The Thunder & The Roar

Tom Waits has a new 3-CD set out called Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. This guy is the closest thing I have to a hero. 30+ years of unbelievable music, a string of brilliant performances in various high-qualitiy films and just basically being the coolest motherfucker alive. He was on The Daily Show the other night which is definitely worth downloading from iTunes. I do wish that Jon Stewart had asked more questions as opposed to gushing his admiration but in all honesty I can’t blame him for a second. He then performed a song called Day After Tomorrow. It brought tears to my eyes. Unbelievably they faded out before he was done but it was still as good as anything you’ll ever see on television. If you’re not familiar with this man’s music go buy some now. The new one is a good cross section of his different styles (one disc is ballads, one blues/rockish and the other the can’t-be-categorized stuff) but Closing Time, The Heart of Saturday Night, Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones are all good first bets too. He’s got 20-some albums and virtually all are worth the time and money. Go on and get some.