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Mick Harvey Leaves Cave and the Bad Seeds

post #1 of 10
1/22/09 at 3:47pm
Thread Starter 
FUCK.

I wish I could rewind time and actually buy tickets to their past show at the Hollywood Bowl.
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post #2 of 10
1/22/09 at 3:53pm
WOW fuck
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post #3 of 10
1/22/09 at 3:54pm
Yeah, it's disappointing, but what can you do? Glad to have seen them last November, as it was one of the best show I've seen.

I wonder how this will affect the sound of Nick Cave.
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post #4 of 10
1/22/09 at 4:02pm
It's a bummer in theory, since he's been in the band since the beginning, but with so many Bad Seeds milling around these days, I'm not sure it'll change their sound all that much. Harvey hasn't even gotten any writing credits on the last few albums.

I've gotten the impression that Warren Ellis is sort of Cave's right-hand man these days. When I saw them last year, Harvey didn't really stand out much onstage.

This reminds me that I need to pick up his first album of Serge Gainsbourg covers, though. I've got Pink Elephants, and it's pretty great (complete with a goofy Cave/Anita Lane-sung version of "Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus").
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post #5 of 10
1/22/09 at 4:09pm
Ellis has definitely taken over Harvey's old right-hand man spot, but I think that, regardless of writing credits, Harvey has traditionally been such a formative voice in the Bad Seeds that his departure could really be noticed.

But Cave (I think) has said that Grinderman (i.e. the Bad Seeds with Ellis in Harvey's spot) was like a bomb going off in the Bad Seeds camp, and I think this is part of the fallout.

And a friend was at the Aussie ATP, and said Cave/Harvey interplay was at a low ebb.
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post #6 of 10
1/22/09 at 4:13pm
Lots of Bad Seeds over the years. (Kid Congo Powers opened for the Bad Seeds when I saw them last year.)

20+ years is a long-ass run to be in someone else's band. Can't begrudge the guy wanting to move on.
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post #7 of 10
1/22/09 at 4:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
20+ years is a long-ass run to be in someone else's band. Can't begrudge the guy wanting to move on.
I think it's that, over the last ten, it really became somebody else's band where it hadn't once been. They had The Birthday Party together, and early on the Bad Seeds really were Mick Harvey's band. But Nick's skills improved dramatically and Warren Ellis came into the the fold, and from there it was out of Harvey's hands.
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post #8 of 10
1/22/09 at 4:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ Fischer View Post
I think it's that, over the last ten, it really became somebody else's band where it hadn't once been. They had The Birthday Party together, and early on the Bad Seeds really were Mick Harvey's band. But Nick's skills improved dramatically and Warren Ellis came into the the fold, and from there it was out of Harvey's hands.
Which might explain Bargeld leaving, as well, I suppose. I always assumed he was a major creative force in the band, too. The thing is that his departure didn't seem to have much of an impact on the quality of the music; in fact, the two post-Bargeld studio albums are amazing.

So if Harvey had problems with the new Ellis-heavy direction and was pushing back, I'd imagine that future Bad Seeds albums will expand on the Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! sound, which is hardly a bad thing, just a different thing.
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post #9 of 10
1/22/09 at 4:38pm
My understanding of the Blixa situation was basically that the Bad Seeds were, for a long time, a way for him to fund his own stuff (including some EN projects) while hanging out with friends. Blixa's contribution to Bad Seeds stuff was often noise and texture (standouts like 'The Weeping Song' aside) and that aspect is something that was (a) minimized over the years and (b) increasingly overseen by Warren Ellis when it was wanted.
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post #10 of 10
1/22/09 at 5:14pm
DLD !!! relies heavily in Warren textures so you both seem right. And while Nick was promoting Grinderman he explained how his music had change while he was holding a guitar he even said something like "now I can understand the Velvet sound". If this means more bouzouki and stuff like Moonland it would be great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC-fQMkMz08
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