Rob K – The End Of The Earth (CD, US)

Jon Spencer is listed in the album credits as playing guitar but the do not specify which song/s.

Jon Spencer also appears on the Rob K solo releases ExCorpse and Dirty 12.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album Mo’ Width features a track titled Rob K (Rob K is President on the re-release) on which he performs as a preacher. And finally Jon Spencer has recorded with Rob K on several Workdogs records.

Produced: Rob Kennedy & Jim Waters
All Songs © Robert Kennedy 2004
Published: The King Dog Biscuit Publishing Company
Except: Gospel Plow (Trad. arranged by R. Kennedy) and Poor Moon (Alan Wilson, EMI Unart)

Recorded At:
Crack Alley, Honolulu, HI
Engineer: Mark Abramson
Skraps, Kaneohe, HI
Engineer: Hutchie Boy-e
New York Hed, NYC
Engineer: Matt Verta-Ray
Funhouse, NYC
Engineer: William Webber
Good & Evil, NYC
Engineer: Jamie Staub
The Distillery, COsta Mesa, Ca
Engineer: Mike McHugh
ZenJam Noiseworks, SF, CA
Engineer: Mark Abramson, Dave Parker
Sea West, Pahoa, HI
Engineer: Rick Keefer
Waterworks West Tucson, AZ
Engineer: Jim Waters

I posed this query to a number of Kennedy’s friends and musical associates. The replies were revealing and, quite frankly, disturbing.

“Rob Kennedy, visionary art rocker, king of performance one ups manship, or song spewing bluesman in dire need of an editor? That friends, is a tough call.” responded Scott Jarvis, who collaborated with Kennedy for more than two decades in the Workdogs. If Jarvis – the man’s partner – could not describe him, what hope was there of ever knowing Rob K? Yet certain themes emerged in testimonial after testimonial. One of the most consistant was Kennedy’s surprisingly lackadaisical attitude toward musicianship. Long time Workdog sideman, Jack Martin, said, ‘Ear training? yes… but the Rob K version’s so much more fun, just ask him to call out the changes during a tune and invariably he’ll cry out… ‘alright, let’s go to the D!’ …ah, the glorious dissonance, until you realize a few beats later that he s walking all over B.” Even Scott Jarvis agreed that Kennedy “couldn’t find the one in a two note riff. Jon Spencer stated ‘… (Rob K) cannot sing but that is no news to anyone”

And yet Kennedy seemingly has had no trouble coercing some of the top names in today’s alt rock scene into playing on his latest record. One would think that there might be some pride or joy in this, but no, Jon Spencer described it as ‘talentless thrashings and tuneless meandehngs played by a who’s who list of washed-up, burnt-out, has-beens and never-wases. Wannabe hipsters tricked or coerced into participation in this form of musical sacrilege is career suicide.” Rob K’s best friend, Mark Elliott, said of The End of The Earth, ‘Blatantly plagerized material – gone are any pretenses of musicality, originality, personality, even the pretense of a band.’

What then is Kennedy’s strange power over his sidemen and women? Scott Jarvis stated, ‘you (can) not shut Rob K up. The man (is) a stone cold blues politician, raising your taxes to pay for the nice little hidaway where he’d be taking your wife after the show.’ Jim Waters, legendary engineer and producer, attributes Kennedys appeal to his ‘roots …(which) run deep into the heart of the country, winding it s way through the Mississippi delta, through the backwoods, past the cotton fields, behind the still, before deposting it’s riches on a lonely chicken coop in New Jersey.” Maybe, but perhaps Mark Elliott got a little closer to the truth when he called this disc ‘Kennedy’s musical Ponzi scheme …the few that will talk about it admit that they worked like dogs for nothing,” Or is the truth even darker still? Rob has left a trail of broken hearts and destroyed minds of both sexes that stretches for miles and miles and years and years.” stated Jon Spencer.

Poet, pauper, plagehst. pederast. . . who can know the real Rob K? Obviously not his friends – Ultimately that knowledge may belong to you. the listener. After all, the words were sung for you. Tell me…

WHO IS THE REAL ROB KENNEDY?”

“Special Thanks: Ka Motley Hui, Solace Brothers, Boss Hog, Jon Spencer, White Hassle, Marce, Knoxville Girls, Screws, Jim Waters and family, Max Fish, Ulli, Sam and Max, Matt Verta-Ray, Caku, Mark Abramson, Larry Hardy & Ron Sievers”

BARCODE: 7 51937 24192 8

MATRIX: “34626 1 CDOR 025 MFG BY CREST NATIONAL – CA IFPI LR68”