SoundsXP Message Boards - Indie, Indiepop, Nu-Folk and Alt-Country Forums

listening to my mark lannegan album the other day, i was reminded of tom waites. which then got me thinking, i don't own any tom waites at all. which at my age, is frankly shocking!

thing is, i've only heard a very small amount by him, and wouldn't know where to start. any suggestions?

It's difficult to go wrong - Rain Dogs is the one that is generally named as the one to start with though

For me Swordfishtrombones is pretty much the apogee of his "orang-utan dragging around a string of rusty tin cans" phase. But, and this may not be very cool, it's hard to do better than his recent stuff - Blood Money and Alice (the former in particular) have some terrific songs.

The advantage of the older stuff though is that you can usually pick it up for a fiver a throw.

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Pukka Pie pest

Embrace the margin
Always Changing at Retford http://sptxx.tumblr.com/
Not Changing at Retford http://sptxx2.tumblr.com/

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'Meet John Thomas' the perv said, bastard got grumpy when i refrained. That's when it all started, my obsession with grumpy pervy blokes. Never looked back really, well except when i think of Bertie, only old perv i ever really loved.

[quote="Anonymous"] shame on them, shoot the bastards! [quote]

Is that your solution to everything? Tsk tsk. Can't we all just learn to love each other...?

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Mod Supreme, Demon Headmaster

Most definately, 'Closing Time' and 'Heart of a Saturday Night' are the ones to start with, he is one of those artists who you have to listen to as they progress in order to best understand his motives... of course these two are startlingly different to his more recent albums such as 'Mule Variations', 'Alice' and 'Real Gone'.

My personal favourites remain 'Blood Money', (listen to 'Another Man's Vine', absolutely wonderful... and the influence this album has on Modest Mouse's 'the Devils Workday' is blatantly obvious) and 'Alice', but 'Heart Attack and Vine', 'Swordfishtrombone' and 'Rain Dogs' are probably the safest options as these remain the more popular of his albums.

Hmm, Rain Dogs had the effect on me of being both wholly inaccessable to my (admittedly defunct) ears and soul whilst making me shit myself at the same time... I think I get as far as "...land of nod..." before cowering like a small child underneath my speakers at the whole thing...

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Looks like Elijah Wood. Supports Liverpool. Likes Coldplay.

Westie, have you heard 'Kommeinesuzpadt' from 'Alice'?

Nope, have only heard Rain Dogs really and I don't particularly like it. I'm sure I'll love the odd track of his though...

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Looks like Elijah Wood. Supports Liverpool. Likes Coldplay.