English Space Rockers Spiritualized and Singer/Songwriter Cat Power Share the Bill

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2008 AT 7:30 PM

Media Sponsors: KCRW and Filter Magazine

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Spiritualized, and Cat Power all make their Hollywood Bowl debuts in a one-of-a-kind performance at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday, September 17, at 7:30pm. The performance marks the first Los Angeles performance by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in over five years.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds perform in support of their widely heralded 2008 release DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!, their 14th studio album. Last seen out in public under the gleeful guise of Grinderman, a no-nonsense rock-n-roll excuse to “head down to the basement and shout,” Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds hit the elevator button straight back up to the cerebral penthouse with DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!, an elusive, allusive narrative that unrolls Western Civilization from Homer to Freud, the Bible to the Beats, fitting in its own cast of mythical characters along the way. It’s a disjointed and disturbing universe with its creators at the helm. Rolling Stone states “Nick Cave will obviously live forever, just because the devil's scared of him. It’s not every goth-punk fiend who can celebrate his fiftieth birthday with an album as loud, filthy and brilliant as Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!” The Los Angeles Times says of DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!, “It’s profound, it’s sometimes obscene, and it’s unlikely to have a rival for best rock album of the year.” The Bad Seeds are Conway Savage, piano; Martyn P. Casey, bass; Thomas Wydler, drums and percussion; Jim Sclavunos, drums and percussion; Warren Ellis, mandocaster, violin, tenor guitar; and Mick Harvey, guitar and organ.

Lush and eclectic UK legends Spiritualized returns to the U.S. in support of Songs In A & E, their first album since 2003’s Amazing Grace. Bandleader Jason Pierce has once again reinvented the Spiritualized moniker with the addition stripped down acoustics. After rising from the ashes of his first band, Spacemen 3, over 17 years ago, and releasing a slew of visionary works including Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (1997) and Let It Come Down (2001), Spiritualized finally bring their inimitable live show - performing with a full band - to the Hollywood Bowl.

Cat Power, also known as the uncompromising Chan Marshall, begins the evening. Chan has captured audiences since the release of her debut album Dear Sir in 1995. She makes her debut at the Hollywood Bowl in support of her eighth record, and second album of cover songs, Jukebox, a tribute to the great vocalists that have inspired her over the years. The Los Angeles Times says of Jukebox, "Subtle touches of jazz, blues, rock and country add to the dreamy, soulful elegance and make Jukebox feel like a private love letter to treasured tunes."

Finding new ways to be NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS is an ongoing mission for him and his confreres. In the last two years, this evolutionary quest has sped up to an intoxicating pace. Their 14th album, DIG LAZARUS DIG!!! is partly the result of Cave's desire to escape his quest for "the classic love song" and explore more abstract emotional territory. The piano has been pared back, the band primed to be vigilant for those chords that were too easily pleasing, too obviously emotive. In their place is loops and static, textural distortions, slow-creeping atmospheres. At times, the vocals have a deliberately dispassionate air, at odds with the furious intensity or wracked emotion often associated with Cave. It's an approach influenced by recent film soundtrack work, including Cave and Ellis's score for Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. This is suggestive, subtle and utterly seductive music, testament to the seriousness of the project to find new ways of moving forward that started with 1984's first post-Birthday Party record From Her To Eternity. Cave drags the inner workings outside and the underworld overground, the band leading the listener through these uncertainties and confusions even when the going gets tough.

Jason Spaceman is back with his sixth studio outing under the SPIRITUALIZED banner, Songs In A & E. It is a record, more than any of its predecessors, in the Spiritualized canon. Falling very ill, Jason had to postpone both the release of the album and music in general. His way back came in the form of an offer to provide the soundtrack to Mr. Lonely, a new movie by director Harmony Korine (Gummo, Julian Donkey Boy, Kids). While working on Harmony’s film, he simultaneously worked on the “Harmony” pieces for Songs In A&E. Those tracks are named specifically as a reference to the director. Jason’s recovery was given a further boost when invites started flooding in to perform his so-called “Acoustic Mainlines” gig, everywhere from All Tomorrow’s Parties in Minehead, to the Harlem’s Apollo Theater in New York. The band, three gospel singers, a 7-piece string section, Spiritualized member Tony Foster on a Fender Rhodes piano, and Jason on acoustic guitar and vocals, brought the house down wherever it went. Songs in A&E is a record true to Jason’s original tenet of simplicity, but completely unlike any of his others, thanks to its naked, unelaborate sound.

CAT POWER is the nom de rock of Chan Marshall. Rolling Stone calls her latest and eighth record, Jukebox "A dazzling self-portrait…she refashions material from other artists and makes it seem like it's been hers all along." In addition to the covers, the new album does include two originals fitting the ‘covers’ theme: “Song To Bobby” and “Metal Heart” the former evoking Dylan in both style and content and a new sense of triumph in the later. The band, Dirty Delta Blues, back Chan on the record and on her tour which features classics made popular by Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell. Jukebox follows the success of 2006’s Memphis recorded The Greatest which reached #1 on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums chart.

One of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000, the HOLLYWOOD BOWL has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922, and in 1991 gave its name to the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, a resident ensemble that has filled a special niche in the musical life of Southern California. The 2004 season introduced audiences to a revitalized Hollywood Bowl, featuring a newly-constructed shell and stage and the addition of four stadium screens enhancing stage views in the venue. To this day, $1 buys a seat at the top of the Bowl for many of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's concerts. While the Bowl is best known for its sizzling summer nights, during the day California's youngest patrons enjoy "SummerSounds: Music for Kids at the Hollywood Bowl," the Southland's most popular summer arts festival for children, now in its 40th season. Attendance figures over the past several decades have soared: in 1980 the Bowl first topped the half-million mark and close to one million admissions have been recorded. In February 2008, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the fourth year in a row at the 19th Annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards. The Bowl's summer music festival has become as much a part of a Southern California summer as beaches and barbecues, the Dodgers, and Disneyland.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2008, at 7:30 PM

HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 2301 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood



NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS

SPIRITUALIZED

CAT POWER



Media Sponsors: KCRW and Filter Magazine

Tickets ($25 - $55) are on sale now at HollywoodBowl.com, at the Hollywood Bowl Box Office (Tuesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m.), by phone 323.850.2000 or by calling Ticketmaster at 213.480.3232, and at all Ticketmaster outlets. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for a 20% discount, subject to availability; call 323.850.2050 for further details.

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