[.ca] Fun House

Un Essentiel amazon.fr:
Fun House, drôle de nom pour un disque pas vraiment drôle ni distrayant. C'est un de ces albums dont l'écoute est une initiation, une révélation dont on ne ressort pas indemne, comme Trout Mask Replica de Captain Beefheart ou le premier Joy Division. Pas grand-chose de connu à quoi se raccrocher, pas de mélodie, pas de gentille ballade pour se reposer... Les jams (dont le foutoir final "LA Blues", cauchemar free-metal) comme les solos vrillent le crâne sans direction apparente. C'est du moins ce que l'on croit au début et puis, peu à peu, on comprend chaque note de guitare de Ron Asheton, chaque hurlement d'Iggy Pop est un pas de plus vers le précipice. C'est le disque parano par excellence : "Elle me fixe avec ses yeux de télé", s'époumone l'Iguane, tandis que les Stooges martèlent les quatre mêmes notes pendant quatre minutes. Coincés dans un studio californien avec l'organiste des Kingsmen à la console, loin de leur Detroit natal, ils ne peuvent compter que sur eux et quelques psychotropes pas vraiment cool. Et ce n'est pas le saxophone ténor de l'invité Steven McKay qui peut détendre l'atmosphère, occupé qu'il est à improviser une sorte de "Hate Supreme". --Hubert Deshouse

From Amazon.com:
Of course the Stooges were stupid, that was the whole point. Three chords were okay, two were even better, one or none (the cacophonous "L.A. Blues") was best of all. Drunk on their own testosterone, Iggy Pop and Co. kept things simple, loud, and brutal--and he's been coasting on the band's rep ever since. Slow and thuddy as it sounds now, almost nobody had ever made rock as primal as this second album. Iggy howled like a psycho, the band sounded like they could barely play the elementary riffs, and occasionally a moment of bone-headed poetry made it through the glorious muck. --Douglas Wolk

Up Close and Personal:
As a native Michigander who saw the Stooges perform this, and the rest of their albums live on many occasions, I can attest to the fact this is the album that best represents the chaos of a live show. From the live shows featuring this music at the Factory Ballroom, Silverbell and the Eastown Theater, the Stooges went beyond their basic cord simplicity on eponymously titled, first album to an experimental sound that landed Ron Ashton a position in Rolling Stone's top 100 guitarist of all time list. This recording convinced a lot of people that the Stooges were much more than a novelty act.

This Rock and roll hauls a**:
Some people may find raw power to be the stooges' best work. I find it to be pretty much a tie between Raw Power and Fun House. When I first bought Fun House I thought, "Oh no..I should have gotten Raw Power. This Sucks." It really was an acquired taste. I had to give it a few listens before I realized that there was a lot more there. The energy and intensity in this album is amazing. From the opening scream in the incredible rocker "T.V. Eye" to the horns in the loose "Fun House" this is a good buy. (I am a heterosexual male but I must say- ) This has to be one of the sexiest album's I've ever purchased. The 36-37 minutes taken to listen to this album are minutes well spent. "Down On The Street" "Loose" and "T.V. Eye" are three songs that go incredibly well together, full of raw and unadulterated....something. Would chaos be the right word? "1970" is one of my favorite songs at this point in time. The lyrics aren't genius and are sometimes kind of confusing but the music itself is....well you really just have to hear it.

The deserted island CD:
I got the vinyl in 1971. It was the best then, and the CD is the best now. When asked what CD you would want to have if deserted on an island, this is it. Let's face it, it's not as artistic or polished as the Who, or Led Zep, but it flat out rocks. Loose and TV Eye are the two best back to back songs I know of on any album or CD (Black Dog and Rock and Roll a close second). I'll admit LA Blues is a waste, but the other six tracks are primo. I don't think anything Iggy's done since measures up. His concert at the Harvard Square theater in 1977 (with Bowie on keyboards!) was the best I ever saw, and I saw Hendrix.

Iggy Is GOD:
Funhouse is probably one the best albums of the seventies. Filled with rhythm, funk and kick, the Stooges give you the ultimate underground party mix. Recorded in 1970, this gave birth to what is now known as proto-punk. The Stooges deliver with power and lust like no band before or since, influencing everyone from the New York Dolls to the Germs. With the cathy appeal of the Rolling Stones and the mystery of the Doors. The cd begins with "Down on the Street" a fun openner that is followed by the themes "Loose" and the classic "TV Eye", which contains one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time. "Dirt" and "Funhouse" are 7 minute plus epics that combine jazz and blues with punk insanity. The album get its fuel from a mixture of jazz and rock. The mixture of guitars and saxophones is chilling and quite impressive. If it wasn't for the Stooges, music would have collapsed in the 1970s into the world of consumtion and mediocre, like it is today. But luckily we have Funhouse to listen to and reminise about better days.

Before the cheetahs and the napalm, there was Fun House...:
First of all I'd like to say that there is no such thing as good music and there is no such thing as bad music. There is simply music one likes and music one dislikes. Some of us who have had our anti-mainstream noses in the air too long fail to realize what music is really about. That being said, I'd like to say that Fun House is what really got me back into the Stooges after I was bitterly disappointed with the eardrum shredding second half of Raw Power, which was my first Stooges album. As soon as Down on the Street came blasting out of my speakers I knew I had picked up something special. It was primitive. It was funky. It was rock and roll. The next two tracks didn't disappoint me either. Loose reminds me of a sped up Smoke on the Water for some reason, but I still love it. And then of course, there is the snarling riff of TV Eye, a song that I think I would use to introduce rock music to someone who had never heard it before. My personal favorite is Dirt though. The Stooges go all psychedelic and even whip out the wah pedals for a bit. The end result is a really beautiful piece of music that sounds like Iggy Pop assassinated Janis Joplin so he could sing for Big Brother and the Holding Company. I consider "Dirt" the climax of the record, but it doesn't mean I don't appreciate the last three songs. The saxophone keeps the album from getting boring (not that it would otherwise) and the groovy beats keep coming. LA Blues sounds to me like the ending of a song stretched out for five minutes, but I still listen to it when I don't have a headache. Critics seem to like to call this album "dumb" but I never got that impression. It just seemed like good ol' fun rock and roll to me.

• Down on the Street
• Loose
• T.V. Eye
• Dirt
• 1970
• Fun House
• L.A. Blues