Still number one, but never still
One of the hardest working bands in rock n roll get down to the bare knuckles of business with this current tour. Guitarist Judah Bauer, drummer Russell Simins, front man and guitarist Jon Spencer, have recorded a primal, chunk of music aptly titled, Meat And Bone. Mid sound check in Motor City, Michigan, Jon Spencer sheds some light on the arrangements.
It may have been eight years since last album Damaged but this three piece have not slowed down. Touring that last album took them up to 2005 and by then Spencer began work with Matt Verta-Ray on a new band called Heavy Trash. This collaboration and an interest in doing different kinds of music resulted in several albums and tours around the world. Meanwhile Bauer was working with Cat Power and Russell Simins was working with a whole list of folks, most recently, singer-song writer Joseph Arthur. In 2010 Spencer began the immense task of compiling the Blues Explosion, Matador reissues which included: Extra Width, Orange, Now I Got Worry and as of late music from the influential band Pussy Galore. The momentum and energy of this process cleared a path for Meat and Bone, which escalated to recording at Sly Stone’s “Riot” Flickinger console at the renowned Michigan, Key Club Recording Studio.
The latest project takes influence from the past and the “last twenty years of experience” does come out, but it is a very “modern album” that could “only be written by Blues Explosion today,” says Spencer. This project was self-financed and done on their own terms. There were no contractual obligations. “It was kind of like when the band first started,” he explains and once recorded, “is when we started talking to record labels.” There wasn’t a rush or anything to prove.
Both video and album artwork share a similar aesthetic, but were created independently of each other. European filmmaker Toon Aerts put together the “Black Mold” video and brilliantly incorporated Spencer’s love of science fiction and horror movies. The album packaging for Meat and Bone revisited photographer Micheal Lavine, who shot the very first Blues Explosion photos. The initial idea was to have a band photo for the cover, “but I couldn’t find the right one” says Spencer. Lavine showed him a photograph from a session a few years ago, one that was never used. It was a piece of meat on hooks. Spencer liked this strong image. “Not only does it tie together in a very literal way, the title of the album… but it’s a very raw sounding record, a rough record, very in your face,” he says, and “I think what the Blues Explosion has always done, has been very physical, it’s hard work…. our music is totally tied up with our body, our muscles,” explains Spencer and this representation works with the album lyrics. “It’s about the passage of time, growing older, aging gracefully,” he says, “but at the same time your body is slowly falling apart and decaying.”
Vancouver will experience, the last of the west coast dates. “We have had a lot of really great shows out here” recalls Spencer and “we have a really cool band on the bill called Quasi, one of my favorite bands right now!” Who picked the band? “This is punk rock, we do it all ourselves” responded Spencer, “we choose the bands, where… what kind of touring we are going to do…. we produce the kind of record we want to produce [and] I designed the record jackets, the t-shirts, it’s all in-house!” However, this is just one short leg of a much longer tour. Japan is next, followed by Europe and the hardest working band will continue up to March of next year.
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion plays the Biltmore Cabaret November 14
- More Betty
