Following last night’s Waits-ian finale on Letterman, it makes sense to refresh and update our old TW on TV compendium.  As mentioned earlier today, one of our favorite songwriters, performers, and interviewees is Tom Waits. With respect to the latter, his television interviews/performances are legendary, dating from the mid-70s on The Mike Douglas Show and the underrated Fernwood Tonight. This is one very talented, bright and hilarious lad. And it’s the stellar string of Letterman Show performances over the last 30+ years that best capture the humor and live performances. He’s a national treasure, plain and simple.  This was further supported last night with Waits’ final appearance on the Letterman Show.

Check out the 1976 piano performance and interview with Mike Douglas to start and then his Fernwood Tonight (The Piano Has Been Drinking) spot, and then a series of Letterman segments, and at the very bottom a Conan spot and then a stunning delivery of Tom Traubert’s Blues, and a few others to boot. There’s lots more where these came from so we’ll just keep updating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAAzhm1YBBY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gwUtEEjZJ8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU-vNpmjfsI&feature=related

Here’s part 2 to that 1983 Letterman segment. Check out his performance of On The Nickel. If you aren’t moved by this song, starting at 1:59, you simply have no soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdL-fOFNVFs&feature=related

Tom Waits on Late Night With Conan O’Brien 05.04.2007 from Anti Records on Vimeo.

And then it gets really heart-felt, and you have to Waltz with Matilda and Tom right here:

Simply put, Tom Waits is a national treasure.  He has graced us with some of the best songs ever written, is a legendary performer, and has been a storied guest on the late night TV circuit for four decads.  We’ve had coffee with he and his friends, spent New Years Eve with him (sure, with a thousand others at the Orpheum in San Francisco on 12/31/90) and caught him live on multiple occasions.  We have yet to feel under-entertained by Waits.

Such was the case last night when Waits appeared on one of the last Late Shows with David Letterman.  Waits performed a new wistful homage to Letterman entitled Take One Last Look (lyrics at bottom).  Waits introduced the new song by saying: “This one’s for you, Dave.”

As usual with Letterman, Waits also gave his now-standard interview with Letterman before performing.  Check out both below.  Très charmant.  Waits rarely performs live these days, last appearing two years ago at Neil Young’s Bridge School Concert.  If you get a chance to catch him, don’t miss it.

We will next post a refreshed and updated compendium of Waits other historic late night performances and interviews.  There goes your Friday.

“Let’s watch the sun come up in another town
Try our luck a little further down
Leave the cards on the table
Leave the bread on the plate
Put your hand on the gear-shift
put your foot off the brake.

And take one last look at the place that you are leaving
Take one last look
Oh take one last look at the place that you are leaving
Take one last look

Our bed was something that the wind can carry
The arrow points away across the waiting prairie
This car looks like it could give us a good run
Our choice to leave was a good one.

And take one last look at the place that you are leaving
Take one last look
Oh take one last place at the place that you are leaving
Take one last look

Let’s look forward to the lights that are new
The world is a ribbon of road for you
All towns have churches and tire shops
They put up speed limit signs in the eye of the cops

I love to see the wind in your hair
All we ever need, we can get anywhere

And take one last look at the place that you are leaving
Take one last look
Oh take one last place at the place that you are leaving
Take one last look”

We recently stumbled upon Brighton, England’s new pop sensation, Remi Miles.  Miles recently released his debut EP entitled Under Light Symphonies.  We are completely hooked on the title track in particular, but check out all four gems off the EP below.  The title track just managed, seemingly all by itself, to disburse the clouds outside and bring forth the sun’s rays.  Superb stuff from Remi Miles that bodes incredibly well for this new artist.

Spoon’s 2014 album, They Want My Soul, was one of the Best Albums of 2014, and the track Inside Out was one of the bests of that Best.  So much so that the band recently released a four-track EP of remixes of the song and the original demo of the song. And, in connection with his Eaux Claires Music Festival (at which Spoon will play), Justin Vernon has done the song justice by covering it well.  And now the song has been honored with its official video, which you can check out below.  The video was directed by LeBlanc + Cudmore (ALt-J, Belle & Sebastian).  In the video, time has indeed gone inside out with sepia-toned vignettes of a robbery, a heinous fight; a prowling vixen in a tawdry motel; a backup singers’ studio session; and a too-young wedding.  Most of the scenes have some unsavory flavor to them, playing into our prior theorem about the song’s lyrics.  Check the video out below and solve the visual riddle for us.

In the meantime, Spoon remains out on tour and is headed to California later this month.  We can’t wait.

It’s that time of year.  In the next month-plus the best of our athletes will head toward the California State Track and Field Championships, NCAA Championships, NAIA Championships, USA National Championships, and eventually the World Championships.  For some athletes their season/career is complete, all effort given and exploited in their exploits.  Some may have remorse (or joy) in being done.  Regardless, as Stephen Malkmus wrote:  “Carry on, it’s a marathon.”

As we’ve done in the past (HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE), we add a season-end song to the Track and Field Mixtape:  Sprinter, the title track of Torres’ brand new album that is justly receiving critical huzzahs.  May this headstrong song serve as encouragement on any and all levels.  First we sprint.  And then we run.  Choose to run.  Choose the sun.

We’ll soon have a full review of Torres’ formidable new album.  Until then, put Sprinter on repeat below.  The song’s commendable lyrics are at bottom.

“Word of Life
On severed tree
I picked it up
And took a swing

My pastor told us,
“Don’t you worry,
Even Zaccheaus
Found his glory.”

I was a sprinter then
Living to see it end

Well, pastor lost
His position
Went down
For pornography

So I found myself some
Ground to stand
Bound to be
The better man

I was a sprinter then
Living to see it end

Wound up in
A holding pattern
Circled my landing
In a lather

Unnerved, I laughed,
“I planned the snag!”
Then went down
For a dipso jag

I was a sprinter then
Dying to see it end
I was a sprinter then
Dying to see it end

There’s freedom to
And freedom from
And freedom to run
From everyone

There’s freedom to
And freedom from
And freedom to run
From everyone

Well, what I did
Is what is done
The Baptist in me
Chose to run

But if there’s still time
To choose the sun
I’ll choose the sun
I’ll choose the sun

I’ll run it back
I’ll choose the sun
I’ll run it back
To everyone

If there’s still time
I’ll choose the sun
And I’ll run it back
To everyone”

Courtney Barnett has been courting, barnstorming and netting audiences worldwide with her new album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit and tour.  Today Barnett has revealed a new, animated official video for song Dead Fox off the new album.

The video’s directors, Rory Kerr and Paul Ruttledge, had this to say about the video (and its depictions of a couple being run over–all in good fun, eh?):

“We liked how politically loaded and conversational the lyrics are. We wanted the animation to have a stylistic and organic look, hence most of the drawings were done on paper rather than digitally. To further complement the lyrics, we thought it would be funny to have the animals in the video look as cynical as possible, as if they’d had enough with how humans are treating them.”

Check it out below and pick up the fantastic new album from Barnett.

We’d seen hints of it, but last night the Jimmy Fallon Show featured a video of U2 performing (with Fallon MC-ing) in an NYC subway (initially undetected).  Edge’s underrated harmonies were, as usual, a highlight in the subway.

As you may recall, U2 was scheduled to do a week-long residency on The Tonight Show in November, but had to cancel after Bono’s horrendous cycling accident in Central Park (see the Fallon/Bono skit at bottom).  The band completely dominated last night’s show, which included studio performances of Song For Someone from their latest album, Songs of Innocence, along with Beautiful Day and Angel of Harlem with The Roots (“Go tuba!”).  Tour de force!

We know it ain’t hip, but we still love this band.

Check it all out below.

Though we’ve heard/seen them perform it before, there’s not a bad time to hear/watch First Aid Kit cover Simon & Garfunkel’s America as they did, again, on the Letterman Show last night. Heavenly. Harmonies.

As previously announced here, Sharon Van Etten will soon release a new EP entitled I Don’t Want To Let You Down.  Van Etten has now released another track from the EP, Just Like Blood.  While her frank lyrics always shatter or lift, it is her vocalese that startles with its evocative other-worldliness.  Listen below as Van Etten tells her tale in tongues and carves with blood-letting vocal lines.

We would pay good money just to hear her sing Jabberwocky (AKA any song by Cocteau Twins).  Just Like Blood is a superb addition to her outstanding discography.

I Don’t Want To Let You Down will be released on June 9th on Jagjaguwar and is available for pre-order HERE.

Don’t Want to Let You Down EP Songlist:
01. I Don’t Want to Let You Down
02. Just Like Blood
03. I Always Fall Apart
04. Pay My Debts
05. Tell Me (Live)

The serious lads that are Son Lux will be releasing their new album, Bones, on June 23rd.  To coincide with the album’s first single, Change Is Everything, the band has released the song’s video made by The Made Shop.  The video combines pointillism and string into a mesmerizing visual that meshes superbly with the shimmering song. Check it out below.

Bones is out on June 23rd on Glassnote and you can order it HERE.

Photo: Shervin Lainez