(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

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