Pitchfork

Photo by Richard Sharman

Nick Cave plans to give us plenty of new music to Dig in the early months of 2008. Not only is there Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, his 14th studio album with the Bad Seeds (coming to the UK via Mute on March 3-- U.S. release details forthcoming), but there's also the album's first single, as well as Cave and fellow Bad Seed Warren Ellis' soundtrack to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

The single is the record's title track, "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!", and Mute will release it in the UK on CD, download, and limited edition 7" formats on February 18. Another new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds track, "Accidents Will Happen", will grace the B-side.

In a recent MySpace blog, Cave had a hefty chunk to say about "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!", and it's a pretty interesting read, so we've reprinted it below:

"Ever since I can remember hearing the Lazarus story, when I was a kid, you know, back in church, I was disturbed and worried by it. Traumatized, actually. We are all, of course, in awe of the greatest of Christ's miracles-- raising a man from the dead-- but I couldn't help but wonder how Lazarus felt about it. As a child it gave me the creeps, to be honest. I've taken Lazarus and stuck him in New York City, in order to give the song, a hip, contemporary feel. I was also thinking about Harry Houdini who spent a lot of his life trying to debunk the spiritualists who were cashing in on the bereaved. He believed there was nothing going on beyond the grave. He was the second greatest escapologist, Harry was, Lazarus, of course, being the greatest. I wanted to create a kind of vehicle, a medium, for Houdini to speak to us if he so desires, you know, from beyond the grave. Sometimes, late at night, if you listen to the song hard enough, you can hear his voice and the sad clanking of his chains. 'I don't know what it is but there is definitely something going on upstairs,' he seems to be saying. It is, most of all, an elegy to the New York City of the 70s."

Then there's the matter of the Cave/Ellis soundtrack to Jesse James, which-- for those who didn't catch its limited release-- stars Brad Pitt as James and also features Robert Duvall, Sam Rockwell, and Casey Affleck. Though the soundtrack is currently available for download, Mute will give it a physical release in the U.S. on the same date the movie hits DVD: February 5.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford OST:

01 Rather Lovely Thing
02 Moving On
03 Song for Jesse
04 Falling
05 Cowgirl
06 The Money Train
07 What Must Be Done
08 Another Rather Lovely Thing
09 Carnival
10 Last Ride Back to KC
11 What Happens Next
12 Destined for Great Things
13 Counting the Stars
14 Song for Bob