Grinderman: Grinderman

Last spotted by gossip website Popbitch at Christmas panto in Brighton with his kids (waving a big foam hand at X Factor goon Chico, apparently), for Nick Cave, Grinderman is the musical equivalent of a potting shed at the end of the garden. Yes, with this side-project, the newly-respectable Dark Lord is able to escape his other commitments to hang out with his Bad Seeds pals and make a big old ugly racket. Recorded in a week, ‘Grinderman’ is an almost defiantly edgy record – within seconds Cave’s screaming about baboons and motherfuckers over the top of some white-knuckled fuzz noise. It’s full-strength stuff. Sure, ‘No Pussy Blues’ probably refers to that testing third trimester, but we should indulge the Grinderman. After all, a man goes mad without a hobby.

Pat Long