Music on TV - Week of 07.09.12: Frank Ocean, Tom Waits

Frank Ocean makes his solo network television premiere on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Monday.

Whether it was intended or not, the R&B phenom Frank Ocean has stirred up a lot of interest in his proper solo debut, Channel Orange (due to drop July 17). After some rumors surfaced that one of the album's songs referenced a male lover, Ocean took to his Tumblr on July 4th, posting a text edit of a 'thank you' seemingly written for back pages of the album's contents. In it, he doesn't use the word 'gay' or 'bi' but instead tells a story of love -- his first love, between him and another man. (It's a beautiful piece that should be read, if you haven't.)

Despite coming two days after Anderson Cooper's coming out email, and being on a holiday, the note still quickly spread via twitter and sent shock waves through the music community -- especially through a historically homophobic hip-hop community. Ocean's solo joints aren't really hip-hop, but he's linked to the scene having been part of LA's Odd Future (with Tyler the Creator, who's taken flack in the past for hombophobic lyrics) and having lent his vocal talents to the Watch the Throne Jay-Z and Kanye West collaboration. And they all have his back, which is something. It was just two days prior that folks were saying "I can't wait for a time when it's no big deal for someone to come out" with regards to Anderson Cooper's (non)revelation. But with Ocean, I think it's important to remember that it kind of still needs to be a big deal.
Frank Ocean makes his network television solo debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, performing the song that outed him, "Bad Religion," with The Roots and a string section backing him. In the meantime, here's the advance single "Sweet Life."


Elsewhere, it's rare that Tom Waits makes an appearance, let alone two, but this week he does (Letterman on Monday, Fallon on Tuesday). Of note is who Waits has tagging along with him. There's his son, Casey, on drums; former Canned Heat bassist Larry Taylor; Los Lobos guitarist David Hidalgo; former Bob Dylan keyboardist Augie Meyers; and the son of Muddy Waters (Big Bill Morganfield) on guitar.

Picks for the week
Monday, July 9
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Marina and the Diamonds
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Tom Waits
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Kimbra
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Frank Ocean, Robin Zander
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Laura Marling (REPEAT)
TBS: Conan: Cake (REPEAT)
Tuesday, July 10
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: The Dirty Heads
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Buddy Guy
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: B.o.B.
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: James Murphy, Doug E. Fresh
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Tennis (REPEAT)
TBS: Conan: Glenn Frey
Wednesday, July 11
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Serj Tankian
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Zac Brown Band
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Tom Waits
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Young the Giant (REPEAT)
TBS: Conan: Glenn Frey
TBS: Conan: Young Jeezy featuring Ne-Yo (REPEAT)
Thursday, July 12
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Loudon Wainwright III
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Cloud Nothings
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: The Horrors (REPEAT)
TBS: Conan: Mona (REPEAT)
Friday, June 22
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Nicki Minaj
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Joe Jackson
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Dr Dog (REPEAT)
Saturday, July 13
BBCAMERICA: The Graham Norton Show: Rufus Wainwright

Now Downloading: New Releases - 10.25.11: Tom Waits, Deer Tick

Next week will mark the seventh anniversary of this blog, so it's fitting that Tom Waits is releasing his first proper full length our time span. We can only hope the blog has aged as well as the 61-year old Waits in that time. Elsewhere, there are new releases from Deer Tick, Justice, Phantogram, Surfer Blood, Comet Gain, Dirty Projectors + Bjork, Peggy Sue, Gary Numan, Kathryn Calder, The Bevis Frond, Brian Wilson, The Devil Makes Three, The Bridge School Concerts 25th Anniversary Edition and a Christmas album from She & Him.


Playlist: New Releases 10.25.11

---

Tom Waits - Bad as Me
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

It's been seven long years since we last had a proper full length from Tom Waits, and it feels as though we've had a full circle of frustration since 2004's Real Gone, and while Waits is rarely overt about his political frustrations in his songs, the Occupy Wall Street protests feels in concert with another Waits album. It's the whistling by the graveyard, nothing but lint in the pockets, junkyard hustling bag of bones sound of the unemployed, and Waits owns it. Bad as Me is the carnival barker at his best, that is to say, much like he has been since 1983's Swordfishtrombones, when Waits set the template for most of what has followed in his catalog. So if there's a critique to be had here, it's that perhaps that since Waits tread much of the same ground, it's probably necessary that there are these gaps between albums, for even though the 61-year old Waits' has never been sharper, one would assume you can only find salvageable treasures in the junkyard so many times. What we have here is priceless, though, so let's enjoy it before Waits disappears for another 6-7 years digging up more.

---

Deer Tick - Divine Providence
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Singer/songwriter John McCauley has always threatened to release an album like this, as witnessed by his Nirvana cover sets under the moniker Deervana, and initially, Divine Providence feels like it delivers. But this Deer Tick release is kind of like that friend you sometimes go drinking with and initially wonder why you don't hang out more, only to remember as the evening goes on, that this is no friend, but more an agent of chaos, driven to drink and pull everyone into his need to prove his cool by "fucking things up." Inevitably there are regrets long before blacking out, and when morning is punching you in the face, make sure to write it down like a sticky note in Memento -- don't get sucked up again by this "fucking douchebag."

Free AOL Album Stream

---

More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
Justice - Audio Video Disco
Surfer Blood - Tarot Classics EP / Free AOL Album Stream
Phantogram - Nightlife EP / "Don't Move" [mp3]
Comet Gain - Howl Of The Lonely Crowd
Dirty Projectors + Bjork - Mount Wittenberg Orca
Peggy Sue - Acrobats / Free AOL Album Stream / "Cut My Teeth" [mp3]
She & Him - A Very She & Him Christmas
Gary Numan - Dead Son Rising
Kathryn Calder - Bright and Vivid
The Bevis Frond - The Leaving Of London
Brian Wilson - In the Key of Disney / "You've Got a Friend"
The Devil Makes Three - Stomp and Bash / Free AOL Album Stream
The Juan Maclean - Everybody Get Close
The Beets - Let the Poison Out
Gringo Star - Count Yer Lucky Stars / Free AOL Album Stream
Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto
Kelly Clarkson - Stronger / Free AOL Album Stream
The Bridge School Concerts 25th Anniversary Edition
Like Crazy - Music From the Motion Picture
Strange Boys - Live Music / "Me and You" [mp3]
A Classic Education - Call it Blazing
Skinny Puppy - hanDover / Free AOL Album Stream
Paul Simon - Songwriter

Box Set
Howlin' Wolf - Smokestack Lightning / The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960

Reissues
Paul Simon - One-Trick Pony (2011 Remaster)
Paul Simon - Hearts and Bones (2011 Remaster)
Paul Simon - Graceland (2011 Remaster)
Paul Simon - The Rhythm of the Saints (2011 Remaster)
Dntel - Life is Full of Possibilities (Deluxe) / Free AOL Album Stream / "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" [mp3]

tags: music, album review, tom waits, deer tick, indie rock, new releases

Now Downloading: New Releases 11.24.09

Another week, another short list of new releases filled primarily with gift-giving in mind. Wading through the wasteland of late year releases can bring a few plums, and this week sees Tom Waits' third live disc and a special reissue of a Drake fave from '94 (Jawbox). Elsewhere there's a new one from Tahiti 80, a compilation from Daptone Records and a live collection from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

Playlist: New Releases 11.24.09

---

Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Tom Waits' live shows have always been an event, so it's no surprise that this live collection is so eventful. Casual fans will no doubt be dumbfounded by the lack of songs they recognize, but this collection more than captures the essence of last year's carny-barker-as-tour that Waits put on. Bonus second disc is an edited together collection of the best of Waits' between songs banter. Plenty of highs and lows that sound much better after a cocktail or two.

---

Jaw Box - For Your Own Savory Sweetheart (2009)
Stream / Purchase

DC's Jawbox put out several great albums on Dischord before jumping to the majors, a move which garnered them more than a few 'sellout' cries. But their major label debut was anything but selling out, instead an uncompromising and fiery statement. It's been out of print for some time, so it's reissue is a welcome affair. More than back in print, though, For Your Own Special Sweetheart gets packaged up with some great b-sides and even a sharp new cover. But that's not all. Singer/guitarist J. Robbins always lamented that the album was missing a little bottom end, so super-producer Bob Weston was brought in to 'lower the boom,' as it were, and the result is amazing. FYOSS had plenty of oomph before, but now it hits even harder. And that's saying something. The album is released today, but Jawbox will be celebrating it in a couple weeks, with a special appearance on The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon. Can't wait to hear them rip through "Savory"...

Free AOL album stream

---

More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
Tahiti 80 - Activity Center
Daptone Gold
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - The Live Anthology
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - The 'One' EP
Brett Anderson - The Slow Attack
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - The 'One' EP
Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
The Princess and the Frog OST
Miles Davis - The Complete Columbia Album Collection / Free AOL Album Stream

tags: music, album review, tom waits, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody

Catching up with The Wire: Season 4

These past few days felt like I was back in school cramming for a test, having to drop 13 hours in just a couple of days. Fitting, though, in that the fourth season of The Wire is all about education. The schools, the corners, the mayor's office -- hell, even a Home Depot knock off educates our fave chick hitter Snoop.

True dat.


The real stars of this fourth season are the eighth graders from Tilghman Middle School, as we get a look at how the No Child Left Behind program leaves so many children behind. The characters Namond, Michael, Randy and Dukie are all at a critical point in their lives where they either will either move on to high school or make their way on 'the corner,' and it's through their eyes -- and the eyes of cops-turned-teachers Prez and Bunny -- that we see how schools have been forced to turn away from reaching kids and instead teaching 'the test.' Co-creator Ed Burns was a detective who moved on to become a teacher, and it's his experience that is mined for this season -- a story that's both eye-opening and heartbreaking.

To emphasize the story, The Wire turned to a collective of 14-year olds (DoMaJe) to perform Tom Waits' "Way Down in the Hole," and it works beautifully, especially juxtaposed against the aged veterans who sing the other season's versions (The Blind Boys of Alabama, Waits, The Neville Brothers, and this coming season's by Steve Earle). All these versions appear on a new soundtrack to be released this coming Tuesday (January 8,) entitled ...and all the pieces matter, Five Years of Music from 'The Wire'. This is also the first season that music from Baltimore started to become more front and center. Dirty Hartz, Mullyman, Diablo and DJ Technics are just a handful of the 'Bodymore Murderland' artists featured in the season, and a second soundtrack highlighting them is also coming out next week, called Beyond Hamsterdam, Baltimore Tracks from The Wire, a reference both to season three and Darkroom Productions' popular Hamsterdam Mixtape.

As the seasons have progressed in The Wire, the breadth and width of the music choices has grown to include Latin and Carnival Funk from New Orleans. The addition of Latin music makes sense due to the influx of Latinos in B'More's population, but the New Orleans tracks (The Meters, The Wild Magnolias, Raymond Winnfield) initially seemed odd. However, if there's a sister city to B'More, it's probably The Big Easy, with it's own brand of urban decay. It also might be serving as a precursor to David Simon's next project which reportedly will take place in New Orleans. Meanwhile, the final episode's montage is set to Paul Weller's take on the voodoo classic "I Walk On Gilded Splinters," a song made famous by New Orleans' Dr. John, and containing the refrain, Here I go, now / 'Til I murder, 'til I'm dead. It suggests a chilling future for young Michael.

Playlist: The Wire - Season 4
Here's a sampling of some of the 75 tracks from the playlist/season (full tracklisting here)
"Way Down in the Hole" - DoMaJe - Season 4 theme song
"Survival Of The Fittest" - Mobb Deep - Ep4.01
"Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)" - Parliament - Ep4.01
"Ring Of Fire" - Johnny Cash - Ep4.02
"Why Didn't You Call Me" - Macy Gray - Ep4.03
"Smoke My Peace Pipe (Smoke It Right)" - The Wild Magnolias - Ep4.04
"Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" - Deacon John - Ep4.04
"Cissy Strut" - The Meters - Ep4.04
"Another One Bites The Dust" - Clint Eastwood & General Saint - Ep4.05
"Back Stabbers" - The O'Jays - Ep4.05
"Move On Up" - Curtis Mayfield - Ep4.06
"We Are Family" - Sister Sledge - Ep4.06
"Dance My Pain Away" - Rod Lee - Ep4.07
"The Body Of An American" - The Pogues - Ep4.08
"B.O.B." - Outkast - Ep4.08
"I Cover the Waterfront" - Billie Holiday - Ep4.09
"Lord Give Me A Sign" - DMX - Ep4.09
"Got To Get You Off My Mind" - Solomon Burke - Ep4.10
"Carta Del Hijo Preso" - K'luba - Ep4.11
"Hey Pocky A-Way" - The Meters - Ep4.11
"Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It" - Dem Franchize Boyz - Ep4.11
"Things Could Be Better" - Raymond Winnfield - Ep4.12
"I Walk On Gilded Splinters" - Paul Weller - Ep4.13
HBO's Scene and track information

More: As always, the season 4 recap video is good for a refresher, but I think my favorite is a specific Chris and Snoop scene. When they're hired to take out New Yorkers encroaching on East Baltimore corners, they come up with a way of distinguishing their targets from the B'More slingers: Ask them about Baltimore Club music. Seems if you don't have some education on Young Leek's "Jiggle It," then you'd better run. "Where's your Yankee pride now?" asks Snoop later on to a couple corpses.

Previously: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3

Catching up with The Wire: Season 2

Ain't never gonna be what it was. - Little Big Roy

The Wire's second season makes a point right off to let you know that the same story will not be told, as the setting moves from the dealers on the street to the longshoremen on the docks. David Simon has said part of this reason for this shift is they "were very conscious of the fact that some white viewers may have felt a little bit smug about (the first season's criminals)."

By moving to the docks, they're not only able to show that the drug trade has crossed racial borders in Baltimore, but show some of the mechanisms that allow drugs into our country, along with telling telling the story of the slow death of blue collar work in America. The Barksdale story is still part of the mix -- thankfully, as there's still so much to say on that front -- but it's relegated to the background for the most part.

The story on the docks is actually an international affair, with Polish, Armenian, Israeli, Ukranian and Greek all getting their piece. The character known as "The Greek," it turns out, isn't even Greek, which has me wondering... is Greek a play on his mystery? ("It's all Greek to me.") Or is it more writer George Pelecanos' Greek heritage seeping into the storyline? 'The Greek,' himself, serves as a reminder that last season's Kingpin (Avon Barksdale) isn't really a King -- we were essentially playing checkers with a chess set. 'The Greek' is the highest that we see, and even he isn't a King on the drug trade's chess board. 'The game' is the same, but we're finding there's bigger pieces, and the board is a lot larger than the towers.

To further emphasize the change in scenery, the theme song to The Wire this time is Tom Waits' original version by "Way Down in the Hole," a drastic change from The Blind Boys of Alabama's version used in the first season, with Waits' growl serving as a nice parallel to the more 'blue collar' setting. The music in general shifts in tone as well, and I especially had to chuckle at the use of "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" in the first episode, with it's iconic opening lyrics: "There's a port, on a western bay / And it serves a hundred ships a day / Lonely sailors, pass the time away..."

Elsewhere, the late Stelios Kazantzidis has a couple key songs featured in the important penultimate episode ("Bad Dreams,") including a rare montage scene set to "Efuge Efuge." Kazantzidi was a hero to the working man in Greece, so he was an appropriate choice. The season ends with Steve Earle's "I Feel Alright," which was so right, not because of Earle's portrayal of Wayne from season one, more due to his lyrics, which wraps up the season nicely:

I'll bring you precious contraband
and ancient tales from distant lands
Of conquerors and concubines, and conjurers from darker times
Betrayal and conspiracy, sacrilege and heresy

Playlist: The Wire - Season 2
1. "Way Down in the Hole" - Tom Waits - Season 2 theme

2. "The Fall" - Blake Leyh - End credits
4. "Wooly Bully" - Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs - Ep 2.01
5. "Sixteen Tons" - The Nighthawks - Ep 2.01
6. "Search and Destroy" - The Stooges - Ep 2.01
7. "I'm Sorry" - Brenda Lee - Ep 2.01
8. "My Sharona (Live)" - The Knack - Ep 2.01
9. "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl" - Looking Glass - Ep 2.01
10."My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" - Waylon Jennings - Ep 2.01
11. "Gimme the Light" - Sean Paul - Ep 2.01
12. "The House That Jack Built" - Aretha Franklin - Ep 2.02
13. "Good-bye to Carolina" - Lyle Lovett - Ep 2.02
14. "The Cisco Kid" - War - Ep 2.03
15. "He Was Really Sayin' Somethin'" - The Velvettes - Ep 2.04
16. "I Promise to Remember" - Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers - Ep 2.04
17. "Ruler of My Heart" - Irma Thomas - Ep 2.04
18. "Magic Carpet Ride" - Steppenwolf - Ep 2.04
19. "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" - Tammy Wynette - Ep 2.04
19. "Maybe the Last Time" - James Brown - Ep 2.04
20. "Midnight at the Oasis" - Maria Muldaur - Ep 2.05
21. "Hand That Rocks the Cradle" - Akrobatik - Ep 2.05
22. "Love Child" - Diana Ross & The Supremes - Ep 2.07
23. "Transmetropolitan" - The Pogues - Ep 2.08>
24. "You Beat Me to the Punch" - Mary Wells - Ep 2.09
25. "I Walk the Line" - Johnny Cash - Ep 2.10
26. "Roadrunner" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Ep 2.10
27. "To Psomi tis Xenethias (Bread in a Foreign Land)" - Stelios Kazantzidis - Ep 2.11
28. "Efuge Efuge" - Stelios Kazantzidis - Ep 2.11
29. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Ep 2.12
30. "I Feel Alright" - Steve Earle - Ep 2.12
Compiled with help from Music Supervisor Blake Leyh's Ten Thousand Things, and Mandel Maven's Nest on The Wire

More: Of all the great scenes from season two, I think my favorite is Omar testifying in court in the case against 'Bird'.


Previously: Catching up - Season 1
Next up: Season 3

Catching Up With The Wire: Season 1

As someone who professes to watch a lot of great television, the skeleton in my closet is that I'm not up on The Wire. The countdown to the fifth and final season has begun (the premiere is on January 6,) and the one silver lining in the writers' strike is that I now have time—albeit only 18 days—to play catch up and get "in the game."

Part of what makes The Wire the best drama nobody's watching—and many argue the best drama period—is that it's less a series then a visual novel. Characters, plot and the like are slowly developed, and even the smallest detail will be a key reference ten episodes—or even two seasons—later. Episodes jut up against one another without any distinction save theme music, and knowledge that an hour has passed. Like a novel, the series requires commitment from it's audience, but as I've recently found, the viewer is rewarded generously for the little extra effort. All that makes watching it on DVD actually the preferable way to experience it—providing you have the patience to wait for the next season's release.

The seasons are broken up thematically letting the viewers inside the institutions that are both affected by and help nudge along the slow decay of urban Baltimore, the city where co-creator David Simon was a police reporter for The Baltimore Sun. Seasons are broken down as follows: One - The Dealers/The Projects, Two - The Working Class/The Docks, Three - Politics, Four - Education/The Schools, Five - The Media. Season one's investigation focuses on Avon Barksdale and his West side crew, and, thanks to the ego and mouth of Detective McNulty (Dominic West,) the formation of a special task force to tackle it.

The opening and closing scenes that bookend the season say a lot about the series as a whole. In the opening, McNulty is interviewing a witness to the murder of one Snot Boogie, who was shot doing a 'snatch and run" from a weekly craps game. When McNulty finds out that SB tried to steal the pot every week, he asks "if Snot Boogie always stole the money, why'd you let him play?" The reply is revealing. "Got to. This America, man." [video] Everybody has their part in 'the game,' be you dealer, junkie, police, lawyer, judge or politician, and each plays within the arbitrary rules set up for them. And each is ultimately powerless against the will of the faulty institution that they find themselves in. Meanwhile, the final scene helps cement the notion of 'the game,' when Omar, the gay stickup man -- the lone romantic figure in the series -- saying during a robbery, "it's all in the game, yo... it's all in the game." [video]

The Wire makes of point of only using diegetic music, to keep everything grounded in realism. Because of that, it's not always easy to pick up on a lot of the music playing throughout, but music supervisor Blake Leyh, who composed the ending credits music "The Fall," has a blog that calls out some of his favorites, which I've added below. The opening theme song is "Way Down in the Hole" written by Tom Waits, and is performed The Blind Boys of Alabama (different versions are used for each season). The upcoming season uses a version by Steve Earle, who in season one plays recovering addict Wayne, which is an example of The Wire's knack for true-to-life casting.

Playlist: The Wire - Season 1
1. "Way Down in the Hole" - The Blind Boy of Alabama - Season One theme song
2. "The Fall" - Blake Leyh - End credits
3. "Use Me" - Bill Withers - Ep 1.01, first scene in 'Orlando's Gentlemen's Club'
4. "IZZO (H.O.V.A.)" - Jay-Z - Ep 1.01, Wee-Bay talks to D after he gets out of jail
5. "American Woman" - The Guess Who - Ep 1.02, Prez, Herc and Carver are drinking beer and arguing about the case
6. "Love is Strange" - Mickey & Sylvia - Ep 1.02, McNulty drinking in his car
7. "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten" - Lucinda Williams - Ep 1.03, McNulty in Rhonda's bed
8. "Down Ass Bitch" - Ja Rule - Ep 1.03, 'Orlando's Gentlemen's Club'
9. "Sugar in My Bowl" - Nina Simone - Ep 1.04, Greggs and partner on sofa
10. "Oh My God" - Spearhead - Avon's Escalade
11. "Respect the Nubians" - Positive Black Soul - Ep 1.06, D’Angelo gets dressed
12. "Wax Box Music" - Lorem Ipsum - Ep 1.06, rare use of score backing slow motion
13. "Fleurette Africaine" - Duke Ellington - Ep 1.06
14. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - The Tokens - Ep 1.08, McNulty has his sons playing 'front and follow,' spying on Stringer
15. "Rock the Nation" - Spearhead - Ep 1.09, Avon's Escalade as he's being tailed from the game
16. "Hater Players" - Black Star (Mos Def & Talib Kweli) - Ep 1.10, radio turned up load as Orland and Greggs are led into a trap
17. "Unfriendly Game" - Masta Ace - Ep 1.11, D drives Wee-Bay to Philadelphia
18. "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" - Paul Anka - Ep 1.13, Wallace, Bodie and Poot eat chili dogs in a restaurant
19. "Step by Step" - Jesse Winchester - Ep 1.13, final montage

More: If I had to pull one scene out of this great season, the one that works without too much set up is from episode 1.04 ("Old Cases") where Detectives McNulty and Moreland (Wendell Pierce) solve a six-month old case communicating with each other using only variations of the f-word.

50 Years Later, On the Road still 'burns, burns, burns'

It was 50 years ago today that Jack Kerouac's On the Road arrived, "exploding like spiders across the stars" becoming the cornerstone of the beat generation, and the standard bearer for counterculture in the 60's and 70's. It's legacy is still felt to this day and as a testament, a film adaptation is finally in production, with the team that brought us another historical road movie - The Motorcycle Diaries - director Walter Salles and writer Jose Rivera.

There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right.
Boys and girls in America, they have such a sad time together"
"Stuck Between Stations" by The Hold Steady, referencing On the Road

Author William S. Burroughs famously said about On the Road that it "sold a trillion Levi's, a million espresso coffee machines and sent countless kids on the road." (As a flipside to that, Truman Capote said "that's not writing, that's typing.") The legend is that Kerouac wrote it in only three weeks on a long sheet of teletype paper, but the truth is it took seven years of editing to get it to publication 50 years ago. Those seven years seem like a blink of an eye when you consider that Francis Ford Coppola has been working on adapting it to film for nearly 40 years now.

"You slip, you slack, you clock me, you lack
while I'm reading On The Road by my man Jack Kerouac"
"3-Minute Rule" by Beastie Boys

Coppola has owned the movie rights to the novel longer then I've been alive (1968,) and has tried several times to get the movie into production. There have been countless screenplays, including Michael Herr (Apocalypse Now,) Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart,) Russell Banks (The Sweet Hereafter,) and even Coppola himself, with his son Roman.

The past 12 years alone have been littered with more stops and starts then hitching a ride with a mailman cross-country. In 1995, Coppola held auditions, with poet (and re-named character in the book,) Allen Ginsberg in attendance. Coppola had planned on shooting it in 16mm black & white, but couldn't get the funding to get the film off the ground. A few years later, it reappeared with Ethan Hawke and Brad Pitt attached to the lead and Coppolla again directing. By 2001, Joel Schumacher (The Phantom of the Opera) was brought in to direct the Russell Banks adaptation, and Hawke was replaced with Billy Crudup. Then the plug was pulled again in 2004, and many thought the project had just disappeared.

On the road with Kerouac/ Sheltered in his Bivouac/ On this road we'll never die...
"Holiday" by Weezer

It was right about that time that a little foreign indie film called The Motorcycle Diaries made it's debut, and Coppola was reportedly so smitten with the film from the start, that it's no surprise Schumacher and Banks were left in the cold. The parallels to On the Road were numerous. The book of The Motorcyle Diaries was a cult classic that followed revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara on the road across South America in 1952. Guevera and Kerouac are both counterculture icons from the 1960s, and both wrote books that looked difficult to adapt. Salles and Rivera's graceful adaptation of Diaries inspires hope that On the Road will actually get done this time. The film tentative release date is set for 2009, and so far the only concrete casting rumor has come in the form of Kirsten Dunst as Carolyn Cassady (Moriarty in the book.)

Jack was almost at the bottom of his md 2020
Neal was yellin' out the window tryin to buy some bennies
from a Lincoln full of mexicans whose left rear tire blowed
and the sonsobitches prit near almost ran off the road
"Jack and Neal/California Here I Come" by Tom Waits

In celebration of the book's 50th anniversary, why not listen to the man himself read from it, in the form of the album Jack Kerouac Reads On The Road. He even sings (most notably "Ain't We Got Fun" and "Come Rain or Shine.") Or check out this video of Kerouac reading from On the Road from a Steve Allen special:

Seems like an odd pairing, but Allen's piano playing actually swings, daddy-o.

tags: books, film, jack kerouac, music, the hold steady, the motorcycle diaries

Ear on TV: Week of November 27

With a new box set (Orphans) out in the stores, Tom Waits takes his gravely voice out for some face time on the boob tube, hitting both Letterman (tonight) and The Daily Show (Tuesday.) Waits is one of those rare double threat guests - you can count on him for a highly entertaining interview as well as an electric performance. Last time he visited Letterman, he famously brought pictures of artwork from a cribbing race horse, putting a new slant on the phrase "straight from the horses mouth."

Yet another talk show double-threat, the Snoop Dee-oh-double-G, hits both Leno (Tuesday) and Ellen Thursday,) in support of his latest cd, The Blue Carpet Treatment. Only drawback is having to hear both Leno and Ellen say 'fashizzle.'

Monday, November 27
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: The Hold Steady (RERUN)
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Tom Waits

Tuesday, November 28
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Decemberists
COMEDY CENTRAL: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Tom Waits
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Snoop Dogg

Wednesday, November 29
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Ciara
NBC: Late Night With Conan O'Brien: My Morning Jacket

Thursday, November 30
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Jenny Lewis
SYNDICATION: The Ellen Degeneres Show: Snoop Dogg

Friday, December 1
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Silversun Pickups
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Joseph Arthur

Saturday, , December 2
PBS: Austin City Limits: Ben Folds, Ray LaMontagne (RERUN)

tags: music, television, soundtrack, talk shows, tom waits, snoop dogg, letterman, cribbing, rhapsody

Throwing peanuts at a gorilla

What started out as a collection of non-album tracks, compilation and tribute contributions and other odds and ends somehow turned into a three-disc set featuring 30 brand new tracks (more then half the total.) Word has it Tom Waits heard what was initially assembled for Orphans and mumbled something to the affect of "mmmm... naaahhh... I don't think so." So he got to work recording some new material, as well as rerecording many of the tracks, and then tossed them into three separate piles: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards.

Album: Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
Download: "Road to Peace" , "You Can Never Hold Back Spring"

The first disc, Brawlers, is the familiar Waits of late... shuffling rock ala Mule Variations, and serves as a fine introduction into the set. About halfway through, Waits delivers his most topical and political of his career (and of any artist this year) with the song "Road to Peace," which reads like a newspaper report on the daily skirmishes in the West Bank. In it he namechecks Kissinger, Sharon, Abbas, and Bush, which is weird coming from the man who recently said the influence of political songs was "like throwing peanuts at a gorilla." A couple songs later, Waits recasts The Ramones' "The Return of Jackie and Judy" as a junkyard plea, and then turns the classic "Sea of Love" on it's ear if only for our listening pleasure.

Disc two, Bawlers, is a collection of Waits ballads and is easily the most accessible of the discs. Of particular note is his covers of Ledbetter's "Goodnight Irene" and The Ramones "Danny Says." Bawlers serves as a fine segue to Bastards as that album is where Waits' more difficult material resides. "Heigh Ho" was his contribution to the Disney compilation Stay Awake: Music From Vintage Disney Films, and is a good example of how Waits can turn an innocous song into the stuff of nightmares. Other oddities include Waits reading the nature of "Army Ants," Bukowski's poem "Nirvana," and his beat box cover of Daniel Johnston's "King Kong."

Some truly weird, wonderful stuff to be sure.

Previously:
Quick hits before I go (Live Tom Waits tracks)

tags: music, television, tom waits, indie rock, the ramones, charles bukowski, daniel johnston, rhapsody

Some quick hits before I'm away

Drake fave Tom Waits has a new box set of odds and ends coming soon (Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, 11/21) but for some reason that has nothing to do with these four new exclusive tracks getting love from AOL's newly renamed Spinner.com site (dropped the 'indie music blog' tag - good move.)

All of the tracks (three streaming, one a download) are from August performances this year, and are fairly representative of Waits' amazing live shows. Gobble 'em up turky lurkey.

Nellie McKay's Pretty Little Head finally sees it's release after getting the Extraordinary Yankee Hotel Machine Fox Trot treatment from Sony. She ends up releasing it via Spin/Art with a lot less momentum and push behind it. But she does get what Sony wouldn't give her - all 23-songs on 2xCD. It's a smorgasborg of cabaret pop and lounge-meets-hip-hop in a sunny alley that's a lot to digest, but it's in Rhapsody a week early, so you have your chance now to get a (pretty little) head start.

Album: Nellie McKay - Pretty Little Head

And finally, in the 'I've got a child and I'm going to acknowledge it' department, I'd like to throw some love out to D.C.'s Pancake Mountain program, which has had some of the finest acts in all of indie rock grace it's stage. The children's show is low-budget, but big-hearted, and a recent appearance by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins has me smiling all big and toothy:


Hey, I'm off to Mexico soon, but I've been slaving away setting up posts that will for sure appear on Film.com next week, and hopefully here too (if I get some internet time while in Zihuatanejo.)

tags: music, television, tom waits, nellie mckay, jenny lewis, pancake mountain, indie rock, rhapsody

The smartest guys have now left the room

With the sentencing Tuesday of former CEO Jeff Skilling, the book on Enron is essentially closed, but it's worth taking another look at the thought provoking documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, that revealed the dark truth of Enron's collapse and the 'New Economy.'

The documentary closely follows CEO Skilling, Chairman Kenneth Lay and CFO Andrew Fastow from the beginnings of Enron fortune through their incredible fall, and reveals that the latest wave of white collar crime was more then just a 'few bad apples.' Throughout the film, writer-director Alex Gibney utilizes music in a fascinating way - first is the use of invidual themes: Lay's theme song turns out to be Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" (yes he was, yes he was;) while Skilling gets Marilyn Manson's dark cover of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of Thise)" - playing to his greedy view of the American dream; and CFO Andrew Fastow's theme is appropriately enough Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy."

Playlist: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Gibney also reveals some of his political leanings by backing Ronald Reagan talking about the magic of the marketplace with Judy Garland singing "That Old Black Magic." Elsewhere, there are four (count them, four) songs from the great Tom Waits, including both the opening ("What's He Building?") and the closing credits ("God's Away On Business,") which, in my book, pushes this soundtrack to elite status.

tags: playlist, soundtrack, film, movie, documentary, enron, tom waits, jeff skilling, ken lay, dusty springfield, rhapsody