Divine Fits — a new group consisting of Spoon’s Britt Daniel, Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner and Sam Brown — not only recruited longtime Nick Cave producer Nick Launay to helm the boards on their self-titled debut, the trio also mined the most famous single by Cave’s first band, The Boys Next Door. Written by late guitar legend Rowland S. Howard at only 16 years old, “Shivers” was released on Cave & Co.’s 1979 debut, Door, Door, just before they left Australia for London and changed their name to The Birthday Party. Though controversial in its time for containing lyrics about suicide and even banned by some radio stations, the gut-wrenching ballad has endured along with Howard’s legacy ever since.
Above, watch Divine Fits give “Shivers” its due in 2012 with a reverent, inspired take (Boeckner even does Howard’s guitar influence fair justice) at their second-ever live gig in Austin, TX this week. The studio version arrives along with 10 more tracks — including two originals unveiled last month — on August 27th. The Boys Next Door’s original music video is after the jump: