Jim Sclavunos | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Genres | Post-punk, alternative rock, garage rock |
Instrument(s) | Drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals |
Years active | 1978–present |
Labels | Mute |
Website | jimsclavunos |
James Sclavunos is an American drummer, multi-instrumentalist musician, record producer, and writer. He is best known as a drummer, having been a member of two seminal no wave groups in the late 1970s (Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and 8 Eyed Spy, both alongside Lydia Lunch). He is also noted for stints in Sonic Youth and the Cramps, and has been a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds since 1994. Sclavunos has led his own group the Vanity Set since 2000.
Sclavunos, a half-Greek and half-Italian from Brooklyn, New York (known for his exceptional height at 6'7"), was memorably described in the pages of The Wire as an "infamous elegant degenerate". He has long been a prime mover in New York City's vibrant underground music scene, helping to kick-start the vital no wave movement in the late 1970s with Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and 8 Eyed Spy (both with Lydia Lunch), before playing with Sonic Youth and the Cramps. He has also recorded albums with Grinderman, Sonic Youth, Tav Falco's Panther Burns and Congo Norvell as well as recording sessions with many artists including Marianne Faithfull, Iggy Pop, Beth Orton, and Seasick Steve. He has also toured with Lunch, Alex Chilton and Wreckless Eric.
A key member of the Bad Seeds since 1994 and a founding member of the Bad Seeds offshoot Grinderman, he also formed his own New York-based musical ensemble The Vanity Set in 2000, releasing two studio albums to date.
Further to his work as a musician, Sclavunos has produced a wide range of bands including Gogol Bordello, the Horrors, the Jim Jones Revue, Black Moth, and Teenage Mothers (Lead guitarist and co-vocalist Raph Brous has dedicated his upcoming novel, Empire of Ants, to him).
He has done several remixes, both on his own and as one half of Silver Alert (along with Vanity Set bandmate Peter Mavrogeorgis). In 2012, Silver Alert performed "Faustian Pact" at the Perth International Arts Festival in Western Australia, a live adaptation of FW Murnau's film Faust , produced in collaboration with director/choreographer Micki Pellerano.
In 2012, Sclavunos began an ongoing collaboration with Australian performance artist/musician Michaela Davies on a composition titled "FM-2030" (named for the transhumanist philosopher Fereidoun M. Esfandiary) utilizing programmed electro-muscular stimulation of classical string players to generate involuntary playing movements. The composition premiered at the 2013 Sonica Festival in Glasgow.
While attending NYU School of Arts, Jim Sclavunos co-founded No Magazine, an underground fanzine devoted to coverage of NY punk rock and the burgeoning No Wave movement. [1] He briefly fronted his own band Mimi And The Dreamboats, [2] before joining No Wave bands Red Transistor, and The Gynecologists with avant-garde composer Rhys Chatham and Nina Canal to play drums. [3] Around the time the Gynecologists were disbanding, Sclavunos joined Lydia Lunch’s band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as bass guitarist, releasing both an EP Baby Doll (1979) and a compilation mini-album on pink vinyl on Lust/Unlust. [4] A short-lived side-project with Lunch called Beirut Slump featured Sclavunos’ first recorded work as drummer on the group's single "Try Me / Staircase" (1979) on Migraine. [5] Following their European tour in June 1979, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks broke up, and Lydia and Sclavunos joined 8 Eyed Spy. [6]
In 1980, Sclavunos and Lunch formed a short-lived live blues project, The Devil Dogs. [7] In 1981, following the death of bass player George Scott, 8 Eyed Spy released a self-titled album on Fetish. [8] Sclavunos designed the covers for both the ROIR 8 Eyed Spy release and for Suicide’s Half Alive album (1981). [9] Sclavunos ended up moving to Memphis and joining Alex Chilton's side-project Tav Falco's Panther Burns, [10] ultimately releasing an EP Blow Your Top (1982). [11] The same year he briefly joined Sonic Youth and recorded drums parts for their debut album, Confusion Is Sex , but quit before the sessions were over. [12] He moved on to co-founding Trigger & the Thrill Kings with Dutch singer Truus DeGroot, with the group touring extensively throughout the Netherlands and Germany with various line-ups including Jim Duckworth on guitar and Annene Kaye on keyboards. [13]
Sclavunos recorded with Kid Congo Powers’ band Congo Norvell releasing Lullabies (1992, Fiasco). [14] His recording sessions with The Cramps produced albums Look Mom No Head! (1991, Restless) and EP Blues Fix (1992, Big Beat). [15] [16] In the fall of 1991 Sclavunos left Los Angeles to be reunited with Lydia Lunch, touring Europe with her and Rowland S. Howard under the band name Shotgun Wedding. Live recordings were later released under various titles, including Shotgun Wedding Live in Siberia. [17] Sclavunos both lived in and toured Europe with Wreckless Eric and Tav Falco's Panther Burns in the period 1992 – 1994. While living in Vienna, Austria, he played drums on, and arranged Panther Burns’ Shadow Dancer album in 1992 (released on Intercord in 1995). [18]
Following working with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds member Mick Harvey in a project Harvey was producing, Sclavunos joined the band on the 1994 Let Love In European tour as organist/ percussionist. [19] Sclavunos stayed on for their US Lollapalooza tour and became a permanent member that same year. [20]
With the Bad Seeds, Sclavunos generally plays a variety of auxiliary percussion (e.g. vibraphone, maracas, cowbell, tubular bells), while Thomas Wydler plays a standard drum kit. Sclavunos has also played standard drums, keyboards and other instruments for the Bad Seeds as needed.
Sclavunos recorded his first album as full band member in 1996 with Murder Ballads . [21] Murder Ballads was followed by The Boatman's Call and a tour, before the Bad Seeds entered a hiatus period.
Sclavunos’ first solo album The Vanity Set is released in 2000 on Naked Spur Productions/Hitchyke, [22] while the same year saw him join The Gunga Din as drummer, touring and playing on their 2nd album Glitterati (2000, Jetset). [23] The following year, No More Shall We Part , Scalvunos' third studio recording with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, is released on Mute Records in April 2001. [24]
Sclavunos produced his second solo album, Little Stabs of Happiness (2003, Cargo) under the banner of The Vanity Set. [25] Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released Nocturama (2003, Anti) and Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus (2004, Anti). [26] [27] Throughout this period, Sclavunos toured extensively, drumming with both Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and in Nick Cave’s solo performances in the stripped-down line-up that would eventually become Grinderman. The same line-up of musicians also recorded several tracks with Marianne Faithfull for her album Before The Poison (2005). [28] Sclavunos played drums and percussion on Nick Cave’s score for the Icelandic theatre company Vesturport’s production of Woyzeck, performed at the Barbican Theatre in London in 2005, as well as a cover version of J.B. Lenoir’s "I Feel So Good" for Wim Wenders’ Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues – The Soul of a Man. [29]
In 2007 Grinderman, with Sclavunos on drums, released their first self-titled album and debut in the headline slot at All Tomorrow's Parties in April 2007. [30] [31] Sclavunos drummed on Cave's score for the 2007 soundtrack, The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford , and the following year [32] Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released their 14th studio album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Anti), which won the MOJO Honours List Award for Best Album 2008. [33] [34] Grinderman headlined major European festival dates including Roskilde Festival, Latitude Festival, and Summercase. Sclavunos played drums on "Just Like a King", a duet with Seasick Steve and Nick Cave which appeared on Seasick Steve's 2008 album I Started Out with Nothin and I Still Got Most of It Left . [35] Grinderman 2 was released in 2010 and Grinderman toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Australia. [36] On Valentine's Day 2012 Sclavunos presented Faustian Pact, a multi-media film and live magic ritual performance and musical improvisation piece at The Perth Arts Festival with Micki Pellerano. [37] He co-wrote and contributed vocals and synth to the track "Lost American" from the solo album On the Mat and Off by fellow Bad Seed Thomas Wydler. [38]
In February 2013 Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released Push the Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd) and toured the album extensively around the world. [39] At the end of their North American stint, a stripped-down version of the band (including Sclavunos on drums) recorded the album Live from KCRW , which was released that same year. [40] Sclavunos begins his collaboration with Australian musician and performance artist Michaela Davies on a composition utilizing EMS to create involuntary movement in performing musicians. The piece entitled "FM-2030" (and dedicated to the Futurist philosopher of the same name) premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 2013. [41] In 2014 Axels & Sockets (The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project) is released with the featured track "Nobody’s City" mixed by Sclavunos, a duet with Iggy Pop and Nick Cave, with guitar by Thurston Moore. [42] More touring ensued for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. [43]
2016 saw the release of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds documentary One More Time with Feeling , as well as the band’s 16th studio album Skeleton Tree . [44] Sclavunos is reunited with Truus DeGroot (recording as Plus Instruments) recording drums for 3 tracks on her 2016 Signal Through the Waves album while on tour with her in São Paulo, Brazil. [45] Extensive international touring with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds followed the 2017 release of their Lovely Creatures: The Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds , culminating in the release of Distant Sky (Live in Copenhagen), both the concert film and the EP of the same name featuring excerpts from the film. [46] [47] Ghosteen , a double album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released in October 2019. [48]
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Sclavunos has released multiple singles, starting in January 2021 with "Holiday Song", and continuing in April 2022 with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Lay Down Your Weary Tune". [49] [50] He also confirmed that he was working on a solo album prior to the pandemic, and that it would be coming soon. [50] Also in the works is a collaborative album with Nicole Atkins; a lead single, "A Man Like Me" was released in 2019, with the album tentatively being released in 2023. [51]
The Gun Club were an American post-punk band from Los Angeles that existed from 1979 to 1996. Created and led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce, they were notable as one of the first bands in the punk rock subculture to incorporate influences from blues, rockabilly, and country music. The Gun Club has been called a "tribal psychobilly blues" band, as well as initiators of the punk blues sound cowpunk – "He (Pierce) took Robert Johnson and pre-war acoustic blues and 'punkified' it. Up until then bands were drawing on Iggy & The Stooges and the New York Dolls but he took it back so much further for inspiration."
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian rock band formed in 1983 by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey, guitarist George Vjestica, touring keyboardist/percussionist Larry Mullins, also known as Toby Dammit, and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos. Described as "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward", they have released eighteen studio albums and completed numerous international tours.
Brian Tristan, better known by his stage name Kid Congo Powers, is an American rock guitarist, singer, and actor best known as a member of The Gun Club, the Cramps and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He has also played with the Divine Horsemen, the Angels of Light, Die Haut, and Knoxville Girls.
Congo Norvell was a band led by Kid Congo Powers and Sally Norvell. Congo Norvell formed in 1990 after Powers and Norvell met at the deathbed of a friend in Los Angeles. They embarked on a series of gigs meant to benefit friends dying of AIDS, and were noticed and signed to a record deal. They went on to record 3 studio albums and multiple EPs and compilations. After having been based in LA for a few years, they relocated to New York City in 1994 and played the NYC & East Coast circuit frequently. They toured Europe and the North America, often opening for Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
8 Eyed Spy was an American no wave band from New York City, consisting of Lydia Lunch and Jim Sclavunos, Michael Paumgardhen, Pat Irwin and George Scott III. The group was active from 1979 to 1980.
Martyn Paul Casey is an English-born Australian rock bass guitarist. He has been a member of the Triffids, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. Casey plays either his Fender Precision Bass or Fender Jazz Bass.
Grinderman was an Australian-American rock band that formed in London, England, in 2006. The band included Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn P. Casey and Jim Sclavunos.
Grinderman is the eponymous debut studio album by alternative rock band Grinderman, a side project of members of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released on 5 March 2007 on Mute Records in Europe and ANTI- in the United States. Aiming to recreate the more raw, primal sound of all former related projects such as The Birthday Party, Grinderman's lyrical and musical content diverged significantly from Nick Cave's concurrent work with The Bad Seeds, whose last studio album, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004), was primarily blues, gospel and alternative-orientated in stark contrast to the raw sound of the early Bad Seeds albums. Incidentally, the musical direction of Grinderman influenced The Bad Seeds' next studio album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (2008).
"Get It On" is the first single by alternative rock group Grinderman - a side project of the Australian post-punk group Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - from their self-titled debut album Grinderman. Released on 8 January 2007, the song received positive reception from music critics, though failed to chart.
Thomas Wydler, is a Swiss musician best known for being a core member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, of which he has been a drummer since 1985. Prior to joining them, he was a member of the experimental German band Die Haut. Wydler has been present on almost every Bad Seeds album, making his debut appearance on the group's third album Kicking Against The Pricks (1986). After the departure of founding member Mick Harvey in January 2009, Wydler became the longest-serving member of the Bad Seeds apart from singer Nick Cave.
"(I Don't Need You To) Set Me Free" is the third single by alternative rock group Grinderman, and final single from their eponymous debut album, Grinderman. Much like their first single "Get It On", the single is a special A-side only release.
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is the fourteenth studio album by Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The album was recorded in June and July 2007 at The State of the Ark Studios in Richmond, London and mixed by Nick Launay at British Grove Studios in Chiswick, and was released on 3 March 2008.
Live at the Royal Albert Hall is a live album by Australian rock group Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, released on 24 November 2008. It was recorded on 19 and 20 May 1997 during the tour for The Boatman's Call and eight of these tracks were originally released as a nine-track bonus disc for The Best of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. The live album features a version of "Where the Wild Roses Grow" with vocals by Blixa Bargeld, which is delivered in a way that is similar to the demo version that was included on the B-Sides & Rarities album. The live recordings display the more mellow sound and performances that the group had been showcasing during that period, and would continue to deliver in the later No More Shall We Part album.
Grinderman 2 is the second and final studio album by alternative rock band Grinderman, a side project of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released on 13 September 2010 on Mute Records in the United Kingdom and ANTI- in the United States.
The Jim Jones Revue were an English band composed of Jim Jones, Rupert Orton, Nick Jones, Gavin Jay, Elliott Mortimer with garage and rock and roll influences.
"Worm Tamer" is a song by alternative rock group Grinderman, written collectively by the band with lyrics by frontman Nick Cave and music by Warren Ellis, Martyn P. Casey and Jim Sclavunos. The song was released as the band's fifth single and second single from their second studio album, Grinderman 2, on 22 November 2010. The song was debuted live on the BBC music programme, Later... with Jools Holland, on 21 September 2010, alongside the former single "Heathen Child" and succeeding single "Palaces of Montezuma."
The discography of Grinderman, a former London-based alternative rock group, consists of two studio albums, one remix album, eight singles, and six music videos.
"Palaces of Montezuma" is a song by the alternative rock band Grinderman. It is the eighth track and third single from the band's second and final studio album, Grinderman 2, and was released on 14 March 2011 on Mute Records. Produced by Nick Launay and written collectively by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey and drummer Jim Sclavunos, the song has been described as an "atypically straightforward love song" and was written for Cave's wife, Susie Bick.
Religious to Damn was an indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York fronted by Afghan-American songwriter Zohra Atash. Atash formed the group in 2009 in collaboration with several additional musicians and producers including Joshua Strachan and Jim Sclavunos. Their music was described by the Village Voice as "a mix of desert strum, hypnotic pulse, spirited-away synths, Lynchian weirdness, and Fleetwood Maximalism".
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