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Grinderman
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Grinderman [Explicit]
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MP3 Music, March 5, 2007
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Vinyl, Import, March 2, 2007
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Track Listings
1 | Get It On |
2 | No Pussy 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 |
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
This band consists of Nick Cave and a small team of Bad Seeds members: violinist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn Casey and drummer Jim Sclavunos. Born of babbling lyrics hatched from Bosch eggshells in the Hyde-bound apocalyptic margins of the Cave brain, the Grinderman sound is an instinctual yawlp that also resurrects the demons of each musician's past: The trashcan proselytizing of Birthday Party-era Nick, Sclavunos' late 70s NY no-wave noise wisdom, Carey's ominous Triffids bass reverb and Ellis' avant-guarde soundtrack work and his teenage love of Black Sabbath.
Amazon.com
Grinderman is the sound of indie rock legends growing old disgracefully, and that is by no means a criticism. From the opening rant of "Get It On," this is an album with all the menace of an angry drunk, dripping with anger and testosterone (as the surfeit of facial hair in the band's interior photo will attest). It could even be the sound of Nick Cave's midlife crisis, but it doesn't matter, because Grinderman rocks. It's the sound of four musicians having a grand time, turning the volume up to 11 and really cutting loose. For that reason, it's the more upbeat tracks here that are probably the best: "Honey Bee (Let's Fly to Mars)" with its driving electric organ, the primal urgency of "Depth Charge Ethel," and the strutting album closer "Love Bomb." After all the po-faced seriousness he's displayed in recent years, it's good to know that Cave has rediscovered his sense of humour: "I cleaned the sheets on my bed, I combed the hairs across my head, I sucked in my gut and still she said, 'I don't want to,'" he sings on "No Pussy Blues," with his tongue firmly in cheek (amongst other places). Simply put, Grinderman is a hoot. --Ted Kord
About the Artist
GRINDERMAN SONG BY SONG
On the 5th of April 2006, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos entered RAK studios, London, for a week with producer Nick Launay and recorded thirteen songs. Here GRINDERMAN discuss the songs from their self-titled debut album.
Get It On
"This song is sung across an excoriating mandolin loop based on an obscure lute melody from the 11th century," suggests Ellis, getting the ball rolling.
"It is a lament for the messianic rock n' roll hero," says the virile and youthful Cave, "and begins, of course, with a statement of intent."
"Mice, dogs, baboons, hyenas", says Marty, Zen-like in the corner.
"Yeah, well, for me all the enemies of inspiration assume animal shapes," explains Cave, "they are all around us...and of course, inside us."
"From all the loops I originally sent you, this was the first one that really cried out to be used," mumbles Ellis, from the black hole in his shovel-shaped beard.
No Pussy Blues
"While our dreams and desires are hung on the butcher's hook of rampant consumerism, and the mirage and the illusion and the Nike trainers are served up on the trembling quim of an impossibly nubile girl-thing, No Pussy Blues tells it like it is," suggests Cave. "It is the child standing goggle-eyed at the cake shop window, as the shop-owner, in his plastic sleeves, barricades the door and turns the sign to "CLOSED". It is the howl in the dark of the Everyman."
"Set over a throbbing pornographic bass line, the world holds its breath for the onslaught of the wah's shriek of frustration and dirty water," counters Casey. "No Pussy Blues continues in the blues tradition and its timeless fascination with getting laid...or not."
"It's `Back Door Man', it's `Crawling King Snake', it's `Tiger Man'," says Ellis.
"It's `Shake Rattle and Roll'," says Sclavunos.
Electric Alice
"Electric Alice shows Grinderman as a small tight unit playing a wholly improvised piece of music," someone mutters.
"I really love this song," says Cave. "I could listen to this song forever," blushing at his rare display of candor.
"What is this song about?" asks Ellis, slack-jawed, his beard like an inverted burka.
"It's an hallucination, it's a dream," explains Cave. "It's about memory and loss and silver rain."
"Of course, any journalist worth his salt will recognize instantly that Electric Alice is a reverential nod to Alice Coltrane," says Ellis.
"And of course, Larry Young. There was no coming back after I heard Lawrence of Newark," adds Cave.
"Whatever it is, it's a pile of glorious music," says Casey.
Grinderman
"The narrative of the album continues with the song Grinderman, Electric Alice's evil twin. I dig its predatory ape-like loop, the violent and impotent boast of the vocal and its primitive lead guitar," gushes Sclavunos.
"Well thank you, Jim. So do I," responds Cave.
"But it's vulnerable," says Ellis. "It feels kind of flayed."
"It is the Night Mare mounting the trembling dream," says Cave.
"It's the monster in the boiler-room," suggests Sclavunos.
"Grinderman is an evil haiku," adds Casey who has traveled extensively in the East.
Depth Charge Ethel
"This song is about a girl I used to know back when I was young. She was a drug addict and a prostitute and one of the happiest people I've ever met. It started life as a slow blues number, but I never thought it did Ethel justice. She was a force of nature and the song needed to burn, to blaze, to move forward and to never, ever look back," says Cave, beneath all of his hair.
Go Tell the Women
"I really like this song," enthuses Ellis, who has a lot of hair on the top of his head. "It's an old-time toe-tapper led by your intricate Clapton-esque fretwork, Nick."
"Well, thank you, Warren. Go Tell the Women sings a song of existential bondage, of our enslavement to progress and the pursuit of pleasure."
"It's science fiction," says Casey.
"Actually Marty, it's anything but that," says Cave. "It's a talking blues, with its feet set firmly in the present."
"Yeah, it's `Beware, brother, beware!'" says Sclavunos.
"An alert listener will see that the album's narrative continues," observes Ellis, "in its deference to the blues tradition."
"The album seems to tell a story," suggests Jim.
"Yes, in the very broadest sense," replies Cave.
"A la The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway?" asks Marty.
"Well, yes, though it differs in two ways: our record has a more forceful dramatic arc and, of course, a more pleasing and humane denouement," confirms Cave.
"It seems that phrases and words call back and forth throughout the songs," notes Ellis.
"Indeed," avers Cave.
(I Don't Need You To) Set Me Free
"I was trying to find a way into what I wanted the lyrics to be concerned with," says Cave. "I was listening to John Lee Hooker and I heard these lines buried deep in one of his songs: I went down to my baby's house/And I sat down on the step
"And in that instant, I knew I'd found a way in, you know, to the album. That's all you need, a way in. Lyrically, the whole album rests on those two lines," says Cave.
"How does that relate to Set Me Free?" asks Sclavunos.
"Well, the protagonist in Set Me Free is disconnected from things whilst his `other' has left him in order to engage in the world," explains Cave. "The protagonist no longer has a "witness", he is alone, and left to metaphorically "sit down on the step".
"Oh," says Jim.
"The drums and bass are copasetic," says Warren. "That applies to the whole record. The rhythm section is really solid and provides a lot of freedom for the other instruments to roam.
"If I remember rightly, attention was paid to keep the songs short and direct as possible; most of them come in under three and a half minutes", says Casey.
"One needed to get to the nub of things... fast," says Cave.
Honey Bee (Let's Fly To Mars)
"This is Joseph and Mary's Flight into Egypt, but you know, re-worked," says Cave.
"A sonically overloaded, blistering rocket ride," says Sclavunos.
"Well, exactly," affirms Cave. "The narrator is literally repulsed into orbit by the banal horror of the world: the cynical deployment of fear as social control (first verse), the slaughter of the innocents (second verse)... "
"This song's shot from a cannon," interrupts Ellis.
"And there is vigorous blood-and-guts backing vocal action," notes Casey, rolling out his yoga mat.
Man In the Moon
"Man in the Moon attaches itself to Honey Bee like a lamprey, don't you think?" suggests Ellis.
"What's a lamprey?" asks Cave.
"A lamprey is an eel-like fish that attaches itself to other fishes by sucking with its mouth and clamping with its teeth. It feeds on its victims' blood and other body fluids," explains Sclavunos.
"Well, actually, Man in the Moon attaches itself to Honey Bee with great tenderness, by the tips of its fingers," says Cave. "It feels like it could fall away at any moment, tumble off the face of the world and float forever in deep space."
"Like a lost astronaut," says Sclavunos.
"Exactly, Jim. It's a song of abandonment and loss," continues Cave.
"Familiar territory then," says Marty assuming "The Corpse" pose.
"Although less histrionic, more redemptive" offers Cave. "It is simply a moment, not the whole enchilada."
When My Love Comes Down
"When My Love Comes Down is a densely layered grind. Built around a mind-warping loop, relentless rhythms and floating wigged-out vocals: this is Grinderman," states Sclavunos.
"Has anyone experienced that wonderful feeling when you're surrounded by people, and noise and chaos, yet you feel you're a million miles away?" asks Cave.
"What?" responds Ellis.
"When My Love Comes Down seems to embody that sense of displacement. It is, on the one hand, turbulent and frenetic and full of sonic remonstrations; but on the other hand, it sounds like it comes at you from a great distance."
"It's like a maelstrom...faraway..." says Jim, dreamily.
Love Bomb
"Nifty guitar work, Mr. Cave", suggests Ellis. "Thank you, Warren, and not a small nod to electric Miles Davis with its zombie drum and bass thing", says Cave. "Well, everything comes from something", says Sclavunos. "Absolutely. The lyric itself is a modern-day take on Bosch's depictions of Hell, where each figure is consumed by the fires of his own private anguish. Bosch's Hell is the inability of the individual to recognise the suffering of others", says Cave.
"That a silent and unresponsive God is his only witness", says Casey. "In the video we made for the song Grinderman, the ape, trapped by the lurid porno lights, flails ineffectually, while off-screen, the organ-grinder, God, the Grinderman, cranks the handle that makes him dance. This would seem to be some kind of clue", says Cave.
Product details
- Product Dimensions : 5.6 x 0.4 x 4.9 inches; 1.76 ounces
- Manufacturer : ANTI-
- Date First Available : January 27, 2007
- Label : ANTI-
- ASIN : B000MX7YUE
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #448,205 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #1,993 in Garage Bands
- #38,776 in Alternative Rock (CDs & Vinyl)
- #194,623 in Pop (CDs & Vinyl)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2007When we were kids Nick scared the baby crap out of us with Birthday Party. We grew up with him and weren't quite as scared because The Bad Seeds' stories were night-time fables told by a benevolent campfire master. Just leave the light on, we'll be OK even if dreaming of being buried under ten feet of snow white snow.
Now we're all grown up. Middle age, actually and Nick's still right here in the room. Maybe he's exorcised his personal demons. Maybe he hopes we have too. Yeah right.
Grinderman wakes us from the complacency of midlife. We stopped bitching and fighting and we started whining. Like old men on the porch. "In my day there were fights at every show." Blah,blah,blah.
But Nick reminds us that we're still pissed off. And it's OK to be pissed. Maybe we've slowed down. But we're not dead. Yet. And neither is Nick.
When we were 21 we had to juggle girls like Naomi Watts juggling for King Kong. OOOps, dropped a few. Now, after break-ups and divorces and rehabs the woman don't seem as ethereal, sweet and horny. Do they? We've got the "No P-ssy Blues" and thank God Nick is still here with us to commiserate. Play it over and over on the way home from the party. Loud. And don't forget to feed the cat before you go to bed. Alone. Thanks Nick for sticking around.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2010I think it was a kind of a let down from Caves' late work like Nocturama and Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus for many of his fans. And you might argue that Grinderman is not The Bad Seeds, however Nick Cave IS behind it and he's the mind and the heart of the groups. And with Grinderman he did a great job. You get the point from the first few lines, especialy when you know Caves' pre-No More Shall We Part work. I remember when I first put the disc in the car cd player and how Nick started his "I had to get up to get down to start all over again", I almost jumped out of the window, that was exactly I needed to hear from Nick Cave again. And it didn't stopped there. It's very hard to find an album where every single track is memorable and good enough you have an urge to play it again. First two tracks, Honey Bee and I Don't Need You to Set Me Free are the very highlights of the album, though that doesn't mean the rest is not worth it. I mean if you'd took the highlights out, you'd still end up with much more better album than the latest Bad Seeds stuff. It's Cave as we knew him. It's dark, yet funny. Raw, yet bright and clear. Somehow desperate and angry, yet something you can easily identify with. At some point it could be easily the soundtrack for the book The Death of Bunny Munro.
5/5, let's see if he'll do it again with Grinderman 2.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2007This record is one triumphant release. Grinderman transports the listener to a sparse landscape, dust blowing in the street, sand in your teeth, and a drunkenness bubbling over and out of your corrupted and decaying soul. Anger and rage. You can smell the smoke as this monster burns you up and melts your face. Nick Cave plays the guitar with so much intensity that my nose began to bleed. Punched drunk in the kisser, lurching and boiling at the seams. The bass and drums entangle you, dragging you to the depths of this torrid, boozy affair. Grinderman is a night out on the town, that moment you stare deep into your own soul and face the demons within. A bender from hell with friends in the night, only to wake and have to face that maddening reality - life is pain. Grinderman is here to remind us that we all grow old, and in the end our mispent youth, hallowed and raw is a fleeting moment. To linger is to live in the hell of vanity forever.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2007As with most of Nick Cave's work repeat listenings are needed before you can make a judgement. Really miss the lyric sheet you find with Bad Seed albums. Grinderman is rougher around the edges. Cave is on guitar for the first time and gets a little repetative but a more rock sound sans piano is a welcome change of pace. No Pussy Blues was funny at first but got old after a while. My current favorites include Electric Alice, Depth Charge Ethel, I Don't Need You, Man in the Moon and When Love Comes Down. Go Tell The Women and Honey Bee are fun with typical Nick Cave dark humor.
Not his greatest work but a good swing into the middle aged rocker side of Nick Cave.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2007This product is listed as "Limited Edition Special Packaging" at a cost of $30.99. It's nothing but an ordinary CD in a plastic jewel case with a "Made In Hong Kong" sticker on the back. It's the import version. There's nothing "special" about the packaging. Save your money and get the domestic version for $14.
The album itself is awesome by the way. Nick Cave continues to make fantastic albums. Even though I feel ripped-off by Amazon's inaccurate advertising I must say this album is totally worth having. This is raw and noisy. It's removed from the introspective albums that Nick Cave has produced with the Bad Seeds recently but is better conceived than any Birthday Party record ever was. It's not The Bad Seeds. It's not The Birthday Party. It's GRINDERMAN!
To be fair, I asked Amazon to refund the price difference between this misleading product and the domestic version, the difference being about $17.. They agreed and I got my refund in no time. Thanks Amazon, great customer service.
Top reviews from other countries
- alan downReviewed in Canada on November 17, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Great record
Good quality colored vinyl..thank you
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Diego DanielReviewed in Mexico on July 29, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Para la colección
Me encanta este disco y porfil lo encontré en Vinyl. Es una edición sencilla de discos de color pero suena muy bien.
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VeronicaReviewed in Italy on December 8, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Nick Cave versione garage rock è imperdibile
Disco davvero divertente con un Nick che va davvero a briglie scioltissime!
Un progetto che ha funzionato molto bene questo dei Grinderman e che speriamo Nick e Warren vorranno ripresentare quanto prima.
5 stelle meritate!
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jpch50Reviewed in France on June 13, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars grinderman,grand cru classé du CAVMAN
"un Nick cave grand cru classé "le retour aux sources, un album que j'ai zappé lors de sa sortie, très satisfait de l'avoir dans mon coffre fort .
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Em KaReviewed in Germany on January 21, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Schmutzig & treffsicher wie ein Bukowski-Lyrikband mit passender musikalischer Umrahmung!
Tatsächlich ist mir keine passendere Überschrift, als eben gewählte, für meine Rezension in den Sinn gekommen. Tausendsassa Nick Cave, der sich eine elektrische Gitarre umschnallte, 3 seiner Bad-Seeds-Kollegen schnappte und in ein Pariser Studio begab, gelang mit vorliegendem Werk ein unbeschwert wirkender Befreiungsschlag, der zugleich böse, grantig, zielsicher und begeisternd klingt. In meinen Ohren gleicht das von Kritikern und Fans nicht umsonst hochgehandelte Grinderman-Debüt einer Frischzellenkur, bei der man längst überfälligen Seelenballast abwirft, um sich nach neuen Ufern aufzumachen.
Paradebeispiel für die eigenartige, aber unverkennbare künstlerische Qualität der Scheibe dürfte wohl der ungestüme "No Pussy Blues" (der auch auf diversen Musik-TV-Sendern zu sehen war) sein. Nick Caves Angriffslust paart sich hier - unwiderstehlich steigernd und wieder abfallend usw. - mit einem unglaublichen Groove, bei dem Bass und Schlagzeug einen Drive erzeugen, den man selbst als erklärter Anti-Tänzer unmöglich regungslos hinnehmen kann. Die schräg-überdrehten und übersteuerten Zwischenteile wirken befreiend wie ein Gewitter, das lang anhaltende Hochsommerschwüle vertreibt. Ich weiß, dass das schrecklich kitschig klingt - aber etwas Besseres fällt mir momentan leider nicht ein, um Dynamik und Stil des Songs (und auch der Scheibe) einigermaßen in Worte fassen zu können.
Natürlich sind aber auch die anderen Songs des Albums absolut hörenswert und ich glaube zudem, dass auch Menschen, die bis jetzt kaum Kontakt zum Musiker Nick Cave hatten, sehr gut mit "Grinderman" beraten sind. Auch ich selbst würde mich in keinster Weise als großer Cave-Fan oder Kenner bezeichnen, dieser Silberling ist aber schlichtweg eine Wucht, wirklich genial!
Freunde guter Musik und Sammler sollten hier unbedingt alsbald reinhören, sofern sie's nicht ohnehin schon gemacht haben. In meinen Augen bzw. Ohren ist "Grinderman" ein sehr erfrischender Erstling (als Formation halt), der musikalisch sehr nahe an die bitterzart-raue Lyrik eines Charles Bukowski (dem bekannten US-Underground-Dichter) herankommt.
Prädikate wie rau, energetisch, fulminant, befreiend, schlüpfrig, sexy und/oder bombastisch treffen allesamt auf vorliegendes Werk zu, das ich in Summe mit 5 ganzen Sternen für gerecht bewertet halte! +++++
Eine wunderbare Platte, um Frust abzubauen oder sich im stressigen Alltag zwischendurch zu erden. Eine feine & ebenso spannende Sache zum Immerwiederhören - STARK!
P.S. Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Grinderman 2" (dem 2010 erschienenen Nachfolger hierzu, ein Remix-Album folgte später auch noch) wurde auf unbestimmte Zeit eine Pause eingelegt, wobei eine Reunion nicht ausgeschlossen wurde. Naja, man darf wohl gespannt sein...