Send "The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
![The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Year One / Extra Width/Mo' Width [Deluxe] review](http://www.sweetslyrics.com/poze/jsbx200_.gif) In 1992, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion inked a deal with Caroline Records and requested a very specific signing bonus-- the then-new 10xCD Jerry Lee Lewis box set. Two years later, when the band jumped ship to Matador, they asked for the 9xCD Stax-Volt Complete Singles 1959-1968. As band lore has it, Caroline never sprang for sprang for the set, and the Blues Explosion's tenure there was short-lived and acrimonious. Matador, on the other hand, made good with Stax, and the band enjoyed a decade-long partnership with the label. Business relations aside, these two signing requests neatly signal the musical differences between the band's first few releases as well as between the latest installments in this ongoing reissue series. Year One, which collects on one disc the band's first three releases-- all from 1991 and '92, hence the title-- is the Blues Explosion at their most explosive, thundering through nearly 40 tracks with the devil-may-care insouciance of the Killer in his prime. They even cover Lewis' "Lovin' Up a Storm" and roll in a few measures of "Great Balls of Fire".Year One is the noisiest, most abrasive, and most alienating collection the Blues Explosion has released, for better or for worse. The energy is there. So is the smarts. So is the general concept. But the band is still in its infancy, so its still figuring out how to translate those three primary qualities into music. Spencer hollers and howls like a Tex Avery cartoon, while Russell Simins bludgeons his drums and Judah Bauer punishes his guitar, and together they generate a volatility that's recognizably JSBX. Yet, songs like "Comeback" and "Maynard Ave." fidget uncomfortably and never really get moving. In general, they sound unfocused and undisciplined, which means that at 38 tracks, Year One can be a long, hard album to take in. Still, there are so many moments when everything falls into place, when the band sounds all the more boisterous and uncontrollable-- all the more revelatory 19 years later-- for being so ragged and rough. Especially as Year One moves into the material the band recorded with Steve Albini, the music gets messier, more aggressive, more reckless: They light up "History of Sex" like Lewis setting fire to a piano, while "40 Lb Block of Cheese" shows the band at its most genially wacky. Best of all may be "Mo' Chicken-Let's Get Funky", which lives up to its title as soon as Simins comes in at double time. They speed through the Hound Dog Taylor cover just a little more rapidly than necessary, as if they can barely keep the song under control....full text |
| Radiomolotov. |
| Extra Width (Matador, 1993), e la sua appendice di "scarti" Mo' Width (Au-go-go, 1994), sono tributi altrettanto irriverenti e grotteschi ai suoni del blues del Delta (History Of Lies) e del soul di Memphis (Afro e Soul Typecast, due dei suoi capolavori di de-costruzione). Fra un'imitazione e l'altra Spencer dà anche lezioni di voodoobilly ai CRAMPS (Back Slider e Pant Leg) e di boogie a B.B. King (Big Road); nonché di lascivia a Lydia Lunch nel gran finale erotomane di The World Of Sex. La capacità di rivisitare queste musiche è sconvolgente, sa di scoperchiamento di tombe e di necrofilia insistita. Spencer dilaga come un vampiro che succhi la linfa vitale dalle radici del rock e lasci alle sue spalle soltanto avanzi scheletrici. E' soprattutto lo spirito ad essere stato trasformato: Spencer inietta la sua metafisica nichilista dentro le strutture armoniche degli altri. L'esecuzione da spastici è soltanto la ciliegina sulla torta: basterebbe il piglio della sua voce a definire l'Inferno della musica rock, nel quale il blues si riduce a un coacervo di gemiti (Soul Letter) e il funk a uno strimpellio indistinto (Inside The World). Bauer e Simins interpretano a meraviglia la parte di Luciferi aggiunti. Per evitare qualunque accusa di intellettualismo, Spencer getta nella mischia persino il theremin, uno degli strumenti meno suonabili che esistano....full text |
| Treblezine |
| The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion doesn't play blues. They play rock 'n' roll. Spencer said so, himself, in the band's Automator-produced 1998 single "Talk About the Blues." But ask Keith Richards or Jimmy Page-rock 'n' roll and blues aren't all that different when you get right down to it. And as a rock 'n' roll band, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion wore their blues and soul influences on their tailored coat sleeves and leather pants inseams. This served as both an attraction for some and a deterrent for others, depending on which side one falls on the scale of Spencer's hammy vocal performances. But, as odd as it sounds, it's also what made them different. Blues-based rock was old news by the early '90s, but in a lo-fi field increasingly crowded by stoned slacker rock groups like Sebadoh and Pavement, the JSBX were an out of control bonfire that threatened to set ablaze any impressionable listener that dare come near it. That very fire began with the band's 1992 debut, but its even more impressive successor, Extra Width, was the proverbial can of gasoline that sent those flames soaring. As the band's Matador debut, it kicked off the massive psychedelic groove that continued on through 1994's Orange and 1996's Now I Got Worry, the first of an unstoppable trio of albums that revealed the band at their most furious and raw. Spencer and fellow guitarist Judah Bauer turn the dials on their fuzzboxes as high as they'll go and proceed to blast out some of the most mind-melting punk blues ever captured on reel-to-real. It's messy and over the top. Frankly, it wouldn't be The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion if it wasn't a little ridiculous. But damn is it good. Extra Width's first track, "Afro," is perhaps the greatest single that the band ever recorded. Blasting off with a massive riff worthy of a Stooges anthem, the song descends into a down and dirty wah-wah groove, as Spencer mutters his sing-speak toward a blazing guitar solo. It's a perfect, three-minute capsule of the band's greatest strengths, and massively enjoyable 17 years down the line. Few songs on the album reach a level quite so funkily monolithic, but the highlights come fast and frequently, from the sexy strut of "History of Lies," to the skronky "Backslider," the organ-fueled acid trip of "Soul Typecast" and the Cramps-style rockabilly stomp of "Pant Leg." As part of a series of Spencer reissues being released this year via Shout! Factory, Extra Width has been quadrupled in size. While the original album is presented in its already badass state, it's backed up with the outtakes and rarities compilation Mo' Width, in addition to an entire extra disc of bonus material, which boasts live material, a handful of Christmas songs and other rare gems. It goes without saying that a wealth of bonus material spanning three times the original album is a lot, maybe too much, but whether or not it's all essential, there's plenty of fun to interesting stuff to check out, including harmonica jam "Johnson," old school rocker "Out of Luck," sloppy jam session "Lion Cut" and the goofy "Yule Log Boogie."...full text |
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion lyrics
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