Dig Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' new album

The Biblical story of Lazarus, in which Jesus wakes a man from the dead without defibrillator paddles via the delicious smell of frying bacon his inherent Christ-ness, is an oft-alluded-to text. Sylvia Plath wrote the poem "Lady Lazarus," Pete & Pete drank the intense "Orange Lazarus" slushee and now Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have dubbed their 14th studio album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! A title with enough punctuation to jolt anyone to their senses.

Set for a March 3 release date on Anti- in the UK, says Pitchfork, with no specific U.S. date so far, the album was co-produced by Nick Launay, who's worked in the past with Midnight Oil, Talking Heads and the Seeds themselves on 2004's Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. According to the band's official website, details regarding a single and tour will be revealed in time. English artists Tim and Sue Webster, whose claim to fame is creating ambiguous structures out of garbage that initially don’t look like anything more than rubbish mounds until a light is projected on them (neat!), are in charge of the record’s artwork.

Meanwhile, Cave – a half-century old as of September – has recently toured his snake-infested Australian homeland with his alter-band Grinderman. "Rock'n'roll is painful,” he recently told the Advertiser. “There are a lot of injuries sustained live. I play guitar so I have no control. My lips are kind of like this (curling up his lips, a la Mick Jagger) from smacking them into the microphone."

Related links:
Nick-Cave.com
NickCaveAndTheBadSeeds.com
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds on MySpace

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.