News

Iggy Pop was honored with the Icon award at last night’s GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2014 at London’s Royal Opera House. Here’s a recap of some of the honorees and Iggy’s win:

His on-stage convulsions were influenced by Jim Morrison, but Iggy came to define the marriage between performance and art by taking things to the bleeding edge of acceptability. …On winning, Iggy says, “F****** thanks. Thanks GQ for taking me to dinner in such a nice place. All these glittering people.”

Read more at GQ Magazine.

THE STOOGES’ GUITAR LEGEND JAMES WILLIAMSON’S NEW VINYL-ONLY SINGLE “I GOTTA RIGHT”/”HEAVY LIQUID” WITH THE BELLRAYS’ LISA KEKAULA IS OUT NOW!

THIS IS THE SECOND SINGLE FROM JAMES WILLIAMSON’S FORTHCOMING SOLO STUDIO ALBUM “RE-LICKED,” WHERE HE’LL BE JOINED BY A NUMBER OF GREAT GUEST VOCALISTS RE-INTERPRETING LESSER-KNOWN STOOGES RARITIES

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO JAMES WILLIAMSON & LISA KEKAULA’S “I GOT A RIGHT”

Following the release of his recent Record Store Day exclusive single “Gimme Some Skin”/”Open Up & Bleed,” The Stooges’ James Williamson has released his second single from his forthcoming solo album Re-Licked.

On it, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist has enlisted The Bellrays’ vocalist Lisa Kekaula for the songs “I Got A Right” (originally penned by Iggy Pop circa 1970) and “Heavy Liquid” (written by Pop & Williamson circa ’73). Backed by the driving force of Steve Mackay, Mike Watt & drummer Toby Dammit (all from the live touring version of The Stooges), along with backing vocals from Petra Haden, Williamson’s snarling, incendiary guitar riffs spar perfectly with Kekaula’s own soul-shaking, hair-raising vocal deliveries on these two early Stooges rarities.

Williamson’s Re-Licked (to be released in the fall of 2014) will also feature other lesser-known Stooges tracks properly recorded and mixed for the first time. Songs such as “Rubber Legs,” “She Creatures of the Hollywood Hills,” “Scene of the Crime,” “Wild Love” and others will be fronted by a wealth of talented vocalists such as Jello Biafra, Mark Lanegan, Alison Mosshart, The Orwell’s Mario Cuomo, Ariel Pink, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, Carolyn Wonderland and others.

The 7″ vinyl single of James Williamson’s “I Gotta Right”/”Heavy Liquid” is now available online in the U.S. through Insound here, in Europe here, and can also be found in finer record stores worldwide.

James Williamson (Photo: Heather Harris)

FOR MORE INFO ON JAMES WILLIAMSON:
http://straightjameswilliamson.com

Lisa Kekaula (Photo: Heather Harris)

FOR MORE INFO ON LISA KEKAULA & THE BELLRAYS:
https://www.facebook.com/IamLisaKekaula
www.thebellrays.com

It would’ve been Scott’s birthday today. #peoplewemiss

The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard, the longform documentary about the classic L.A. garage-punk band, directed by Neil Norman, will have its premiere Aug. 16 at the Egyptian Theatre at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood.

…The Seeds — led by charismatic singer Sky Saxon, along with keyboard player Daryl Hooper, guitarist Jan Savage and drummer Rick Andridge — were all emigres to early ’60s Hollywood. After building a reputation in underground clubs such as Bido Litos, the group busted out in late 1966 with the classic anthem “Pushin’ Too Hard,” which went Top 40 nationally in early 1967.

Using vintage footage, rare photos, memorabilia and audio, and fresh interviews with bandmembers and associates, the documentary also includes interviews with fans of the band, like Iggy Pop, the Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston, Love’s Johnny Echols and members of the Bangles, with narration by original GTO and I’m With the Band author Pamela Des Barres.

Read more at The Hollywood Reporter.

Happy Birthday, Ron!
#peoplewemiss

Bold move, Sailor Jerry! Iggy and the Stooges and “T.V. Eye” are featured in a new Sailor Jerry ad campaign, “Outside The Lines.”

The Stooges have come in at number 5 on The Telegraph’s list of Glastonbury’s greatest acts, with their 2007 performance turning “a mud-sodden, rainswept Somerset field into a howling blues-punk apocalypse, topped by a riotous stage invasion.”

Read the complete list at The Telegraph.

Here is an excerpt from a rare interview with Scott Asheton. Read more at Vice:

Actually, the way the whole thing began was with me and Dave Alexander and my brother Ron, before we even knew Iggy. We had a band, but we weren’t players yet. We liked the idea of playing in a band, but we weren’t up to being able to play on stage. Mostly, we would sit in the basement and sing along with records. We almost got one song semi-down, and that was “The Bells of Rhymney” by the Byrds. And we called ourselves the Dirty Shames.

We used to go uptown to the record store, Discount Records, and there was a spot right on the corner or Lilly and State Street and we’d hangout there. Everyone would have to come through there, so we’d check everyone out and be checked out by other people.

It’s a kid thing—that’s why you wear purple hair, and that’s why you put a ring in your nose, ’cause you want people to look at you. So we were wearing leather and boots and Levi’s. Pointed shoes were what you wanted—the more pointed and longer, the better. They were mostly used in fights—that’s why guys used to wear big, pointy shoes, and originally the idea of leather was to protect you from knives and stuff. And we were already wearing that stuff; you know, we were the first to do it.

Most of you have seen the image that had been circulating since last week. Here is an official apology letter from Amnesty International for using Iggy’s image without consent.

Guitarist/producer James Williamson, best known for his frenetic fretwork with Iggy Pop and The Stooges, will release solo album Re-Licked in the fall. Meanwhile, he’s serving up “I Got A Right,” a manic, guitar-blazing rocker featuring belter Lisa Kekaula of The Bellrays.

The song, penned by Pop circa 1970, will be released July 29 as a seven-inch vinyl and digital single, backed by “Heavy Liquid,” which Williamson wrote with Pop in 1973. It can be pre-ordered here.

Read more and listen to the premiere of “I Got A Right” at USA Today.

Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Thurston Moore have joined forces on a cover of “Nobody’s City” for Axels & Sockets: The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project, to be released May 5 on Glitterhouse Records. The Guardian writes, “The track makes a roof-raising start to the project that brings together Jeffrey’s old friends, fans and band members to keep aloft the name of the Gun Club leader.”

“Jeffrey Lee Pierce!” There’s no mistaking the first voice to be heard on Axels & Sockets, the third volume of the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project. It’s Iggy Pop’s celebratory holler on the opening track, “Nobody’s City.” He’s then joined by further inimitable tones from Nick Cave and Thurston Moore, whose incendiary guitar jousts with Pierce’s original riff. This is then welded together by Bad Seeds drummer Jim Sclavunos, who had previously worked with Iggy on a Cramps tribute album.

Listen to “Nobody’s City” and read more at The Guardian.

Iggy and the Stooges were among the winners at this year’s Detroit Music Awards, held April 25. The band’s most recent album, Ready To Die, released on Fat Possum Records, was recognized as Outstanding National Small/Independent Label Distribution Album.

Read the complete list of winners at DetroitMusicAwards.com.