Additional information
Personnel: Nick Cave (vocals); Rowland S. Howard, Mick Harvey (guitar); Chris Coyne (tenor saxophone); Phill Calvert (drums); Andrew Duffield (electronics). Recording information: Eaton Studios, Melbourne, Australia (1979); Richmond Records (1979). Taken from sessions between early 1978 and mid-1979, DOOR DOOR is an interesting artifact from Nick Cave's early career. Recorded with the band that later became The Birthday Party, the 10 songs included here are some of Cave's most upbeat efforts. There's still a morbid overtone throughout though, notably on "Shivers" (which begins, promisingly, "I've been contemplating suicide"), an anti-anthem which presages the direction Cave took after The Birthday Party broke up. While lacking their intensity, this Boys Next Door collection possesses the same frenetic mood and nervous energy that would characterize The Birthday Party's recordings. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the opening notes of "The Nightwatchman," and the paranoid lyrics of "Somebody's Watching Me." For Nick Cave completists, DOOR DOOR contains some real gems.