Grinderman

Grinderman 2 (Anti-)

Free jazz indie rock? John Zorn might approve. Shards of corrosive woodshedding imbedded at every angle, Grinderman 2 sequels the lashing 2007 debut by Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds satellite quartet beginning with the Jesus Lizard vamp and release of “Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man.” Profane pole rider “Worm Tamer” pulses industrial asthma next, its rhythmic shellacking acting as meat hook. “Heathen Child” blows a tweeter third. Welcome to the deconstruction. Seven-minute centerpiece “When My Baby Comes” spews acid rain atmospherics, while “What I Know” drips waste treatment. Not all the bile separates from the bilge (“Kitchenette”), but just as Cave’s crew starts to wane, 2:57 of clamorous “Evil” begins a chant echoing later throughout “Palaces of Montezuma,” which excretes an unassuming jewel. “Bellringer Blues” closes like one of George Harrison’s Bangladeshi mind warps.

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This article appears in September 24 • 2010.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.