I finally purchased Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ latest album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! It has been out since March. I was waiting until I knew I could sit down and simply listen. Here I am sat, next to the cat, alone and free of disturbance. Tracks on the album remind me of the Mercy Seat, Tupelo and songs from Abattoir Blues. Some of the tracks simply rock while others stroll languidly along with a sideways glance across the street if you follow.

I admire Nick Cave. He is an independent beast with a considerable intellect. His lecture series on the Secret Life of the Love Song provide insights for students and songsmiths alike.

Other albums I recommend by Cave if you wish to give him a listen include The Boatman Calls, Nocturama, The Lyre of Orpheus and No More Shall We Part. A couple of my favourite tracks include Into My Arms, Breathless and Red Right Hand.

Links:

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Nick Cave Online
Bad-Seed.org 
Wikipedia entry: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Photograph by Lilith Delilah.  Adelaide, 2007. Some rights reserved.
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Now playing, and dedicated to Clay Burell: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – We Call Upon The Author
via FoxyTunes

I was perusing the news section of Bowie’s web site and spotted a couple of photographs of Bowie using a Mac, not unlike the one that I am using to generate this blog post. I am a bit of a fan of the old Bowie and a bit of a fan of the Mac. Seeing both in the same image is a bit of a thrill for this old fart. I have seen photographs of Bowie using one of the coloured iMacs some years back. He was in Moby’s flat at the time. I managed a mention on his web site once. Another thrill for the old fart.

Bowie has been quite an innovative user of the net although he has been quiet of late. Via his web site, which has been around for 14 or so years, he has organised events where fans can contribute to album artwork, select tracks for live albums and even contribute to the lyrics of songs for his albums. One winner even had the chance to sing backing vocals on the track. He was releasing .mp2 files on his web site back in 1996. I had a dial-up connection and any chance of downloading the tracks was impossible so being a rather audacious yet quick thinking individual I drove to the offices of an ISP near my home. I asked if they could do me a favour and download the tracks for me. They did. Not bad, eh? I must have looked so pathetic in their eyes.

I took some photographs of Bowie way back in 1978. I was using a small ‘instamatic’ camera. A friend took some much better photographs with a proper camera. Were you alive then? All of the photographs are here.

David Bowie. Live at the Sydney Showgrounds, November 25th, 1978.
Have you got a tape of this show?

To the webmaster of Bowie’s site, on the off chance that you are reading this, for goodness sake remove those rather unpleasant Google Adverts off the web site.

Well, what’s this video mean to you? I occasionally elicit replies like this at school. I definitely need to rethink my questioning techniques at times. A little more open ended.

Sort of ~ Dunno ~ Nothing by Peter Denahy

It is Sort Of Dunno Nothing by Peter Denahy. I want to make a joke about a popular online bookmarking slash social networking tool in relation to this song however I shall refrain.

Earlier this year I had the good fortune to collaborate on an article about David Bowie. He turned 60 this year and the article focused on 60 rare and intriguing recordings released during his career from 1964 through to the present. The article was published a couple of weeks ago in the Record Collector magazine.

I worked with Ruud Altenburg and Maarten Kwant, both of the Netherlands. We all had a great time writing the article and gathering together the images used throughout. Quite an experience and a further demonstration of the power of the Internet. The three of us have never actually met in person. We met via the web due to our interest in collecting records. Ruud is the creator of the excellent Illustrated db Discography. The article rated a couple of mentions on Bowie’s web site as well.

This afternoon I digitised an old live recording of an Elvis Costello performance at the Shellharbour Workers’ Club in Shellharbour, NSW. He played with a band called the Confederates. The band consisted of Austin De Lone, Jim Keltner, Elvis Costello, Jerry Scheff and James Burton if I remember correctly. It also included Nick Lowe this night. It was the 5th December, 1987.

The performance was brilliant and the crowd went wild. They yelled and bellowed for more and the band played several encores. They ran out of tunes and they played “That’s How You Got Killed Before” once more with different solos. You can hear me putting the cassette recorder away at the end after the house lights went up. My friends encircled me as I hid the recorder before we made our exit. Getting tape decks past security was always a worry. Anyway, have a listen…

That’s How You Got Killed Before