(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

they're more like an unhinged, crazy southern rockabilly kinda thing. at least at times.

yeah, that's how i've always heard 'em. more in common with like hasil adkins and the cramps (as shakey points out) than with the actual blues. early rolling stones factor in there, too, though in a denatured sort of way, so rhythm & blues at least makes sense.

and derogatis' whole -- "if you love black music so much, how come you can't stop making fun of it" is just wrong wrong wrong. as though things like little richard, howlin' wolf, james brown etc. aren't filled with humor, hamminess and over the top personas -- in a glorious way. i don't think that JSBX ever reaches those heights, but that's what they're going for. i don't think they were being condescending, just committing to what a lot of the music they were emulating embodied. This sort of wild, larger than life southern craziness.

300 Pounds of Joy

"feminists and other PC types"

As someone who saw a bit of Jon and Judah back in the JSBX heyday - we shared mutual friends, etc. - I can attest that there's not a racist bone in their skinny bodies.

"if you love black music so much, how come you can't stop making fun of it" = serious blues is serious

To some up these last points: I just saw J. Spencer play at an Alex Chilton tribute show with of all people Yo La Tengo. It was pretty cool, all around (they then backed up Alan Vega). Sounded almost exactly like The Cramps. Also, a little Vega in the J. Spencer delivery as well. Not gonna even bother with the Derogitas nonsense. Wanna reiterate too that J. Spencer is a very good, nice guy.

oh nice! i'd read about that show, and was wishing i was in NYC to see it. was glad that it had such a variety of people reflecting all phases of Chilton's career, rather than just Big Star.

Yeah, and they played A LOT of non-Big Star stuff. I didn't recognize all of it, a lot of early rock'n'roll that Alex would cover in his various other bands (along with of course the Box Tops hits played by the Box Tops), but it was cool, probably what Alex would have wanted.

Also, Dan Kroha from the Gories managed to make a ladies wine glass shatter right in front of me when he hit a particularly gnarly note in a solo! Totally great moment.

!!!!!!!!!!

it was a vocal solo i hope

haha, awesome

Nah, guitar. With whammy here and there as well.

Uhh, referring to "vocal"-ness of the solo, of course (x-post).

hope a recording of this show surfaces ...

that is incredible.

just the way, you know, that dan's voice is i can imagine a particularly potent shriek doing some damage but yes i suppose it would need to be a guitar..

i liked Orange when it came out but yeah a little bit of Jon Spencer goes a loooong way with me. for some reason the Cramps don't wear me out as much as Jon's big fake-South barking does.

People were shooting video, not sure what the soundboard may have been doing.

though it's unfair/unkind to call it straight racist, the hamminess of spencer's vocal delivery does sometimes make me cringe. seriously hate hearing his interjections on that r.l. burnside LP he produced. this is less true when the music is basically just noise and/or when the shtick is slightly toned down (pussy galore, reverse willie horton era JSBX), but post orange inclined me to jump ship.

and okay, whether or not he's a stand-up guy, it's not like spencer didn't invite the accusations that get bandied about. reverse willie horton? controversial negro? he's clearly intereseted [/scarequotes] in the subject. plus the vocal style does sometimes seem to verge into caricature, though not in a particularly offensive way.

first time I heard the phrase "controversial negro" was on a Public Enemy record

first time I heard the phrase "controversial negro" was on a Public Enemy record

I just got the first four reissues (Year One, which is all the tracks from the s/t debut, Crypt Style and A Reverse Willie Horton, plus two early singles, jammed onto a single 38-track disc; Extra Width/Mo' Width, which has those two albums on Disc 1 and a whole second disc of rarities, outtakes, etc.; Now I Got Worry, which again has like 20 extra tracks, and Controversial Negro, which has about 10-15 extra tracks) and the Dirty Shirt Rock 'n' Roll comp in today's mail. In the CN liner notes it says the title is a quote from PE's "Burn Hollywood Burn."

well yeah. and a reverse willie horton is an augmented quote from the nbc nightly news or something. still carries a certain charge in the context of spencer's usage.

controversial negro is the best record though

had a toys factory (japanese) copy that i used to jam all the time. paid like 30 bucks or something ridiculous, but it was the only way i could find it at the time.

controversial negro is the best record though
really? huh, i should check it out ... i've only heard a track or two.

like how xgau just accused spencer of doing a parody of Canned Heat

well, it's live, so maybe of limited interest, but they're on fire and the sound is shitty/great. the ideal way to present the early material, imo. better than pussy galore's this friday night only, though no "life up your hood" cover.

a live record does actually seems like the perfect JSBX album.

The Derogatis article refers to a 1992 "self-titled" album. But that record is actually called Crypt Style. I saw that tour, when JSBX was supporting Jesus Lizard on their Liar tour.

I recognized Spencer from Pussy Galore and made a point to shake his hand. They were better than TJL that night, and that was the best TJL show I ever saw.

There's a self-titled album and one called Crypt Style. They share a lot of tracks, though.

yeah i saw them open for the breeders once and ... someone else who I'm forgetting right now. but that kind of proves the point -- they were kind of the ultimate opening act, maybe thriving on the element of surprise, and just blowing everyone else off the stage. they weren't quite as good when i saw them headlining and everyone in the crowd was prepped for them.

They were better than TJL that night, and that was the best TJL show I ever saw.

saw this tour in chapel hill, NC. they were both better than each other.

I was too big a Pussy Galore fan to appreciate them at the time. Saw PG in LA in '89, when they were down to a trio, and that was amazing. Saw JSBX headlining at Maxwell's in Hoboken, in support of Extra Width, and it just wasn't doing it for me or my wife, so we left after a few songs. But I'm enjoying the hell out of these reissues, and yeah, Controversial Negro is fantastic; as live albums go, I'd put it right up there with the Cramps' Rockinnreelininaucklandnewzealandxxx.

as live albums go, I'd put it right up there with the Cramps' Rockinnreelininaucklandnewzealandxxx.

yeah, another all time favorite live album. heartbreak hotel cover alone...

I like CN allright but I don't think it's the best (that would be either Orange or Extra Width). they play a bunch of songs at way faster tempos than necessary. they were a great live band in general tho

except for the time I saw them and they brought out the Automator for a few songs. that was terrible. I hate that guy.

they brought out Weird Al when I saw them on the Now I Got Worry tour ... it was pretty great. Some kind of theremin/accordion duel took place.

they play a bunch of songs at way faster tempos than necessary.

am generally a sucker for loud fast rules, so...

Weird Al directed one (maybe more?) of their videos iirc... Wail, I think? Weird Al>>>>>>>>Automator

yeah, i think the show was right around the time of that video.

jsbx have been pretty much my favourite live group since i first saw them supporting the beasties at brixton, and controversial negro rules my world for that very reason, but orange/worry are my favourite LPs. can't wait to hear the new bonus tracks to these reissues...

man, orange and now I got worry more than holding up. JSBX in becoming-one-of-those-bands-that-an-old-crusty-me-will-reference-when-talking-about-how-all-new-music-is-terrible shock

THE BLUES! IS NUMBER ONE!

I'M TALKIN' BOUT THA BLUES EXPLOSION!

STRAIGHT OUTTA NEW YORK CITY!

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!

Sorry, I left out a few exclamation marks.

my father was sister ray! Fuuuuuuuuuuucck!

jehovah's witness come knockin on my door on a saturday

Now I Got Worry is so vicious. I like to keep my family on their toes by playing "Skunk" at top volume every now and then.

i do this by sounding an air-horn and screaming "hit the deck"

controversial negro is one of my all-time favourite live albums.

^ this is a fine way to be because yes, but reverse willie horton too

reverse willie horton was live? i thought it was just outtakes from the first LP sessions///

don't know how this thread has survived so long without this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbwxLGohUM0

no, reverse WH ain't live as far as i know, but is 2nd only to controversial negro in the JSBX catalog of greatness

ah cool, gotcha!

someone should poll s/t vs crypt style vs willie horton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Omcuh9z2Ns&feature=related

Seriously dudes, Controversial Negro (JSBX live) is straight fire. Even if you have written off this band/are disinterested, I still recommend giving it an ear

it's pretty good. they always played things a little too fast live imho

it is funny when he quotes Steve Martin tho

fast is good

your band should play faster

doesn't really work for funk beats

play a different genre of music

I... wasn't referring to my band? what are we even talking about anymore

like, take the drum part for, say Greyhound. sped up it loses its appeal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1llwTR1rYiA&feature=player_embedded#!

listening to orange right now (which rules)

i guess it's probably because of spencer's outsized personality and schtick and all

but i don't think russell simins gets enough credit for being one of the best drummers of the 90s

god the dude is so funky and tight

oh yeah, totally. my fandom of JSBX and my obsession w/ playing drums peaked around the same time so i really worshiped him for a while.

yeah, he was the weapon. spencer was fun and all, but it was simins who made that band swing. one of the best live shows of their era.

think he was the main reason i liked the butter 08 album, too.

he is the human breakbeat

There's a great moment in the Wail video where he casually eats a hamburger while drumming. Also, check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtRYQWEB4B8

^^^^ that song has been my go-to russell simins jam for forever

russell intimidated the crap out of me the first time i interviewed him. first he told me he had the same shitty digital watch as me, only on his one the background lit up, not the numbers, and therefore it was better. then he noticed my X-Large denim jacket and told me he had a wardrobe full of X-Large stuff. then he drilled me as to my opinion of ten or so of his current favourite albums, and gave me withering glares when i said i hadn't heard a couple of them. i forgive him everything, though, as he's one of the most exciting drummers i've ever heard.

Loved this band and was friendly with them back in the day but - yeah - RS always had the rep for being a jerk. Too bad cuz he killed on his little kit.

Single from Simins' quarter-great solo album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr1lJ5iidzM

new album, stream:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/album-premiere-the-jon-spencer-blues-explosion-meat-and-bone-20120912

huh. having recently revisited Extra Width, Orange, and Now I Got Worry I gotta say they're peak period stuff really holds up

^^^this. there are also a lot of gems on the Crypt Style/Reverse Willie Horton stuff now collected on "Year One." has anything worthwhile come out from this band after ACME?

ugh ACME, definite shark-jumping moment

Can one jump a shark if the shark jumping moment is actually good, as well as the two albums that followed it?

The new one's not bad, but by no means up to the band's 90s peak.

weird coincidence, was having lunch in the pizza shop today and they were playing orange and it kicked my ass so hard

To this day, all I have to do is shout "bellbottoms!" and my wife responds with a loud grunt.

weirdly, for some reason all week at various points i've been like "i should listen to orange," having not even thought about it in a couple years, but then i keep forgetting to actually dig it out. so i think i will do that now. i also don't think i want to go forward or backward into the jsbx discography after i'm done listening to it.

I played "Afro" last time I DJ'd at a bar. Sounded good. Extra Width and Orange are the only ones I fuck with.

I was buried in the battlefield...

xpost - Now I Got Worry is up there with those two, imo.

xp I heard megabombs, firearms and war alarms

Has the GZA ever remixed anything else? Because that track's kind of amazing.

i got mo'width and experimental remixes but apparently i sold orange? dumb.

man orange rules.

Ju ju ju GOT TO HEP ME

This is my favorite thing JSBX ever played on imho frr:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CEWyHC-iAk

BABY BABY BABY YOU SURE LIKE TO FUCK

So there's a new album I didn't even know about until a few minutes ago? Listened to some samples at Juno and it sounds incredible. File under: Things I didn't know I'd be flipping out about in 2015.

It's great. Probs their best since, I don't know, Plastic Fang.

my father was sister ray

take a whiff of my pant leg baby

I've been watching this video a lot lately, Judah Bauer and Russell Simmins are so damn good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_woahMy1Ads

Suck it, Jack White.

he's one of those artists whose catalog the Internet made not only visible but affordable. I spent a fortune tracking down everything back in his heyday.

Also a really nice guy.

Saw him at a tiny bar here in Tasmania a couple years ago, I have never heard a band that tight. The mind blowing thing about Judah Bauer is that his Telecaster is in standard tuning and good intonation so he has to bend all his notes and double stops to match the wonky notes from Spencer's crappy Zimgar guitar.

*them, sorry

I bet that's by design!

the contemporary critical assessment of this band looks really weird in retrospect

that they were good?

that's... not my memory? My main impression was there was a lot of handwringing about racial politics/reappropriation.

One old criticism that stuck in my mind was that JSBX were "Reef with badly-tuned guitars" which I admit did make me lol. NB I love JSBX and hated Reef but I can see where they were coming from.

I don't know how they were received in the UK but in America there was a whole lot of "How dare he," especially early on when he was just out of Pussy Galore. And yeah, a lot of it had to do with allegations of cultural appropriation/white thievery.

I'm having a hard time finding anything online (this was pre-internet after all) but yeah I remember a lot of stuff in the local Weekly but also in larger national magazines that were *aghast* at what they perceived as basically blackface (the withdrawn "Controversial Negro" was typically trotted out as incontrovertible exhibit A). Which I think was fundamentally misreading what they were doing. Glowing reappraisals in the decades since seem to have obscured that line of criticism.

Jon Spencer: a rock and roll pioneer in the field of appropriating the blues.

haha yes

i know simon reynolds didnt like them as he found them ersatz and unoriginal

Also I think some of the criticism leveled at the them at the time, which yeah was hot & heavy, stemmed not merely from cultural appropriation of the blues but from I think the sense they weren't taking the blues seriously enough. That the band was somehow a "joke". That they could be funny & overblown wasn't respectful enough.

Part of it was using the word "Blues" in the name, part of it was fall out from the RL Burnside record.

Spencer went to RISD and the word "semiotics" was thrown around, but I think that was a bit overblown.

A great band and up through "Now I Got Worry" at least they could be a legitimately terrifying band live.

Also, the band I was in at one point learned a bunch of JSBX tunes for a thing and would for a while occasionally play some songs live cuz they were fun, but I can attest that if you really wanted to piss off a crowd in say, I dunno Chicago, would be to inform them you were abt to play some "real Chicago blues" and then play "Brenda". Heh.

That the band was somehow a "joke".

yeah definitely. and a bad, ultimately racist joke.

I do think they were often funny, there's a lot of humor in their music, but I don't think the joke was of the "let's laugh at black people" variety

Spencer went to RISD and the word "semiotics" was thrown around, but I think that was a bit overblown.

This line of attack started with Pussy Galore, to be fair.

Yeah the PG rep was def part of it as well.

Pussy Galore definitely had the NY art-school "let's be CONFRONTATIONAL provacateurs" aspect to them, JSBX (and RTX to a different extent) seemed like a continuation of that approach. JSBX were like a combo of that angle and the Cramps imo. They never seemed like they were really into the blues so much as rockabilly and garage rock and contemporary rap music, the latter definitely setting them apart from the Cramps, who had more of a cultural excavator/curation of prior eras role. The Cramps really did have some reverence for their sources, JSBX not so much.

I was lucky enough to see both PG and JSBX live - the former in 1989 in LA, on their final tour (Julie Cafritz had already left; the band was down to Spencer, Neil Hagerty, and Bob Bert), and the latter at Maxwell's in 1993, right after Extra Width came out. Both shows were really good, but honestly I always liked PG better; my favorite JSBX material is all on the Year One CD, and they never did anything as exciting as Dial "M" for Motherfucker.

Pussy Galore stuff was always so hard to find back then! My copy of Dial M does make me really happy tho. can't play that one around the kids lol.

For me at least, JSBX sparked a very honest interest in people like RL and many other long lost Delta-type blues players. The cartoony verbalizations of Spencer were always annoying but the band was never as slack-ass as PG. PG was pure scenester aesthetic and very little else. Exciting in context, but it hasn't aged well at all.

PG was pure scenester aesthetic and very little else. Exciting in context, but it hasn't aged well at all.

I disagree. Right Now! and Dial "M" stand up very well; I listen to them all the time. And I never liked RL Burnside or T-Model Ford; the only one of the Fat Possum relics who had anything going for him, to my ear, was Junior Kimbrough, who was genuinely great. I got to see him open for Iggy in '96.

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.

For me they always sounded like the hollywood-trendie watered down The Fall.

Say wha?

There have been plenty of inexplicable opinions about rock offered on ILX over the years, but comparing the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (whether favorably or unfavorably) to the Fall is way the fuck up there.

Putting the vocals differences apart, Pussy Galore/JSBE are heavily influenced (eg, Slates)

That's extremely cool he's still down with Cedric (a grammy winner!), I first saw them together when Cedric was 15? 16?

circa this era:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ABBYJ_3ysU

according to Cedric's bio he was indeed 16yo in the above clip.

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.

― James Carr Thief (James Redd and the Blecchs),

i've probably seen them like a dozen times and they are always stellar, but russell is soooo the mvp, i mean very likely the baddest indie/whatever drummer of the 90's, idk how much i wanna see spen with a couple of other dudes.

would prefer simins + p much whoever

I've only seen them once, opening for X this year, and they were excellent.

they consistently kill it live
once saw them do the most wtf, baffling setlist and they all had the flu and it still ruled

In 2022 Simins was playing in a new band called Service. I wonder what he’s up to now ?

Remember seeing Russell Simins playing in Central Park with… Cibo Matto? And Yoko Ono? Just now read about Butter aka Butter 08 but never heard of or listened to that record.

The Butter 08 record is pretty dope. Harder to come by now than it used to be, though.

I knew those guys - (JSBX/Boss Hogg) - except for Simmins pretty ok back in the '90s since we had mutual friends. They are all sweet people. Saw JSBX by chance at some venue in NYC about 10 years ago and they were still great.

Saw Spencer a couple years ago with Janet Weiss on drums and it was great, he's still very much worth seeing, but man I miss seeing Russell play drums. One of the most exciting drummers of his era, he's way way up there for me

I'm a fan of that Butter 08 record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ardTdr6FAvU

Guess playlist for the whole album is here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFA060E3D3CE7A813&si=DE0FU40L_aD42yrO

Maybe there are also a few good songs on the Russell SImins solo album.

Yeah, that butter 08 album has some great songs on it.

A product of the the alt rock boom in direction to the the after the goldrush dead end street of the late 90's?

When I lived in Tucson in the early 90s there was an underground punk blues scene there, and JSBE were so fuckin popular there, even before Extra Width came out. After I moved away I realized they were not as big in other cities.

“Butter of 69” is
my New Year’s jam.

best live band in NYC in the 90s, hands down… I spose some people didn't like his schtick, but there was no halfsteppin' re: their performance ethic… it irritated me that Elizabeth Goodman in her book suggested that NYC was of no consequence musically in the 90s: I suppose saying "I only moved there in 99 and met Nick Valensi shortly thereafter, and these bands which immediately waltzed into major label contracts created a very exciting and glamorous scene which was very important for me and many others" is not as marketable as "NYC had no rock music of any consequence in the 1990s, save Jonathan Fireeater."

100% otm.

Still great live, as noted above. Still has the right amount of his classic schtick backed up with loads of energy that most people don't have at age 59. Offstage is a sweet and normal dude. Love him.

Jon looks like he's having a lot more fun now than in the Blues Explosion days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELGYrxvhIBc