Skull Ring [PA]

Performer: Iggy Pop
Artist: Peaches; The Stooges; Green Day; Sum 41
Engineer: Chris Dugan; Chris Carroll; John Ewing, Jr.; Michael "Elivs" Baskette
Producer: Greig Nori
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel includes: Iggy Pop (vocals); The Stooges, Peaches, Sum 41, Green Day, The Trolls. Principally recorded at The Hit Factory Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida. This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Personnel: Iggy Pop (vocals); Deryck Whibley (vocals, guitar); Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, background vocals); Dave Baksh, Ron Asheton, Whitey Kirst (guitar); Taylor Savvy (lap steel guitar); Steve Jocz, Scott Asheton, Tre Cool, Alex Kirst (drums). Audio Mixers: Chris Dugan; Chris Carroll ; Randy Staub . Recording information: Cello Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Studio 880, Berkeley, CA; The Hit Factory Criteria Studios, Miami, FL. Photographer: Mark Mann. In terms of sonic fingerprints, 2003's SKULL RING is as close as solo Iggy Pop had come to the classic Stooges sound since the `70s. By this time, Iggy had reunited with the surviving Stooges, who back him on four cuts. Accordingly, those tracks are full of raw, punky fervor, but so are most of the other cuts here. In addition to his regular (non-Stooges) band, Iggy is backed variously by Green Day and Sum 41, who add a fresh punch to the old master's rock & roll drive. Peaches joins in for a couple of duets as well, which turn out to be some of the rawest, most agreeably unhinged moments on the album. SKULL RING would be Iggy's last solo release for some time, as he would soon launch himself into a full-scale Stooges reunion project. One of the key rules of rock & roll is there are some artists you can never count out -- no matter how many lame records they may make, no matter how misguided their career direction might seem, they always hold the promise that they'll jump back in the loop and deliver the goods again. Iggy Pop delivered a solid one-two punch (for the first time in a while) with Brick by Brick and American Caesar in 1990 and 1993, but after ten years and three major duds in a row (the uninspired Naughty Little Doggie and the strikingly faulty Avenue B and Beat 'Em Up), you just had to wonder if maybe the World's Forgotten Boy had finally lost the magic touch for good. Of course, Iggy's career had always offered plenty of opportunities for such thinking, and just as he had in the past, Iggy came back to shut down the disbelievers with a solid slice of prime rock & roll called Skull Ring. The big news is that, on four cuts, Skull Ring marks Pop's first studio collaboration with the Stooges since Raw Power in 1973, and thankfully Ron Asheton's gloriously primal guitar riffs sound as brilliant as ever, and mix with Iggy's bestial wail like gin and tonic; if "Little Electric Chair" and "Skull Ring" don't quite pick up where Fun House left off, they make it clear the monster that is the Stooges can still shake the Earth when they have a notion. If the rest of Skull Ring doesn't quite reach the same level of solar plexus impact as the Stooges cuts, Iggy flies high enough on the rock juice that this set blasts like an M-80 from start to finish; Iggy's road band, the Trolls, redeem themselves after their cringe-worthy debut on Beat 'Em Up, electro-punk diva Peaches proves she's just libidinous enough to keep up with Iggy (and they goad one another into truly glorious rudeness), Green Day back the godfather of punk with spunk, enthusiasm, and lots of energy, and even Sum 41 give as good as they get (which is a lot more than you might expect from them). Skull Ring doesn't always capture Iggy at his best as a lyricist, but here what he says isn't half as important as how he says it, and he hasn't sounded this right -- and had music this potent backing him up -- in a decade, and the result is a big, sweaty, high-octane rock & roll session from a guy who practically defined the form. Like I said, you can't ever count Iggy out, and Skull Ring demonstrates why. ~ Mark Deming

Rolling Stone (11/27/03, p.93) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...He's still plenty capable of sounding like the original dead-end kid wriggling out of a straitjacket...[Iggy and the surviving Stooges] still sound like the blue-collar skull-crushers they once were..." Entertainment Weekly (11/7/03, p.70) - "...When Iggy and the Ashetons buzz through [their tunes, it feels] all right..." - Rating: B Q (01/01/04, p.76) - Ranked #36 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums of 2003" - "Cartoonish, primal and primal..." Uncut (11/03, p.118) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Rest assured that Iggy's music is as powerfully singular as ever. SKULL RING throbs with ferocious intent..." Magnet (11/03, pp.88-9) - "...This ring is brass - good, solid..." CMJ (10/20/03, p.8) - "...[On] SKULL RING, the 56-year-old wild child looks both forward and back....The obvious standouts are the four Stooges numbers..." Mojo (Publisher) (10/03, pp.106-7) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...It confirms Iggy as a man who, after all these years, is still remarkably in love with his first love: rock'n'roll..."

James Osterberg began his musical career in 1964, playing in various Detroit bands but most famously in the Iguanas, where he acquired the nickname Iggy Pop. Inspired by the dirty sound of Chicago blues, a Doors live performance, and garage-band aesthetics, Pop formed the hugely influential proto-punk band the Stooges, combining primal rock power with an explosive, often violent stage show. Splitting up the band in 1974, Pop relocated to Berlin, and with the help of admirer David Bowie, kickstarted his long, successful solo career. Remaining an icon of the old-school punk-rock guard, Iggy Pop continues to record, and has also acted in films such as Jim Jarmusch's DEAD MAN and John Waters's CRY BABY.

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