What a viciously brutal, glorious damn mess this album is. Opening with Iggy Pop's psychotic howl, Fun House sits on a deliciously primitive two chord riff and rides it into chaos. Anticipating the basic crunch of punk, the crude stomp of heavy metal and the fuzzed out glee of Seattle sludge, The Stooges were derided in their prime but have come to be seen as true innovators. Fun House sounds like nothing so much as Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff, 20 years before the fact and significantly louder.
Despite this, The Stooges weren't particularly interested in innovation; their music was monolithic, distilled primitivism and functioned as a backup for Iggy's insane onstage antics. Smearing himself with peanut butter or cutting himself with shards of glass, Iggy confronted his audience violently. The music reflects this. The band was juiced to their eyeballs in chemical refreshment while recording Fun House, which explains the way the album degenerates further and further into vigorous anarchy, and also explains why Iggy's favorite phrase to shriek is "I feel alright!"
One aspect of The Stooges' work that often gets overlooked is their Motown influence. Seriously. These boys grew up in Detroit, and the groove got in their blood somehow. Drummer Scott Asheton especially moves their sound with fierce conviction and rock solid fills; his piledriving backbeat is what makes this album swing. Iggy and the boys also appropriate the irresistible bass line of Albert King's "Born Under A Bad Sign" for the slow abrasion of "Dirt", and even bring along saxophonist Steven Mackay for "Fun House" and "L.A. Blues".
The latter is an incredible, shrieking meltdown whose tenor sax breaks recall Coltrane's free jazz: but while Coltrane's honks and squeaks were harmonically sound and represented a search for spiritual growth, Mackay's brass tweaks are simply refreshing, apocalyptic Noise. The anthemic "Down on the Street", the crude sexuality of "Loose", the crazed passion of "T.V. Eye" - this album rocks like crazy, pure and simple. Hear for yourself what depraved Fun is all about in Iggy's House. You won't be disappointed.
- Jared O'Connor
shrieking meltdown