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Rating: Premise
Jon Spencer. What can we say about him? Surely that he is Australian, that he was the leader of Pussy Galore, a band that started almost as a joke and then established itself in the American underground scene, that his is a very charismatic figure, that he is a character, and so on. Jon Spencer is someone who sings, plays (besides the guitar, the theremin), who live screams, jumps, moves, involves the audience. The JSBE were born around the nineties, obviously on JS's initiative; there is no bass in the band (and this is not new), there are only drums (Russell Simins) and guitar (JS himself and Judah Bauer). A choice that clearly favors the rawness and immediacy of the sound, at the expense of instrumentation. Few but good.
Now I Got Worry
If there is one thing Jon Spencer knows how to do well, it's to mix with ease and naturalness different and varied genres like rock, blues, punk, rockabilly, funk into an explosive mixture, which defining as punk/garage–blues seems not very evocative. JS has an uncommon ability to revisit old melodies, to deconstruct them, to rebuild them, implanting new ideas with a new, almost anarchic, rebellious, rowdy spirit, which translates into a (apparently) sloppy and random approach both to the instrument and to the performance of the songs. As if to say, I'm doing this job in my spare time. But behind it lies knowledge and musical competence, because to be able to recycle old ideas you still have to know them. And so JS does, he assimilates them, digests them, and brings out something of his own. More than a shy track by track I prefer to use some adjectives suitable for the CD: exuberant, shabby, direct, angry, intense, lively, energetic, passionate. More than listening to a few tracks, you need to listen to it all in one breath. And get an idea of it.
Impressions
Because those matter too. Up to you, but listening to this CD reminds me of a recording room with three scruffy and indifferent kids inside, playing at break time, having a beer meanwhile, filmed by impatient producers. So, marvelously not caring. But indeed these are impressions. And those change easily. Even if the stereotype of the bad boy fits Jon Spencer to a tee... hard to see him differently...
Saluds
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