Iggy Pop Solicits Violence on New Reworking of Danny Elfman’s “Kick Me”

The track arrives with the reveal of Elfman’s Bigger. Messier., an album of the composer’s songs reworked and remixed as collaborations.

Iggy Pop Solicits Violence on New Reworking of Danny Elfman’s “Kick Me”

The track arrives with the reveal of Elfman’s Bigger. Messier., an album of the composer’s songs reworked and remixed as collaborations.

Words: Mike LeSuer

Photo: Jonathan Williamson

June 29, 2022

Although the band HEALTH has always maintained a one-to-one ratio of LPs-to-remix-albums with their DISCO series, I’ve noticed that’s gone way off track since the release of 2019’s SLAVES OF FEAR. Since then, the noise-rock experimentalists have shared the expected remix album plus two album-length projects containing collaborations with high-profile names within and adjacent to industrial circles with titles that tie both records back to that last proper LP.

It’s a little less surprising, then, to see them pop up on the tracklist for Danny Elfman’s newly revealed project Bigger. Messier., which similarly blends remix with collaboration—in fact, several alums of those HEALTH albums appear alongside the band on the project, including Trent Reznor, Xiu Xiu, and Ghostemane. Additionally the album hosts songs reworked by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Death Grips/Hella’s Zach Hill, Squarepusher, Boris, The Locust, Boy Harsher, and more. “At the onset of Bigger. Messier. I asked the same thing of every artist: ‘express me through your own eyes,’” Elfman shared in a press statement. “Not only was I surprised at the artists that wanted to participate, but completely blown away by what everyone contributed… This record became such an enjoyment of experimentation and relinquishing control of my own work in a way that I’ve never done before.”

The first single from the project arrives today which features the second weirdest Iggy Pop guest spot this year (although presumably the first one recorded with his consent). As can be expected from something related to Danny Elfman, the track is extremely weird, with Pop begging for his billionaire ass to be kicked in a David Liebe Hart conversational cadence over a metallic instrumental clearly tied to the guy who did the Simpsons theme. 

Hear it below, and find more details on the album—which drops August 12 via Epitaph—here.