Photographer/director Anton Corbijn and our hero Tom Waits were originally set to unleash Waits/Corbijn – Photographs 1977-2010 about a year ago, but the scheduled release date was delayed… until next month. The good news, though, is that their 220-page, 30-year spanning effort has become even more epic in the meantime: What was once described as simply a collection of portraits adorned by lyrics from the Waits songbook now includes a 48-page spread of words and images by Waits himself, in addition to around 200 Corbijn-shot portraits. In other words: Best coffee table book ever.

Check out a preview (including a link to pre-order Waits/Corbijn for the current October 29 release date) over at Corbijn’s site — where the director of forthcoming George Clooney-starring thriller The American is also peddling hardcovers on that film, Ian Curtis biopic Control, U2, and more. By the way, still no update on Corbijn documentary Shadow Play, save for the teaser trailer embedded below:

Director/hero Jim Jarmusch (shown nonchalantly sitting with Tom Waits above), has a few exciting projects in the works beyond simply curating one night’s epic lineup at this years All Tomorrow’s Parties: There’s a film, sure, starring Tilda Swinton (!), Michael Fassbender, and Mia Wasikowska (that isn’t “quite financed yet”), but this response to Pitchfork’s proverbial “what’s next?” particularly caught my eye:

I’m working on a documentary about the Stooges. It’s going to take a few years. There’s no rush on it, but it’s something that Iggy asked me to do. I’m co-writing an “opera.” It won’t be a traditional opera, but it’ll be about the inventor Nikola Tesla, with the composer Phil Klein.

Emphasis on the “Iggy” is mine, obvs, as Pop’s backing makes potential for this Stooges doc significantly greater than previous rumored or unauthorized efforts. (Not to mention that Tesla opera might give Terry Gilliam’s Faust opera a run for its money… who knows.) Either way, lots of great news from Mr. Jarmusch. In anticipation, let’s enjoy a clip of his fellow luminary Jack White giving Tesla his due in the following scene from Coffee and Cigarettes:

In celebration of MOJO Magazine’s 200th issue, the great Tom Waits has agreed to guest edit the publication, which will feature an interview with Harry Belafonte, an “exclusive encounter” between Waits and Hank Williams III, lists of Waits’ favorite songs, films, books, and one-hit wonders, and a 15-track “musical journey compiled and sequenced exclusively by the man himself. Pretty epic issue, I’d say.

The compilation disc includes songs by (Waits buddy) Bob Dylan, Howlin’ Wolf, Ray Charles, Harry Belafonte, Cliff Edwards, Big Mama Thornton, Prisonaires, and 8 others.

For more on the July issue of MOJO, go here.

Just three months after an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet featuring music by the late Jeff Buckley began picking up steam, yet another William Shakespeare play is to be accompanied by the tunes of an iconic singer/songwriter. According to their official site, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan have approved the use of their songs for an upcoming Dutch production of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

Premiering in Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam this September, theater production company Orkater have enlisted a group called the Sadists to score performances with “Misery Is The River Of The World”, “God’s Away On Business”, “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”, “I’ll Shoot The Moon”, “Underground,” “The Part You Throw Away,” and other classic songs from the Waits/Brennan oeuvre. The group will be led by musical director Vincent Van Warmerdam.

“Just like Shakespeare did,” said Van Warmerdam, “Waits and Brennan incorporate poetry, provocation, seduction and irony in their songs. Their music illustrates, mirrors and strengthens Richard’s character.”

Here are a few choice morsels from the queue before we get cooking…

• Whereas Cursive picked the absolute least likely song to cover in A.V. Club’s Undercover project, Justin Townes Earle did his middle and last name proud, and opted for Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” from Nebraska.
• Combing through Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour for Tom Waits spoken word segments is a daunting project. No worries, though, Aquarium Drunkard has Tom and Bob talking fun facts here.
• I’m sure Jimmy Fallon himself doesn’t book the musical guests on his show, but you have to give him props for hiring the person that does: The Specials performed in the U.S. for the FIRST TIME IN 30 YEARS last night. Watch them play two classic cuts from their beloved debut album at Stereogum.
• Finally, after a week or two of leaked tracks surfacing via YouTube, MP3 demos, and mysterious .zip files from LCD Soundsystem’s new album, This Is Happening, James Murphy and company are officially streaming their (final?) record on the official LCD site.

Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner of Mates of State are only in the beginning stages of prepping for their sixth LP, but fans of the husband-and-wife duo will have at least 10 carefully-chosen cover tunes to enjoy during the wait. Mates of State announced today that The Covers Mixtape, a 10-track album featuring ambitious versions of songs by the likes of Nick Cave, the Mars Volta, Daniel Johnston, Vashti Bunyan, Girls, Tom Waits, Death Cab For Cutie, and more, will hit shelves this summer.

In fact, it was this covers project that “jumpstart[ed] the creation of the next Mates of State record,” the band said in a press release (via CoS). “When we were finished, we couldn’t wait to write our own songs again…”

Check out the full tracklist, and stream/download their cover of Girls’ “Laura” below:

First the good news: Tom Waits has teamed up with director Robert Wilson for a fourth stage musical project, following previous efforts The Black Rider, Alice in Wonderland, and Woyzeck.

And now the great news: In Bruges writer/director Martin McDonagh has also joined the pair for the forthcoming musical, which is slated to premiere in Paris next year, reports Shauna Lee Lange (via /Film).

Pretty exciting, no? Sure, many of us won’t be flying to France to witness the live show, but songs from his previous three musicals all eventually got the official release treatment, so it’s safe to presume the same will be true this time around (though let’s hope it doesn’t take a decade as it did with Alice).

We don’t have the title or any other details just yet, but in the meantime, enjoy songs from Waits’ previous musicals here, here, and here (Blood Money features songs from Woyzeck).

As previously reported last fall, Tom Waits, Andrew Bird, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Steve Earle, Dr. John, Pete Seeger, and thirteen more of our favorite artists visited New Orleans, LA recently to record a benefit album for and with the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band. We didn’t have many details at the time, but now the release date is approaching (Feb 16) and the album’s distributor has posted a great teaser site, complete with a few streaming songs, video, pictures, and lots more.

We already knew that Tom Waits had recorded the earliest known recorded Mardi Gras song, “Tootie Ma Is a Big Fine Thing,” but we now have the full track list as well. Check it out below and click here to stream full songs by Jim James, aka Yim Yames, Jason Isbell, Del McCoury, Buddy Miller, and Ani DiFranco. (There are also sound clips from Andrew Bird, Steve Earle, and others in the teaser video.)

Official Preservation Track List:

I wasn’t too crazy about the trailer to The Book of Eli, a post-apocalyptic action flick from brothers Albert and Allen Hughes (From Hell, Menace II Society), but there are two very good reasons to see this movie anyway: Nine Inch Nails collaborator Atticus Ross wrote the score and Tom freakin’ Waits is in it.

Waits plays an unnamed engineer in the film, which—based on the synopsis alone—reminds me of a kind of Waterworld meets The Road. Either way, Anti-’s blog uncovered a great scene between Waits and star Denzel Washington that makes a pretty good case for checking out Waits’ official follow-up to playing the Devil in Terry Gilliam’s recent box office bomb The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Watch Waits and Washington negotiate some post-apocalyptic electronic repairs with KFC wet naps (?) as currency here or below: