Album of the Day

Proto-punkers The Stooges were one of the groups that made Detroit a hotbed of go-for-the-throat rock – though their signature album was recorded in Los Angeles with a Pacific Northwest veteran, ex Kingsmen Don Gallucci, behind the boards. But FUNHOUSE seems to exist in a land that time forgot – a primordial setting that infuses the group with volcanic power. The quartet (plus saxophonist Steve Mackay) worked up a song a day more or less live-in-studio, creating seven originals (including “1970,” “Loose” and “T.V. Eye”) that threaten to fall into chaos, with only the relentless drive of Iggy Pop and his bandmates to keep them from going over the edge. Jack White once said of FUNHOUSE that it was “by proxy the definitive rock album of America,” and we'd be hard-pressed to argue with him.