The Worthlessness

Or: Why did they bother?

Let's get one thing clear. I paid a not inconsiderable amount of money to see the "reformed" Iggy and the Stooges in 2006, and so I could be accused of indulging in a particular creepy form of nostalgia. Fair enough. How many times has the bloated corpse of the racist Presley been exhumed for the sake of his fans? How many more bands from my youth are going to reform in order to "give something back to the fans" (read: said band has just been hit with a huge tax bill, and so it's time for them to get back on stage to pay the bills)? I'm not going to win any credibility points either for saying that I felt the Stooges to be an energetic and exciting experience, even if they were simply playing all the old faves.

The announcement of a new Stooges album (produced, sorry, "recorded" by Mr Steven Albini of Evanston, Illinois) certainly piqued my interest. Would they build upon what they had to create something new and striking, or would they bow to the inevitable and offer up a bunch of solid, workmanlike tunes? Initial press reviews of "The Weirdness" were less than praiseworthy, but I thought "fuck it" and purchased a CD, deciding to give it a listen that same evening.

Admittedly, I was pottering around in the kitchen whilst "The Weirdness" was spinning, with Iggy singing something about his dick, so perhaps my attention wasn't entirely on the new Stooges effort. Having got halfway through the CD, I thought to myself, "This sounds a lot like the rock bands that I've seen at the bottom end of a bill at the Bull & Gate ("legendary" North London pub/music venue)", which was not boding well at all. The drums seemed too loud, Ron Asheton's guitar was...where? Mike Watt was somewhere in the background plunking his bass, and Iggy was upfront (as always) trying his best to shock with his cock 'n' rock lyrics. As for the tunes themselves, shocking isn't the word. Nope, mundane, dull, obvious are the words coming up right now.

For me, this is the key why "The Weirdness" really doesn't cut it; I mean, I can't work up the passion to get angry about this disc. Where is the passion here? If the songs had really been played with genuine heart and soul, then the shortcomings of the songs may not have stuck out so much. Instead, it feels like Messrs Osterberg, Asheton and Asheton have got together to make an album because they can, and not because of a desire to create something together that they cannot get anywhere else in their lives. It says something when the back story of the creation of this album is way more interesting than the album itself.

I don't begrudge the Ashetons the chance to make some money out of the reunion (hell knows, they deserve it), or the Stooges for being able to piss off their fans by messing with "the legacy". They don't owe me anything. What fucks me off though is just how lazy they seem to have become on this album. Is this what these guys struggled through all those years ago, of poverty, lack of recognition and so forth, just to come up with this?