April 30, 2002

1:04 PM

The Tom Waits Streaming Event.Anti Records is streaming both of Waits' new albums in their entirety, each in turn for three days starting today, prior to their release. Is the home listening booth for whole cd's a common marketing tactic now?
posted by liam (24 comments total)

I've never heard of it before, but I'm not big on streaming audio. Rock on, though -- I'm eager for the albums.
posted by me3dia at 1:28 PM on April 30, 2002

I was all ready to get my stream on with this, but alas it's using Real. When will Real Networks die?
posted by machaus at 1:34 PM on April 30, 2002

Did Dave McKean do the artwork for Blood Money?
posted by homunculus at 1:44 PM on April 30, 2002

When will Real Networks die?

right after cockroaches go extinct...
posted by billder at 1:48 PM on April 30, 2002

I'm itchin for the new releases, even though I 've had the Alice demos for a couple of years. As far as the streaming tactic, while I may listen once or twice online, I just love having the actual CD in my collection. For some reason listening on the puter has never been quite the same for me. Probably the same reason eBooks never appealed to me.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:48 PM on April 30, 2002

Also from the ANti site:

Tom Waits has confirmed an appearence on the David Letterman Show!

The appearance is scheduled for Wednesday, May 8th, which is one day after the official street date of both of Tom's new albums "Alice" and "Blood Money." Tom will be performing music from his new album/albums, but there is no official word on exactly what track/tracks he will be performing for sure.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:51 PM on April 30, 2002

Having heard (and reviewed) both Alice and Blood Money, I heartily recommend the former. Blood Money is a return to Rain Dogs' carnival harbours, but without the salty vivacity of its predecessor. Alice on the other hand, is a gorgeous song cycle, blending love and death, mourning and madness. The best thing Waits has done since "Step Right Up". :)

"It gives you an erection, it wins the election..."
posted by Marquis at 1:58 PM on April 30, 2002

I wasn't suggesting this as an alternative to buying the cd's; this is Anti records, not a multinational, for one thing, and I was going to buy these no matter what. I just hadn't seen this promotional technique used before. They don't let me lean back in my chair with a cigarette at the Tower Records listening station.
posted by liam at 2:02 PM on April 30, 2002

I can't wait for these either, though it seems to me that the new recording of Alice doesn't quite have the darkness under the surface of the demos... it's interesting to hear the two different takes on the same material.
posted by transient at 2:03 PM on April 30, 2002

I'm gonna completely contradict Marquis. I've heard both as well, and I think the Alice that's being released totally pales in comparison of the demos, which had this sparse, lo fi feel that made them all the more beautiful. The "jazzification" of some of the tracks kills it for me. Still a good listen, though. Blood Money is great, dark piece of work. If circus music gives you the chills, the first track is great.... Misery's the river of the world... EVERYBODY ROW!

heh

oh, and homunculus, that doesnt look like mckeans work to me.
posted by atom128 at 2:26 PM on April 30, 2002

4AD streams its new releases.

listening to the new tanya donelly via 4ad prompted me to buy it faster than i would have otherwise, cause listening to it that way was so annoying.
posted by crush-onastick at 2:34 PM on April 30, 2002

does anyone know how to tweak Real so that it plays? It won't work and I so badly need to hear this. :(
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:41 PM on April 30, 2002

"Requested file not found. The link you followed may be outdated." Sorry for the blatant tech support appeal..
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:43 PM on April 30, 2002

I was all ready to get my stream on with this, but alas it's using Real. When will Real Networks die?

Not bloody likely anytime soon. But until then, get your your stream on with Stream Box VCR. I *heart* hackers.
posted by euphorb at 2:50 PM on April 30, 2002

Thanks for the link, I love that.
The title track is somewhat spoiled though because I keep expecting some fat fool to start yelling " ALICE? WHO THE FUCK IS ALICE?"
posted by Fat Buddha at 2:54 PM on April 30, 2002

The Dismemberment Plan lets you stream all of their major releases from their website. And for this I will love them forever.
posted by turaho at 2:55 PM on April 30, 2002

Marquis, with hindsight I think "Step Right Up" was about ISP sales.
posted by liam at 2:57 PM on April 30, 2002

Wow, two Tom Waits releases on the same day? It's like having Christmas twice in one year. Thanks for the info! I'm digging Alice so far. How do you get hold of the Demo tapes?
posted by Neologian at 4:22 PM on April 30, 2002

Ol'Tom....golden treacle flowing over poetic grit..... thanks liam, I needed this tonight :-)
posted by Arqa at 4:28 PM on April 30, 2002

Anti Records is one of the labels offering their artists via emusic.com. Two of the Waits tracks are up on the site and have been for at least a week. No doubt the full albums'll be there in the next week or so.

If you like music and don't subscribe to emusic, you're wasting big money. I signed up a year ago and it is easily the best music investment I've ever made. As someone who previously used to be 5 - 10 cds a week, this flat-fee/unlimited downloads service has saved me thousands.
posted by dobbs at 4:32 PM on April 30, 2002

I don't remember hearing "Fish & Bird" before; it's gorgeous. Is it new, or was it just not on the demos?
posted by transient at 4:37 PM on April 30, 2002

neologin - i got them from a friend, but im sure they're on various filesharing programs. I've seen it floating around on soulseek.
posted by atom128 at 5:23 PM on April 30, 2002

I actually know the guy that plays sax on those. I don't even like most acid-jazz (which is what the sax player does most of the time), but he's so damn good, you have to like it.

The band he's in, transmission, plays free shows every single saturday at a bar in San Francisco called "storyville". At any rate, while I i'm normally luke warm on tom waits, I'm really looking forward to both of these. Mind you, Tom Waits is a genius, I just don't happen to enjoy his particular brand of genius much - except - Jockey Full of Bourbon is one of my favorite songs ever.
posted by jaded at 7:34 PM on April 30, 2002

I don't remember hearing "Fish & Bird" before; it's gorgeous. Is it new, or was it just not on the demos?

I know there's probably noboby reading this thread anymore, but I feel compelled to make this comment...

The dominant melody in "Fish & Bird" is the theme from "Somewhere", the song from West Side Story that Waits covered on Blue Valentine, right? And the lyrical subject matter is certainly related. Just interesting, that's all.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:40 AM on May 2, 2002