What are you listening to?

[Rit]

Tracy Pew is the man.

if you read up on him, he's complex figure, just never capable of getting his shit together in his personal life, that's all.

[Mary]

Ritalin said:

gotcha!

(psst, the pere ubu album of choice to get is Modern Dance)

Why my dear sir, you underestimate me. I've got The Modern Dance and Dub Housing already. Post-punk obsession is unhealthy both for your mental stability and your bank account!

[Rit]

hats off to Mary, then!

which Ubu album do you prefer? Dub Housing is fairly avant, ultimately more satisfying, perhaps? Though Modern Dance rocks, and it rocks hard for a bunch of supposed art-loners.

[ScottsyII]

I would be listening to something normally... but its only six in the morning here and I have barely slept tonight and I think I'd get the shit kicked out of me if I put on music...

[Ryosuke]

I heard a few songs off of Razorlight's album at Tower the other day. Didn't impress me much (sounded like typical UK rock), but I guess I didn't really give it a fair listen, as I went into the store with only 20 minutes left until closing time, and there were a ton of other shit I had to listen to so that I could decide which one to buy. Ended up buying the new downy album, which, incidentally, sounds fantastic (think Radiohead meets Sonic Youth, with the volume dial turned up to the max). Anyway, since jllm seems to be developing a hard-on over Razorlight, I'll give it another listen when I go there this weekend to spend inordinate amounts of cash.

In addition to downy, I also bought a used copy of Boatman's Call by Nick Cave during lunch break. It was relatively cheap, and I had heard too much about him from certain denizens of these boards who shall remain unnamed to pass it up (and I think it was the album that Drum recommended). In any case, I've been too obsessed with the new downy to give it a proper listen, but I get this strange premonition that it's going to grow on me in the future. Reminded me somewhat of Yoshio Hayakawa, believe it or not.

[Mary]

*abruptly rousing myself from lengthy i'm-done-teaching nap*

Do I hear that a potential new convert has purchased a Nick Cave album?? Must get to work right away....!

So Ryosuke, just so ya know, The Boatman's Call is a very late Nick Cave album, circa 1997. (The Bad Seeds released their first album in 1984, following the dissolution of the Birthday Party the previous year). It's sort of a benchmark Nick Cave album as it's infinitely more quiet, subdued, mature, and gentle than previous albums (though The Good Son was also moving in that direction somewhat). While I think it's a gorgeous album (and while Doc Drum thinks it's the best Nick Cave of them all) I would also just warn anyone who starts with that album that it's not particularly representative of a Nick Cave album, since there's nothing remotely insane about it. No psychotic rants about murdering women, no frenzied deconstructed blues, no cacophonic maelstroms, no banshee screeches and wails. Since I've been irrationally obsessed with the Birthday Party lately, I'm all the more impressed by the trajectory of Nick Cave's career - the fact that the same man who wrote Mutiny in Heaven went on to write Lime-Tree Arbour is just astonishing. There are really two Nick Caves, and while there's always been the faintest premonition of both of them, they are always roughly chronologically situated in his career - the crazed Old Testament Nick Cave, ranting and shrieking and exorcising his soul about devils and sin and soul-crushing lust and heroin addiction and cruel divine punishment, and the gentle New Testament Nick Cave, crooning about the redemptive powers of love and searching for faith in God. For me, what makes Nick Cave so utterly brilliant is the interplay of these two personalities, and the way in which he exposes how they are actually intertwined, so in that respect, The Boatman's Call is ever-so-slightly lacking for me, because I miss the fire and psychosis of young Nick Cave, the sense that the band you're listening to just escaped from a mental institution and is teetering on the very edge of a catastrophic abyss. It's a beautiful album, but it's only one half of Nick Cave.

Unsurprisingly, right now I'm listening to...



I don't know how it took me so long to recognize the sheer magnetic brilliance of the Birthday Party, but never again will I suggest that the Bad Seeds are Nick Cave's undisputed moment of musical glory. The Birthday Party are a force unto themselves.

Cheers,
M

[Mary]

Here's a quote from Ian Johnston's liner notes for Hits regarding the young Nick Cave at live Birthday Party shows. It gives you some sense of just how much he's changed:

At the very front of the stage, or more frequently in the audience itself sparring with the punters, is Nick Cave. Cave is sportig a t-shirt which offers a brief summation of one aspect of the band's attitude; "I Hate Every Cop In This Town. The Only Good Cop is a Dead Cop." His tall wiry frame, topped by a shock hurricane mop of jet black hair, clad in leather trousers and pointed boots, he regales the uncomprehending mob in the front rows with his impassioned, multi-layered, scrambled lyrics which evoke images of love condemned to the charnel-house. Throwing his head back and forth, hair flying, arms flaying, his body convulsed with rage and adrenaline, he has seemingly entered a state of total abandonment. He peppers his compelling, disjointed narratives with piercing screams and howls. Repeatedly he throws himself to the floor, his ringed fingers rain blows upon the audience' heads, his cuban heeled boots dart into unwitting faces as he becomes more consumed by the band's escalating cacophony and by the nagging suspicion that he is not really communicating with the audience...

Damn. Only wish I was old enough to have gotten Nick Cave's cuban heeled boots smashed in my face!!!!!

Cheers,
M

[stratman19]

Damn. Only wish I was old enough to have gotten Nick Cave's cuban heeled boots smashed in my face!!!!!

You are one crazy woman, Mary Blaney!

[Rit]

i was always drawn to Cave's second solo album, The Firstborn Is Dead. what do you think about that one, Mary?

I love its bluesy atmosphere, and it's a first step towards what Nick Cave would be known for as a solo artist, that it, mature ruminations on supernatural imagery and containing a subdued violence generally. the debut album is still a bit more Birthday Party angsty.

[Rit]

but i'm pleased to see you now rate the Birthday Party higher than solo Nick Cave. Funnily enough, the Birthday Party was my introduction to Cave, not the other way round. I started buying Cave's solo albums in order, and i got as far as the Good Son before giving up.

It's really too spotty for me. I didn't like Kicking Against The Pricks too much. But i am hugely intruiged by the Boatman's Call, based on what i've read so far.

the finesse of the solo era simply does not match the power of BP, ultimately.

[PC]

Recent listens:

The Jam - All Mod Cons
Nas - Illmatic (thanks Shane, this record is dope)
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
Big Star - #1 Record/Radio City
No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion - Discs One and Three (Oh, how I love this box set)

[ScottsyII]

I am goinf to give some metal a spin tonight, somrtyhing nice and dark ... "like Gods of the Sun" by My Dying Bride... good broody dark metal type stuff. :-)

[Dr. Drum]

All right, Ryosuke! The Boatman's Call is great!! And really – ranting and shrieking and exorcising his soul about devils and sin and soul-crushing lust and heroin addiction and cruel divine punishment – what do you want with all that grotesquerie anyway??

To continue the thread, a few records that have been shaking the rafters and/or lilting about Chez Drumstein in the last day or so:



Muse – Origin of Symmetry



The Mekons – Rock n’ Roll



P.J. Harvey – Uh Huh Her



Sarah Harmer – You Were Here



Jules Shear – The Eternal Return



Negativland – U2

[JesusLooksLikeMe]

Drum, drop the U2 and I'll move into your spare room if you like.

[riley]

James - Laid