Board 8 > Reminder: October 25th is the best day of 2011 [TOM WAITS] [HARUKI MURAKAMI]

(+) Yeah! (+)

That's right. October 25th is the day Tom Waits' first studio album in seven years arrives. Bad As Me will almost certainly be a contender for album of the year, as Tom Waits is quite easily the most consistent musician of the modern era -- and that's not just my incredible bias talking, either! My love for his music aside, you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes Waits has more than a couple bad albums, and for a man with a 22 album catalogue spanning five decades, that's a remarkable accomplishment. I'd argue that he only has two bad albums (Small Change, and One From the Heart) as well as a poorly executed live album (Big Time), but I can find merit in every other release, and I'd put a half dozen of them among the greatest albums ever recorded.

If you love jazz, blues, singer-songwriters, and the dozens of other genres Waits has dabbled in over the decades, if you're interested in possibly the most versatile (in an unconventional sense) singer in music, you need to listen to a Tom Waits album. It doesn't hurt that Waits is in Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen territory as far as songwriters go, either.

Here's a press release for Bad As Me, as well as two songs from the album and a satirical listening party video:

Bad As Me is Tom Waits’ first studio album of all new music in seven years. This pivotal work refines the music that has come before and signals a new direction. Waits, in possibly the finest voice of his career, worked with a veteran team of gifted musicians and longtime co-writer/producer Kathleen Brennan. From the opening horn-fueled chug of “Chicago,” to the closing barroom chorale of “New Year’s Eve,” Bad As Me displays the full career range of Waits’ songwriting, from beautiful ballads like “Last Leaf,” to the avant cinematic soundscape of “Hell Broke Luce,” a battlefront dispatch. On tracks like “Talking at the Same Time,” Waits shows off a supple falsetto, while on blues burners like “Raised Right Men” and the gospel tinged “Satisfied” he spits, stutters and howls. Like a good boxer, these songs are lean and mean, with strong hooks and tight running times. A pervasive sense of players delighting in each other’s musical company brings a feeling of loose joy even to the album’s saddest songs.

[Listening Party]
["Bad As Me"]
["Back in the Crowd"]


...

Oh, right. Something else comes out that Tuesday, too! The latest -- and possibly greatest, given the reception in Japan upon release -- Haruki Murakami novel, 1Q84. I'd put Murakami on a very short list of world's greatest living authors, and despite his status as a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature, his prose is more than approachable. 1Q84 might not be the best place to start with Murakami given its size (I believe it nears 1000 pages), but you have plenty of time to head to a library and pick up one of his shorter novels, like Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Norwegian Wood (my favourite), Kafka on the Shore, or After Dark.

A few links on 1Q84:
http://www.omnivoracious.com/2011/10/knopf-publisher-sonny-mehta-on-.html

"Haruki Murakami is a rarity in publishing. A contemporary writer of mind-bending fiction whose remarkable ability to blur the lines between fantasy and reality have earned him a cult following, not only in his native Japan, but in every country where his books are published. He is a literary superstar."

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2011/09/05/110905fi_fiction_murakami?currentPage=1 [An excerpt, titled "Town of Cats']
http://www.amazon.com/1Q84-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0307593312/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318401490&sr=1-1 [just $16!]

get hype


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ICON:
I'm pretty serious about chocobos.

1Q84 yessir

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peace comes from within

ubisoft also contributes to this great day with the release of this 3ds killer app:



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ICON:
FUN FUN FUN FUN

time to preorder

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peace comes from within

A few more 1Q84 links because I ran out of room:

[Trailer! For a book! I love book trailers]










And the first chapter from the book. Like Murakami's page on Facebook for access:
http://www.facebook.com/harukimurakamiauthor?sk=app_111157228963798


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ICON:
FUN FUN FUN FUN

read norweigian wood earlier this year, i've been meaning to check out his other works. hyped!

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XS2 is the only good Xenosaga game - Lady Ashe

Whoa, book trailers. I didn't know these were a thing!

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peace comes from within

Check out After Dark. I'd say that novel, alongside Sputnik Sweetheart, is the closest thing to Norweigian Wood Murakami has written, though I'd rank After Dark a lot higher than Sputnik. I'm not sure how well After Dark was received, but it's one of my favourites. Really short book, too. Just over 200 pages.


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ICON:
#Kanyeshrug

For not mentioning Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in your list of Murakami novels we can no longer be friends

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I'm too tired to drive anywhere, anyway, right now, do you care if I praise Black Turtle?
Call me numbers.

Wind-Up Bird Chronicle there's one that I need to read. I was talking to Mumei about that recently, gotta do that.

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peace comes from within

From: ZFS | #007
Whoa, book trailers. I didn't know these were a thing!

Yep. The first time I'd heard of them was for the release of Londonstani in 2005 or 2006. Really cool book.

From: dragon22391 | #009
For not mentioning Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in your list of Murakami novels we can no longer be friends

From: the icon ownz all | #001
but you have plenty of time to head to a library and pick up one of his shorter novels

Wind-Up Bird is many things, but short is not one of them!


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ICON:
FUN FUN FUN FUN

Stoked on 1Q84, but I HATE hardcovers. Is it being released as a softcover in October also?

Nope. Next year. You can pick up the Kindle edition for your favourite tablet, though.


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ICON:
When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set Bidoof on fire.

Also BF3 comes out

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_foolmo_
mobile computer

Tom Waits Song of the Day: "Innocent When You Dream, from Frank's Wild Years


Murakami quote of the day
“I dream. Sometimes I think that's the only right thing to do.”
- Sputnik Sweetheart


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ICON:
Yeezy taught me.

Tom Waits Song of the Day: "Innocent When You Dream, from Frank's Wild Years


Murakami quote of the day
“I dream. Sometimes I think that's the only right thing to do.”
- Sputnik Sweetheart


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ICON:
Yeezy taught me.