Video: Grinderman: "Depth Charge Ethel" (Live at Treacle Studios)
Nick Cave's latest project, Grinderman, spills its rock'n'roll guts with ball-busting intensity. The exposed-wire volatility of "Depth Charge Ethel", from Grinderman's eagerly lascivious self-titled album, gets amped up another level or two in this live-in-studio performance. Recorded during a radio session at Treacle Studios in London's East End, the video shows Cave leading the band through this modern-day "Runaround Sue" tale with his usual raw-throated fire and the precision of an unhinged maestro.
"Let's jam," Cave shouts before a bass solo, clapping his hands as he bemoans his lack of exclusivity with "a woman who a river runs through." For good reason: Kissing Ethel "is like drinking the stars," Cave moans feverishly. The alternative is going batshit. Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard direct, while Bobby Gillespie, of Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream fame, sits in as an extra percussionist. Because that's how Ethel likes it.
[From Grinderman; out now on Anti]