尼克凯夫与坏种子

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1983 by lead vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and German guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey (all from Australia), guitarist George Vjestica (United Kingdom), touring keyboardist/percussionist Larry Mullins, also known as Toby Dammit (United States), and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos (United States). Described as "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward", they have released eighteen studio albums and completed numerous international tours.

The band was founded following the demise of Cave and Harvey's former group the Birthday Party, the members of which met at a boarding school in Melbourne. Throughout the 1980s, beginning with their debut studio album From Her to Eternity (1984), the band drew largely on post-punk, blues and gothic rock, and formed an evolving, multinational lineup, bringing in musicians such as Blixa Bargeld, Barry Adamson and Kid Congo Powers. The band later softened their sound and incorporated other influences on studio albums such as The Good Son (1990) and The Boatman's Call (1997). Following Harvey's departure in 2009, the band broadened their sound further to include electronic and ambient styles, which feature prominently on the trilogy of studio albums Push the Sky Away (2013), Skeleton Tree (2016) and Ghosteen (2019). Wild God is their most recent, released in 2024.

History

Formation and early releases (1983–1985)

The project that later evolved into Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds began following the demise of the Birthday Party in August 1983. Both Cave and Harvey were members of the Birthday Party, along with guitarist Rowland S. Howard and bassist Tracy Pew. During the recording sessions of the Birthday Party's scheduled EPs Mutiny/The Bad Seed, internal disputes developed in the band. The difference in Cave and Howard's approach to songwriting was a major factor, as Cave explained in an interview with On The Street: "the main reason why The Birthday Party broke up was that the sort of songs that I was writing and the sort of songs that Rowland was writing were just totally at odds with each other." Following the departure of Harvey, they officially disbanded. Cave also said that "it probably would have gone on longer, but Mick has the ability to judge things much more clearly than the rest of us."

An embryonic version of what became Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds was formed in the Birthday Party's then-home of London in September 1983, with Cave, Harvey (acting primarily as drummer), Einstürzende Neubauten frontman Blixa Bargeld, Magazine bassist Barry Adamson, and JG Thirlwell, known for his solo project Foetus. The band was initially formed as a backing band for Cave's intended solo project Man or Myth?, which had been approved by the record label Mute Records. During September and October 1983, they recorded material with producer Flood, although the sessions were cut short due to Cave's touring with the Immaculate Consumptive, another project formed with Thirlwell, Lydia Lunch and Marc Almond. In December 1983 Cave returned to Melbourne, Australia, where he formed a temporary line-up of his backing band, due to Bargeld's absence, that included Pew and guitarist Hugo Race. The band performed their first live show at the Crystal Ballroom in St Kilda on 31 December 1983.

Following a short Australian tour, and during a period when they were without management, Cave and his band returned to London. Cave, Harvey, Bargeld, Race and Adamson formed the project's first consistent line-up, while Cave's longtime girlfriend Anita Lane was credited as a lyricist on occasional songs (e.g., the title track of 1984's From Her to Eternity). The group, which up to this time had been nameless, adopted the moniker Nick Cave and the Cavemen, which they used for the first six months of their career. However, they were later renamed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in May 1984, in reference to the final Birthday Party EP The Bad Seed. They began recording sessions for their debut album in March 1984 at London's Trident Studios and these sessions, together with the abandoned Man or Myth? sessions from September–October 1983 that were recorded at The Garden studios, formed the album From Her to Eternity, released on Mute Records in 1984. Thirlwell left during the recording sessions for Eternity, citing creative disagreements and desires to work on his own solo material. Race, and touring guitarist Edward Clayton-Jones, left to form the Wreckery in Melbourne.