Tom Waits

good show

She is great.

Eight million Tom Waits threads, I know, but I might as well use this one for this info:

For his Atlanta stop, recorded at the city's historic Fox Theater on July 5, Waits delivered a stunning and epic two-and-a-half-hour performance, including songs he says he's never attempted outside of the studio before. Backing Waits is a five-piece group featuring Seth Ford-Young (upright bass), Patrick Warren (keyboards), Omar Torrez (guitars), Vincent Henry (woodwinds) and Casey Waits (drums and percussion). "They play with racecar precision and they are all true conjurers," Waits says. "They are all multi-instrumentalists and they polka like real men."

---

Setlist:

"Lucinda / Ain't Going Down to the Well"

"Down in the Hole"

"Falling Down"

"Chocolate Jesus"

"All the World Is Green"

"Cemetery Polka"

"Cause of It All"

"Till the Money Runs Out"

"Such a Scream"

"November"

"Hold On"

"Black Market Baby"

"9th and Hennepin"

"Lie to Me"

"Lucky Day"

"On the Nickel"

"Lost in the Harbor"

"Innocent When You Dream"

"Hoist That Rag"

"Make It Rain"

"Dirt in the Ground"

"Get Behind the Mule"

"Hang Down Your Head"

"Jesus Gonna Be Here"

"Singapore"

ENCORE

"Eyeball Kid"

"Anywhere I Lay My Head"

Link near the top of the page to listen.

thanks Ned, listening now. this set is pretty similar to what i saw him play in Houston, plus a few songs i didn't hear -- Chocolate Jesus, Such a Scream, 9th and Hennepin, On the Nickel, Singapore (maybe a couple others) -- but overall very similar. Recording quality is excellent too!, this is really really good.

Live double CD at the end of November 2009:

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/6985723

8 free tracks: http://www.tomwaits.com/news/article/60/Free_Glitter_and_Doom_Live_Album_Preview/

Preorder: http://kingsroadmerch.com/tom-waits/

http://i37.tinypic.com/10pye5k.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTi8mATzSTI&NR=1

whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

So I don't want to start yet another TW thread, but there's hardly been any discussion of Glitter & Doom yet. What did people think?

I get a guilty conscience every time I see it in my record collection, as I've hardly played it since I bought it several months ago. I was put off a little by the boomy-ness of the sound at first. But I clearly owe it to him to listen more.

i listened to it a ton when it came out, and then i haven't played it since. it's good! i should dig it out again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH_EwRjrldc

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_li342nNZnS1qdf09mo1_500.jpg
old guys play some sort of event

(ribot in the back there!)

Ribot good enough that he gets to sit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVVDrPEQZt4&feature=player_embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiJ2E0xGOv8

http://www.tomwaits.com/news/article/146/Peek_At_A_Lyric_From_New_Tom_Waits8217_Album/

never seen this before
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCNDZY4vXPs&feature=player_embedded

also finally getting around to the brawlers box set thing. some amazing stuff! kind of frustrating that the info about when the tracks were recorded / who played on them is so vague, but oh well.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kunmz1iWzo1qz6gpyo1_500.jpg

I'm not a huge fan but I really enjoyed the Boxers set, especially the third disc with the spoken word stuff. The poem about the boy waiting at a diner during a bus ride stopover is particularly great.

aw that's nirvana by bukowski. but yeah what a beaut. what a beaut.
there's some real gold on this that used to live on bootlegs, i think a long series called tales from the dimestore?, vols one to nine or something. almost wonder if they might theoretically hold a little more info about what's what. i like never let go, & lie to me a bunch.

Thanks to Chuck Tatum for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5X4N2exOsU&feature=player_embedded#!

HAW!

http://www.somekindofawesome.com/journal/2011/8/22/listen-tom-waits-bad-as-me.html

I like it

was that actually taken down within the last 9 minutes?

Woah! Yes, I guess it was!

It sounded much like Tom Waits FWIW. Brash, honking, stompjng Tom Waits rather than sad Tom Waits. U know the drill

anti ppl be lurking ilm

I'm anti-ppl

You guys are right about Nirvana upthread. It's been on every Christmas compilation I've made since I first heard it.

The poem about the boy waiting at a diner during a bus ride stopover is particularly great.
yeah! almost wish there was a whole album of this sort of thing. he has an amazing speaking voice, even when he's not hamming it up.

I made a compilation of many of his best spoken word pieces, stuff like "What's he building in there". A bit disjointed in feel but it captures that incredible side of his work. I wish I flat-out loved his singing but I just don't.

U know the drill

yeah it's funny how much this is exactly what you expect a new tom waits song is going to sound like, but, you know, nice also. spoken bits are v wolf.

am i totally reactionary if i prefer his pre-swordfishtrombones stuff?

nope, otm.

it's like loving the complex human sprawl of a man but remembering the innocence of the child he was

thanks, i feel validated!

you're all wrong.

Nah, I'm kidding - you can like what you like, you don't have to ask me!

There is something quite devastating and melancholy and genuine about a lot of early Waits. Albums like Small Change are gut-wrenchingly desperate while Heart Of Saturday Night is so wistful and starry-eyed. I have a lot of time for this era. He had a tendency to go from genuinely affecting to full-on hammy, but by reinventing himself in the early '80s he managed to hit a happy medium through pure theatre.

I love that cartoon "The Street Tom Waits Grew Up On" upthread. Who did that?

So, the new album is out. Ilxors?

Was listening to Rain Dogs yesterday and I think that was definitely his peak. Franks Wild Years and Bone Machine and Mule Variations all have a couple of good songs, but it's been diminishing returns since '85.

I like "Hell Broke Luce" because I'm feeling sympathetic to his groanin' and moanin' this week but so far the album sounds like it won't convert any skeptics.

the kinda auto herk-&-jerks didn't grab me when i streamed this one time, but a bunch of the others did. it's weird how his records somehow sound very 'tidy', in spite of the unruliness therein, like maybe they're put together a little too neatly. he has some great players. guitars are lovely, a beautiful fiddle came in halfway through a song.

Hell Broke Luce is amazing - ultraviolent shellshock crunk-metal.

Still can't get behind the Mule Variations. A few good songs, but loads of slow, repetitive clunkers - those first four tracks are a real hurdle.
(I really like this new album on the whole).

Maybe two tracks aside, I think Mule Variations is pretty unfuckwithable!

Gimme the ballads and "What's He Building?" and you can have the rest. But the ballads are amazing.

it's weird how his records somehow sound very 'tidy', in spite of the unruliness therein, like maybe they're put together a little too neatly. he has some great players. guitars are lovely, a beautiful fiddle came in halfway through a song.

― mid-song laughing elvis (schlump), Friday, October 21, 2011 8:51 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i was listening to bone machine and i remember thinking it was so "weird" when i was younger but he's really a classic songwriter type

but he is ultra-violent shellshock crunk-metal do u see

i find tom waits ultra classical-definition Pretentious i.e. a lot of to-do about not much. i like some of his ballads because i like ballads and his sad clown is more palatable to me than his grotesque clown.

yeah i was listening to bone machine and i remember thinking it was so "weird" when i was younger but he's really a classic songwriter type

i think that's true, and that there's a lot of interesting ways in which his weirdness reinforce his normalness (like i remember hearing that he wrote a lot of real gone on a drum, & you can kinda see how that might encourage the kind of very straightforward melodies that you are limited to if your palette is a drum and singing, making the record v melodic if in a roundabout way). i was really talking about his production though; i think i wish that he was recorded kinda 'off mic' so you got more of an idea of the sound and scale of his voice than the kind of very literal and throaty recording of how bluesy and fucked it is.

+ lol @ sad clown

BM was my first Waits album too, and it took a few listens to ballads like "Who Are You" and "Whistle Down the Wind" that the guy has a sentimental streak a county wide.

*to realize that

Amazing to have that ever being in doubt, having started with Waits with FRANK'S WILD YEARS and giving everything before that a listen before long after.

Goes all the way back to "Grapefruit Moon."

yeah, the dude is sort of a walking sentimental streak. i think he makes it work though.

First album is mostly sentimental ballads, no? "Martha" etc

the new one is really good! kinda surprised i thought he'd jumped the shark and tipped into self-parody on real gone

LOVE the recession ballad in his falsetto (!)

lex you liking tom waits is quite incomprehensible to me.

I mean, I believe you obv, but I'm a bit shaken too.

yeah that is surprising. i had to read that twice.

It's a shame he tours so infrequently, since in many ways live presents him in the best light. The "Mule Variations" comeback jaunt was memorable awesome, and the "Real Gone" tour was tons of fun, too. The guy's theatricality is made for an audience.

i've always loved tom waits, i thought this was common knowledge

ranking the albums i've heard, not inc the new one

rain dogs > blue valentine > closing time > mule variations > alice > swordfishtrombones > blood money > heartattack and vine > real gone

absolutely adore the first three espesh

Ooh crumbs the Lex, if you like those, you must seek out Franks Wild Years, Small Change and Heart Of Saturday Night. I find Blue Valentine and Closing Time just a little too hammy. Mule Variations is a bit boring in places.

I love this Jon Pareles interview with him in the NY Times. Waits in his Suburban SUV drives Pareles onto railroad tracks and near a defunct truck stop...Plenty of informative and entertaining Waits quotes

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/arts/music/tom-waitss-new-album-bad-as-me.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

His songs and arrangements often smack of bleary late nights. But he prefers to record, surprisingly, first thing in the morning. “I used to think that great albums were made at 3 in the morning, until I tried recording at 3 in the morning. And then it was like: ‘Oh, man, I missed it. I’m out of gas,’ ” he said. “At 9:30, 10 o’clock, no one’s heard anything yet, they’re clean. Most of ’em haven’t even had breakfast yet, so this is breakfast.”

He offers his sidemen suggestions: “ ‘I want you to play like you’re 7 years old at a recital. I want you to play like your mom’s in the room. I want you to play like you’re miles from home, and your legs are dangling from a boxcar. Or play like your hair’s on fire. Play like you have no pants on.’ ”

....

Mr. Waits’s black Suburban was cluttered. On the passenger seat was a yellowing newspaper announcing the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. A large bottle of Valencia Mexican hot sauce rolled on the floor. Atop a pile covering the back seat were a bowler hat and a glittery sequined jacket. “I have the pants to match,” he said.

Under the clothing were LPs akin to Mr. Waits’s own music: Captain Beefheart, Willy DeVille and an album by the blues harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite, who also plays on the album. Digging further, Mr. Waits came up with an old sarsaparilla bottle, discovered, he said, while scavenging the truck stop’s parking lot.

waits really is just a bottomless well of great interview quotes. he doesn't even repeat himself very much!

i loved this-

"Anyone who has ever played a piano would really like to hear how it sounds when dropped from a 12th-floor window."

loved this from the ny times interview (and meyers does sound awesome on the album)

Q.
Another one of the sidemen on this album is Augie Meyers, the keyboard and accordion player who defined Tex-Mex with the Sir Douglas Quintet.

A.
He responds well to suggestions but he doesn’t do anything you ask him to do. He did some organ stabs on “Raised Right Man.” I was trying to tell him where to put them. And he was looking at me, like, don’t tell me where to put the stabs, man. I could stab this myself. I’m the stab king. I’ve been stabbing since before you were born.

:P

listening to this on the npr stream for the first time. sounds great, though i'm not sure if there's anything on here he hasn't done before. shorter song lengths are a good idea!
cool that keef richards is all over it. waits should produce a richards solo album!

My teenage son was all what's with that guy's scratchy voice.

It's Tom Waits's "Wild Honey" IMO. Fun album, shorter songs.

friggin love "Chicago".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5X4N2exOsU

omg. you're outta luck *smooch*

omg "Hell Broke Luce" = "Mutiny In Heaven"

Still the best song on the album though.

While I was listening to this I thought, hmm, I wonder if Tom Waits will ever do a Tom Waits Songbook, wherein he remakes favorite songs from his catalog. And then it hits me that, well, that's basically what he's been doing as of late. This is still a fun album, and has a spark that "Real Gone" didn't quite have. Or maybe it did; my listening of that one got eclipsed by "Orphans."

This is certainly easier to digest than Real Gone. The latter's slow, creepy, acoustic, sort of soporific in places and definitely front-loaded (the second half is mostly throwaway Waits-by-numbers and I never cared for the war-song). I still love a lot of Real Gone, 'How's It Going To End', 'Hoist That Rag', 'Sins Of My Father' and 'Don't Go Into That Barn YEAAAHH' are all ace, and slightly different from what he'd done before.

Really liking this on first listen, but I'm really not a fan of the sequencing. I really like "Hell Broke Luce", but I think its really awkwardly placed between "Last Leaf" and "New Years Eve".

yeah, too much quiet song/loud song on this. it's the only problem really.

It's too soon to call it love, but I am having a mad affair with this record. "Chicago" kicks so much ass, good lord.

Guys, I don't think he is trying to "hide" being sentimental! On places other than ILX (yes, I have ventured out there and return with this news), a healthy degree of sentiment is seen as a sign of humanity.

Still, well done for nailing him, we all thought he was cool

heard the new one at a friends house on a good stereo last night, and i'm really digging it! on the radio, "bad as me" didn't come across very well but i love the sound of this album, really like a 50s album or something...

i need to go pick this up

I'm loving this album.

Be sure to get the version with the 3 bonus tracks. "Tell Me" is lovely. And "Hell Broke Luce" is fucking bad-ass.

yeah i think this album is pretty great!
any word on whether he's touring? he might be at the top of my list of people i've never seen live.

No word on a tour. A Waits "tour" typically involves three cities. Was lucky enough to see him once after "Mule Variations" and it was a fucking stunning show. He's a great actor up there.

Don't miss the Fresh Air interview with him. He talks to Terri like they're old buddies -- hell, maybe they are. At one point he shuffles through some books he has sitting around his studio and reads her dadaist poetry from 1916.

listening to "Chicago" over footage of the OWS chaos works pretty damn well together!

Have we talked about how he's apparently announcing a tour tomorrow?

actually

is there news?

Here's the LA Times piece about it: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-tom-waits-20120806,0,1222309.story

I think he's planning to raid a stock exchange and then blow up a football stadium.

LOL at LA Time's HuffPo SEO headline with literally no actual information in the story

http://www.prosportstickers.com/product_images/p/752_toon_fish_on_hook__81156.png

Just a new video, was really hoping for a tour annoucement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fju9o8BVJ8

Awesome, a new video!

oh cool you guys...

honestly, you've gotta be kidding me, is that it?

Funny move by Tom, actually. The only reason that story got any press is because everybody was expecting a tour.

"As most of you guessed, it’s a tour…a tour de force!"

nice video as it is though. Reminds me of Up! and also Mario 3 for some reason.

Waits fans - please vote in this one:
What's he POLLing in there? The Tom Waits ballot poll

Cheers for the promotion DL.

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/15/this_tender_tom_waits_tribute_to_david_letterman_will_make_you_weep/

I just saw the truly amazing staging of The Tempest, co-directed by magician Teller and featuring music (new and old) by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. It occurred to me that I know next to nothing about his wife. Has she ever given an interview? She seems conspicuously quiet given what a huge impact she has had on his career, and that she has co-written pretty much everything of his since 1980.

huh hadn't heard about The Tempest! sounds interesting.
as far as Brennan goes, I don't think I've ever read an interview with her.

The Tempest was nuts, by the way. Incredible illusions plus a Caliban played by two people constantly connected/tumbling/climbing grabbling with one another. This is a still from another production:

http://americanrepertorytheater.org/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_popup/public/images/highres/TSC_Tempest_25.JPG?itok=m-Q_VwUV

http://i.imgur.com/j9juKOg.jpg

lol!

Nick Cave fake hillbilly pecker

About 34,300 results (0.71 seconds)

Yo, Tom Waits, what's up?

I found it interesting that he wasn't in that best songs of the 80s list p4k did, I don't think he's very trendy these days

Not touring or releasing albums will do that! But if he did/does tour, those tickets will go like lightning, because trendy or no the dude is cool and people like cool things.

One of the funniest people ever

"the large print giveth and the small print taketh away"

xp certainly, and I'm very happy I got to see him in Paris and I would be first in line for tickets to a new show

all the same I find myself rarely revisiting anything but Rain Dogs and Real Gone, and so as this correlates with little critical and social media attention I get the conspiratorial idea that what sounded new and fresh when I was first exposed to it is perhaps in fact kind of a gimmick and not as original as I thought at first

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Tom-Waits-surprises-audience-joins-Mavis-Staples-12192868.php

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY7PXPGn1FX/

look out, mavis! HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU.

"
Entire ANTI- catalog newly remastered by Waits/Brennan
Including a new, remixed version of Real Gone
Available Now For Pre-Order On Vinyl & CD

BAD AS ME
11.10.17

REAL GONE
11.24.17

ALICE
11.24.17

BLOOD MONEY
11.24.17

GLITTER & DOOM
12.01.17

MULE VARIATIONS
12.15.17

Also Available For Digital Downloads & Streaming.
Orphans Available 2018."

https://kingsroadmerch.com/tom-waits/

lol that's like sweeping up a junkyard

wtf @ remastering these? they all sound great

They should just add extra vinyl cracks & pops, indeed.

Two of these are less than ten years old. Feels too soon for a makeover

Thankfully there are no extra tracks, so I can ignore this

yeah tom waits records in general are really well recorded and engineered and mixed

also whenever somethings advertised as being remixed by the artist i'm always like oh goody mixed by a non-professional who's ears have been fucking shot since 1993

"Real Gone" is a kind of a weird sounding record, Waits beat boxing as the rhythm track on certain tunes for inst, I'd be curious to hear a remix but never felt the original was lacking, though it is, more then a lot of Waits records, a ymmv sitch.

also whenever somethings advertised as being remixed by the artist i'm always like oh goody mixed by a non-professional who's ears have been fucking shot since 1993

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

Iggy Pop to thread

Most of these are easily available but hey I’ll never complain for more Waits vinyl in the market.

I seriously need a Rain Dogs and Bone Machine reissue tho.

Whether or not they really needed a remaster I am glad that they did it cuz it reminded me of "Alice" which I had not listened to in a minute and is just a great record.

As a former huge Tom Waits fan, I kinda lost track of his work after Real Gone - everything just feels less essential from Mule Variations onwards. Is there anything worth re-exploring on Bad as Me and Orphans?

I love the demo of Alice - one of my favourite things he's done. Never quite enjoyed the fully-orchestrated version as much.

The spoken word disc of orphans is really great

agreed, that 3rd disc has some great weird digressions

yeah i ignored Orphans at first, but most of it is great.

The Alice musical demos are the best. Alice recut as an album 10 years later is less so.

my alice demos are on a DVD-R of MP3s that has suffered sea-change and cannot be mounted in ye drive any longer, alas

I've never heard the Alice demos, but I like the album a lot. It and Blood Money are closer to European art music than the junkyard-folk-blues stuff he'd been doing on Mule Variations. Plus I probably have a soft spot for those albums because that was when I got to interview him.

Mule Variations - other than 1 or 2 tracks is a bit straight and bluesy-woosy for me. Not my favourite style of Tom Waits
Real Gone - Also straight and bluesywoosy but I kinda like it more? Bit too long though
Orphans - Yeah the third disc is a keeper. Enjoy some of the ballads on the second disc. Can't really get into much on the first disc as, again, it's a bit hoary tin-can blues and not my thing
Bad As Me - kind of a nice crystallisation of the previous decade. It's not a cool, conceptual album at all, and it's really just Waits being Waits and not giving a fuck. Some ideas are rehashed from previous albums, but it's got some great moments

Here's a playlist of later Waits stuff (no Alice or Blood Money stuff on here) https://open.spotify.com/user/1153731601/playlist/39Hr6Cn4EkRtYbJnmZgWZl

someone who has those Alice demos should upload them (assuming they are not officially online)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3PFsJaE39A

of course, YouTube :-)

All the remasters (so, everything except the Island albums) are on Bandcamp now.

https://tomwaits.bandcamp.com/

When I was in my twenties and worked in "the biz," I misspelled his name in a letter ("Dear Mr. Waites"). My boss discovered it after it had already gone out, and was (understandably) quite pissed off, ha ha.

so... is he doing the Island albums next?

Appears on the new ribot record

I think I don't need the remasters. Does anyone have any of them? Does one or two stand out?

heard the real gone one was great, perhaps ilxors can comment

Is that one simply remastered or remixed as well?

I've only heard the Real Gone one. it's good and there are a couple of differences but I wouldn't say it's essential

All female covers album out Nov. 22

https://www.spin.com/2019/08/tom-waits-covers-album-phoebe-bridgers-aimee-mann/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oncg1WJP8uU

Man, they really fucked up "Hoist That Rag" on the remaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orxPuV06jgM

WTF? Are all the tracks remixed/rerecorded like that?

One of the best guitar performances of Marc Ribot's career, sure, why not turn it way down until its barely audible. What a baffling decision.

Nothing else is that egregious but the original mix/master sounds better all the way around

i pulled up hoist that rag on spotify a couple of weeks ago because i was in the mood and i honestly thought it was a cover for a minute. so weird.

whoo, that is a serious downgrade.

Ah, better times for the Real Gone songs (but with Judah Bauer instead of Ribot)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR5SHuJDlUQ

^^I love that version so much, incredible performance.

Been thinking about Waits again lately. I have that Real Gone remaster on vinyl and it's quite jarring.

I put together an extensive career-spanning 'Best of' playlist here https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4FbY20jZVLSCXvfI4W1rvr?si=lMeXBmuATlWtgaNsbFfNww

This is a timely revive for me. Honestly cant remember the last time I put any of the records on, its surely been over 10 years. But just in the last couple weeks he's randomly been on my mind again (apocalypse? nostalgia?) and I've been thinking its time to revisit

it is kind of weird. Someone I know posted an interview with him a couple of days ago, and I got so excited I almost posted the same interview here, until I noticed it was maybe 20 years old. When this thread popped up again I for some reason figured it was someone else posting the same interview, like it had just been unearthed or something, but no, just a bunch of unrelated folks just thinking about Tom Waits.

^^^^ this.

A "press conference" from 10 or 15 years ago kept appearing on my Twitter feed this week.

This is the one I saw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojX3ef2Gfgc

LOL Josh I totally watched that within the last week as well! Looks like it was just uploaded in June, it must be making the rounds of peoples YouTube recommendations. Its a neat interview, its fun to see him in such a good mood.

He should name his next album "Algorithm."

I've suddenly found myself enjoying his 21st century records much more than when they came out. A major correction after Mule Variations, which felt like the Swordfishtrombone persona was tapped out.

I went back to Bad As Me yesterday and it was better than I remember. I did enjoy it at the time but it didn't seem to have its own 'character' like most of his other albums, more a distillation of previous work. Still, it's a real solid hoot anyway

I'm sure he's fine, personally and financially, but I file Tom Waits near the top of the list of artists who right now probably wished they toured a bit more.

I've heard that the early alcohol consumption and later theatrical distancing were there because of serious stage anxiety.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psk3rmjonQA

That's what i saw a few days ago ^^

I will absent-mindedly find myself singing "God's Away On Business" while doing a mindless chore, it's like having a song stuck in my head for the last ~17 years.

Xxxpost: it’s been a while since I heard “hoist that rag” and that remaster is so alien to me. Where those horns added in? I don’t remember them being there before unless they were way back in the mix. I like how those horn sound but without the guitar it’s missing something primal about it. It was the heart of the song.

Is this more of a remix then? Are all Waits recent remasters like this where it’s more of a second version than a real remaster?

I think it's just Real Gone that sounds significantly different.

From Waits' Bandcamp page:

Grammy nominated and featuring an entirely new mix that better fulfills the dynamic musical soundscape Waits/Brennan envisioned from the beginning. To accomplish this they returned to the multitrack session tapes and enhanced certain instruments or a vocal arrangement to create a sound that better represents the full bodied more sonically vibrant and jagged edges that Waits and Brennan were originally going for but lost.

It's the Iggy Raw Power mix of Waits releases

damn

it sounds like a lot of elements in the mix are

real gone

The horns are definitely new.

Tom Waits: "Ima fix Hoist That Rag"

Ribot's playing on that reminds me of his Cuban band, he must have really been in that mode at the time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0IPcqI3NH8

listening to the Real Gone remaster again, tbh if you didn't know what the OG "Hoist That Rag"sounded like there would be no issues. the album sounds great.

I have the original mix (which I hated at the time FTR) on a hard drive and I'm comparing it to the new version (on Bandcamp). The horns are entirely new on "Hoist That Rag" (or excised from the mix at the time and restored later) and I think the increased Cuban-ness of it makes the new version a little better. I remember reading an interview at the time where Waits said he wanted to make the album really noisy and harsh to suit both his and the national mood, and he succeeded - it's the St. Anger of his catalog IMO, and I've never liked it. I'm gonna buy this updated version.

I could totally see them having recorded the horns at the time and then stripping it down to make it super minimal and raw, and years later thinking 'hey those horns sound pretty sweet'.

TW is sounding great to me today. Also reminding me that his records are where I really fell for Ribot.

Couldn’t they have kept that different version of Hoist That Rag as a bonus track or something at least? It’s fine, but I’d take the more minimal, gnarled up original version any day. Weird to completely replace it.

One of my favorite TW tracks tbh, annoyed he’s George Lucas-ing it.

Yeah same, his best track of the 2000s imho, really caught lightning in a bottle with it

Insane to not at least leave the old mix up somehow. I've got it on my old iTunes archive drive but I never use that anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw3mFXOwRgw

I remember when Orphans came out, a bunch of those tracks i had already been familiar with for years due to filesharing & owning the various comps and sdtks, and the orphans versions of many of them had overdubs and new parts punched in, most of which didnt help the songs imo. Obviously some of it was just due to familiarity with the previous versions, but it was still weird to hear these songs, many of which had really fantastic spare arrangements and carefully-mixed soundworlds, all of a sudeen filled with a bunch of drums and banjos and harmonica, which sounded like they were all recorded in the same session. I remember being particularly annoyed at a bunch of Charlie Musselwhite blues harp soloing all over "Heigh Ho".

I would never change a single thing about the OG Hoist That Rag and I wish he would put out an entire album that sounds like that.

Always like the demo of Alice better than released version too

Random thoughts after going back to a lot of TW:

-Both versions of Hoist That Rag are very good

-Bad As Me is also good, not bad

-I love his ballads more than I used to (although I always loved 'Green Grass' and 'Alice')

-Bone Machine is still sounds great, I love that high rasp voice he uses on say 'Jesus Gonna Be Here', wish he used that more

he has approximately 50 amazing ballads

Johnstown, Illinois is my favourite.

Good Old World, Waltz

Also fun to hear him write a song over the 'Do Whatcha Wanna' bassline ('Get Lost' on Bad As Me)

I wrote about Alice and Blood Money, and the experience of interviewing Waits (the story that got me in the door at The Wire), for Stereogum.

thanks i enjoyed that

good piece

https://tomwaits.ffm.to/alicebloodmoney

vinyl reissues + 2 live tracks

Tom Waits will be releasing limited edition vinyl of his albums “Alice” and “Blood Money” to celebrate their 20th anniversary.
Originally released on May 7, 2002, the re-issues will be available on October 7.

All The World Is Green (Live)
Fish & Bird (Live)

Leading up to the official release date, Waits is putting out previously unreleased live versions of songs from the records,
starting with “All the World is Green” from ‘Blood Money’ and “Fish and Bird” from ‘Alice.’ “All the World is Green” was
recorded at a live show in 2008 in Milan, Italy and features a dramatic faux flamenco guitar intro, while “Fish and Bird”
is taken from Waits’ celebrated return to the London stage in 2004 and is a stripped down raw piano version of the ballad
that featured a chamber orchestra arrangement in the studio recording.

(text is quoted from the mail & link is without identifying crap)

Think these were reissued/remastered in 2017 and are still available, but the live tracks will be nice to hear.

will probably pick these up but holding off on a preorder until i can confirm he hasnt fucked with the mixes or added overdubs or anything

"Digital deluxe versions of both records, featuring newly released live performances, are out today along with limited edition vinyl reissues. Unfortunately, Alice vinyl is delayed until October 21st everywhere except for Europe and the UK."

https://tomwaits.ffm.to/alicebloodmoney

the stickers say "Newly remastered with Waits/Brennan" - anyone check them out yet?

I can't imagine them being that radically reworked the way he did with Real Gone, but you do get five live tracks with each and they're pretty good...

https://tomwaits.bandcamp.com/album/alice-anniversary-edition

https://tomwaits.bandcamp.com/album/blood-money-anniversary-edition

The only strings that keep me here
Are tangled up around the pier
Man troll gas beany jim-jam

I was watching Richmond, VA gospel group the Legendary Ingramettes perform live and one of their vocalists said that on an Irish tour they just did, they saw a singer do Tom Waits song "Time" and it reminded them that they had a different song with that tile but a similar theme. The Singer suddenly started singing the Tom Waits song in an a cappella church powerful way and then their band joined in and the rest of the singers and they segued into their own song with that title

listened through to these anniversary editions today and the albums dont sound like theyve been fucked with, thankfully. some of the live tracks are very good but the sound quality varies widely for some reason. some sound like clean & clear soundboard recordings and some sound like rough bootlegs recorded from the back of the hall, which is... strange. not quite enough there for me to justify buying the full albums again vs just buying the individual live tracks that i like on bandcamp

https://tomwaits.ffm.to/store

Celebrate 50 years of Tom Waits’ highly influential debut album ‘Closing Time’ originally released in 1973.

The album’s 50th anniversary vinyl is available in black and clear versions as a double 180g LP cut at 45 RPM with half speed mastering by London’s Abbey Road Studios. The gatefold jacket was also specially created with thicker board and black poly-lined inner sleeves.

Called “a minor key masterpiece filled with songs of late-night loneliness” by All Music Guide, ‘Closing Time’ features the distinctly lyrical storytelling and blending of jazz, blues and folk styles that would come to be associated first with Waits.

(also for sale: door hanger & poster)

TOM WAITS’ ENTIRE METAMORPHIC AND GROUNDBREAKING MID-PERIOD ISLAND RECORDS STUDIO CATALOG NEWLY REMASTERED FROM ORIGINAL TAPES AND PREPPED FOR RELEASE ON VINYL, CD AND DIGITAL FOR FIRST TIME

ALL REMASTERED ALBUMS AVAILABLE TO STREAM TODAY

Personally overseen by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Waits spectacular middle-period albums–released on Island Records between 1983 and 1993—have been newly remastered from the original tapes and will be reissued on vinyl and CD this fall via Island/UMe.

Waits’ transformative creative breakthrough, Swordfishtrombones (1983), its sprawling and superb sequel, Rain Dogs (1985), and the trilogy-completing, tragi-comic stage musical, Franks Wild Years (1987), will kick off the series September 1, 40 years to the day that Swordfishtrombones was released into the wild, ushering in a new and critically acclaimed musical era for Waits and his longtime songwriting and production partner, Brennan. The epic song-cycle, Bone Machine (1992) and the Waits (with Robert Wilson and William S. Burroughs) musical fable, The Black Rider (1993), will follow October 6. September, incredibly, marks the 40th anniversary of Swordfishtrombones, and the 30th of The Black Rider.

Ahead of their physical releases, all of the albums are available to stream today featuring the newly remastered audio, allowing you to hear how these landmark recordings now sound better and more vivid than ever.
Stream The Albums Here. https://tomwaits.lnk.to/IslandVinylReissues

In addition to streaming and download, each album will be released on CD and in two vinyl options: 180-gram black vinyl and a limited edition color variant that will be available exclusively via TomWaits.com and UDiscover Music. Swordfishtrombones will be pressed on canary, Rain Dogs on opaque sky blue, Franks Wild Years on opaque gold, The Black Rider on opaque apple and Bone Machine on translucent milky vinyl. Pre-Order The Album Here. (EU/US links differ)

All albums were remastered from the original source tape. The new vinyl editions will come with specially made labels featuring photos of Waits from each era in addition to artwork and packaging that has been painstakingly recreated to replicate the original LPs, which have been out of print since their initial release. Surprisingly, The Black Rider and Bone Machine were never released on vinyl outside of Europe and will be making their vinyl debut in most of the world.

Waits shifted gears, or rather, deliberately ground them. New York Times music critic Stephen Holden wrote: “Miles away from the (music) he used in the ‘70s to evoke the wrong side of the tracks, his evolved style is an abrasive, lurching honky-tonk that at its most adventurous suggests a fusion of Captain Beefheart's Dadaist extensions of the delta blues with the Kurt Weill of 'Threepenny Opera.'”

These critically acclaimed works are a monument to an artist’s ability to break through into new creative territory. Waits went from ‘70’s-era “bluesy, boozy” wordsmith and melodist with seven albums behind him to sound sculptor, miner of the subconscious, abstract orchestrator, sonic cubist—while retaining his innate lyricism, melodic invention, humanity.

feels like he's kind of underrated these days

seems unlikely to ever happen but i always fantasized about vault-scraping double disc reissues of those Island albums. always got the impression they must have tracked a ton of stuff in all those sessions, would love to hear some of the experiments and outtakes. i suppose Orphans is the closest we'll get to something like that

I really want to understand why BIG TIME still doesn’t have an HD release

The soundtrack to Night On Earth (lots of cool junkyard instrumentals) isn't part of this reissue program, either...too bad.

Thrilled to be able to get Black Rider on vinyl finally! It might be my fave of his.

i've got a couple of these on LP (Rain Dogs and FWY) but really psyched for Bone Machine, which was the first Waits i ever heard.

I think about this Tom Waits story all the time. pic.twitter.com/njGUWEsdx4

— Christopher Smets (@CWSmets) July 7, 2023

hahaha

The download version of the new Swordfishtrombones remaster sounds great. NO compression either, surprisingly, which bodes well for the physical release.

Or rather no ADDITIONAL compression, at least none that's egregious.

I was listening to Rain Dogs on Tidal earlier and yeah, they sound great. No brickwalling, just more clarity and fullness (which brings sounds to the fore that I hadn't noticed before, though TBF I started listening to that album on cassette).

Waits is about the one guy whose records didn't sound shitty in the 80s, so good to see they're continuing with this idea.

he hasn't messed it up like they did real gone then?

completely pivotal albums for me in college in the early 90's, glad to see these coming since vinyl copies used are priced through the roof and my CDs are long gone.

I had bone machine and black rider on either sides of a tape in college, wore that shit out

Get Behind The Mule (Spiritual) - In celebration of Mule Variations' and ANTI- Records' 25th Anniversary, a previously unheard rendition of the song “Get Behind The Mule” will be released tomorrow, August 9th.

In this alternate take of the album's iconic track, Waits' gospel moans resonate with raw emotion, accompanied only by a gritty Wurlitzer. This stripped-down rendition amplifies the dark narrative of murder and perseverance, with the lyrics even slightly altered, rendering it with an even starker intensity than the original LP version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brVbfzTHods

The alternate take is great

That take is fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U97QlK21nM8

Interesting mix of the Brennan and pre-Brennan songs. Id never thought of it this way, but after Swordfishtrombones the material is harder to perform without a complete band.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAqfsLKRy4d/

Original Real Gone masters (and others perhaps) are coming back to streaming

The Heart of Saturday Night

50th Anniversary
Available on Limited Edition 180-gram Slightly Gold Vinyl and 180-gram Raspberry Beret Vinyl

Fifty years ago a young and aspiring Tom Waits released ‘The Heart of Saturday Night’, his attempt to immerse himself in the romance of longing for adventure trouble, mystery of love and lust, and the after- hours clubs where jazz, blues, lounge, piano bar crooners would gather and play for and with each other in their search for the ruby eye of the heart that only shone on a Saturday night.

He imagined a concept album with a small bebop jazz ensemble, filled with the literary influences of the two Jacks - Kerouac and London - along with classic American songbook songwriters and the language and sound of the piano played in intimate clubs for and with musicians who had finished their regular Saturday night engagements. In searching for the voice for these characters, he evoked Sinatra’s ‘In the Wee Small Hours’ and was inspired to mold his fingers to the keyboard by the bold, improvisational and unique Thelonius Monk.

180g Raspberry Beret-colored vinyl, limited to 3700 copies, will be available in worldwide record stores on December 6 and 180g slightly gold vinyl, limited to 800 copies, is available for pre-order via the Tom Waits webstore now.

great album, have been revisiting lately

I learned the title track on guitar recently. Really love that song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbktJytZvTY

thanks for that.

i find it a little strange (and disappointing, if i'm honest!) that his old-man singing voice is so similar to his young-man similar voice!

saw that posted elsewhere, love it

Tom Traubert's Blues was the first Tom Waits song I ever heard. Played on KZON in the 90's as I was driving around in the central AZ desert trying to sell process control equipment. I was hooked for life.

Waits' Spotify top 10 seems evenly divided between his romantic standards that are often covered and clanky tracks which must syncs from edgy TV shows.

I've really enjoyed the Song by Song podcast which works through his entire discography, discussing each track. Really reawakened my appreciation for his depth and empathy, makes him seem less like an artist with distinct phases and schticks - there is a broad vision there.

Oh this podcast is great! Must have been challenging to cover absolutely everything including live tracks and instrumentals etc

New compulation, Waits songs covered by beginning artists like Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seger

https://officialtomwaits.store/products/where-the-willow-and-the-dogwood-grow-compilation-cd

surprised they couldn't fit Scarlett Johansson in this

Bob Seger! Which given the track covered, seems preferable to Pete Seeger. These are all existing covers, right?

yea i saw this and thought this was just a compilation of existing covers

yeah, nothing new as far as I can tell indeed (+ apologies for mentioning the wrong Se(e)ger)

Surprised Rod Stewart isn't on there, he covered at least a couple of Waits songs that became hits (and paid for a swimming pool as Waits joked). They sound pretty MOR, but so are a few others on there.

That compilation is not being marketed to Rod Stewart fans.

i don't know, I kind of love Rod's "Downtown Train"

His version of Tom Traubert's Blues is excellent as well. I'm agnostic on Waits but I certainly prefer Rod's covers to the originals.

Shawn Colvin's version of "Heart of Saturday Night" is the first way I heard it

Wolfgang Ambros recorded a Tom Waits covers album with all of the songs translated into Viennese dialect. Think I prefer a couple of them to the originals, such as 'Groß in Kagran' ('Big in Japan').

Ace does tons of these songwriter comps, I own the Randy Newman, Paul Williams and Willie Nelson ones. Don't think they usually get advertised on the artist's website tho.

Shawn Colvin's version of "Heart of Saturday Night" is the first way I heard it

When I I saw Jonathan Richman years ago, he opened with it, and that was the first time I’d heard it. Holly Cole’s version soon after.

Dion did a great version in the 1970s too.

Collab with Massive Attack

https://tomwaits.ffm.to/bootsontheground

I love Tom and I love Massive Attack but that's a lotta money for one song and a spoken word thingy.

Will wait for it to show up on a benefit CD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-57FrioeuE

When asked about the collaboration, Waits said:

"One day many years ago, I accepted an invitation from Massive Attack to collaborate. Their long release delay never worried me. Today, as in all of mankind's yesterdays, guarantees this type of song will never go out of style. Man's folly of fiascos is a feast for the flies. Hence, the B side of Massive Attack’s upcoming 12 inch "The Fly" features my appreciation for the winged nuisance."

Massive Attack is embracing an eco-conscious vinyl pressing and packaging process for this record to leave a smaller carbon footprint. This ‘EcoSonic’ edition will be 180g vinyl in colors, red, white and blue and are packed at random.

I thought I had misheard the lyrics on first listen but it really is "big titties, big titties, holler and burn down cities" which frankly is better then 99% of the chants I've taken part in recently

just in case not everybody noticed it, the song is built with a slowed down sample of The Earth Died Screaming (from 1992's Bone Machine)

okay thanks now i've got the Scorpions absolute banger Big City Nights in my head but its got Titties.

welcome to my 12 year old brain