Kill City re-issue on the way

It's out in its re-mixed and re-mastered glory on September 19. It'll be on Alive Natural Energy through Bomp. You will need it. Here's the obligatory YouTube plug.

Truly an under-rated classic, "Kill City" was the album Iggy and James made while the singer was on weekend leave from the psych ward. It contains songs that would have been on a post-"Raw Power" album if Iggy & the Stooges (let's get the branding right) had made one and has always suffered from sonic limitations.

If you need to ask Who? you're reading the wrong blog

Nice interview with Strait James in Pommy rag The Guardian here.

When too much Raw Power is never enough

April 27 needs to be marked in your diary. Here's why:

RAW POWER: LEGACY EDITION by IGGY AND THE STOOGES
(Columbia/Legacy 88697 56149 2)

Disc One: RAW POWER (recorded September-October 1972, originally issued February 1973, as Columbia 32111) Selections: 1. Search And Destroy • 2. Gimme Danger • 3. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell • 4. Penetration • 5. Raw Power • 6. I Need Somebody • 7. Shake Appeal • 8. Death Trip.

Disc Two: “Georgia Peaches” (Live At Richards, Atlanta, Georgia, October 1973, all tracks previously unreleased) Selections: 1. Introduction • 2. Raw Power • 3. Head On • 4. Gimme Danger • 5. Search And Destroy • 6. I Need Somebody • 7. Heavy Liquid • 8. Cock In My Pocket • 9. Open Up And Bleed • Bonus tracks: 10. Doojiman (previously unreleased outtake from Raw Power sessions, 1972) • 11. Head On (previously unreleased CBS Studio rehearsal performance, New York City, 1973).
__________________________________________________________________

RAW POWER: DELUXE EDITION by IGGY AND THE STOOGES
(Columbia/Legacy 88697 65714 2)

Disc One: RAW POWER (recorded September-October 1972, originally issued February 1973, as Columbia 32111) Selections: 1. Search And Destroy • 2. Gimme Danger • 3. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell • 4. Penetration • 5. Raw Power • 6. I Need Somebody • 7. Shake Appeal • 8. Death Trip.

Disc Two: “Georgia Peaches” (Live At Richards, Atlanta, Georgia, October 1973, all tracks previously unreleased) Selections: 1. Introduction • 2. Raw Power • 3. Head On • 4. Gimme Danger • 5. Search And Destroy • 6. I Need Somebody • 7. Heavy Liquid • 8. Cock In My Pocket • 9. Open Up And Bleed • Bonus tracks: 10. Doojiman (previously unreleased outtake from Raw Power sessions, 1972) • 11. Head On (previously unreleased CBS Studio rehearsal performance, New York City, 1973).

Disc Three: Rarities, Outtakes, & Alternates from the Raw Power Era Selections: 1. I’m Hungry (outtake from Raw Power sessions) • 2. I Got A Right (outtake from an early aborted Raw Power session) • 3. I’m Sick Of You (outtake from an early aborted Raw Power session) • 4. Hey, Peter (out¬take from Raw Power sessions) • 5. Shake Appeal (alternate mix version from recently discovered alternate mix reels, “The Embassy Reels”) • 6. Death Trip (alternate mix version from recently discovered alternate mix reels, “The Embassy Reels”) • 7. Gimme Danger (alternate mix from the 1996 Iggy “violent” remixes) • 8. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell (alternate mix from the 1996 Iggy “violent” remixes). (All tracks previously unreleased except tracks 3, 7, and 8.)

Disc Four: DVD – The Making Of Raw Power, produced and directed by Morgan Neville (featuring interviews with Iggy Pop, James Williamson, Scott Asheton, Mike Watt, Johnny Marr, and Henry Rollins; plus performance footage from James Williamson’s first reunion concert with Iggy and the Stooges, at Festival Planeta Terra, São Paulo, Brazil, November 2009).

Bonus Japanese 7-inch 45 rpm single reproduction: Side One – “Raw Power” b/w Side Two – “Search And Destroy”


So...the original mix - finally mastered to CD properly, I'd guess - plus a stack more good stuff. Fifteen previously unheard tracks. Smart people would bookmark this site. That would be you?

Funhouse turns 40

As the newly reconstituted Stooges consider putting their rep on the line to record another studio album and prepare to be inducted into the Hall of Lame, I thought you'd like to know that "Funhouse" is turning 40 this tear. Here's a great retrospective piece on one of the greatest albums of all time.

Pretty good summation, I'd say

Former Sounds writer and NY Dolls biographer Kris Needs on "The Stooges" LP.

Iggy signs up to The Lamest Marketing Idea. Ever

Holy shit! This is the story:

The "edgy" marketing promotion for a New Zealand broadband provider seeks Kiwi "musicians" via Idol-style auditions at a bar. Their prize will be to go into a studio to re-record "The Passenger" (after a fashion) with Iggy Pop - who'll phone his vocal in via broadband.

First insurance, now broadband. He's entitled to earn a crust but is there no end to what the man will shuck? Remotely, of course, in this instance.

The promoters are putting up a bar tab of - wait for it - 500 bucks to fuel the audition process. That should go a long way - if the contest is held in a phone box.

And the brand positioning of a tightwad broadband ISP aligning with the World's Forgotten Boy is what exactly...? At least Ig won't be duetting with Jet this time out.

Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell

This is out on November 1, the Amazon listing says. Could there be anything left to say about this trio? Here's the promotional blurb:

"First-ever look at the intertwining, outrageous lives of three rock legends. When Lou Reed and Iggy Pop first met David Bowie in the fall of 1971, Bowie was just another English musician passing through New York City. Lou was still recovering from the collapse of the Velvet Underground, and Iggy had already been branded a loser... Yet within two years they completely changed the face of popular music with a decadent glamour and street-level vibe. With Bowie producing, Reed's Transformer album was a worldwide hit, spinning off the sleazy street anthem "Walk on the Wild Side." Iggy's Raw Power, mixed by Bowie, provided the mean-spirited, high-octane blueprint for Punk. Bowie boosted elements from both Iggy and Reed to create his gender-bending rock idol Ziggy Stardust. Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell is the story of this friendship and the incredible productivity and debauchery that emerged from it. Presented here for the very first time are their stories interwoven in a triple helix of sexuality, glam rock, and drugs - as seen through the eyes of the people who made it happen."

James Williamson returns to live music (2)

James Williamson is warming up for his pre-Stooges return to the stage with a local band on September 5 with an interview in the NBC Bay Area Online. It turns out country-fied backing band The Careless Hearts are putting aside their usual set list for a night of "Raw Power" covers.

Here's what James says about past and future Stooges set lists:

One of the things about The Stooges in the old days that was very stupid was that we very rarely played the same stuff very often. We would be playing new stuff as we went along because we thought we were being creative and also because we got bored very easily. So as entertainment we kind of failed because no one really knew the songs. This time around we are trying to draw on things the audience knows and that covers a lot of territory. A lot of "Raw Power" stuff and we'll hit on the first two Stooges albums, maybe a couple of Iggy's solo things.

More here and watch for the I-94 Bar's chat with James after the Stooges rehearsals are done.

Stooges '71

Ever hear the short-lived Stooges line-up with Ron Asheton AND James Williamson on guitars? Little survives except a St Louis show, booted on an obscure label from a tape that was traded among colectors for years. UK legacy label Easy Action have been on the case, however, and have come up with a box set dating from that 1971 US tour.

There's a considerable back story to this which I might relate at a later time. Meanwhile, you can watch as more details go up, hear sound samples and pre-order here.

New Ig disc hailed as a masterwork

So says a critic at The Guardian whose view of The Weirdness I share. We'll see.

Iggy goes jazz crooner

I don't know if this is going to be good or bad but it's certainly going to be different.

Sable Starr R.I.P.

News is in from The Next Big Thing blog that self-declared uber-groupie and onetime squeeze of Johnny Thunders, is dead at 51. She's pictured with JT and a wobbly-booted Iggy Pop.

UPDATE: Here's the post at The Houndblog that Lindsay Hutton of Next Big Thing mentions in comments.

Brighton Port Authority (aka Puppetry of the Pop)

...is some sort of Fat Boy Slim project and Ig is a guest. That's about all I know. Someone out there can join the dots after they see this clip from YouTube.

Legend or whore? You decide

It's for an online insurance company.

Personally, I think he can do whatever the fuck he wants. I'm just thankful the ad agency didn't chose to butcher one of his songs. If you click through to YouTube you can see it's provoking colourful commentary.

"No Fun" - The Stooges

Too much Stooges is never enough and this is a nice montage to go with the tune, no?

Stooge is a goat by Russian standards

The Stooges are playing their second-ever gig in Moscow and apparently the Russian media think Iggy carries on like a "goat", according to a concert preview. I think it's meant as a positive. Lucky he's not from Georgia.

Bob Seger is Michigan's Number One Musician

Yes, that's one of those provocative headlines designed to provoke outrage and flaming, just as I suspect Michigan live music website mlive.com's Michigan Music Face Off was meant to be. In the end, Bob Seger triumphed over the MC5, Iggy/the Stooges and Alice. A bunch of flummery, really, but here it is for your brief amusement.

Iggy + Jet = Shite

Johnny O'Keefe was a seminal and colourful early Australian rock and roller. Originally a Johnny Ray impersonator, he rode to local fame with his co-written "Wild One", which years later was covered by Iggy Pop on his Bowie-esque, grossly over-produced commercial comeback album "Blah Blah Blah." Now the Pop has teamed with Australian band Jet to re-do the song to coincide with a major label marekting push to exploit - sorry, commemorate - J.O.K.'s recorded legacy.

If you want to watch it, the link is here. It's vile shit and I won't indulge Jet or Iggy by embedding the video. You'd think Ig would know better at his age.

Here It Comes by The Ramrods

If you're a regular here you might have noticed a liking for the D. Was channel at My Damn Channel. So no apologies for another dip of the lid in that general direction.

There might have been some dispute about who owned the name and the songs when they reformed a few years ago but the current incarnation of Detroit's Ramrods undeniably pack a hefty left hook. This a song I first heard on a Dark Carnival bootleg. Dig the audacious Ig-moves from vocalist Ivan Suvanjieff (aka Mark Norton, an ex-editor of Creem magazine.) Clearly a band that knew which side of its bread the peanut butter was on.


IVAN SUVANJIEFF
Vocals
DAVE HANNA
Guitar
ROBERT MULROONEY aka BOOTSY X
Drums
STEVE KING
Guitar
DANNY KROHA
Bass

PRODUCED BY DON WAS
Recorded by STEVE 'DR. CHING' KING
At 54 SOUND, FERNDALE, MICHIGAN
Assisted by Tony Campagna
Mixed by KRISH SHARMA
at HENSON STUDIO D
Assisted by Glenn Pittman

WRITTEN BY JAMES/NORTON/
HANNA/MULROONEY
©1977 DETROIT RAMRODS, INC.

VIDEO SHOT BY
JOHN 'QUIG' QUIGLY
AND JIM HANNON FOR
CHROME BUMPER FILMS
EDITED BY GEMMA CORFIELD

Soggy

There's a ripple of retrospective excitement in various places like the Goner Records message board about this long-lost French band Soggy and their vinyl LP. They existed from 1978-82 and were Stooges-obsessed, for sure. Here's a clip on YouTube to show just how obsessed. Judge for yourself.

Buy it here.