sound of the suburbs

Well First up I must say it's nice to be back to blogging even if this does have it's down side such as being woken up at 6 a.m. this morning and back to the wonderful world of work! And so without beating about the bush let's get straight down to business, today's chosen session tracks come from the Australian band that are all the proof you will ever need that class A drugs, old blues 78's, your brother's Captain Beefheart records, winklepickers, black suits and a good old Aussie upbringing makes for a marriage in musical heaven. There can be no hiding the identity of the band as it is indeed Nick Cave's musical beast the Birthday Party, rumour has it they were actually named after the Harold Pinter play of the same name. Saint Nick as we call him here in down town Nimes has long been a household favorite, there's nothing like watching my other half going around her household chores while both of us are singing along with 'The Weeping Song', he was also a big favorite with our record spinning hero maybe due to the Beefheart influence? The Birthday Party recorded four sessions during their all to short life time, 'Release The Bats', which some have unfairly stated was responsible for kick starting Goth (not true), and '(Sometimes) Pleasure Heads Must Burn' are both taken from April 1981's second set and 'Bully Bones' from December the same year. Since their split in 1983, Nick backed by his ever faithful Bad Seeds have got about as near as possible to world domination while staying faithful to themselves, he is the artist that merits the tag of rock crooner. It is a regrettable fact that I have never actually seen the man live though I was close to doing so on several occasions, one of which was one of his passages in Marseille during the 90's. At the time I was still active as a promoter and was invited the gig by a fellow promoter who was later to tell me about the bands rider. I cannot vouch for this being true but it is a nice story anyway. The days of bands exaggerating in terms of the back stage desires were long over by this period and as such their riders tended to be reasonable, negotiable or forgettable. The promoter was surprised to see that a large amount of champagne was required, even here in in France this is an expensive drink, eventually the promoter bowed down to the bands request. After what was apparently a great gig the band invited the fans that had not disappeared backstage, and only then was the sound of champagne corks to be heard popping. This was if the road manager was to be believed the purpose behind the request. Great chap!
Now rapidly approaching 50 it is interesting to note that Nick Caves new side project Grinderman is a return to his garage roots after the years of refining his sound, their first single 'No Pussy Blues' was released last week though with such a title I doubt that it's getting much daytime airplay, the album is due next month.
Cave fans that do not already know Nick Cave Online should visit the site as their are numerous live MP3s of reasonable quality available for download that is if you are brave enough to sign up.