Pitchfork

Dapper don Nick Cave and his old friends the Bad Seeds must be used to the deluxe treatment by now; after all, they're rock royalty if anybody is. But the band's monstrous back catalog? It may have never been treated so good before.

Mute Records is set to reissue remastered, 5.1 surround sound-enhanced versions of the entirety of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds discography, with the initial batch of four titles due later in 2008. Cave and the Seeds' first four discs-- 1984's From Her to Eternity, 1985's The Firstborn Is Dead, 1986's Kicking Against the Pricks, and 1986's Your Funeral... My Trial-- make up that initial batch, and boy, are they in for a treat. The collector's editions will be double disc sets containing both the remastered stereo album and the new surround mix, B-sides, and new liner notes. Each album will also contain one of a series of short films (collectively titled Do You Love Me Like I Love You?) made by the UK-based team of Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.

Indeed, Forsyth and Pollard are putting together Do You Love right now, and they need your help! "Have you been affected by the songs of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds?" they ask on their website. If the answer is yes, and you'd like to explain just how in front of a camera, you should probably click here pronto.

In other Cave rumblings, the theatrical production of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck-- for which Nick Cave and Bad Seed/Dirty Three dude Warren Ellis composed music a couple years back-- is coming to NYC. Woyzeck will play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House on October 15, 17, and 18 as part of BAM's Next Wave Festival.

"Midnight Man", the latest single from the latest Bad Seeds album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, will be released by Mute in the UK on July 28. It will be available as a limited edition, etched 7" (with artwork by Cave himself) and as a download, featuring the B-side "Hey Little Firing Squad" and early versions of Lazarus tracks "More News From Nowhere" and "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!".

And for those wondering, Nick Cave is apparently still gunning to have a huge bronze statue of himself erected in his hometown of Warracknabeal, Australia, an idea he's floated around for a few years now. A recent report in Australia's Wimmera Mail-Times notes that the statue may go up as soon as the end of the year, and quotes Cave as saying, "I am looking for a wealthy benefactor who would be interested in investing in an historical monument." That said, certain of Cave's claims-- such as his having invited Russell Crowe, Kylie Minogue and Snoop Dogg to the statue's unveiling-- suggest he may still be pulling a fast one on us. But you never really know with this guy.

At least one thing's for sure: Cave and company have a bunch of European dates under the Grinderman name through the rest of the summer, with a Bad Seeds tour set to hit North America in the fall.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds:

09-16 San Diego, CA - 4th & B
09-17 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
09-20 San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theatre
09-22 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
09-23 Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo
09-24 Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo
09-26 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
09-28 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre
09-29 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre
10-01 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus
10-02 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis
10-04 New York, NY - WaMu Theater at MSG
10-05 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

* with Cat Power, Spiritualized

Grinderman:

08-06 Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
08-08 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West
08-30 Argyll, Scotland - Hydro Connect Festival
08-31 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic