Grinderman

Sleazy garage rock band formed by singer-songwriter Nick Cave (b. Nicholas Edward Cave, 22 September 1957, Warracknabeal, Victoria, Australia) and three members of his long-serving band the Bad Seeds, multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis (b. Ballarat, Victoria, Australia), bass player Martyn Casey, and drummer Jim Sclavunos (b. New York City, New York, USA). Grinderman evolved in 2004 after a bizarre change in the musicians' studio working methods. Cave booked a session in a tiny Paris studio, and rather than presenting the other musicians with songs, he shouted out lyrics and they jammed along. This organic process was liberating for the musicians; although it was still a Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds project, the new way of working opened up their minds to interesting opportunities. It was not until February 2006 that Cave booked a five-day session in London's Metropolis Studios, and the raw method of working started again, culminating in an intense musical marathon. Ellis said of the experience: "It was meant to be a really open liberating thing. We went to places we would not normally go . . . and then tried to push it even further". The band name came from that intense experience, as they had to grind owing to lack of sleep with the resulting sound a potent and sleazy style of dirty blues rock. The music on their self-titled debut album, released in March 2007, crystallized the intense aesthetic of a band pushing their boundaries. The album was also notable for Cave rudimentary guitar playing.