Blixa

Nick Cave's music often evokes and conjures imagery of dark lovelorn tales, desolate tableau or dirty back alleys. Gothic narratives populated with peculiar and eccentric souls. Within Cave's band The Bad Seeds, there was the jarring presence of Blixa Bargeld. An allegorical visage and disaffected performer, he played both in the Bad Seeds and his own band Einstürzende Neubauten. Einstürzende Neubauten is one of my favorite band names ever- translated as "Collapsing New Buildings". Bargeld played with Nick Cave for about twenty years before leaving the Bad Seeds.

I was lucky enough to catch a screening of the documentary 20,000 Days on Earth. Sort of a documentary/fiction hybrid centered around the making of Nick Cave's excellent album Push the Sky Away. The camera follows Cave as he drives around in a car with some of his collaborators. And then there was Blixa. There was something poignant about their conversation. Evidently Bargeld left the Bad Seeds somewhat abruptly. He explained that he could not be in two bands and in order to care for his marriage he had needed to leave the Bad Seeds. As a fan and a listener it was affecting to hear them talk about Blixa's exit and the music they made together.