10425 - JAMES WILLIAMSON - RE-LICKED (2014)
JAMES WILLIAMSON
''RE-LICKED''
2014
65:28
**********
1 Head on the Curve 04:18 With Jello Biafra
2 Open up and Bleed 04:28 With Carolyn Wonderland
3 Scene of the Crime 02:51 With Bobby Gillespie
4 She Creatures of the Hollywood 04:38 With Ariel Pink (Ron Asheton, Iggy Pop)
5 Til' the End of the Night 05:28 With Alison Mosshart
6 I Got a Right 02:19 With Lisa Kakaula (Iggy Pop)
7 Pin Point Eyes 05:02 With Joe Cardamone
8 Wild Love 04:46 With Alison Mosshart
9 Rubber Leg 04:26 With Ron Young
10 I'm Sick of You 05:48 With Mario Cuomo
11 Gimme Some Skin 02:37 With Carolyn Wonderland
12 Cock In My Pocket 02:42 With Nicke Andersson
13 Heavy Liquid 04:50 With Lisa Kakaula
14 Wet My Bed 03:57 With The Richmond Sluts
15 Cock in My Pocket 02:43 With Gary Floyd
16 Rubber Leg 04:25 With J.G. Thirlwell
Tracks By Iggy Pop & James Williamson, Except 4, 6
**********
REVIEW
Philip Cosores, consequenceofsound.net
When Stooges guitarist James Williamson released Re-Licked late last year, it was not without controversy. Rolling Stone published an article explaining the story behind the album: Williamson teamed with the touring band (bassist Mike Watt, saxophonist Steve Mackay, and drummer Toby Dammit) to record an album of song’s penned by Iggy Pop, which were originally intended to be the follow-up to Raw Power in the ’70s but were never properly recorded and only previously released as live versions and bootlegs.
The strange thing is that Williamson, with Pop taking a year off, opted to record with guest vocalists. The Rolling Stone article notes that Pop did not really appreciate this and released the following statement after the article was published: “Iggy was never given an opportunity to participate on the album. He found out about the project in December of 2013 after it was rejected by a Chicago label.”
Hopefully, the release hasn’t put an additional strain on the relationship between Pop and Williamson, but that same Rolling Stone article also has Williamson saying that a tour behind the album was unlikely, adding, “I suppose we could consider something in major markets like New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and London, but to pull 13 singers together for a show? Fuck. That would be almost impossible.”
Almost impossible, but that’s exactly what happened on Friday night at the small Bootleg Theatre in Los Angeles, where a number of the album’s singers, including the Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra, The Kills’ and The Dead Weather’s Alison Mosshart, the Icarus Line’s Joe Cardomone, and many others sang the songs with Williamson, trying to reimagine the energy of the Stooges decades after the songs were intended to be delivered.
For its part, the show went smoothly, a feat that is noteworthy when switching singers for literally every song. Williamson is the strong and silent type, addressing the crowd with hardly more than a wave and letting the rotating cast of singers be the mouthpieces they are intended to be.
There were obviously high points and filler. Biafra opened the show as a man possessed, leaping, his warbly yelp a trademark that is still impressive to hear live. Cardomone seemed more on point than anyone, singing both his song and filling in for Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie. (Gillespie was one of a few vocalists who did not attend, which also included Ariel Pink, Mark Lanegan, and The Orwells’ Mario Cuomo.)
And then there was Alison Mosshart, who by far was the biggest draw besides Williamson himself. Mosshart did less in terms of actual singing than she did simply by being a presence, which is an accomplishment in its own respect. Mosshart’s mere presence on a stage is enough to enrapture an audience. When she reappeared for a stumbling duet with Jesse Malin later in the night, the crowd was happy just to have her back.
The night would go on to feature a group jam of “Search and Destroy” that pleased a crowd full of Stooges devotees, many with gray hair that betrayed the longevity of their fandom. Time will tell where the Stooges go from here, and undoubtably this would have been a more special affair with Iggy involved. But for what it was, a one-off of rotating front-people having a blast onstage, it left the audience pleased and satisfied.
**********
REVIEW/AMG
Mark Deming
James Williamson's feral guitar work on Iggy & the Stooges' epochal Raw Power in 1973 has proven to be wildly influential with the passage of time, but it's also the sole basis for his legend in the minds of many fans. While Williamson collaborated with Iggy Pop on the fine Kill City album (released in 1976), and he produced Pop's 1979 effort New Values, the trail of his career goes cold after that. To take him at his word, Williamson had barely even picked up a guitar for 25 years after he quit rock & roll to study engineering in 1980, and before he reunited with the Stooges in 2009 following the death of original guitarist Ron Asheton. Presumably interested in reaffirming his musical legacy (and with the Stooges on hiatus after the death of drummer Scott Asheton), Williamson returned to a fascinating but often overlooked body of work -- the songs he and Pop wrote and demoed for the projected follow-up to Raw Power that was scrapped when Columbia dropped the band. These songs have appeared on a remarkable number of bootleg and semi-authorized albums, but Williamson decided to re-record them on the album Re-Licked, with a battalion of guest vocalists taking the place of Pop, who declined to participate in the project. In promotional interviews, Williamson says he hated hearing the sound of the various releases of the demos (ironically, it's widely reported that the sources for most of those bootlegs were tapes Williamson himself sold to small labels when he was in dire financial circumstances), and by comparison, Re-Licked sounds big, bold, and glossy, with the full-bodied production and mix those demos (and Raw Power) lacked. Williamson used two core bands on Re-Licked, one anchored by Mike Watt on bass and Toby Dammit on drums (who played on the Stooges live dates in support of 2013's Ready to Die), the other featuring bassist Simone Marie Butler (from Primal Scream) and drummer Michael Urbano; both are capable and drive the songs well, and Williamson's guitar work is as good as ever from a technical standpoint. But Williamson's leads lack the edgy fire he brought to his mid-'70s demos, and no amount of engineering talent can compensate for that. More importantly, Williamson may have written this music, but Iggy Pop wrote the lyrics, and though there are a handful of good to great singers on board here -- including Mark Lanegan, Gary Floyd, Bobby Gillespie, Lisa Kekaula, Nicke Andersson, and Jello Biafra -- none of them match the lunatic intensity Iggy gave these songs, and the sonically challenged bootlegs of "Head On," "Scene of the Crime," and "I Got a Right" still pack more rock & roll snazz than these new versions. James Williamson has every right in the world to take another shot at these songs, but Re-Licked falls short of the grubby magic of those buzzy demos he recorded so long ago.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Greg Prato
During their short yet highly influential career, the Stooges featured two guitarists - first Ron Asheton, then James Williamson. Whereas Asheton's style was earthy and entirely feel-based (feeding off the other members), Williamson's playing was aggressive and in-your-face and it was almost as if the rest of the group was trying to keep up with him. Born in Castroville, TX (a small town just outside of San Antonio), Williamson was raised by his mother and strict military stepfather. By the sixth grade, Williamson took up the guitar after being inspired by the likes of the Beach Boys and the Ventures, and by the eighth grade, Williamson had relocated with his family to Michigan. It was around this time that Williamson joined his first band, the Chosen Few, and discovered the harder sounds of the British Invasion (namely the Rolling Stones), which in turn toughened up his playing style. After doing time in a juvenile home, Williamson returned to the Chosen Few, and befriended the group's new bassist -- Ron Asheton.
The band broke up shortly thereafter, with Asheton eventually switching to the six-string and going on to form the Stooges by the late '60s, along with Asheton's brother Scott on drums, bassist Dave Alexander, and the incomparable frontman Iggy Pop. Williamson befriended the group (even visiting the group in New York City as they recorded their self-titled debut in 1969). A year after the Stooges issued their sophomore release, 1970's Funhouse, Williamson joined the group as a second guitarist (with Alexander being replaced by several other bassists). With most of the bandmembers full-blown drug addicts by this point and with underwhelming record sales, the new lineup split up by 1972 after getting dropped by Elektra.
Later the same year, a clean and sober Iggy Pop met David Bowie, who in turn helped him get his career back on track -- hooking Pop up with his management (MainMan), and eventually offering his services to produce Pop's next album (preceded by a new recording contract with Columbia). Instead of re-enlisting all of his former Stooges pals, Pop only invited Williamson to join him in England to try and put together a new lineup together. When the auditions proved unfruitful, the Asheton brothers were asked to re-join, with Asheton moving to bass. The ensuing album, 1973's Raw Power, resulted in another timeless rock classic, almost single-handedly inventing what would soon be known as punk rock.
But once again, the album failed to perform up to expectations, as many of the bandmembers sank back into hardcore drug abuse, resulting in the Stooges' final demise in 1974. Despite Pop being in a deteriorating mental state, he and Williamson united to cut some demos in hopes of attracting the interest of a new label. When they couldn't find any takers, the duo went their separate ways (Pop would check himself into a psychiatric hospital before launching a successful solo career), although the tracks would eventually see the light of day on the 1977 release Kill City.
Williamson subsequently turned his back on music -- going to school to become an electronic engineer, and eventually getting involved in electronics and computers in Silicon Valley. In 1979, Williamson took a short break from his computer career to produce and play guitar on Pop's third solo studio album, the new wave-ish New Values, while his guitar playing was showcased on numerous post-mortem live/demo Stooges collections (usually not the best of quality) -- Metallic K.O., I Got a Right, I'm Sick of You, Studio Sessions, Jesus Loves the Stooges, etc. Despite only appearing on one official Stooges album during his career, Williamson's hellraising guitar licks nonetheless influenced a legion of subsequent hard rock/punk players, including Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Johnny Ramone (the Ramones), Greg Ginn (Black Flag), and Slash (Guns N' Roses), among countless others.
**********
WIKIPEDIA
**********
WEBSITE
**********
TO THE TOP
**********
''RE-LICKED''
2014
65:28
**********
1 Head on the Curve 04:18 With Jello Biafra
2 Open up and Bleed 04:28 With Carolyn Wonderland
3 Scene of the Crime 02:51 With Bobby Gillespie
4 She Creatures of the Hollywood 04:38 With Ariel Pink (Ron Asheton, Iggy Pop)
5 Til' the End of the Night 05:28 With Alison Mosshart
6 I Got a Right 02:19 With Lisa Kakaula (Iggy Pop)
7 Pin Point Eyes 05:02 With Joe Cardamone
8 Wild Love 04:46 With Alison Mosshart
9 Rubber Leg 04:26 With Ron Young
10 I'm Sick of You 05:48 With Mario Cuomo
11 Gimme Some Skin 02:37 With Carolyn Wonderland
12 Cock In My Pocket 02:42 With Nicke Andersson
13 Heavy Liquid 04:50 With Lisa Kakaula
14 Wet My Bed 03:57 With The Richmond Sluts
15 Cock in My Pocket 02:43 With Gary Floyd
16 Rubber Leg 04:25 With J.G. Thirlwell
Tracks By Iggy Pop & James Williamson, Except 4, 6
**********
REVIEW
Philip Cosores, consequenceofsound.net
When Stooges guitarist James Williamson released Re-Licked late last year, it was not without controversy. Rolling Stone published an article explaining the story behind the album: Williamson teamed with the touring band (bassist Mike Watt, saxophonist Steve Mackay, and drummer Toby Dammit) to record an album of song’s penned by Iggy Pop, which were originally intended to be the follow-up to Raw Power in the ’70s but were never properly recorded and only previously released as live versions and bootlegs.
The strange thing is that Williamson, with Pop taking a year off, opted to record with guest vocalists. The Rolling Stone article notes that Pop did not really appreciate this and released the following statement after the article was published: “Iggy was never given an opportunity to participate on the album. He found out about the project in December of 2013 after it was rejected by a Chicago label.”
Hopefully, the release hasn’t put an additional strain on the relationship between Pop and Williamson, but that same Rolling Stone article also has Williamson saying that a tour behind the album was unlikely, adding, “I suppose we could consider something in major markets like New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and London, but to pull 13 singers together for a show? Fuck. That would be almost impossible.”
Almost impossible, but that’s exactly what happened on Friday night at the small Bootleg Theatre in Los Angeles, where a number of the album’s singers, including the Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra, The Kills’ and The Dead Weather’s Alison Mosshart, the Icarus Line’s Joe Cardomone, and many others sang the songs with Williamson, trying to reimagine the energy of the Stooges decades after the songs were intended to be delivered.
For its part, the show went smoothly, a feat that is noteworthy when switching singers for literally every song. Williamson is the strong and silent type, addressing the crowd with hardly more than a wave and letting the rotating cast of singers be the mouthpieces they are intended to be.
There were obviously high points and filler. Biafra opened the show as a man possessed, leaping, his warbly yelp a trademark that is still impressive to hear live. Cardomone seemed more on point than anyone, singing both his song and filling in for Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie. (Gillespie was one of a few vocalists who did not attend, which also included Ariel Pink, Mark Lanegan, and The Orwells’ Mario Cuomo.)
And then there was Alison Mosshart, who by far was the biggest draw besides Williamson himself. Mosshart did less in terms of actual singing than she did simply by being a presence, which is an accomplishment in its own respect. Mosshart’s mere presence on a stage is enough to enrapture an audience. When she reappeared for a stumbling duet with Jesse Malin later in the night, the crowd was happy just to have her back.
The night would go on to feature a group jam of “Search and Destroy” that pleased a crowd full of Stooges devotees, many with gray hair that betrayed the longevity of their fandom. Time will tell where the Stooges go from here, and undoubtably this would have been a more special affair with Iggy involved. But for what it was, a one-off of rotating front-people having a blast onstage, it left the audience pleased and satisfied.
**********
REVIEW/AMG
Mark Deming
James Williamson's feral guitar work on Iggy & the Stooges' epochal Raw Power in 1973 has proven to be wildly influential with the passage of time, but it's also the sole basis for his legend in the minds of many fans. While Williamson collaborated with Iggy Pop on the fine Kill City album (released in 1976), and he produced Pop's 1979 effort New Values, the trail of his career goes cold after that. To take him at his word, Williamson had barely even picked up a guitar for 25 years after he quit rock & roll to study engineering in 1980, and before he reunited with the Stooges in 2009 following the death of original guitarist Ron Asheton. Presumably interested in reaffirming his musical legacy (and with the Stooges on hiatus after the death of drummer Scott Asheton), Williamson returned to a fascinating but often overlooked body of work -- the songs he and Pop wrote and demoed for the projected follow-up to Raw Power that was scrapped when Columbia dropped the band. These songs have appeared on a remarkable number of bootleg and semi-authorized albums, but Williamson decided to re-record them on the album Re-Licked, with a battalion of guest vocalists taking the place of Pop, who declined to participate in the project. In promotional interviews, Williamson says he hated hearing the sound of the various releases of the demos (ironically, it's widely reported that the sources for most of those bootlegs were tapes Williamson himself sold to small labels when he was in dire financial circumstances), and by comparison, Re-Licked sounds big, bold, and glossy, with the full-bodied production and mix those demos (and Raw Power) lacked. Williamson used two core bands on Re-Licked, one anchored by Mike Watt on bass and Toby Dammit on drums (who played on the Stooges live dates in support of 2013's Ready to Die), the other featuring bassist Simone Marie Butler (from Primal Scream) and drummer Michael Urbano; both are capable and drive the songs well, and Williamson's guitar work is as good as ever from a technical standpoint. But Williamson's leads lack the edgy fire he brought to his mid-'70s demos, and no amount of engineering talent can compensate for that. More importantly, Williamson may have written this music, but Iggy Pop wrote the lyrics, and though there are a handful of good to great singers on board here -- including Mark Lanegan, Gary Floyd, Bobby Gillespie, Lisa Kekaula, Nicke Andersson, and Jello Biafra -- none of them match the lunatic intensity Iggy gave these songs, and the sonically challenged bootlegs of "Head On," "Scene of the Crime," and "I Got a Right" still pack more rock & roll snazz than these new versions. James Williamson has every right in the world to take another shot at these songs, but Re-Licked falls short of the grubby magic of those buzzy demos he recorded so long ago.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Greg Prato
During their short yet highly influential career, the Stooges featured two guitarists - first Ron Asheton, then James Williamson. Whereas Asheton's style was earthy and entirely feel-based (feeding off the other members), Williamson's playing was aggressive and in-your-face and it was almost as if the rest of the group was trying to keep up with him. Born in Castroville, TX (a small town just outside of San Antonio), Williamson was raised by his mother and strict military stepfather. By the sixth grade, Williamson took up the guitar after being inspired by the likes of the Beach Boys and the Ventures, and by the eighth grade, Williamson had relocated with his family to Michigan. It was around this time that Williamson joined his first band, the Chosen Few, and discovered the harder sounds of the British Invasion (namely the Rolling Stones), which in turn toughened up his playing style. After doing time in a juvenile home, Williamson returned to the Chosen Few, and befriended the group's new bassist -- Ron Asheton.
The band broke up shortly thereafter, with Asheton eventually switching to the six-string and going on to form the Stooges by the late '60s, along with Asheton's brother Scott on drums, bassist Dave Alexander, and the incomparable frontman Iggy Pop. Williamson befriended the group (even visiting the group in New York City as they recorded their self-titled debut in 1969). A year after the Stooges issued their sophomore release, 1970's Funhouse, Williamson joined the group as a second guitarist (with Alexander being replaced by several other bassists). With most of the bandmembers full-blown drug addicts by this point and with underwhelming record sales, the new lineup split up by 1972 after getting dropped by Elektra.
Later the same year, a clean and sober Iggy Pop met David Bowie, who in turn helped him get his career back on track -- hooking Pop up with his management (MainMan), and eventually offering his services to produce Pop's next album (preceded by a new recording contract with Columbia). Instead of re-enlisting all of his former Stooges pals, Pop only invited Williamson to join him in England to try and put together a new lineup together. When the auditions proved unfruitful, the Asheton brothers were asked to re-join, with Asheton moving to bass. The ensuing album, 1973's Raw Power, resulted in another timeless rock classic, almost single-handedly inventing what would soon be known as punk rock.
But once again, the album failed to perform up to expectations, as many of the bandmembers sank back into hardcore drug abuse, resulting in the Stooges' final demise in 1974. Despite Pop being in a deteriorating mental state, he and Williamson united to cut some demos in hopes of attracting the interest of a new label. When they couldn't find any takers, the duo went their separate ways (Pop would check himself into a psychiatric hospital before launching a successful solo career), although the tracks would eventually see the light of day on the 1977 release Kill City.
Williamson subsequently turned his back on music -- going to school to become an electronic engineer, and eventually getting involved in electronics and computers in Silicon Valley. In 1979, Williamson took a short break from his computer career to produce and play guitar on Pop's third solo studio album, the new wave-ish New Values, while his guitar playing was showcased on numerous post-mortem live/demo Stooges collections (usually not the best of quality) -- Metallic K.O., I Got a Right, I'm Sick of You, Studio Sessions, Jesus Loves the Stooges, etc. Despite only appearing on one official Stooges album during his career, Williamson's hellraising guitar licks nonetheless influenced a legion of subsequent hard rock/punk players, including Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Johnny Ramone (the Ramones), Greg Ginn (Black Flag), and Slash (Guns N' Roses), among countless others.
**********
WIKIPEDIA
**********
WEBSITE
**********
TO THE TOP
**********
