Kill City is a 1977 album by former Stooges vocalist Iggy Pop and guitarist James Williamson.
Kill City was originally recorded in 1975 after the disintegration of the group. It was to be used as a demo to give to record labels in hopes of getting Pop a new contract. His vocals were recorded on weekends when he received permission to leave a mental hospital he was staying in at the time for treatment of his long-standing heroin addiction.
The original 1975 'demo' mix of the album remains unheard, with the exception of three tracks which have been released on various compilations including A Million in Prizes and Original Punks: Johanna, Consolation Prizes and Kill City. These sound markedly different from the final version of the album, with different guitar parts and, in the case of Johanna, no saxophone.
There would be no takers for the album until 1977 when, following the success of Pop's solo albums The Idiot and Lust for Life, James Williamson got an advance from Bomp to release the album; some of which was used to fund studio time to finish off the original recordings by adding overdubs and remixing.
Pop later appeared as himself on the Tales from the Crypt TV series and performed the title track.
The master tapes were lost shortly after the release of the original album and all subsequent CD releases were mastered from the original poor quality green vinyl pressing. This partly accounts for the somewhat muddy sound of the album.
In 2010, James Williamson and engineer Ed Cherney remixed the album once more from the original mulitracks. The resulting mixes will form a new version of the album, to be released on Bomp Records on 19 October 2010.