Iggy and Williamson's KILL CITY: Classic'r Dud?

dud for the reasons you state. some of the songs sound more convincing on those shitty late-stooges boots.

Maybe the title should have read Dud or Tragically Dud.

I dunno, I like this record. I don't think I've heard any versions on boots that sound better - recommend any to check out? I've got Year Of The Iguana (great) and Head On (shit) already.

I enjoy it, let's set that straight, it's just underwhelming compared to what it should have been. I always wanted another Iggy/Williamson record other than Raw Power (another album I love yet have some issue with), and when I found out this existed I flipped and bought it right away. I was so disappointed.

I've got a number of those Bomp bootlegs and I think all the versions on KC are superior in sound quality at least.

Performances just weren't there. I no longer have it, preferring the vim and vigor on the shitty-sounding Stooges boots, too. Of those, the repackage Open Up and Bleed is the only one you need.

Williamson actually played better on "New Values." For the title track, he approached what he'd done all through "Raw Power." Seemingly a lot of potential, never really lived up to after one spectacular moment.

Open Up and Bleed is really pretty great.

Totally classic. Great lyrics!

I actually meant the BOMP! 'best of the boots' compilation of that title, but yeah, great song: "Of these things a man must speak . ."

I've never liked these songs OR the performances much - the saxophone in particular make me think of weak-ass Mott or Aerosmith imitations. (A comparison I make because of some shared imaginary CBS Records 1973 street-rock gestalt rather than any legitimate musical comparisons, I admit.) Basically, Raw Power > Open Up and Bleed > New Values > Kill City is the way I rank 'em.

Didn't Iggy and/or James basically record this as a quickie to score smack or something?

That's pretty fair ranking. Might use a couple more >> between Raw Power and Open Up and Bleed.

I love this record.

Night Theme > Consolation Prizes is one of my fave Iggy moments.

But I'm not so hot on the record as a whole, tbh

I originally heard this via some weird bootleg version that had a slightly different tracklisting (and I still like the bootleg version better) but love much of this album. Granted it's more Rolling Stones than anything, but it's pretty great Rolling Stones. Consolation Prizes/No Sense of Crime/Lucky Monkeys is a pretty perfect triplet. Album should have ended w/Lucky Monkeys (like my bootleg did).

Oh, here's the tracklisting for what I had (which is now buried in a crate in my basement somewhere):

A1 I'm Sick of You
A2 Tight Pants
A3 I Got a Right
A4 Scene of the Crime
A5 Gimme Some Skin
B1 Kill City
B2 I Got Nothin'
B3 Johanna
B4 Consolation Prizes
B5 No Sense of Crime
B6 Lucky Monkeys

(From "I Got A Right" which for some reason is hard to find via google). Side B is probably my favorite Iggy side, including everything he's done.

I haven't listened to this in years. Some great songs, but it suffers from the tame production (and the sax).

I've always liked the title song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DjQLShe46w

i gave this record a shot because i was interested in hearing more of williamson's work, and it took a few listens, but i really like it.

while it didn't really deliver as far as riffage is concerned, i think iggy's performance is quite strong, particularly on "beyond the law" and "johanna." i'd go so far to say that this is one of the best iggy records that doesn't in some way involve bowie.

the saxes add a nice throwback touch to bands like the sonics, while not overwhelming or dominating the songs.

this could probably stand to be remixed and remastered. but classic.

killer record, a remaster would probably ruin the atmosphere

this could probably stand to be remixed and remastered. but classic.

I have it on good authority that this will be happening soonish.

Love this record.

this could probably stand to be remixed and remastered. but classic.
I have it on good authority that this will be happening soonish.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, February 15, 2010 10:29 PM (7 months ago)

I finally got my copy of the reissue and it sounds great!

CLUD

Is the original in mono? I think it is. Love to hear this remastered, will look for the reissue.

shit this album sounds pretty great to me (remixed/remastered version) but I didn't even know it existed before I got the promo so I don't have anything to compare it to soundqualitywise. kinda glad I got to hear it with no expectations

Yeah I heard it with no expectations, no previous exposure and damn it sounds quite nice.

"no sense of crime" is pretty stonesy

also loved "consolation prizes"

ok "lucky monkeys" is REALLY stonesy

I wouldn't say it's a *revelation* or anything (I already loved this album) but the reissue does sound awfully nice!

Re New Values which I still have and like, i was wrong here:

Williamson actually played better on "New Values." For the title track, he approached what he'd done all through "Raw Power." Seemingly a lot of potential, never really lived up to after one spectacular
moment.

It's Scott Thurston, now of TP & the Heartbreakers, imitating Williamson, who only worked the knobs on the record or produced or something. And he imitated RW really good. Saw it in an interview with Williamson after he rejoined the Stooges.

ahhhh the remixed record sounds really great. about halfway through so far, and i'm quite impressed with how it has turned out. mixed maybe a bit louder than it needs to be, but otherwise, i've got no issues.

the reissue has been staring me down every time i visit the record shop for weeks

this is one of the most symmetrical ilm threads i've ever read

The remastered Kill City is just a totally different record than the old Bomp Cd. That old Bomp Cd was tantalizing in that you could tell there was some good songs, but it was murkier than early Sebadoh. When I saw it was reissued, I didn't even look at it figuring it was just warmed over mud. The mastering is a bit hot, but the mix is clearer than some of the records Iggy did with bigger budgets. (Although from what I have been reading, even many of those were done on the cheap to pocket the leftover budget.)

Kill City is now one of Iggy's better records and in hindsight in some ways now foreshadows in his discography what he did later with Bowie and then again with Williamson on New Values.

Yeah this record makes a nice bridge between the Stooges and the Bowie stuff. It's become the album I listen to when I want to hear Iggy.

I have loved this record since I first heard it a few years ago (probably when the reissue came out?) -- I think it sounds different from anything else he ever did (at least the records I've heard), way more Stones-y... also feels like the last hurrah of the really sleazy rock saxophone, before Springsteen and Clarence Clemons gifted us all the yearning romantic rock saxophone of longing (ofc I know there were also punk bands with sax, somehow it's not the same thing)

other things about this record that I do not typically associate with Iggy Pop's sound:

- the gospel organ and "ooh-ooh" background vocals in "I Got Nothin'"
- harmonica wailing on "Lucky Moments"

i have this record. it green

lol I don't actually have a physical copy so idk why I keep saying "record"

I'm looking at the green vinyl on discogs and wondering whether I will ever return to collecting physical music or if my collecting habits have entirely shifted to the realm of books

*getting longwinded and off-topic*
For a long time after I first heard of it (in connection with Ian Curtis listening to it before hanging himself) I was scared to hear The Idiot... or not 'scared' precisely but, mistrusting my own motives each time I found myself getting interested again, I just never got around to checking it out. I finally downloaded the songs to my phone a few years ago, and one night in spring as I was walking to my 3rd-shift stocking job at the grocery store, "Sister Midnight" strutted into my life. I thought that opening number was the most perfect thing I had ever heard, and I played it again and again, and some more when I got to work, loud on my phone in the aisle with the salad dressings, I guess hoping to impress all the badass rock'n'rollers of the late-night grocery store(*not a significant demographic) -- Later, I put Kill City on my phone, too. I think I eventually played K.C. far more than I did or ever will play The Idiot (while never developing as deep of an attachment to it as I have the latter) partly because the homogeneous quality among K.C.'s songs made for better background music... That was not a happy time in my life but those records (and reading Bolaño's 2666 on my breaks) were a much-needed release

Always loved this record.... as I think I've said on here on (too) many occasions.

TIL this was remixed/restored/remastered in 2010 (and now seems to be long OOP again). Streaming the nu-version of "Consolation Prizes," it sure sounds snappy – but I never minded the murkiness of the OG album, tbh. It kind of seemed like how it was supposed to sound....