Archive for the “The Stooges” Category
Posted by CJ Marsicano in AKB48, Alternative Rock, Enka, Hello! Project, J-Pop, J-Rock, K-Pop, Kayokyoku, Maki Goto, Morning Musume, On Blogging, Personal, Pop, Punk Rock, Rock, SCANDAL, Shonen Knife, The Stooges
2010 is barely two days old, and already there’s new music to look forward to. Nothing on the Western music front yet, as far as I know. But by the time this post is less than a week old, a new Shonen Knife album will be on my desk. A new Koda Kumi album and new Buono! album will follow next month, followed by a new Morning Musume album the month after that – the latter just in time to define the final months of my bachelorhood. And there’s also singles from MoMusu, AKB48, Buono! and SCANDAL to deal with during that time period as well. The last time I recall looking forward to a new non-J-pop release at the beginning of the year, it was The Stooges’ The Weirdness album, which was scheduled within days of Morning Musume dropping Sexy 8 Beat – and those two albums dropping within weeks of each other early in 2007 made the rest of that year quite the anti-climax. By the end of the year, while I was trying to sum up the year in albums at MotokoAoyama.com, I was also planning to propose to my girlfriend.
Oh yeah, there’s that little interruption.
Truth be told, I’m already planning ahead, and not just for that. I’ve already anticipated that there’s going to be a short break in blogging action around the last week of June and going on for at least another week. Which only means one thing: I intend to stay as busy as possible, trying to post as much as possible here and at So Hot She Shits Fire (and whenever I can at My Sweet Meetan), while also going into final preparations for the wedding, getting the last scenes folded into Here Is The Wonderland in the immediate weeks to come, thus finishing that long-in-the-making first draft before plunging into the second, which should only take a minuscule fraction of the time it took to complete the first draft. And also upping my guitar skills.
What?
Yeah, I got a new electric guitar over the Christmas holidays. I don’t think I will be discussing it much here – this blog is meant for serious music discussion, and personal ramblings about trying to re-master the pentatonic scale or getting a better handle on sweep picking don’t really belong here, so there may be a little place somewhere where I’ll let those out of my system. (Updates about my personal life don’t belong here either, of course. I might refer to them in vague here or in “conversation” at SHSSF, but that’s another story, and I already have places for that.)
This, in a nutshell, is as personal as I intend to get, and I’m keeping it in topic: 2010 is going to see a lot more activity here. Beyond that, I’m not hard to find, as the list of “personal” links that has always existed here and at this blog’s predecessor will attest. With one of the series that I hinted at back in November (the Best Albums of 2009 series) out of the way, the other one will be starting next week to formally kick off blogging activity here at TGML for 2010. For now, I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend decompressing from New Year’s Eve/Day.
Other than that (and my wedding), I don’t know what’s going to take place in 2010. Hell, I didn’t know when 2009 started that Morning Musume were getting ready to announce their American debut and that Ron Asheton was going to be transferred from the Stooges to Rock N’Roll Heaven’s Helluva Band either.
Stay tuned. Things are only going to get insane here. But in a good way, of course.
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From the Detroit Free Press:
No fun? Yes, fun!
After failing to move past the nomination ballot seven times since becoming eligible in the mid-‘90s, legendary Michigan band the Stooges has made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it was announced this morning.
The group, formed in Ann Arbor in 1967 by singer Iggy Stooge/Pop (born James Osterberg) and brothers Ron and Scott Asheton and Dave Alexander, is considered one of the most influential of its time — an era that was among the fertile in Michigan’s storied music history, producing contemporaries like the MC5, Bob Seger and Ted Nugent.
The Stooges were in many ways the ugly stepchild of that scene, never widely popular even in their heyday. But the band — creator of hard-rock templates such as “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “No Fun,” — later came to be seen as spiritual and musical godfathers for legions of punk and alternative bands. Nirvana, Sonic Youth and the White Stripes are among those who’ve cited the influence of the band’s grinding, grimy sound and bored — and often nihilistic — perspective.
The Stooges had been broken up for nearly 30 years when Iggy and the Ashetons reformed in 2003, winning wide acclaim for a series of live shows, and even a gig backing Madonna when she was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2008.
The sad footnote to the coming induction is that guitarist Ron Asheton died in January at his home in Ann Arbor of natural causes. By several accounts, he was the Stooge who was most desiring of the respect that only came his way long after the Stooges had disbanded.
“We’ve been rejected seven times, and we would have set a record, I think, if it happened again,” Iggy Pop told Rolling Stone of the band’s election. “It started to feel like Charlie Brown and the football. I had about two hours of a strong emotional reaction after hearing the news. It felt like vindication. Then I kind of scratched my head and thought, ‘Am I still cool? Or is that over now?’ ”
The list of other bands to be inducted at ceremonies in New York on March 15 couldn’t provide much more contrast with the Stooges: artsy progressive rockers Genesis, Swedish pop kings ABBA, harmonizing rockers the Hollies and ska-reggae star Jimmy Cliff.
James Williamson, the other Stooges guitarist (he played guitar on Raw Power while Ron Asheton played bass) added his own view on the long-overdue induction on his Facebook page:
“Tonight I’ll be raising a glass to an awful lot of people…secretly I believe we were chosen to balance the choice of ABBA getting in…I do take some pride in getting in over KISS, but am saddened that the great singer/songwriter Laura Nyro wasn’t selected although she was hardly ‘rock and roll’, but then she`d have to stand in line on the point.”
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Happy Birthday to the True King and Heavyweight Champion of Rock n’ Roll, Iggy Pop!
He’s 62!
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Yeah, I know, some of you are saying, “say what”? Didn’t TGML start up back in August of last year? What’s this “third anniversary” shit?
Well, three years ago, I started blogging seriously at the first version of MotokoAoyama.com in April of 2006. However, the exact start date is lost to the ages thanks to the business ineptitude of a webhost owned by a part-time hair metal oldies band drummer. For whatever reason, I didn’t commemorate the first anniversary of Stuck In A Pagoda, but decided last year to make April 11th the official anniversary to coincide with the day my fiancee and I witnessed seeing Iggy Pop & The Stooges at the Electric Factory on 4.11.07. The clip of the Stooges doing “TV Eye” below was shot two days beforehand in New York City.
And to cover the other half of this blog’s usual musical equation and remain with the live concert theme, a live version of one of the best singles Morning Musume has done (to date) in that same three-year time period. No slouch to the rest of the top notch material the band has done in that time period (”Eago YES Nude”, “Mikan”, “Kanashimi Twilight”, etc.), but the choice was easy because it happens to be the most played Morning Musume song on my iTunes:
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I’m going to have to update that list I did last year for a later post.
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Posted by CJ Marsicano in Blondie, Green Day, J-Pop, Nirvana, Ramones, Rancid, Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Exploited, The Offspring, The Stooges
These two bits of news I came across were simply made for a blog that posts about both J-pop and punk rock!
Item one, from Anime News Network via PunkNews.org:
In what is perhaps the most unusual compilation seen so far this year, a number of Anime (Japanese Animation) voice actresses have collaborated on a new album where these actresses perform classic punk rock songs by the likes ofThe Clash, Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Offspring, Green Day, Rancid, The Exploited, Ramones. The Stooges and more.
The Anime News Network had the scoop. The record is titled Legendary Punk Songs Collection and is due out February 25, 2009. Sadly, we could not find samples of these songs.
- Halko Momoi – “Sex and Violence” (The Exploited)
- Haruna Ikezawa – “Basket Case” (Green Day)
- Kaori Shimizu – “White Riot” (The Clash)
- Mai Kadowaki – “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” (The Offspring)
- Rie Tanaka – “Anarchy In The UK” (SEX PISTOLS)
- Yuko Goto – “London’s Burning” (The Clash)
- Halko Momoi – “Call Me” (Blondie)
- Haruna Ikezawa – “God Save The Queen” (SEX PISTOLS)
- Kaori Shimizu – “Blitzkrieg Bop” (Ramones)
- Mai Kadowaki – “Search and Destroy” (Iggy & The Stooges)
- Rie Tanaka – “Ruby Soho” (Rancid)
- Yuko Goto – “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (Nirvana)
This looks way too interesting. A couple of the cover choices seem off the beaten path (The original version of the Exploited cover that starts this off was actually a filler track that the band made up in the studio during the sessions for their first LP, and I would have never expected anyone to cover Rancid), but this is too good to resist. I won’t have too long to wait: the album comes out next Wednesday.
In an almost opposite note, PunkNews.org reported today that MxPx’s next album, On the Cover II, is going to feature a cover version of The Blue Hearts’ “Linda Linda” (probably more familiar to many of you from Paranmaum’s cover version from the movie of the same name.) Now THAT sounds like it could be interesting. Or a train wreck. Or at least an interesting train wreck.
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When you’re a music lover, waking up one morning or turning on your TV or computer to find out one of your heroes is dead is always a terrible thing to have to endure. I went through it with John Lennon in 1980, D. Boon in 1985, Frank Zappa in 1993, Kurt Cobain in 1994, Joey Ramone in 2000 (with DeeDee and Johnny following him in subsequent years), Lisa Lopes in 2002, Johnny Cash in 2003, and now Ron Asheton of The Stooges today.
Anybody who knows me well knows that The Stooges, along with Morning Musume, are my top favorite bands. When the release date of The Stooges’ first album in over thirty years, The Weirdness, was approaching (along with their subsequent American tour), MotokoAoyama.com v.1 held a Stooges Watch. Witnessing the Stooges blow the roof off of the Electric Factory on April 11, 2007, was the greatest concert I have ever witnessed in my 41 years.
When D. Boon and Lisa Lopes were prematurely taken from us, I was beyond saddened as I loved both musicians and their respective bands, and their untimely demises (both resulting from auto accidents) ended any chance I would have of actually seeing The Minutemen or TLC perform live – and I had missed a couple of opportunities with both bands. While Ron Asheton’s sudden passing – said to be of a heart attack – is also a great loss for rock and roll, the pain I personally feel is not as extreme because I was fortunate to see them live, just as I would later be fortunate, thanks to my fiancee, to be handed a guitar signed by Ron, Iggy Pop and Ron’s brother Scott on Christmas Day 2007.
Ron, thank you and rest in peace. You will not be forgotten. While you’re reuniting with your long-lost Stooge brother Dave Alexander (original bassist on the band’s first album and Fun House), say hello to D., Lisa, Joey, DeeDee and Johnny for me.
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