[New Music]

GRINDERMAN 2

CD review by Mookie

Grinderman 2 came out in September of this year and a copy of the deluxe edition just recently fell into my hands. It includes a book of illustrations, lyrics and a poster of the four guys in the band. Grinderman is what happens when Nick Cave starts writing songs on his guitar and it isn’t necessarily a solo project, it’s more or less a side project that also features members of The Bad Seeds.

Grinderman 2

The sound on this record is grimy and dark with lyrics fueled by awkward life experiences, sex and a general sense of adventure. The Grinderman sound makes me want to grow a goatee, rent a Harley Davidson and take to the road for about a week and a half looking for booze and easy women at brothels and truck stops.

You’ll get a kick out of some of the lyrics on this album. The second track is called “Worm Tamer” where Cave sings, ‘Well my baby calls me the Loch Ness Monster, two great big humps and them I’m gone. / But actually I’m the Abominable Snowman, I guess that I’ve loved you for too long.’

The opening line in the song Kitchenette includes, ‘I keep hanging around your kitchenette and I’m gonna get a pot to cook you in. / I stick my fingers in your biscuit jar and crush all your gingerbread men.’

What does that mean? I’m not so sure, but I’m totally on board with it.

If you decide to purchase the album on iTunes, you’ll get two more bonus tracks and a couple remixes of the songs, “Evil” and “Heathen Child”. All nine tracks were recorded in London in 2009 at Assault and Battery and State of the Ark.

Grinderman are Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos and Martyn Casey. The band is currently touring the United States until December 2010 and after that, they’ll travel to Cave’s native country of Australia to perform in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and also for the Kiwi types down in New Zealand.

I’d recommend this record for anyone who enjoys long hair, beards and the minor pentatonic scale.

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