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It’s fitting that Ann Arbors favourite son kicks off the festival. Its hard to imagine a world where this select band of artists would have flourished were it not for James Jewel Sternberg and The Stooges sophomore blow-out on the Elektra label in 1970, entitled Fun House (Hamersmith Apollo, Tuesday 30th August).

Left to their own devices after the first John Cale-produced eponymous album, Fun House was all breathless nihilism and metallic cathartics. Feral and amphetamine-horny Iggy Pop, Scott and Ron Asheton, and the late Dave Alexander were the last word in angsty lust and diverted frustration. The rawness of the Down On The e Street, Loose and TV Eye is enough to make you melt peanut butter on your chest, while Dirt out-self-destructs Jim Morrison.

Now back together since 2003, the Stooges have recruited one-time Minuteman Mike Watt for this return ticket to the Fun House. Original sax-man Steve Mackay returns and is a more prosaic reminder that while other rock bands were looking towards classicism for inspiration, these Michigan mooks were looking to the skronk of Albert Ayler for kicks.

By the time J.Mascis, Lou Barlow and drummer Murph had made their second album Youre Living All Over Me Iggy was dubiously manipulating a childs teddy bear on childrens TV programme No. 73. To some, Dinosaur Jr were a departure from the American hardcore sound that had toured the backroads and college circuits. Dinosaur, as they were known pre-litigation, had none of the hostility towards the bloated 70s rock generation that had supertramped their way to the Californian coked-out lifestyle. They had none of the Punk resentment of Jello Biafra, Black Flag, and the their ilk, though they retained the nihilism and mixed it with the stoner-chic they would help to popularise.

Youre Living All Over Me (Koko Wednesday 31st August) represented the Massachusetts second long-playing effort, and until Sweet Nothing re-introduced the master tapes to a pressing plant in 2004 the record was impossible to get hold of. Known and admired by East Coast cognoscenti like Sonic Youth and fIREHOSE, Mascis & Cos gigs were notorious for their blasts of sheer screech and volume. But though they were hardly The Dooleys in the recording studio, Youre Living All Over Me has structure and form. And with Lou Barlows Poledo, they were had of touch of runty avant-gardeness about them.

Mascis bouncy licks on Sludgefest and Just Like Heaven, while full of leakage, inhabited a world where Hardcore had feared to tread, while In A Jar acknowledged a debt to Lemmys lot. And after hearing his thin, languorous, high-register struggling to be heard above the tamed howl, the whole world realised it was OK to like Neil Young again. With the original three now re-united, it could be time to find out what this whole Freakscene was about.

Its an unwritten rule when covering bands like Dinosaur Jr that one has to mention how they paved the way for what became known as Grunge, and the success of some band whos name escapes me…I think it began with N…never mind, well come back to it later…

But 1992 was the year that grunge ruled. But in the middle of all the drugs, self-hatred and suicide attempts, along came The Lemonheads‘ defining album, Its A Shame About Ray (Shepherds Bush Empire Thursday 16th September). Sunny, breezy and utterly irresistible, Evan Dando’s finest 29 minutes still sounds as fresh and beguiling today as it did back then. And if youre looking for proof, you’ll need to beg, steal or borrow to get a ticket to this sold-put show.

On every track, whether it’s the supremely catchy chorus of Confetti, the sweet pleading of Bit Part, the hymn to illicit substances of My Drug Buddy or the rush of Alison’s Starting To Happen, Dando managed to create that rare thing – short, sweet songs that instantly made you feel happy. He may have had his own personal demons to deal with afterwards, but this was Evan’s true life-affirming album. (JM)

And they also served…. proving that long, lank hair and cheesecloth shirts were kinda gnarly dude, were Seattle originals Mudhoney. Still at the coalface of rock after all these years, the band was named after one of Russ Meyers boobalicious movies. Too authentically punk to find mainstream favour, the quartet of Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Dan Peters and Matt Lukin did survive life with a major label in the aftermath of Nirvana’s success ( I knew we’d get around to mentioning them sooner or later).

Their chosen album Superfuzz Bigmuff (Koko, Friday 16th September and Saturday 17th September) was really their first six-tracked EP, rush-released by Sub Pop when Touch Me, Im Sick garnered some press attention and not a few sales through its association with Sonic Youth. Thats probably why the collection was appended with a clutch of early singles including the actually quite disturbing Sweet Young Thing Aint Sweet No More and the glorious snub of You Got It Keep It (Outta My Face).

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