GRINDERMAN - LIVE AT THE CORONET

The dingy, urine scented South London 'Coronet' provided the perfect atmosphere for the sleazy, primitive facial haired but charmingly suited Grinderman quartet to deliver their performance in.

Cave, Casey, Ellis & Sclavunos delivered a blistering set consisting of songs from their two albums. The crowd enjoyed every track, every sexual reference, every lyric and hang on to the stunningly energetic performance that Cave is still able to deliver as he "kicked those white mice out..." all over the stage. The sweat, ominous lighting, loud and clear sound all aided in making this gig an experience. Grinderman's music allows for dancing, moshing, raving and singing, and all were present and delivered accordingly to their mix of psychedelic, rock maniacal sound, which is superbly fresh in an age where artists and listeners are striving to find new un-laboured musical territory. Ellis' screeching tenor guitar is an energetic, raw, visceral tool that fills the old cinema with a sound that others will envy as his fingers draw emotion from one's musical intoxication, by playing tracks such as 'Evil' & 'Get it On', that simply rumble the walls of the Coronet. The band seem to enjoy performing and the the rawkus crowd responded, which begged the question; What took them an 1 1/2 hrs to get on stage?

Besides the wait, the concert was superb, GRINDERMAN are not The Bad Seeds, something which a couple of crowd 'Mercy Seat' requesters should have learned before and let's hope after the gig...

1. Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man
2. Worm Tamer
3. Get It On
4. Heathen Child
5. Palaces Of Montezuma
6. Evil
7. When My Baby Comes
8. What I Know
9. Honey Bee (Let's Fly to Mars)
10. Kitchenette
11. No Pussy Blues
12. Bellringer Blues
13. Encore:
13. When My Love Comes Down
14. Man in the Moon
15. Grinderman

GRINDERMAN 2

Grinderman 2 has been released and like it's primate fronting brother this second 'wolf' record offers the same majestic, destructive, noise creating team of four, that delivered that first raw album. Except that in this sophomore offering the band have managed to maintain that sonic ear lashing bashing, whilst also dwelling into territory that explores a broadening of the bands' sound without relinquishing the initial vitality found on Grinderman I. Tracks such as ''Worm Tamer'' deliver garage, psychedelia, whilst the sensational ''Palaces of Montezuma'' simply stands out on its own; certainly the most talked about track on the album so far. A personal highlight however is the prog-like "When my baby comes", click here to give it a listen.

The album is hopefully a sign of things to come, promising that Grinderman is not just another project for Cave but instead it will exist for many years to come, as next to the Bad Seeds' softer appraoch, Grinderman is the perfect antidote with which to rock out to, laugh and admire Ellis', Casey's, Sclavunos' & Cave's unrefined sonic creativity. (Click for: GRINDERMAN - "Star Charmer", a non LP track)

For tickets and tour dates click here

GRINDERMAN - "Palaces of Montezuma" - Jools Holland

"The spinal cord of JFK...."