Iggy Pop - “Gardenia” (Feat. Josh Homme)

Yesterday, we learned the exciting news that Iggy Pop and Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme had recorded a new album together in complete secrecy and that the album, Post Pop Depression, was set for a March release. Talking to The New York Times, Homme said that the album went in the same direction as The Idiot and Lust For Life, the two albums that Pop made with David Bowie in 1977. And judging by first single “Gardenia,” it sounds like he might not just be telling us what we want to hear.

“Gardenia” has the same sort of mean, skeletal, machinelike groove that so many of those great old Iggy songs had. It also has Iggy in full-throated creepy-uncle mode, sweating over a girl named Gardenia. Since the ’80s, many of Iggy’s solo albums push him toward riff-rock overdrive, something that hasn’t suited him too well. But over this sort of spartan groove, he sounds awesome.

Last night, Iggy and Homme were on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert to perform “Gardenia” and to talk about how the album came to be. Talking to Colbert, they said that they recorded it quickly, over a couple of weeks, at Homme’s Joshua Tree studio. They all lived together, and Iggy’s wife made him bring some pajamas. And they also performed “Gardenia” for the first time. They did it with QOTSA/Dead Weather keyboardist/guitarist Dean Fertita, and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders, the only other two musicians who perform on Post Pop Depression, as well as Chavez frontman Matt Sweeney and QOTSA guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, who round out the touring band. 

Pop wore a shirt, a rare thing, and showed some real chemistry with this new band. Below, hear “Gardenia” and watch the performance and the interview.

UPDATE: Shout out to Cobra in the comments section for pointing this out, but Homme’s old band Kyuss, the ’90s stoner-metal monsters, also had a song called “Gardenia.” Here it is: