Sign up for our mailing list Real artists creating records on their own terms
Close

Sign up for our mailing list

Press

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Grinderman Bio (2010)

Nick Cave - vocals, guitar, organ, piano, percussion
Warren Ellis - Mandocaster, tenor guitar, guitar, violin, flute, percussion, backing vocals
Martyn Casey - bass
Jim Sclavunos - drums, percussion, drum synth, backing vocals

"A CUSTARD-COLOURED SUPER-DREAM
OF ALI MCGRAW AND STEVE MCQUEEN"

In 2007, the four members of Grinderman released their self-titled debut album. On 13th September 2010, the Grinderman saga continues with the release of Grinderman 2, their all-new studio album on Mute.

The first thing that hits you about Grinderman 2 is that you've never heard anything like it. Ever. The debut album did its job. It defined the band. It marked a clear contrast with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Nick, Warren, Martyn & Jim forged a distinctly different way of working together. They cast off musical baggage, shrugged off accepted wisdom, and tested pre-conceptions about who they were as musicians. In the process, they took to the Bad Seeds hallowed legacy with a baseball bat.

"HERE COME THE WOLFMAN! THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN!"

Their new album, Grinderman 2 combines the structured invention of their live performance and the unrestrained free-for-all of their studio improvisation. But these guys also know something about the art of writing songs. Grinderman 2 bears the hallmark of its rapturously received predecessor, yet is more open-ended in its structure, more far-reaching in its scope, and gloriously lost in its own transports of noise and rhythm.

"TRY NOT TO WAKE THE EXECUTIONER"

2009 was an exceptionally busy year for all the individual members of Grinderman and Grinderman 2 became a very on-and-off-again affair that extended over the course of several months. Despite outside delays, whenever Grinderman did manage to assemble in the studio, they worked at their now legendary full-tilt pace. Their interpersonal chemistry and work ethic is exemplary. They enjoy playing together, and simply roll up their sleeves and go about it in a vigorous no-nonsense manner.

The initial process of recording, improvising, and trying anything once, was the same as on the first album. Over twenty hours of raw spontaneous music were logged in the inaugural five-day songwriting period. Grinderman filtered the results, refining them through demos, and fleshing them out as songs. The upshot of the procedure is this: if Nick is inspired to hang some lyrics on a groove, or a set of chords, or even just a fleeting flurry of sounds, no matter how rough or open-ended, then the song has a future and can move forward.

Finally, after all the preparatory phases were done, recording and mixing sessions proper commenced. Grinderman co-producer Nick Launay, a man of infinite patience and enthusiasm, was brought in. The resulting opus, Grinderman 2 is a restlessly ambitious creation.

"JUST HOW LONG YOU GONNA BE MY BABY?"

A work of sublime sonic adventurousness, the songs on Grinderman 2 are awash in an atmosphere of surreal unrelenting malevolence. Grinderman 2 is a concept album in search of a concept. A panoply of figures divine and profane shuffle through the lyrics. Creatures of mythic legend and mundane celebrity enact terrible and perverse dramas within a metaphysical, blood-soaked battlefield.

A brief dreamy overture - then the album bursts open with a ferocious bang and howl. The first track "Mickey Mouse & the Goodbye Man" picks up the gauntlet Grinderman's previous album so audaciously threw down. This snarling rocker unfolds at a remorseless pace the grotesque tale of a pair of parasitical brothers. Who is the lovable one? Who the loathsome? Which one the ultimate evil? Who cares? Here the origins of terrorism - isolation and envy - are laid tragically open.

"CRYING LIKE A DEMON IN YOUR DADDY'S ARMS"

Muhammad teaches, "Women are the twin halves of men." Well, yes, indeed! And it is this inscrutable "other" that the next three songs, "Worm Tamer", "Heathen Child" and "When My Baby Comes" orbit. Nobody does women like Cave and there ain't nothing like "Worm Tamer" - a mayhem of outlandish noises borne over maniacal bass and turbo-drums; "Heathen Child" cuts a deep seductive groove with squalls of sawtooth distortion. Both songs abound in lyrical imagery at turns lascivious, paranoid, philosophic, absurd and flat out abusive. "When My Baby Comes" completes the feminine triptych, a kind of unearthly samba, that implodes upon climax into a super-heavy mushroom cloud of loops and f**k-me bass.

"EVIL! EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!"

"It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil," teaches Buddha. Well, yeah, and after a brief interlude of free-falling introspection ("What I Know") we are thrown directly into the blistering mayhem of "Evil" - easily Grinderman's most malignant musical challenge to date and that's saying something! Prepare to be eviscerated, people! Dual panegyrics of desire and devotion follow - the mind-blowing "Kitchenette" and the space-surfing psycho-pop of "Palaces of Montezuma" - each seductively and subversively groovy in its own right. But just as it appears as if love might prevail after all - don't panic! - in ride four horsemen of the Funkadelic apocalypse with "Bellringer Blues", a dazzling soulful tromp and a stone cold masterpiece.

"OK JOE IT'S TIME TO GO!"

Grinderman's artist page

Browse by Artist

2332All Artists 65Mavis Staples 56Neko Case 56Dr. Dog 55The Milk Carton Kids 52Son Little 51Sean Rowe 50Tinariwen
44Glen Hansard 43Lost In The Trees 41Andy Shauf 37Saintseneca 33Michael Franti and Spe... 33Galactic 32Xenia Rubinos 31Jolie Holland 31Delicate Steve 30Calexico 29The Drums 28William Elliott Whitmo... 28Doe Paoro 27Yves Jarvis 27Man Man 26Girlpool 26Tom Waits 25Bettye LaVette 24Madi Diaz 23Jason Lytle 23The Antlers 23Christopher Paul Stell... 22Booker T. Jones 22Gary V 22Cass McCombs 22Sage Francis 21Danny Elfman 21Islands 21Half Waif 21Lido Pimienta 20Jeremy Ivey 20Daniel Lanois 20DeVotchKa 19Combo Chimbita 19The Dream Syndicate 19Purr 19M. Ward 18So Much Light 18Joe Henry 18Wilco 18Leyla McCalla 17Christian Lee Hutson 17Tim Fite 17Jade Jackson 17Grinderman 17Darrin Bradbury 16High Pulp 16Peter Silberman 16Moor Mother 16Porter Wagoner 15Yann Tiersen 15Alfa Mist 14Glitterer 14Japandroids 14John K. Samson 13Busdriver 13Ben Harper 13Rain Machine 13The Coup 12Josiah Johnson 12Richard Reed Parry 12The Melodic 12Hey, King! 12Deafheaven 11Curtis Harding 11Kelly Hogan 11Beth Orton 11Ryan Pollie 11Rafiq Bhatia 11Keaton Henson 10Dead Man's Bones 10Os Mutantes 10Bob Mould 10Slow Pulp 10Fleet Foxes 10Roky Erickson 10Ben Harper and Charlie... 10Wynonna 10Xavier Rudd 10Beat Connection 10Jasmyn 10Bonny Doon 9Kate Bush 9The Tallest Man On Ear... 9Ezra Furman 9Mose Allison 9Cameron Avery 9Marketa Irglova 9The Locust 9James Brandon Lewis 8Greg Graffin 8Kate Davis 8Deradoorian 8A Girl Called Eddy 8The Frames 8Art Moore 8Kristine Leschper 7Foxwarren 7The Field 7sunking 7Alec Ounsworth 7Scott McMicken and THE... 7Solillaquists of Sound 7Katy Kirby 6Sparklehorse 6Waxahatchee 6Kronos Quartet with Br... 6The Good Ones 6Ramblin Jack Elliott 6Broken Twin 6N.A.S.A. 6Pete Philly & Perquisi... 6Pops Staples 5Jackson+Sellers 5Plains 5Marc Ribot 5Tweedy 5Mothers 5Cadence Weapon 5The Weakerthans 5The Swell Season 5MJ Lenderman 5Walter Wolfman Washing... 4case/lang/veirs 4Petra Haden 4Eddie Izzard 4Muggs 4Arc Iris 4Antibalas 4One Day As A Lion 3Simian Mobile Disco 3The Book Of Knots 3Mavis Staples & Levon... 3Danny Cohen 3Sierra Leones Refugee... 3Marianne Faithfull 2Billy Bragg 2Spoon (Europe only) 2Chuck E. Weiss 2Sam Akpro 2Jeff Tweedy 2Screaming Lights (Euro... 2Lyrics Born 2Blackalicious 2Savath & Savalas 2Various Artists: RANGO 2Title Fight 1Taylor Vick 1Nick Cave & The Bad Se... 1Various Artists: ROGUE... 1Solomon Burke 1Rogue's Gallery
See Full List+