thus spake drake: grinderman

Showing posts with label grinderman. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Luther - Miniseries 2, Episode 4: But I do know ka-razy

The BBC America conflicted cop series Luther just concluded its second min-season run with an episode that had its protagonist go to some pretty psychotic extremes to end a stand-off with a serial killer identical twin. Idris Elba acts the hell out of this to make it work better than it sounds... somebody just go ahead and make him the new James Bond.

And what better to back batsh*t crazy events like this than the lunatic stalker love song ("Palaces of Montezuma") that Nick Cave performs with his rock outfit, Grinderman.

"Oh c'mon baby, let's get out of the cold / And gimme gimme gimme your precious love for me to hold." Ice cream cones taste so good with gasoline.

Luther - Miniseries 2, Episode 4
"Palaces of Montezuma" - Grinderman

Monday, November 15, 2010

Ear on TV: Week of 11.15.10: Bruce Springsteen

Is it possible that the greatest album never released is seeing the light of day this week? Being a Springsteen fan means you've always taken it on faith that of the more than 50 songs recorded between 1975's Born to Run and 1978's Darkness at the Edge of Town, there was a tremendous album to be had. And with the double CD release of The Promise on Tuesday, we finally have confirmation of that.

To celebrate the great collection* of lost material, Bruce Springsteen will be taking over Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Tuesday night, sitting down to be interviewed as well as play multiple selections from the release. It's not known yet if the E Street Band will be on hand, but even if they are, it's certainly in the realm of possibility that The Roots could be backing him on one or two of these songs. Certainly "Fire" (which The Pointer Sisters made into a hit) is in The Roots wheelhouse, but I'd also love to hear the doo-wop vocals and fun of "Ain't Good Enough For You" translated by The Best Band in Late Night's backing. And really, it just doesn't matter who he's got backing him on "Because the Night," as that will burn regardless (see video of performance from 1978).

*The Promise comes in a couple packages. One is just the double CD featuring the remastered lost recordings, and the other deluxe package is a 3CD-3DVD collection with a reissue of the original Darkness on the Edge of Town, HBO-aired documentary (The Promise: the Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town), special 2009 concert of Bruce & the E Street Band along with a DVD collecting live performances from 1976-78.

But Fallon and The Roots didn't stop with the Boss coup this week. They managed to capture pretty much every band I'd normally feature as the lede for this weekly column. On Monday, it's the heady Nick Cave's primal outlet Grinderman, who's second album Grinderman 2 continues where their debut left off: employing mid-life crisis to melt my face off. On Thursday, it's Ireland's The Frames, the original band for The Swell Season's Glen Hansard. Seeing the success of both The Swell Season and Mumford & Sons, a comeback for The Frames feels like a no-brainer, but you can't account for the fickle taste of today's music consumer.

Finally, for Fallon on Friday, critic's darling Sufjan Stevens makes a rare television appearance in support of his epic The Age of Adz. The concept album loosely tracks the life of freak painter Royal Robertson and features a broadening of Stevens intricately arranged tracks. Stevens has been putting on quite a show thus far on his tour, and it looks like we might expect some theatrics for his appearance on Fallon.

Picks for the week
Monday, November 15
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Rascal Flatts
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Annie Lennox
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Grinderman
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Kate Nash (REPEAT)
TBS: Conan: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
TBS: Lopez Tonight: Ne-Yo
Tuesday, November 16
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Rihanna
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Bear in Heaven
IFC: 360 Sessions: Jay Sean
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Nelly
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Bruce Springsteen
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Japandroids
OVATION: Masters of American Music: Bluesland: Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, T-Bone, Son House
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Nelly
TBS: Conan: Reggie Watts
Wednesday, November 17
ABC: The View: Ludacris
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Nelly
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Ne-Yo
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Delorean
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Rascal Flatts
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Broken Bells, K-Os
OVATION: Hendrix: Landing: Jimi Hendrix
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Pink, Kid Rock
TBS: Conan: Kid Rock
Thursday, November 18
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: My Chemical Romance
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Bear in Heaven
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: The Frames
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Menomena, Yo Gabba Gabba
TBS: Conan: The Decemberists
Friday, November 19
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (REPEAT)
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Secret Sisters
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Sufjan Stevens
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Fitz & the Tantrums
VH1: Kid Rock: Born Free: Kid Rock
Saturday, November 20
BBCAMERICA: The Graham Norton Show: Rihanna
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Florence & the Machine
PBS: Austin City Limits: John Legend & The Roots
Sunday, November 21
ABC: American Music Awards: Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Kid Rock, Bon Jovi, Ke$ha, Katy Perry, more

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Now Downloading: New Releases 09.14.10

This week is the Super Tuesday of indie rock releases for 2010. The embarrassment of riches includes the latest from The Walkmen, Of Montreal, Weezer, Chromeo, The Black Angels, Black Mountain, J. Tillman, Junip, Azure Ray, Blonde Redhead, Crocodiles, Cloud Cult, a second round of Nick Cave's Grinderman plus strong returns for both Superchunk and The Vaselines.

Playlist: New Releases 09.14.10

Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Don't call it a comeback, because the 'Chunk never left. Sure it's been nine years since their last release, but Merge Records' house band never called it quits, but instead were just taking their time. Musically, Majesty Shredding is a return to the spunky pre-Here's Where the Strings Come In days, before the days of embellishment (not that their later catalogue was bad, on the contrary). Throw in lyrics that folks in their 40s can identify with and it's the best of both worlds for an aging indie rocker like me.

Free AOL Album Stream
Download: "Digging For Something" [mp3]

Grinderman - Grinderman 2
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Nick Cave's mid-life crisis disguised as a return to Birthday Party rawness back in 2007 gets a much welcomed sequel. More improvised lyrics over raw expositions result in another Nick Cave gem. He's notched three in a row (counting Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! w/ the Bad Seeds). Cave does the dirty old man bit to perfection.

Free AOL Album Stream
Download: "Heathen Child" [mp3]

Of Montreal - False Priest
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Of Montreal has largely been a one-man effort over the years for Kevin Barnes, but False Priest sees the Atlanta native in a collaborative mood, with the band getting more credit along with some high profile guest stars. Jon Brion helps in production, while Solange Knowles and Janelle Monae join in for a couple duets. It's not as genius as Hissing Fauna..., but it's a step up from 2008's Skeletal Lamping.

Free AOL Album Stream
Download: "Croquette Croquette" [mp3]

The Walkmen - Lisbon
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

I've given up expecting The Walkmen to write another "The Rat," the best thing they've ever done. A funny thing happened on the way to waiting for another burner like "The Rat" to come along -- the band got better at writing spare and powerful songs that don't require the guitars at 11. Album highlight "Angela Surf City" is as close as they get, and I'm alright with that.

Free AOL Album Stream
Download: "Stranded" [mp3]

Junip - Fields
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Before Sweden's Jose Gonzalez achieved solo success, he was the frontman for this act. Reforming the band, you'd think that this would sound more like a band and less like a slightly more rocking Gonzalez solo release. Of course, that's a welcome outcome as well, and there's plenty to like here, especially if you're already a Jose fan.

Free AOL Album Stream

The Vaselines - Sex With an X
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Part of the magic in all these reunions is a return to youth, but sometimes you can't go back. Glasgow's The Vaselines were at their best juxtoposing innocence and sexual honesty, and occasionally the combination works with Sex With an X -- their first album in 21 years -- but they're in their 40s now and that formula doesn't have quite the same magic anymore. Belle & Sebastian help out backing the band and a few sparks fly, but after 21 years of waiting, don't you want a little more?

Free AOL Album Stream
Download: "Sex With an X" [mp3]

Monday, July 23, 2007

Ear on TV: Week of July 23

This week, to make things simple, just set your digital video recording device to record Letterman every night, as Paul Shaffer and the Late Show Band will be hosting a must-see act every night, bookending the week with two acts I'm particularly excited to see: Grinderman and Buffalo Tom.

First up tonight is the Nick Cave-led Grinderman, which is essentially a stripped-down version of The Bad Seeds. It's driven by the raw sounds of Cave playing electric guitar for the first time in his life, and is a sort of return to the post-punk roots of his early eighties band The Birthday Party. His lyrics and delivery are more off-the-cuff and like his guitar scratches, completely raw, which almost always translates into a great live experience.

Tuesday night, Letterman welcomes critic darlings The National, featuring the lyrical poetry lead singer Matt Berninger, who's baritone delivery is understated magic. Wednesday night, country legend Porter Wagoner stops by and shows how country music should be done, even at 80 years of age. Thursday brings the garage-punk sounds of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Karen O's stage presence will surely produce beads of sweat on Paul Shaffer's balding head.

And ending the week in style, the Boston-based trio Buffalo Tom return after nine years with a new album (Three Easy Pieces) and easily join the upper ranks of the indie rock reunion circuit. Funny to think that the last time they played a talk show (in support of 1999's Smitten,) it was closing out the final show of The Jon Stewart Show on MTV (see video.) Bringing it full circle, one of Stewart's guests on that final show was David Letterman.

Finally, I'd be remiss not to mention that PBS is re-airing the infamous Guided By Voices appearance on Austin City Limits, documented on DVD in full earlier this year. That their cohorts in the episode are Modest Mouse only adds to the necessity to tune in (again.)

Picks for the week
Monday, July 23
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Grinderman
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Common
NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Dr. Dog (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Dolores O'Riordan (REPEAT)
Tuesday, July 24
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The National
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Wednesday, July 25
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Editors
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Porter Wagoner
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Stephen Stills
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Ben Kweller (REPEAT)
Thursday, July 26
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: T.I. (REPEAT)
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
SUNDANCE: Live From Abbey Road: Massive Attack, Dr. John, LeAnn Rimes
Friday, July 27
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Buffalo Tom
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: The Cribs
IFC: The Henry Rollins Show: The Good, the Bad & the Queen
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Silversun Pickups (REPEAT)
Saturday, July 28
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Snow Patrol
PBS: Austin City Limits: Modest Mouse, Guided By Voices

tags: music, television, soundtrack, talk shows, grinderman, buffalo tom, the national, gbv,letterman, indie rock, rhapsody

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Now Downloading: New Releases 04.10.07

It's another great week for new music, with new releases from Bright Eyes (see previous post,) Blonde Redhead, Laura Veirs, The Rosebuds and the exciting new group from Nick Cave and his Bad Seed bretheren called Grinderman.

Playlist: New Releases 04.10.07

----------------------------------------------

Album: Grinderman - Grinderman

"Foul-mouthed, noisy, hairy, and damn well old enough to know better," or so says the press release. Nick Cave recently came to the realization that he might be in a rut. For years now, Cave's method of songwriting had always been writing the songs in his office, then presenting them to his band (The Bad Seeds.) This time around, he took a different approach, so different that it required a new band name: Grinderman. This time out Cave actually straps on a guitar and he and most the Bad Seeds (Martyn Casey, Warren Ellis and Jim Sclavunos) worked these songs as a group. Cave improvised lyrics and played guitar while the rest of the band built the songs around his primitive guitar work. For fans of Cave's old group The Birthday Party, this is a welcome return to noisy rock for Cave. Songs like the blazing opener "Get It On," and the triumphant "Depth Charge Ethel" put Cave in the sonic company of pre-punkers The Stooges and NY's legendary Suicide. It's the opening lines to "No Pussy Blues," though, that takes the cake (and shoves it deliciously down your throat:)

My face is finished, my body's gone.
And I can't help but think standin' up here
in all this applause and gazin' down
at all the young and the beautiful.
With their questioning eyes.
That I must above all things love myself.

What a great release!

Free AOL album stream

-----------------------------

Album: Blonde Redhead - 23

Blonde Redhead started out as Sonic Youth-inspired No Wavers, but have since slowly developed and smoothed out the edges over their twelve years and now seven albums. 23 isn't a massive departure from 2004's Misery Is a Butterfly but it is perhaps more refined and subtle in it's attack on our senses. The layers of guitar, vocals and atmospherics are blended so that you barely notice there's a art-pop structure underneath all this, which is fine. The meditation you fall into is a perfectly good method of travel from tracks 1-10. Unlocking what lies underneath can (and will) come later.

Free AOL album stream

-----------------------------

Album: Laura Veirs - Saltbreakers

Laura Veirs spent a good chunk of time opening for Sufjan Stevens just prior to recording Saltbreakers, and it certainly shows... one listen to the beautiful "To The Country" and it's hard not to imagine Sufjan pulling the strings. The album centers on the theme of water and the ocean, as the subject seems to creep up in some manner or other in every song. Thus, it feels more liquid-y then 2005's great Year of Meteors, which burned a little more brightly with songs that were instantly humming in your head. You could call it a warmer version of 2004's Carbon Glacier, but that would be taking the title as metaphor a little too far. Another track to listen to is the serene "Ocean Night Song," which moves into your conscious like the tide, full of gentle ebb and flow while still getting it's cues from source out of this world (the moon.)

-----------------------------

Album: The Rosebuds - Night of the Furies

The Rosebuds' Night of the Furies sees the band almost making a return to the carefree pop of their debut (The Rosebuds Make Out, which is quite welcome after 2005's Birds Make Good Neighbors nearly sucked the life out of a lot of what made The Rosebuds initally a joy to listen to. Furies takes the lyrical and thematic growth achieved on Birds and puts it to the sounds of the New Romantic genre of the 1980s. It's a bold left turn in sound and the Rosebuds pull it off magically. Just listen to "Cemetary Lawn" and feel yourself transported back to a shimmery 1982, minus the hair and the gold flambe (ala ABC.) With the infectious song "Get Up Get Out," there's even the leftover strands of disco that you could still hear in the post-punk of the early 80's.

-----------------------------

More going (or already in) the Sansa
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga (see previous post) Free AOL album stream
Cloud Cult - The Meaning of 8
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie for Theaters Colon Soundtrack
Book of Knots - Traineater
Scott Miller & the Commonwealth - Reconstruction
Caspian - The Four Trees

tags: music, album review, grinderman, blonde 23, laura veirs, cocorosie, the rosebuds, indie rock, album review, new releases, rhapsody