Official album announcement

TomWaits.com has announced the new Tom Waits album Bad as me:

Bad As Me is Tom Waits’ first studio album of all new music in seven years. This pivotal work refines the music that has come before and signals a new direction. Waits, in possibly the finest voice of his career, worked with a veteran team of gifted musicians and longtime co-writer/producer Kathleen Brennan. From the opening horn-fueled chug of “Chicago,” to the closing barroom chorale of “New Year’s Eve,” Bad As Me displays the full career range of Waits’ songwriting, from beautiful ballads like “Last Leaf,” to the avant cinematic soundscape of “Hell Broke Luce,” a battlefront dispatch. On tracks like “Talking at the Same Time,” Waits shows off a supple falsetto, while on blues burners like “Raised Right Men” and the gospel tinged “Satisfied” he spits, stutters and howls. Like a good boxer, these songs are lean and mean, with strong hooks and tight running times. A pervasive sense of players delighting in each other’s musical company brings a feeling of loose joy even to the album’s saddest songs.

The Kings Road Merch store lists the following editions ready for pre-order: a cd (13 tracks), a cd deluxe version (in a 'stunning hard bound book-like case' with a 40 page booklet sewn on the inside, and the cd with the 13 tracks and another cd with three bonus songs) and a vinyl album (180g - with 13 tracks). All of those have an 'in store date' of the 24th (Europe) or 25th (North America) of October.

On Youtube you can witness Tom Waits' private listening party:




Track listing (by Kings Road Merch):

1. Chicago
2. Raised Right Men
3. Talking At The Same Time
4. Get Lost
5. Face To The Highway
6. Pay Me
7. Back In The Crowd
8. Bad As Me
9. Kiss Me
10. Satisfied
11. Last Leaf
12. Hell Broke Luce
13. New Year’s Eve
14. She Stole The Blush (bonus cd only)
15. Tell Me (bonus cd only)
16. After You Die (bonus cd only)

Album details

According to 24bit.com the new Tom Waits album Bad as me is due out on October 25th. In addition to the standard album, with 13 tracks, we can expect a deluxe edition with three bonus tracks.

Track list according to 24bit.com:

Chicago
Raised Right Men
Talking At the Same Time
Get Lost
Face to the Highway
Pay Me
Back In the Crowd
Bad As Me
Kiss Me
Satisfied
Last Leaf
Hell Broke Luce
New Year’s Eve

She Stole the Blush
Tell Me
After You Die

New Tom Waits single Bad as me now available

The new Tom Waits single Bad as me now is now available from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and iTunes.

Tom Waits trying to regain copyright of earlier work

Several news sources suggest Tom Waits is one of the artists trying to reclaim ownership of recordings made in the seventies.

Thanks to the so-called 'termination right', as determined by a revision of the US copyright laws which went in effect in 1978, from 2013 on, artists in the US will be able to regain copyrights on recordings put out 35 years beforehand, as long as they have applied two years in advance.

Tom Waits albums from that era are The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), Nighthawks at the Diner (1975), Small Change (1976), Foreign Affairs (1977) and Blue Valentine (1978).

Other musicians reported tring to regain control of their copyrights are Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen.

Further reading: NY Times, BBC News, Poll Star.

Bad as me snippet

Musicme has a 30 second clip of the new Tom Waits single Bad as me.

Cookie monster is away on business

While we are waiting for some real news:




(Thanks to all of you who sent this in)

Tom Waits sets the record straight

From Anti:

There have been rumblings and rumors. New music from Tom Waits, you say? Come to TomWaits.com on Tuesday August 23rd, and Mr. Waits himself will set the record straight.

New Tom Waits single: Bad as me

Amazon is offering the new Tom Waits single 'Bad as me' as a digital download, available from August 23rd.

Waits raises his voice for public broadcasting

Tom Waits is one of 16 artists participating in Raise your voice!, a free album in support of public broadcast. Anyone who signs up to join the campaign can download the compilation - available for a limited time only - by visiting RYVoice.org. Supporters will also have the opportunity to share Raise Your Voice! with their friends and social networks.

Artists contributing tracks are Wilco, Neko Case, Booker T. Jones, Man Man, Dr. Dog, Mavis Staples, Jolie Holland, William Elliott Whitmore, Tinariwen, Lost In The Trees, Sean Rowe, Marketa Irglova, Joe Henry, The Swell Season and DeVotchKa.

(Source: ANTI)

Album rumours

The Australian website Auspop posted a list with upcoming album releases which includes Bad As Me by Tom Waits, supposedly due on October 21st.

UPDATE (Aug. 6): Looks like they deleted Waits' name from the list...
(But the screenshot below is genuine, I promise)







UPDATE (Aug. 8): AuspOp was asked to take the notice down by Warner Music Australia.
'Read into that what you will.'

Waits in Coppola trailer

Tom Waits is the narrator in the trailer for the upcoming Francis Ford Coppola movie Twixt, about a writer who gets caught up in a murder mystery. Waits is mentioned in the credits featuring in the trailer as well, so he (or his voice) probably will feature in the full-lenght movie as well.

The movie is set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

N.A.S.A. on Waits

A video on Vimeo shows an excerpt from the upcoming film N.A.S.A. The Spirit of Apollo with some info about the collaboration between Kool Keith and Tom Waits.


N.A.S.A. from Syd Garon on Vimeo.