Vinyl releases

Looks like we might have some new vinyl releases to look forward to: Heart of Saturday Night, Closing Time, Small Change and Nighthawks at the Diner are all scheduled for a June 29 release according to Amazon.com.

A special Mule Variations 11th Anniversary release - 'limited 180-gram vinyl w/exclusive Jim Jarmush photo of Tom (print) ' - is set for April 12th.

Herb Cohen dies at 77

Herb Cohen died at the age of 77 on Tuesday, according to Variety.

Cohen was Tom Waits' manager in the early stage of Waits' carreer and helped him sign a record deal with Geffen Records in 1972. Later on, Waits sued Cohen's publishing firm over songs of his that were used in commercials.

Cohen himself sued writer Barney Hoskyns and publisher Random House for libel. According to Cohen, the claims he 'nicked a lot of money' from Tom Waits and similar allegations in Hoskyns' biography Lowside of the Road, A Life of Tom Waits are false and defamatory.

Interesting reading on the subject can be found over at the TW Library's Who's who and Copyright sections.

Herb Cohen also features in the background of the cover for Nighthawks At The Diner (Photography by Norman Seeff)

(thanks to Stefan  for pointing this out)

UPDATE (March 29): Wall Street Journal obituary

Under the influence

A 'new' dvd seems to be emerging on the web: Tom Waits: Under the influence. Amazon and CDWow have May 18 marked as its release date. I have no idea what material is actually on the dvd, but the cover is reminiscent of  the Under review dvd.

UPDATE: Interpunk has more details about this release.

A man of many words interview

It's not new, but you might find it a nice read: the Stephen Dalton interview with Tom Waits and Terry Gilliam from 2009 as published by The National (an English newspaper by the Abu Dhabi Media Company) on December 1st last year.

It was already printed in The Times on October 8, but this reworked version - under the title Tom Waits: a man of many words - includes some parts that were not published at that time.

Blue Valentine manuscript for sale

Record Mecca is selling what it claims to be the original manuscript for Blue Valentine. I can not vouch for the document's authenticity, but if you have got a spare $5,000 lying around...

(thanks to Jarlath for pointing this one out)

Esotouric bus rides again

Esotouric organises another bus ride through Los Angeles to illustrate 'Tom Waits' formative creative life and the people, places and late night pastries that shaped it'. The tour is is cohosted by Kim Cooper and David Smay, the author of the 33 1/3 book on Swordfishtrombones.

(Saturday April 3 - $62 - More info: www.esotouric.com)

Parnassus dvd release

Amazon.com now has a release date for the dvd and blue ray edition of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus: April 27.

Amazon.co.uk already mentioned a release date of March 29th.