Aug 8, 2012 at 1:33 PM | Music News | By Rock Square

Starting on July 31, mysterious posts began showing up on Tom Waits’ website. Each contained a strange photograph of the singer-songwriter--Waits donning an eyepatch, say, or Waits underwater with shark-shaped creatures--accompanied by a teasing “Coming August 7” caption.

Waits, who has long had a penchant for evasive tactics, revealed yesterday what he’d been hinting at: a video for “Hell Broke Luce”, a standout track off last year’s Bad as Me.

Waits issued a statement along with the Matt Mahurin-directed video, describing the clip as “an apocalyptic war dream to accompany the song ‘Hell Broke Luce’. Kathleen [Waits’ wife and collaborator] and I envisioned it as an enlightened drill sergeant yelling the hard truths of war to a brand new batch of recruits. The video grew from the gnawing image of a soldier pulling his home, through a battlefield, at the end of a rope.”

He added, cheekily: “I think you will agree, it’s uplifting and fun.”

It might not be the big news fans were hoping to hear on August 7--a tour announcement certainly would have been welcome--but the video is a rather epic piece of filmmaking, with figures marching through a blasted wasteland of skeletal soldiers and sinister vultures as Waits’ trademark bark conjures dark dread and terror.

 

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