Pop/Alt/Blues/Rock - It's probably safe to say that there's not a lot of middle ground of opinion when it comes to the music of Tom Waits. Easily considered one of our finest songwriters, Waits has been making uncompromising music since the early 70's, moving from the early incarnation of raspy piano bar balladeer and story teller - culminating in such well-known classics as "Downtown Train" and "Jersey Girl" -  to the dramatic, challenging and increasingly raucous recordings of stomping, blistering and razor-sharp Americana-meets-alt/art-rock. Needless to say the man is an original. Wailing with a megaphone, raining down a cacophonous barrage of angular, demanding and often humorously surreal rants, Waits can also still manage to muster a lovely, if croaking, New Orleans-styled ballad of unparalleled melodic simplicity.

All is on display and in full force on Glitter and Doom Live, a sprawling live recording that captures Waits and his amazing band roaring, reeling and crawling through seventeen classics of uniquely Waits-ian showman-like bluster and blues. Taken from a variety of performances throughout his international tour, the disc's original songs are often completely reworked here to maximum quaking theatricality, with Waits taking center stage in a variety of roles and pushing his backing quintet to one brutal, punching climax after another. Hymns of stark emotion, swampy, ragged rock stomps and gutter-tough boogity boogies drift and collide at will. Did we mention the guy's an original? Also included -- a second disc titled "Tom Tales" a collection of in-between song ramblings and stories, invective and insight. For the adventurous, there's nothing quite like a Tom Waits performance and Glitter and Doom Live shows us, in all its odd and manic glory, just why that is. EPK after the jump.

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Tom Waits - "Get Behind the Mule" (from Glitter and Doom Live)