Although NPR (currently) doesn’t allow embedding of their shows, here’s a link to an interview done with Tom on NPR/WXPN’s World Cafe show. He’s mostly discussing his (excellent) 2006 compilation, “Orphans.” Right away, you get a great line, regarding why this material never made it out before. “It’s like taking chickens to the beach……They’ll run off in all directions.”
Continuing with Waits Week, here’s a video from my favorite Waits record of recent time, Mule Variations. There are several eras that Waits’ work exists in, and for me, this record was one of those instantaneous self-hits, where you could right away tell that it will resurface at various points of my life. “Hold On” is the pinnacle for me.
Last night, I saw Flight of the Conchords rip it up at Town Hall- this new tune showed up, which I’m calling “Stick Around” - a delightful breakup song, featuring a chorus of ex-girlfriends tugging at Jemaine’s inner monologue.
Update: here’s the review I wrote over at Billboard.
It’s Waits Week here, and we’ll start with my totally favorite scene from Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes; I thought the film itself was good enough- most of the vignettes stand on their own, but are a bit much watching in a row, for over an hour. The fastest I’ve ever seen someone fall asleep in a movie occurred at this one- twelve minutes. That said, this interplay between Waits and Iggy Pop is where its at.
In conjunction with Tom Waits’ tour annoucement, an announcement that detailed how far away he’s deciding to stay from New York, I think I’ll make it Waits Week here at MDA.com.
It’s nice to know what Tom does in his spare time….
