Tom Waits

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Tom Waits | Bad As Me

Anti (2011)
"Roll my vertebrae out like dice/Let my skull be a home for the mice/Let me bleach like the bones on a beach/I'll be hard like a pit from a peach," Tom Waits growls and spits, cheeky and sibilant, on "Satisfied," the ideological linchpin of his latest studio album.
By ZETH LUNDY | October 25, 2011

Astronautalis at SPACE Gallery, March 3

Music seen
Astronautalis's latest show at SPACE Gallery in Portland was a serious love fest — possibly even more than usual because Astronautalis tapped some local talent for his touring band.
By AMANDA PLEAU | March 09, 2011

Rick Berlin | Paper Airplane

Hi-N-Dry
Hi-N-Dry
By JON GARELICK | October 12, 2010

Person and persona

For John Shade, it’s all in the text
Folksie newcomer John Shade says that his songs are focused on identity and anonymity, but there’s also what sounds like an unraveling personal economy lurking beneath: characters steal purses, check classifieds, go it alone with “no safety net,” and generally feel like bums.
By MATT PARISH | May 04, 2010

Amazing grace

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival carries on
The morning after I get back from the 41st annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, an oil executive is on the radio: “We’re throwing everything we have at it.” Meaning the exploded BP-leased well in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
By JON GARELICK | May 04, 2010

Netsky notes

The KCB's main man talks Klezmer
Hankus Netsky founded the Klezmer Conservatory Band 30 years ago at New England Conservatory and sparked an American klezmer revival that continues to this day.
By JON GARELICK | February 25, 2010

Jew note

First Annual Boston Jewish Music Festival, plus the Klezmatics
Defining "Jewish" music is pretty much a fool's task — not much easier than defining jazz.
By JON GARELICK | February 25, 2010

Old-time bangers

The Carolina Chocolate Drops hit the red zone
The one element needed when revitalizing a neglected canon? Verve. Ever since the Carolina Chocolate Drops hit the trad-acoustic scene a few years ago, they've kept this notion front and center.
By JIM MACNIE | January 19, 2010

The Big Hurt: The decade ahead

Music predictions for the pubescent millennium
As a new decade dawns, it's time to cast a curious eye toward the future.
By DAVID THORPE | January 12, 2010

Review: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Ledger-demain: Gilliam leaves nothing to the Imaginarium
Few filmmakers have suffered from the life-imitates-art phenomenon as has Terry Gilliam.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 11, 2010

Tom Waits | Glitter and Doom Live

Anti- (2009)
Arriving five years after his last release of new material, and two after the three-disc Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards box of outtakes and oddities, this live set culled from assorted 2008 gigs could be seen as a time marker.
By JEFF TAMARKIN | November 17, 2009

Drear leaders

The Black Heart Procession stick to the low road
On the Black Heart Procession’s first visit to Boston, back in ’98, the duo hunched on chairs at the Middle East downstairs surrounded by equipment — keyboards, guitars, a musical saw, an array of percussion.
By MATT PARISH | October 27, 2009

Stars aligned

Cult heroes and superstars dot the region's fall concert calendar
The days are growing shorter, the magazines are (well, barely) getting larger and meatier, and the first batch of cider doughnuts is on the way real soon: all sure signs of autumn, as is the bountiful crop of prestigious concerts coming our way this season.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | September 16, 2009

Hail, Deer Tick!

The Providence rockers are poised for a breakthrough with Born On Flag Day
Heady days for Deer Tick.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 17, 2009

Revival of the fittest

The deep, dark Americana of the Low Anthem
While we all snoozed on eggnog during the 2007 holidays, Jeff Prystowsky and the rest of the Low Anthem were shacked up in a rickety old house on Block Island, a deserted little hamlet full of empty summer cottages off the coast of Rhode Island.
By MATT PARISH | June 08, 2009

Interview: Roberto Benigni

TuttoDante, Benigni's one-man show
"Dante is talking to everybody, not just in the Middle Ages."
By JIM SULLIVAN | June 03, 2009

Into the darkness

Riding shotgun on Route .44's lonesome highway
The new release from Route .44, This is My America (Blue Radio Records), provides further insight into lead singer Ian "Lefty" Lacombe's affinity for the dark side, as the enigmatic southpaw guitarist delves even deeper than on the acclaimed 2'07 debut, Worthless Lessons .
By CHRIS CONTI | May 05, 2009

Modern vintage

Lake Street Dive and Miss Tess go their own ways
Boston bands Lake Street Dive and Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade are different, but with a lot in common.
By JON GARELICK | April 08, 2009

Holy rollers

The Blind Boys of Alabama and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
The double bill of the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at Symphony Hall on Friday is a match made in New Orleans.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | March 24, 2009

Streaming

Bad Touch's Magic flow; plus Patricia Barber
It's standard operating procedure these days for young jazz bands to mix the free and the formal.
By JON GARELICK | February 27, 2009

N.A.S.A. | The Spirit of Apollo

Anti- (2009)
I could fill up my allotted space by simply listing the plethora of cameos, not to mention incongruous match-ups, stuffed within this Benetton ad of a debut by Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegan, a/k/a N.A.S.A.
By ZETH LUNDY | February 18, 2009

Griot act

Malian performer Rokia Traoré breaks through with Tchamantché
Some albums are extraordinary because they capture their time. Others are great because they transcend it.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | February 12, 2009

Splendid sludgefest

Six Star General soars on Spaceship to Planet Cookie
Six Star General soars on Spaceship to Planet Cookie
By CHRIS CONTI | December 23, 2008

Insides out

The projective folk of Mr. Sister
The everyday interaction with animals other than domestic pets has become a whimsical thing of the past. Which leaves those musicians who still write numbers with furry protagonists in a bit of a throwback situation, their songs almost instant period pieces.
By MATT PARISH | December 05, 2008

The Big Hurt: The YouTube anime mystery

What the hell is wrong with the Internet? Thorpe utterly fails to investigate . . .
YouTube is now so shockingly complete in its catalogue of illegally uploaded music that it's like a cheap jukebox that plays every song, ever.
By DAVID THORPE | December 02, 2008

Wandering star

Jolie Holland’s got demons on her trail
Cleaning the kitchen of her Brooklyn apartment a few weeks ago — shortly before hitting the road in support of her fourth full-length, The Living and the Dead (Anti-) — singer-songwriter Jolie Holland was struck by an idea for her fifth album.
By MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG | October 28, 2008

Back to the future

Duke Robillard unveils Sunny and Her Joy Boys
Since leaving Roomful of Blues, the vintage guitar hero Duke Robillard has moved forward by reaching back into the annals of American blues, swing, jazz, and R&B and by doing so, he’s told a pretty incredible story.
By BOB GULLA | October 22, 2008

Blown up

Shoney Lamar proves there’s life after Florida
Lamar’s voice both ravages and exults in the past 10 years of the Pained Male Pop Singer.
By MATT PARISH | October 08, 2008

Let the rabble eat cake

The economy is in shambles, and McCain doesn’t get it
Isn't it comforting to know that Dubya II McCain’s top economic advisors are Phil Gramm and Carly Fiorina?
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | September 24, 2008

Interview: Amanda Palmer

At home with the Dresden Doll's solo joint
So it’s the eve of the release of local sensation and Dresden Dolls vocalist/pianist Amanda Palmer’s solo debut album, and I’m sitting in her bric-a-brac-filled South End apartment drinking herbal tea.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | September 25, 2008