Iggy and the Stooges to release new album April 30

Forty years on from their landmark proto-punk album “Raw Power,” Iggy and the Stooges announced Monday that they’ve completed a new studio album, “Ready to Die,” set for release April 30 through Fat Possum Records.

It’s the first time Iggy Pop has made a full record with guitarist James Williamson and drummer Scott Asheton since 1973’s “Raw Power,” which followed a pair of albums without Williamson credited simply to the Stooges. (Asheton’s brother Ron was the Michigan band’s founding guitarist.)

After “Raw Power,” Iggy Pop and Williamson went on to work together on a 1977 duo album, “Kill City,” and Iggy’s 1979 solo disc “New Values.” But when the Stooges reunited in 2003, Williamson — who by then had become a technology executive at Sony — declined to take part, sitting out several tours as well as 2007’s reunion album “The Weirdness.” The guitarist rejoined the Stooges following Ron Asheton’s death in 2009.

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“My motivation in making any record with the group at this point is no longer personal,” Iggy said in a delightfully profane video statement posted online. “It’s just a pig-headed ... thing I have, that a real ... group, when they’re an older group, they also make ... records. They don’t just go and twiddle around onstage to make a bunch of ... money and then go, ‘Oh, it wouldn’t be as good.’

“This is not the ... Smashing Pumpkins, you know, where we’ve got the bald guy and whoever,” the singer continued. “No. This is the key. The only thing I really have left to say is the Stooges are a real group.”

Live dates (with Mike Watt on bass) are to be announced soon, according to Iggy and the Stooges’ representatives. Provided they’re as good as they were in December 2011 at the Hollywood Palladium, you won’t want to miss them.

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