With much fanfare and ado, the "Rock and Roll Means Well" team is proud, and indeed, humble to select in the only category fit for the following artist...
GRINDERMAN BY GRINDERMAN in the ROCK category
Quote:
For decades, Nick Cave, ringmaster of his own rock'n'roll circus, has been an unlikely paragon of routine. Not routine music, per se, but music made as part of a routine. Check in to the office, check out of the office. Repeat. Don't wait for your muse to come to you. Go to her first and demand she appear. Contrary to his reputation as a bit of a wild man, by his own account Cave's spent the past several years a man of discipline, with rules right down to what rules need be discarded, and when.
Grinderman, then, is Cave's considered decision to set aside those rules and make a sideways move into the realm of stripped down-- but far from mellow-- rock. Inspired by the creation of the most recent Bad Seeds release, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, Cave took his cohorts Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey, and Jim Sclavunos into the studio to slash and burn their way through new ideas until they'd amassed enough for an album. Unlike Abattoir/Lyre however, Cave kept the remaining Bad Seeds on the sidelines and, rather than flesh out the results, left them raw and stinging, setting aside his piano in favor of guitar.
By doing so Cave has predictably invited comparisons to his first claim to fame, the Birthday Party-- and not without reason. Grinderman reveals Cave has rediscovered (or at least reembraced) the possibilities of the theatrical punk dirge, with arrangements that threaten to fly right off the rails.
But the Cave of the Birthday Party and the Cave of Grinderman are totally different beasts, and for that we can thank Cave's (yes) discipline-- as a writer, singer and as a bandleader. Grinderman are an indulgent study in excess, sure, but the twist is that at every turn Cave keeps the chaos carefully in check, emphasizing messiness when need be but also showcasing the deceptively precise playing of his band as well as his loose and at times gloriously silly lyrics.
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1. Get It On
2. No Blues
3. Electric Alice
4. Grinderman
5. Depth Charge Ethel
6. Go Tell The Women
7. (I Don't Need You To) Set Me Free
8. Honey Bee (Lets Fly To Mars)
9. Man In The Moon
10. When My Love Comes Down
11. Love Bomb
Personal favourite from Nick Cave and the gang. Seeing as how all these guys are pushing late 40s, early 50s and they rock about 3200 times more than your average "rock" group, I see no better pick for the "rock and roll" category.
No Pu$$y Blues should be the anthem of all men, no matter what their creed, ideology or religion.
Check the pitchfork review.