Stagestruck

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS/CALLA
@Stubb's Amphitheater, Austin, TX; May 8, 2002
As regular readers of High Bias have no doubt noted, I prefer for this site to maintain an objective tone. I would rather the pieces concentrate on the music at hand, rather than every minute feeling that passes through the writer's frame. Of course, all criticism is subjective and personal, but that's no excuse for the acute self-indulgence in which so many scribes wallow. There's nothing I hate more than reading an article or review in which I get a better sense of the writer's love life or eating habits than I do of the music s/he is allegedly covering. God knows I love the work of Lester Bangs, but at times I have to ask, "Oh, Lester, what have you wrought?"

That said, I'm throwing my usual habits out the window for this one. I've been waiting a hell of a long time for this show. Let me start at the beginning...

Though I'd been aware of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds for a couple of years—even owned a couple of his albums (Tender Prey and The Good Son)—I wasn't truly turned on to him until the release of Henry's Dream in 1992. I was schlepping CDs in a Sound Warehouse at the time. My manager was (and still is) hipper than the average retail drone, and somehow got away with playing Dream over the sound system, despite its dark and often violent content. I don't know what it was about this particular Bad Seeds record—the febrile mixture of American roots music (particularly blues and gospel) with a Gothic sensibility, the raw production by David Briggs, the bewitching spell cast by the down-and-out-in-purgatory confessionals Cave calls songs, the sheer intensity of the performances—but something about that album hooked me, reeled me in and gutted me, without a word of complaint on my part. I bought the album the same night I heard it, becoming obsessed with Cave and his brood from then on. I tracked down all his previous records (on import vinyl, no less—the only way anything prior to Tender Prey was available at the time) and bought his books (read And the Ass Saw the Angel, especially if you dig Faulkner), immersing myself in the smoky miasma of the Bad Seeds and loving every grimy second. In 1992 Cave's distinctive blend of Gothic cynicism, blackened romanticism and transcendent spirituality struck a chord within me that even now I find difficult to define. Suffice it to say that I was captivated. To this day I usually rush out and buy new Seeds music the date it's released.

Only one thing had kept my Cave experiences incomplete: I'd never seen the man live. I rented a video once, entitled Live at Paradiso, but it merely whetted my appetite, rather than assuaging my hunger. I read in one of the two Cave biographies that his feelings toward touring America were ambivalent at best, downright hostile at worst. He tended to play the major cities—New York, L.A., Chicago—and then split the country as fast as possible, preferring to concentrate on his European fan base. Living in Austin, TX, I pretty much despaired of ever seeing a Bad Seeds concert. (more)

Refreshed

CHEAP TRICK
At Budokan
THE ISLEY BROTHERS
Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
TED NUGENT
The Ultimate Ted Nugent
EDGAR WINTER
The Best of Edgar Winter
(Epic/Legacy)
If the success of the Fox sitcom That 70's Show is any indication, the 70s are back in a big way. This is hardly news, of course. Indeed, the phenomenon is already on its way out, no doubt to make way for the 80s revival. Part of the wave of 70s nostalgia comes in the form of music, as genres as seemingly disparate as stoner metal, R&B, prog and power pop pay tribute to the more organic sounds of the era of Nixon, Jimmy Carter and M*A*S*H. The time is ripe for attention on some of the 70s superstars—witness the comebacks of Kiss and Black Sabbath—and Sony's Legacy division is stepping up to the plate with reissues and compilations of acts that were big in the time of disco, but became footnotes later on. How much of this music has held up over the past quarter of a century? Let's find out, shall we? (more)

Album reviews of new music by:

Brant Bjork & the Operators

Desert bachelor pad music? (more)

The Glasspack

This band wants to fucking rock. With a stack of Marshalls, a cocktail of amphetamines and whiskey and a really bad attitude, the quintet breathes fire all over the landscape with rude anthems. (more)

Gloria Record

No one under 50 playing rock 'n' roll should be allowed to create songs this serious and full of heart bleeding. (more)

Ben Kweller

Sha Sha consists of eleven smartly screwy pop songs. (more)

Jez Lowe & the Bad Pennies

His gentle, Celtic-laced sound and probing narratives seem like a natural on public radio folk programs. (more)

Jeff Trott

Cosmic pop cinema that flaunts compassion and melodicism. (more)

Tuatara

The free-floating ensemble specializes in instrumental mood music on its third album. (more)

And check out some loud reading: In the Court of King Crimson by Sid Smith.