Crash 'N' Burn: A Ralph Alfonso Photo Exhibition @ Emissions, April 10 & 11

Ralph Alfonso is showing some of his amazing punk era photos of The Ramones, Iggy Pop and more this weekend.

CRASH 'N' BURN

Ralph Alfonso Photo Exhibition

April 10 at 7 pm & April 11 at 10 pm

EMISSIONS RECORD SHOP

1114 Dundas St W. (DOWNSTAIRS)

Free admission

We are proud to announce the first ever Toronto photography exhibition by Ralph Alfonso, featuring his incredible documentation of the 1976-1979 punk explosion.

In addition to managing The Diodes and the Crash'n'Burn Club (Canada's first punk club, built by and run by the bands); Ralph was an important writer/photographer; covering the nascent scenes in New York, Toronto, and the UK for publications like Cheap Thrills (Toronto), New York Rocker and BOMP! (USA), Shades (Toronto) and others.

His trove of photographs includes Iggy, Patti Smith, Diodes, Ramones, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, Richard Hell, Stranglers, Mo-Dettes, The Curse, Teenage Head, Viletones, Barracudas, The Jam, Clash and many more. 

Listen to an interview with Ralph for Equalizing Distort right here. 

Ralph Alfonso and Hamilton-based punk rock aficionado Imants Krummins.  

Writes Ralph: 

"Old school 76-77 punk is having a moment. It was 50 years ago that Punk magazine serendipitously gave this music a moniker and The Ramones spread the gospel worldwide, as hundreds of bands formed after every one of their concerts.

"Anyway, all this to say, I was actually there and I took some photos and wrote about it, ran a club, managed a band, pissed off a major label, and then it was all over and I disappeared into the music industry labyrinth, all my negatives sitting in a box for eons, only to be rediscovered a few years ago and I'm still finding amazing images I didn't realize I had.

"These are photos from 1977-79 when I was a rock twitter/photographer; both documenting and participating in the nascent punk scene in New York and Toronto. In 1977, I was given $100 (probably $700 in today's money)by Cheap Thrills magazine (Toronto, house paper for CPI, the major Toronto concert promoters of the day) and told to go to New York and check out this new thing going on there.

"I got to CBGB's to witness the North American debut of The Damned with The Dead Boys opening! There was no security then, so I just wandered backstage and interviewed and photographed both bands. Everybody hung out at CBGBs, so it was incredible to just walk up to Seymour Stein and Sylvain Sylvain and ask for a quick interview.

"When I came back, I got involved as The Diodes manager and we ran the Crash'n'Burn club; Canada's first punk club created and built by the bands. In that scene, I photographed the Viletones, Diodes, Teenage Head, Curse, etc and wrote scene reports for New York Rocker and Bomp! magazine in the States.

"In 1979, I went to the UK and hooked up with The Barracudas, Mo-Dettes, Chelsea, and others. It was also that transition period when punk was fading out and mod was coming in. To walk in to a club and see all the charcters I'd only ever seen in UK music papers was pretty incredible.

"So, the show will be kind of a greatest hits of travels through New York, Toronto, and London.

"And yes, I've been working on a book, Foto-Punk, which will collect all my 70s interviews plus photos. I'm hoping for spring 2027. I got sidetracked by covid and some serious health issues but I'm back on track now.

"I will also have a show in Hamilton on May 8 at the old location of This Ain't Hollywood, now The Local Skate shop, and either in the fall or next spring, I will have an exhibition in Japan!! Wow.

"But over the next few weeks, I am doing a DEEP dive into the negs and preparing for my first ever photo exhibition in Toronto at the cool Emissions Record Shop.  

See you there!" - Ralph Alfonso

Check out CBC's preview of Ralph's Crash 'n' Burn exhibition right here. Yep, that's Teenage Head's Nick, Steve and Gordie. 

Happy 94th Birthday Jac Holzman, Elektra Records co-founder

Cheers to Elektra mainman Jac Holzman who "couldn't make head nor tail of The Stooges" but put out their records anyway. 

Remembering Nico on her birthday with her post-Velvets work

Here's Nico's "Evening Of Light" video feat. Iggy & The Stooges along with some intriguing 70s & 80s performance footage.  

Happy Birthday Iggy Pop!

Celebrating Iggy Pop's 77th birthday with some interview clips and performance clips you may have missed.

Yep, Martin Phillipps of The Chills knows what's up. 

Whaddya mean you don't know The Untouchable All-Girl Band

Back in 1967, Iggy & The Stooges we're knocked out by a group they saw in Lawrenceville, NJ – The Untouchable All-Girl Band. 

Watch a short documentary on The Untouchable All-Girl Band right here. 

LINKS 

The Untouchable All Girl Band site 

Happy Birthday Tom Waits!

Celebrating Tom's birthday with an Iggy Pop chat (check the link below) and Tom's Fernwood 2 Night appearance from 1977.

Iggy and Tom press play on some fave tunes for each other and discuss them for two hours right here.  

Happy Birthday Iggy Pop!

Celebrating the birthday of Iggy Pop with the 1986 Dutch TV documentary Lust For Life: The Turbulent Life of Jim Osterberg. 

Listen to Iggy Pop chat with Rick Rubin for the Broken Record podcast

Iggy Pop talks about The Stooges, Jim Morrison, David Bowie, James Brown and more in a two-part chat with Rick Rubin. 

Watch Iggy Pop's new video for "Strung Out Johnny"

"Strung Out Johnny" is taken from Iggy Pop's new album Every Loser out now. Check out the video below. 

Watch Iggy Pop sing "Frenzy" on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Here's Iggy Pop and the Losers performing "Frenzy" off the new album, Every Loser. Check it out. 

Iggy Pop shares "Strung Out Johnny" off new album, Every Loser

Iggy Pop's much-anticipated new album, Every Loser is due out January 6th. Check out "Strung Out Johnny" and his tour dates. 

Iggy Pop will be backed by a new touring band The Losers feat. Duff McKagan, Chad Smith and producer Andrew Watt.

Iggy Pop and the Losers on tour

FEB 2 - DESTINATION CHAOS 2023 - SENATOR PUERTO PLATA RESORT SPA - PUERTO PLATA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

MAR 10 - THE SALT SHED - CHICAGO, IL, US

APR 20 - THE REGENT - LOS ANGELES

APR 22 - MASONIC THEATER - SAN FRANCISCO

APR 27 - HOLLYWOOD PALADIUM - LOS ANGELES

APR 29 - THE PEARL - LAS VEGAS

JUN 15- JUN17 - AZKENA ROCK FESTIVAL 2023 - AZKENA - VITORIA-GASTEIZ, SPAIN

JUN 21 - PGE NARODOWY - WARSAW, POLAND - WITH RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

JUL 1 - CRYSTAL PALACE PARK - LONDON, UK - WITH BLONDIE AND GENERATION SEX

JUL 8 - MUSILAC 2023 - AIX LES BAINS, FRANCE

JUL 11 - GROUPAMA STADIUM - LYON, FRANCE - WITH RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS AND KING PRINCESS

JUL 14 - ERNST HAPPEL STADION - VIENNA, AUSTRIA - WITH RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS AND KING PRINCESS

JUL 19- JUL23 - ELECTRIC CASTLE FESTIVAL 2023 - ELECTRIC CASTLE - CLUJ-NAPOCA, ROMANIA

AUG 4 - CURRAGHMORE HOUSE & GARDENS - PORTLAW, IRELAND - WITH JAMIE XX, CARIBOU, LOYLE CARNER AND MORE

That time Iggy Pop played Kitchener's Bingeman Park in 1981

Here's Iggy crooning about his former bandmates on "Dum Dum Boys" backed by Carlos Alomar and Blondie's Clem Burke.

Iggy Pop recirculates French chanson album Après on vinyl for RSD

Iggy Pop's 2012 album Après is being re-released on pink vinyl with a bonus cover of Sacha Distel's "La Belle Vie" (listen below).  

Iggy Pop – Après (LMLR)

Et Si Tu N'existais Pas

La Javanaise

Everybody's Talkin'

I'm Going Away Smiling

La Vie En Rose

Les Passantes

Syracuse

What Is This Thing Called Love?

Michelle

Only the Lonely

La Belle Vie (bonus track)

One For The Weekend: Iggy Pop

Check out the animated line drawing clip for Iggy Pop's new song "Frenzy" off his forthcoming album Every Loser. 

Every Loser – Iggy Pop

01 Frenzy

02 Strung Out Johnny

03 New Atlantis

04 Modern Day Rip-Off

05 Morning Show

06 The News For Andy

07 Neo Punk

08 All The Way Down

09 Comments

10 My Animus Interlude

11 The Regency

Watch Iggy Pop perform "T.V. Eye" at Wiener Konzerthaus

Iggy Pop is releasing his new single "Frenzy" on Oct. 28th. Here's a performance of "T.V. Eye"  in Austria from September. 

LINKS 

Spin.com Iggy Pop inks with Andrew Watt's Gold Tooth Records for new album

Blabbermouth.net Iggy Pop signs with Andrew Watt's Gold Tooth Records; new single "Frenzy" due next week

Iggy Pop vs. Leonard Cohen

Iggy Pop recently covered Leonard Cohen's "You Want It Darker" off the tribute comp Here It Is due Oct 14th from Blue Note. 

Here's the scoop from Blue Note...

Blue Note Records has announced an October 14 release date for Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen, a remarkable new album produced by Larry Klein that presents stunning renditions of the legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s profound songs performed by an extraordinary line-up of vocalists: Norah Jones, Peter Gabriel, Gregory Porter, Sarah McLachlan, Luciana Souza, James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples, David Gray, and Nathaniel Rateli­ff. Hear Taylor’s sublime version of “Coming Back to You” which is available to stream or download today. Here It Is can be pre-ordered now on D2C exclusive color vinyl, black vinyl, CD, or digital download. For more info, visit the Blue Note site right here. Check out the album preview clip below. 

“Leonard Cohen had been a friend since 1982 or so, and in the last 15 years of his life, he became a close friend,” says Klein. “He was possibly the wisest and funniest friend that I had, and someone that I enjoyed, immensely, in every way. After he passed away, I found myself frequently covering his songs with other artists that I was working with. One reason, of course, is that the songs are so good—in a certain way, Leonard is the best pop songwriter ever—but the other reason was that it helped keep him in the air around me.”

So Klein decided to assemble an album’s worth of Cohen songs, matching vocalists from different genres with an exceptional core band of jazz-based musicians—or, as he puts it, “a group of the most prescient and forward-looking musicians in the jazz world”—guitarist Bill Frisell, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Nate Smith with additional contributions from Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar and Larry Goldings on organ.

The album’s 12 tracks offer a range of Cohen’s compositions, with songs drawn from his beloved 1967 debut Songs of Leonard Cohen all the way up to selections from his final album, You Want It Darker, released just days before his death in 2016 (listen to Leonard Cohen's original recording followed by Iggy Pop's new version below). The set covers some of his best-known classics and less familiar deep cuts, all given new life through thoughtful and unexpected arrangements and performances. The resulting collection is ultimately reminiscent of the concept that guided Klein’s production of Herbie Hancock’s 2007 album River: The Joni Letters, which won the GRAMMY Award for Album of the Year (and on which one of the featured singers was, in fact, Leonard Cohen).

“It was an immensely gratifying experience to recontextualize these poems, and shine a different light on them,” Klein continues. “I hope that this musical language that we developed together, the context that we put these things in, makes the songs connect with people in a new way.”

You can get a copy of the Leonard Cohen tribute Here It Is via your platform of choice right here. 

Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen

Steer Your Way – Norah Jones

Here It Is – Peter Gabriel

Suzanne – Gregory Porter

Hallelujah – Sarah McLachlan

Avalanche – Immanuel Wilkins

Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye – Luciana Souza

Coming Back to You – James Taylor

You Want It Darker – Iggy Pop

If It Be Your Will – Mavis Staples

Seems So Long Ago, Nancy – David Gray

Famous Blue Raincoat – Nathaniel Rateliff

Bird on The Wire – Bill Frisell

 

Watch John Petkovic join Dinosaur Jr. for a rip through T.V. Eye in Cleveland

Singer John Petkovic (Death Of Samantha, Cobra Verde) reunited with his Sweet Apple pal J Mascis to reprise a Stooges fave. 

Happy 75th Birthday Iggy Pop!

Celebrating Iggy Pop's 75th birthday with his 1981 appearance on the New Music and a 1979 appearance on Old Grey Whistle Test.

R.I.P. iconic rock photographer Mick Rock, 1948-2021

Sadly, rock photographer extraordinaire Mick Rock has passed away at the age of 72. He'll be greatly missed.

"You’ll notice that my most famous pictures are very simple. You’re not going to find lot of props in them, it’ll all be done by lighting, attitude, angle, energy and focus. These are all the important things for me." – Mick Rock

 

Chan Marshall previews Cat Power's new Covers album

Watch Cat Power perform Frank Ocean's "Bad Religion" off her forthcoming Covers album due in January. 

Here's the scoop...

Cat Power, aka singer, songwriter, musician and producer Chan Marshall, will release her new album Covers on January 14th 2022, via Domino Records. 

The announcement arrives after Cat Power debuted a fresh reimagining of Frank Ocean’s “Bad Religion” on The Late Late Show with James Corden. Watch that performance of “Bad Religion” below.  

Cover songs have always occupied a crucial place in the Marshall canon, and Covers completes a trilogy of sorts, following beloved past Cat Power collections Jukebox (2008) and The Covers Record (2000). While she frequently delights and surprises with the songs she chooses to cover, it’s Marshall’s total commitment to the performance - imbuing the songs with a creative singularity that rivals her original work - that make Cat Power covers so special. Says Pitchfork, Marshall can “rearrange a song simply by squinting at it.”

Produced in its entirety by Marshall, Covers features fully reimagined songs by Frank Ocean, Bob Seger, Kitty Wells, Jackson Browne, Iggy Pop, The Pogues, Nick Cave and more, plus an updated rendition of her own song “Hate” from The Greatest (2006), retitled “Unhate” for this album. 

Marshall’s take on “Bad Religion” originated after performing the excoriating original “In Your Face,” from 2018’s Wanderer, on tour: “That song was bringing me down,” she admits. “So I started pulling out lyrics from ‘Bad Religion’ and singing those instead of getting super depressed. Performing covers is a very enjoyable way to do something that feels natural to me when it comes to making music.”

Covers closes with a powerful take on the Billie Holiday-associated standard “I’ll Be Seeing You,” which was inspired by recent losses within Marshall’s creative inner circle—including Sun collaborator Phillippe Zdar, who tragically passed in 2019. “When people who you love have been taken from you, there’s always a song that holds their memory in your mind,” Marshall says. “It’s a conversation with those on the other side, and it’s really important for me to reach out to people that way.”

Covers is the first album from Cat Power since Wanderer, her widely-acclaimed 2018 Domino debut, which earned rave reviews and features with the New York Times, The Guardian, The Cut, a NPR Tiny Desk, and a duet with Lana Del Rey on "Woman," which The New Yorker called a "trembling manifesto." Marshall’s work as Cat Power has defied genre and convention, her legacy rippling through the work of a wide range of contemporary musical luminaries. 

Covers is available to pre-order now digitally, CD, LP and limited edition silver vinyl LP with an exclusive 7” featuring a cover of the Rolling Stones' "You Got the Silver" from the Domino right here. Watch Cat Power perform Frank Ocean's "Bad Religion" followed by her version of The Pogues' "A Pair Of Brown Eyes"

 

Cat Power – Covers 

Bad Religion - Frank Ocean

Unhate - Cat Power - Chan Marshall

Pa Pa Power - Dead Man’s Bones

A Pair of Brown Eyes - The Pogues

Against the Wind - Bob Seger

Endless Sea - Iggy Pop

These Days – Jackson Browne

It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels - Kitty Wells

I Had a Dream Joe - Nick Cave

Here Comes a Regular - The Replacements

I’ll Be Seeing You - Billie Holiday