Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Plastic Fang
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CD Details
Artist: Jon Spencer Blues ExplosionEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-04-09
Music Label: Matador Records
Soundtracks:
- Sweet N Sour
- She Said
- Money Rock'N'Roll
- Killer Wolf
- The Midnight Creep
- Hold On
- Down In The Beast
- Shakin' Rock'N'Roll Tonight
- Over And Over
- Mother Nature
- Mean Heart
- Point Of View
Music reviews of Plastic Fang
Music Review: That's the sweat
Rating: 4 Stars
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has charted a crooked course since the release of its debut album in 1992. Courting controversy, the band played with genres like a six-year-old playing dress-up, trying on a mishmash of styles and to hell with the consequences. The result was a postmodern pastiche of punk, blues, soul and hip hop, starting with the gutter rockabilly of Crypt Style and ending with the funk collage of Acme.With the release of Plastic Fang, the Explosion's sixth proper album, this postmodern brew has been usurped by the straightforward, put on hiatus like a low-rated TV show. The loops and electronic squiggles of Acme have been shelved, and the Explosion has released a bona fide rock 'n' roll album. Taking its cues from songs like "Wait a Minute" and "Chowder" - released on the Explosion's odds and sods collection Xtra-Acme - the new album has more in common with the Rolling Stones than the band's early noise.
For the Blues Explosion, the blues have always been more about attitude than genre - it was the sweat, not the gutbucket guitar. Like the band's 1996 release Now I Got Worry, the Explosion do sound a little more like a blues band on this record, albeit in the way the Yardbirds or Cream sounded like a blues band. The Explosion - Spencer, second guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russel Simins - kick out the jams on Plastic Fang. These boys sound serious.
"She Said," the album's first single, borrows a well-thumbed page from The Cramps' songbook, with Spencer recounting the midnight travails of some tormented wolfman. Bauer and Spencer lay the foundation, hammering out some bottom-heavy licks on guitar, while Simins keeps it steady with his piston-like drumming. Spencer still has that Presley hiccough, punctuating this horror story like an overzealous copy editor, but the man's voice has some real soul. When Spencer yelps "My soul is lost, I said I curse the day that I ever was born," it just sounds cool ? and a little scary.
The Explosion slows it down a speck with "Hold On," giving a passing nod to Stax/Volt and the Atlantic soul of yesteryear. With the legendary Dr. John lending some sweet... guitar and Parliament's Bernie Worrell manning the organ, the song has a real vintage feel, like some obscure 45 lost in a dusty, abandoned jukebox. Spencer clearly enjoys the song's shamble, giving his best vocal performance of the album. The man also retains his customary bravura - "Everybody want to jump up, get down and kiss my feet."
Simins is the highlight on "Money Rock ?n? Roll," elevating this slab of bluesy rock with his funky drumming. While the guitar chugs along like the 10:15 train, Simins is making like the Meters? Zig Modeliste, keeping everything rolling with his emphatic percussion. While Spencer name checks the Clash's Joe Strummer and and the New York Knicks, the band builds to its wall of sound conclusion, sounding like some hole-in-the-wall house band.
Starting with an acoustic guitar and Spencer?s "This is a sad, true story," "Mean Heart," after a couple of gentle knocks, finally kicks in the door like a jealous boyfriend. Bauer keeps up a bluesy rumble on his six string while Spencer coaxes a loose rattle from the acoustic. Again, Simins is steady as a 30-day chip, keeping the whole racket under control. With Spencer moaning about his "unsatisfied heart," the song shifts from soulful lament to howling defiance in its four-and-a-half minutes.
The bulk of the album's songs, from the album-closing "Point of View" to "Killer Wolf"?s sour menace, are incendiary rockers, a fitting match to the band's combustible live shows. While the Explosion can still slow things down, like on "Mother Nature," the band retains its edge, imbuing the song with the rhythm and the blues.
In the past, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has been accused of everything from minstrelsy to deconstructionism, with certain critics questioning the band?s authenticity. This camp has always denounced the band?s "appropriation" of the blues idiom, misconstruing the band's reverence for the form as some sort of aural black-face. But the Blues Explosion has "never played no blues." Like the Stones, or even Captain Beefheart, the band uses the blues as a starting point, forging something entirely new out of its mishmash of influences. This band should have nothing to prove to its detractors - what other so-called punk bands have recorded with R.L. Burnside, Rufus Thomas and Andre Williams - but, with Plastic Fang, the Explosion has crafted an album that should finally quiet the naysayers.
Working with producer Steve Jordan, the band has recorded its most consistent album to date, a carefully considered homage to the the music that inspired it. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is not arch commentary - this is heartfelt and real, and one of the best rock 'n' roll records of the last couple of years. That's the sweat of the Blues Explosion.
Description of Plastic Fang
To celebrate their umpteenth Australian tour, JSBX re-release their 2002 album Plastic Fang as a limited Australian tour edition. The extremely generous bonus disc contains a plethora of bonus tracks, 8 audio - 'Point Of View', 'Do Ya Wanna Get It?', 'Maureen', 'Alex', 'Over And Over' (Techno Animal Mix), 'She Said' (The Tremelo Beer Gut Mix), 'Money Rock 'N' Roll (Sub Species Mix), 'Over And Over' (Barry Adamson Mix) plus 5 videos - 'She Said' (Director's Cut), 'She Said' (live at 100 Club, London, Feb. 8th 2002), 'Sweet & Sour', 'Point Of View' (live at Brixton Academy, London, April 8th 2002) & 'Shakin' Rock 'N' Roll' (live at Brixton Academy, London, April 11th 2002). Mute.Despite providing the framework for lavishly hyped newcomers like the White Stripes and the Hives, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion remains a determinedly selective pleasure. Not that the New York trio hasn't tried to reach out to new audiences--it hitched up with Lollapalooza a few years ago and cast everyone from Beck to Gorillaz' frontman Dan the Automator to tweak its last album, 1998's Acme, into something listenable. On Plastic Fang the group pulls out the heaviest hitters yet, including producer Steve Jordan (Keith Richards, Blues Brothers), engineer Don Smith (U2, Tom Petty), and guests Bernie Worrell and Dr. John. Casting the Blues Explosion alongside grizzled veterans who understand the band's fascination with rock & roll's primal blues roots is a smart move. And while the songwriting is predictably unimposing stuff, the propulsive riffs and hammered-out grooves on tracks like "Down in the Beast" and "The Midnight Creep" present the Blues Explosion at its earsplitting best. The masses may still be theirs for the taking. --Aidin Vaziri
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