小简介
The Birthday Party,最为黑暗的后朋克乐队之一，音乐的挑战性一直是The Birthday Party最为看中的事情。衰败的噪音和刺耳的吉他和主唱Nick Cave冷酷无情的深邃男中音，以及涉及到宗教、暴力、邪恶的小故事（那甚至不是歌词的标准形式）在80年代初期迅速成为了后朋克的又一个极端代表。Nick Cave是个充满神秘感的天才，其充满神经质色彩经常出没在它的绘画和词作中，并变成了他个人魅力的一部分。他仿佛天生就一种颓废色彩――他最为真实的存在方式，他本身就是为后朋克量身定做的。在某种意义上，他几乎可以代表了整个后朋克的面貌。The Birthday Party也仅仅存在了两三年。1983年，乐队在开始创作更加实验化的后朋克作品，Lydia Lunch和E.N.的作品深为乐队欣赏。不过，此时的Nick Cave更多地开始了个人创作，乐队在当年解散，后来的The Bad Seeds其实成为了他的伴奏乐队。新乐队风格也逐渐改变成为简约的阴暗乐风，虽然依然晦涩不堪，但已经全然没有了The Birthday Party时期的狂躁，取而代之的是大气安详的音乐感觉，民谣、乡村音乐、甚至歌剧和艺术摇滚成为了主要的音乐素材。
The Birthday Party were one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early 80s, creating bleak and noisy soundscapes that provided the perfect setting for vocalist Nick Caves difficult, disturbing stories of religion, violence, and perversity. Under the direction of Cave and guitarist Rowland S. Howard, the band tore through reams of blues and rockabilly licks, spitting out hellacious feedback and noise at an unrelenting pace. As the Birthday Partys career progressed, Caves vision got darker and the bands songs alternated between dirges to blistering sonic assaults.
Originally, the Australian band was called the Boys Next Door, comprising Cave, Howard, Mick Harvey (guitar, drums, organ, piano), bassist Tracy Pew, and drummer Phill Calvert. After the Door Door album and Hee Haw EP under that name, the band moved to London and switched its name to the deceptively benign Birthday Party. Once they arrived in Britain, their demented, knotty post-punk began to gel. They released their first international album, Prayers on Fire, in 1981, earning critical praise in the U.K. and U.S. While the band was preparing to record the follow-up, Pew was jailed for drunk driving; former Magazine member Barry Adamson, Harry Howard, and Chris Walsh filled in for the absent Pew on 1982s Junkyard.
After the release of Junkyard, the Birthday Party fired Calvert and moved to Germany, where they began collaborating with such experimental post-punk acts like Lydia Lunch and Einstürzende Neubauten. Harvey left in the summer of 1983. The group briefly continued with drummer Des Heffner, but it soon disbanded after a final concert in Melbourne, Australia. Cave had the most successful solo career, recording a series of albums in the 80s and 90s that maintained his status as a popular cult figure; Harvey joined Caves backing band, the Bad Seeds. Howard joined Crime & the City Solution, which also featured his brother Harry and Harvey.