When I saw necromoonyeti post that Tom Waits will have a new studio album out this October 25th I instantly went over to Amazon and placed a pre-order. As necromoonyeti has mentioned in his post Waits is a one-of-a-kind musician and definitely one of America’s treasures. There’s really no way to describe his style of music since he experiments so often and, at times, his style is more performance art than anything.
For the latest “Song of the Day” I pick the one song that’s almost like a gateway to the aural drug that is Tom Waits. There’s nothing else to say other than listen and marvel at Waits’ “Pasties and a G-String”.
Pasties and a G-String
Smelling like a brewery, looking like a tramp I ain’t got a quarter got a postage stamp Been five o’clock shadow boxing all around the town Talking with the old men sleeping on the ground Bazanti bootin al zootin al hoot and Al Cohn sharin this apartment with a telephone pole and it’s a fish-net stockings spike-heel shoes Strip tease, prick tease car kease blues and the porno floor show live nude girls dreamy and creamy and the brunette curls Chesty Morgan and a Watermelon Rose raise my rent and take off all your clothes with the trench coats magazines bottle full of rum she’s so good, it make a dead man cum, with pasties and a g-string beer and a shot Portland through a shot glass and a Buffalo squeeze wrinkles and cherry and twinky and pinky and FeFe live from Gay Paree fanfares rim shots back stage who cares all this hot burlesque for me
cleavage, cleavage thighs and hips from the nape of her neck to the lip stick lips chopped and channeled and lowered and louvered and a cheater slicks and baby moons she’s hot and ready and creamy and sugared and the band is awful and so are the tunes
crawlin on her belly shakin like jelly and I’m getting harder than Chinese algebraziers and cheers from the compendium here hey sweet heart they’re yellin for more squashing out your cigarette butts on the floor and I like Shelly you like Jane what was the girl with the snake skins name it’s an early bird matinee come back any day getcha little sompin that cha can’t get at home getcha little sompin that cha can’t get at home pasties and a g-string beer and a shot Portland through a shot glass and a Buffalo squeeze popcorn, front row higher than a kite and I’ll be back tomorrow night and I’ll be back tomorrow night
Tom Waits announced yesterday that he would be releasing a new studio album, Bad as Me, on October 25th, his first since Real Gone in 2004 (if we exclude live albums and compilations). In conjunction with the announcement, he released the above comedy sketch and album sample, along with a single of the title track. I can’t offer you the single–you’ll have to buy it or use more nefarious means of acquisition–but I can assure you he keeps it weird. If the single and sample video are any indication, I expect this to be yet another solid effort that upholds his stature as the most unique musician America has ever produced. The album will contain thirteen tracks, with three additional ones available on the pre-order and deluxe editions of the album. I’m pretty damn excited.
If you aren’t familiar with Tom, it’s hard to say where to begin. In the 38 years he’s been releasing albums he’s ranged from a jazzy barfly to an eclectic staple of American folk, always easily identifiable by his cool, loner image, phenomenal gravely voice, and consistently thoughtful, often clever lyrics. I would say start with Small Change and Swordfishtrombones, but it’s hard to go wrong with any of his nineteen studio albums. Just pick one, dive in, and be sure to mark October 25th on your calendar.
While I’m not as well-versed with all sorts of music genres like some friends of mine I do have a well-rounded taste when it comes to music. Growing up during the 80’s it was hard not to get into the hair-metal which dominated the scene. Yes, I fully admit to being a Motley Crue fan and even listened to the random Poison track here and there. In addition to hair-metal I also got into rap and hip-hop during the 80’s and early 90’s which I still consider the Golden Age of the genre.
Young people nowadays can have their Lil’ Wayne or Soulja Boy (but why would they want to) and the Dirty South crew and all that. I say I’ll take giants of the genre like Eric B. and Rakim, EPMD, Wu-Tang Clan, Afrika Bambaataa, Paris, N.W.A, Ice-T and Ice Cube over these new youngbloods any day of the week and Sundays included. While rap and hip-hop have become too much about commercialization I do like current acts like Mos Def and Talib Kweli of Black Star, Common, OutKast, Mobb Deep and Goodie Mobb.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve branched out from those two genres and embraced all types of music (though folk music still escapes me most of the time). It doesn’t matter now whether the artist/band plays some subgenre of metal like Norwegian Black, Viking, Pagan or combinations in-between. Or if they’re more classical genres like baroque, chamber and symphony. If they sounded good and I got into them I couldn’t care less what sort of genre they went under.
2009 was a good year for me in terms of discovering some new bands and artists. These were not new in the way that they’ve just been making music recently. All five I’m about to mention have been making music for at least a decade or decades for a couple.
1. Altan Urag
Altan Urag is a folk-rock band from Mongolia who have combined traditional Mongolian folk music, Western rock stylings and traditional Tuvan/Mongolian “karkhiraa” throat singing. It’s just very difficult to try and explain Altan Urag who has never heard of throat singers and folk music from the region. I’ve pretty much scoured every music store in my area, the net and other shadowy options to find their music. To say that I fell in love with this band would be one of the major understatement of the year.
2. Bathory
Bathory is one band I’ve heard of in the past but never really bothered to try. I was still very leery of the subgenres of metal that went by labels such as Norwegian Black, Pagan, Viking, etc. I was very much still a child of the NWOBHM movement of the lat 70’s and early 80’s and the rise of trash/speed metal of the 80’s. But the last two years I’ve branched out to try more types of metal and in 2009 I finally gave Bathory a chance and was instantly hooked. I’ve wondered since why I never gave them a chance. My favorite track of theirs has to be “Hammerheart” from their “Twilight of the Gods” album. It’s a much more subdued Bathory, but every time I listen to it I feel like I should be at a pub or some Viking hall downing a few pints of ale or horns of mead with my buddies before going off to battle. I definitely feel like Odin is watching over me when I listen to Bathory.
3. Blind Guardian
What is there to say about Blind Guardian that its most ardent fans haven’t already said ad infinitum about this greatest of all power metal bands. Power metal have been a genre I’ve dabbled in here and there in years past but never really paid them much attention as they truly deserve. Blind Guardian changed all that for me in 2009 and I now count Power Metal as one of my favorite type of music. Blind Guardian’s epic and quite operatic 2002 album, “A Night at the Opera”, was my first introduction to this power metal band of all power metal. While I’ve come to love all the other albums of their pre- and post-Opera I found this album of theirs the most accomplished and musically complete. Even people who are not typically fans of metal would find this album as something they would enjoy listening to. My favorite track is also the longest and most complex in the album, “…And Then There Was Silence.” It is an epic 14-minute track that tells the story of the Trojan War. If there’s a song more epic than this one I haven’t heard it.
4. Boris
Whenever I used to think of Japanese popular music and rock I always thought of J-Pop and it’s rock equivalent. I’m not wrong in that assumption as those type of music coming out of Japan have become quite popular due to the rise in the popularity of anime in the West. So, color me surprised when the same friend who introduced me to Blind Guardian and Altan Urag told me to check out Boris. The band is the power trio of Atsuo (vocals/drums), Wata (lead guitar) and Takeshi (bass guitar/vocals) out of Tokyo who simply cannot be hobbled by any particular genre of rock. One album may be stoner rock while the next all about doom and drudge metal. They’ve even released ambient rock and noise rock albums where one would think the music was just amps feedbacking back on themselves. I’ve come to call Boris the mad scientists of rock and their albums attest to that. My favorite track of theirs come from their 2003 album, “Akuma no Uta.” The song in question is called “Naki Kyoku” and one just has to listen to this song just what sort of musical geniuses the trio of Boris really are.
5. Tom Waits
Tom Waits. There’s just nothing much I can say about my love for Tom Waits other than people who have never heard him should just listen to “Pasties and a G-String” and be amazed. To try and describe Tom Waits would be an exercise in failure. One either loves The Waits or just don’t get him. There’s no middle-ground when it comes to The Waits.
So that makes the 5 bands and artists I fell in love with in 2009. Honorable mentions must go to these others: Mastodon, Turisas, Isis, Otis Taylor, Mantic Ritual, The Black Keys, Mirrorthrone and Nightwish just to name a few.
Through the Shattered Lens 