On the heels of his hugely acclaimed Australian tour, Iggy Pop has today announced the reissue of long-lost classic ‘Zombie Birdhouse’, to be released on 28th June via Caroline Australia.
A heady concoction of droning synths, Afrobeats and freeform lyrics, the album was Iggy’s 6th studio album and represents him at his freewheeling best. It will be released officially on vinyl and CD for the first time since the original release on Chris Stein’s Animal Records in 1982. A visual for lead single ‘The Villagers’ is unveiled today as a taster of the album. Produced by Chris Stein from Blondie, the track is vintage Iggy, featuring one of his finest ever monologues.
‘Zombie Birdhouse’ also contains a previously unreleased version of “Pain and Suffering”, featuring Blondie’s Debbie Harry on backing vocals. The song was originally recorded for the groundbreaking animated feature film ‘Rock & Rule’. Iggy provided the voice of the Monster From Another Dimension and Debbie Harry the voice for the character Angel. Despite this iconic combination, the original soundtrack was never released. As a taster for the forthcoming reissue of ‘Zombie Birdhouse’, a 7” single of “The Villagers” on green vinyl housed in a brand new sleeve was released earlier this month to mark Record Store Day 2019.
Produced by Chris Stein the reissue of ‘Zombie Birdhouse’ has been remastered by Paschal Byrne at The Audio Archive, London. It features the singles “Run Like A Villain” and “The Villagers” and contains sleevenotes by Irvine Welsh along with rare photographs from the original photoshoot.
The album announcement follows Iggy’s extremely successful Australian tour this month, where he performed 3 sold out shows at the Sydney Opera House and Festival Hall and headlined at Bluesfest. The shows were lauded by fans and critics alike, with The Sydney Morning Herald awarding his Sydney show 5-stars and writing “Pop, one of the last living legends of rock’s golden age, proved he’s still got plenty of punk-fuelled fire left in him.”
The release of ‘Zombie Birdhouse’ also ties in neatly this month as Iggy stars as a Zombie version of himself in the brand new Jim Jarmusch movie, The Dead Don’t Die, which opens in June 2019. Watch the trailer here.
