And I'll Stick It Deep Inside

I am playing as part of a "Tribute To Iggy & The Stooges" show in Brooklyn on July 2. My main challenge is how to re-work the three sawngs we're gonna do so that Mr. Crappy Bass Player (yours truly) can sing and play at the same time...plus make the sawngs interesting and not slavishly devoted to the originals. So for "Loose", imma gonna dumb the bass line during the verses waaaaaay down. For "1970" instead of a sax player, we've got a trumpet player who'll do his best to destroy everyone's minds. And for "I Got A Right"... we shall see.

I can't say that this even has reborn my addiction to Iggy and co... as my addiction never left. But it's always interesting to listen to the classics with a different ear...that being to dissect the songs with the intent of playing them.

Easy enough to feature the originals here, but instead...some variations on a theme.

Best Day Ever

 Iggy w/ Mike Watt rockin' the 'stache

Steve Van Zandt has done some pretty cool things in his life. The coolest one ever was the Little Steven's Underground GarageFest back in 2004. (cool thing number 2 was a show he whipped up a few years later at NYC's Continental where my band got to open the show- but that's a story for another time).
He gathered pretty much every cool band in the universe and put em all on an Island in NYC's East River to play their hearts out for a few thousand mutants. Everyone from Bo Diddley to The Stooges to The Fleshtones to Nancy Sinatra to The Dictators The Electric Fucking Prunes to Big Star to The Fuzztones to Pete Best to The New York Dolls to

 

Bo Diddley

And everyone from Springsteen to Chuck Barris to Kim Fowley mc'ing!

Go-Go girls dancin', cheap beer, sunshine. Perfect.

The only downer was The Strokes performance. Because The Strokes fucking suck.

I got to spend The Stooges set camped on stage right by Mike Watt's bass stack. As I looked out to thousands of freaks going nuts, I thought about the world's greatest and (definitely fatal) stage dive. I passed. Why ruin a perfect day. On the other hand, what a way to die.










Fuck Woodstock- WE GOT THE GARAGE FEST!

Attn: Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame - Eat Shite

So the Schlock and Troll Hole of Fame has announced their electee's. Big Farking Deal. I still hold that any Rock N Roll Hall of Fame that has Billy fucking Joel in it is automatically illegitimate.

So, who's this years' honorees?:

The Stooges: Score one for rawk. These miscreants should have been inducted the day they decided to invent this museum. Too bad Ron Ashton and Dave Alexander won't be there to enjoy it. Hope somebody brings a jar of peanut butter. And some Heroin.

ABBA - Well, if you have to one Swedish Pop band to get hot looking Nordics to visit the Hall and then toplessly bathe on Lake Erie... i suppose Abba is as good as choice as any.

Jimmy Cliff - And if you need a movie star who wasn't even a rastafari and he happens thru the movie to introduce Reggae to the masses... well that's OK by me too.

The Hollies - And the de rigeour British Invasion band (what's next Hermans' Hermits?)

And the writers: DAVID GEFFEN; BARRY MANN & CYNTHIA WEIL; ELLIE GREENWICH & JEFF BARRY
JESSE STONE; MORT SHUMAN; OTIS BLACKWELL - No problem on them.

The Sex Pistols "no thank you" letter

Who did I leave out? Kiss? No, shot down. Rush? Nope, shot down, The Damned? The Buzzcocks? The Replacements? The Jam? aaaaarrrggghh

Fucking Genesis got in. Fucking Genesis got in. Fuck you Rock n roll hall of fame.

Eat shit Jann Wenner.

Iggy And The Stooges give Madonna the treatment.

Amerikkka's Sweetheart

Me loves me some Sarah Palin! She's stepping down from her Governor-Ship to "help America" or some other crap.

I am personally hoping she does a girl on girl vid with this skinny, soul-less, evil skank.

So, we get to look forward to the next couple of years of Palin's "punditry". No doubt, by the end of the summer she'll have her own show on Fox News (you know - the "fair and balanced" station); and then of course, the 2012 Presidential run.

Bottom line is; if Obama can pull off what he's trying to do (and I pray he can), Jesus H Christ himself couldn't win for the Repugnikkkans in 2012.

To keep with this "patriotic" theme, a couple of days late and a dollar short, here's a "something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue" selection for the Fourth Of July. Or something.

Toonage:

The Clash - I'm So Bored With The USA (live Manchester 1978)

Pissed Jeans - False Jesii Part 2

Guitar Wolf - Summertime Blues

The Offspring - I Got A Right (Stooges cover)

No Fun

Just heard that Ron Asheton of the Stooges shuffled off this mortal coil.
Asheton was certainly responsible for a whole lot of what Punk Rock became, from the signature guitar riffs of the first two Stooges rekkids and later his bass work on the Raw Power lp.
His questionable sartorial choices aside, the man was a true original.


In tribute, here's Iggy & The Stooges performing at the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain August 31st 2006. The complete show.


Toonage:
Iggy And The Stooges - 8/31/06 Azkena Rock Festival

For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played
At wrestling in a ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then ’t is centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.

...Emily Dickinson

Toonage:

Led Zeppelin - In My Time Of Dying (Physical Graffiti sessions outtake)

Grateful Dead - Death Don't Have No Mercy (Live Fillmore West 3-2-69)

Blind Willie Johnson - Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed

Charlie Patton - Oh Death

The Police - Death Wish (live BBC 1981)

Iggy & The Stooges - Death Trip

We're a Garage Band

"We're a garage band

We come from Garageland"
--The Clash

Sometimes it's just nice to kick out the jams, muthufuckas.


So that's what me and some pals are doing tonight. As we have all been in Rock n Roll stasis as of late, we figured it was high time (and it will be a high time) to hook up and blast the shit out of some rock.
After all, what's wrong with making alot of noise, aided by various intoxicants and a three chord ideaology.

Undoubtedly, it will be sloppy caterwaul of sound.

Perfect!

PS - If John Doe is touring in your area... go see him! Saw the show in NYC last nite and it was fantastic. A smattering of old X tunes, but the solo stuff was great. And GO HERE to stream his new album A Year In The Wilderness.

And if you want to play the home version of our jam... here's the songs we will probably start out with. Just punch a hole through your speaker, fire one up and it'll be like you're there!

Toonage:
Ramones - Surfin Bird (live Northwestern U 1979)
AC DC - Highway To Hell
Sonic Youth - Death Valley '69
Mudhoney - In and Out of Grace
Stooges - 1970 (live 1971 - Cinn Pop Fest)
Hole - Celebrity Skin
Pixies - Gouge Away

A Slayer Summer

Summer's here and the time is right for... SLAYER!
I spoze there alot of kids (or maybe even adults!) that take these guys seriously with all the devil stuff. I just think they rock. And their lyrics are funny.
Back "in the day", as we geriatrics say, it was fun to yell "Freebird" or "Starship Troopers" at a band when they were playing. In fact, one time we yelled it and The Dream Syndicate played it! Now, it's fun to yell "SLAYER" at the band, especially if it's some crunchy jam band or some downtown moron hipster thang.
But I digress. Here are some tunes (including some covers of Minor Threat and other cool songs) that will make your lawn die.

SLAYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toonage:

Slayer - Guilty Of Being White (Minor Threat cover)
Slayer - Filler/I Don't Want To Hear It (Minor Threat cover)
Slayer - Richard Hung Himself (DI cover)
Slayer - Violent Pacification - (D.R.I. cover)
Slayer - I'm Gonna Be Your God (sort of a Stooges cover)
Slayer - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly cover)
Slayer - South Of Heaven

Callin' From The Funhouse

That spooky bass line. That wah wah pedal. That wailing sax. Iggy!

Funhouse - The Stooges

Come on stay
I feel alright
Yeah I feel alright
Hey Let me in!
Hey Let me in!
Hey bring It down

I'm calling from the fun house with my song
We have been separated baby far too long
Calling all you women do many things
Shining in your cradle calling be my race
Hold me tight I'm calling from the fun house
Hold me tight I'm calling from the fun house
Yes yeah I came to play and I need to play with you
Yeah I came to play

All right, let me in, take it down
I feel alright, take it down

Little baby girly little baby boy
Cover me with loving in a bundle of joy
Do I care to show you what I'm believing of
Do I care to whop you with my love
After I let my god know just what I mind
Living In this vision in a certain sane
Hold me tight! I'm calling from the fun house
Hold me tight! I'm calling from the fun house
Came to play, came to play

Stay, hey hey you
In one more time
Down take it down take it down
Been separated
Been separated
Too long
Alright alright alright alright alright
Alright alright alright alright alright
Alright alright alright alright
Alright alright alright alright
To play

Fun house boy will steal my way
Fun house boy will steal my way
Yeah came to play
Play came to play
Came to play baby
Play came to play

Toonage-

The Stooges - Funhouse
The Stooges - Funhouse (live Spain 8-06)
The Stooges - Funhouse (live Chicago 4-15-07)
Streetwalkin' Cheetahs - Funhouse (live KXLU radio)

Iggy & The Stooges - Live

Hey, you all know how awesome Iggy & The Stooges are.

Everyone should know that they have have a new album out called The Weirdness. Well, they're on tour, and if they happen to pay a visit to your town, you'd be sadly remiss if you didn't catch em. I've seen em a few times in the past couple of years and they always kick ass. I have a special treat for you all today... it's a mighty big download (150 megabytes), but it's an excellent broadcast of Iggy & The Stooges performing at the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain August 31st 2006. Yes, Mike Watt is providing the bass, Steve MacKay is on sax, and the Asheton brothers are on geetar and drums.

For me, what makes this show is Mike Watt's bass. That shit be snaking in & out big time.

Enjoy this show, it really is terrific and is worth the download!

Iggy & The Stooges - 8-31-06 azkena rock fest spain

and here is an alternate version of TV Eye (Funhouse sessions)