Tom Waits for No Man

Clarke Green has put together a little music video for “Circus” off of Real Gone using clips from the public domain Prelinger Archives:

Thanks to Jarlath.

In more fan news, Jesca Hoop, an up-and-coming singer/songwriter from Northern California, recently received some high praise from Tom Waits who said her “music is like a four-sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch, or a red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night.”

Apparently he also was instrumental in getting her some mainstream press exposure by passing her demo CD over to Nic Harcourt at KCRW. I took a listen to some of the samples from her latest album, Sliverscreen Demos and I’m pretty impressed and thought some of you might like to take a listen.

You can also listen to a full track from a recent piece on NPR’s Open Mic.

In other celebs loving celebs news, Shane MacGowan, former lead singer of The Pogues, says he spent one of the best nights of his life drinking with Mr. Waits:

Hard-drinking rocker SHANE MacGOWAN made a longtime drinking friend in reclusive singer TOM WAITS after the pair embarked on a booze-fuelled binge nearly 20 years ago.

THE POGUES frontman MacGowan has since always tried to get together with gravel-voiced Waits when the Irish band visited America because of a night he spent drinking with him after a gig in 1986.

He says, “I love him, we all love him, and I was incredibly lucky to see him do FRANK’S WILD YEARS in Chicago. We met him in this theatre bar after.

“That was one of the best nights I’ve ever had. Someone was playing the piano but it was far from refined!”

[Via: SHANE M - MacGOWAN SPENT BEST NIGHT EVER WITH WAITS]

It must be said that Mr. Waits finds admirers from all corners of the spectrum.

According to a recent interview, Steve Vai, big haired rock guitarist extraordinaire, counts Tom Waits as his favorite artist:

I listen to Tom Waits, my favorite artist, but his style of music isn’t for everybody. But the people who love it, really love it.

[Via: Secrets Of Steve Vai | News @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com]

This is one of those obscure references, but I liked the idea. I currently use the completely random process of loading up my MP3 player (yeah, I don’t have an IPod, so my Treo 650 must suffice) which often leaves me with compilations that can be considered grating. The Rough Guides Book of Playlists offers an alternative by listing what it thinks the greatest playlists for any music enthusiast. It includes several Tom Waits tracks as well as biographies of the many artists included in the lists. Published by Rough Guides, more famous for there travel books, this is any interesting concept for a trip through the audible world.

These movie announcements are often premature, however The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Tom Waits will appear in the upcoming Texas Lullaby which is loosely based upon Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Full Story
Thanks to Jarlath.

Here is one of a ton of the stories I missed posting during my recent work frenzy. Coverville, a podcast dedicated to the art of the cover song, did a Tom Waits podcast in celebration of his birthday back in December. The podcast primarily focuses on covers of his tunes by other artists such as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Shawn Colvin, but also includes Mr. Waits’ covers of “Papa’s got a Brand New Bag” (a fabulous cut) and Somewhere.

Hear it here.

Thanks to Jarlath.

After an atrociously bad showing at the box office, Tony Scott’s Domino is now available on DVD. I have to admit that I missed this one, but from all accounts, that’s OK. However, the movie does feature Mr. Waits as a “gun toting, Seventh Day Adventist sporting a bandaged hand.” Apparently, it’s quite a performance even if the movie doesn’t live up to any high expectations.

I found the following brief notice about a movement to find “PodSafe” music for the multitudes of Postcasters out there:

But the PodSafe Music Network (www.music.podshow.com) is only one part of the PodShow’s auspices. “[PodSafe]’s a place for podcasters to go find music for their shows,” Butler said. PodSafe makes artists usable for airplay in all podcasts, which is something akin to a Creative Commons license. Butler’s new agreement brings tracks by big-league artists like Bad Religion, Merle Haggard, Tom Waits, the Dropkick Murphys, Elliott Smith, and NOFX into the world of podcasting. Punk label Fat Wreck Chords and Saddle Creek Records, home to indie-emo phenoms Cursive and Bright Eyes, also signed on to PodSafe at Butler’s behest, though many indie labels continue to balk at authorizing music for PodSafe usage.

[Via: San Francisco Bay Guardian | Arts and Entertainment]

According to the PodSafe site, Epitaph(the parent label of Anti-) has made the following four Tom Waits songs safe for Podcasting:

• Alice
• Another Man’s Vine
• Hold On
• How’s It Gonna End

I was unable to find out if there is any licensing costs for these songs, but at least it’s nice to know that there is some cool tunes to put in those podcasts.

The cast of the Chicago production of Wicked included a Tom Waits tune during their Hurricane Katrina benefit performance on November 14th of last year:

Cast members preformed favorite show tunes, comic sketches and dance numbers, including a special presentation of Tom Waits’ song “New Orleans”, visually backed by projected images of Habitat for Humanity’s current rebuilding efforts.

[Via: Chicago WICKED Benefit Raises $22,000 for Habitat for Humanity (BroadwayWorld.com)]

The event raised $22,000 for Katrina rebuilding efforts.

OK, I’ve got 1807 emails to filter through, so let the rapid catchup posting begin . . .