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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have announced details of their new studio album Skeleton Tree, whose release will be accompanied by a “stark, fragile and raw” documentary movie out at the same time.

The record, which will be Cave’s 16th studio album and the first since the death of his 15 year old son Arthur last year, is to be released on September 9th. The day before, on Thursday September 8th, a film called One More Time With Feeling will be screened in 650 cinemas across the world.

Nick Cave's new album is to be accompanied by the release of a film

Continue reading: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Announce New Album And Film

Eagle-eyed indie fans will have seen the hilarious news that Morrissey has been nominated for the ‘Bad Sex Award’ by The Literary Review this week. His first fictional work ‘List of the Lost’, arriving two years after 2013’s notorious ‘Autobiography’, received wildly mixed reviews from most critics.

The nominated passage of ‘erotic’ prose contains the memorable phrase ‘bulbous salutation’. He may be lauded as the lead singer of The Smiths and as a solo artist, but it’s unlikely that his fiction will be remembered in quite the same way, if this is anything to go by.

However, success on the stage doesn’t necessarily preclude a rock star from enjoying successful pursuits as writers. Here are some other, more accomplished examples of rock stars writing prose instead of lyrics.

Continue reading: Five Examples Of Pop Stars Becoming Authors

In celebration of her career's 50th anniversary, Marianne Faithfull is set to release a brand new single, 'Late Victorian Holocaust', at the end of September, 2014. The single is set to serve as the fifth album on her upcoming 20th studio album, entitled 'Give My Love to London'. 

Marianne Faithfull began her music career at the age of 17

'Give My Love to London' is due for release on the 11th November, 2014, with a celebratory tour beginning a month earlier in October. The tour will celebrate her career which has so far spanned five decades, beginning when she was just 17 years old in 1964. The beginning of her career, between the years 1966 and 1970 were spent in a well-publicised relationship with Mick Jagger. 

Continue reading: Music Legend Marianne Faithfull To Celebrate 50th Career Anniversary With Tour

Nick Cave's talent for songwriting had never been disputed. In fact, many would consider the Australian amongst our generation's most talented songsmiths and so it came as no surprise that his screenwriting debut, 2007's The Proposition, was heralded as a sharp, sprawling epic.

Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue in '20,000 Days on Earth'

Cave's new movie, 20,000 Days on Earth, has been in development for some time. The musician co-wrote and stars in the film, about a fictional 24 hours in the life of the Bad Seeds man. It premiered in-competition in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in January, winning two awards. And now, on the eve of its bow in the cinemas, critics agree that 20,000 Days on Earth is one of the most intriguing movies of the year.

Continue reading: Nick Cave's '20,000 Days On Earth' Could Be Finest Movie Of 2014

A sleek and sexy Kate Hudson wowed the red carpet at the New York premiere of her new film Wish I Was Here. She was accompanied on the night by director-cowriter-star Zach Braff as well as costars Donald Faison, Ashley Greene and Joey King. The film is about a 35-year-old man trying to figure out his life, career and family. Look through the full premiere gallery here.

In Los Angeles, Dane Cook, Ed Harris, Julie Bowen, Hal Holbrook, Erik Estrada and Brad Garrett were on hand for the premiere of their new animated film Planes: Fire & Rescue, which was held to benefit the L.A. Fire Department. Also in attendance were musicians Kesha, Ludacris and country singer Brad Paisley. Watch the trailer for Planes: Fire & Rescue here.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Hudson Wows New York, Planes And Pudsey Premiere, Plus New Trailers For Cave, Knightley And Witherspoon

20,000 Days On Earth: no it's not a gun-totin' new action movie about an alien invasion, it's a drama about a day in the life of Nick Cave. The pseudo-documentary supposedly charts the rocker's 20,000th day on Earth.

The 56 year-old Australian musician narrates the film, which features scenes of him writing on a typewriter, going to therapy, spending time with Kylie Minogue and Ray Winstone, having food with fellow Aussie musician Warren Ellis, and hanging out with his son watching Scarface.

Anyone looking for a humdrum, fly-on-the-wall experience of a typical Cave day will be disappointed: the film does examine his songwriting process, live show performances and various celebrity friendships but it's creative in its narration, echoing Cave's own idiosyncracies.

Continue reading: '20,000 Days On Earth': Trailer Released For Intriguing Nick Cave Docu-Drama

London Grammar lead the honours at last night's 59th annual Ivor Novello awards in London. The trip-hop trio, Dominic Major, Hannah Reid and Daniel Rothman, won Best Song Musically and Lyrically for their track 'Strong.' The award was significant for the band, who met each other at Nottingham University, because it demonstrates a change of fortune when compared to them being ignored at the Mercury Music Prize.

London Grammar Proved Their Worth At The 59th Ivor Novello Awards.

Speaking before the show, vocalist Reid said of the awards: "It feels really good because it's a songwriter's award and that's why we do what we do, it's a little more chilled than the BRITs as well, it's great."

Continue reading: Ivor Novellos Victory For London Grammar As Mercurys Snub Forgotten

The line-up for this year's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has been announced and looks to be more impressive than ever with Elton John, Kanye West, Lionel Richie, Jack White and Vampire Weekend all gracing the Manchester, Tenn. stages across the four-day celebration. The festival, which will be held from the 12th to the 15th June this year, will serve up an enviable mix of genres.

Elton John Will Lead This Year's Incredible Bonnaroo Festival Line-Up.

Bonnaroo Festival is famous for having provided a stage to one of Kanye West's famous rants last time he played in 2008. The rapper and his fans reacted with outrage when Kanye's originally late night set was shifted to a performance during broad daylight, provoking a classic caps-lock tirade from the short-fused star.

Continue reading: Kanye, Elton, Jack And Lionel: Say Hello To Bonnaroo Festival's Line-Up 2014

Vampire Weekend 'Modern Vampire in the City' - 'Modern Vampires in the City' makes it three for three for the New Yorkers and their latest release could very well be their best yet. It shows evolution for the band, but they have retained that essential quality that made 'Contra' and their self-titled debut such wonderfully upbeat and genuine pleasures to listen to each time. 'Modern Vampire in the City' is also the release that marks Vampire Weekend as a band that should be taken seriously, but one who you can still have immense fun with. 'Diane Young' is yet another indie floor filler, standing shoulder to shoulder with previous bangers 'A-Punk' and 'Cousins.' Where the album really excels, however, is when VW reach out to new quarters and sound completely inimitable. The yelps of 'Ya Hey' bring fun to a song that essentially deals with the theme of lost conviction, the graceful 'Hanna Hunt' erupts in the most complete song released this year and album opener 'Obvious Bicycle' sets the whole thing in motion with its refreshingly angelic melodies and steady, train-like clunks that lie beneath all the splendour. Vampire Weekend are no longer the Brooklyn minions rattling at the gates of eminence, the gates have been swung open for them and the welcoming committee should have made them feel rightly at home. 

Continue reading: Contactmusic.com's Top Albums Of 2013

Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave formed an unlikely partnership in the 1980s – he was the badass rebel while she was struggling to rid herself of the pop princess title. The expertly crafted track, Where The Wild Roses Grow, combined Cave’s gruff deliverance with Minogue’s perfect pitch, and represented a shocking but most-welcome pop bite.

Now, in 20,000 Days on Earth, which will be directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, the Australian compatriots will combine once more.

Cave and Minogue in what looks like a moody scene from 20,000 Days on Earth

Continue reading: First Look: Kylie Minogue's Cameo In Nick Cave's '20,000 Days On Earth' [Picture]

And that's it. Another year passes and Worthy Farm closes its gates on the Glastonbury Festival revellers for another 12 months. Though there's always the distant murmur of someone professing it "the best Glastonbury ever," there was a palpable feeling that this year's festival was among the finest in history. Firstly, there was heightened anticipation given the fallow year in 2012 and secondly, the sun came out. Oh, and The Rolling Stones made their debut, rollicking through a two-and-a-half-hour set on Saturday (June 29, 2013) and scoring five-star reviews across the board.

Mick Jagger Performing With The Rolling Stones At Glastonbury Festival in 2013

The surprise return of David Bowie in 2013 had left many commentators speculating on the possibility of the Thin White Duke headlining the legendary festival, though there was no lingering thoughts of "What if?" once Glastonbury got underway on Friday with a snappy set from Sheffield heroes Arctic Monkeys. Bowie became all but a moot point after Saturday, when Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and company played a career spanning set that included 'Jumping Jack Flash,' 'Tumbling Dice,' 'Start Me Up,' 'You Can't Always Get What You Want,' 'Gimmie Shelter,' 'Doom and Gloom' and 'Midnight Rambler.' "The night belongs to the Stones. By turning on the charm as well as the formidable back catalogue, they prove themselves well worth the wait," said the Guardian's Dorian Lynskey. 

Continue reading: Glastonbury Festival 2013 In Pictures: Sun, Cider And The Rolling Stones [Pictures]

Many Glasto goers woke up to the pitter patter of rain on canvas this morning as Wednesday's warm, humid weather well and truly dissolved into rain. By the Thursday evening, the site was drenched - what had initially been forecast as a "short sharp shower turned into an all-day deluge," according to the BBC. And where there's rain, there's mud: big sticky, gloopy, welly-stealing piles of it. This didn't deter any of the 118,000 ticket holders already onsite, with revellers retreating to indoor tents or embracing the wet weather and sludge with gusto by making mud slides. As the main festival wasn't even fully underway by then, we can't say we'd like to be sharing their tent this weekend - let's hope they've brought some babywipes!

Glastonbury Festival Organisers Michael & Daughter Emily Eavis.

Unlike everywhere else in the country, the rest of the weekend in the South-West is set to be mild, but not exactly toasty, with mean temperatures of 18°C combined with average windspeeds of about 15mph: so that little weather forecaster's cartoon of a grey cloud will pretty much sum up the weekend. 2009's extreme weather saw torrential downpours and thunderstorms lighting up the valley but was followed by 2010's glorious sunshine, which caused sunstroke and dust problems. Punters have a whole weekend of musical, comical and performance joy ahead of them to distract them from any weather woes though. Saturday night will be headlined by The Rolling Stones who have described the Glastonbury headline slot as an experience they were "destined" for, with organisers Michael and Emily Eavis "thrilled" to have the legendary Stones perform.

Continue reading: Glastonbury Weather Dries Up Ready For The Big Acts

With such a ginormous festival site at 900 acres, and plenty of drunken hoardes and muddy puddles to fight through, the simple act of walking from one stage to another can be a difficult task. Throw in a lost mud-sucked welly and inebriated disorientation and you haven't a hope in hell of deftly navigating your way in between acts - even with that overpriced festival lanyard you spent half your first day's budget on.

Glastonbury returns in 2013 after having taking a well needed break in 2012 - the Eavis family, the cows and the grass all had a rest whilst the portaloos and crowd barriers were in London for the Olympics. The festival this year marks it's revival with an exciting line-up, including The Rolling Stones, Mumford & Sons, Arctic Monkeys, Chic feat. Nile Rodgers, Chase and Status, and Public Enemy.

However, with all star-packed line-ups comes inevitable clashes: fan of both Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds AND Smashing Pumpkins? Too bad - they're both on around 20:30 on the Sunday with a good half mile hike between stages, meaning you'll have to forego one sullen frontman for another.

Continue reading: Glastonbury Festival 2013: Your Guide To The Biggest Clashes!

Ok, so this year's SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, featured intimate performances from the likes of Prince, Justin Timberlake, the Sound City Players, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Green Day and Kendrick Lamar, though one memorable moment from 2013 appears to be making all the headlines. "Drunk bully gets knocked out" is a video that began pulling in the YouTube views midway through the festival, after one attendee captured an incident on the Austin streets on a smartphone. Of course, we don't condone violence, but isn't there something sweet about seeing a drunken bully stumble around hitting innocent bystanders, only to be given a taste of his own medicine? Sure there is.

After reading the video title, you just know what's going to happen. The only thing left to do is try and guess which of the SXSW festivalgoers gives the drunken bully a face full of fist before it actually happens. Eagle eyed watchers will have spotted the guy with the grey t-shirt asking his friend whether he has his back, around 10 seconds into the video. From there, he plans the whole thing out, waits for his moment, and BOOM. 

Continue reading: SXSW Memorable Moments: Drunk Bully Gets Knocked Out (Video)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds delivered a stonking SXSW set at Stubb's BBQ on Wednesday (March 13, 2013), with the enigmatic frontman stalking around the stage at the NPR Music showcase and announcing, "We're going to start off with a really long song, and hopefully by the time we're done, it'll be dark."

It would set the tone for a mysterious but brilliant set from Cave and his band, which included the Australian wordlessly mocking his texting fans by imitating their thumb movements - there were more than a few red hipster faces in the crowd. Cave, who played several songs from his well-received new record Push The Sky Away, is one of the highlight acts at this year's festival in Austin, Texas, which also features performances from Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake, Prince, Sound City Players, Green Day and Depeche Mode. 

Cave has written movie scripts, novels and several great songs over the years, though speaking at the 27th annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference earlier this week, he explained how it never gets any easier. "There are all these nasty births," he said of spawning new material,  "[It's like] pushing burning watermelons out of a tiny orifice."

Continue reading: SXSW: Brooding Nick Cave Mocks Texting Fans At Stubb's BBQ Show

As the annual South by Southwest festival heats up over there in Austin, Texas, we’ve cast a jealous eye over the line-up and picked out five of some of the bigger names that you really should start queuing nice and early for and thrown in five hype bands for you, too, so you can get all hip with your friends, upon your return and start laying down all those “saw them first lines,” when they blow up next year.

First up, the acts that have already broken, that you really need to check out, or at least pretend that you did, if you were stuck in that queue for BBQ wings…

1. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – their ‘Thrift Shop’ song really blew up, especially online, where they challenged Carly Rae Jepsen’s chart record for ‘Call Me Maybe.’ No one can predict whether or not Macklemore’s going to be a one hit wonder or whether he’s got more up his sleeve, he’s known for putting on a good show, and all six of their shows are likely to be rammed.

Continue reading: SXSW Movers And Shakers: The Biggest Names And Best New Acts At South By Southwest 2013

Albums of Note... Heaped with praise and riding high in the UK charts, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 15th studio album, Push the Sky Away is not only an artistic triumph but a commercial one, too. Cave’s songwriting style has mutated significantly since his early days as frontman and resident wildcard of The Birthday Party; he now resembles a particularly well-dressed bar fly and his songs are peppered with his quintessentially erudite turn of phrase.

For our reviewer, Push the Sky Away demonstrates Cave and his cohorts at their finest:“Knowing when to stop and what to leave out, when adding more will lessen the quality and having the strength of character to just cut away the surplus is most definitely driven by the ever uncompromising Cave and here it has clearly paid dividends… Push The Sky Away' has a delicacy and tenderness woven through it like a fine silken tapestry of beguiling beauty but it can still be unflinching and brutal.”

Continue reading: A Week In Music - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' 'Push The Sky Away' Riding High, Foal Break New Ground With 'Holy Fire' And Haim Get Close To Nature With 'Falling'

Push the Sky Away, the new album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, is perhaps the most significant album of this week. It’s the first release from the band since Dig Lazarus Dig! which landed five years ago. Cave hasn’t been entirely out of the picture, of course. He’s still been releasing music with his other band, Grinderman and writing movie scores, too. But it’s the Bad Seeds, the band with whom he has collaborated and performed since 1984 admittedly with varying line-ups) that Cave fans always want to see back on the stage and with a new album on the shelves.

Push The Sky Away does not disappoint and has garnered great reviews, so far. Cave no longer resides in his home country of Australia but in the seaside town of Brighton, in England and the British music press well and truly consider Cave to be one of their own. This week marks the fifteenth album release from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and the quality of the band’s raw and grandiose songs shows no signs of dwindling. 

Continue reading: Out Now - US Album Releases - Quality Return For Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, No Need For Guilt With Buckcherry's Confessions, Get Funked Up With Jamie Lidell

This week heralds the long awaited return of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Of course, we have seen plenty of Nick Cave over the last few years, with 2010’s Grinderman 2 album and his soundtrack work on Metamorphosis and Lawless (both 2012 releases) but Cave’s fans have been waiting since 2008’s Dig, Lazarus Dig! for new output from the Bad Seeds.

As with many of Nick Cave’s album releases, Push the Sky away has been rapturously received (can this guy do no wrong, we wonder?), with a 4/5 review in The Guardian, a similarly effusive 9/10 from NME and a generous 8.0 from Pitchfork. There’s no huge departure in sound here; Push the Sky is very much what you will have come to expect from a Nick Cave album. Luckily, what we have largely come to expect from a Nick Cave album is sublime song structuring, insightful lyricism and quality musicianship – all of which are delivered on Push the Sky Away.

Continue reading: Out Now - UK Albums Releases - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Return, Triumphant, Emeli Sande Epidemic Spreads With Live Album Release, Danish Punks Iceage Split Opinion With Controversy

In a recent interview with Alexis Petridis for The Guardian, Nick Cave explains the lyrics of ‘Higgs Boson Blues,’ which ends with the image of Miley Cyrus floating in a pool. The Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song is taken from their forthcoming album, entitled Push The Sky Away (due for release on February 18, 2013) but Cave insists he’s got “nothing in particular against Miley Cyrus.”

“I don't know that she's face down," he explains to Petridis. "Maybe she's on a lilo. In some ways, if she is lying on a lilo then it's even more of a devastating image, considering the nature of the song and the absolute spiritual collapse that's happening all around her. No, let's say she's just on a lilo.” Cave goes on to explain how Miley Cyrus ended up becoming embroiled in the lengthy song (the album version is just shy of 8 minutes long) in the first place. “I was in Madame Tussauds with my kids and they were hugging Miley Cyrus's waxwork,” he explains. “Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra was in the next room. They were groping Miley Cyrus, and I'm going, well, hang on a second, you've got Elizabeth Taylor here. 'Who?' And that had some impact on me, and that's why she's floating in the pool." 

Watch a recent performance of 'Higgs Boson Blues'

Continue reading: "I’ve Nothing Against Miley Cyrus" – Nick Cave Explains New Album Lyrics

Albums of Note... Mark Oliver Everett (better known as ‘E’) returns as eels, with new album Wonderful, Glorious. It’s a return to the form that we saw from Eels in the ‘90s. In recent years, Eels albums have been a rather bleak affair, as Everett has had to deal with the death of his parents, his sister and his cousin, all in a relatively short space of time. Wonderful, Glorious sees Eels get some of the fight back – literally, in ‘Kinda Fuzzy,’ in which he snarls “don’t mess with me I’m up for a fight.”“this teeth-grit, eyes ahead attitude is something we've come to expect from Eels, and Wonderful, Glorious is at its best when he's at his growliest… By the end you even sense a form of happiness has fallen upon this most maligned performer…"

Frightened Rabbit have parted ways with Brighton indie label Fat Cat and release their third album Pedestrian Verse on Atlantic Records. With most of the album’s tracks having been written around the time of Scott Hutchinson’s relationship breakup, it can make for a pretty uncomfortable listen at times. With a new producer at the helm the band seem to have developed a more free-flowing musical ideal, even if the emotions contained within are high in intensity.“In summary, 'Pedestrian Verse' can perhaps best be described as the sound of Frightened Rabbit doing what they do best. Just how many more fall outs and break-ups Scott Hutchison can through to continue the cycle remains to be seen, but for now this is up there alongside 'The Midnight Organ Fight' as one of the band's finest collections to date.”

Continue reading: A Week In Music - Eels Back On Form With 'Wonderful, Glorious, Frightened Rabbit Album Uncomfortable Listening, Depeche Mode's Broody New Video

Some good news for fans of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds… the motley crew of rugged old dudes are set to release a new album in February 2013. According to Clashmusic.com, the Australian artist and his long-term band of cohorts will release an album entitled Push The Sky Away on February 18, 2012.

The last time Nick Cave released an album with The Bad Seeds was in 2008, when they came out with the seminal Dig, Lazarus, Dig! In the meantime, Cave has been working with his other band, Grinderman, who have been regulars on the festival circuit for the last couple of summers and he’s also had his hand in a number of soundtrack projects, including The Death of Bunny Munro and The Road. Nick seemed to delight in explaining how the creative process worked for the band, this time around, in a recent interview, saying “I enter the studio with a handful of ideas, unformed and pupal; it's the Bad Seeds that transform them into things of wonder. Ask anyone who has seen them at work. They are unlike any other band on earth for pure, instinctive inventiveness.”

The Bad Seeds have always been the band to whom Cave has returned, since his early band The Birthday Party disbanded. With the current line up of Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos, Thomas Wylder, Martyn P Casey and Conway Savage, you can expect that Push the Sky Away will be yet another masterpiece in Nick Cave’s enviable canon of work.