Warthur When the first track on the legendarily confrontational Stooges' long-awaited reunion album is called "Trollin'", it's hard not to raise an eyebrow. Iggy Pop sings in the track in question about how "Rock critics wouldn't like this at all", and it's hard not to take that as a direct admission that as far as a followup to the band's legendary proto-punk releases at the dawn of the 1970s goes The Weirdness simply isn't up to scratch.

On albums such as Raw Power and (especially) the incredible Fun House the Stooges sounded like nothing anyone had heard before, and precious little that has come since; on The Weirdness, they sound like any other third-rate garage band. In fact, the closest point of comparison is Skull Ring, Iggy Pop's preceding solo album (on which the Stooges reunion first manifested), a piece which showed a similar total lack of good ideas. In short, I am left with the profound impression that Iggy got the Stooges back together simply because he ran out of better ideas, not because there was any material worthy of the band's illustrious past for them to perform.

UMUR "Raw Power" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US hard rock act The Stooges. The album was released through Columbia Records in February 1973. After the original Stooges lineup broke up after the release of their 2nd album "Fun House (1970)", Iggy Pop and guitarist James Williamson relocated to London after meeting David Bowie, who helped them get a deal with Columbia Records. After unsuccessfully searching for a bassist and a drummer, Pop and Williamson asked original Stooges members Scott and Ron Asheton to fly over to London and become members of the band again. Ron Asheton who had originally been the band´s guitarist, switched to bass. The band were still completely out there on drugs though and after/during touring in support of the album The Stooges split for a second time.

While the cover artwork depicts Iggy Pop in a sort of glam outfit, the music on "Raw Power" is anything but glam influenced. This is filthy and raw rock´n´roll delivered in an absolutely caustic fashion. Highly aggressive and adrenaline pumped, it´s no wonder "Raw Power" is almost universally hailed as one of the seminal proto punk albums. Iggy Pop sounds positively mad on the album. One moment on the verge of an emotional breakdown and the next commanding and aggressive. I don´t know if he didn´t shoot up for a couple of days before recording the album, but this sounds almost scary at times. Tracks like "Search and Destroy", "You're Pretty Face Is Going To Hell(Hard To Beat)" and the title track were definitely among the most aggressive sounding music released up until then. The band haven´t completely forgotten their jamming psychadelic past though and there are longer jamming type parts on the album too (and a couple of eerie and dark power ballads in "Gimme Danger" and "I Need Somebody"), but the tracks are generally shorter and more edgy than the earlier material by the band. The feeling that the music threatens to beat you to a pulp is not exactly diminished by the ultra raw sound production. If anyone thought the sound on the first two albums was raw, take a listen to this one.

Ultimately "Raw Power" is not the most consistent album and there are tracks that aren´t as great as the best ones on the album, but when the band hit the right notes, they do it with such conviction and fierce energy, that I´m left completely in awe. It´s not an easy album to rate but a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating isn´t all wrong.

UMUR "Fun House" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US hard rock/ proto punk act The Stooges. The album was released in July 1970 by Elektra Records. The Stooges have on several occasions expressed their dissatisfaction with the way their debut album ended up sounding. The band felt that Elektra Records pressured them into writing short vers/chorus based tracks when in fact their "real" sound was more based on extented jams. Therefore The Stooges made it their mission to make sure that "Fun House" would be to their satisfaction and represent what they really sounded like. The band travelled to Los Angeles and recorded the album in the 14 days between May 10th and May 24th of 1970 with producer Don Gallucci. Don Gallucci understood the band´s vision and set up a recording schedule where the band would record one track a day live in the studio. They would then pick the best version out of maybe 10-20 versions of each track and put on the album.

The band had some pretty bad drug habits already before going to Los Angeles but it was during these recording sessions that they were introduced to heroin. A drug several of the members would become addicted to and one of the main reasons for the band´s demise. The other main contributor to that demise was probably the fact that none of The Stooges albums sold very well upon initial release and they weren´t very well received by neither critics nor fans either. The Stooges are a classic case of posthumous fame and recognition.

The music on "Fun House" is a pretty interesting mix of several different music styles. You got the distorted hard rock riffing (take a listen to the opening riff in "T.V. Eye". That sounds like Motörhead to me), repetitive krautrock beats that remind me of artists like Can and Popol Vuh and then there´s the dark psychadelic rock vibe that reminds me of The Doors. Most of all you can just hear how much The Stooges enjoy playing and that´s always a positive experience. Lead vocalist Iggy Pop sounds absolutely mad on some of the tracks. The 7:45 minutes long jamming title track which includes saxophone playing by Steve McKay, is probably where you´ll heard Iggy Pop at his most out there, but also the closing noise jam "L.A. Blues" sets standards for chaotic madness. The latter is probably an aquired taste, but as far as I understand it´s tracks like "L.A. Blues" and "Fun House" that tell most about how The Stooges sounded on stage.

"Fun House" is a bold statement from a band that wasn´t even established yet. They took a chance with the relatively experimental approach and failed badly in commercial terms. They were soon after dropped by Elektra Records and the band went into a hiatus. They would resurface as Iggy & The Stooges and release "Raw Power (1973)" through Columbia Records but finally disbanded in early 1974. Alledgedly at this point Iggy Pop had become impossible to work with as a result of his heroin addiction. But that was a few years more down the line. "Fun House" may not have done the trick for the large part of music critics or for most music buyers but they had a cult following that would keep mentioning their name and ensure them a place in music history. The first prolific act to cover a song by The Stooges was The Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols included The Stooges track "No Fun" as the B-side to their 1977 "Pretty Vacant" single.

I can certainly understand the mixed reactions to "Fun House". If you come to the album expecting neatly arranged vers/chorus tracks you´ll be disappointed. If you come to the album expected tracks creating in the spirit of jamming you´ll be much more likely to enjoy the album. I enjoy every track on the album except for "L.A. Blues", which I actually find quite annoying. Noise for the sake of it, has never been my poison. Unfortunately that track has so much impact on my listening experience that I have to take away half a star from my rating. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is deserved.

UMUR "The Stooges" is the debut full-length studio album by US hard rock/proto punk act The Stooges. The album was released in August 1969 through Elektra Records.

The music is a distorted and noisy kind of hard rock and is understandably called proto punk by many. The snarling "fuck You" attitude is certainly there and considering the album was released in 1969 it´s at times a quite extreme hard rock album. To contrast the predominantly short and aggressive tunes the album also features the 10:18 minutes long "We Will Fall" which to my ears is a complete The Doors worship. Psychadelic, chanting, repetitive and bleak "We Will Fall" in many ways reminds me of "The End".

While the musicianship isn´t on the highest level, there´s an honesty and organic delivery about the whole affair that is rare. This is raw and "In your Face". Add to that lead vocalist Iggy Pop´s generally flippant attitude and the album comes off as a good example of a noisy and loud, sex, drugs and rock´n´roll type album.

The Stooges deliver with this album, there´s no doubt about that, but it´s also obvious that they weren´t very mature as songwriters yet, and not all tracks are queally interesting. Alledgedly the band didn´t have enough material to record a full-length studio album but The Stooges lied to Elektra Records and said they had enough material to enter the studio. That resulted in "Real Cool Time", "Not Right", and "Little Doll" being written so close to entering the studio, that The Stooges didn´t have time to rehearse them properly before recording them. Despite a few shortcomings I think "The Stooges" is a great debut album and a 3.5 star rating is warranted.

Warthur The original Metallic KO purported to be a release of the Stooges’ catastrophic final show, but in fact was extracts two different shows - both marred by horrendous amounts of hostility between the audience and the band - edited together. The two-CD version of the album finally gives Stooges fans the proper historical context by presenting both shows in as complete versions as exist.

The earlier show documented on here is disappointing - personally, I’d have booed this limp performance, even accounting for the shaky recording quality. Except for the opening of Heavy Liquid, the Stooges seem to be phoning it in, their languid and sloppy renditions of their Raw Power-era material lacking the energy and fury both of the album and of their legendary live performances from earlier in their career. The addition of Scott Thurston to the lineup on boogie-woogie piano is an interesting idea which just doesn’t work, and adds to the impression that the Stooges have vanished and been replaced by a lame bar band. Some of Iggy’s baiting of the audience is interesting to listen to, but since you can’t hear the heckling it’s a one-sided experience which doesn’t really give you much of an impression of what the audience were so angry about, but I guess the miserable state of the band might have had something to do with it.

The final show itself is a bit more interesting - Scott Thurston integrates into the band better, and Iggy seems to be more on the ball, and the sheer guts of the band to keep playing under the shower of debris that the audience was pelting them with on that fateful night is laudable. There has never been a more honest declaration of punk defiance than Iggy’s thunderous “ONE... TWO... FUCK YOU PRICKS!” count into Cock In My Pocket. But on balance, the sound quality is poor, better studio demos exist of the new tracks showcased, and on the whole the recording is more of a historical curiosity than a musically entertaining experience. The very definition of collectors only.