“A lot of geezers my age don’t work out of their comfort zone anymore because once you become legendary you don’t want people challenging you.”–Iggy Pop

The existence of the sublimely secretive desert opus conceived by Iggy Pop and Joshua Homme was confirmed yesterday to an unsuspecting studio and home audience of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

And now the world at large can know: March 18 will see the release of Post Pop Depression (Rekords Rekords/Loma Vista/Caroline International), the 17th Iggy Pop album, and a worthy addition to the 22 album legacy spawned with the immortal trilogy of The Stooges, Fun House and Raw Power, spanning massively influential solo outings including 1977’s opening 1-2 combo of The Idiot andLust For Life, and 1990’s gold-certified Brick By Brick.

The first Iggy Pop album co-created with producer/guitarist/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/bandleader Homme, Post Pop Depression began with a succinctly worded text from Iggy to Joshua, and was realized in seclusion with Homme’s enlisted aid of his Queens Of The Stone Age bandmate and Dead Weather-man Dean Fertita and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders. Both became instantly integral in creating and shaping the Detroit meets Palm Desert by way of old Berlin vibe of Post Pop Depression: Interweaving with and augmenting even more superhuman than expected Iggy vocal performances and Homme’s tapestry of guitar, bass, piano and backing vox, Fertita’s talent for wringing the most out of only the most essential notes worked in seamless tandem with Helders’ pushing himself and his new bandmates to unforeseeable heights and depths.

The result would be a timeless work, one that sounds as if it’s always been there, has existed before any of the musicians were even born-yet imbued with the ramshackle energy of a garage band that threw itself together yesterday.

Post Pop Depression is now available for pre-order via iTunes,Amazon, Google Play, and the Iggy Pop webstore, with all pre-orders immediately receiving “Gardenia,” debuted by Iggy, Joshua and crew on the Late Show. “Gardenia” is also available on all streaming platforms.

“I wanted to be free,” recalls Iggy of the earliest germ of the partnership with Homme that culminated inPost Pop Depression. “To be free, I needed to forget. To forget, I needed music. Josh had that in him, so I set out to provoke an encounter-first with a carefully worded text, followed by a deluge of writings all about me. No composer wants to write about nothing. He got revved up and we had a great big rumble in the desert USA.”

“This was to go where neither of us had gone before,” adds Homme.“That was the agreement. And to go all the way.”

Post Pop Depression is equal parts a dream come true for co-creator Homme as it is a record that defiantly takes its place in Iggy’s storied discography alongside the twin towers of The Idiot and Lust For Life-two records and the mythic Berlin era of their creation canonized as much lyrically (“German Days”) as sonically (“Sunday“) on this new record. The album will be supported by a tour realizing Homme’s ambition to assemble a live outfit worthy of both bringing the new album and doing justice to the gems and wreckage of the Ig’s sprawling solo catalogue: The core band that recorded the album will be expanded by QOTSA’s Troy Van Leeuwen and journeyman guitarist Matt Sweeney.

Post Pop Depression is a singular work that stands proudly alongside the best works of either of its principles, from The Stooges to Queens Of The Stone Age, bearing its creators’ undeniable sonic DNA while sounding like nothing they’ve done before. It’s a record that wouldn’t exist without either Pop or Homme-and one that probably shouldn’t in theory if you really think about it-but it does, and we and rock ‘n’ roll are all the better for it.

On March 23, 2018, Jack White released his third solo album, Boarding House Reach (Third Man/Columbia). The album, his first in four years, was produced by Jack White III and recorded at Third Man Studio in Nashville, TN, Sear Sound in New York, NY, and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, CA; it was mixed by Bill Skibbe, Joshua V. Smith, and White at Third Man Studio in Nashville, TN.

Boarding House Reach sees the 12-time Grammy-winning White expanding his musical palate with perhaps his most ambitious work thus far, a collection of songs that are simultaneously timeless and modern. Written and conceived while holed up in a spartan apartment with literally no outside world distractions, White exclusively used the same kind of gear he had when he was 15 years old (a quarter-inch four-track tape recorder, a simple mixer, and the most basic of instrumentation). The album explores a remarkable range of sonic terrain -- crunching rock 'n' roll, electro and hard funk, proto punk, hip hop, gospel blues, and even country -- all remapped and born anew to fit White's matchless vision and sense of restless experimentation. Boarding House Reach is a testament to the breadth of Jack White's creative power and his bold artistic ambition.

Boarding House Reach features White on vocals, acoustic and electric guitars and drums, organ, and synthesizers. He's backed by a remarkable new lineup of musicians that includes: drummer Louis Cato (Beyoncé, Q-Tip, John Legend, Mariah Carey), bassists Charlotte Kemp Muhl (The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger) and NeonPhoenix (Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z), synthesizer players DJ Harrison and Anthony "Brew" Brewster (Fishbone, The Untouchables), keyboardists Neal Evans (Soulive, Talib Kweli, John Scofield) and Quincy McCrary (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Pitbull), percussionists Bobby Allende (David Byrne, Marc Anthony) and Justin Porée (Ozomatli), and backing vocalists Esther Rose and Ann & Regina McCrary of Nashville's beloved gospel trio, The McCrary Sisters, as well as longtime collaborators like drummers Daru Jones (Nas, Talib Kweli) and Carla Azar (Autolux, Depeche Mode, Doyle Bramhall II). Singer-songwriter C.W. Stoneking also appears, contributing a stirring spoken word performance to the album's "Abulia and Akrasia."

*****

Born the youngest of 10 children, raised in Southwest Detroit and a resident of Nashville since 2005, Jack White is one of the most prolific and renowned artists of the past two decades.

When the White Stripes started in 1997 no one, least of all White, ever expected that a red, white and black two-piece band would take hold in the mainstream world. The band's self-titled debut and sophomore effort De Stijl amassed critical acclaim and built a passionate underground following, but it was the release of 2001’s White Blood Cells that thrust the White Stripes onto magazine covers as they captivated larger audiences through worldwide touring. “Fell in Love With a Girl” served as the band’s breakthrough hit and its accompanying Michel Gondry Lego clip was chosen by Pitchfork as the #1 music video of the 2000s.

The release of Elephant in 2003 not only cemented the band’s reputation, but also offered the #1 hit single “Seven Nation Army,” which has since been appropriated as arguably the most popular chant in sports stadiums around the world.

In 2004, White teamed up with Loretta Lynn to produce and perform on her Van Lear Rose album, an effort that won GRAMMY Awards for “Best Country Album” and “Best Country Collaboration with Vocals” for the single “Portland, Oregon.” To date, White has won 12 GRAMMYs in eight different categories with 34 career nominations, and was honored with the Producers & Engineers Wing “President’s Merit Award” in 2017.

White formed a "new band of old friends," the Raconteurs, in 2006. Their debut album Broken Boy Soldiers featured the #1 hit single "Steady, As She Goes" and showed a markedly different side of White, one where songwriting, vocal and guitar duties were shared. 

In 2009, White returned to his original instrument, the drums, and started The Dead Weather with members of The Kills, Queens of the Stone Age and The Greenhornes. Releasing two albums in two years and unleashing a dark, captivating live show upon curious audiences, The Dead Weather further cemented Jack White’s musical versatility and range. In 2015, the band released their third studio album, Dodge and Burn and garnered a “Best Music Video” Grammy nomination for the single, “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles).”

Also in 2009, White opened the doors to his very own Nashville-based record label, Third Man Records, where he has since produced and released more than 500 records in just over nine years. With a catalogue of releases from artists as varied as Margo Price, U2, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Lillie Mae, Melvins, Dwight Yoakam, Wolf Eyes, My Bubba, Loretta Lynn, SHIRT, Ennio Morricone, and The Dead Weather, and unimagined vinyl configurations, the label has rightfully earned its reputation as a leader in the vinyl record industry.

On April 24, 2012, White released his debut album Blunderbuss on Third Man Records/Columbia. Blunderbuss debuted at #1 on the U.S. albums chart -- a career first for White -- and was both the top selling vinyl album and the highest charting solo debut of 2012 in the U.S. Blunderbuss also hit #1 in the UK, Canada and Switzerland, and received five GRAMMY nominations, including Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song for "Freedom at 21," and, the following year, Best Rock Performance and Best Music Video for “I’m Shakin’.”

White released Lazaretto (Third Man Records/Columbia), the follow-up to the gold-certified Blunderbuss, on June 10, 2014. Once again debuting at #1 on the U.S. albums chart and at #1 in Canada and Denmark, Lazaretto not only broke the record for first-week vinyl album sales, selling over 40,000 copies in the U.S., it was also the biggest selling vinyl album of 2014 and, at that time, any year of the SoundScan era with 86,707 copies sold in the U.S. To date, the Lazaretto vinyl ULTRA LP has sold over 210,000 copies worldwide. The album’s title track, “Lazaretto,” won a GRAMMY Award for Best Rock Performance. Lazaretto received two additional GRAMMY nominations for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song for the title track.

Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998 – 2016 came out on September 9, 2016 (Third Man/Columbia/XL Recordings). The 26-track double-LP and double-CD features alternate versions, mixes and previously unreleased recordings from The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and solo material all completely re-mastered. Earlier that year, White teamed up with the Muppets for a recording of Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine of My Life,” featuring accompaniment from the legendary Muppets house band, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, that was featured on that season’s final episode.

In 2017, White continued his work as a producer with Beyoncé, A Tribe Called Quest, Lillie Mae, and The American Epic Sessions featuring Alabama Shakes, Nas, Elton John, Beck, and Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard, among others.

On the afternoon of his first appearance onstage with the Sex Pistols, last summer at Bush Hall, Frank Carter’s peaceful afternoon stroll on the streets of Shepherd’s Bush was interrupted by a stranger sat outside a pub. “Big shoes,” the man shouted; nothing more, nothing less. 

“That’s all he said,” Carter reports. “And I just replied ‘thanks for noticing’, and off I walked. But I thought, ‘Fucking hell, we’ve not even played one note yet’. At that point I felt like I was melting. I realised I had to get my shit together here.”

As if the matter was ever in doubt, hours later, he did just that. The stranger’s assertion that anyone stepping up to the microphone with the band who terrorised a nation faces one of the tallest orders in rock and roll – make no mistake, filling big shoes requires big cojones – overlooked the fact that he was speaking to one of the few singers, and perhaps even the <<only>> singer, capable of handling the job. Over the course of three boisterously received concerts staged to raise funds for the imperilled Bush Hall, this most famous and infamous of acts was born anew with energy, power, and the fiercest of joy. Never mind that the current iteration trades under the name the Sex Pistols with Frank Carter, with immediate effect, the band became a fist.

Such was its success, in fact, that this short series of concerts has blossomed into a busy diary. This year, Carter and the Pistols – drummer Paul Cook, guitarist Steve Jones and bassist Glen Matlock – are set to perform in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United States of America, mainland Europe, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. They’ll headline halls and appear at festivals. In March, the group will top the bill at a Teenage Cancer Trust concert at the Royal Albert Hall, of all places. Much more of this and they’ll be playing at Buckingham Palace. 

For anyone who might be wondering, they’re doing these things because, in 2025, the Pistols are sensational once more. And they’re doing it is because they want to.  “What I live by now is, if it ain’t fun, I ain’t doing it,” the always reliably blunt Steve Jones says. “I’m too fucking old to be putting up with a bunch of old shit and acting like everything’s cool just to keep the ball rolling. Those days are gone. If it ain’t fun, honestly, I’m out of here. I ain’t got the energy for any crap any more.”

The credit for bringing Frank Carter into the orbit of the Pistols belongs to Glen Matlock’s youngest son. As a member of the erstwhile group Dead!, Louis Matlock had seen the singer leading the charge while touring the UK as special guests to Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. Night after night, he witnessed the fearlessness of a performer who approached live music as if it were a collision sport. Big shoes be damned, if you’re looking for a singer, the son told the father, Frank’s your man.

“Louis said, the guy you need is Frank Carter,” Glen Matlock says. “So I got his number off him and we arranged to have a coffee. I didn’t know much about him but Louis was always going on about him. So we had a play with him and Paul – Steve was out of the country – and Paul liked him, as did I, so we told Steve. I also went to see the Rattlesnakes at the Roundhouse [in Camden Town], where they did two sold out nights, and I was impressed. Then Steve came over [from his home in Los Angeles] and we started rehearsing and that was it.”

Asked to nominate the exact point at which he realised that this new version of the Sex Pistols became a force to be reckoned with, Paul Cook replies that it was during the marching-boots style drum intro to Holidays In The Sun, the first song on the first night at Bush Hall. “As soon as we did Holidays… I thought, ‘Yeah, this is working,” he says. “This is going to be brilliant. This is going to be fantastic.” I was at the back there, looking at Frank with his red hair, and I was kind of getting flashbacks a little bit. I just thought, ‘Wow, this is how it was and how it should be’.” 

Naturally, Carter himself needed no introduction to the Sex Pistols. Raised in a home in the satellite town of Watford that groaned from the weight of vinyl LPs, as a 14-year-old, he would listen to his father’s copy of the epochal Never Mind The Bollocks… Here’s The Sex Pistols whenever his parents were out of the house. Smitten by its irresistible mix of fury and wit, blood and thunder, like countless other artists-to-be before him, he was at once captivated. Its guiding light helped lead him to the stage, and, in time, to <<this>> stage. So pivotal was its place in his life, in fact, that standing in public view alongside Matlock, Cook and Jones felt like a homecoming. 

“The one thing I took from the album that I put immediately into the way I perform was just the energy of it,” Carter says. “I’ve heard records that <<sound>> energetic and then there are records that <<are>> energetic. It’s not even fast, but there’s something about it that undeniably moves you and forces you to feel. It’s the serrated edge. It’s the hot knife. It’s blood in the water, is what it is… It allows you to learn lessons that you don’t know are there to be learned. It changes you without you knowing that you’re being changed. Not much in the world can do that, but great music does.”

So, please, let us not be in any doubt as to his credentials as an MC of chaos. In 2008, 36 years after two members of the Pistols challenged each other to a fight after discovering they were playing different songs onstage at the 100 Club, at the same venue, as the singer with Gallows, Carter chased an audience member who had thrown a pint of lager onstage up the venue’s stairs and out onto Oxford Street <<in the middle of the set>>. “I’ve been knocked out multiple times during shows,” he says. “It comes with complications. Broken bones, concussion, whatever. But that’s part and parcel of being a storm.”

He even helped orchestrate his own Great Rock and Roll Swindle. In 2009, after Warner Bros. signed Gallows for a million quid, the group handed their new label the pummelling and furious Grey Britain, an album that seemed designed to repel the casual listener. “Britain is fucked,” Carter said at the time. “Grey Britain is all about what’s going on socially, politically and economically in the UK, and how it affects us.”

Sound familiar? As in, there is no future in England’s dreaming? Of course, in 2025, bands and artists are less inclined than they once were to sing about issues that affect and bedevil an entire nation. With social media replacing punk rock as the fastest route into the public bloodstream, rock and roll has entered an introspective phase. Just as well, then, that the Pistols’ State of the Union Address remains as pressing, and as prescient, as ever. Inevitably, in the (almost) half century that has elapsed since a pair of Millwall supporting hot dog vendors in Piccadilly Circus unwittingly provided Steve Jones with the title for his group’s sole bona fide album – “never mind the bollocks,” they would say, meaning “don’t bother with that…” – London and Britain have changed almost beyond recognition. But at street level, the problems and frustrations remain the same. 

The Pistols themselves, though, <<have>> changed. Seventeen years after Steve Jones announced that “I am so fucking done with this”, at the end of a taxing world tour, it was the guitarist himself who suggested the group plot a course around the world in 2025. The decision was taken organically. Come the final night of a short autumn tour of Britain inspired by their success at Bush Hall, each member agrees they were cooking with fire. As luck would have it, the concert in London was attended by a number of promoters, in town for a convention, who duly tabled a series of offers to play up and across the world. The Pistols were back in the game. 

It’s different, too, because in 2025 the group’s personnel no longer comprises elements of soap opera, or pantomime. Instead, unity and teamwork are the makings of the new machine; the cohesion of drums, bass, guitar and voice in the service of the songs. In this iteration, the rock and roll itself is allowed to shine, timeless and evergreen. There is no swindle. The people who wrote and played the music back in ’76 and ’77 are able to enjoy it anew.   

“Don’t forget, the three of us learned to play together,” Glen Matlock says. “It was all pretty much at a similar level of competency when we started out. And we kind of grew together as musicians.” And now? “Put it this way,” he adds, “someone who is close to the band, I won’t say who, said it’s the first time they’ve seen us coming offstage with smiles on our faces since ’96. Which is good, because life’s too short for all that bollocks, really.”

As for what might come after the Sex Pistols have said hello and goodnight to audiences across the globe, no one is saying because no one seems to know. The promise of new music that was extinguished by a television interview with Bill Grundy and the subsequent shellshock of a young band receiving too much of everything, far too soon for anyone, may never be realised. But who can say for sure? At least for now, there’s no point in asking - you’ll get no reply.  But what we do have, for sure, is Frank Carter and the Sex Pistols whipping up a storm across the globe in a manner that is familiar but fresh, old but new. Catch it while you can, for as long as it lasts. Because we won’t see their kind again.