Iggy Pop has always surrounded himself with beautiful losers, from Ron and Scott Asheton in The Stooges to his current band, succinctly dubbed The Losers. Consisting of guitarists Jamie Hince and Andrew Watt, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Chad Smith, the lineup is only committed to exist for five live dates in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, but without a doubt will contribute to an exciting chapter in Pop’s long and winding career.
That chapter began with the January release of Pop’s latest album Every Loser. With production wunderkind Watt (Eddie Vedder, Ozzy Osbourne) in charge of recording, Smith pounded his set for a majority of the album, including on standout tracks “Frenzy,” “Strung Out Johnny” and “Modern Day Ripoff.” Guns ‘N’ Roses founding member McKagan played on several tracks with Watt and Jane’s Addiction bassists Eric Avery and Chris Chaney handled the low end for the rest of the album.
Hince is sort of the odd man out with no credits on the album, but even a cursory listen to the music he and Alison Mosshart have made as avant-garde rockers The Kills demonstrates how generations that came in the wake of Pop’s rise to fame have fruitfully expanded on his musical aesthetics. Few of Pop’s classmates in the college town of Ann Arbor would have predicted he would become one of the most dynamic live frontmen to ever prowl a concert stage, but that’s exactly what happened to the son of schoolteacher parents.
Pop’s mom and pop let young James Osterberg turn the master bedroom of their trailer home into a drum rehearsal space, and by age 14 he became part of the Southern Michigan music scene. Bob Seger, The MC5 and, ? and the Mysterians (“96 Tears”) were part of the live circuit Pop followed, and a job at a record store led to connecting with the Asheton brothers.
Pop taught Scott Asheton to play drums and, with Dave Alexander on bass, The Stooges set about creating a sound influenced by The Rolling Stones, John Coltrane, James Brown and the rhythmic sound of machine presses familiar to kids brought up in industrial areas. The Stooges recorded two proto-punk albums before collapsing in the wreckage of Pop’s heroin addiction.
Thus began the cycle of self-destruction and renewal that would characterize Pop’s career for nearly two decades. A meeting with David Bowie in the early ’70s would spark his creativity through that decade, with Hunt and Tony Fox Sales becoming the next brothers to back Pop for 1977’s Lust for Life. Pop’s songwriting had been influenced by the brothers’ father Soupy Sales, whose request that fans of his children’s show limit fan mail word length to 25 words directly inspired the minimalist lyricism of classic Stooges songs such as “1969” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”
Watt’s empathy for artists he grew up listening to was well applied to Every Loser. Expect Pop to play three or four songs from the new album amidst a heaping helping of Stooges and solo classics.
Palms, 8 p.m. April 29, starting at $59 plus tax and fee. ticketmaster.com
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