Re: Tom Waits Meets Matt Cook at SXSW
wanted briefly to respond to a few of Barry's comments: I seemed to be the only one I could find anywhere who'd actually seen him perform before--on the Penn campus in Philadelphia some 25 years ago, Really? Nobody saw the Big Time tour? The Waits show was the first memorable event after I moved to Montreal 11 years ago, in my first year of university. And it was rather like an omen - seeing him at an old theatre house in Outremont, a gorgeous, transcendent, hilarious show that I can still vividly recall to this day (and there ain't that many of those, altho I suppose I drank slower in those days) - that I was in the right place. I woulda assumed a lot of people saw that tour (and the subsequent movie), since it was very large-scale by Waits standards. On a more contentious note: I think this show also proves that it's generated some myths--the biggest being that Waits' extraordinary music had some drastic sea change when he shifted labels, which puts him in a sort of gravelly post-modern and hiphop mode which makes him one OK "boomer' performer for the alt. generation. Note Barry's sarcasm here. But that aside: While I agree completely with Barry that the "Asylum Years" were full of fantastic music, much of it as interesting and creative etc. as anything he's done since, it's no myth at all that Swordfishtrombones (his first Island album) was a dramatic shift. It was presaged by some of the material on Heartattack Vine and even on Blue Valentines, where there was a harder-edged blues and rock influence than anything on his previous work. But the dramatic move away from the piano as anything but an occasional (and even incidental) part of his sound, the abandonment of orchestral arrangements, the shift from songs that had identifiable stories to ones that tended towards much more pure imagery (this was more a shift in emphasis than in style overall, I agree), and *especially* his use of non-Western rhythms and avant-garde sounds and homemade instruments and further-out singing styles - all did add up to something truly new, a genre unto itself, as if 70s Waits had gone through Cronenberg's transporter (a la The Fly) with Captain Beefheart (and of course Harry Partch). And while that may have endeared him to younger fans who wouldn't have cottoned to the jazz-ballad/bebop stylings, it also turned off a lot of older fans. I remember when I was about 14 and Swordfishtrombones came out, I dropped by my local bookstore, run by a 36-ish Waits fan. He had the album, I didn't yet. He said he thought it was "totally devoid of Waitsian emotion." Damn, I thought, that's awful. Went out, bought it anyway - the cover art made it impossible to resist. Dropped the needle (wow, needle) and "Underground" - whose main sound is brake drum and clanging pipes - started up, and my head exploded. And that was the first time I really believed in a generation gap. (Although of course later I met many older fans who loved the new work, too, so perhaps I unbelieved it eventually.) All that said: Damn, I'm jealous of you SXSW bastards. I hope to hell Mule Variations is followed by a tour. I attended a listening party for it held by Epitaph here last week, and it sounds absolutely superb. CarlW.
Re: Tom Waits Meets Matt Cook at SXSW
I remember when I was running a record store there was a writer in his mid-50s named Richard who used to come in once in a while. He had been out of the music scene for quite a few years and came in occasionally to pick my brain and get musical suggestions. It was around this time that Asylum was reissuing Waits' early albums, so I suggested that he pick up the reissue of "Small Change," which has long been my favorite of the Asylum-era records. So he bought it and took off. A couple of hours later I had gone downstairs to get a soda and when I came back up my assistant manager told me that Richard had called. "No foolin'? What'd he want?" "He said 'Fucking awesome' and that he was coming right back down to buy everything else we had by Tom Waits." Sure enough, he cleaned us out an hour later. Guess he really liked "Tom Traubert's Blues." Wasted and wounded... Jon Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wollaston, Massachusetts
Re: Tom Waits Meets Matt Cook at SXSW
Carl's no doubt right that for every one I've heard dismiss the Early Waits in this nabe (such is the East Village), there probably is somebody else out there who never got past the evolution/revolution (you call it) in the music over time. I've got a strong suspicion (and find it interesting BTW) that on P2 MOST of us would probably go for both ends of Waits'material, for the simple reason that the twang interest leads us to an interest in traditional songmaking--but the at least usually experimental openness around here leaves ears open to what's come up since. As to: " the dramatic move away from the piano as anything but an occasional (and even incidental) part of his sound"... that's part of what I was referring to, Carl, in how seeing his latest incarnation live show would tend to show the continuities in his efforts over the discontinuities...In fact, Waits performed a number of post-swordfish (guess that's the password!) songs solo at the piano now, complete with patter, in breaks from the very cool band stuff--and even "The Heart of Saturday Night" cause it was, after all, Saturday Night. I know it all added up to something excellent. Anyway..I hope lots of people get a chance to see and hear this this time--especially since so many--and not just those in their early 20s--seem never to have caught them like us lucky ones did. Barry M.
Tom Waits Meets Matt Cook at SXSW
Thought that title would get your attention.. Yes--I saw Tom Waits, as did Matt Cook, Slim Chance Kelly (as he's told ya), Jim Catalano and Tony Renner..there may have been more P2ers in there some place...Mr. Roy Kasten. making a completely unexpected appearance at SXSW, offered me 40 bucks and a Bob Dylan cigarette lighter for the Waits ticket, but I don't have any Bob Dylan cigarettes, so it was no go... Rather than repeat the well-desreved raves posted..I'll offer up .some impressions and thoughts on the Waits show..which sure did become the topic of the week. The man has proven to have a tremendous cross-generational pull! I seemed to be the only one I could find anywhere who'd actually seen him perform before--on the Penn campus in Philadelphia some 25 years ago, opening for Maria Muldaur and the Benny Carter big band...and he was singing Ol' 55 and Shiver Me Timbers, with just the first two still semi-obscure albums out...Wait's self-imposed concert exile at 8 years minus a charity appearance or two is in fact now as long as Dylan's '66-'74 stretch--so I know well what it's like for fans who've come along without any chance to see him. I think this show also proves that it's generated some myths--the biggest being that Waits' extraordinary music had some drastic sea change when he shifted labels, which puts him in a sort of gravelly post-modern and hiphop mode which makes him one OK "boomer' performer for the alt. generation. Only thing is--this performance was extraordinarily LIKE what he's always done--mopey to bizarre to heartrending songs, broken up by deadpan beatnik comedy raps, and all terribly endearing and unique and rhythmic. Those who dismiss the "Asylum Years" work oughta listen again--cause it strikes me more than ever now as one continuing, growing body of work that's often brilliant. What did evolve over the years--partly cause he uses a swell band rather than sticking with the pure piano/lounge singer approach (he still did that too Saturday night)--is pay a whole lot more attention to the snippets of sounds in a line and the sound of the words rather than their conventional, literal meaning... Now he bends half way down to the floor, punches the rhythm with his lil fist till they get in the groove, and starts to go--the words are often incantations, not narratives Did I mention that in the audience I spotted The Gourds (Matt Cook, who apparently likes the Gourds somewhat, ihad just come back with them from shooting video of their appearance in the Park)..The Silos, and Alejandro Escovedo were on hand too. I'm sure there are other performers there, but it's interesting to see..isn't it... that THESE folks see something vital to attend in this Waits show..I just bet that Beck gets this guy too. I'd suggests that somebody like Smilin' Jim (known not to love those Gourds but asking what it IS with them to a fan like me) would find a way into their often amazing music--as shown on their very good new disc-- by considering that Tom Waits connection...the sounds of the words matter, as Lucinda might say, the rhythm and the blues of 'em, the bits and pieces constructed for emotional meaning and body thumping meaning--something far removed, of course, from lyrics in a good twang song. It's something else. As I was saying, I heard and saw an amazing continuity in Tom Waits show, laughs, smiles and tears...and if that goes all the way back to his first hits, as delivered by those very un-alt Eagles and Bette Midler fergodsake, so be it. ...I hope he'll take up the audience's challenge to get the heck back on tour so you can see and hear this too. Even if there's no twang content! So whooa,, that's more than enough now...more on SXSW in general when I get the chance and see what others report wiothout my help! (including being stuck outside the door of the Continental, watching James Inteveld in the downpour..just before then police showed up to break up the fire law busting crowd waiting to see Social Distortion's Mike Ness perform rockabillyI saw an electrifying Wanda Jackson with Rosie Flores, Marcia Ball and more instead, avoding the 2-hour Ness wait!) Thans to all the P2ers there for being so nice...as always. Barry M.
