(Jon Spencer) Blues Explosion

I think Jon Spencer just decided to switch things up, because he switched Japanese labels, as well, and 2 solo-ish albums initially schedueled for In the Red are now coming out on Yep Roc.

anyone know why they dropped "jon spencer" from the name¿

xpost - oh.

As I wrote in the other thread on this subject, it's because they are a band, not a solo act (according to the one-sheet for the new record).

I'll probably get it.

For those who still care:

THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
DIRTY SHIRT ROCK N’ ROLL: THE FIRST TEN YEARS
Album released 24th May 2010 on SHOVE RECORDS
Full back catalogue reissue plans throughout 2010

On stage and in the studio, Jon Spencer has destroyed and rebuilt American roots music with such ferocity and wild abandon that it’s hard to believe there is anything left. The trail of musical destruction Spencer created with his legendary group Pussy Galore still smoulders in the avant punk blues and nasty garage grind of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, whose incredible, innovative output remains an indelible totem to his enormous mojo spirit and red-hot power of deliverance.

It’s been eighteen years since The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion first pressed ‘record’, eighteen years since Spencer and his A-Team of sonic terrorists (Judah Bauer, guitar, and Russel Simmins, drums) tore up the indie-rock landscape with fever and a visceral, untouchable vision of rock’n’roll that did for a new wave of blues-punk primitivists what Helen of Troy’s face did for the armada.

But make no mistake: Jon Spencer was there first. He is the original. It was his sanctified outbursts and blues-bending riffs that began the new-fanlged roots rock revolution and spawned countless imitators. With Pussy Galore he gargled with the Stones and Stooges and wrestled with industrial noise and fuzzed-out fucked-up sixties garage crud… with Blues Explosion he drove furiously into the future with incendiary spirit built from courage, audacity, and revolt. Nothing has been the same since.

SHOVE is proud to celebrate the legacy and legend of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with a stellar set of seven new-and-expanded, spectacularly remastered, and all-together mind-expanding, deluxe, CDs, beginning with the much-anticipated compilation DIRTY SHIRT ROCK N’ ROLL: THE FIRST TEN YEARS, a handpicked selection of prime cuts and barbed-wire excess from the first decade of JSBX, beginning with their first gutter-born scuzzabilly assaults, and traversing through studio masterpieces like Orange, Acme, and Now I Got Worry.

Indeed, the first Blues Explosion outings were lo-fi and raw; gutter rock’n’roll steeped in Sun Studio exorcisms, New York street-punk and no-wave pranksterism, with Spencer playing his famous $17 guitar throughout. But The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion refused to make the same record twice, as this compilation attests. From untamed, sleazy hi-jinks and brain-teasing sonic alchemy, to rock’n’roll fundamentalism, and depth-defyin, ass-shaking grooves, this is the no-holds-barred story of a band who grew through increasing commercial and critical success, studio craft, innovation, and dazzling artistry, but without sacrificing the filth and blunt-force assault from which they sprang.

Each of these new releases feature the original albums in astonishing sonic splendor and include rare and unreleased bonus tracks, copious liner notes, and eye-popping photos. All titles will also be available digitally.

These shall be released two reissues at a time in late June, late August then late October. In the following order:
Now I Got Worry, Controversial Negro
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (First Year), Extra Width + Mo Width
Orange + Remixes (2-disc) Acme + Xtra Acme (2-disc)

my father was sister ray

lol at non-chronological reissue pairings wtf is up with that

this band was fun as hell live when I saw them in the mid-90s, but I never thought their records were all that great.

they were a blast live, at least for awhile. Orange seems like the peak of their recorded output

i remember i signed up to win a "controversial negro" promo shirt at oak folkjokeapus, it was a picture of mick jagger that said controversial negro but i didn't win it : (

yeah, is Controversial Negro a live thing? i remember my college radio station had it on LP -- was it ever on CD?

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-150-1287001-1206564872.jpeg

I have the Japanese Controversial Negro CD but the cover is much lamer. Its a pretty good live document. Spencer uses Steve Martin's "I remember when I had my first beer" heckler zing

the Jagger image was used on ltd edition LP pressing that preceded the Japanese CD version. I assume there was some copyright issue that made Matador pull the LPs or something

The schtick wore thin but they get a worse rep than they deserve. Crypt Style is conspicuously absent in those reissues, and might've been a good one to get out there to get people to give em a chance. Agree Orange is the best though.

pre-extra width stuff & extra width & orange are all pretty great. prefer extra width to orange though, orange is the point at which his investment in the schtick starts to feel too forced

they did murder it live for sure

I had a Controversial Negro t-shirt and LP that I got for being one of the first 100 or so people in the door at a NYE show the band played in 1997. At some point I got self-conscious about the t-shirt and stopped wearing it.

i was 13 or 14 when I saw them for the first time (opening for the Breeders!) and it was one the scarier/more exciting shows I saw during my teenage years.

isn't most of Crypt Style on Mo' Width...? I have a copy around here somewhere. Notable for featuring John Flansberg on free-jazz freakout saxophone on several songs

what i learned about John Spencer's Blues Explosion from reading that press release

• they are an indelible totem
• they are similar to Helen of Troy’s face
• Pussy Galore was known to gargle, also was legendary
• new CDs will expand your mind
• earliest recordings said to be steeped in exorcisms
• artistry dazzling
• holds of band's story not barred

xpost - i think there a few different permutations of the tracklistings of those record w/ imports and reissues but pretty sure mo' width and crypt style are all different songs

I thought Crypt Style was different versions of the songs from the first album, but I could be wrong - haven't heard it in probably 14 years.

I still rate Now I Got Worry, "2 Kinds a Love" is great and the rest of the record holds up too.

I haven't listened to it in a long time but I remember it holding up pretty well. Acme is where things went off the rails (lol Alec Empire REMIX!)

Dan the Automator doing some of the production as well, both of those producers really date it to the turn of the millennium. Also, getting Winona Ryder in to appear in a video probably wasn't a great move.

lol 90's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO3CQy0Fj-Q

videos were terrible by and large.

ugh Automator

On the other hand Experimental Remixes, their other flirtation with hip hop, is really good.

true

videos were terrible by and large.

^ this is true of everyone on matador, fwiw. Sugarcube is the only one I can think of that was out n out brilliant

nah the pavement videos were all pretty great

this band fuckin ruled my world orange - acme.

controv negro is a great live lp too

videos were terrible by and large.

I dunno, spot in my heart for this one always:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgkEw4GjtdU

re: Crypt Style vs. Mo Width, what I have is this. I guess Crypt Style/Mo Width are revisions of this material, in different forms? I dunno. Can't say I really care really either, most of this stuff wasn't particularly memorable. Hadn't hit their stride as songwriters yet.

Mo' Width is probably outtakes from Extra Width.
Crypt Style, A Reverse Willie Horton and the s/t album on Caroline all draw from the same pool of songs.

DERO/SPENCER beef lives on: http://blogs.vocalo.org/jderogatis/2010/07/jon-spencer-doesnt-like-me/31837

lol I still love ya Jon. ace interview, all his answers are OTM

it's interesting in the 90s profile Dero wrote that Spencer mentions Like Flies on Sherbet -- was just listening to that the other day and thinking of JSBX for some reason. anyway, that's sort of how I think of JSBX -- more than being a so-called blues band -- they're more like an unhinged, crazy southern rockabilly kinda thing. at least at times.

yr halfway there... the white rocker lineage of JSBX goes through Chilton to the Cramps, who are by far their biggest reference point. Which seems really super-fucking-obvious when you think about it. and yet I have never seen a single critic note this. the racism stuff is so completely wrongheaded. lol 90s identity politics.

the leather pants, the howling, the jokey come-ons, the fuzzed out everything, the minimalism, the emphasis on bonehead simple riffs = the Cramps

Blues Explosion vs. Blues Traveler: aesthetics in blue 85-94

I saw RL several times and he was awesome (he has about ten albums that aren't on Fat Possum). I like Kimbrough as well.

Dunno, when I listen to either of those PG albums you mentioned it still reeks more of scene to me (a scene I liked.) I like PG and still listen to even their arcane work and live stuff but it just doesn't have the punch of JSBX.

Maybe it's timing. I graduated high school in 1990, so I was listening to Pussy Galore in high school and my awareness of who they were, what they were doing relative to other bands of the era, etc. was that of a suburban NJ teenager with no access to NYC clubs. To me it was just music that sounded awesome.

I was in college in 1990 and PG sounded awesome to me, too. It's hard to explain to people not of our era the mystery of a band like PG--I spent a year trying to find someone with the Exile tape, they barely toured the Midwest where I was. So maybe I just associate it more with that nostalgia for me. Ultimately, I just prefer the tightness of JSBX more I guess.

interesting historical tour schedule
http://www.pop-catastrophe.co.uk/pussy-galore-tour-dates-2/

PG fuckin rule, what the hell don

PG are great but it's not really arguable that the JSBX stuff *sounds* better, I mean it's just better produced, with actual low end and a heavier rhythm section. PG is p goddamn abrasive a lot of the time. all that high end distortion slathered over everything.

1989.07.17 Probe - Los Angeles, CA w/ M.O.B. and Dirt Merchants

This is the show I was at. PG went on at 1 AM on a Monday night. Admission was $5 and the club had a giant cauldron of free chili, which I passed on. I bought a T-shirt from Bob Bert afterward for another $5.

Am jealous! Would have been an awesome show for sure.

At the time--in their scene for sure--abrasive was I guess part of the attraction. That's the part that I don't think has aged well for me. I still like PG a lot, but just prefer JSBX. Have been listening to my PG stuff all afternoon and it hasn't aged that bad, but it hasn't aged well. It still seems pigeonholed to the noise/anti scene of back then. Also my ears are probably fucked.

I did the sleeve art for Judah Bauer's first 7" as 20 Miles. Those were fun times and good folks. The JSBX in the early '90s and the whole LES / East Village / Matador Records scene were great fun to be around.

i just played 2 shows with fat possom vet bog log!

Judah's lovely. the first time i interviewed JSBX Jon was virtually mute and russell was a (charismatic) asshole, but Judah was very sweet. I love this band to death.

I saw bob log so many times in the late 90s/early 00s and he was fantastic each time.

Reading through this just made me listen to some of the tracks on Experimental Remixes which I haven't done since I lent the CD to my crush freshman year in college and never saw it again but this was the first comment on one of the songs:

Add a public comment...
Ross Fregia
2 years ago
1996. Dorm room. Smokin weed! Makin friends!

Ross otm.

Also God they were so good.

they were incredible live, and the evolution of the records from Extra Width through Now I Got Worry is pretty impressive, they just got tighter and better and more powerful. ACME is a big drop though.

all i remember about this band is the remix album and that song that declared "we're #1 in new york city, kansas city, jackson, mississippi, seattle..." maybe there was an oklahoma city in there? i can't remember. the blues is #1 -- the BLUES is NUMBER ONNNNNNNNE

man I always wrote this stuff off as sub-PG posing, but y'all are selling me on it, I guess I should check out Now I Got Worry?

i don't remember liking it all that much tbh -- i wouldn't say my one memory is an endorsement
they were ok imo

Orange is the best one imo

Yeah - Extra Width and Orange were classics. Haven't listened in years though I did see them live about three years ago and they were still tight as hell but --- I dunno -- either I've moved on or
they felt really dated to me. But I feel that way about most 90s indie bands still out there doing their thing.

I like their early stuff in this order:

Crypt Style
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Extra Width
Orange

Steep dropoff after that. Controversial Negro (a live album) is pretty good, though.

one of the many issues I have with the book by the woman who's pleased with her access to the Strokes/Interpol/etc is the suggestion that New York weren't shit until those bands became prominent. JSBX was the best rock and roll band in town for a decade, truly dependable to be a firestorm every time they hit the stage, and which were an interstice of many of the going concerns around town. There are several other '90s acts and movements that the book is oddly dismissive of, but to relegate the significance of that band to an interview with Spencer re: touring with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs seems particularly galling.

otm. jsbx, sonic youth, yo la tengo, and girls against boys all blow the strokes etc out of the water. i liked that book overall but she really shouldn't have messed with history so much to fortify her narrative frame

Haven't read the book but c'mon... Zinner among many others who popped up in bands later were going to see JSBX, Chrome Cranks, SY et al before they formed bands. Hell- a friend of mine who ran tightly with the whole JSBX/Grand Royal crew ( yeah it was small but existed.) gave Nick Z guitar lessons!

Zinner was a nice guy but YYY were sort of Second Wave of that whole 90s NYC rock scene

Zinner has never been quiet about his influences - for my SY book he told me about following Lee Ranaldo into a hardware store to see what tools he bought to fuck w his guitar

I love that. :)

I listened to Experimental Remixes the other day too, it still holds up, particularly the Killah Priest remix. Agree that Acme was a big drop-off, no need to get Dan the Automator (and others) involved on production when JS did such a good job with the earlier albums

lol at 90s much? Acme producers list:

Producer Calvin Johnson, Steve Albini, Dan the Automator, Suzanne Dyer, Jim Dickinson, Alec Empire

I was buried on the battlefield
Located near Israel

Megabombs, firearms and war alarms

Enjoying the singles from his new solo album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll_RNl_WO4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZwgKKc9AbA

the whole album is really fun! sam coomes from quasi backs him with some nice thick distorted organ sounds (nice, thick distorted organ)

ok this rips

wish i'd seen the tour - bob bert on carburettor!

i haven't listened to it yet but "do the trash can" sounds like a parody of a JSBX song title

the fuzz bass on that is so good

the new jon spencer and the hitmakers album is also pretty good. no one is talking about these albums but they rip pretty hard.

yeah i agree, i really like the sound of these hitmakers records. saw them live earlier in the week and it ruled. spencer was only slightly less of a live wire than the last time i saw him 20 years ago - he doesnt seem to age.

Spencer positive for covid, that was fast. Glad I caught the hitmakers when I did, but also, uh, guess I’ll go get tested tomorrow.

The band he's got kicks ass, doing a Jon Spencer Blues Experience type thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOmnggUKCvU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9LQ42OXYio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOleWKazLFA
The Big Black / Dave Dudley mashup is apparently a staple of the current setlist.

i feel like a skunk.

gos train #3 just fuckin slams, one of my fav jsbx deep cuts

there's an AMAZING version of that song on an In The Red sampler from like 20 years ago, throw a theremin on top and it'd be my platonic ideal of a jsbx live performance

I was never a hardcore fan of JSBX but live they’re in my top ten performances ever, alongside YLT

Here's that Train #3 I mentioned (opens w/Shirt Jac!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYJK3VtW4FI

guitarist Deke Dickerson public Facebook post--

Well, that was fun and unexpected! Jon Spencer (he of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, a quite-famous band a few years back) contacted me out of the blue a few weeks ago and asked to book a recording session at my studio, while they were on tour on the West Coast as part of a package tour with Samantha Fish and Cedric Burnside. Of course I said yes! I never get to record noisy, raw punk blues stuff. This would be fun and, well, unexpected!
I didn't know when we made plans to record that Jon also wanted ME to play on the songs. I know the kids are all crazy about the "collabs" as they call it, so hell yes, that sounded like fun! Count me in!
Jon and his current band (Kendall Wind, bass; and Macky Spider Bowman, drums) showed up at the house at noon, along with their road manager Dave Martin. Within 30 minutes we were recording songs I had never heard before, and laying them DOWN.
I think the tracks sound great! I look forward to mixing these and seeing what happens. I like doing stuff out of my normal wheelhouse. Jon and the band couldn't have been nicer (or more professional, man we just got right down to work). By 3 pm they were on the road to Ventura, where they are playing tonight at the Ventura Theater, along with Samantha Fish and Cedric Burnside. Thanks again, Jon! it was a pleasure! And thanks again to Bloodshot BILL for putting Jon and I in touch!

That’s pretty cool. Missed that post

saw him with his current band last summer at a street festival and it kinda restored my faith in rock and roll!? 2-hour set with no breaks between songs, no stage chatter, jon spencer in impractical black clothes, dripping sweat everywhere, his band is so tight and amazing. i was never even a huge fan of JSBX or anything, i liked them fine.

Man, I want to be Jon Spencer's drummer. His band is the rhythm section of the Bobby Lees so that's cool

I remember seeing them and wanting to be able to dismiss them because of the shtick but then pretty quickly thinking they were great. This was this classic lineup of course, but I imagine new version could be almost as good.