In case you thought you wouldn’t be satisfied with the extra hour of Tom Waits’ banter from his upcoming live album, fret no more. Now Tom’s Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards is being reinvented as a limited edition seven-LP vinyl with six new tracks. The album, which classicly highlights Waits’ bizarrely wonderful form of storytelling, will come out December 8, and also includes rare gems like Waits covering the likes of The Ramones and Fats Waller. Plainly stated, if you’re gearing up for a long winter, this collection added on top of the Glitter and Doom live album should be enough Tom Waits material to get you through. And that’s never a bad thing.

When you first read that Tom Waits’ Glitter and Doom Tour was getting the live album treatment, from -Anti, your best hope was probably for one or two interludes of weird musings and stage ramblings from the man himself. But never in your (certainly not our) wildest dreams could you have fathomed a full second album of such material (as one long track aptly called “Tom Tales”). It’s such a novel idea you almost wonder if someone who edited footage together of all the shows for -Anti just did this in his spare time for kicks and then the label realized this had the potential to be seven kinds of incredible. Either that or someone at a record label actually knows what they’re doing? Doubly novel.

A pretty extensive preview of the album is available on Waits’ new website where you can download the first eight tracks in exhange for signing over an e-mail adress. Full tracklisting below.

Glitter and Doom:

CD1:

01 Lucinda / Ain’t Goin Down (Birmingham – 07/03/08)
02 Singapore (Edinburgh – 07/28/08)
03 Get Behind the Mule (Tulsa – 06/25/08)
04 Fannin Street (Knoxville – 06/29/08)
05 Dirt in the Ground (Milan – 07/19/08)
06 Such a Scream (Milan – 07/18/08)
07 Live Circus (Jacksonville – 07/01/08)
08 Goin’ Out West (Tulsa – 06/25/08)
09 Falling Down (Paris – 07/25/08)
10 The Part You Throw Away (Edinburgh – 07/28/08)
11 Trampled Rose (Dublin – 08/01/08)
12 Metropolitan Glide (Knoxville – 6/29/08)
12 I’ll Shoot the Moon (Paris – 07/24/08)
13 Green Grass (Edinburgh – 07/27/08)
14 Make It Rain (Atlanta – 07/05/08)
15 Story (Columbus – 06/28/08)
16 Lucky Day (Atlanta – 07/05/08)

CD2:

01 Tom Tales

(Via: P4K)

Honestly there is little more information about this out there than the headline already gives you. But for a tour that more than likely might not have come so near you (the tour notoriously avoided most all major cities on the East and West coast) and a personality unlike any other to see or hear live, this comes as welcome news.

While there’s not a release date or a tracklist yet, there is already news of a special edition vinyl as well. And odds are if you appreciate Waits’ music, there’s a pretty decent chance you appreciate vinyl. So double-win. (Via: Paste via Rivmixx)

When talking about improving a movie that needed no improving, Tom Waits would still have made The Dark Knight a better ride. Just think of the casting possibilities. Waits did, however, linkup  with Heath Ledger for the latter’s final film titled The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Joining them on the big screen will be Colin Farrell, Jude Law, and of course, since no bizarre film would be complete without him, Johnny Depp. The three hunks jumped in in 2008 when Ledger’s death put a crimp in the film’s production. What’s more, Farrell, Law, and Depp all agreed to donate their earnings from the film to Ledger’s daughter Matilda who never got written into Ledger’s will.  Check the trailer above. (Via SPIN).

Tom Waits has served as an artistic muse for everyone from Jim Jarmusch to Scarlett Johansson, and now photographer/director Anton Corbijn will publish a book featuring over thirty years of portraits of the gravel-voiced troubadour. The 160-page hardcover entitled Waits/Corbijn, will include 75 color and dutone plates as well as lyrics from major Waits albums, and is set for release through Schirmer/Mosel this fall. In case you can’t get enough of these two after this book, keep your eyes peeled for a Tom Waits appearance as the Devil in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Corbijn’s follow-up to Control with his second full-length film, A Very Private Gentleman. (via TwentyFourBit)

On his website,Beck has launched a series entitled Irrelevant Topics which, as he states, “…features conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction”. The first in the series is with legendary bard, Tom Waits. TW and BH have what looks like a long instant message conversation. Check out Part 1, where they talk about where they come from, lightning, Los Angeles, playing shows and of course, MUSICS.

Editorial Disclaimer: Tripwire contributor Sarahana filmed and edited this video, which is why we felt it most appropriate for her to set it up.

In 2008, These United States released two albums teeming with Americana references, though it’s the latter of the two, Crimes, that sounds like it comes from a world lost in the far west; a world in which men are almost always smelly and drunk, swaying between life and death, depending on what hour of the day it is.

The upbeat and catchy “Honor Amongst Thieves” is a prime chapter of this narrative and it’s appropriately placed right in the middle of that album. With Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) as our main hero, we are treated to images of a tavern, a tie dangling from a door knob, a mischievous Lucy, a Johnny with his jack knife, and a hoodlum’s roaring chorus about honor amongst thieves.

With that in mind, this completely green-screen-less video was inspired by a somewhat old school tradition of black and white movies, such as the equally hoodlum-ish Down by Law starring Tom Waits. It features a collage of live footage and candid shots, topped with two charming and odd acts of thievery by two of the band members. This is what front man Jesse Elliott told us about it:

“These United States are made for the Age of Energy — for better, for worse, for liquid, for solid, for all evaporations in between, they are movement. They are wasting what they conserve, conserving what they waste, Interstate 95 to the Fisherman’s Wharf, swindling, sweating, bobbing, weaving, loving, thieving.”

These United States – “Honor Amongst Thieves”

Our favorite online music store, Insound made a great announcement today. The indie music retailer has said that they will be bringing back out-of-print, post-punk and indie 7″ singles for users to purchase, and what better way to kick off the new initiative than to have The Ramones, California Sun EP, and The Replacements, I’ll Be You, as the two premiere re-issues?

Insound has been in talks with labels and distributors to try and get the idea rolling, and Rhino Entertainmenthas been the first to bite, letting the music retailer re-release the classic 7″ records. Both records, accompanied by their original artwork and pressed on premium vinyl, have been unavailable to fans for decades, but now there will be 1,000 copies of each exclusively released by Insound.

The Ramone’s California Sun EP was originally released in 1976 on Sire Records, and includes an exclusive live take of “I Don’t Want to Walk Around With You” from The Roxy in 1976. The Replacements 7″, I’ll Be You, was released in 1989, and features the song “Date To Church” with Tom Waits. Both records have been highly sought after by fans, and set the bar high for later re-releases Insound will issue.

Maybe I’ve been listening to too much bedroom electro these days, or maybe it’s all that’s released anymore. You know the kind: dude or gal wears cool sneakers, has a MIDI controller or maybe a synth modulator, sits on his/her Macbook sampling programmed drums and software synths and creates various sounds until something resembling a song emerges. Now this isn’t always a bad thing. Independent recording is often unfettered and honestly inspired. But it’s hard not to think that this particular sound is becoming a dime a dozen. Honestly, I don’t even know how to describe it anymore. Half of the problem is that the instrumentation is not produced by instruments, but by midi controllers synthetically conveying quasi-instrumental sounds. And I can only think of so many synonyms for “synth line” and “driving bass.”

So: Alaska In Winter, which began as the project of Brandon Bethancourt, who fled the warmth of New Mexico to a remote Alaskan cabin to escape the trappings of everyday life. Sounds familiar, very familiar. The product of this time resulted in Dance Party In The Balkans. But this is the sophomore release and mountainous terrain and frigid weather are no longer our soundscape; instead, Holiday soundtracks the Berlin haus-muzik scene. Yet, this album feels like an odd fusion of the two: the drive of German-electro and the sunless depression of Alaska. Opening with the slight strumming of “We Are Blind & Riding the Merry-Go-Round”, the murky vocals wail over drab melodies, accurately setting the precedent for the album’s tone. Soon, the down-tempo opener fades and in comes the album’s insistent lead-single and best track “Berlin”.

In the majority of cases, Bethancourt’s vocals spout out anguish-ridden lyrics that are half-inane/half-maudlin: “my speed boat goes faster than yours”, “she’s dying in my arms”. The music is too often depressing without being beautiful and too often slow without a direction. Sure, “Highlander Pt.1” is a lovely contemplation of failed love and Kyra LaMariana’s voice (who, along with Naila Dixon have replaced Heather Trost as the female voice of Alaska In Winter for this record) adds a captivating intimacy, but the tempo soon picks up and all evocation is lost. It’s as if you’re hearing an acoustic Sigur Ros show and suddenly Tom Waits decides to take the second verse. Holiday truly reaches its nadir during the three-part “Streetgang” which drags along despondently boasting an excruciatingly slow drum line complimented by an onerous bass. Even the cameos from Zach Condon of Beirut can’t save this one.

Now, bedroom electro is a genre that is well and good. It bridges the gap between the precocious artist who can’t afford real studio time and the subpar one who can. But it necessarily means a singular focus which too often means a singular sound and musicianship that is sterile and automated. When timing is so perfected that it feels predictable, it’s time to add some viscera or spontaneity in the mix. Also, it doesn’t help that Holiday is as uplifting as a coronary heart disease.

Milan Records