Grinderman

Led by Nick Cave's brilliantly arch and melancholic songwriting, Australian post-punk, art-rock outlaws The Bad Seeds found themselves at a crossroads in 2006. Having evolved from the sprawling angst of the Birthday Party into the dark, romantic, bluesy beauty of the murder ballads and the Boatman's Call album, key members Cave, Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos and Martyn Casey went in search of a new direction on the promise that Cave wouldn't write about religion. They emerged from the studio as Grinderman, a grizzled, sleazy rock behemoth, telling tales of lust and doom, while generating a raw, sexy, slightly unhinged groove. All beards and mid-life crisis, debut single No Pussy Blues set the tone perfectly; grumbling and scowling about Cave's failed search for female attention before debut album Grinderman (2008) brewed into a storm of thunderous, howling rock'n'roll. The band contributed two songs to the soundtrack of Wim Wenders' film Palermo Shooting and worked with Seasick Steve before taking on funk and 1960s garage influences on the slightly more polished second album Grinderman 2 (2010).