Mick Harvey quits the Bad Seeds
Multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey, who has been a force for decades helping to define and refine Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds sound, has left the band after a string of Australian gigs. His history with Cave started when he played a pivotal role in the Cave-fronted Boys Next Door (1977-1980) before playing in the seminal Aussie punk band, The Birthday Party (1980-1983). I was a big fan of The Birthday Party, and while I’d categorize them as punk, they were unlike any other punk band you’ve heard. Their raw/abrasive sound was like a jolt of electricity for me – they were bold, unique and driven. I’ve always explained their sound as being a mix of art school damaged compositions, layers of screeching guitars with Nick howling and caterwauling trying to keep up; truly a rock band unlike any other. After moving the band to Berlin and disbanding, Mick co-founded the Bad Seeds with Nick in late 1983. While early Bad Seeds felt like a continuation of The Birthday Party, it quickly evolved, moving from blues based rock, into a more layered, orchestrated, dramatic sound. Mick, along with the rest of the Bad Seeds, provided the baritone chorus backing Cave that became a staple of their sound. While the band has gone through many incarnations, Mick and Nick stuck with it, until this week. In his statement he explains, “For a variety of personal and professional reasons I have chosen to discontinue my ongoing involvement with Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. After 25 years I feel I am leaving the band as it experiences one of its many peaks; in very healthy condition and with fantastic prospects for the future. I’m confident Nick will continue to be a creative force and that this is the right time to pass on my artistic and managerial role to what has become a tremendous group of people who can support him in his endeavors, both musically and organizationally.”
You can learn more about Mick’s other work as a producer, solo artist and collaborator, with folks such as PJ Harvey (unrelated), on his Wikipedia page. If you want to hear some of his work I’d recommend starting with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Murder Ballads” or “The Boatman’s Call” (which contains “Lime Tree Arbor”, phrases of which I used in my wedding program), or if you’re looking for something raw and different, dig into The Birthday Party’s “Junkyard“.
Stream ‘Everything That Happens Will Happen Today’
Stream the new David Byrne / Brian Eno disk, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today below, it’s their follow-up to the cult classic In The Bush Of Ghosts from 198-. Both are recommended listening.
The Good, The Bad, and The Queen
This is just a crazy Brit supergroup, The Good, The Bad and The Queen features Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz), Paul Simonon (The Clash), Simon Tong (The Verve) and Tony Allen (Africa 70, Fela Kuti). All of these guys have solid pedigrees coming into this project, add to that Damon who is on a tear with everything outside of Blur that he touches. Oh, did I mention who’s producing? Yeah, that’d be Dangermouse, who again, seems to have a golden halo lighting everything he’s near. Let’s see, so we have Brit-Pop, Punk, Hip Hop, and Afrobeat…and production by the cat who gave us “The Grey Album” and the fantastic “Mouse and the Mask” along with MF Doom. The debut disc by The Good, The Bad, and The Queen, Kingdom of Doom, will drop on January 22nd in the UK, and the following day over here. Give this track a listen, I think it’s going to be a happy new year indeed.
The Good, The Bad, and The Queen – History Song
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Ultra-rare Velvet Underground Vinyl on eBay for over $100K – DENIED
UPDATE4: The top bid(s) were bogus, and the auction ended without a buyer. Looks like it was too good to be true. Regardless, sounds like he’s going to give it another go, “Montreal man thwarted in eBay auction of rare record to try again” As always there’s some fun Monday morning quarterbacking going on over at digg.com on the issue.
UPDATE3: The auction is over, winning bid $155,401.00
UPDATE2: I’ve found more info on the original recording (and the likely source of the FLAC posted for download here – which while it has plenty of surface noise is still very, very cool) plus a full listing of this record on a VU archives site. Check it after the jump.
UPDATE: Some are saying that some of the bids are bogus, just people looking for their “15 minutes of fame” (Warhol pun intended!)
There is an extremely rare acetate Velvet Underground record that was found at a NYC flea market years ago is now up on eBay, the highest bid at this moment is at $110,100.00! Oh, and there’s still over 4 days to go on the bidding! The story is the stuff of any record collector’s dream, “In September of 2002 Warren Hill of Montreal Canada was perusing a box of records at a Chelsea, New York street sale when he happened upon a nice Leadbelly 10″ on Folkways, a water damaged copy of the first Modern Lovers LP on Beserkely, and a brittle 12″ piece of acetone-covered aluminum with the words “Velvet Underground. 4-25-66. Att N. Dolph” written on the label. He purchased the three records for 75 cents each.“So the skinny on the recording is that this acetate is the recording of what would have been VU’s first album, Velvet Underground with Nico, as Andy Warhol recorded it. For me nothing beats Loaded, but Velvet Underground with Nico is how I got into VU, so this is amazingly cool. Goldmine Magazine describes the research of the recording:
…We cued it up and were stunned — the first song was not “Sunday Morning” as on the Velvet Underground & Nico” Verve LP, but rather it was “European Son”- the song that is last on that LP, and it was a version neither of us had ever heard before! It was less bombastic and more bluesy than the released version, and it clocked in at a full two minutes longer. I immediately took the needle off the record, and realized that we had something special. Between the two of us we had heard many Velvets outtakes on both official and less than official releases, but the present material had never been heard by either of us. [...] The recording is comprised of the primitive first “finished” version of the LP that Andy Warhol had shopped to Columbia as a ready-to-release debut album by his protege collective “The Velvet Underground”. This acetate, which is possibly the only surviving copy, represents the first Velvet Underground album as Andy Warhol intended it to be released.
I’m holding out hope that this is bought by a label or someone who releases it to the public; I’ll buy it (not for +100,000$ though…) In the meantime, someone has released what they say is the same thing in Flac format, get the links from the comments section in the original article. I *think* this is the same thing that can be found on P2P networks labeled: Velvet Underground and Nico – 1966-4 Scepter Studios, Norman Dolph Acetate
(more…)
Hi, I'm fak3r and I've been online for over 15 years, blogging for 10. I work with open source software, various hardware and whatever else that I can hack on. I enjoy learning by doing, painting infrequently and listening to more music than the law allows. Feel free to follow me and comment on my thoughts and ideas; we're all in it together kid.
