| JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
- THE DRUM
MEDIA: COVER/ARTICLE (MAGAZINE, AUS) |
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DATE: 30.MARCH.1999 |
LABEL: Drum Media |
CAT NO.: #438 |
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ARTICLE TEXT: |
The Jon Spencer
Blues Explosion
by The Murray Englehart Explosion
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April 5 marks the five year anniversary of the passing
of Kurt Cobain, the lone individual who dragged punk rock out of its subterranean
cave and deposited it blinking and disorientated on the surface, For the first time
punk truly and irreversibly became community property. But not everyone was comfortable
with the relocation, relocation, relocation of their spiritual home.
"I guess he kind of ruined things for everybody didn’t he?", signs Jon Spencer.
"I was really into indie rock. That’s where I come out of. I come out of that whole
scene and the success of Nirvana destroyed that, destroyed the indie rock scene,
the underground. I was never really a fan of Nirvana,. It was very sad and all but…"
It’s a reasonable comment from someone with Spencer's work history. He was playing
punk rock n' roll for better or much worse strictly as he understood it without
any rule book or template for about 6 years prior to the N Band's impact. Then without
any prior notice much less written authority his grounding environment was altered
forever and the locks were changed.
To Spencer's mind the best music has always governed by instinct, mad grace and
honesty to the point of crudity it necessary. Give him Bo Diddley in his Black Gladiator
guise, the spirit woven through the Crypt label's Sin Alley or Desperate Rock n'
Roll series of filthy arsed garage R and B or Iggy Pop with those flame jewel eyes
in the Stooges' Funhouse era.
Having to sit at the Grammy Awards and share an arm rest with Axl Rose is not an
environment conducive to such things. But then Spencer would be mighty sharp in
a snakeskin tux and shiny black shoes making an acceptance speech that gave thanks
to Hound Dog Taylor instead of God.
Japan is taking on the Blues Explosion on both those levels. The equivalent of Tower
Records in the major cities were said to be moving something like 25 copies of the Acme CD an hour
when it was first released last year.
"I never heard that," says Spencer flatly. "I heard we were getting the Talk About The Blues video played 20 times a day".
Good enough though Spencer isn't particularly moved by either version of events.
He's in for the long haul. Sudden impact isn't his thing thought making a certain
impact is just what Dr Spencer ordered.
"When I was younger and I really first started listening to rock n' roll Iggy Pop
just with the Stooges was someone who made a big impression. I guess if anything
the kind of people I was attracted to were people like that like Iggy pop. People
who just kind of abused themselves and lead very extreme lives and kind of punished
themselves on stage. I was always kind of fascinated by those kind of musicians".
"More recently, maybe a few years ago, I was kind of more into Rufus Thomas and
Charlie Feathers who were people who kind of did something that was very unique
and just stuck with it for their entire lives basically. They may not have always
been successful in the case of Charlie Feathers I don’t know if he ever was successful
but he would stay true to his own very individual style and just kept at it, kept
doing it."
Spencer and the Blues Explosion showed just how determinedly individual they were
capable of being with their by now legendary appearance on Recovery. That footage
still ranks as some of the most thrilling television ever screened in this country.
Particularly on a Saturday morning.
"Oh Good! I was just thrilled to meet Tony Cohen. He was doing the sound that day
so it was cool to meet him because of all the Birthday Party records (he worked
on) and all that kind of stuff. I got a kick out of that. He was out in the truck
mixing the thing."
Spencer was just as chuffed when he was approached to work on a Kim Salmon album
a few years back.
"I couldn’t do it because I was too busy doing something or another. Kim asked me
to help him mix some material. I was very flattered and thrilled to be asked but
I couldn’t do it."
The Blues Explosion get plenty of heat going in their own albums but it’s live that
Spencer, the hardest working New Yorker in showbusiness really kicks up some dust.
The funny thing is his folks don’t notice anything out of the ordinary when they
come to the band’s shows and see their boy going apeshit.
"Well you know it’s interesting. My mother has said to me that it didn't seem so
strange to her and that it reminded her of some behaviour of mine when I was a kid.
So I guess I used to jump around or do something similar to what I do on stage when
I was little." Despite all that running, jumping and very very occasionally standing
still any James Brown type collapses are anything but the result of finely rehearsed
choreography on Spencer's part.
"I have actually collapsed," he says. "I've blacked out a few times. Maybe it was
too hot in the room or maybe I didn't get enough sleep the night before or didn't
eat enough that day. It’s happened before. It's just going out for a moment. It's
not like in the middle of any old song. It's at a point in the set towards the end
of the set at a very intense moment. I'm probably not even playing guitar at that
point."
"Blacking out is great," he continues with a quiet laugh. "That's why I like playing
a show for whatever an hour or so, I can be somebody else, I can escape. When I
say blackout it's not like, Oh, I don’t remember what happened, I mean like pass
out, physically collapse, I've broken things but I think I’m usually pretty aware
of what’s going on."
Is that broken yourself or equipment?
"Equipment," he confirms. "But it's starting to get to the point where I don't know
if it's just because I'm getting older but I end up hurting myself more and more."
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion performs at The Empire Theatre on Wednesday March
31 and the East Coast Blues Festival over Easter
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