With the arrival of the summer season, music events are exploding around the globe. An interesting one is the Citadel Music Festival, taking place in Berlin, Germany. Do not be confused by the word “festival,” expecting a 4 days event with loads of bands performing one after the other. This music event, organized by Trinity Music GmbH, spreads over about three months of genuine appreciation for the art of music. Kicking off on June 5 with the performance by historical band Toto, the festival will close the curtain on August 30 with Xavas.

Citadel Music Festival takes place at the Spandau Citadel, a Renaissance fortress, located on an island created by the meeting of the rivers Havel and Spree. The Citadel is a beautiful open air location with the ability to contain a large number of participants while offering a dreamy setting to enjoy the soul of music. A variety of genres and styles are covered by the festival, including world fusion, trip hop, classic rock, alternative and proto-punk.

Acts such as Portishead, ZZ Top, and 30 Seconds to Mars will perform in this beautiful location. Queens of the Stone Age will be there on June 22 promoting their upcoming work ‘…Like Clockwork,’ the band’s sixth studio album due on June 3. Tenacious D will offer the city a performance of its funny rock, whose ironic lyrics accompany a strong and serious sound. One of the most intriguing performances offered by the musical event is surely the Iggy and The Stooges concert. The band has recently released a new album ‘Ready to Die,’ the first one seeing Iggy Pop and James Williamson collaborate on the composition of tracks after the glorious ‘Raw Power’ album, released in 1973 and held responsible for the birth of punk rock.

Iggy and The Stooges are well known for offering one of the best live shows in the current music scene. In spite of his age, Iggy Pop does not seem to feel any need to change his approach to the stage, nor do the great Mike Watt, Steve Mackay, Scott Asheton, and James Williamson who together with the Iguana create a magical atmosphere during the concert, able to kidnap the audience and bring it to the roots of rock. They create a powerful and honest experience, which merges raw sentiments, strong energy, simplicity and perfect execution, giving birth to an astonishing performance. A concert by Iggy and The Stooges is an experience which goes beyond words, and a must see for anybody who wants to fully live music instead of just listening to it. The graceful setting of the Spandau Citadel will serve as the perfect stage for such a glorious event.

The Citadel Music Festival is used to big names playing its stage: Patty Smith, Billy Idol, Marilyn Manson and many more played there, giving this festival great relevance in the scene. With eighteen concerts spanned over three months, picking among several music genres, this year the Citadel Music Festival gives once again everybody a chance to take a leap into one’s favorite kind of music. For the complete line-up click here.

Image credit: Citadelmusicfestival.de

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After an extensive tour in 2012, Iggy and The Stooges have decided it is time to amaze their fans with a brand new album. ‘Ready To Die’ is the title of the upcoming album by the infamous proto-punk band, and it will be released on April 30 on Fat Possum Records. The band’s most famous record is ‘Raw Power’, the album that opened the ball for the punk movement that took shape in England and in the U.S.A., taking several different forms and shades.

‘Ready To Die’ will feature Iggy Pop as vocalist, guitarist James Williamson and drummer Scott “Rock Action” Asheton, with the addition of the great Mike Watt (who has already been touring with the band), filling in for the late Ron Asheton on bass.

Iggy and The Stooges announced the album in a video portraying Iggy Pop as a scarecrow, and featuring a sample of one of the new tracks. In the sample, all the adrenalinic and electrifying feelings usually exploding in Iggy and The Stooges’ music are retrieved, pushing the excitement for the upcoming event even more.

Iggy Pop, with his usual peculiar way of expressing his personality, explained the idea behind the album “My motivation in making any record with the group at this point is no longer personal. It’s just a pig-headed fucking thing I have that a real fucking group, when they’re an older group, they also make fucking records,” he says. “They don’t just go and twiddle around on stage to make a bunch of fucking money and go, ‘Ohh, it wouldn’t be as good.’ This is not the fucking Smashing Pumpkins, you know, we’ve got the bald guy and whoever. This is the key. The only thing I really have left to say is The Stooges are a real group.”

As if the album was not enough to satisfy the appetite of the fans, the band’s official website gives more good news. It reads “Iggy and the Stooges will begin the Ready To Die live assault shortly. Stay tuned for coordinates.” Iggy and The Stooges had already announced a number of live shows around the world for this year, but this statement hints an extensive presence of the band on the live stage in 2013.

In the year when Bowie announced a new album and Jimi Hendrix’s brand new material is going to be released on a new record soon, Iggy and The Stooges’ upcoming album fits like a perfect piece in the puzzle of musical greatness. Let us hope the White Duke follows the example of his buddy Iggy Pop and jumps on a world tour to amaze fans, who have been waiting for years. Furthermore, the ‘Lust For Life’ biopic, about David Bowie and Iggy Pop’s Berlin period, is on its way to the big screen. It is surely an interesting year for music.

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Iggy and The Stooges are delighting music lovers of the world with a tour that embraces both Europe and the U.S.. For those who think that age could be a problem for the Godfather of Punk and his mates, Iggy and Co. are happy to prove you wrong at their live shows.

Toonari Post had the chance to attend Iggy and The Stooges’ live performance at Greenville Festival, Germany, on July 29. The band headlined the last day of this brand new and very promising festival in central Europe.

Iggy and The Stooges started the performance with a roaring ‘Raw Power,’ the track that gives title to the infamous album of 1973, now considered by many as the first punk-rock album in history.

Although at the beginning of July, Iggy and The Stooges had to cancel their performance at Sofia Rock, Bulgaria, due to a foot injury Iggy Pop sustained last year, the singer did not refrain himself from giving it all during the performance at Greenville. As usual, he let the spirit of music guide and possess him during the entire performance, singing, dancing, and jumping, like a 20 year-old boy who just discovered how great music is.

The band, whose bass is brilliantly played by Mike Watts, reached an astonishing level of perfection during the performance. Iggy Pop, on his side, was able to capture the audience with his intriguing and hypnotic voice, taking them into the spiral of energy created by both the music and his presence on stage. He also accompanied some of the lyrics of the songs with mimics, and in more than one occasion, made an introduction to the songs by relating them to moments in life he had experienced, linking the tracks to their meaning and origin.

A featuring characteristic was the love shown by Iggy Pop to his fans. He looked at the audience with the same facial expression a child has on Christmas day; It was a mixture of joy, surprise, excitement and that kind of purity of emotions that children have. During the performance he expressed his and the band’s gratitude towards the fans for always supporting them and being nice to them. The fusion between the band and the audience reached its peak when Iggy Pop asked people to join the band on stage. A flow of thrilled people went on stage dancing, singing and hugging the icon.

The band played most of the songs from Raw Power, as well as some belonging to Fun House and a couple of covers. The performance was set to end after a very powerful performance of ‘No Fun,’ but Iggy Pop, saying he was “in the mood,” asked the organizers if they could play some more. They ended up adding three songs to the setlist, leaving the stage with a delighted and screaming crowd.

The level of passion in the live performance was extreme, which, accompanied by the level of professionalism of the band members, resulted in one of the best performances a music lover could possibly witness. Attending one of Iggy and the Stooges’ live shows makes you feel like having just witnessed the performance of a man and a band beyond legend.

Image Courtesy of   Jabzg

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The Godfather of Punk, Iggy Pop, recently announced the release of his new album, ‘Après,’ a record containing a diverse set of covers of mostly French songs, which will be available on May 9.

Iggy and The Stooges are set to tour Europe over the summer, carrying on stage over 40 years of experience on the music scene. The band re-released in 2010 ‘Raw Power,’ the band’s third album originally released in 1973. The record, though not receiving commercial success at the time of its first release, is considered a milestone of Punk’s development.

With ‘Après’ Iggy Pop, as a solo artist, decides to follow a different approach to music; this kind of experimentation is not new for the artist. The record follows the 2009 release ‘Preliminaires,’ Iggy’s successful English/French album. ‘Preliminaires’ contains flavors of country, blues, jazz and electro-pop, which rotate around the concept of human existence’s futility.

In ‘Après,’ the rock star seems to take a more personal approach; according to his website, Iggy Pop collected on the album some of the songs that have inspired him as a musician. Furthermore, for fans’ enjoyment, Iggy Pop explains in the album booklet about his personal choices, song by song, making his work even more authentic.

Iggy Pop briefly explained the reasons behind this album on his website

“All popular music forms of today get their strength from the beat. Rap, hip-hop, metal, pop, and rock producers will tell you that the beats they use imitate the human heartbeat and that is where the power lies. The feeling of listening to any of these forms is always some variation on excitement, but before the birth of the blues there was another form of popular song, in which the timing comes from the human breath and the feelings are much more about emotion.

These older ways of expression were known variously as bel canto, chanson, plainsong or just folk music. I’ve always loved this other feeling, one that is intimate, sometimes a little sad, and does not try to beat me on the head.

So I wanted to sing some of these songs myself, hoping to bring the feeling I felt as a listener to my listeners through my voice. Many of these songs are in French, probably because it is French culture which has most stubbornly resisted the mortal attacks of the Anglo-American music machine.”

The album will be available for purchasing on May 9, through vente-privee.com

Here is the track listing:

1. Et si tu n’existais pas (Joe Dassin)
2. La Javanaise (Serge Gainsbourg)
3. Everybody’s Talkin’ (Harry Nilsson)
4. I’m Going Away Smiling (Yoko Ono)
5. La vie en Rose (Edith Piaf)
6. Les Passantes (Georges Brassens)
7. Syracuse (Henri Salvador)
8. What Is This Thing Called Love? (Cole Porter)
9. Michelle (The Beatles)
10. Only the Lonely (Frank Sinatra)

Image Courtesy of   NRK P3

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