NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS’ 15th ALBUM ACHIEVES MAJOR GLOBAL SUCCESS AS THE FIRST RELEASE BY CAVE’S OWN BAD SEED LABEL VIA KOBALT
(March 1, 2013) – A major hit out of the starting gate – Nick Cave & The Bad SeedsPush The Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd. via KLS), has debuted at the tops of international album charts with six No.1 positions — Australia (#1), Austria (#1), Belgium (#1), Holland (#1), New Zealand (#1), Portugal (#1). It also went Top 3 in the UK (#3), Germany (#2), Greece (#2), Norway (#2), Finland (#3), Poland (#2), and Ireland (#3). In North America, the album made impressive debuts in Canada (#20) and on The Billboard 200 (#29), the band’s highest ever chart placing in the U.S.
As the must-have alternative record of this year, in the U.S. the critically-acclaimed album also went straight to #1 on Billboard’s Current Alternative Chart as well as #1 on Billboard’s Indy/Small Chains and #1 LP/Vinyl Albums Charts. First week U.S. sales of the album are up 50% on the band’s prior two album releases. In Cave’s original home territory of Australia, Push The Sky Awayhas become Nick Cave’s first-ever No. 1, and in the U.K. the release experienced his highest chart placing and highest week one sales ever.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds performed the album in its entirety at intimate shows in London, Paris, Berlin and LA with the accompaniment of strings and local children’s choirs from each city. The Los Angeles show held Feb. 21 at Fonda Theatre was webcast globally by Lovelive in partnership with Rockfeedback and YouTube and was viewed by more than 100,000 people.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds kick off their world tour starting this week with three sold out nights at the Sydney Opera House. On March 12, Cave will be at SXSW for a special appearance in conversation with Larry Ratso Sloman and on March 13 the band will appear at Stubb’s in Austin for NPR Music’s SXSW showcase followed by three sold-out nights at New York City’s Beacon Theater later in the month. The U.S. run will culminate with an appearance at Coachella in April where Cave will perform with The Bad Seeds as well as with Grinderman. See list of North American tour dates below.
Critics worldwide have hailed the record as an instant classic. Below are excerpts from recent album reviews:
“Push the Sky Away may be broken into nine pieces, but the whole is paced like one magnificent 43-minute Nick Cave song: tense and mysterious at first, then increasingly full-blooded and lovely” – NPR
“…predictably unpredictable in “Push The Sky Away” … an unshakeable feeling and a belief that rock ‘n’ roll gets you right down to your soul” – LOS ANGELES TIMES
“His excellent new album is full of cinematic detail and gorgeously dark sonic dread”- ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, THE MUST LIST
“Push the Sky Away” is yet another gem in a long string of fiercely literate offerings from the poet laureate of post-punk.” – ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Push the Sky Away presents an uncharacteristically weightless, eerily atmospheric sound; we have foggy reveries built upon ominously rumbling bass lines, twitchy rhythmic tics, and hushed-voice intimations…” – PITCHFORK
“the fundamental power of his music has been surprisingly steady for decades now. And so Push The Sky Away is merely one more very good album in a long, long string of them.” – STEREOGUM – ALBUM OF THE WEEK
“Saint Nick has again given us vigorous spiritual sanctuary. We should thusly appreciate every note, every word, as if we were the hungry flock and it were the thousand loaves.”– FILTER [USA]
“Push the Sky Away” merges the erotic and the ominous in a cocoon of electronic loops, sparse keyboards, murmured voices, and post-3 a.m. narratives.” – CHICAGO TRIBUNE [USA]
“Guitars don’t riff; they quiver…the perfect setting for Cave’s unnerving narratives of sexual impulse and existential pondering, all witha pinch of pitch-black humor. From choirboys to convicts everyone can find a dark piece of themselves in Push The Sky Away.” – RELIX
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:
03-12 Austin, TX – SXSW
03-14 Dallas, TX – McFarlin Auditorium $
03-16 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium $
03-17 Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel $
03-19 Philadelphia, PA – Keswick Theater $
03-20 Washington, DC – Strathmore $
03-22 Montreal, Quebec – Metropolis $
03-23 Toronto, Ontario – Massey Hall $
03-24 Boston, MA – Orpheum Theater $
03-28 New York, NY – Beacon Theater $
03-29 New York, NY – Beacon Theater $
04-01 Chicago, IL – Chicago Theater $
04-03 Denver, CO – Ogden Theater $
04-06 Vancouver, British Columbia – Vogue Theatre #
04-07 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre $
04-09 San Francisco, CA – Bill Graham Civic $
04-14 Indio, CA – Coachella Music and Arts Festival
04-16 San Diego, CA – The Balboa Theatre $
04-21 Indio, CA – Coachella Music and Arts Festival
# with Basia Bulat
$ with Sharon Van Etten
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