AUSTIN, Texas -- Nick Cave looks exactly like you'd expect.  The
Australian-born singer-songwriter is wearing a dark, well-
tailored suit and a simple white button-up shirt. His thin black
hair is slicked back, and his skin is pale. He's holed up in a
dimly lit hotel bar in the middle of the afternoon, as if he's
waiting for a vampire friend to show up. Or perhaps he's the
vampire.  The only thing that doesn't jibe with my imagination,
which was on overdrive during the days spent prepping for my
meeting with the man who gave the world "Murder Ballads" in
1996, is that he's eating tortilla chips and guacamole. I don't
know what I was expecting. Raw meat? Vegemite?  Nick Cave and
the Bad Seeds perform during the SXSW Music Festival on March
13, 2013 in Austin, Texas. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds perform
during the SXSW Music Festival on March 13, 2013 in Austin,
Texas. (Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP Images)  We're in Austin,
where Cave is one of the featured attractions at the mammoth
South by Southwest (SXSW) music