Sunday, January 23, 2011

Nikki Sudden: The Last Bandit Bonus Disc

I knew about Nikki Sudden some years ago through the "I knew Buffalo Bill" album, a true masterpiece played and written together with Jeremy Gluck (from the Barracudas), Jeffrey Lee Pierce (Gun Club), Rowland S. Howard (Birthday Party and These Immortal Souls) and others. Which is kind of strange because lately I've started listening to all these people at different times without realizing they were all in that LP...
Anyway, the point is: it's been only a few weeks since I've started digging really into Nikki Sudden's solo career (although I do appreciate his early work with Swell Maps as well), and now I'm getting addicted to his voice and songwriting, specially when it comes to his more laid back and acoustic songs (like in his "Texas" LP, or in the Jacobites' "Robespierre's Velvet Basement"), and that's the reason why I like this bonus disc of his 2000 compilation so much: in fact it contains seven of his best songs rendered in a solo acoustic fashion...and they are just as amazing as they are simple.
Plus, this is a bonus disc which was part of the only US version (but you can get it through Amazon).

And this is Nikki playing solo one if his classics, Death is hanging over me: