RON ASHETON
Thin, Slim & None/Flunkie

Producer: Ron Asheton
Birdcage Records - 1996

 

Songs: Roman Holiday, Down On The Street, Same Boat, Packed Ice, Wall Song, Don't Know / 1969, Train, Lucky Strike, RU, Zillion Man, Rock The Cradle, Goin' Down, TV Eye, Wall Song, Don't Know / 1969, Go Away, Hoochie Koochie Man, You're Gonna Die, I Wanna Be Your Dog

Review: "This is a gem of a rock & roll CD. It features a killer band, The Empty Set, which features founding Stooge guitar god Ron Asheton, along with Billy Frank of Destroy All Monsters and Ron Devore. They put their twist on a few Stooges faves like "TV Eye" and "1969," but there's plenty of smokin' originals featuring killer vox by Devore. The last six cuts were recorded live at LA's Coconut Teaszer and it's pure blissful chaos. Worth it! ~ Flipside Magazine

---

As a founding member of the legendary Stooges, guitarist Ron Asheton forever changed the face of rock and roll, his raw, primordial riffs presaging the rise of punk by a decade. Born July 17, 1948 in Washington, D.C., he first surfaced in the teen band the Dirty Shames before joining the Iggy Pop-led Stooges in 1967; the Ann Arbor, MI-based group made their live debut on Halloween of that year, earning immediate notoriety for their frighteningly intense live presence and blistering, primitivist sound.

Although celebrated in certain underground circles, the band, also comprising Asheton's drummer brother Scott and bassist Dave Alexander, was otherwise almost universally reviled, but still they were signed by Elektra to record their self-titled 1969 debut LP; the album sold poorly, as did its successors (1970's Fun House and 1973's Raw Power), but the Stooges' long-term impact was incalculable - in effect, their aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach laid the groundwork for the emergence of punk.

After the Stooges disintegrated in the wake of Raw Power's commercial failure, the Asheton siblings formed the short-lived New Order, issuing a self-titled LP on RCA in 1978; Ron next surfaced in the famed Detroit cult outfit Destroy All Monsters, who were briefly darlings of the British music press on the strength of punk-era singles like "Bored" and "Meet the Creeper." In 1981, he joined ex-Radio Birdman members Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in their underground supergroup The New Race.

Asheton returned to active musical duty during the mid-1990s, recording Thin, Slim and None with the Empty Set for Birdcage Records while also teaming with fellow Destroy All Monsters alum Niagara to release The Last Great Ride under the name Dark Carnival. He also teamed with Mudhoney's Mark Arm, Mike Watt and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley in the one-off project The Wilde Rattz, recording a handful of tracks for 1998's glam rock-era film drama Velvet Goldmine.