London Horse Hospital celebrates Tom Waits with Barney Hoskins and Eva Vermandel

The London arts venue The Horse Hospital celebrates Tom Waits with an evening of 'words, flickering pictures, scratched discs and unspooled cassettes'. The event will be hosted by Travis Elborough and welcomes biographer Barney Hoskins and photographer Eva Vermandel.

Through the looking glasses Presents: A Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis on Saturday, 9 December (7-10 pm) at The Horse Hospital (Colonnade, Bloomsbury - London WC1N 1JD)

FYTW

I discovered a Tumblr account that's been around for a while, but which I hadn't noticed yet: Fuck Yeah Tom Waits. It has some very nice pics I hadn't come across before.

Tom Waits on Australian radio

Tom Waits was the guest presenter of radio show The Daily Planet on Australian Radio National a few days ago. The playlist included William Burroughs, Otis Redding, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Bob Dylan, Mary Gauthier, Elvis Presley, Alex Chilton and Los Lobos.

I missed this when it was announced, but you can still listen to the broadcast online.

Letterman performance?

Earlier today, Interbridge.com, which lists upcoming performances in US television shows, mentioned Tom Waits alongside 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin as a guest on the Late show with David Letterman on CBS  on Tuesday February 21st.

Mr. Waits' name has been taken down, but knowing his reluctance in announcing performances, this does not mean he will not be appearing (although it hardly means he will either).

'Complete review' dvd

Amazon has a new dvd, due out on January 24th: Tom Waits - The complete review.

I have no further details, but alhtough it does not look very official, this double dvd set claims to be an overview of Waits' career 'with the aid of plentiful archive footage, interviews with the man himself and contributions from his nearest colleagues'.

UPDATE: This might very well be a repackaged release of dvd that have been around for a while: Tom Waits - Under Review 1971-1982 and Tom Waits - Under Review 1983-2006.

TWL offline

The Tom Waits Library hadn't been updated for some time and is now completely offline, it would seem.

Tom Waits Library closed

Some sad news: The Tom Waits Library will no longer be updated. For the moment, the site is still available, but I don't know for how long.

Most of you probably visited the site in the past few years, so you know what we will be missing...

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.

Cookie monster is away on business

While we are waiting for some real news:




(Thanks to all of you who sent this in)

What to expect in 2011?

I have no inside information about Waits' plans for 2011, so your guess is as good as mine. However, the beginning of another year is as good a time as any to speculate a bit.

The February edition of British music magazine Mojo has an item on artists due to return in 2011, one of which is Tom Waits.

"Tom Waits is working on a new album with his partner, Kathleen Brennan. Due in spring on Anti-, it will be Tom Waits' first studio album since 2004's Real Gone."

This seems to be in line with some earlier rumours and off-the-record comments. The possibility of a new album always starts rumours about an accompanying tour, but so far that is all they are: rumours.

What can we expect for sure? The vinyl re-issues of Closing Time, The Heart of Saturday Night, Nighthawks at the Diner and Small Change are hitting the streets as we speak. These 180g red vinyl pressings are limited to a 1.000 items per album, according to Kings Road Merch, so you might want to hurry if you are interested.

Those of you that are not so familiar with Waits' earlier work might check out Everybody's Dummy, a blog that has begun reviewing his albums.

The book Hard ground (March 2011) with some Waits poetry and the induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (March 14th, 2011) are nice to look forward to as well.

And then there is the illustrious Anton Corbijn picture book, which is now scheduled for June 2011.

UPDATE: I forgot about the collaboration with Robert Wilson for a play to be directed by Martin McDonagh.  (thanks to Stefan for reminding me)

Waits in London next year?

The British Academy has what seems to be some great news for English Waits-fans: in an interview for the RA by Sarah Greenberg, architect Will Alsop seems to suggest Mr. Waits might be performing in London early next year.

 "...(Alsop) tells me he is converting the cavernous ground floor beneath his Battersea studio into ‘Testbed 1’, a ‘space without an agenda’ for performance, art, music and socialising. ‘Bruce McLean did the first performance and our official launch is in February, with composer Gavin Bryars and Tom Waits."

(via Matt C.)

UPDATE (Nov. 19): The Gavin Bryars camp indicated the Testbed 1 venue might be used to launch/publicise the release of the Opera North cd Mercy & Grand, but a Tom Waits appearance is rather unlikely, let alone a performance. But then again, you never know....   (via Jarlath)

Giant Orphans album in London

From tomwaits.com:

A giant version of Tom Waits’ 2006 album Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards has been created as part of a unique art installation in London. The Portobello ReCollection opened last week on the Portobello Road in West London, transforming a 100 m long wall into a giant record collection charting the musical influences of the neighborhood. Artists Natasha Mason and Teresa Crawley asked residents for their input on which records they would like to see represented. The result is a colorful celebration of the neighborhood’s musical heritage prominently featuring Waits acclaimed three CD/7 album set . The installation is scheduled to be in place for six months, so get your picture taken with a giant Tom Waits album while you can.

Tom Waits in Keith Richards' Life

To be honest, I thought Tom Waits would have been mentioned more in Keith Richards' biography Life, but he has to make do with one paragraph:

Tom Waits was an early collaborator back in the mid-'80s. I didn't realize until later that he'd never written with anyone else before except his wife, Kathleen. He's a one-off lovely guy and one of the most original writers. In the back of my mind I always thought it would be really interesting to work with him.

The book then continues with Tom Waits' recollection of how That Feel, the track which ended up on Bone Machine, came about.

As far as I can tell not a word about Rain Dogs, on which Richards played guitar and/or sang backing vocals on Big Black Mariah, Union Square and Blind Love.

'Under review 1983-2006' on line

Someone has put the entire documentary Under review 1983-2006 on Youtube.

Iron Man II soundtrack

Adam Buxton's take on Tom Waits' rejected Iron Man II soundtrack.



(via Dan and Maarten)

Corbijn book (again)

I waited some time to post this, because it was announced - and postponed - more than once, but this time, it just might com true: the long-awaited Waits book by Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn.

From the Schirmer-Mosel site:

Tom Waits and Anton Corbijn are a perfect artist - artist match. Their 30-year collaboration now yields this book of ca. 200 portraits and a significant 48 page contribution of words and images by Tom Waits.

More details coming soon.

Expected publication date: October 2010

From the Schirmer-Mosel online book store (where it costs 75 euro):

{...} 160 pages, 75 colour and duotone plates, 21 x 28 cm, hardcover.

Amazon.com still lists September 15, 2009 (!) as the release date but claims it is "Out of Print--Limited Availability".

Magazine Gaffa says the release of the book is to coincide with the premiere of Richard III, the play wich opens in Amsterdam in September. Some of the photos will be exhibited in the theater on that occasion, so the Danish magazine and record company ANTI announce.

(thanks to Judy, Anders, Stefan and Jarlath)

Waits cartoons

German fine art painter Sebastian Krüger has some nice Waits drawings and a painting on his site. Check it out at sebastian-kruger-news.blogspot.com.

(picture: © Sebastian Krüger)

Cocktail hour

MxMo is a bunch of cocktail writers, bartenders and the likes blogging about making up or bringing out a drink about a particular theme. On a Monday. Hence the name Mixology Monday or MxMo. It's hosted on different blogs, which all link to each other.

In May, Andrew Bohrer hosted a MxMo with Tom Waits as the subject.
His own Down there by the train cocktail is made of porter, bourbon and Tuaca. Check out the recipes and links to other note-wearthy drinks such as A.J. Rathburn's The Hounds They Start to Roar (bourbon, St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram, brandy and Peychaud’s Bitters over at Cask Strength.

Corbijn book postponed

"We regret to inform you that we have been unable to obtain the following item: Anton Corbijn 'Tom Waits'". That is the message Amazon.co.uk sends me after leaving me several months in the lurch about the hard cover picture book by Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn.

Publisher Schirmer/Mosel, which previoulsy mentioned a release date of October 2009, now claims "this book will be available on Tuesday 18 May, 2010".

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)