Nick Cave has shared a previously unseen performance of the Bad Seeds track ‘Earthlings’.
The footage was originally shot for This Much I Know to Be True, the recent film that documented Cave and Warren Ellis’ powerful creative partnership as they brought tracks from their last two albums, Ghosteen and Carnage, to life.
‘Earthlings’ didn’t make it onto Ghosteen, but was the closing track on the band’s B-Sides & Rarities (Part II) album, released last year.
The performance was filmed at London’s iconic Battersea Arts Centre, but wasn’t made public until this week (watch below).
This Much I Know to Be True was directed by Andrew Dominik, with Cave and Ellis returning the favour by making the score for his new – and highly controversial – film Blonde.
Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ fictionalised account of Marilyn Monroe’s life, Blonde is out now on Netflix, but reviews have been polarising.
Cave and Ellis’ soundtrack, though, hasn’t come in for flak: filled with beautiful strings and sparse piano, their music provides the tense backdrop to Monroe’s tragic life in the film.
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It’s not the first time Dominik has tapped the pair to create the soundtrack for one of his films, with Cave and Ellis making a memorable score for the director’s 2006 Western masterpiece The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
“Working with Andrew Dominik is always a challenging, but ultimately mind-blowing experience,” Cave and Ellis said. “Creating the score for this terrifying and complex reimagining of the Marilyn Monroe story was no different and, as always, it was a complete privilege to work with him. The darkest of films with a gorgeous spiritual score.” You can listen to the full soundtrack here.
In other Cave and Ellis news, the pair have added a second show at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre on Wednesday, November 30th due to overwhelming demand. You can find out more, as well as see the rest of the ALWAYS LIVE lineup, here.
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Check out ‘Earthlings’ (Live at Battersea Arts Centre) by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis:
