Tom Waits is set to release his new studio album Bad as Me on October 25 via Anti- Records. You can stream the album's title track below and purchase the song on iTunes. The album is also available for pre-order on iTunes as a standard edition and a deluxe edition with three bonus tracks and as CD and LP at the Tom Waits webstore.

Check out the album's tracklist and a TOM WAITS HOSTED PRIVATE LISTENING PARTY, below...

Continue reading "new Tom Waits album 'listening party' (watch now)"

"the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced the Alice Cooper Band, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Darlene Love and Tom Waits as its 2011 performer inductees. Also being inducted this year as individual recipients of the Ahmet Ertegun Award are Jac Holzman and Art Rupe. The Award for Musical Excellence (previously the Sidemen category) will be presented to Leon Russell. The 26th annual ceremony will take place on Monday, March 14, 2011, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and be broadcast on Fuse, Madison Square Garden's national music television network."

Catch Darlene Love at BB King Blues Club in NY tonight (12/19).

Delta Spirit's Matt Vasquez @ Webster Hall (more by Tracy Allison)

Delta Spirit are on tour now, and tickets are still on sale for their headlining show at Webster Hall tonight (Tuesday, 11/23). Dangerbird-signed LA band Darker My Love (who share members with the 2007 incarnation of the Fall and who also have a song on that Target Christmas album that WAVVES/Best Coast is on) and Long Beach band The Fling open the show and the tour.

Delta Spirit just released a new EP entitled the The Waits Room which you can download now on iTunes, and get on limited edition vinyl at the merch table. Yourstru.ly, who posted a video of the band performing "Bushwick Blues" for the EP, has the story...

"Hidden in the hills of Northern California lies the bucolic town of Cotati, CA. Unbeknownst to many, a musical landmark exists there called Prairie Sun Studios, where many incredible musicians have rattled and hummed, including the venerable Tom Waits himself. And, just this year, Delta Spirit stepped into that very studio to record their soulful rocker, History From Below. In the midst of recording, the band discovered "The Waits Room," a gutted closet on the studio grounds where the man himself records to this very day. Echoes abound, the room creates a sound that reverberates until your body is lulled to rest. Although a full-fledged studio space exists, where most of the album recording took place, with roomsound like that, the band couldn't help but record tracks in there from time to time. In fact, it was such a gorgeous sound, ideal for Delta Spirit's folk-blues bliss, that they recorded an entire live EP in it. The result is the Waits Room EP, a 5-song burner..."

The "Buswhick Blues" Waits Room video with all dates (in text and special video format), below...

Continue reading "Delta Spirit on tour w/ Darker My Love, a new EP (NY tonight)"

N.A.S.A., and their worldwide debut The Spirit of Apllo, is an ongoing creative collaboration between two lifelong music aficionados, Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon, and their friends, friends of friends and musical heroes.

While N.A.S.A. stands for North America/South America and contains a number of superstar artists from both coasts of the U.S., it is about as far from a tension-building geographical showdown as a record can get. Rather, The Spirit of Apollo was born with the righteous goal of bringing people together through music and art, and that is exactly what masterminds Sam Spiegel (Squeak E. Clean) and Ze Gonzales (DJ Zegon) have done.

Unexpected collaborations abound on the seventeen track release. Tom Waits growls over Kool Keith, Karen O taunts while Ol' Dirty Bastard gives shoutouts to Wu Tang and N.A.S.A from the grave, and David Byrne, Chuck D and others expound on the evils of "Money." In spite of the range of performers, the pairings seem organic, inspired and make perfect sense on the first listen, never coming off as ironic or impulsive.... [RCRD LBL]

Other N.A.S.A. collbaroators included Lykke Li, Santogold and Kanye West. Tickets are on sale for a March 12th show at (Le) Poisson Rouge in NYC. The date is part of a larger tour. Watch the David Byrne/Chuck D/Ras Congo/Seu Jorge/Z-Trip "Money" video, and see all dates, below...

Continue reading "N.A.S.A. - 2009 Tour Dates (LPR), David Byrne/Chuck D video"

by Ryan Barkan

When it comes to licensing, Tom Waits has a strong reputation..

Waits has steadfastly refused to allow the use of his songs in commercials and has joked about other artists who do. ("If Michael Jackson wants to work for Pepsi, why doesn't he just get himself a suit and an office in their headquarters and be done with it?") He has filed several lawsuits against advertisers who used his material without permission. He has been quoted as saying, "Apparently, the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad -- ideally, naked and purring on the hood of a new car," he said in a statement, referring to the Mercury Cougar. "I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor....

...In 2005, Waits sued Adam Opel AG, claiming that, after having failed to sign him to sing in their Scandinavian commercials, they had hired a soundalike singer. In 2007, the suit was settled, and Waits gave the sum to charity." [Wikipedia]

Speaking in an interview in 2005 to NPR's All Things Considered, Waits bluntly says "I'd rather have a hot lead enema" than have a song in a commercial. At the time he was referring to products like Doritos, cars and diapers. His stance isn't as strong when it comes to a good cause. His song "Never Let Go" is the soundtrack to a new PSA by the Ad Council for Feeding America.

The campaign, shot by American History X director Tony Kaye, launched November 25th and is intended to raise awareness and drive action to fight hunger in America.

Created pro bono by Ogilvy NY, the new TV, radio, print, and web advertising aims to change the way Americans look at this critical issue affecting our country and to understand the fact that many people they interact with on a daily basis may not know where their next meal will come from...

"We are thrilled to partner with Feeding America to educate Americans about just how close hunger is to each one of us," according to Peggy Conlon, President & CEO of The Advertising Council. "I believe that the 1 in 8 campaign will inspire Americans to become involved in this critical issue."

"This work uses simple visual imagery to demonstrate the reality of the fact that everyone today knows someone who is hungry," said Antonio Navas and Chris Bradley, creative directors at Ogilvy who developed the campaign. "We were very fortunate to get musician Tom Waits to contribute a beautiful piece of music - "Never Let Go" off of 2006's Orphans -- that helps bring the work to life and connect with the public in a tangible way. We believe it will have great impact on this important cause."

Per the Ad Council model, the PSAs will be distributed to media outlets nationwide this week and will run and air in advertising time and space that is donated by the media.

Waits says of the project: "We all need to be reminded that the folks who need help getting back on their feet are all members of our family." Watch the two different PSAs below.

Other Notable Licensing News:

Another band that usually passes on licensing requests for its music is Arcade Fire. The Canadian band decided to let its song "My Body Is A Cage" be used in the trailer for the new Brad Pitt movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

According to the Arcade Fire's management, "This is the first time the band have used their music in this way. David Fincher asked them to look at the trailer. They all thought it was a good use of the music. They have no issue with licensing music when it's used in a creative way. It rarely happens." [Pitchfork]

Watch the trailer below.

The soundtrack to Juno continues to inspire advertising creatives. One of Barry Louis Polisar's songs from that soundtrack, "All I Want Is You", gives it a go in a spot for the National Lottery in the UK. The commercial can be seen below.

I've seen the commercial for Ubisoft's new Prince Of Persia game on air this past week. Just like the trailer (watch it below), the spot features the song "Saeglopur" by Sigur Ros. This is the second video game featuring Sigur Ros music - EA's trailer for Dead Space (released in October 2008) uses "Track 7" as the soundtrack.

The Shins' "Sleeping Lessons" provides a cool soundtrack to Statkraft Energy's new European commercial. Watch it at Boards Mag.

Sony has released quite a few new commercials recently for both the PS3 and PSP that have good musical soundtracks. The "Mural" spot features "Everybody Ona Move" by Michael Franti & Spearhead, "LA Plays PSP" has The Grouch featuring MURS' "The Bay To LA", and "NYC Plays PSP" uses Chromeo's "Fancy Footwork". Watch the last one below.

continued below...

Continue reading "This week in Music Licensing"

Continue reading "Tom Waits' True Confessions (a conversation with himself)"

a catch up post....

Mandy Moore and rumored beau Ryan Adams were spotted shopping at Meltdown Comics and Collectibles and Vintage Gear Guitar Shop in Los Angeles yesterday.

The awkwardly-paired duo fell for one another while working closely together on her album Wild Hope last year.

Angster-singer Adams has previously dated a slew of other offbeat brunette actresses, including Parker Posey and Winona Ryder.

This is the first time the happy couple has been snapped together because...well...photogs had no idea who Ryan Adams was until now! [FadedYouth Blog]

Winona Ryder has since moved on to a member of Rilo Kiley. Devendra Banhart and Natalie Portman could not be reached for comment. Check out more (not very nice paparazzi-style) pictures of Ryan, OR watch Scarlett Johansson sing Tom Waits backed by members of Celebration BELOW...

Continue reading "Ryan Adams get your hands off Mandy Moore"

(Paperless) tickets go on sale Friday for the Tom Waits Glitter and Doom tour.

Paperless ticketing is the only purchase option for this tour.

Check back soon for a tour schedule and more ticket purchasing information .

Paperless Ticket:
You will not receive paper tickets for this event. At the time of entry, you must present the credit card used to purchase your tickets as well as a valid photo ID (such as driver's license, state ID or passport). Your entire party must enter the venue at the same time. Tickets are non-transferable.

That Tom Waits show was removed from Ticketmaster. Scarlett Johansson's first music video is below...

Continue reading "Scarlett Johansson - Falling Down (Tom Waits) (video) "

DOWNLOAD: Tom Waits - Bottom of the World (MP3)

Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits

One of the just-announced Pehdtsckjmba shows is listed at Ticketmaster ($82).

In sorf of related news, Scarlett Johansson is engaged.

PREVIOUSLY: Scarlett Johansson's Tom Waits album has a website

Continue reading "Tom Waits - 2008 Tour Dates (no NY again)"

And at that website you can listen to six of the Tom Waits songs including "Fannin Street" featuring vocals by David Bowie.

Scarlett Johansson's inspired Atco Records debut album ANYWHERE I LAY MY HEAD features her distinctive interpretations of ten songs by Tom Waits plus one original selection, "Song For Jo." Johansson co-wrote the track with TV On The Radio's David Andrew Sitek, who produced the album and lends his multi-instrumental talents throughout as well. She is also joined by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, Sean Antanaitis from Celebration and others.

Scarlett & Natalie Portman on the Today Show, earlier yesterday

I've been trying to find a picture of TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek sitting on the Joe's Pub stage with Scarlett Johansson talking about her new Tom Waits cover album that he produced, and how David Bowie contributed to it. I guess they didn't allow photography. Stereogum had a video from the press conference / listening party, but was forced to take it down. Rolling Stone and Billboard have more info (also no pics).

Earlier in the day (Feb 12, 2008) Scarlett and Natalie were up at the Today Show promoting their new movie The Other Boleyn Girl. Scarlett's Tom Waits CD tracklist is below....

Continue reading "Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Dave Sitek, Joe's Pub, Natalie Portman, The Other Boleyn Girl"

Continue reading "Tom Waits to perform at LA benefit, tour plans?"