By Gabriel Gurulé
Since Pioneer first opened its doors as Ann Arbor High School in 1956, thousands of students have filled the hallways and classrooms for four long years before ultimately leaving the school to make a mark on the world at large. Some of Pioneer’s former students have gone on to change the world, and have been immortalized in plaques over by the flagpole entrance on Pioneer’s new Hall of Honor. These alumni have been immortalized for their achievements in fields such as music, film, academic work, and other areas- but not every alumni has a new documentary to go along with their plaque.
James Osterberg, better known as Iggy Pop, is the subject of a new documentary entitled “Gimme Danger.” The film, directed by Jim Jarmusch, is about his time with the Ann Arbor-based band, The Stooges, and the band’s beginnings in Ann Arbor, as well as their musical experiments. But before Osterberg was booking tours across the country and being featured in a documentary, he was a high school student in Ann Arbor trying to pass his classes.
In 1965, Pioneer was as scrappy as it ever was. Among all of the students in the hallways and classrooms, it would have been easy to miss Pop.Unlike many other students, Osterberg was a member of the band The Iguanas on the weekends, and spent time as a member of the debate team. Abbreviating iguanas is what would give Iggy his name when he would later go on to join The Stooges, a band known for adventurous exploits and their original sound.
The Stooges’ career was marked by energetic disregard for existing boundaries of music and etiquette. Their debut album, produced by former Velvet Underground member John Cale, was said to have half of the songs written the night before The Stooges were set to record them. The album had a “wall of distortion” that guitarist Ron Asheton created. “We had invented some new instruments. I came up with a blender with a little bit of water in it and put a mic right down in it and just turned it on and let that be the whole sound,” Asheton said in an interview with Vice News about how The Stooges’ created their noise. This noisy style lost them critics’ praise, but gained them fans.
One such fan that their exploits would ultimately put them in a crash course was director Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch was born in 1953 and by 1980 he had begun working as a musician to pay for film school at New York University’s Graduate Film School. In the following years, Jim Jarmusch’s films began to heavily feature musicians. This included Tom Waits in several films, an original soundtrack to “Dead Man” by Neil Young, RZA and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan in his film “Coffee and Cigarettes,” and then Iggy Pop in both “Dead Man” and “Coffee and Cigarettes” and finally, the new Stooges documentary, “Gimme Danger.”
In a way, this recently released documentary is decades in the making- from the nights when Iggy Pop and The Stooges would be practicing their set in Ann Arbor to the days in Ohio when Jarmusch would be watching 50s B-movies. The nights that the Stooges spent up would ultimately influence future generations of punk rockers and other musicians who sought to emulate their virile energy while the days Jarmusch spent would lead him to be part of a generation of directors who were inspired by the that same virile energy. With such a connection, it only makes sense that Jarmusch would take his experience directing Iggy Pop in films and turn it into a full fledged documentary, immortalizing the famed Ann Arbor band with an eye that only this director could and the only way the band deserves.
James Osterberg, better known as Iggy Pop, is the subject of a new documentary entitled “Gimme Danger.” The film, directed by Jim Jarmusch, is about his time with the Ann Arbor-based band, The Stooges, and the band’s beginnings in Ann Arbor, as well as their musical experiments. But before Osterberg was booking tours across the country and being featured in a documentary, he was a high school student in Ann Arbor trying to pass his classes.
In 1965, Pioneer was as scrappy as it ever was. Among all of the students in the hallways and classrooms, it would have been easy to miss Pop.Unlike many other students, Osterberg was a member of the band The Iguanas on the weekends, and spent time as a member of the debate team. Abbreviating iguanas is what would give Iggy his name when he would later go on to join The Stooges, a band known for adventurous exploits and their original sound.
The Stooges’ career was marked by energetic disregard for existing boundaries of music and etiquette. Their debut album, produced by former Velvet Underground member John Cale, was said to have half of the songs written the night before The Stooges were set to record them. The album had a “wall of distortion” that guitarist Ron Asheton created. “We had invented some new instruments. I came up with a blender with a little bit of water in it and put a mic right down in it and just turned it on and let that be the whole sound,” Asheton said in an interview with Vice News about how The Stooges’ created their noise. This noisy style lost them critics’ praise, but gained them fans.
One such fan that their exploits would ultimately put them in a crash course was director Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch was born in 1953 and by 1980 he had begun working as a musician to pay for film school at New York University’s Graduate Film School. In the following years, Jim Jarmusch’s films began to heavily feature musicians. This included Tom Waits in several films, an original soundtrack to “Dead Man” by Neil Young, RZA and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan in his film “Coffee and Cigarettes,” and then Iggy Pop in both “Dead Man” and “Coffee and Cigarettes” and finally, the new Stooges documentary, “Gimme Danger.”
In a way, this recently released documentary is decades in the making- from the nights when Iggy Pop and The Stooges would be practicing their set in Ann Arbor to the days in Ohio when Jarmusch would be watching 50s B-movies. The nights that the Stooges spent up would ultimately influence future generations of punk rockers and other musicians who sought to emulate their virile energy while the days Jarmusch spent would lead him to be part of a generation of directors who were inspired by the that same virile energy. With such a connection, it only makes sense that Jarmusch would take his experience directing Iggy Pop in films and turn it into a full fledged documentary, immortalizing the famed Ann Arbor band with an eye that only this director could and the only way the band deserves.