First Four Nick Cave Albums to Be Reissued

February 24, 2009 3:04 p.m. by Jim Allen

Nick Cave has such a genteel demeanor these days (the anomalous Grinderman side project not withstanding) that it's easy to forget he was once a howling, teeth-gnashing, bloodthirsty rock & roll maniac, the unsavory offspring of Lux Interior and Edgar Allan Poe. Well, the world at large is about to get its collective memory jogged, with the reissue of the first four albums by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.

From Her To Eternity, The Firstborn Is Dead, Kicking Against the Pricks, and Your Funeral...My Trial, released in a dizzying flurry of activity between 1984 and '86, are wild, foaming-at-the-mouth blues/goth/post-punk masterpieces guaranteed to give you nightmares, and now they're getting the deluxe treatment. Come April 7, Mute is set to give each one a bonus disc, featuring b-sides, a short film, and some fancy liner notes. Sharpen up your fangs and dig in.

4 Responses

February 24, 2009 at 3:43 p.m.

leefull

I wonder if there will be any vinyl reissues? That would be amazing, too!

February 24, 2009 at 4:09 p.m.

EStan

The headline had me thinking The Birthday Party albums were being reissued; I love the Bad Seeds, but they never topped what The Birthday Part accomplished on their first two albums. My new theory of punk age: never trust anyone between the ages of 35-50.

February 24, 2009 at 5:09 p.m.

jimallen

how about after 50?

Punk was only ever a means to an end, not an end in itself. That's why the great punk bands either broke up after an album or two or went beyond punk pretty quickly. I love both the BP and Cave solo, but I'd never think of either as punk. Post-punk at the most, and that's only one aspect of what they/he did.

February 24, 2009 at 6:51 p.m.

leefull

Birthday Party reissues would be great too. But I agree with Jimallen...both bands were/are fantastic and still relevant. Why split hairs over genre? It is all so subjective. What is punk to one person might be post-punk or alternative or what have you to another. But having studied popular music theory on a graduate level, well...academics REALLY love to split hairs over genre and disregard the way the music acutally makes a person feel as he or she is listening or when the name of the band is mentioned (though I am not implying that you guys are academics!). I adore the music of Nick Cave no matter what label gets pinned to it.