Iggy makes "quieter jazzy" album

Here's news from out of left field. "Preliminaries" is the name of the new album and Ig says it's a quieter record with jazz overtones, the result of him tiring of listening to "idiot thugs with guitars". It's on EMI, not Virgin, and there's a video message and sample song in the embedded clip above.

The sample track "King of the Dogs" is a raucous New Orleans/Jellyroll Morton rag, well-removed from the reflective stuff on "Avenue B". The album also seems to have Europe in its sights as Iggy's video statement on a French music website indicates. There are two more video blogs scheduled so more will be revealed but it's a fair bet any thoughts of a re-configured Stooges are on the back-burner, if it was ever a possibility.

The usual tip of the hat to Cathy Benson-Burke of iggypop.org for the mail. That's always the place for the latest and greatest on all things Pop and Stooge.

Ten Most Hated Bands

Avoidance rather outright hatred is my preferred action when I hear worthless music, which is why I only rail occasionally about that sort of stuff in these rants. 411.mania.com Mikey Migo missed a few chances to lay the boot in on his list of the Ten Mosted Hated Bands and his comments about the sanctimonious and diabolically unoriginal U2 are downright flaccid.

Is vomiting the new black?

Katy Perry set some sort of mini-trend by throwing up backstage at the Brit Awards earlier this month - and then telling people about it via Twitter. A few days later this report surfaced of one of the Veronicas playing tongue hockey with a Vines member after he'd been talking (not texting) on the white porcelain telephone. Scandalous stuff, but of course Keef did it first and better, even if bulemia wasn't ever his issue.

Personally, I find the Veronicas' pale and plastic, trailer-trash-meets-electronica take on music and celebrity-ism nauseating enough, even without being told of chunky vomitus exchanges. Katy can kiss my arse - when she's done with girls.

Ironic sequel or what?

UK musicians are complaining that Swiftcover, the company that Iggy advertises, won't cover them.

Of course Swiftover is definding itself, saying Pop was appearing in the ad as an "actor", not a "musician". Who'd ever think an insurance company would try to weasel out of something?

Daptone dealt a blow: Can you help?

From Mike Watt's mailing list. Daptone is the home of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and a bunch of worthy soul artists. I'm not sure Rod Stewart being inconvenienced will upset many readers but the burglary should.

As you may have heard through the grapevine by now, Daptone was broken into last night. Unfortunately, there was a lot of equipment (mics, pre-amps, monitors, turntables, guitars, amps, computers, etc.) stolen and damaged. It is going to take us a while to go through everything and take full stock of what was stolen, and we are not supposed to touch anything until the cops come back to collect fingerprints so we can only guess what's missing from some mic drawers and cabinets....

I would like to ask for everyone's help first in keeping an eye out for all of our stuff showing up on ebay/craigslist/local music
shops, and secondly (and more realistically) keeping an eye out for good deals on headphones, mics, pre-amps, etc. I could really use a heads up on any kind of studio package for sale or studio equipment to be possibly bought or borrowed as soon as
possible. We have a session scheduled for Friday to lay down some music for (I know this sounds surreal) Rod Stewart, and I'm going to have to get the studio running by then...

Upon first glance we are definitely missing:

- Fender Super Guitar Amp in case
- Fender Deluxe Guitar Amp
- A whole bunch of headphones and wires
- Nydia's HP laptop computer
- One Desktop MacIntosh Computer
- One Purple Audio API style lunchbox with four Purple Audio Biz mic pre-amps
- 2 Yamaha NS10 monitors
- Vintage Harmony Rocket Guitar
- One steel string acoustic guitar
- Martin Tenor sax in a gig bag
- Technics 1200 turntable
- Ion USB turntable
- Teac Receiver/stereo amp
- Sony dual deck CD burner/player

Thanks for keeping eyes open for us. AND PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ALONG TO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP US.

Thankfully, we all still have our health, ambition, tape machines, and sense of humor intact. You can slow us down, but you can't stop us. Sleep well knowing we here at Daptone will continue to...

Keep putting Soul up,

Gabriel Roth

Daptone Records
115 Troutman St.,
Brooklyn, NY 11206
http://www.daptonerecords.com

Now, this is clever...

How do you put together a flimclip for Hoodoo Guru Dave Faulkner playing with The Master Plan (whose pedigree is the Fleshtones via the Dictators) when the principals are spread around the world? Like this:

Thanks to Lindsay Hutton of The Next Big Thing for being ahead of the pack with the heads-up, as usual.

New look I-94 Bar

There's a bit of work underway. It's still in progress but you can see it here.

All suggestions for improvements gratefully accepted. And yeah, I know the navigation bar blinks in Firefox. That bug's being addressed.

The Podcast thingie has moved too. You can access it via the sidebar here or directly at the new host Libsyn. It sure beats the clunky place it was hosted before.

The Awful Truth

The Arizona Daily Star newspaper has sued a local punk rock band for copyright infringement because it used a slain police officer's photo to illustrate its album.
More here.

Wow, things are getting weird on the fringes. I wonder how many family photos reporters from the Daily Star have swiped from mantelpieces while "death-knocking" relatives of the deceased, or if they've ever raided a MySpace site for a picture to illustrate a news story? It beats going through the rubbish bin for a living.

This band, The Awful Truth, put out an album called "Kill A Cop For God." Everyone knows there's never a cop around when you need one so that makes as much sense as fucking for Jesus or strapping on a bomb for Allah. I'd be more inclined to sue the band for naming themselves after a Michael Moore mockumentary (sorry Moore fans but I can't bring myself to use the term "movie" in connection with his name.)

New Christs new album news

Just in from Wollongong:

MEDIA RELEASE
February 17th 2009

THE NEW CHRISTS TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM IN MAY

Twenty five years after they first formed and more than five years since the release of their last studio album, The New Christs are set to release their brand new full length album in May.

It has been an interesting journey since Radio Birdman front man Rob Younger formed The New Christs in 1984 to support Iggy Pop on his Australian tour of that year. A number of single releases featuring several line ups of friends followed before the band recorded and released their debut album ‘Distemper’ in 1989.

Following the European tour in support of the album release, the band split up before briefly reforming in 1990 to support The Ramones on their Australian tour. Once again after that tour the band took a three year hiatus before Rob teamed up with bassist Christian Houllemare (Happy Hate Me Nots) and Bill Gibson (Lemonheads, Eastern Dark) to record 'The Pedestal' ep and 'Woe Betide' mini-album. This was then followed by the 1997 release of the album 'Lower Yourself' which the band once again toured Europe on the back of.

In 2001, The New Christs recorded their full length album 'We Got This' but due to problems with the label who had initially commissioned the recording, it would be some time before it was finally released and by that time due to various reasons the band had once again split. After spending a couple of years producing bands and touring with the reformed Radio Birdman, Rob assembled the current version of The New Christs in 2006. Former bass player Jim Dickson returned to the band and new recruits Stu Wilson (drums), Dave Kettley (guitar) and Brent Williams (guitar) led the band into a new era.

They headed off to Europe, playing to adoring fans across Spain, France, Germany and Belgium while also managing to play some shows in their home country. With the bands line up the most stable in the history of The New Christs, they churned out a bunch of new songs in preparation for the recording of a new album.

December of 2008 saw the band begin work on their as yet untitled full length album which has been scheduled for worldwide release on the Impedance Records label in May 2009. The New Christs will kick off a European tour at the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain on May 16th to support the release.

In the meantime you can get a live preview of what to expect from the album this Friday February 20th in Sydney when the band take to the stage of the Excelsior Hotel in Surry Hills.

If I was in Melbourne next week...

...I know where I'd be on Friday night (or Saturday morning, given the late starts at this venue.)



Choices are there to be made in Sydney too, down the track:



Observant vets of the Sydney band scene of the '80s will note Decline of the Reptiles on the bill as support.

Peter Perrett looks back

The Old Fart's retrospective music magazine of choice Mojo has a detailed look back on The Only Ones here. I should have paid more attention to their body of work in the past so maybe the prospect of re-issues will make me.

Mick Medew & The Rumours' stinging cover of "Another Girl, Another Planet" on their forthcoming album (on I-94 Bar Records, of course) is another reason to go back exploring. Here's the original:

Ten reasons to give up the demon drink

Not.

BTW, this be the blog's 500th post. Don't all comment at once.