Tom Waits

MASSIVE ATTACK & TOM WAITS Team Up For Bone-Chilling Protest Song ‘BOOTS ON THE GROUND’

Posted on by JL

Vitalizing tunes that work faster than a stream of caffeine

16 April 2026

British trip-hop icons MASSIVE ATTACK and legendary crooner-maverick
TOM WAITS have teamed up for a collaborative politically-loaded track,
named BOOTS ON THE GROUND.

It’s a loud and clear protest song, critising today’s autocratic America.

Boots On The Ground comes with a video clip created by MA & made with work by US photo artist thefinaleye. It shows the aftermath of the recent largest public protests in American history against “ICE raids, the militarisation of domestic forces, and state authoritarianism”.

The intro of the clip starts with the text “From the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 5 2020, to recent ICE raids on migrant communities and the killing of civilians that protect them,” and moves on to, “From the brutal state repression of public protest, to the reality of American homelessness that includes nearly 33,000 military veterans” and ends by detailing those who have lost their lives to ICE and the impact of oppressive retaliation to protest.

Bone-chilling in sound and vision.

The clock is ticking.

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UNCUT Magazine – New Issue With Cover Star TOM WAITS

Posted on by JL

26 March 2026

Artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Robert Plant, Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Marianne Faithfull covered TOM WAITS and KATHLEEN BRENNAN songs over the years.

A new compilation, named Where The Willow and The Dogwood Grow will feature a total of 19 of those covers. It comes with extensive sleeve notes featuring a track-by-track commentary and will be out on May 29.

Tracklist and order info HERE.

For this occasion, UNCUT talked with famous fans such as Beck, Steve Earle, Rosanne
Cash, Lucinda Williams, about the sprawling genius of a true American original. From
boho troubadour to avant-garde alchemist.

Also in this issue: Tori Amos, Queen, Pixies, Kurt Vile, Rick Wakeman, Earth WInd & Fire,
Jack White’s, Country Joe McDonald, Gary Walker RIP, and many more.

This month’s Free CD, titled Songs In The Chest Of Love, features 15 tracks picked by Kurt Vile, including Kim Gordon, Sun Ra, Royal Trux, Steve Gun, Jessica Pratt, The Halo Benders, Red Red Meat; Vile himself and more.

You can purchase a copy of this new issue and let it be sent to your home. Info HERE.

TOM WAITS – The Genial Barfly Released His 3rd LP ‘NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER’ Today 50 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

21 October 2025

Crooner and barfly legend TOM WAITS (75 now) released his 3rd LP, titled
NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER today, 50 years ago, on 21 October 1975.

It was recorded over four sessions in July in the Los Angeles Record Plant studio
in front of a small invited audience, set up to recreate the atmosphere of a jazz club.
The album got very positive critics but didn’t score commercially well at first, as it
peaked at #164 on the Billboard 200. Over the years it went silver.

The title was inspired by Edward Hopper‘s 1942 painting Nighthawks. See here.

Jim Hughart, who played upright bass on the recordings
recalled the experience of preparing for and recording the
album:

“Preparing for this thing, we had to memorize all this stuff, ’cause Waits had nothing on paper. So ultimately, we spent four or five days in a rehearsal studio going over this stuff. And that was drudgery. But when we did actually get it all prepared and go and record, that was the fastest two days of recording I’ve ever spent in my life. It was so fun.”

Join the bar crowd.


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TOM WAITS – Legendary Barfly Crooner Released His 9th Album ‘RAINDOGS’ Today 40 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

30 September 2025

Legendary barfly crooner TOM WAITS (aged 75 now) released his
9th LP RAINDOGS on 30 September 1985, today 40 years ago.

A concept record about the urban dispossessed of New York City.
Rain Dogs is generally considered the middle album of a trilogy
that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years.

Tom Waits: “I didn’t really want to be part of a clique or a niche. But I also was
looking for my own voice, as a writer, y’know? And a world I could call my own.”

Artwork: The man on the cover looks definitely like Waits, but the photo is actually
one of a series taken by the Swedish photographer Anders Petersen at Café Lehmitz (near the Hamburg red-light street called Reeperbahn, where The Beatles used to play gigs in small clubs in the early days) in the late 1960s. The man and woman on the front sleeve are called Rose and Lilly.

Rolling Stone Magazine: “Rain Dogs insists on nosing its way
around the barrooms and back alleys Waits has so often visited
before.”

SINGLE

ALBUM


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TOM WAITS Released Two Albums – ‘BLOOD MONEY’ And ‘ALICE’ – On The Same Day 23 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from the past

7 May 2025

On 7 May 2002, today 23 years ago, the now 75-year-old
crooner legend TOM WAITS released two LPs on the same
day.

Waits: “Well, thing is, people get upset when you haven’t had a record out
in seven years, then they get upset when you put out two at the same time.
It’s like, ‘Where are my eggs?’ then ‘I didn’t order this!’ My feeling is that if it
turns out to be a success, then it was my idea, and if it’s not, then I blame it
on someone else.”

Pitchfork wrote about the two records: “Both albums are further testament
that Waits’ inner cryptkeeper is getting sharper, combining disparate instruments
with calamitous precision and conjuring worlds in which celebrities are born without
bodies and razors ‘find’ throats. The music is so expressive and confident in its
spook-ass vibe that it’s flat-out cinematic.

Waits is serving up vintage brittle fusion and somehow breaking the law of diminishing returns. Something wicked this way hams, and it ain’t afraid to be misanthropic and admit that humans are just monkeys trained to parallel park.”

– BLOOD MONEY –

It features songs that Waits wrote with songstress/producer Kathleen Brennan
for an opera Woyzeck by experimental theater stage director Robert Wilson.

#32 in the US, #21 in the UK.


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– ALICE –

It also consists of songs written by Waits and Kathleen Brennan for the opera Alice
ten years earlier. The opera was again a collaborative work with Robert Wilson.

#33 in the US, #20 in the UK.


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BIG BLASTS FROM THE PAST – 10 Classic Albums Turning 40 In 2025

Posted on by JL

Back in time

24 December 2024

Band: NEW ORDER
Album: Low Life
Their 3rd one,
#7 in the UK.

Melody Maker said: “The album boasts the most articulate sound
since The Cocteaus’ Treasure, elevating depression to ecstasy.”

STREAM

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PoguesAlbum-800

Band: THE POGUES
Album: Rum Sodomy & The Lash
2nd LP, #13 in the UK.

The album’s title is taken from a quotation attributed to Winston Churchill:
“Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.”

NME wrote: “A collection of free-ranging stuff to be sure. It’s never
sentimental, it’s rarely polite, and it’s certainly not ordinary.”

STREAM


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Artist: TOM WAITS
Album: Rain Dogs
9th LP,
#188 in the US,
#29 in the UK.

The Village Voice wrote: “Waits worked out a unique and identifiable lounge-lizard
sound that suits his status as the poet of America’s non-nine-to-fivers.”

STREAM


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Band: THE FALL
Album: This Nation’s Saving Grace
8th longplayer.

AllMusic: “This collection is ample proof of the pure confidence the group had
at this time. The Fall sound mysterious, down-to-earth, and hilarious all at the
same time.”

STREAM


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Band: THE CURE
Album: The Head On The Door
6th one, #7 in the UK.

Pitchfork: “Their most focused
pop album. A tight, terrific package.”

STREAM


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Artist: BRIAN ENO
Album: Thursday Afternoon

AllMusic: “Thursday Afternoon is an hour-long, uninterrupted ambient piece
created in Eno’s “holographic” compositional style, in which even the most brief
snippet of music is representative of the performance as a whole.”

STREAM


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Band: TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS
Album: Southern Accents
Their 6th LP,
#7 in the US.

AllMusic: “An ambitious album, attempting to incorporate touches of soul,
psychedelia, and country into a loose concept about the modern South.”

STREAM


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Band: THE CULT
Album: Love
Their second LP,
# in the UK.

AllMusic: “Considering the musical schizophrenia that would plague each
subsequent Cult release, Love just may be the band’s purest moment.”

STREAM


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JesysCandy

Band: THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
Album: Psychocandy

NME said: “A great searing citadel of beauty whose wall of noise,
once scaled, offers access to endless vistas of melody and emotion.”

STREAM


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Band: HÜSKER DÜ
Album: Flip Your Wig
4th longplayer
#1 Indie charts UK

AllMusic: “Flip Your Wig would be a remarkable record on its own terms, but the fact that it followed New Day Rising by a matter of months and Zen Arcade by just over a year is simply astonishing.”

STREAM


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