Tom Waits - News

Tom Waits “Bad As Me” In Village Voice’s Pazz+Jop Poll

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:01:00 -0800

Tom Waits’ Bad As Me is #5 on the Village Voice’s 39th annual “Pazz & Jop Albums” for 2011. (The voters are comprised of top critics from coast to coast.) To see the entire poll go here.

Tom Waits Took Us All On A Wild Ride In 2011

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:12:00 -0800

(pic by Drew Kelly/ NYT)

Iconoclast Tom Waits is ending the year with a big bang due to his latest album, Bad As Me showing up on best of year end lists all over the globe from The New York Times to the Irish Times to MOJO to Rolling Stone to Musikexpress (Germany) to Humo (Belgium) to Rumba (Finland) to Gaffa (Sweden) to the Los Angeles Times and Time Out (UK), as well as the industry trade Hits, not to mention Times Live in South Africa and Crossbeat (Japan).

Bad As Me marks a career highlight with his 20th album which was released in late October. The album is Waits’ fastest selling album and has earned the highest chart position of his vastly storied career. Bad As Me has been called everything from “one of the best of his wildly fruitful creative life,” (LA Times) to “a watershed release.” (Mojo UK)

Waits began this wild ride early in the year with his induction to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and never slowed down.

He is currently working alongside Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken in Seven Psychopaths, writer/director Martin McDonough’s first film since In Bruges.

For everything Waits, please go here.

“Tom Waits Onstage and Off” – In Rolling Stone

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:12:00 -0800

Rolling Stone Magazine has a fascinating Tom Waits photo series they’re calling “Tom Waits Onstage and Off ” which they describe, saying, ”Witness his live performances through the years, and see him with friends such as Allen Ginsberg and Neil Young.” It is exactly as stated and includes with some truly beautiful and evocative images.

To view the photos on-line, just go here.

Record Store Day's Black Friday

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:11:00 -0800

Attention! Meet others! Hands On! Interact! Discuss! Survive! Congregate - at your local record shop.

Tom Waits Filter Magazine Cover

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:11:00 -0800

The cover story of FILTER Issue 46, arriving on newsstands, is none other than “Under the Hat with Tom Waits” a fascinating in-depth Q&A where Tom divulges how sounds have influenced his music, what he really thinks about some of today’s band names, his love of the stage and much more.

New Video For Satisfied

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:11:00 -0800

Check out the video for "Satisfied" directed by Jesse Dylan from the new record Bad As Me.

Tom Waits’ Highest Debut of Career!

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:11:00 -0700

Tom Waits debuted on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart at #6, making this the highest debut and the fastest selling (63K+) of his long and storied career—not only in the US, but around the globe. Bad As Me, his 20th album to date, is currently top #10 Europe including the UK, Italy, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Austria and Germany; #6 in Canada and #11 in Australia.

Critics are making a racket with rave reviews including the Los Angeles Times: “The singer with the lowdown Howlin’ Wolf yowl, which is richer and more elastic than ever on Bad As Me…his first new studio album in seven years, and one of the best of his wildly fruitful creative life…The record…swirls with adventure and includes the instant classic ballad ‘Back in the Crowd,’ the stomping march ‘Hell Broke Luce’ and the transcendent closer ‘New Year’s Eve,’ a quiet yarn of a waltz” and Rolling Stone: “It doesn’t get much better than this.”

Meanwhile, 2011 is looking like a pretty good year for Waits…he started it off by being inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and may wind down the clock with his best-selling album to date, no mean task for an artist in these tough times.

Tom Waits Talks To NPR Radio Show “Fresh Air”

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:10:00 -0700

Tom Waits was featured on today’s segment of the NPR show Fresh Air. The iconic artist talked with host Terry Gross about his phenomenal new record Bad As Me, his first all-new studio album in eight years and his 20th album.

On Getting Older Waits offers, “I guess I’ve always lived upside down when I want things I can’t have. My wife actually thinks I have a syndrome called Reality Distortion Field. It’s kind of like drugs, only you can’t come back from it. Reality Distortion is almost a permanent condition. Things come in and they go out: Presto, chango! To a certain extent, I did that with myself. As a kid, I did want to be an old-timer, since they were the ones with the big stories and the cool clothes. I wanted to go there. Now, I guess I want to bring that with me and go back in time.”

And on Collaborating With Keith Richards he says, “There’s nobody in the world like him. We wrote songs together for a while and that was fun. I had never really written with anybody besides my wife, so it was unique and a little scary at first. He doesn’t really remember anything or write anything down. So you play for an hour and he would yell across the room, ‘Scribe!’ And I looked around. ‘Scribe? Who’s the scribe?’ And he’d say it again, now pointing at me. I was supposed to have written down everything we said and dreamt of and played. And I realized we needed an adult in the room. I’ve never been the one that one would consider the adult. It was an interesting dynamic.”

Listen to the full interview above or at NPR by going here.

'Bad As Me' Out Today

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:10:00 -0700

Today is the day! Tom Waits' new album Bad As Me is here. The CD, deluxe limited edition CD with 3 more songs and LP are available at your favorite retail store. You can always get everything here at the Tom Waits Store.

Listen To 'Bad As Me' With Friends

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:10:00 -0700

Remember when people got together to listen to music out of the same speaker? Well, your local independent record store does and they're inviting you to come together in one of the few remaining tabernacles of sound and listen to Tom Waits' Bad As Me. With the release of Bad As Me this Monday, 10/24, some of our favorite indie stores are holding special listening parties, combined with some cool giveaways and general indie-store friendliness. See below for a list of events.

Cactus Music & Video - Houston, TX - 10/24 @ 9PM
CD Cellar - Anniston, AL - 10/24 @ 9PM
CD World - Eugene, OR - 10/24 @ 8PM
Disc Exchange - Knoxville, TN - 10/24 @ 7PM
Exile On Main St - Champaign, IL - 10/25 @ 6PM
Fingerprints - Long Beach, CA - 10/25 @ 7PM
Hoodlums - Phoenix, AZ - 10/24 @ 7PM
Mad Platter - Riverside, CA - 10/24 @ 12PM
Park Ave CD's - Orlando, FL - 10/24 @ 8PM
Repo Records - Charlotte, NC - 10/24 @ 5PM
Rhino Records - Claremont, CA - 10/24 @ 12PM
StinkWeeds @ Carly's - Phoenix, AZ - 10/24 @ 8PM
The Sound Garden - Baltimore, MD - 10/24 @ 7PM
The Sound Garden - Syracuse, NY - 10/24 @ 7PM
Vintage Vinyl - Fords, NJ - 10/44 @ 10AM
Vintage Vinyl - St. Louis, MO - 10/24 @ 6PM
Bull Moose - Brunswick, ME - 10/23 @ 3PM
Bull Moose - Portland, ME - 10/23 @ 3PM
Bull Moose - Lewiston, ME - 10/23 @ 3PM
Bull Moose - Portsmouth, NH - 10/23 @ 3PM
Bull Moose - Sanford, ME - 10/23 @ 3PM
Bull Moose - Waterville, ME - 10/23 @ 3PM
Bull Moose - Bangor, ME - 10/23 @ 3PM
Bull Moose - Scarborough, ME - 10/23 @ 3PM
Bull Moose - North Windham, ME - 10/23 @ 3PM
Electric Fetus - Minneapolis, MN - 10/24 @ 7PM
Grimey's New and Preloved Music - Nashville, TN - 10/24 @ 5PM
Last Record Store - Santa Rosa, CA - 10/24 @ 7PM
Music Millennium - Portland, OR - 10/24 @ 9AM
Record Exchange - Boise, ID - 10/24 @ 7PM
Streetlight Records - San Jose, CA - 10/24 @ 6PM
Twist And Shout - Denver, CO - 10/24 @ 5PM
Zia Sahara - Las Vegas, NV - 10/24 @ 11AM
Zia Indian School - Phoenix, AZ - 10/24 @ 11AM
Zia Eastern - Las Vegas, NV - 10/24 @ 11AM
Zia Oracle - Tucson, AZ - 10/24 @ 11AM
Zia Speedway - Tucson, AZ - 10/24 @ 11AM
Zia Thunderbird - Phoenix, AZ - 10/24 @ 11AM
Zia Records - Tempe, AZ - 10/24 @ 11AM
Zia Records - Chandler, AZ - 10/24 @ 11AM

If you are looking for a great independent store near you a good place to start is here.

Tom Waits In The New York Times

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:10:00 -0700

An informative and entertaining interview with Tom Waits just appeared in the New York Times. The piece features Tom and the writer driving around in Tom’s car littered with “a yellowing newspaper announcing the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, a large bottle of Valencia Mexican hot sauce and a bowler hat and a glittery sequined jacket” as they talk about Tom’s amazing new album Bad As Me. Some sample bits below…

“Talking about the album now ‘is like doing the dishes,” he said. “The meal has already been prepared and eaten. We enjoyed it. But after every meal, clang, clack, clang, scrape, clang, clang, clack, scrape — you’ve got to do the dishes.’ Compared with “Real Gone,” an album full of songs that clanged, scraped and bristled with distortion and cryptic lyrics, “Bad as Me” climbs off the ledge. “There’s less phlegm and there’s less smoke in the room.”

“Mr. Waits was seeking to write, he said, “dwell-in songs,” a phrase used by a woman he learned about in a collection of folk songs from Alabama. “Like a blues, you get down there and you start dwelling on a particular topic,” he said. “I was really taken with that, that it was something simple and it evoked so much.”

You can read to entire article here.

Tom Waits Interviewed By Wall Street Journal

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:10:00 -0700

(Christopher Serra)

Tom Waits recently met with the Wall Street Journal at a local Chinese restaurant to talk about his phenomenal new album Bad As Me which comes out October 24th.

A sample: “The public Mr. Waits is a bona fide character, a stomping, yowling beatnik who reflects the eccentric, downtrodden characters he sings about. Over lunch, he relaxes and a natural storyteller emerges. He riffs on an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” tells an anecdote about Lauren Bacall, and insists that a dead shark was once cut open in Barbados with a VCR in its stomach containing a tape of “Jaws.”

To read the entire interview, just go here.

Tom Waits Pitchfork Interview

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:10:00 -0700

(pic Anton Corbijn)

Tom Waits was interviewed by the site Pitchfork.com via phone recently. He explained that he was at a barbershop. They claimed they “couldn’t hear any clippers in the background.” That said, the two discus a whole bunch of fascinating topics including robots, the evolution of culture and radio, Keith Richards and Tom’s incredible new album Bad As Me which comes out next week.

To Read the full interview, just go here.

To preview the new record Bad As Me, just go here

Hear Tom Waits' New Album Now and Get Additional Codes For Your Friends

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:10:00 -0700

Tom Waits' album Bad As Me is streaming live right now. Go to BadAsMe.com to hear it exclusively and get extra codes to share.

Exclusive Premiere Of Tom Waits' New Album

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:10:00 -0700

Click here to sign up for the mailing list so that you can be one of the first people to hear the new record Bad As Me beginning Monday, October 17th.

Listen To The New Song "Back in the Crowd"

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:10:00 -0700

Stream the romantic ballad "Back in the Crowd" from Tom Waits' upcoming album Bad As Me, out 10/14 on limited edition deluxe CD, CD and LP, and pre-order the album here.

Second Tom Waits Single "Back In The Crowd" Available Today

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:09:00 -0700

TOM WAITS second single “Back in the Crowd,” from the upcoming new album Bad As Me is now available at all the regular digital retail outlets.

“Back in the Crowd” is a romantic ballad featuring the Spanish Tinge guitar work of both David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and long time collaborator, Marc Ribot. Crooned in his best “Jim Reeves-meets-Elvis tenor” Waits’ describes his richly intimate performance “as an old fashioned jukebox tune for a slow dance with your girl (or guy).” Adding to the romance, Hidalgo beat out a Latin clave rhythm using his wedding ring on the side of his Jarana (a traditional 8 string guitar from Vera Cruz).

The new album Bad As Me is out October 24 and pre-orders are being taken at http://www.tomwaitsstore.com for the 16-song limited deluxe edition, the 13-song CD and vinyl.

Listen To Tom Waits' New Song "Bad As Me"

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:08:00 -0700

Listen to the title track from Tom Waits’ upcoming album Bad As Me, out 10/25 on limited edition deluxe CD, CD, and LP, and preorder the album here.

Tom Waits' Private Listening Party

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:08:00 -0700

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.

Bad As Me available October 25th.

Pre-order Bad As Me at the Tom Waits Store.
Get the "Bad As Me" MP3 at your favorite digital retailer.

Bad As Me Tracklisting

01. Chicago
02. Raised Right Men
03. Talking At The Same Time
04. Get Lost
05. Face To The Highway
06. Pay Me
07. Back In The Crowd
08. Bad As Me
09. Kiss Me
10. Satisfied
11. Last Leaf
12. Hell Broke Luce
13. New Year's Eve

Tom Waits Sets the Rumors Straight

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:08:00 -0700

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.