Three 65, Day 35
Grinderman, Grinderman 2

Until Grinderman debuted their lineup in 2007, frontman Nick Cave was kind of in a rut. A lot of people will be shocked to hear me say this; "Nick Cave is one of the most adventurous musicians in history!" they'd say. Yeah, he is, but for years, he did one thing (and one thing very, very well): goth crooning. He was a poet of the darkness and a lover of all shit grim and gory, but it wasn't until 2007 and the advent of Grinderman that he really, you know, rawked.

Grinderman is really just a couple of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds under a different name, with a different purpose: the complete and total shaking of your boo-tay. And even with this unholy agenda, the first album didn't totally rock out; it wasn't until the second album, Grinderman 2 (how's that for original), that things really took off.

"Heathen Child," the lead single, bubbles and fumes with furious energy before finally blowing it during the choruses, with the band's buzzsaw guitars and cheapo percussion providing the backing for Cave's furious preacher-on-acid ranting. "Evil" thrashes and moans and sounds just like its title. "What I Know" is a quieter number, but the "quiet" is so fraught with noise, it could almost be a restrained Einsturzende Neubauten song. And not enough good things can be said about "Bellringer Blues," a loopy, psychedelic raga that aims straight for the heart of nausea. The Beatles never sounded like this, kids.

Where Cave goes from here is anybody's guess. Personally, I hope he keeps Grinderman going at a steady pace, and puts the Bad Seeds on the back burner for now. He sounds a lot better angry than he does mopey.