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From Stephen Elliott
Even though we’re in the month of May, we can always use a little bit of Christmas spirit. The Birthday Party, Nick Cave’s pre–Bad Seeds band, gave us a song that we can sing anytime of year.
There was this dude named Joe.
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Happy Mother’s Day. And a big hug to Dawn Cave, the mother who gave us the King of The Bad Seeds.
Thank you, Dawn, and thank you, Calliope. Calli-a-who?
Calliope was the mother of the greatest musician of all time, Orpheus.
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“The Ship Song” can induce emotions of love, lust and affection. It’s a sexy and soft ballad. If you listen to the song and no one is around to kiss or fondle, there is no shame in showing your affection to a soft pillow.
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Have you ever been harassed by a bully? Someone who comes up to you on the school playground. And all you’re trying to do is eat your ice cream cone in peace.
So the bully comes up to you and first asks why you’re wearing a fitted suit and have your hair slicked back.
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What do you do when you think a girl is hot and you really want to get with her? You write her a song.
Nick Cave did that for PJ Harvey and “West Country Girl” was released on “The Boatman’s Call” in 1997.
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Deanna was a girl from Melbourne, Australia. She meant so much to Nick she got her own song on the 1988 album, “Tender Prey.” If you have ever seen The Bad Seeds live in the last 25 years there is a very good chance “Deanna” was on the set list.
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Around the year of our Lord 1984, there were fans of The Birthday Party wandering aimless through the streets. Their post-punk gods vanished. But, just like a dude named Jesus, there would soon come a resurrection, into a different body of sorts.
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Jack the Ripper killed women in real life. He is known as Jack the Ripper, and was never caught for his violent crimes.
Nick Cave kills people in his music. He is known as the greatest singer in the world, and is in a band called The Bad Seeds.
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It was a dark and stormy night in April 1936. The city of Tupelo, Mississippi was ravaged by a tornado that killed more than 230 people. It is ranked as the fourth deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
Tupelo is also the birthplace of Elvis Presley.
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When the the relationship is over, when your heart is cracked open and leaking blood on your pinstripe suit, when you’re out of cash and you need something to numb the pain of a break up, tell that wretched dude at the bar to buy you a drink.
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Sometimes things get murky in our brains. The depression takes hold. It’s more than melancholy, it’s to the point of absolute despair.
“Abattoir Blues” is the title track on the double album released with “Lyre of Orpheus” by The Bad Seeds in 2004.
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One night in January 1995, you may have been alive and lucky enough to have tuned your TV to “Great Performances” a special featuring the music of Kurt Weill.
It was the coolest of the cool performing Kurt’s music including Elvis Costello, William S.
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It was 1994. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds were performing The Fillmore in San Francisco. I was crushed against the stage and Blixa Bargeld strummed his guitar in front of me. Midway through The Bad Seeds set I summoned the courage to yell,
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Goth girls everywhere will soon breathe a collective sigh of relief causing a variance in the Earth’s orbit.
We have been waiting since 2008 for a new Bad Seeds record and we are so very close. “Push The Sky Away”, the 15th release by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds is available next week.
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We’re stuck in a world where bad shit happens all the time. Nick Cave, our Nature Boy, watches the news with his dad and sees “ordinary slaughter” and “routine atrocity.” Dad tells Nature Boy not to look away, be strong and bold because beauty will save the world.
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Today we learn a valuable lesson. If you have a girlfriend, but you are in love with another girl and you tell your girlfriend that this other girl is way hotter than she is, do not stick around when she starts to make out with you.
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Who is Lucy? Nick’s ex-girlfriend? A ballerina? Whoever she was, we all have our Lucy. The woman who died too young. If you don’t have a Lucy yet, be assured, Lucy will come into your life. Perhaps a few times.
When The Bad Seeds busted out with a live version of “Lucy” on their last tour, it shattered me.
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We have embraced the love songs and feelings of the heart…this week it’s time to get our hands dirty. No more snuggles, let’s shed some blood.
“The Curse Of Millhaven” was originally written for P J Harvey to sing. She opted for a duet with Nick called “Henry Lee.”
I can’t fathom anyone but Mr.
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The last time I interviewed Nick I told him how much I loved “Palaces of Montezuma” from the new record.
“You like that one?” he said with a smile. “It almost didn’t make it on the record.”
“You’re kidding!”
“My wife said she’d divorce me if we didn’t put it on there.”
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Whenever I need a boot to my ass to work on writing or other projects, “There She Goes, My Beautiful World” is my soundtrack.
It’s better motivation than a Tony Robbins seminar and there’s no need to walk on burning coals or shade your eyes from the glare of his perfect white teeth.
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There’s a soundtrack for when I’m about to fall in love with a girl. That precious gap of time between getting to know each other physically and mentally before diving in the pool of vulnerability and embracing love and commitment.
Laying in bed, talking, cuddling, kissing, ravishing.
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Clocking in at 14 minutes, 43 seconds is “Babe, I’m On Fire.”
The video is so much fun. I would have worked for free as a PA on that shoot just to watch the mayhem in person.
For most of the song is Nick calling out characters who say, “Babe, I’m on fire.” Like mom and dad and grandpa.
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Monday! Monday! Monday! “We No Who U R” is available today from “Push The Sky Away”, the 15th record by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds scheduled to release February 18, 2013.
Be There! (add echo effect)
Let’s talk about Grinderman 2 (2010) and the amazing tour that followed the release.
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When we die, “The Carny” will be our soundtrack. Us humans, who have been jonesing for beliefs and answers about the afterlife in this existence…. We will enter a red tent and DJ will drop the needle on the second track from “Your Funeral, My Trial.”
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Nick Cave scared the crap out of me.
The year was 1992 and I was used to grunge and punk rock and loved the bodies hurling into each other. There were bands like The Dwarves who would get naked, bleed, and fight the audience.
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In 2003, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released “Nocturama.” I love almost every record The Bad Seeds have released, but with “Nocturama,” I was disappointed.
I listened over and over, hoping I was wrong
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A Quick Video Evolution of Nick Cave from 1979 – 1982.
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This novel is a delightfully raunchy tale. If you crave raunch; to be torn open and fucked up, The Death of Bunny Munro delivers.
Munro has all the elements I love. I love surprises. I love pussy. I love beautiful words.
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This week in New York the sixth annual PEN World Voices Festival (PWVF) opens its week-long celebration of international writing with such notable literary figures as Sherman Alexie, Claire Messud, Yiyun Li, Salman Rushdie and Lewis Lapham among others (Full Schedule Here), Agriculture Reader holds a launch party, the Dead or Alive exhibition opens at the Museum of Arts and Design, Gossip perform, Stephen Colbert helps celebrate the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird and the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) continues.
It’s Sunday, and, as always, The Rumpus is here to round up some blogs for you.
Stephen King is waiting a month after the release of his new hardback to start selling an electronic version. Also, the e-book will cost just as much.
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