TheMaker

It's a pleasant album, good fun in the summertime, but studio wizardry has never really equalled greatness for me. Not close to favourite status.

Yikes. I feel a lot better about missing this one for Mr. Costello now. Not only does the mood seem not-quite-fun, but the set is an amalgamation of last year's Buff show and the previous year's T.O. show that I saw, the three new songs notwithstanding.

Are they going to realize it sounds like U2 this time before the studio version comes along?

That is the most unusual spelling of "Television" that I have ever seen in my life.

Impossible Germany MP3: (link pulled by request)

Big thanks to the person who uploaded the FLAC copy! The song has a bit of a Panthersesque, dad-rock vibe 'til it makes its way to the solo, where it becomes Nels's greatest contribution to Wilco. Seriously. Wow. I hope they tweak up the verses a bit and blow this fucker up on the next record. Overall I'd say it's the first "capital-G Great" song of the half-dozen or so new ones they've been playing.

(PM me if you can't do the FLAC thing. I don't see that it makes any sense to keep this from people on dialup or who like to enjoy their iPod dealies.)

The full announcement:

Iconoclast and reclusive touring artist TOM WAITS is making an unprecedented move by taking his always unpredictably stunning live show on the road, mostly in cities (Atlanta, Memphis, Louisville, Nashville) where he hasn't been seen on stage since the mid-to-late '70s. As for Asheville, NC, Tom has never played a gig; he hasn't performed in Akron, OH or Detroit since the '80s. The most recent stop on this extraordinary tour is Chicago, where Waits played the Chicago Theater for three sold out nights on his "Mule Variations" tour in '99.

 

"We need to go to Tennessee to pick up some fireworks, and someone owes me money in Kentucky," says Waits about why he's chosen this particular time and route to tour.

 

When this two-time Grammy-winner last performed live in 2004, tickets sold out in hours, if not minutes. His most recent live date in London sold out in 30 minutes, with over 150,000 ticket requests received within the first hour. Waits' three previous North American concerts (two in Vancouver, Canada and one in Seattle) were also snapped up in record time.

 

"His concert was a nostalgic trip through freak shows, murder ballads, and ruminations on lost love," wrote Charles R. Cross in Rolling Stone after 2004 performance at Seattle's Paramount Theater. "He didn't so much sing these songs as he wheezed, whistled, and shouted them, shaking his fist like a craps player on a roll. Mining his recent Real Gone.Waits created a world of haunting characters adrift in a bygone age."

 

In other news, Paste magazine has just issued its collector's edition citing the "100 Best Living Songwriters," with Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan (longtime co-writer, co-producer and wife) clocking in at #4. According to Paste, "In literature, only a handful of writers have pulled off the near impossible. In music, it happens on every Tom Waits recording."

 

Look for local ads in the regional papers for on sale dates. The first show in Atlanta goes on sale July 8.

Shit shit shit shit shit shit. Looks like those eight dates are it. Won't be seeing any of these faraway shows. The Midwesterners - spoiled again.

Tuesday, Aug 1 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle

Wednesday, Aug 2 Asheville, NC Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

Friday, Aug 4 Memphis, TN Orpheum Theatre

Saturday, Aug 5 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium

Monday, Aug 7 Louisville, KY Palace Theatre

Wednesday, Aug 9 Chicago, IL Auditorium Theatre

Friday, Aug 11 Detroit, MI Opera House

Sunday, Aug 13 Akron, OH Akron Civic

I hope to fucking god there's more dates on the way. I have a no-travelling-beyond-Toronto-or-Buffalo concert rule, but if I have to, god help me, I'll take a damn coach all the way to Dee-troy-it for Mr. Waits. Not missing this for the world.

I was inspired!

The source is the dilligently maintained Eyeball Kid Waits blog and a number of other music boards.

Also, I'd like to apologize for messing up and thinking that today was Wednesday when it's only Tuesday. Stay tuned for an announcement tomorrow, and if I'm mistaken then, everybody can huck t'maters at me and stuff.

I don't know about you guys, but I am going to be enjoying a sustained heart attack from now until I have a damned ticket for a Toronto show IN MY HAND. The only way I'm missing this is if I'm dead.

That's cool. He's not the most consistent performer around, and the last time I saw him ('04) he was a mess.

I beg to differ. The Cork show (and I think a few others as well) is circulating on Dime, and holy hell, it's great. After a nightmarish few years, Bob's 2006 is about as good as his early showing in the '00s.

Johnny Cash is arguably the greatest interpreter of American music ever to have lived. I can't fathom why anybody would be uninterested in an album of covers when covers have been the man's bread and butter for years.

I grabbed American V from Soulseek even before it made its way to Oink (SCOOP'd!), and I've been listening to it pretty heavily for the last week or two. It's much better than the last outing, and the tracklist is neither flashy nor star-studded. Everything is terrifically suited to Cash's sensibilities, though, maybe for the first time since American I.

John owns Hank Williams's On the Evening Train now; it's his song, through and through. You can just hear the devastation in the man's voice, and I don't think it's possible for it to be about anybody other than June Carter anymore. Some of the tracks are rough enough to make me wonder if they should've been included at all (If You Could Read My Mind, Four Strong Winds), but Cash's voice is almost defiantly good on others. I Came to Believe, I'm Free From the Chain Gang Now, God's Gonna Cut You Down, Like the 309... nothing on American IV sounds anywhere near this robust. Covers album or no, the whole thing hangs together beautifully, and I think it's a wonderful "final" statement.

Hoo boy. Easily the best American set since III, and a strong contender for record of the year. I'm digging it even more than Ramblin' Jack's new one, which I thought would be close to impossible.

Listen to On the Evening Train without thinking of June and choking up. Holy fuck, it isn't possible.

I pulled it from oink too, but it's gone now. I'm glad I got it when I had the chance... I'm enjoying it a LOT.

If you're a patient searcher, a little blue bird may be able to help you out with this one.

My hand to god, I mistakenly read this thread's subtitle as "guaranteed to tighten the groin."

Holy fucking fuck.

That is all.

Oh, man, I am fucking LOADED, but I would sell my only living grandma for a London date.

.....

I'm just saying-!

There are a lot of holes on that itinerary yet! If they do a Canadian tour with no Ontario dates, I'll be shocked.

Joel Plaskett is really great. Another east coaster whom nobody outside the region seems to know much about is Al Tuck. Have you ever heard any of his stuff or seen him play? I've had a handful of opportunities to catch his show, but it always shakes down that I miss him for some reason or other. His new album My Blues Away has been getting a lot of spins lately in my house.

I often wonder why American artists of, say, Wilco's stature don't play cities like London, HAMILTON, Guelph, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Edmonton, etc. more often than they do. The population base of each of these towns is either equal to or dwarfs towns like Asheville, Meridian, etc., which seem to get shows pretty regularly (or at least, uh, ever). The "no decent venues" excuse holds little water when you've got the Labbatt Centre, Copps, etc., etc. sitting there empty more often than not. Also, all of these burgs are college towns, so you can't tell me that the audience isn't there. I wonder if boils down to naivete on the part of the artists/promoters? A sort of semi-unconscious notion that everybody in Ontario can and will zip off to Toronto to see their favourite band, that everybody out west will congregate in Calgary, and so forth...

Granted, I can understand why cities like Moncton and Halifax get the shaft, because they are basically in the middle of nowhere (no slight intended - both gorgeous towns I've enjoyed in the past, and I'd even consider moving to the East Coast if I thought I could deal with never attending any concerts).

Also try suggesting in no subtle terms that the regional municipality of Niagara now has not one, but TWO, fan-damn-tastic theatres (capacity: 1500) and millions of visitors every year.

(I AM SO SICK OF GOING TO T.O. AND BUFF FOR SHOWS.)

Ahem.

Your friend's brother's band kicks fucking ass. Ambassador was one of last year's best records. That'll be one helluva show!

And then he read the other posts in the thread...

An official Wilco tour of this fine land excites me. And AROUSES me. Oh, dear. Maybe they'll come closer than Toronto this time, but I doubt it.

My future wife, Ginnifer Goodwin, of Walk the Line and the weirdly entertaining new HBO series Big Love:

Comedian Sarah Silverman. (Seconded, incidentally!)