Just wanted to say something real quick about Ron Asheton. His death just passed by me, like I didn't even notice it really. I read the headline and had no reaction, and then I was listening to Howard on the way home yesterday and they were talking about him and The Stooges. They played "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and Howard said it was annoying. Artie liked it and then started talking about that Iggy Pop song "Candy". I was actually yelling at the radio, "Play something off Fun House! Or play fucking 'Search and Destroy'! Or 'Penetration'!" I know he doesn't play guitar on Raw Power, but he's still there. When I was in Berlin a few years back, I listened to Fun House just about every night before I went to sleep. I would lay there with my headphones on in this room with a really high ceiling and tall bookcases, in this great apartment that you had to go up a weird secret stairwell to get to, and listen to it all the way through. For whatever reason, it sounded fucking perfect, better than any other time I've listened to it. We went to a street fair and I almost bought a Russian pressing of it, but I wound up buying a Jerry's Kids LP instead, which is decent but I haven't listened to it that much. Years earlier, I'd given my cd copy of the MC5's Kick Out The Jams to this weirdo guy who hung out at Perkins, and Andrew and I watched him basically destroy it in front of us from across the table. I'd decided I was tired of it not being as good as I wanted it to be, so I handed it over. I almost did the same thing with my copy of Fun House, but I thought, no this one's still kind of awesome. I was 16 and every once in a while I would accidentally do the exact right thing. Now I daydream about getting a copy of the complete Fun House sessions and listening to nothing but that for weeks. I probably don't need to do that. But yeah, I felt like being unfazed by Ron Asheton's death was so retarded. I take so many bands and people for granted. There are so many songs that I forget about, and there have been so many times where I've been whatever about something I know I love just because I wasn't completely jazzed about it right at the moment. The Stooges fucking KILL always, every time (even when I don't feel like listening to them) and Ron Asheton was fucking cool, and I need to not forget that.

The Stooges - "Down On The Street"
The Stooges - "Loose"
The Stooges - "Lost In The Future (take 1)"
Iggy and The Stooges - "Penetration"

PS -- picture via Gnarlitude (sorry about the heavy swastika presence lately! nazi punks fuck off, seriously!)