First One's Always Free

"We're catching bullets in our teeth, it's hard to do but they're so sweet..." Presenting yet another six pack for your listening pleasure, with explosive artwork by Tinca. Number one with a silver bullet, baby, and it's got your name on it.

Observer All Stars & King Tubby - Silver Bullet
Tom Waits - The Right Bullets
The Dream Syndicate - Bullet With My Name On It
Cosmic Psychos - Bullet
Tunng - Bullets
Calexico - Bullets & Rocks

On Earth & Worldwide

Presenting a peaceful six pack. Or is it? "And he blew them all to kingdom come, upon the road to peace..." Hard to find artwork by Tinca. What's so funny indeed, my amigos da musica?

Coleman Family - Peace On Earth

Almeda Riddle - Worldwide Peace

Ornette Coleman - Peace

Jack Logan - Peace O'Mind

Brinsley Schwarz - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding
Tom Waits - Road To Peace

Blow My Stack

Wanna sample a batch of cool Tom Waits live rarities? Head over to the Cover Me blog pronto, I'd say. My current fave? A decidedly spooky take on an ole Hank classic.

Tom Waits - Ramblin' Man (live Cleveland '06)

Worth The Ride

I've never been much of a Bone Machine aficionado, although for the life of me I can't say exactly why. This little beauty sure is classic Waits though, ragged glory and all.

Tom Waits - A Little Rain

Mister Mister Pt. Three

Still owe you part three, the last installment, so here goes. It's six pack time again, my esteemed amigos da musica, so better stock up for the wintertime...

Tom Waits - Mr. Henry

The Lollipop Shoppe - Mr. Madison Avenue
The Other Half - Mr. Pharmacist

Mr. Fox - Mr. Fox

Gregory Isaacs - Mr. Cop

John Coltrane - Mr. Day

Dreamland

Leave it to mr. Waits to pose the right questions. Here's a particularly good one: "Who will put flowers on a flower's grave?"

Tom Waits - Flower's Grave

Shine On

People shelling out for that incredible outtakes collection called Orphans on cd never got to hear this one. Exclusive vinyl bonus track, baby, and what a characteristic beauty. "They told me everything was sacred, nothing is profane, and money is something that you throw off of the back of a train..."

Tom Waits - Diamond In Your Mind

No Time To Lose

"Meet me in the bottom, bring my boots and shoes..." Presenting a low down six pack to counter the eternal Monday morning working man's blues. Move on up, people.

Pink Anderson - Meet Me In The Bottom
Kid Bailey - Mississippi Bottom Blues
Tom Waits - Bottom Of The World
Bobbie Gentry - Okolona River Bottom Band
Prince Alla - Bucket Bottom
J Church - Bottom Rung

Two Monarchs

So what me worry? Both the remarkably accessable Bad As Me by mr. Waits and the remarkably tranquil Wolfroy Goes To Town by Will 'Bonnie' Oldham will keep me busy for a quite a while. Out now, so dig in. And if Bonnie Prince Billy's playing in your area (dates here), do check him out. We caught him in Barcelona's cosy Casino L’Aliança last Thursday and were completely blown away. A monarch who rules over all that he sings indeed.

Bonnie Prince Billy - New Whaling

Tom Waits - Satisfied

Stray Dogs

Just because we haven't featured señor Waits here for a while, let's listen to a fine trio of rare late seventies outtakes. And as a bonus: a very funny live rendition of the old jazz standard Since I Fell For You.

Tom Waits - Straydog MP3

Tom Waits - What Else Is New MP3

Tom Waits - With A Suitcase MP3

Tom Waits - Since I Fell For You (live) MP3

Wild Weekend Vol. 43

It´s cold cold cold all of a sudden, with snow and ice and windchill factors all in the mix, so we´ll try make this 43rd edition of Wild Weekend as heartwarming as we possibly can. So put another log on the fire, pour a stiff drink and enjoy this six pack of fine fine tunes, while virtually travelling from Japan to Jamaica, from the deep south to the far north, and back again. Have a hot one.

We´ll start off in the land of the rising sun with a hot psych track from Love Live Life +1, a shortlived soulful super session group based around organist Hiro Yanagida and guitar wizard Kimio Mizutani. Did these guys listen to Sly´s Family Stone a lot? You bet. From Love Will Make A Better You (´71), one of the best trips in the Japrock canon. Next we take a plane to Jamaica, where Freddie McKay meets us at Kingston airport. He recorded this beauty for Leonard Chin´s mighty Santic label in the early seventies. And is that Augustus Pablo perhaps, leading it all in on melodica? Sure is.

Love Live Life +1 - Facts About It All MP3

Freddie McKay - I´m A Free Man MP3

Two weeks ago we featured a Swamp Dogg produced soul scorcher by ZZ Hill here, and now it´s Doris Duke´s turn. I just can´t get enough of I´m A Loser, an exemplary collection of her recording sessions with Jerry Williams Jr, better known as the Dogg. Take an earful of If She´s Your Wife (Who Am I) and you´ll definitely understand why. Onward to the freaky part of Montreal now, where we encounter Poney P, Mingo L´Indien and Bobo Boutin, better known as Les Georges Leningrad. Their Track Georges Five is, to say the least, quite a confrontational piece of dissonant post postpunk. Love it or hate it, but do try it out I beg you. You´ve probably never heard anything like it.

Doris Duke - If She´s Your Wife (Who Am I) MP3

Les Georges Leningrad - Track Georges Five MP3

"Arithmetic arithmetock, turn the hands back on the clock..." That can only be Tom Waits of course, with the jazzy title track from Alice (´02). Hot news: early next year will see the release of a book called Hard Ground, documenting the plight of the homeless in poems by Waits and photo´s by Michael O´Brien. Better start saving up. And we´ll call it a day with an intense piece of blues recorded back in ´59 in Angola State Prison, Louisiana. Robert ´Guitar´ Welch, who was behind bars there together with legendary bluesman Robert Pete Williams, fears they´ll send him straight to the hot seat. "Wonder why they´ll execute a man at the one o´clock hour at night? The current is much stronger, people turn off all the lights..."

Tom Waits - Alice MP3

Guitar Welch - Electric Chair Blues MP3

Wild Weekend Vol. 9

Number 9, number 9, number 9... It´s Wild Weekend time again. Musical revolution. As an alternative to all them discjockey types polluting the airwaves out there, we´ve got the iPod on shuffle. Once more it spins an eclectic six pack of tunes for the music-hungry masses, so tune in. This just might be on your wavelength.

Have been playing a lot of Kristofferson lately. So it´s only fitting that the ghost in the machine picked one of his classic songs to start off this edition. To Beat The Devil, featuring a spoken intro dedicated to his mentor Johnny Cash, gives some sound advice to all you aspiring songwriters out there. "I ain't sayin' I beat the devil, but I drank his beer for nothing... then I stole his song." Which is followed by another songsmith par excellence, mister Tom Waits, who meets Bette Midler in a bar somewhere. Says Bette: "Your life's a dimestore novel, this town is full of guys like you..." Mutters Tom: "Ain´t that cold..." Red coincidence alert: both songs feature the line "you´ve been reading my mail". Spooky that.

Kris Kristofferson - To Beat The Devil MP3

Tom Waits - I Never Talk To Strangers MP3

Up next is a track from a cd I bought only last week: Keith Hudson´s Brand, aka The Joint. Originally from ´77, and finally re-released on the mighty Pressure Sounds label a couple of years ago, it´s one of them hard-hitting dub classics I never get tired of. Turn it up. Some typical eighties industrial postpunk up next: Adi Newton and his Clock DVA. Dark stuff from Advantage (´83), with a funky bass and screeching horns. Stood the test of time surprisingly well.

Keith Hudson - Image Dub MP3

Clock DVA - Beautiful Losers MP3

"Just a little lovin', early in the morning, that little extra something, to kinda see them through..." Some good advice from Dusty Springfield, from the still utterly amazing Dusty In Memphis. Best soul album ever to be sung by whitey, hands down. Having the Memphis Cats as her backing band and Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin in the producer´s chairs certainly helped of course. And we call it a day with the dream pairing of tenor greats Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. Here they tackle Duke Ellington´s Don´t Get Around Much Anymore in grand style.

Dusty Springfield - Just A Little Lovin´ MP3

Coleman Hawkins & Ben Webster - Don´t Get Around Much Anymore MP3

Married Man´s A Fool

"Ever since you walked right in, the circle's been complete,

I've said goodbye to haunted rooms and faces in the street,
To the courtyard of the jester which is hidden from the sun,
I love you more than ever and I haven't yet begun..."

Thanks for that, Bob, could not have said it any better myself. As it happens to be my - umpteenth - wedding anniversary today, here´s a tenpack of songs about that weird phenomenon called marriage. Married man may be a fool, Ry, and granted Tom, I do indeed have to ask permission when I want to go out fishin´, but that´s cool with me.

"And I could never let you go, no matter what goes on,

'Cause I love you more than ever now that the past is gone..."

Ry Cooder - Married Man´s A Fool MP3

Bob Dylan - Wedding Song MP3

Tom Waits - Better Off Without A Wife MP3

George Jones & Tammy Wynette - Golden Ring MP3

David Bowie - Be My Wife MP3

Blind Willie Reynolds - Married Man Blues MP3

Freda Payne - Band Of Gold MP3

Jimi Hendrix Experience - 51st Anniversary MP3

Replacements - You´re Getting Married MP3

Moby Grape - Gypsy Wedding MP3

People Take Warning! pt. 1: Man V Machine

The great Nick Tosches, one of my fave writers on music, boxing, the mob and a lot of other subjects, recently said the following about the People Take Warning! box set: "I've been sitting here watching the remains of this short-lived country go down the drain, and there is no better soundtrack to this than People Take Warning!, a grand and beautiful set - in every sense, from the remastered recordings to the notes to the extraordinary design work - that gives perspective both to these days and those of the past. This is white-hot history, a danse macabre, and, above all, a wealth of great old and timeless music."

Can´t agree more, Nick. People Take Warning!, subtitled ´Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, 1913-1938´, is a treasure trove of lovingly compiled old 78´s that sounds absolutely timeless. Released last year on the tiny Tompkins Square label, there´s some overlap with other compilations of the period such as Harry Smith´s Anthology Of American Folk Music, but not nearly so much to give it a miss.

The informative and beautifully designed booklet includes a foreword by none other than Tom Waits. "All are contained here: tragic chronicles of the perils of being human. Songs that are roadside graves dug quickly with crosses made from kindling while the grief was still fresh," he writes, and he´s right on the mark. In the era they were recorded (often mere days after a certain incident took place), these songs more or less served as newspaper articles.

We´re talking about a three disc set here, all with their own theme. Disc 2 is entitled Man V Nature and covers songs about natural disasters such as floods, epidemics and tornadoes. Disc 3 is called Man V Man (And Woman, Too) and deals exclusively with murder. In this post, let´s take a look at the first disc, Man V Machine, which is all about train wrecks, crashing cars and planes, and of course sinking ships, with special attention to the Titanic disaster.

Wreck Of The Old 97 is probably the most famous of all old time disaster songs. Johnny Cash played it a lot. It´s about the crash of mail train #97, which ran off the track and fell into a ravine somewhere in Virginia back in 1903. Nine people were killed. "They were goin' down the grade makin' 90 miles an hour, when his whistle broke into a scream... He was found in the wreck with his hand on the throttle, and scalded to death by the steam."

A great lonesome whistle serves as the intro to Cliff Carlisle´s Wreck Of Number 52, which chronicles the event of a trainfull of cattle getting derailed when it struck a spike left on the track by a small boy at play. "On his deathbed Allen lay from the burns he got that day, his wife and his children by his side... Then he heard the Master call, and he left them one and all, for Allen had taken his last ride." 

Down With The Old Canoe is one of many great songs about that seemingly infallible ship hitting the fateful iceberg, and probably my favorite of them all. "They all went down to never rise no more..." The concept of calling the Titanic an old canoe alone is priceless...

Watch this space for People Take Warning! pts. 2 and 3, containing many more goodies of the Depression era. Soon!

Skillet Lickers - Wreck Of The Old 97 MP3

Cliff Carlisle - Wreck Of Number 52 MP3

Dixon Brothers - Down With The Old Canoe MP3

My Summer Live Adventures Pt. 1: Waits

Got a little catching up to do after my blogging hiatus, so here goes. Saw two great gigs this summer. First one was Tom Waits in L´ Auditori Del Forum, a rather plush concert hall with pretty good acoustics in the northern outskirts of town. Barcelona had been waiting for Waits for ages, and it showed. People were already visibly excited standing in line... Lots of beatnik hats and goatees around too.

With a minimum of stage props, a very simple lightshow and a great band which included his son Casey on drums, Waits had everybody eating out of his hands from the get-go. The ridiculous ticket prices were soon forgotten by all when Waits worked his magic in a good mix of old and new material. One of the best shows I´ve ever seen, and that´s saying something, believe me.

Many thanks to the taper of course, but the audience recording of this show doesn´t even remotely do it justice. I´ll Shoot The Moon (with Waits giving his telephone number in Spanish and a wonderful sax solo towards the end) and a particularly impressive Hold On still sound pretty cool though. Check ´em out. Great souvenirs of a night I won´t soon forget. Stay tuned for pt. 2 in this series: Dylan in Cuenca.

Tom Waits - I´ll Shoot The Moon (live Barcelona 15-7-´08) MP3

Tom Waits - Hold On (live Barcelona 15-7-´08) MP3

Fever pitch Grab Bag

Welcome to Grab Bag, that weekly roundup of songs that got a lot of airplay here over the past week. And what have we got for you this fine Friday night? Tom Waits of course, as I´ve got my tix for his July concert in Barcelona, plus a great Waits cover by the one and only Lydia Lunch. Ole Hank gets some airplay again, just because he´s the undisputed number one in my all time top ten of country artists. Saint Nick makes an appearance with a ship song, while those brilliant freakfolkers called Tunng sing a song of the sea. For all you blues lovers out there we take a look at the magnificent Skip James Today! album. And good news for the footy haters among you: the Speedtwins provide a fitting soundtrack to the upcoming European Championships madness... I probably won´t be posting here as much as I´d like to in the coming week, as we´ve got friends coming over and there´s loads and loads of football matches to be watched. Fever pitch! Bring it on.

They may have been way expensive, but I´m still very excited that I´ve got tickets to see Tom Waits here this July. So let´s celebrate with a great Waits cover by no wave godmother Lydia Lunch. She makes the song her own almost effortlessly, like Tom wrote it especially for her. And those trademark semi-bored vocals crack me up every time. Find it on the tribute album New Coat Of Paint - The Songs Of Tom Waits (Manifesto ´01). "Well this stuff will probably kill you, let's do another line, what you say you meet me down on Heartattack and Vine..." And here´s the goateed master himself, live in Stockholm back in ´99. "See that little Jersey girl in the see-through top, with the peddle pushers sucking on a soda pop, well I bet she's still a virgin but it's only twenty-five 'til nine, you can see a million of 'em on Heartattack and Vine."

Lydia Lunch (featuring Nels Cline) - Heartattack And Vine MP3

Tom Waits - Heartattack And Vine (live in Stockholm 14-7-´99) MP3

Over at the very interesting Star Maker Machine blog, this week´s theme is ´boats´. Check it out, as the ever growing army of contributors has posted a lot of interesting songs with a nautical flavour there. And here´s one more, with a solemn Nick Cave advising you to burn your bridges and let your hair hang down on this impressive single (Mute ´90). Next week´s theme on Starmaker is ´advice´ by the way, featuring songs that tell you what to do, or what not to. Can´t wait what everybody will come up with...

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Ship Song MP3

"Bring me a song of the sea, sing me a song of the sea." Let´s stay in the briny for a bit longer with Tunng, purveyors of fine freakfolk since 2005. A gorgeous melody, with just enough electronica and samples to keep things interesting. Everybody even remotely attracted to the genre should buy their debut album This Is... Tunng (Static Caravan ´05) immediately. And as a bonus track, here´s the equally impressive Wolves by Tunng side project The Accidental. Find it on the recently released There Were Wolves (Full Time Hobby ´08).

Tunng - Song Of The Sea MP3

The Accidental - Wolves MP3

Bluestime now. Skip James made his most legendary recordings back in the early thirties. Amazing stuff, but the sound quality is hard to handle for some. That´s no problem with the best album James recorded after his rediscovery by blues scholars in the sixties. Skip James Today! (Vanguard ´65) is one of these records I can listen to almost every day. What a voice! Most tracks find Skip on guitar, like the exquisite Cypress Grove. "I will drink muddy water, I'll sleep in a hollow log, before I stay up here, honey, treated like a dog." But seated behind the piano - as on How Long for instance - the results are just as fine.

Skip James - Cypress Grove MP3

Skip James - How Long MP3

If you haven´t done so already, please submit your votes over at the Setting The Woods On Fire blog. The Motor City cowboy who runs the place is on a blogging hiatus at the moment, but in the meantime he´s desperate to know your favorite country artists. Johnny Cash is currently in the lead, with Hank Williams hot on his heels. Now I love the man in black of course, but I maintain that the title should go the the father of them all: ole Hank. Here´s my all time favorite Hank Williams song, Weary Blues From Waitin´. "Oh sweet mama, please come home..." Sadness incarnate. Find it on 40 Greatest Hits (PolyGram).

Hank Williams - Weary Blues From Waitin´ MP3

Tension mounts here as it´s only three days until Holland takes on Italy, the current champion of the world, in the European Championships. Its´gonna be a tough one, but I´ve got plenty confidence in the lads. Forza Olanda! For those of you who are not into the beautiful game - hey, nobody´s perfect - here´s an anti-footy song for you. All together now: "We... hate... football!" The Speedtwins were one of the first Dutch punk bands around, and this song is actually directed at the Argentinian junta that organised the ´78 World Cup. Find it on the exemplary compilation I´m Sure We´re Gonna Make It (Epitaph ´96, sadly out of print).

Speedtwins - Football Song MP3

Bo (dead) and Tom (expensive)

I just learned that Bo Diddley died today of heart failure. Diddley was a groundbreaking genius of rock & roll who had that exciting jungle beat down pat... I´ll miss him. "Tombstone hand and a graveyard mind, just 22 and I don´t mind dying..." Bo was 79. Find Who Do You Love, definitely my favorite Bo Diddley song, on the definitive Bo Diddley: The Chess Box (Chess records).

Unaware of Bo´s fate, I spent hours and hours on the phone earlier today trying to buy 2 tickets for Tom Waits´ Glitter And Doom tour. No online ticket sale here in the fair city of Barcelona, and the ticketing agency didn´t provide any pricing or floor plan details on their site either. Waits´ European tour will be subject to new anti-scalper plans, thus attempting to ensure that every fan will pay only face value (plus normal service and handling fees) for the tickets. Tickets are limited to two per person with the purchaser’s name – and name of their plus one – printed on the ticket. Ticket-holders need photo ID corresponding to the names on the tickets to gain access to the venues.

Good to see such an initiative Tom, but with prices being this high, who needs scalpers? When I finally got through to an employee I asked for the best available seats, as you don´t want to be up in the nosebleeds. I guess our seats are fine now, but we had to pay a whopping 276 Euro ($428) for the pair. To my knowledge, champagne, caviar and other delights are not included. Hey, I know nobody forced me, but still... Dude, that´s a lot of money. You better be good Tom my man...

The live MP3´s below were recorded in The Hague on July 21, 1999, the last time me and the missus saw Mr. Waits in concert. It was a truly great show. The price? 120 Euro for two tix. Got the inflation blues...

Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love MP3

Tom Waits - Cemetery Polka (live in The Hague 21-7-´99) MP3

Tom Waits - Invitation To The Blues (live in The Hague 21-7-´99) MP3

Children of the American bop night

The 12th of March happens to be both the day jazz innovator Charlie Parker died (in ´55) and the day beat writer and Parker fan Jack Kerouac was born (in ´22). Now I could go on and on here about Parker´s pioneering work on the saxophone, or analyse the way Kerouac´s prose style was influenced by bop rhythms, but that´s all been done before. So here´s a a fitting fragment from Kerouac´s magnum opus On The Road for you instead, followed by some of my fave Parker tunes, Kerouac reading some great prose, and Tom Waits and Willie Alexander paying homage to the father of beats. Go Jack, go.

"Once there was Louis Armstrong blowing his beautiful top in the muds of New Orleans; before him the mad musicians who had paraded on official days and broke up their Sousa marches into ragtime. Then there was swing, and Roy Eldridge, vigorous and virile, blasting the horn for everything it had in waves of power and logic and subtlety--leaning to it with glittering eyes and a lovely smile and sending it out broadcast to rock the jazz world. Then had come Charlie Parker, a kid in his mother's woodshed in Kansas City, blowing his taped-up alto among the logs, practicing on rainy days, coming out to watch the old swinging Basie and Benny Moten band that had Hot Lips Page and the rest - Charlie Parker leaving home and coming to Harlem, and meeting mad Thelonius Monk and madder Gillespie - Charlie Parker in his early days when he was flipped and walked around in a circle while playing. Somewhat younger than Lester Young, also from KC, that gloomy, saintly goof in whom the history of jazz was wrapped; for when he held his horn high and horizontal from his mouth he blew the greatest; and as his hair grew longer and he got lazier and stretched-out, his horn came down halfway; till it finally fell all the way and today as he wears his thick-soled shoes so that he can't feel the sidewalks of life his horn is held weakly against his chest, and he blows cool and easy getout phrases. Here were the children of the American bop night."

Charlie Parker - Yardbird Suite MP3

Charlie Parker - Parker´s Mood MP3

Charlie Parker - Confirmation MP3

Jack Kerouac - San Francisco Scene (The Beat Generation) MP3

Tom Waits - Jack & Neil/California, Here I Come MP3

Willie Alexander - Kerouac MP3