The Birthday Party/Nick Cave
Formed in Australia by growl-wailer Nick Cave, corpselike guitarist Rowland S. Howard and crazy cowboy bassist Tracy Pew, in school in the early '70s, the Birthday Party went on to become one of the most influential truly "Alternative" bands ever. Their stark, dark music, laden with grimy feedback and influenced heavily by blues and rockabilly, originally made them a welcome part of the Melbourne punk rock scene. Their first couple of releases, the Hee Haw EP and the Birthday Party LP (which I am lucky enough to have consolidated on one awesome, awesome CD) were masterpieces of macabre, chilling dirges, with haunting vocals, and the songwriting- the notes- are sheer genius. The burning, profoundly eerie guitar openings haunt me in my sleep and play over and over again in my head. And I love it. Their second album, Prayers on Fire, has the coolest name of all their albums, but in my opinion, kinda sucks. It has some gems, such as the Evil Elvis Costello-voiced (sung by Rowland H.) "Ho-Ho", the wacky alternative-rockabilly of "Cry", and the madly energetic, tribally-rhythmic "Zoo Music Girl". The dadaist, phantasmagorical sweeping of "Capers" successfully makes me feel as if I'm hallucinating as I slowly bleed and slip into unconsciousness. Okay, next album: Junkyard. It had repulsive album art by that Rat Fink guy, and controversial stuff such as a song called "Big-Jesus-Trashcan". It was with this album that Nick Cave began to realize his sorta stupid (in my opinion) obsession with swamps, the Bible Belt, et al. I don't own this album and have only heard about half of it. Most of what I've heard is kind of boring, dark, swampy Goth-ish blues. Some of this is really good, such as the moaning, mourning blues of She's Hit, and the delightfully evil torrent of Deep in the Woods. Then, there's the filthy, funny death-rockabilly of "Dead Joe", which I rather like. After that, they released the Mutiny/Bad Seed EP, which I haven't heard much of. I've heard it's good, but I didn't particularly like what I heard of it.
Before I can squeeze in the word "heard" any more, I should delve into Nick Cave's "solo" career. (Solo is in quotation marks because he was actually backed by a large number of musicians, who later came to be called the Bad Seeds.) Their first album, From Her to Eternity, takes some getting used to, but now that I've forced myself to listen to it and like it, it's become one of my favorite CD's. The music is more stark and stripped-down than that of The Birthday Party, and also takes itself more seriously- but that's not as bad a thing as the critics (other than me) would have you believe. Once Nick went solo, he began to let his more traditional influences- traditional Southern blues, Elvis Presley, and Leonard Cohen, to name a few- show more clearly. His music also took a more mainstream turn, and by the nineties, he was producing some sleek, polished, and fantastically written Alternative Rock. With his 1995 release, Let Love In, which is considered by most to be his (and the Bad Seeds') finest work, he showed that while he had matured spiritually and emotionally, and his musical style is radically different, he is still one incredible songwriter.
Links: www.thebirthdayparty.com
Pics:
Nick Cave and Rowland Howard looking scummy and hung-over, and in bed together
Nick Cave passed out drunk in a bar, with some accomplices (bandmates and girlfriend) - now you can see what I meant about Tracy being a psycho cowboy.
Nick Cave from the cover of a magazine- why doesn't he still look this good? I have this overpowering urge to stick my fingers in his obscenely large cow-nostrils, though...
Special thanks to the gal from Mutiny in Heaven, from whom I shamelessly ripped off these pictures. I feel especially bad, since she's really nice. I suggest you check out her page, since it kicks an inordinate amount of ass.
