If You're Alone and You Got the Shakes

Iggy Pop's always fascinating 6Music show finds him in grizzled elder statesman mode, a long way from my original introduction to the man and his music via the Iggy & the Stooges LP 'Raw Power'. In 1973 I dug deep into pocket money reserves to a secure copy of the album without having heard a note, based entirely on the Bowie connection and discovered that although I didn't know what the hell this music was, the dense onslaught of sound was utterly thrilling. At the same time, every article I read and photo I saw of the band frankly terrified me. I was 13 years old at the time and would subsequently meander through the highways and byways of Glam, Heavy Rock, Metal and Prog before reacquainting myself with exactly this kind of glorious racket towards the end of the 1970s. 

Iggy & the Stooges - Raw Power

Head over to The (New) Vinyl Villan and enjoy Swiss Adam's excellent Iggy Pop ICA.

Featuring Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop surprised us all in 2016, with his from-out-of-nowhere belter of an LP, 'Post Pop Depression'. This year, the focus of Iggy's attention has been on a series of guest slots on other artists records. Not all of them have hit the spot - I'm yet to be won over by the charms of his vocal on the Songhoy Blues track 'Sahara' for example, but elsewhere he's put in impressively intense performances on 'Aggrophobe' by Manchester's Pins and Oneohtrix Point Never's 'The Pure and the Damned'.

Iggy Pop

The video contained within the previous post must rank as one of the weirdest oddities that I've ever shared. Today though, it's a return to serious business. A couple of weeks ago, Iggy Pop announced the impending release of his new album, 'Post Pop Depression', on Stephen Colbert's Late Show. 'Post Pop Depression' is produced by Josh Homme, who also plays on the album along with fellow Queen of the Stoneager Dean Fertita and Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys. On the night, the ad hoc band turned in terrific live versions of two songs from the record, 'Gardenia' and 'Break Into Your Heart'.