Scarlett Johansson Does Tom Waits (wait, what?)

Johansson briefly performed back up vocals at Coachella in 2007 to rather mixed reviews.

If we are to believe Paste Magazine, Scarlett Johansson will be releasing an album of Tom Waits covers called Anywhere I Lay My Head. The platinum bombshell, who was once an aspiring musical theatre performer, sang briefly at the Coachella music festival in 2007, and has reportedly not ruled out attending one of the summer music festivals this year. I think I speak for all of us here when I chant repeatedly “JazzFest, JazzFest, JazzFest,” because she will either officially become the most perfect woman in the world, or take the quickest career dive since DavidCarusoGate. Either way I want front row tickets.

Paste happened to be in NYC, and caught the last three tracks of the album as well as the question and answer session. The record was nothing like we imagined. Instead of the lounge-y approach favored by fellow young thespians like Minnie Driver, it’s a feast of indie production with TV on the Radio’s David Sitek going all David Fridmann, layering keys, guitars that sound like keys (What kind of synthesizer is that? “It’s Nick Zimmer [of Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs] on guitar playing really fast through something weird,” Sitek says.) and a collected assortment of sounds found outside a studio in Lafeyette, La. The stated goal was “a cough medicine/Tinkerbell kind of vibe.”

Johansson, whose initial aspiration was musical theater (“It didn’t work out because my voice was too deep for Cosette in Les Miserables.”), says the project began as an attempt to cover standards, including a Tom Waits duet with Bette Midler. Over time, one Waits song led to another, and she decided to just go with all Waits. “His melodies are so beautiful, his voice is so distinct and I had my own way of doing Tom Waits songs,” she says.

The results, as far as we could tell, are true to Waits’ spirit of weirdness without sounding anything like him.

“My ultimate goal,” says Sitek, “was to not get chased down by Tom Waits and get my ass beaten in a bar.”

 

Waits is planning his first full tour since 1999 this August. Billboard posts the following dates:

Aug. 1: Atlanta (Tabernacle)
Aug. 2: Asheville, N.C. (Thomas Wolfe Auditorium)
Aug. 4: Memphis (Orpheum Theatre)
Aug. 5: Nashville (Ryman Auditorium)
Aug. 7: Louisville (Palace Theatre)
Aug. 9: Chicago (Auditorium Theatre)
Aug. 11: Detroit (Opera House)
Aug. 13: Akron, Ohio (Civic Theatre)