitarist Kid Congo Powers during the band's 1986 tour.

The four remaining band members relocated to West Berlin, Germany in 1985 and released The Firstborn Is Dead. The album meditated upon their obsession with the gothic Americana found in the American South and blues music, exemplified in songs like "Tupelo" and "Blind Lemon Jefferson", which reference the birth of Elvis Presley and the blues singer of the same name respectively. Released the following year, the cover album Kicking Against the Pricks explored these influences more directly by featuring covers of material by Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker and Lead Belly. The record also marked the arrival of Swiss drummer Thomas Wydler, a member of Die Haut, and saw guest appearances from Race, Pew, and Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard, who had briefly toured with the Bad Seeds as a substitute member in 1985.

The band garnered an increased following thanks to 1986's Your Funeral, My Trial, which coincided with Adamson's departure. The record replaced the propulsive grind of the previous records with a quiet menace, introducing carnival and cabaret elements while marking a significant step towards singer-songwriter composition. Tender Prey, their dark, brooding 1988 followup, saw the arrival of American guitarist Kid Congo Powers (moving Howard to bass) and short-tenured German keyboardist Roland Wolf, featured the signature song "The Mercy Seat" (which was later covered by Johnny Cash), and further increased the group's critical acclaim and commercial attention. Despite the increasing success, the band was struggling with personal problems related to drug and alcohol abuse.

Cave and his band mates also pursued extra-musical ambitions around this time. In 1987, the Bad Seeds made an appearance in the Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire, and Cave was also featured in the 1988 film Ghosts... of the Civil Dead, which he co-wrote. Cave's first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, was published the following year.

Growing success (1989–1996)

German guitarist Blixa Bargeld held a 20-year-long tenure in the Bad Seeds.

Cave relocated to São Paulo, Brazil soon after the release and subsequent tour for Tender Prey and, after successfully finishing rehab, began experimenting with piano-driven ballads, resulting in 1990's The Good Son. Seeped in sorrow and longing, the comparatively refined and understated album was well-received critically and commercially, yielding the singles "The Weeping Song" and "The Ship Song".

Two established Australian musicians, bassist Martyn Casey of The Triffids and solo artist and keyboardist Conway Savage, replaced the departing Powers (moving Harvey back to guitar) and Wolf. Their next record, 1992's Henry's Dream marked a step back towards harder rock, utilizing producer David Briggs, known for his work with Neil Young. The album's tour is documented on 1993's live album Live Seeds and showcases the new group's aggressive yet accomplished sound. In mid-1993, Cave relocated to London where Henry's Dream's follow-up Let Love In was recorded and released in 1994. The album moved further down the alternative rock path established by Henry's Dream, balancing vicious angry rock with moments of graceful restraint and yielding several popular songs, including "Red Right Hand" and "Loverman", which were featured heavily in the Scream film series and covered by Metallica, respectively. During the album's supporting tour, American percussionist and drummer Jim Sclavunos joined the group.

In 1996, the band released Murder Ballads, their best-selling album to date. Centered around the subject of murder, the album includes a cover of the folk song "Henry Lee" – a duet with British rock singer PJ Harvey, with whom Cave had a brief relationship – and "Where the Wild Roses Grow", a duet with Australian pop idol Kylie Minogue. The latter was a mainstream hit in the United Kingdom and in Australia, winning three ARIA Awards including Song of the Year. Having previously contributed to the Let Love In recording sessions, Australian violinist Warren Ellis of The Dirty Three began regularly working with the band at this time, and played an increasingly significant creative role in their output.

Further musical refinement; Bargeld's departure (1997–2005)

Cave and Conway Savage performing in 2004 on the Abattoir Blues Tour.

Their 1997 followup, The Boatman's Call, took a radical shift away from archetypal and violent narratives to biographical and confessional songs about relationships, loss and longing, often utilizing sparse arrangements. The album's subsequent tour was later documented on the 2008 live album, Live at the Royal Albert Hall. After the release of the album, Cave took a short break to rehabilitate from his 20 years of heroin and alcohol abuse,^{[citation needed]} during which time he also remarried.

Following Cave's rehabilitation in the late 1990s, the band oversaw the release of Original Seeds, a compilation of material from other artists that influenced the group, as well as their own best-of album. They properly resurfaced with No More Shall We Part in 2001. Their most refined effort, the record featured guest appearances by Kate and Anna McGarrigle and garnered generally good reviews: critics hailed it as the "entire album of deeply tragic and beautiful love songs without irony, sarcasm, or violent resolution" of which Cave and band seemed capable, while also recognizing that the proceedings threatened to devolve "into schmaltz". The followup, 2003's Nocturama was an attempt to return to band-oriented and collaborative arrangements, as opposed to the decreasing input of Cave's band mates seen on the previous releases. It met with mixed reviews, generally hailed as a mature and satisfying work that nonetheless failed to deliver on its promise to return to the group's former sound. Shortly after the album's release, Bargeld left the band after 20 years to devote more time to Einstürzende Neubauten.

In 2004, the band released the acclaimed two-disc set Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, with Bargeld replaced by the English guitarist and organist James Johnston, a member of Gallon Drunk and former guest member of the Bad Seeds from a Lollapalooza tour ten years prior. Conceived as two separate albums packaged together, the set featured a diverse palate of arrangement styles, including both aggressive rock and choir-driven ballads. Around this time, the band released B-Sides & Rarities, a three-disc, 56-track collection of B-sides, rarities, and compilation tracks, and The Abattoir Blues Tour, a two-CD, two-DVD boxed set with performances from the album's promotional tour, which featured supplemental guest backing vocalists expanding the band.

Also in 2005, Cave completed work on his script for The Proposition, a western film set in 19th century Australia by director John Hillcoat. Cave and Ellis collaborated on the film's score; their film score composition collaboration would later yield numerous soundtracks, including most notably those to the films The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and The Road (2009).

Grinderman; Harvey's departure (2006–present)

The side project Grinderman marked Cave's return to a ragged and raw sound, as well as his debut on guitar. Warren Ellis (right) contributed on numerous instruments.

After operating for several years as a touring "solo" band backing Cave, Bad Seeds members Ellis, Sclavunos and Casey formed the new side-project Grinderman with Cave in 2006. The band, featuring Cave playing guitar for the first significant time, took a step away from the lush orchestral sound the Bad Seeds had been developing and played garage rock-influenced music that nonetheless retained much of The Bad Seeds' aura. They released a self-titled debut album in 2007. That October, Cave was also inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, and expressed his intention to induct the Australian members of The Bad Seeds (excluding Race), plus the members of The Birthday Party (excluding Phill Calvert) in his acceptance speech.

The Bad Seeds released their 14th studio album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! in 2008, to overwhelming critical acclaim. Inspired by the biblical story of the resurrection of Lazarus of Bethany by Jesus Christ, the album continued the punk and garage rock-inspired arrangements explored by Grinderman, resulting in what NME termed a "gothic psycho-sexual apocalypse". The group next embarked on a North American and European tour supporting the album, with a seven-piece lineup omitting Johnston, who had left the group after the album's completion.

Cave and the band curated Australia's first edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival, held the following January in various Australian locations. On 22 January 2009, after the festival's completion, Mick Harvey announced his departure from the band after 25 years citing professional and personal reasons. It was the end of a 36-year-long musical collaboration between Cave and Harvey and left Cave as the group's only original member. The band performed summer festival dates with the addition of guitarist Ed Kuepper, formerly of the influential Australian bands The Saints and Laughing Clowns, acting as a touring member.

Following this string of activity, the Bad Seeds became dormant while Grinderman reactivated and produced Grinderman 2, and Cave completed and released his second novel, The Death of Bunny Munro. Mute Records embarked upon a series of reissue projects that year, packaging remastered versions of the Bad Seeds' albums with documentary footage surrounding the making and reception of each record directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. The group also attracted further attention when their song "O Children" appeared in the 2010 film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.

Late in 2010, Cave announced in an interview with Spinner that the Bad Seeds are presently planning a 15th record. In December 2011, Grinderman disbanded immediately following an Australian tour.

Members

Main article: List of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds band members

Current lineup

• Nick Cave – vocals, piano, organ, harmonica, percussion, electric guitar, string arrangements (1983–present)
• Thomas Wydler – drums, percussion, vocals (1985–present)
• Martyn P. Casey – bass, vocals (1990–present)
• Conway Savage – piano, organ, vocals (1990–present)
• Jim Sclavunos – percussion, drums, organ, melodica, vocals (1994–present)
• Warren Ellis – violin, fender mandocaster, loops, mandolin, tenor guitar, viola, bouzouki, accordion, flute, lute, piano, programming, percussion, string arrangements, vocals (1997–present; as guest, 1994–1997)

Former members

• Mick Harvey  – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, organ, percussion, piano, loops, string arrangements, vocals (1983–2009)
• Blixa Bargeld – electric guitar, slide guitar, pedal steel guitar, keyboards, vocals (1983–2003)
• Barry Adamson – bass, electric guitar, drums, organ, piano, percussion, vocals (1983–1986)
• Hugo Race – electric guitar, vocals (1983–1984)
• Anita Lane – lyrics (1984)
• Kid Congo Powers – electric guitar, slide guitar (1986–1990)
• Roland Wolf (deceased) – piano, organ, electric guitar, vocals (1986–1989)
• James Johnston – organ, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals (2003–2008; as guest, 1994)

Guest and touring musicians

• James G. Thirlwell – uncredited studio session (1983)
• Tracy Pew (deceased) – bass (1984)
• Edward Clayton-Jones – guitar (1984)
• Christoph Dreher – bass (1985)
• Rowland S. Howard (deceased) – electric guitar, organ, vocals (1985)
• Ed Kuepper – electric guitar, vocals (2009)

Discography

Main article: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds discography

• From Her to Eternity (1984)
• The Firstborn Is Dead (1985)
• Kicking Against the Pricks (1986)
• Your Funeral… My Trial (1986)
• Tender Prey (1988)
• The Good Son (1990)
• Henry's Dream (1992)
• Let Love In (1994)
• Murder Ballads (1996)
• The Boatman's Call (1997)
• No More Shall We Part (2001)
• Nocturama (2003)
• Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2CD) (2004)
• Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (2008)

Awards

• 2007 ARIA Hall of Fame: inductee (Cave); honorary inductees (Harvey, Ellis, Savage, Casey)
• 2001 ARIA Awards: Best Male Artist for No More Shall We Part (although the album is credited to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)
• 2001 Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) 75th Anniversary: "The Ship Song" voted in the APRA Top 30 Australian songs
• 1996 ARIA Awards: Song of the Year, Single of the Year and Best Pop Release for "Where the Wild Roses Grow"

External links

• Official website
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on MySpace