Stoogesongs will rise

There will be more contemporary Stoogemusic released and from what Iggy told a French press conference, it will be more primal and raw. There are five unreleased tracks, two of which Ig has worked on.

Presumably there are songs demo'd for "The Weirdness" but never committed to tape in the recording sessions proper. This gels with other information that I've heard around the Bar and has nothing to do with the soon-to-surface early '70s live stuff slated for two labels.

The rest of Iggy's press conference (to plug his forthcoming jazz/jizz album "The Preliminaries") is here (thanks Cathy) in which he leaves himself open to doing a string of Vegas dates and gives the forthcoming biopic of his life the big thumbs down. You can watch a video news release about Pop's new album here.

When too much Stooges isn't nearly enough

So I'm sitting here in sunny Sydney, cooling my heels, when I shoulda jumped a plane to the Motor City to see the Stooges, supported by Powertrane Featuring Scott Morgan with special guest Deniz Tek. Then this fine little promo movie pops into my mailbox. What's a poor boy to do but put it here on a blog for public consumption?

New Stooges album

A more in-depth I-94 Bar review is here. A few listens down the track and nothing's changing.

New Stooges album

A leaked copy of the new Stooges album, "The Weirdness", fell off the back of a virtual truck over the weekend. First impressions are that it's very ordinary. I badly wanted this to be a masterwork, maybe approaching the brilliance of "Funhouse". It's not to be. There'll be a full review at the I-94 Bar in due course but here's a quick and dirty take:

Ordinary songs, ordinary production. Steve Albini has a rep for giving a band their heads in the studio and being hands-off, but this is ridiculous. Rock Action's drums are drier than a dead dingo's donger but Watt's bass rumble is MIA. When Ron Asheton launches into those characteristic wah-wah solos (all too rarely), the guitar's compressed tighter than a Scotsman's wallet or buried. To be really blunt, Iggy's vocals are the weakest thing about the album. Apart from the songs. Lyrical observations on the ordinariness of everyday life, they end up sounding like a dumbed-down parody, sung by a Rolls Royce driving leathery old guy. "My dick is turning into a tree", indeed.

Don't be a Stooge and not sign this

There's a string of live Stooges dates being locked in all over the USA right now, but if you're Australian here's a more pressing reason to let your mouse do the walking and show we're interested in a return engagement. Click here.