After a week spent teasing his fans with cryptic messages, Tom Waits unveiled a new video for "Hell Broke Luce," a song from his 2011 album Bad as Me.
Waits had been dropping hints on his website about a big announcement coming on Aug. 7, with pictures of the singer fighting a fire with a spoon, underwater surrounded by boxy mechanical sharks and dressed as a pirate. Speculation ran that Waits was going to announce a new album or a tour (he hasn't toured in support of Bad as Me). Rolling Stone took the pirate photo as a clue and proposed a Tom Waits cruise. (I'd be into that, if anybody at Waitscorp is listening.)
But all along, it was a video. A suitably weird and dark video for a song about war, violence and what it leaves behind in a person. The video is directed by illustrator and filmmaker Matt Muhurin, and shows a man dragging his home on a rope through perilous landscapes, as predators stalk him and explosions tear the ground apart. The song itself features some heavy firepower, with none other than Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones on guitar and the Red Hot Chilipeppers' Flea on bass.
In a statement on the video, Waits said, "I think you will agree, it's uplifting and fun."
Take a look at Tom Waits' idea of uplifting fun:
So what do you think? Worth the Waits? Better than a cruise? Let us know in the comment section.
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