You can't be a Stooge your whole life. Especially not after you've been out of practice for 37 years. Believe it or not, that's how long it's been since the original nucleus of The Stooges -- singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton and his brother Scott (Rock Action) Asheton on drums -- recorded their proto-punk doofus-opus Funhouse.
(Yeah, yeah, they also played together on 1973's Raw Power, but Ron played bass and they had a different guitarist, so it doesn't count.) Regrouping after that long is hard enough. But picking up where you left off -- and hoping to capture the same lightning in that recycled bottle?
That's nigh on impossible. And much as it pains us to say this, the reconstituted Stooges don't even come close on their much-anticipated comeback album The Weirdness. The problem is not that the dum dum boys have gotten older.
It's that they've gotten better -- mellower, wiser, straighter. They are no longer the unpredictable idiot savants of old. As a result, their music no longer has the same volatility, the same danger, the same -- well, raw power.
Though not for lack of trying. The Weirdness kicks off in high gear with the chugging punch of Trollin' and never really lets up, with the trio (joined here by old sax sideman Andy McKay and ex-Minuteman Mike Watt on bass in place of the late Dave Alexander) blasting through a dozen high-energy riff-rockers, consciously avoiding the droning sludgefests and free-jazz freakouts that were the flip side of The Stooges' coin back in the day. That would make for an OK outing -- albeit a fairly monotonous one -- if the tunes and performances were top-notch.
They aren't. Asheton's guitar is the main offender. There's just too much of it.
He used to build a mighty wall of sound from three power chords; now he's trying to bury us with notes, piling too many solos on top of too many busy, distorted riffs and generally sounding like a guy trying to conceal a lack of ideas with a lot of activity. Iggy doesn't help matters. He spends much of the album trapped in that high-register yelp that has never really worked for him -- and to make matters worse, he contributes some of the most banal and unimaginative lyrics of his career.
The rhythm section fares better -- Scott Asheton still bashes away like a guy who just walked in off the street, while Watt stays in the shadows like the pro he is. Finally, engineer Steve Albini's anti-production doesn't do anybody any favours. Recording the band with minimal effects and an unchanging mix may fit somebody's idea of keeping it authentic, man, but it also makes for a muddy, dull time.
Plus it exposes every flaw, flub and slip, making the band sound not only underrehearsed but disinterested. Still, if you listen hard enough, The Weirdness has its moments. The title cut is a bluesy slowburner where Iggy finally brings out his croony baritone; the hard-grooving Mexican Girl has a rapid-fire vocal that namechecks everyone from Zappa to Dr.
Phil; I'm Fried is a potent little firecracker with a mini-skronkfest for a solo. And sprinkled throughout the disc, there's a cool wah-wah lick here, a decent lyrical couplet there, a searing solo everywhere. They just don't add up to much.
Ultimately, these tunes aren't even as good as the toe-in-the-water reunion cuts they did in 2004 for Iggy's Skull Ring album. And they sure can't hold a candle to the primal genius of I Wanna Be Your Dog, Loose or 1969. "Rock critics won't like this at all," Iggy boasts at one point.
Fair enough. Thing is, neither will anybody who's been a Stooges fan their whole life. 4.
Idea of Fun 6. Free and Freaky 9.
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