Back in 1997, director Todd Haynes convinced a bunch of indie rock and punk pillars to join forces and soundtrack Velvet Goldmine, his 1998 homage to the glam-rock era. That supergroup was named Wylde Ratttz, and it consisted of The Stooges’ Ron Asheton, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley, Mudhoney’s Mark Arm, The Stooges and Minutemen‘s Mike Watt, Sean Lennon, Don Fleming, and Jim Dunbar. Years later, it looks like one of the songs they recorded, a cover of The Stooges’ track “Fun House”, has just been finally unearthed for the first time, reports Spin.
Wylde Ratttz uploaded their “Fun House” cover to Bandcamp to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Stooges’ second album, Fun House. Their rendition features Asheton, Moore, Watt, Shelley, Arm, and saxophonist Sabir Mateen drawing the already expansive song into a 12-minute-long epic.
Along with the track, Wylde Ratttz included a statement urging listeners to donate to The Ron Asheton Foundation if possible. “The Ron Asheton Foundation carries on charity work that Ron spent many years quietly doing in the Ann Arbor community where he had such strong ties,” said the band. “The RAF post a lot of killer Asheton and Stooges content, so check out their socials and website.”
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Stream the previously unreleased cover below.
Earlier this year, The Stooges announced a special 50th anniversary Fun House box set, a live album capturing their final performance with the original lineup, and a digital reissue of their self-titled debut. It’s pretty wild that even now, after all these years, The Stooges’ music still hits hard — and so does Iggy Pop’s new material, too.
