Pandemonium Medicine Show

Tom Waits has always refused to have his music used in commercials. He has successfully sued those who have used his music without his authorization and also successfully sued companies who used sound-alike songs or singers. Reading about these lawsuits on Wikipedia a couple of years ago I felt that he was certainly within his rights to control how his music is used but he was perhaps a bit too hardline about restricting their use. Look what "Bombastic" did for Shaggy, etc. Having enjoyed Tom's music for more than 25 years I wish more people knew his music. Commercials seemed to me to be a fine way introduce people.

A couple of weeks ago I heard Tom Waits' distinctive voice over a commercial on Hulu and immediately drew my attention because it was entirely unexpected. The commercial is a PSA for Feeding America. I now understand why Tom has chosen not to dilute the effect he gives the commercial by also shilling for Pepsi and Chrysler.

In the deep dark past there was this one commercial for Purina though. I find his intonation hilarious.

I haven't written much about my musical interests on my blog but today I have a perfect excuse. The glue has worn off the Post-It reminder note I keep pinned to my monitor with artist names on it. It's time to start a new page with new names.

I still buy all my music on CD (if it's good enough for Bill Gates, it's good enough for me) and whenever I'm struck by the "gotta buy that disc" mood I order the discs for all of the other artists I've saved up. I found out today that David Francey released a new album a few weeks ago so it's one of those "gotta get it now" times. Without further ado, here's the rest of the list in the rough order that I added them :

• Justin Rutledge
• John Southworth
• Raghu Lokanathan
• Sarah Slean
• Sam Roberts
• Lily Frost
• Geoff Berner
• Kinnie Starr

I'd link myspace pages rather than artist websites but myspace pages have no class.... Between tacky background images, animations, horrendous layout, garish colours, and "Thanks for the Add" signature blocks I just want to vomit.

And yes, they are all Canadian artists but it is not because I am biased against non-Canadians. The only music radio I listen to is CBC.ca so that does skew significantly what I'm exposed to. I happily take recommendations though. If you know any of the artists on this list and have suggestions for others I might like, speak up!

I'm also really looking forward listening to the newly released legal (!), free (!!), massive (!!!) SXSW 2007 Showcasing Artists compilation torrent. I've a lot of good listening out of the 2006 and 2005 editions.