News featuring Warren Ellis

Sunday 17th February

• “Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push the Sky Away – review”

  (Bad Seed Ltd)

  For some Nick Cave aficionados, the Bad Seeds were never the same after guitarist Blixa Bargeld left in 2003 to spend more time with his German industrial noise outfit. Even before a single note of this 15th Bad Seeds album is played, others will shake their heads, rueing the day in 2009 when guitarist Mick Harvey – probably the very longest-serving of Cave's henchmen – flew the coop. The cast that revolves around Cave is almost as much of a lopsided whirligig as those satellites orbiting Neil Young, with lifers, safe pairs of hands, specialists and vibes men coming forwards or moving retrograde. This particular Bad Seeds record – spacious, humid, dimensional – is as much the product of multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis and his weather-vane aesthetic as it is of Cave himself.

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

Friday 15th February

• “Nick Cave: 'The greatest feat of artistic honesty would be to retire'”

  The musician, novelist and screenwriter talks about the new direction of his latest album with the Bad Seeds, Push The Sky Away (listen to it here) – and his prolific output over the past few years

  It is a Thursday morning and Nick Cave – tanned and beautifully suited – is receiving the press in the upstairs room of a charming gastropub in Brighton's Kemptown. Born in Australia and variously resident over the years in Berlin, London and São Paulo, he has spent the past decade becoming one of the seaside town's most celebrated residents. Rock king Cave, as the local paper persists in referring to him when he makes its pages, seems remarkably visible around the town, perhaps because – nothing if not a proper pop star – he declines to dress down. The present writer once saw him in DIY superstore Homebase, dressed almost exactly as he…

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

Monday 11th February

• “Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – review”

  Her Majesty's theatre, London

  Listen to the new album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

Friday 8th February

• “First Listen: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, 'Push The Sky Away'”

  The Australian singer and writer assembles a string of slow-burning ballads that seethe and surprise, punctuated by Warren Ellis' gorgeous strings and bits of Cave's own grabby, pervy innuendo.

  Read the complete article at www.npr.org

Tuesday 22nd January

• “Listen to Iggy Pop and Hawk and a Hacksaw's Song for the Johnny Depp-Curated Pirate Compilation”

  Son of Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys is a compilation curated and created by Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, and producer Hal Willner. (It's a follow-up to the 2006 compilation Rogue's Gallery.) Following the Tom Waits/Keith Richards collaboration, check out the crude chantey "Asshole Rules the Navy" by Iggy Pop and A Hawk and a Hacksaw below.

  Son of Rogue's Gallery also features Patti Smith teaming with Depp, Courtney Love teaming with Michael Stipe, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Swans' Michael Gira, Broken Social Scene, and Antony. It's out on Anti- on February 19.

  Read the complete article at pitchfork.com

Friday 11th January

• “Listen to Tom Waits and Keith Richards' Song for the Johnny Depp-Curated Pirate Compilation”

  On February 19, Anti- will release the Son of Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys compilation. Curated and created by Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, and producer Hal Willner, it's a follow-up to the 2006 compilation Rogue's Gallery. 

  Among the artists featured are Patti Smith teaming up with Johnny Depp, Courtney Love teaming up with Michael Stipe, Iggy Pop teaming up with A Hawk and a Hacksaw, plus Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Michael Gira of Swans, Broken Social Scene, Antony, and many more.

  Read the complete article at pitchfork.com

Friday 7th December

• “Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and Tom Waits to set sail on Johnny Depp's pirates album”

  Son of Rogue's Gallery, a compilation of songs from the seafaring tradition, will feature a grizzled crew including Keith Richards, Michael Stipe, Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan

  Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Tom Waits and the Pogues' Shane MacGowan are among the contributors to a new compilation of pirate ballads. The grizzled, A-list crew was assembled by Johnny Depp, who performs on the album, and the people behind the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

Wednesday 5th December

• “Johnny Depp Curates Pirate-Themed Compilation Featuring Broken Social Scene, Tom Waits & Keith Richards, Courtney Love & Michael Stipe”

  Remember when Johnny Depp, his Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, and producer Hal Willner corralled a group of artists-- among them Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Bono, Van Dyke Parks, and Bryan Ferry-- to record new versions of old "pirate ballads, sea songs, and chanteys"? That 2006 compilation, Rogue's Gallery, is getting a second installment.

  Willner, Depp, and Verbinski have spearheaded the sequel, which is out on Anti- on February 19, and called Son of Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys. The two-disc comp features Tom Waits teaming up with Keith Richards, Patti Smith teaming up with Johnny Depp, Courtney Love teaming up with Michael Stipe, Iggy Pop teaming up with A Hawk and a Hacksaw, plus Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Michael Gira of Swans, Broken Social Scene, Antony, and many more.

  Read the complete article at pitchfork.com

Saturday 1st December

• “Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Patti Smith, Band of Horses, Bob Dylan, Henry Rollins Featured on West Memphis Three Documentary Soundtrack”

  Earlier this year, it was reported that Bad Seeds/Grinderman bandmates Nick Cave and Warren Ellis were scoring another film together. Now, the full soundtrack has been unveiled for the documentary West of Memphis. It features Cave and Ellis, Band of Horses, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, and more. West of Memphis: Voices for Justice is out January 15 via Legacy.

  The film was directed and written by Amy Berg, and co-produced and co-written by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings). It analyzes the controversial case of the West Memphis Three, who were originally found guilty in 1994 of murdering three eight-year-old children and freed last year after 18 years in prison. West of Memphis focuses on their supporters, and points to a victim's stepfather as the actual murderer, according to Reuters.

  Read the complete article at pitchfork.com

Tuesday 27th November

• “Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Announce New Album, Push the Sky Away”

  Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have announced details of their 15th (!) studio album: Push the Sky Away will be released in February (18 in the UK, U.S. date TBA UPDATE: It's out February 19 in the U.S.) That's the artwork above. The first single to be taken from the follow-up to 2008's Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, "We No Who U R", will be available from December 3. Watch a tense trailer for the album below, featuring footage of the band recording. "This is one of those nasty ballads!" Cave exclaims at one point.

  Push the Sky Away is, according to a release, the most "subtly beautiful" of all the Bad Seeds' albums. It was produced by Nick Launay and recorded at La Fabrique, a studio ensconsed within a 19th century mansion in south France. "Well, if I were to use that threadbare metaphor of albums being like children, then Push the Sky Away…

  Read the complete article at pitchfork.com