Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Recent News

Mick Harvey Leaves the Bad Seeds

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:01:00 -0800

Mick Harvey, one of the founder members of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, announces he is leaving:

“For a variety of personal and professional reasons I have chosen to discontinue my ongoing involvement with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. After 25 years I feel I am leaving the band as it experiences one of its many peaks; in very healthy condition, and with fantastic prospects for the future. I’m confident Nick will continue to be a creative force and that this is the right time to pass on my artistic and managerial role to what has become a tremendous group of people who can support him in his endeavours both musically and organizationally. It was a fantastic experience to finish my touring days in the band with the recent shows in Australia and the unique events that took place in conjunction with All Tomorrow’s Parties, especially Mt. Buller, which was one of the many highlights of my involvement with the band throughout the years. I shall continue working on the Bad Seeds back catalogue re-issues project over the coming year and look forward to the new opportunities I shall be able to accommodate as a result of my changed circumstances.”

Mick Harvey, 22nd January 2009

ANTI- RECORDS LOOKS BACK AT AN OUTSTANDING 2008

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:12:00 -0800

Releases from NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS, JOLIE HOLLAND, MAN MAN Hailed as Career Bests, MAVIS STAPLES Captures a Moment in Time on Live Recording, MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD Crack the Top 40 for the First Time

Billy Bragg Mr Love & Justice - in this momentous election year, the man who has dedicated his life and music to political action gave us his most intimate and introspective record yet, without losing the passion that has characterized this beloved firebrand 's career.

• "Classic Bragg: frequently fantastic folk-rock that keeps both the faith and your attention." -Village Voice
• "Rather than being a return to form, it 's a leap forward in maturity, depth and nuance." -Paste

Bob Mould District Line - It is near impossible to calculate the level of impact or influence that Bob Mould has had on the last two decades of modern rock, from the Pixies to Nirvana, to Green Day to Daft Punk. District Line combines the fire of Mould's earliest work in Husker Du, the accessibility of his alternative rock, genre-defining trio Sugar, and the introspection found in his solo releases.

• "District Line is a ¬focused, gripping zigzag between fury and woe, scorched rock and folk-pop distress, much like the Hüskers' best records--now with a longer view." -Rolling Stone

• "He's rarely been more compelling." -Spin

DeVotchKa A Mad and Faithful Telling - 2008 found the Denver indie band -- who beautifully combines Eastern European bohemia with American prairie rock and south of the border melodies -- coming into their own with sold out tours, festival appearances at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Red Rocks, and a record that charmed everyone from the Eastern bloc (a rare appearance in Moscow) to the online community (the much-discussed use of a DeVotchKa track on the Gears of War trailer)

• "Huge indie−rock anthems and lute−driven ballads defined by infallible melodies, heartbreaking arrangements, and dark, funny lyrics. It leaves you wondering whether to weep or dance." -Esquire

• "Cheerful, eclectic lunacy with a heart as big as the world * * * * " -Spin

Islands Arm 's Way - the 2008 release found the young, critically-acclaimed Montreal sextet heading in a surprising new direction. Their 2006 release, Return to the Sea, was heralded as a stunning work of impulsive outbursts and emotional explorations. Arm's Way saw the band naturally evolving a more lavish yet centered sound that showcased songwriter Nick Thorburn's astounding talent.

• "Freaky, transcendent stuff." -Filter

• "A rich tapestry of pop from a band that has fully coalesced under his [Nick Thorburn] self-proclaimed benevolent dictatorship. Their latest Arm 's Way is a sophisticated, majestic and visceral journey into the limelight." -Village Voice

Jolie Holland the Living and the Dead - the young songwriter with the incomparable voice adds rock n roll to her impressive resume that already includes folk and country and jazz on her third studio album with help from co-producer M. Ward and guitarist Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello). The results are hailed as a career best from critics and widely embraced by fans.

• "Jolie Holland's voice beguiles like something from an old 78.... she channels the folky, sultry, blues Joni Mitchell trademarked and conjures her own stunning takes on lost lovers and sly approaches." -Elle

• "Her fourth - and perhaps best - album foregoes the smoky speakeasy atmosphere of 2006 's Springtime Can Kill You for a more contemporary roots sound, which provides a more evocative backdrop for her signature vocals." -Paste

Lyrics Born Everywhere At Once - not just the title of Lyric Born's Anti Records debut but a statement about this most industrious multi-tasker's vida loca. The lyricist, producer, label exec, and non-stop live performer (2008 saw world tours, festival appearances and television gigs) never rests on his laurels and is always changing sh*t up and Everywhere is a perfect example: bored with the drum machine and over licensing rights, LB gathered a crew of top musicians and made a real live record, full of funk and feel, grooves and guts, topped off with Lyrics Born's unmistakable signature smoothness and loquacious flow.

• "Near-perfect party record...propelled by sweet soul melodies and rumbling funk grooves reminiscent of the Gap Band and the Ohio Players…crunchy, unstoppable beats that will have you coming back from more." - Mother Jones

• "On his second solo album, he sounds transformed - festive and celebratory, his smarts undiminished." -Vibe

Man Man Rabbit Habits - Part swampy juke joint brawlers, part smooth Philly warehouse doo-wop crooners, with a sprinkling of wild-eyed, demon-haunted art hustler, and a hint of punky kindergarten playroom Pollyannas, Man Man brought their incomparable vision of "pop music" to bear with Rabbit Habits. 2008 saw the roustabouts on tour non-stop with labelmate Tim Fite, indie darlings Yeasayer and at every festival ever conceived (Coachella, Bumbershoot, SD Street Scene, ACL, Voodoo)

• "While the band still has its head in the clouds, or beyond, it has made its finest, most listenable album to date." -Filter

• "One of the year's best rock albums (devoid of nearly any guitar parts, mind you)." -Pitchfork

Mavis Staples Live: Hope at the Hideout - Mavis Staples saw her life 's work singing alongside Dr King and marching for civil rights redeemed with the 2008 election results, and suddenly this live record, full of gospel classics and freedom songs, is a testament to the uplifting hope and certainty of success that has marked her 50+ year career.

• "Whether fronting the Staples Singers or on her own, Mavis Staples has always fared best in a live environment, where her powerhouse of a voice can take any lyric and transform it into an inspirational anthem…this is Mavis Staples at her fiery best." -Relix

• "She sat in at lunch counters and marched with King..now Mavis' marvelous new Live: Hope at the Hideout revisits that era with personal recollections and brilliantly evoked songs from (or recast for) the movement... if this concert doesn't get your heart pumping, check your pulse." -Philadelphia Daily News

Michael Franti & Spearhead All Rebel Rockers - 2008 saw some well-deserved recognition for the indefatigable Micheal Franti and Spearhead. Their sixth studio album cracked the Billboard Top 40 (debuting at #39) for the first time. They drew an unprecedented 70,000+ fans and activists to Michael 's Power to the Peaceful festival in San Francisco and closed out the acclaimed KCRW World Music festival at the Hollywood Bowl, keeping the 17,000-strong crowd dancing through the set. Television appearances, 130 tour dates, film festivals and more kept the hardest working band in rock cheerfully occupied for the year.

• "An album of shimmying, pop-reggae…it 's a well deserved holiday in the sun." -Rock Sound

• "More specific, hopeful, and incendiary than ever....All Rebel Rockers represents his most canny mixture of political topicality and musical accessibility." -Utne Reader

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! - if there was a single record that came out to universal acclaim this year, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is definitely a top contender. Nick and mates kicked off the year as Plug Impact Award honorees, and high profile nominations from the Q Awards and Mojo and two wins at the Austrailian Age awards (Best Band and Best Album) fueled the international recognition. The record has already made the "Best Of" lists of Blender, Mojo, The Guardian UK, The Times UK, Uncut and Paste magazines. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds have been tapped to curate the inaugural Australian All Tomorrow 's Parties, their Hollywood Bowl performance was one of the shows of the year and Nick talked smack with Terry Gross on NPR 's "Fresh Air." It was a very good year.

• "The album is a triumph from first to last." -Observer Music Monthly

• "t's not every goth-punk fiend who can celebrate his fiftieth birthday with an album as loud, filthy and brilliant as Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" -Rolling Stone

One Day As A Lion One Day As A Lion - the reemergence of the year was less about Axl Rose and all about Zack de la Rocha. His incendiary partnership with Jon Theodore in One Day As A Lion set the music community aflame with some of the most aggressive and original recordings heard all year. The two are currently at work on their full-length release, coming soon.

• "Wrathful and unyielding, the music pushes Rage's revolutionary essence further into the faces of listeners, eliminating any chance at misinterpreting these calls to arms as mere boogie-down rock." - LA Times

• "One Day as a Lion bristles with the street-level vigor that band [RATM] once embodied." - Time Out New York

• "There isn't any filler here; it's all the aural ignition of a gasoline bomb going off in your ears." -All Music Guide

Tim Fite Fair Ain 't Fair - Fair Ain't Fair is a collection of the most seasoned, reflective and charming work the genre-defying Tim Fite has ever produced. On it he growls about greed and avarice, topics manifest in last year's Over The Counter Culture (the acclaimed, free, web-only release which has topped 100,000 downloads this month), but told here with more empathy, more human-ness - perhaps signs of a deeply engaged artist growing up.

• "His new album confirms that this enigmatic, genre-bending songwriter is one of rock ‘n ' roll 's most subversive renaissance men." - Esquire

• "One of those albums that defies anyone to categorize or ignore it." - Chicago Tribune

Xavier Rudd Dark Shades of Blue - dusky and cool, the album is more sober than any work Xav has ever done, though it should not be mistaken for temperate. Guitar-driven jams, mixed by Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens of the Stone Age), expand on a sound only hinted at on previous releases, and distortion often supplants the pretty jangly guitars heard on earlier work. Xav spent 2008 touring the world and scoring surf films like Matthew McConaughey 's comedy Surfer, Dude and the documentaries Highwater and Between the Lines.

• "Occasionally I encounter a work that so eloquently describes the human condition that my futile attempts to capture its essence in a review seem almost absurd. This album is one such work. Xavier Rudd's Dark Shades of Blue is an absolute tour de force and unequivocally his most powerful work to date." -Jambase

ANTI- Records Looks Back at a Stellar 2008 and Hints at 2009 with Free New Sampler

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:11:00 -0800

Featuring Brand-New Tracks from N.A.S.A, Ramblin Jack Elliott and William Elliott Whitmore

ANTI- Records launched its new 08/09 music sampler today on-line via the ANTI- blog and in stores with dozens of participating independent retailers around the country. In a special promotion running through the holidays, local music retailers will be offering the newest releases from ten of ANTI's latest and greatest artists for under $10. With purchase, the buyer will receive a copy of the new ANTI- sampler, or it can be downloaded for free directly from the ANTI- blog.

It is both a look back at a spectacular 2008, which saw releases from artists such as Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Jolie Holland and Michael Franti & Spearhead called "career bests," and a look into the New Year, including the following:

• "Spacious Thoughts" - N.A.S.A (featuring Tom Waits and Kool Keith)

From masterminds Squeak E Clean (Sam Spiegel) and DJ Zegon (Ze Gonzales) comes the first track from the highly anticipated debut release The Spirit Of Apollo (out Feb 17 2009). The record - which pairs indie darlings such as Karen O, Santogold, the Cool Kids and M.I.A, with hip hop stars like Kanye West, Chuck D, KRS-One and Ghostface Killah - takes the "less is more" concept and turns it on its head, layering up to four famous voices over vintage Brazilian funk tracks and turntable wizardry.

• "Old Devils" - William Elliott Whimore

Iowa's own son of the soil William Elliott Whitmore premieres his first track off his ANTI- debut Animals in the Dark (out Feb 17 2009). With the old-soul voice of a master country blues balladeer and a devoted following in the punk, folk and indie rock worlds, Will captures the imagination with his raw, populist songs, seemingly untouched by pop culture.

• "Soul Of A Man" - Ramblin' Jack Elliott

He stole James Dean's girl, listened for two days while Jack Keroac read him On the Road and taught Dylan everything he knew, now Ramblin' Jack Elliott is trying something new: lending his plaintive drawl to Depression-era blues classics. Produced by Joe Henry (Elvis Costello, Solomon Burke, Bettye LaVette), the new album also features guest appearances from David Hidalgo (Los Lobos, Tom Waits) and Van Dyke Parks. Out April 7.

2009 will also see new releases from Neko Case, Bob Mould and the legendary Booker T Jones, of Booker T and the MGs fame.

Anti- Records 08/09 Sampler tracklisting:
01. "Mexico City" - Jolie Holland
02. "Pieces Of You" - Islands
03. "Say Hey (I Love You)" - Michael Franti & Spearhead
04. "Whispers" - Lyrics Born
05. "Freedom Highway" - Mavis Staples
06. "Big Mistake" - Tim Fite
07. "Rabbit Habits" - Man Man
08. "Spacious Thoughts" (feat. Tom Waits & Kook Keith) - N.A.S.A.
09. "DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!" - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
10. "Old Devils" - William Elliott Whitmore
11. "Freedom" - Billy Bragg
12. "Real Estate" - Cadence Weapon
13. "This World As We Know It" - Xavier Rudd
14. "Very Temporary" - Bob Mould
15. "Friend For Life" - Ersi Arvizu
16. "New World" - DeVotchKa
17. "Soul Of A Man" - Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Participating retailers:
STINKWEEDS - Phoenix, AZ
Zia - Phoenix, AZ
BOO BOO RECORDS - San Luis Obispo, CA
Fingerprints - Long Beach, CA
Lou's Records - Encinitas, CA
M-THEORY - San Diego, CA
Rasputin - San Francisco, CA
Rhino/Mad Platter - Claremont, CA
Salzer's - Ventura, CA
Streetlight - San Jose, CA
Twist and Shout - Denver, CO
EXILE ON MAIN ST - Branford, CT
Rainbow Books Music - Newark, DE
CD Connection - Jacksonville, FL
Central Square - Santa Rosa, FL
Park Avenue CD - Orlando, FL
Uncle Sam's Miami Beach, FL
VINYL FEVER - TAMPA - Tampa, FL
CRIMINAL RECORDS - Atlanta, GA
CRIMINAL/AURORA - Atlanta, GA
Record Exchange - Boise, ID
Indy CD & Vinyl - Indianapolis, IN
LANDLOCKED MUSIC - Bloomington, IN
LUNA MUSIC - Indianapolis, IN
Kief's - Lawrence, KS
CD CENTRAL - Lexington, KY
earX-tacy - Louisville, KY
Newbury Comics - Boston, MA
Bull Moose - Portland, ME
ROCK-A-BILLYS - Utica, MI
Electric Fetus - Minneapolis, MN
VINTAGE VINYL - St Louis, MO
Schoolkids - Raleigh, NC
Homer's - Omaha, NE
Lakeshore Record - Rochester, NY
Looney Tunes - West Babylon, NY
Record Archive - Rochester, NY
CULTURE CLASH - Toledo, OH
Finders Records - Bowling Green, OH
Magnolia Thunderpussy - Columbus, OH
SHAKE IT - Cincinnati, OH
Guestroom Records - Norman, OK
Guestroom Records - OKC, OK
CD World - Eugene, OR
JACKPOT RECORDS - Portland, OR
JACKPOT RECORDS - Portland, OR
Music Millennium - Portland, OR
Earshot - Greenville, SC
52.5 - Charleston, SC
Disc Exchange - Knoxville, TN
GRIMEY'S - Nashville, TN
Cactus - Houston, TX
END OF AN EAR - Austin, TX
GOOD RECORDS - Dallas, TX
Waterloo - Austin, TX
SLOW TRAIN - Salt Lake City, UT
Plan 9 - Richmond, VA
Pure Pop - Burlington, VT
Easy Street - Seattle, WA
HOT POOP - Walla Walla, WA
SONIC BOOM - Seattle, WA
SONIC BOOM - Seattle, WA
ATOMIC RECORDS - Milwaukee, WI

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS NORTH AMERICAN TOUR BEGINS SEPTEMBER 16

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:09:00 -0700

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Most Acclaimed Record of the Firebrand's Career

Finding new ways to be the Bad Seeds may be the band's ongoing mission, but Nick Cave and comrades have made the job look easy with the success of their 14th album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! With a MOJO Award already under their belt – Best Album of 2008, beating out the likes of Radiohead and Robert Plant/Allison Kraus – and two Q Award nominations recently announced – Best Album and Best Live Act – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are preparing to show the US what all the hoopla is all about. Their first tour of North America in five years begins shortly in San Diego CA, a warm-up of sorts before the Bad Seeds historic performance at the legendary Hollywood Bowl with support Cat Power and Spiritualized.

For their part, the critics have been nearly universal in their praise of Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! With a score of 87 on the reviews collating website Metacritic, Dig is fifth best-reviewed record of the year.

- "A triumph from first to last." Observer Music Monthly
- "Cave's themes remain unchanged, but his songcraft prowess continues to grow, aided by the finest instrumental backing and production of any Bad Seeds album to date." Filter
- "Hilarious, chilling and exhilarating." The Guardian
- "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! will not just raise the dead, it will raise the spirits of Bad Seed fans old and new." BBC
- "Loud, filthy and brilliant." Rolling Stone

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on tour:
16 Sept - San Diego, CA, 4th and B
17 Sept - Los Angeles, CA, Hollywood Bowl
19 Sept - San Francisco, CA, Warfield Theatre
20 Sept - San Francisco, CA, Warfield Theatre
22 Sept - Portland, OR, Crystal Ballroom
23 Sept - Seattle, WA, Showbox Sodo
24 Sept - Seattle, WA, Showbox Sodo
26 Sept - Denver, CO, Ogden Theatre
28 Sept - Chicago, IL, Riviera Theatre
29 Sept - Chicago, IL, Riviera Theatre
01 Oct - Toronto, ON, Kool Haus
02 Oct - Montreal, QC, Metropolis Theatre
04 Oct - New York, NY, WaMu Theater/Madison Square Garden
05 Oct - Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
06 Oct - Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
07 Oct - Philadelphia, PA, Electric Factory

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Midnight Man” EP Out Today

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:08:00 -0700

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released the “Midnight Man” EP today that includes an unreleased song “Hey Little Firing Squad,” early versions of “More News From Nowhere” and “Dig, Lazarus, Dig” and a video of the band performing “Midnight Man” in-studio (see above). It is available on iTunes and Amazon.

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS WIN "ALBUM OF THE YEAR" AT THE PRESTIGIOUS MOJO AWARDS

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:06:00 -0700

Limited Edition Book on the Song "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" In Stores July 8

North American Tour – the First in Five Years – Kicks off Sept 16 in San Diego CA

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds were awarded the Best Album award at the 2008 MOJO Honors ceremony this week in London. MOJO readers voted for the band's 2008 release DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! as best album from a shortlist of strong contenders including the Arctic Monkeys, Duffy, Radiohead, and Alison Krauss & Robert Plant.

Additionally, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are set to release their DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! book on July 8th. The 46-page hard back four inch square book contains exclusive handwritten lyrics and notes by Nick Cave, photos and illustrations, a three inch CD of the single 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!', plus an interview with Nick Cave and British artists Tim Noble And Sue Webster who created the cover art for the album, DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!.

Nick Cave writes:

"The little book is about the making of the song 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!' It is a curiosity that deals with the preparation and final glorious outcome of a project that began on the back of an envelope, a literal 'scrap' of an idea and ended up evolving into a genuine cultural icon and classic rock 'n' roll song, due to the collaborative efforts of myself, The Bad Seeds and Brit artists Sue Webster and Tim Noble. The song, which is a comic re-imagining of the Lazarus myth (placing the recently 'risen' Lazarus in 70's New York City) is accompanied by an eight foot square light sculpture, employing over 750 light bulbs, built by Webster and Noble. This little book documents the journey of this mammoth collaboration. Dig it!!!"

The book will be available from Amazon.com, Borders and independent music retailers and bookstores nationwide.

In other Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds news, the band will follow their summer European festival dates with their first North American tour in five years. A stop at the historic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, with opening acts Cat Power and Spiritualized, will kick off the long-awaited tour in grand style.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds North American tour dates:

09-16 San Diego, CA - 4th & B
09-17 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
09-20 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theatre
09-22 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
09-23 Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo
09-26 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
09-29 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre
10-01 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus
10-02 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis
10-04 New York, NY - WaMu Theater at MSG
10-05 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

Nick Cave, Digging Himself a Singular Niche

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:04:00 -0700

Click here to listen to Nick Cave on NPR now!

Fresh Air from WHYY, April 28, 2008 - Love, violence, death and America have always been themes for Australian-born singer-composer Nick Cave - Murder Ballads and Abbatoir Blues are just two of his album titles - so he was perhaps a natural to compose the soundtrack for last year's epically paranoid Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Cave also wrote the screenplay and soundtrack for the Australian epic The Proposition, which Roger Ebert described as "pitiless and uncompromising, so filled with pathos and disregarded innocence that it is a record of those things we pray to be delivered from."

Cave appeared in Wim Wenders' 1987 film Wings of Desire, and he's written both plays and novels.

Now Cave has released a new CD with his band the Bad Seeds. The title? Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! The inspiration, he says, is the Biblical story of Lazarus' return from the grave. -NPR.ORG

GRINDERMAN: Summer Festivals

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:04:00 -0700

Following their universally acclaimed debut album, Grinderman are kicking off the summer with a long-awaited string of UK and European festival dates.

Grinderman live performances have thus far been a rare sight in Europe, with only three previous dates in the UK (appearing twice during The Dirty Three's ATP festival and a one-off show with Suicide and Seasick Steve at The Forum in London). Grinderman performed a handful of US dates (including a support slot for The White Stripes at Madison Square Garden) before ending 2007 supporting Nick Cave's solo tour of Australia.
Grinderman's first album incited and excited critics and fans alike. They will soon be returning to the studio to write their second album.

4th July - Roskilde, Denmark
5th July - Eurockeennes, France
6th July - Rock Werchter, Belgium
18th July - Summercase, Barcelona Spain
19th July - Summercase, Madrid Spain
20th July - Latitude, UK
6th August - Oya Festival, Norway
8th August - Way Out West, Sweden
30th August - Connect Festival, Scotland
31st August - Electric Picnic, Ireland

Nick Cave: Listen to the title track, "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!"

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:01:00 -0800

Go to: http://www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com and listen to the title track off Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds upcoming release, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, out April 8th, 2008.

Produced by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Nick Launay who worked with the band oh their last album Abattoir Blues/ Lyre Of Orpheus, the new album was recorded over the summer at State of the Ark Studios in richmond and mixed by Nick Launay at British Grove in Chiswick.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' score The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:10:00 -0700

MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
BY NICK CAVE AND WARREN ELLIS
RELEASED BY MUTE ON 5th NOVEMBER 2007
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE ON 22nd OCT

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, of the internationally celebrated bands Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, The Dirty Three and Grinderman, have composed, played and produced a compelling and intense soundtrack for director Andrew Dominik's savage tale of the true West, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. Mute releases the original soundtrack on 5th November 2007. The download will be available on 22nd October.

Dominik, who previously directed the 2000 cult classic Chopper, the biography of the notorious Australian criminal Mark 'Chopper' Read, has brought his distinctive vision to bear upon the story of the slaying of one of the most infamous outlaws of the American West, Jesse Woodson James (1847-1882). The film, based upon Ron Hansen's novel and adapted for the screen by Dominik, charts how Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) joined Jesse James' (Brad Pitt) cutthroat gang of bandits, train-robbers and bank-robbers, only to become resentful of James' nationwide notoriety, he then formed a plan to kill the deadly gunslinger. The film also stars Sam Shepard, Robert Duvall, Sam Rockwell and Mary-Louise Parker.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have previously collaborated on a film score, for John Hillcoat's critically acclaimed 2005 Australian 'Western', The Proposition, starring Ray Winstone, Guy Pearce and Danny Huston. Cave (who provided the script for The Proposition) and Ellis' haunting semi-acoustic score, featuring plaintive violin, eerie sound loops and mournful piano, received universal praise.

Cave, of course, is no stranger to film scoring and has established a renowned reputation for his work in this field. Together with fellow Bad Seeds Mick Harvey and Blixa Bargeld, Cave wrote the indelible soundtracks for two other motion pictures directed by John Hillcoat: the harrowing 1989 prison drama Ghosts... Of The Civil Dead and the 1996 emotionally charged jungle melodrama, To Have And To Hold. Nick Cave has also been commissioned by various directors to compose specific songs for their motion pictures; including Wim Wenders, for his pictures Until The End Of The World (1991) and Faraway, So Close! (the 1993 sequel his Wings Of Desire, in which Cave And The Bad Seeds performed), and Jez Butterworth for Mojo (1997).

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' thrilling new score for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford captures perfectly the charismatic and unpredictable nature of its central protagonist. Like the film, Cave and Ellis' music cuts through the mythic figure of Jesse James to reveal the complex, contradictory man beneath. Daring and passionately delivered, Cave and Ellis' beautiful soundtrack retains its captivating power even without the benefit of Dominik's images.