Monday Bears: Tom Waits Live

When accumulating a list of living music legends, I tend to categorize my personal preferences to three icons; Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Tom Waits. Each are them are at the top of the pantheon of story-tellers in American music (although Cave is Australian) and have extremely lengthy and successful careers to back it up.

Waits, with his notoriously raspy voice and lyrical genius, represents the American sound better than almost anyone today. His noir tales reverberate the creepy, dark, genuine personalities that many of Wait's records, from 1985's Rain Dogs to 1999's Mule Variations, have taken on.

His most recent venture, last year's Glitter and Doom Tour, will be released as an album by Anti- Records November 24. The two-disc will feature some of Wait's classic tracks along with his onstage stories, something Waits has become more and more known for in recent years. The only conflict listening to this is for those who haven't had the privilege of seeing the California-born Waits in person.

Tom Waits - Lucky Day - MP3
Tom Waits - Live Circus - MP3