Grinderman - Grinderman 2
- Written by Andrew Schagen
The first Grinderman record, for all its successes, left many questions unanswered from some quarters. Was the ‘Grinderman’ project one with any future or just a fun one-off? Was it just Nick Cave and a few of his cronies messing around? Songs that weren’t good enough to make it onto a Bad Seeds record? Grinderman 2 (has there been a lazier attitude towards naming records since the early days of The Tindersticks?) doesn’t exactly answer all of these questions, but it goes a long way towards making the listener not give a damn either way about them. When a record sounds this good who cares?
Apparently the recording of Grinderman 2 was finished more than a year ago. The official reason given for delaying the release - that the various members with their other musical commitments were waiting for a time when they were all free to tour it live together - sounds enormously plausible on first listen to the record. If ever a record sounded like it was designed to be played live it’s this one.
Opening track ‘Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man’ begins with 30 seconds of quiet and aimless noodling before roaring into full-on stomp-rock sound and fury. The sound is immediate, stripped down and direct, picking up exactly where the first Grinderman record left off. This second record doesn’t consistently continue in the full-throttle scuzz-rock vein though: it’s a much more varied beast than its predecessor.
‘When My Baby Comes’ for example is a much more restrained affair for the most part, including one of the album highlights: Cave’s pleading refrain backed by some majestic sweeping solo viola from Warren Ellis. Fans of the Dirty Three will be delighted to hear Ellis’ beautiful nuanced playing given a free reign that there is very rarely space for on Bad Seeds’ records.
In fact it is telling that they are ‘Grinderman’ and not, say, ‘Nick Cave and the Grindermen’: Cave’s contribution is only one of many here and the other players – Ellis’ fuzzed up electric bouzouki, Sclavunos’ pounding drums and Casey’s tight insistent bass – all more than hold their own.
They sound like a real band. Their songwriting process is said to include a fair amount of improvisation, and this comes across in songs that sound looser and freer than those on most Bad Seeds’ records. On most songs the approach works, but it’s not an approach without its misfires: ‘What I Know’ limps along formlessly and it without anything much to recommend it.
For all the band unity on display, Cave’s lyrics and the powerful scowling baritone he delivers them in will often be what hold your attention. Whether he’s singing lasciviously about “hanging around your kitchenette/ Sticking my fingers in your biscuit jar” or invoking “the spinal column of JFK/ wrapped in Marilyn Monroe’s Negligee” there’s always something to entertain, terrify and/or turn-on his listener. So what’s the point of Grinderman, what makes it different to the Bad Seeds if it’s essentially just more Cave, albeit with a rather louder and looser sound? Listening to Grinderman 2 you get the impression that Grinderman exists mainly because Cave, Ellis et al wanted to have fun playing these sinister sexy songs live without having to play ‘The Mercy Seat’ or ‘Into My Arms’ every time they plugged in. The record is enormous fun, but its primary purpose seems to be as an advert for the Grinderman live experience, which promises to be really something to behold.