Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

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I recently discovered Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, though I'm not sure how. I think it was from listening to Sirius XMU, but somehow or another I heard the song "We No Who U R" and my jaw immediately dropped. The slow instrumental and deep, soothing yet brooding voice stunned me. It's incredibly beautiful music with beautiful lyrics. The first two lines of the song are as follows:

Tree don’t care what the little bird sings

We go down with the dew in the morning light

Nick Cave's lyrics are beautiful and poetic and for some reason they occasionally remind me of T.S. Eliot and at times his sentence structure makes me think of Hemingway. It could be all in my head, it's been awhile since I've studied either.

To my surprise I discovered Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds has been making music since 1983, and their 2013 album Push The Sky Away is their 15th studio album! Talk about being prolific. I have a lot of catching up to do, but as of right now I'm so in love with Push The Sky away it's hard to listen to anything else. I'm most definitely ordering this album on vinyl, I imagine it'll sound great on my record player.

Two of my favorite songs from the album are actually bonus tracks, "Needle Boy" and "Lightning Bolts". The narrative in these songs and the way they're sung just leave me in awe.

And the girls from Jubilee Street hang out their windows,

And they wave and ask me how I am tonight,

I say I'm good, I'm all right.

I just love that!

"Needle Boy" is very brooding, it gives me the chills.

Last, but not least, I'll leave you with "We Real Cool" (love the title!)

Yep, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are a great, great band.

If you like their new album you should check out the Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus double album, as well as both Grinderman albums. My personal favorites are Let Love In, Murder Ballads and Henry's Dream - though that's probably because that was when I was introduced to their music, you can't really go wrong with Nick Cave &TBS albums as they are all pretty great. Their early stuff is a lot more dour though, Your Funeral... My Trial and Tender Prey in particular are dirgetastic downer albums but they both have stand-out tracks (like The Mercy Seat, which you should probably listen to immediately if you're into their current sound.)

Nick Cave did some music for the film The Proposition that is phenomenal. Soooo good. Great movie too.

It is an awesome movie, Nick Cave should really write another one at some point.

Terrific band. I think my favourite song is The Mercy Seat, which I found myself listening to repeatedly a few years ago. It's all about a dude sat on death row, about to go to the chair, trying to convince himself that he's OK with it.

I definitely need to get my hands on the new album, I'd managed to forget all about it.

He has. Lawless is also his screenplay. And I'm pretty sure there's another one *goes and checks* Yep, "Ghosts... of the Civil Dead". Although he's credited with more people there. John Hillcoat sure loves to work with him.

@jdh5153: That said, you should look into his earlier stuff. The Boatman's Call and Let Love In are goddamn beautiful. Fuckin masterpieces and his two best works, in my opinion. For something more recent, Dig Lazarus Dig is also pretty fantastic.

@jdh5153: ...his sentence structure makes me think of Hemingway.

Bukowski was a jerk!

Berryman was best!

He wrote like wet papier-maché

But he went the Hemingway

- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 'We Call Upon The Author'

My favourite Bad Seeds album would have to be No More Shall We Part: It features a stunning combination of tender and dark ballads. Speaking of which, Murder Ballads and The Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues double album are also tremendous. As others have mentioned, be sure to listen to the two Grinderman side-project records too.

If you ever get the chance to see them live, do not hesitate to get tickets; they put on one hell of a live performance. I've had the privilege of seeing them three times, in a 250-capacity bar and an amphitheatre, and they are magnificent in both.

While I'm here, does anyone have any suggestions of other musicians? Besides the Bad Seeds, Tom Waits and Lou Reed (@forkboy's avatar always makes me smile) rank among my current favourites.

I meant that he should write another awesome movie.

Ghosts... never got a legitimate DVD release as far as I know, the only version I've ever been able to find is a crappy VHS rip which was basically unwatchable.

It would be interesting to see someone try to make a movie out of And The Ass Saw The Angel or, to a lesser extent, Bunny Munro.

Tender Prey is certainly my favourite Bad Seeds album. It is full of great songs like "Sunday's Slave", "Deanna", "Up Jumped The Devil", "Mercy Seat", etc.

I also quite like the song Nick Cave did with Kylie Minogue!

I heard a story about Kylie and Nick Cave attending a poetry festival together. He convinced her to spontaneously recite the lyrics to "I should be so lucky" as a poem on the festival stage. Profound stuff!

Well, I can't talk about the quality of Lawless. But, I can say that The Proposition is not that great of a movie.

@diz: Where The Wild Roses Grow is one of my favorites from Murder Ballads but I think that Stagger Lee is the best song on that album;

@winternet: You cray.

@rebgav: Hahaha. It's a good movie. It's not transcendentally good.

@winternet: I really enjoy it but it's exactly the sort of movie which appeals to me so I'm okay with the rough edges. It does drag in spots though, can't deny that.

Red Right Hand is my favourite song of theirs

Did you listen to the solo stuff from Mick Harvey?

Or Murder by Death?

See also: Dirty Three

I'm not digging anything by Cave since Blixa Bargeld's departure. He really digs into some pretentiousness in everything after Nocturama which I don't really enjoy. Push the Sky Away has maybe two songs I like, it's definitely not on the level of Let Love In, No More Shall We Part or even Murder Ballads.

I always knew of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds but never really checked anything out until a few months ago. They are indeed pretty great. Lots of great recommendations here; personally I think Let Love In and Dig Lazarus Dig are the next two albums you should check out. The latter is surprisingly catchy compared to the rest of their stuff.

I just had the pleasure of seeing them and grinderman live at Coachella. Two of the best sets of the weekend!