the weirdness
ok, so now it's here (arrived in a mailbox that also brought the new blood of the sun and the williamson-era heavy liquid box on easy action -- for which thanks, carlton -- to mi casa). yep, the first new stooges album in 34 yrs (and i bought thatun one the day it came out, too).
first impression: it ain't half bad, nowhere near what the reviews i've read led me to expect. the performances rawk, and while the songs don't sound like the ones on the stooges or funhouse, they do sound like what that band would be doing were they still active in 2007 -- imagine that. what's missing is the shock of the new, and no, they're not taking funhouse-type chances anymore, but at this point, this lineup of the band has been gigging hard for going on four yrs now, and they sound tight and focused (_not_ slick) in a way they never did back in the day, without losing the undercurrent of sexy menace that's present in all their work.
the only real gripe i have is with the mix, which resembles more than anything the 1997 iggy remix of raw power, with riddim gtr mixed up front, right in your face, creating an auditory effect similar to the stage mix at a club with a hearing-impaired or inattentive sound man. the other proximate model: the, um, sex pistols alb, the _real_ template for the bassless garage-punk band (fuck the white stripes and the wave of detroit nostalgia they rode in on). it's probably also true that the asheton boyzzz got plenty of practice playing without regard for the low end theory after original stooge bassist dave alexander left the band and was replaced by non-musicians.
indeed, the bass here is virtually inaudible -- somebody's way of letting us know that watt's a hired gun? or maybe it's indicative of how much of the time watt is restricted to playing tonics in lock-step with ron's riddim (in his voluminous online diary, the ex-minutemen bassist, surely punk's equivalent to pepys or proust, wrote that iggy had instructed him not to "get all _musical_ on me" during his first rehearsals as a stooge). a third possibility: that whoever mixed the rec (i'm thinking iggy here) has ears that are so scorched in those freqs that he doesn't even notice their absence, which would account for the bass-free mixes of both the weirdness and the '97 raw power.
the drums here are recorded much better than the ones on raw power, which is to say that albini probably took _levels_ on them, at least. ron's solos are mostly buried in the mix, altho what's audible is fine. he hasn't added a lotta licks to his repertoire since 1970, but he had everything he needed back then, and still does. steve mackay's along on sax, but his rides mostly lack the manic coltrane-sanders intensity of those on funhouse, largely because none of the songs have the kind of hypnotic reptilian groove that "1970" and "funhouse" did. only on the closing "i'm fried" does he get to cut loose and honk 'n' squall with the abandon of old.
iggy only uses his annoying bowie opera voice on two tracks (title and "passing cloud"), thank gawd, and the second one is actually an ok song, which gives this alb a better keeper-to-stinker ratio than, say, the first alb. i can't comment on the lyrics 'cos i never listen to 'em (altho i did eventually memorize the ones on the classic albs from immersing myself in their bath o' noise on a regular basis for long enough, as i'm sure will eventually happen with thisun). as a pampered 60-yr-old, iggy doesn't have the insight into the punk life that he did as a 22- or 23-yr-old stoner kid (albeit one with a keen observer's eye) -- duh.
i will say this, however: if this was a new band, we'd all be waxing ecstatic over this rekkid. i'm certain that i'd rather hear these guys play "my idea of fun," "free & freaky," and "she took my money," live or on disc, than "we will fall," "ann," or "l.a. blues." in fact, truth be told, while it can't touch the earth-shaking sturm und drang of the stooges' three original albs (what could?), the weirdness wipes the floor with everything iggy and the ashetons have done apart from each other, with the notable exception of scott asheton's stint in sonic's rendezvous band. so there.
first impression: it ain't half bad, nowhere near what the reviews i've read led me to expect. the performances rawk, and while the songs don't sound like the ones on the stooges or funhouse, they do sound like what that band would be doing were they still active in 2007 -- imagine that. what's missing is the shock of the new, and no, they're not taking funhouse-type chances anymore, but at this point, this lineup of the band has been gigging hard for going on four yrs now, and they sound tight and focused (_not_ slick) in a way they never did back in the day, without losing the undercurrent of sexy menace that's present in all their work.
the only real gripe i have is with the mix, which resembles more than anything the 1997 iggy remix of raw power, with riddim gtr mixed up front, right in your face, creating an auditory effect similar to the stage mix at a club with a hearing-impaired or inattentive sound man. the other proximate model: the, um, sex pistols alb, the _real_ template for the bassless garage-punk band (fuck the white stripes and the wave of detroit nostalgia they rode in on). it's probably also true that the asheton boyzzz got plenty of practice playing without regard for the low end theory after original stooge bassist dave alexander left the band and was replaced by non-musicians.
indeed, the bass here is virtually inaudible -- somebody's way of letting us know that watt's a hired gun? or maybe it's indicative of how much of the time watt is restricted to playing tonics in lock-step with ron's riddim (in his voluminous online diary, the ex-minutemen bassist, surely punk's equivalent to pepys or proust, wrote that iggy had instructed him not to "get all _musical_ on me" during his first rehearsals as a stooge). a third possibility: that whoever mixed the rec (i'm thinking iggy here) has ears that are so scorched in those freqs that he doesn't even notice their absence, which would account for the bass-free mixes of both the weirdness and the '97 raw power.
the drums here are recorded much better than the ones on raw power, which is to say that albini probably took _levels_ on them, at least. ron's solos are mostly buried in the mix, altho what's audible is fine. he hasn't added a lotta licks to his repertoire since 1970, but he had everything he needed back then, and still does. steve mackay's along on sax, but his rides mostly lack the manic coltrane-sanders intensity of those on funhouse, largely because none of the songs have the kind of hypnotic reptilian groove that "1970" and "funhouse" did. only on the closing "i'm fried" does he get to cut loose and honk 'n' squall with the abandon of old.
iggy only uses his annoying bowie opera voice on two tracks (title and "passing cloud"), thank gawd, and the second one is actually an ok song, which gives this alb a better keeper-to-stinker ratio than, say, the first alb. i can't comment on the lyrics 'cos i never listen to 'em (altho i did eventually memorize the ones on the classic albs from immersing myself in their bath o' noise on a regular basis for long enough, as i'm sure will eventually happen with thisun). as a pampered 60-yr-old, iggy doesn't have the insight into the punk life that he did as a 22- or 23-yr-old stoner kid (albeit one with a keen observer's eye) -- duh.
i will say this, however: if this was a new band, we'd all be waxing ecstatic over this rekkid. i'm certain that i'd rather hear these guys play "my idea of fun," "free & freaky," and "she took my money," live or on disc, than "we will fall," "ann," or "l.a. blues." in fact, truth be told, while it can't touch the earth-shaking sturm und drang of the stooges' three original albs (what could?), the weirdness wipes the floor with everything iggy and the ashetons have done apart from each other, with the notable exception of scott asheton's stint in sonic's rendezvous band. so there.
posted by stashdauber at 3:14 PM
1 Comments:
nice to finally read something more positive on this one. makes me less apprehensive about going out and buying a copy.
i've yet to hear it - but i can't help but ask (of those who have mercilessly trashed it) - "what did you expect?"
did you think the new record was somehow going to eclipse or outshine the tremendous contributions this band made to the world of rock in the late 60s/early 70 (and beyond) - did you expect it to? how could it?
seems to me, this one (and i'll have a more in depth opinion once give it a detailed listen) should be taken for what it is - not for what it isn't (or could never possibly be.)
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