The Stooges - Fun House

The Stooges, "1970" (YSI link)

The Stooges, "T.V. Eye [Takes 7 & 8]" (YSI link)

The Stooges, "Fun House [Take 3]" (YSI link)

It's been a shitty day, see below for a better explanation of why. I had planned on dropping some more new remix-y goodness, but I kinda wanted to hear some loud, noisy shit all day that would make my eardrums hurt and help me get a little of that anger out. Some jagged, skinny white guys with out of tune guitars, maybe? Yes please. What's lying on the floor in my room, catching my eye as I plan this post? The Stooges' Fun House, quite possibly the most perfect fit for what I'm looking for.

I'm not a rock'n'roll fan or much of an expert. I've come to so much of the classic albums well after the fact, consider dance and rap far more important and interesting genres, loathe the rockists among us. The stuff that does catch my ear is the dirtiest, rawest stuff, the stuff that is all attitude and edge, that seems to be pushing against the rock sound. The Stooges are a great example, especially with this their greatest album, Fun House. It's hard to believe that this record dropped in 1970, years before the concept of punk was a thought in the mind of some journalist. The songs are this record don't sound like the prototype for what came later; they sound like what should have been the endpoint. It's all anarchy, destruction, sex, drugs, musical mayhem.

I went with my favorite songs from the album, the ones that really are completely sui generis. I was going to reference the Dead's most psychedelic jams, free jazz, punk, but whatever. The Stooges created something unique, taking from the various 'out' genres of the time, mixed lots of drugs and debauchery and ended up with this album. The liner notes detail the making of the record, which is a cool story in its own right. One song per day, tons of drugs (including their first taste of heroin, which would lead to the band's demise not longer after), nights at Sandy Koufax's hotel in LA. The music is raw, angry, self-loathing, almost like listening to a breakdown being recorded. It doesn't really make me feel better, but it does have a cathartic effect on the listener.

So yeah, this is essential shit. Go here and buy the remastered, 2 disc set that I've been discussing. It's an amazing document of a band on fire, a great chance to see how the music developed and how much great music was happening at that time. I'm going to put up some more angry, noisy, eardrum assaulting music this week. We'll get back to our regular dirty, filthy, fun shit next week.

-So, we learned last night that our landlord is going to try to evict us, with our last day being May 31st. I'm not going to get into the details, but if you are a lawyer, particularly one in New York City or dealing with real estate (or even better, both), please get at me. We're more than likely going to need someone to represent us, trying to come up with a recommendation or two.

-One thing the emergence of blogs has allowed the world to see is the right wing movement in all of its fake tough guy glory, waging wars from their desks and denigrating those who are "weak." Things reached their nadir yesterday in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacres. Check out these comments by John Derbyshire of the National Review and Nathaniel Blake at Human Events Online. They're so sad and pathetic, the rantings of little men who've never experienced real violence only the fantasy kind that fuels their ideology. What kind of human being responds to the massacre of 31 people by saying, "Something is clearly wrong with the men in our culture. Among the first rules of manliness are fighting bad guys and protecting others: in a word, courage. And not a one of the healthy young fellows in the classrooms seems to have done that. ..."? What kind of political movement creates this people?

-I wasn't going to say another word about Don Imus, as this finally seemed like a happy ending as that talentless bigot finally got his due. But, I had to point out these comments by Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post and CNN media critic. Or how about these ones, where he lets us in on the fact that journalists love Imus because he talks the way they do behind closed doors. I think that this gets at the heart of the problem, why the media has become so pathetic over the past few decades. It is a private boy's club, where disparaging blacks, gays, women and jews just doesn't seem that big of a deal. Digby has a good one on this, as does Joan Walsh and Gwen Ifill. Erik Nelson was onto Imus in 1995, sadly no one listened.

-Ugh.