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MUSIC

Grinderman 2
by Grinderman (Mute)

If musique noire existed as a genre, Nick Cave would be playing it. Since abandoning his native Australia in 1980, this skinny, self-educated cultural outlaw has fronted the long-running act Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. But he has also written novels, lectures and screenplays, as well as music for film directors Wim Wenders and John Hillcoat. His singularly dark and alienating aesthetic passes easily between these genres, making him a cult figure for many. Even his hit duet with Kylie Minogue, “Where the Wild Roses Grow,” features the murder of a maiden on her first date.

Grinderman is Cave’s latest “side project,” its mostly-bearded members part of the same surly bunch that make up the Bad Seeds. As the name suggests, Grinderman’s trademark sound is distortion, honed to