Mike Watt correction

I mis-labelled Watt's bass in a recent post about him honouring fallen Stooge Ron Asheton by applying the guitarist's photo to his instrument (aka the Thud Stick.) Herewith a message from the Man:

barman,

you are very kind, thank you.

I have to tell you though that bass in the picture is a gibson! sorry.
I use a 1965 gibson eb-0 w/the stooges. I removed the original pickup
and added two rio grande pit bull pickups to replace it.

big respect to ron asheton.

thank you again.

on bass, watt

Mike Watt remembers

The Stooges bassist honours fallen brother Ron Asheton every time he takes his Gibson bass on stage. You can hear him interview bandmate James Williamson here.

Daptone dealt a blow: Can you help?

From Mike Watt's mailing list. Daptone is the home of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and a bunch of worthy soul artists. I'm not sure Rod Stewart being inconvenienced will upset many readers but the burglary should.

As you may have heard through the grapevine by now, Daptone was broken into last night. Unfortunately, there was a lot of equipment (mics, pre-amps, monitors, turntables, guitars, amps, computers, etc.) stolen and damaged. It is going to take us a while to go through everything and take full stock of what was stolen, and we are not supposed to touch anything until the cops come back to collect fingerprints so we can only guess what's missing from some mic drawers and cabinets....

I would like to ask for everyone's help first in keeping an eye out for all of our stuff showing up on ebay/craigslist/local music
shops, and secondly (and more realistically) keeping an eye out for good deals on headphones, mics, pre-amps, etc. I could really use a heads up on any kind of studio package for sale or studio equipment to be possibly bought or borrowed as soon as
possible. We have a session scheduled for Friday to lay down some music for (I know this sounds surreal) Rod Stewart, and I'm going to have to get the studio running by then...

Upon first glance we are definitely missing:

- Fender Super Guitar Amp in case
- Fender Deluxe Guitar Amp
- A whole bunch of headphones and wires
- Nydia's HP laptop computer
- One Desktop MacIntosh Computer
- One Purple Audio API style lunchbox with four Purple Audio Biz mic pre-amps
- 2 Yamaha NS10 monitors
- Vintage Harmony Rocket Guitar
- One steel string acoustic guitar
- Martin Tenor sax in a gig bag
- Technics 1200 turntable
- Ion USB turntable
- Teac Receiver/stereo amp
- Sony dual deck CD burner/player

Thanks for keeping eyes open for us. AND PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ALONG TO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP US.

Thankfully, we all still have our health, ambition, tape machines, and sense of humor intact. You can slow us down, but you can't stop us. Sleep well knowing we here at Daptone will continue to...

Keep putting Soul up,

Gabriel Roth

Daptone Records
115 Troutman St.,
Brooklyn, NY 11206
http://www.daptonerecords.com

Stooges get robbed, send S.O.S.

Iggy and the Stooges need your help.

A rented 15-foot truck was ripped off from outside the Embassy Suite Hotel in Montreal, Canda, on August 4 with a fair chunk of the band's stage gear inside it. Bassist Mike Watt is posting an APB worldwide with a list of stolen equipment here. The band was in town for a couple of Canadian dates.

While we fans might hope the thief will drive the stolen truck into a too-low railway bridge (a la Rock Action back in Ann Arbor back the hazy '70s) that might damage the equipment, so let's settle for a swift apprehension and return of the gear.

New Stooges album

A leaked copy of the new Stooges album, "The Weirdness", fell off the back of a virtual truck over the weekend. First impressions are that it's very ordinary. I badly wanted this to be a masterwork, maybe approaching the brilliance of "Funhouse". It's not to be. There'll be a full review at the I-94 Bar in due course but here's a quick and dirty take:

Ordinary songs, ordinary production. Steve Albini has a rep for giving a band their heads in the studio and being hands-off, but this is ridiculous. Rock Action's drums are drier than a dead dingo's donger but Watt's bass rumble is MIA. When Ron Asheton launches into those characteristic wah-wah solos (all too rarely), the guitar's compressed tighter than a Scotsman's wallet or buried. To be really blunt, Iggy's vocals are the weakest thing about the album. Apart from the songs. Lyrical observations on the ordinariness of everyday life, they end up sounding like a dumbed-down parody, sung by a Rolls Royce driving leathery old guy. "My dick is turning into a tree", indeed.