FUN HOUSE in Response to the Doors’ “Touch Me” Only and Masculine Adrenaline of “T.V
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MUSIC ALBUMS3 CONTINUED FROM P.52 That the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based outfit added third discs. The fourth CD cues the ultimate tenor saxophonist Steven Mackay to the fold Saturday night rock album, the dynamite lust FUN HOUSE in response to the Doors’ “Touch Me” only and masculine adrenaline of “T.V. Eye” on The Stooges roll a seven bolsters the claim. repeat 14 incendiary times before the band Suffice it to say, The Complete Fun House launches into the shake appeal of “1970.” BY AUSTIN POWELL Sessions offers the next best thing to Peeping The entire set peaks with the second and third On paper, it reads like a Guantánamo Bay Tom with Jim Morrison, a brutally detailed look takes of “Fun House” from disc No. 5, a nuclear interrogation technique. Rhino Handmade’s into the chaos and creation of a true master- detonation of primordial punk-fury, abrasive 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions offers piece. The concept’s normally reserved for jazz R&B, and voltaic jazz that not even the Prince 26 consecutive takes of “Loose” in the order titans like Miles Davis, with the collections of Darkness could summon. Like so much on in which the Stooges recorded them at L.A.’s serving as understudies to the various players The Complete Fun House Sessions, both pose two Elektra Sounds Recorders in May 1970, from involved or examinations of the tape manipula- equally difficult questions: “Why was another the top every time, false starts and studio ban- tion techniques of producer Teo Macero. From take even necessary?” and “How the hell did this ter included. The episode lasts more than 80 a historical perspective, this sort of audio voy- cut not make it onto the original album?” minutes. Even Iggy Pop tires momentarily. eurism’s fascinating, eavesdropping as tempos Disc six concludes with a downward spiral, “Take 107,” he cracks after the 21st attempt. subtly shift and the lyrics, particularly for “Down presenting 10 of 12 total takes of grunge pre- “Let’s just put out a single and not an album. Just There’s not a nook or cranny on the Street” and “T.V. Eye,” continue to evolve. cursor “Dirt” that empty into the confronta- a single of this. We’ll work on it all month.” According to the liner notes, the unfinished tional noise vacuum of “Freak,” an 18-minute “How ’bout an album with 22 takes of ‘I’m Iggy Pop doesn’t attempt to “Lost in the Future” was a surprise find to all maelstrom of free jazz and feral frustration Loose’?” counters engineer Brian Ross-Myring, squirm into vocally. parties involved, a completely forgotten blues that was edited into the album’s final 4:55 referring to the song by its original title. He got dirge that would’ve made an excellent b-side. send-off, “L.A. Blues.” Think of it as a 6-foot the last laugh. The overall effect’s akin to hitting a hot streak Truly revelatory is just how long and force- crawl into the grave. 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions in Vegas: It locks you into its own unshakeable fully the Stooges work at pinning down the The Stooges nail “Dirt” right out of the reproduces the entire recorded history of the rhythm, a proto-punk mantra repeating over band’s kerosene vision – an instant boiling- box, a harrowing account of addiction and Stooges’ landmark second album, the last and over and over again. Limited to 3,000 point intensity is reached and, more impor- desperation woven into European noir and to feature the original lineup of Pop, guitar- numbered copies upon its release in 1999, the tantly, maintained for the duration of the American blues. Iggy performs each take with ist Ron Asheton, his brother/drummer Scott boutique collection was recently reissued after sessions. Iggy proves a Cirque du Soleil-level scarring intensity, transforming into a loner Asheton, and late bassist Dave Alexander, being voted one of the best compilations ever contortionist throughout. There’s not a nook taunting death’s approach. In fact, you’d be who was fired in August of that same year. assembled by Rhino Handmade, the highly or cranny he doesn’t attempt to squirm into hard-pressed to determine which selection The box set expands the original 36 minutes collectable and Internet-only specialty divi- vocally. In the fifth take of “1970,” he actu- was ultimately pressed to vinyl – Alexander’s of primal idiocy into a nearly eight-hour-long sion of Rhino Records. ally starts growling, practically foaming at the skulking bass and Scott Asheton’s wobbly modern marvel, sequencing the 12 used tape Rumors persist that the Doors watched mouth as Ron Asheton and Mackay violently rhythms cast each murky scene – but only in reels across six CDs. A seventh slip-disc rep- these sessions through the studio’s two-way spur each other to the near six-minute peak. the last take does a second guitar enter near licates the radio single “Down on the Street” mirror. It makes sense. The Stooges’ epony- Each installment boasts a slightly differ- the five-minute mark. Its hypnotic repetition b/w “I Feel Alright (1970),” right down to the mous 1969 debut boasted serious credentials ent feel. The first disc works out most of lends an eerie otherness to the procession. overdubbed organ on the a-side, unofficially in the form of producer John Cale from the the kinks, serving as a near-complete rough That’s when it finally reaches perfection. N credited to producer and former Kingsmen Velvet Underground, while Iggy’s heathen draft of the album to come. The inexplicable Don Gallucci. antics were already thrusting into legend. “Loose” marathon dominates the second and CONTINUED ON P.56 BOX SETS CONTINUED FROM P.53 Chick Corea (Return to Forever), and guitarist cert venue Tanglewood. Bolstered by Keith John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra) for Jarrett and percussionist Airto Moreira and starters – what Greg Tate in his extensive with Gary Bartz replacing Shorter, the septet liner terms as a “jazz hybrid of Oppenheimer’s barrels through 45 minutes of a funk supreme Manhattan Project and the Cuban Revolution – high-voltage fusion that teeters on the brink – a band part thermonuclear think tank, part of free-jazz. Here, Davis swirls just above the guerrilla brigade.” As such, the work has chaos, bobbing and weaving between the hard been reissued in every conceivable fashion, grooves like prizefighter Jack Johnson. most notably 1998’s 4-CD The Complete (((( – Austin Powell Bitches Brew Sessions, which in turn was recently bundled into The Genius of Miles Davis. SYL JOHNSON Complementing the recent Kind of Blue deluxe Complete Mythology (Numero Group) box set, this lavishly packaged 40th-anniversa- Syl Johnson may not have reached the top ry legacy edition comes in a slipcase, detailed of the charts, but he never doubted his own by the warped, surrealistic iconography of the talent. The guitarist declared himself “more late Mati Klarwein, and boasts the original soul than Marvin, more funk than James,” and double LP on vinyl and a pair of CDs, with a like most of Johnson’s occasionally outland- ish claims, a boast like that is only a shade few alternate takes as well as single edits of Black, a masterpiece protest album and song or two from the truth. Beginning in the Windy “Great Expectations” and “Little Blue Frog” released well before Marvin Gaye’s What’s City’s late-1950s blues scene, performing MILES DAVIS from a second session with Herbie Hancock. Going On. Even omitting Johnson’s later Hi with Jimmy Reed and Junior Wells – an influ- Bitches Brew: 40th Anniversary A previously unreleased DVD of Davis’ Second recordings, this behemoth is impressive by ence apparent on the bluesy R&B sides he (Sony/Legacy) Great Quintet – Shorter, Corea, bassist Dave the numbers alone: 81 tracks of Johnson’s recorded for Federal from 1959 to 1962 – A singular act of erotic liberation and Holland, and Jack DeJohnette behind the kit – early career appear both on six LPs and four Johnson first made his mark on the Twinight/ psychedelic transformation, Bitches Brew in Copenhagen, November 1969, captures the CDs while nearly 50 pages of liner notes and Twilight labels, cracking Top 20 on the R&B crowns Miles Davis’ electric era. Radical and bandleader halfway through his Betty Davis- archival photos unravel the twisting tale of the charts in 1967 with “Come On Sock It to Me” prophetic, the 1970 masterpiece created its led wardrobe/tonal makeover. Corea’s mad would-be soul superstar. As the man himself and “Different Strokes.” The latter proved own Creole language, a divine concoction of science, especially on bookends “Directions” puts it: “This is more than just a box set to Johnson’s financial stability three decades ultra jazz-funk, defiantly black R&B, and revo- and “It’s About That Time/The Theme,” spikes me. This is the history of a masterful artist later when Wu-Tang Clan mined the song’s lutionary rock & roll, masterfully assembled by this serene and otherwise acoustic 70-minute whose time has just arrived.” wicked grunts, drum breaks, and staccato producer Teo Macero. The sessions featured flight of fancy. Nine months later, the Prince ((((N – Thomas Fawcett horns. Two years later, in 1970, Johnson’s a village of vanguard fusionists – saxophon- of Darkness ruled a different realm – rock artistic peak came with Is It Because I’m ist Wayne Shorter (Weather Report), pianist venues, in this case, famed Berkshires con- CONTINUED ON P.56 54 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E DECEMBER 17, 2010 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e .