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Underground > Radio & Music >

Tom Waits

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17:49 / 06.10.04

My introduction was Franks Wild Years, and it worked.

mine was Bone Machine, and it also worked.

specifically, it was "Murder in the Red Barn" and a bottle of Jim Beam on a rainy night in the backwoods of New England. hooked. totally hooked.

13:59 / 07.10.04

How's his new album? I hear he did a rhythm track made all of vocalizations recorded in his bathroom.

Damn, if that sentence doesn't reek of uber-hipster-muso-brainiasm

But still... that shoe fits.

14:00 / 14.10.04

Just bought this in my lunchbreak, havent heard it yet. What's it like? Any thoughts?

Haus of Mystery

09:57 / 15.10.04

I rate 'Frank's Wild Years' above 'Bone Machine' and 'Rain Dogs'. It seems like more of a song cycle, and it just flows really nicely. 'Hang on St Christopher' and 'Down in the Hole' are amazing. Bought it cos of the use of 'Innocent When You Dream' at the end of 'Smoke'. Whilst i love him, I'm not sure how many Tom Waits albums one needs. One or two seems to suffice.

Did anyone see the Buroughs collaboration (the Black Rider)?

11:54 / 15.10.04

Whilst i love him, I'm not sure how many Tom Waits albums one needs. One or two seems to suffice.

Nah, you need 'em all.

Listened to the new one last night. I like it. It sounds like Bone Machine's more demented noisier cousin. More to follow when I get to grips with it a bit better, lots going on and way too much to take in on two listens. I've read a couple of reviews that comment on some of the tracks being "politicised", (notably the last one about a soldier waiting to come home) and how this is a bit of a departure for Waits. Having now heard it, I'm not sure how far you can read that into the lyrics. The soldier is a bit of a recurrent theme in Wait's lyrics anyway, and how does this track differ thematically from, say, 'Soldiers Things' or 'Waltzing Mattilda' other than that this CD has been released during politicised times.

14:03 / 15.10.04

I've just listened to it once and I like it. As has already been said, it's got plenty of percussion and rhythm in it. On first listen it seemed to me that a couple of songs did seem a bit reminiscent of older tracks, but I guess that always happens when you've released as much stuff as he has. But that could be just a first-listen-unfamiliarity-lazy-brain kind of thing on my part.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:51 / 17.10.04

Totally with you on the whole "politicised" thing, Gypsy. He could have written "the Day After Tomorrow" any time. I think it makes a pretty good companion piece to "A Soldier's Things".

"The Black Rider" was excellent, as I'm sure ghadis and gravitas would testify. Very German Expressionist, like the Cabinet of Dr Caligari, only in colour!

08:15 / 20.10.04

One of the most striking things about the recent Black Rider production was that every single member of the cast genuinely looked like they had escaped from Bedlam or had been headhunted by Tod Browning. Add to that Tom Wait's music, Burrough's thematic concerns, and mad German expressionist set design, and you can't really go wrong. I'd really like to see the production of Alice at some point, if they ever do it again.

admiral sausage

19:48 / 18.01.05

Sword Fish Trombones would be a good starter (it has a lot of the more well known songs on it, shore leave, underground Franks Wild Years) , followed by The Black Rider (anyone see it in London when Marianne Faithfull was in it recently ?) then Alice and Blood Money.

On a bit of a deviation fgrom the thread, what with Real Gone having been out for a while and himself playing in the U.K I was wondering what people thought (if they went or heard the album) ?

Real Gone, took a while to get used to it but i kind of like it, a bit of a departure shall we say?, for those who haven't heard it, he has described it as cubist funk, which seems to involve Tom human beat boxing whilst sitting in a tin can, drinking meths, then recording the vocals. It seems a bit more produced than his other albums (not sure what I mean by this ?) so it kind of sits awkwardly next to his other works, but then again it would be boring if he churned out "more of the same"

Did any of you get to the live shows ? they were sold out immediatley. A friend of a friend bought 4 and was selling them off at £300 each, Bastard.

admiral sausage

19:49 / 18.01.05

I also think that Real Gone sounds a bit like some kind of deranged Rolf Harris album.

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:03 / 09.02.05

Save the first track, it's very good. Probably the most even thing he's done since Bone Machine. It's got a sort of worksong feel to it, which really works, and it seems he's really at home at Prairie Sun, where it was recorded. There's a good latino tint thanks to Marc Ribot's playing - the soloing in Hoist That Rag, for example, is fabulous.

It's sorta like what'd happen if you were singing prison yard tunes in hell, if hell was Cuban. Mostly.

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:05 / 09.02.05

And Stoatie's right about The Black Rider, too. It's phenomenal. Nigel Richards is a god.

11:00 / 09.02.05

I still can't get into Real Gone. It just feels like a bit of a drag - not helped by the overlong ten minute track fairly early on.

The Return Of Rothkoid

20:57 / 09.02.05

Two words: Shake It.

15:58 / 07.04.05

Well, I just bought my brother-in-law Mule Variations. We'll see what happens.

~L

04:03 / 15.04.05

Forget tracks, records, cds. All of it.
Go straight to video.

The performance at Austin City Limits is far and away the best thing you could ever see, by way of introduction.

This guy'll send you a copy. Maybe.

13:13 / 15.04.05

Re: Tom Waits on Video

True true true. I had two different people play Waits for me (Rain Dogs both times, IIRC), and it made no real memorable impact - it was good, y'know, but still more "why are you playing this for me, then?" Then I was hanging out at yet another friend's apartment and he put in a bootleg video compilation of Tom's concerts and TV appearances, and suddenly - seeing the man sing "The Piano Has Been Drinking" on Fernwood Tonight - I GOT IT.

Without taking anything away from Tom Waits's musicianship and songwriting, he really needs to be seen to get the full effect - he's a complete package: his music, his singing voice(s), his speaking voice and odd manner, his face, his dusty suits. Once you've seen it all together, then you can summon it all up whenever you put on the CD.

I still want to see Tom Waits and Ron Perlman in a movie together as brothers. They solve crimes.

~L

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

12:13 / 21.04.05

How much do I love Tom Waits?

He is taking legal advice about a television commercial for Opel cars, currently screened in Scandinavia. The advertisement's music soundtrack so closely resembles Waits' style and singing voice that he has also issued the following statement this week:

"In answer to the many queries I have received: No, I did not do the Opel car commercial currently running on TV in Scandinavia. I have a long-standing policy against my voice or music being used in commercials and I have lawyers over there investigating my options. But I got to tell you, it
doesn't look good. This is the third car ad, after Audi in Spain and Lancia in Italy.

"If I stole an Opel, Lancia, or Audi , put my name on it and resold it, I'd go to jail. But over there they ask, you say no, and they hire impersonators. They profit from the association and I lose -- time, money, and credibility. What's that about?

"Commercials are an unnatural use of my work ... it's like having a cow's udder sewn to the side of my face. Painful and humiliating."

Tom Waits first learned about the commercial from Scandinavian fans contacting his record company. Many believed it was Waits singing his own song on the commercial, even despite the fact he has always been adamant that his music will never be used for advertising purposes.

Over the past two decades Waits has taken a line of successful legal actions to prevent his music and image from being associated with commercial products.

Unlike almost Every Other Pop Star. I mean what the fuck is Beyonce doing advertising McDonald's of all things? What, she needs the money? Chosse a halfway decent fucking product at least! Grrrr.

12:04 / 28.04.05

I've heard a couple of albums, neither of which 'stuck' for me, but I might revisit them on the strength of this thread, thanks.

Mind you a pal suggested that the best introduction to Tom Waits is a large bottle of whisky...

The Return Of Rothkoid

03:12 / 03.05.05

nah. The alcoholism aspect's overplayed.

at the scarwash

03:50 / 03.05.05

can we just rot this thread for just a second to say that Marc Ribot is the man. How do you learn to play guitar like that? Always on the verge of being out of tune and off-time, but always right on the money. Apart from his Waits work, his solo records are quite nice. Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos, his freakoutjazzpunkCubano project is a great party record, and Saints is a beautiful solo guitar work.

11:38 / 03.05.05

The first Cubanos Postizos record is indeed glorious. It's mostly covers of tunes written by or associated with the late, great Cuban bandleader Arsenio Rodriguez, and it makes me want to drink rum and dance. For all Ribot's rep as a squawkmonger, it's a deeply tuneful, swooningly romantic album—the opener, "La Vida es un Sueno," is as pretty as instrumental music gets without actually becoming Smooth Jazz. When the noisy passages do arrive—the sheets of feedback and shouts in the Ribot original "Postizo," or the occasional raucous horns—they come as an explosion of joy. La vida es un sueno. Life is a dream. This is the soundtrack. Mmmmmmm.

(I know you know: this is for people that don't know.)

alejandrodelloco

16:55 / 22.05.05

OH GOOD GOOGLYMOOGLY...

My freind played some of this man's music for us during art class the other day, and I must say that it is one of the most utterly creepy things of all time...

Tom Tit's Tot: A Girl!

02:30 / 23.05.05

Of course he does guest spots quite often, but I wanted to mention that Waits, once one of their fans, has worked with The Eels on an excellent song, Going Fetal.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:59 / 23.05.05

Does anyone have the version of Gavin Bryars's "Jesus's Blood Never Failed Me Yet" with Waits on? That's one of my top must-hear things- I love the original, with the tape loop and all, but I must hear it with Old Tom doing the business.

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