So while toodling around the iTunes store last night, I discovered the Vitamin Strings Quartet tribute to My Chemical Romance.

blink blink

Being morbidly curious, I listened to some samples. And then I bought the album. I am shocked at how well the songs work as orchestral arrangements for a string quartet. I bought it as kind of a novelty, but I suspect I'm going to end up listening to it a lot.

Happy belated, David!

Hi, Joe! I heard Richard Lloyd was in the hospital as of about a month ago.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! Good to see you, Joe.

I'm buried deep working on the book, making a push to finish.

But I offer for your entertainment and education...

Tom Waits As Inspiration On YouTube

No, not just Waits clips, but other people covering him, and making little movies based on his stuff. This is especially useful for those of you who could never get past Tom's voice because there are some gorgeous melodies here as well.

For example, Nine year old boy playing a lovely piano instrumental of "Johnsburg, Illinois

Another instrumental, "Time" arranged for classical guitar.

It's one of Tom's many beautiful melodies (maladies?). Check out Tori Amos' cover of "Time."

How about Frank Black covering "Black Rider".

Here's a young Irish guy with a fine tenor, busking his way through a huge pile of songs, including much Tom Waits. Here he does a fantastic version of "Dirt in the Ground."

His name is Dara Sheahan and I really like his cover of "Chocolate Jesus" too. (He's got excellent taste in songwriters and also covers Leonard Cohen and the Pogues.)

Somebody did a cool vid of King Kong set to Tom's cover of Daniel Johnston's "King Kong". Really cool.

Also very cool, this stop motion animation set to "Table Top Joe."

Several people did animations of Tom's "Children's Story" off Orphans. I liked this one best.

I think I posted this one before, but I still like this fan vid set to "Circus" using archival footage.

Here's a montage from the Tom Waits Peepshow which I somehow managed to miss.

You can't beat a high school musical doing "Jockey Full of Bourbon".

A wobbly video (but with great sound) of Nanci Griffith singing "Grapefruit Moon"

A high school film project set to "Alice"

Tom's "How's it Going to End" covered on guitar and ukelele for a cool/creepy animation

See, now lots of people say somebody's "an inspiration" but Tom really is the well spring that keeps giving.

Also, I've always loved Tom's thoroughly Weimar/Cabaret video for "Blow Wind Blow"

Those are awesome videos, David.

Your links led me to these interesting tangents I think we can all appreciate:

David Bowie and Frank Black doing Fashion Frank (with funky beard) almost looks like just some local guy who won a radio contest to sing onstage with Bowie, or something.

Frank Black joins Placebo onstage to do Where Is My Mind?

Oooh, excellent finds, Sean. That Placebo cover is especially grand. Big Rock And Roll Fun.

Sweet! Oxford American is letting me write about Dan Hicks.

Plus, they pay money.

Professional writing career, oh how you toy with me.

That's awesome David. You know OA is one of my favorites.

Saw The New Pornographers down in Battery Park this afternoon. For a bunch of Canadians they do a darned good job of celebrating the Fourth. They did a lot of stuff from the new album, and I stuck around until it started raining enough to be uncomfortable. It was cool to see Neko and AC again.

Neko is from Chicago.

So. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Someone told me about them, so I downloaded the two tracks available on eMusic. Damn - I never knew the banjo could sound so cool.

So now I need to buy one or more of their albums. Anyone know a good place to start?

Tommyrot, Bela Fleck has a very extensive discography. I'd suggest starting with one of his solo bluegrass albums like Drive (from 1988).

I also really love his stuff with New Grass Revival ( On the Boulevard is my favorite) . After about 1990 he mostly switches over to jazz. I don't like that stuff too much.

Neko is from Chicago.

She did live here for a while, but she is was born in Virginia, raised in Tacoma, Washington, (which he sings about with so much pride and sadness on "Thrice All American") and went to college in Vancouver.

Congrats, David!