The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

I wanted to do a special, and decided to search for “explosion” in my library. That turns out to be an album from Explosions in the Sky and a whole shitload of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. And so, fuck it, here’s five random Jon Spencer Blues Explosion tracks! Happy 4th!

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Train #2”

I think I’ve told this story before, but one summer, my job included about a month stretch where I pulled staples from telephone poles. All day long, just moving from telephone pole to telephone pole with a screwdriver. It was miserable, the summer Spokane sun beating down on me as I wrecked my wrists digging into those hateful things. Sometimes, my screwdriver would slip, and I’d drag my knuckles into the splintered surface. The only nice thing I can say for it is that I worked alone, and was able to smuggle headphones in under my hardhat (required by safety rules because I was working next to a road, as if the hardhat was going to save me when someone plowed over me in their F-150) despite the rules against it. Mostly, I listened to the same handful of albums over and over, one of which was Extra Width. This album kept me sane that summer, and a certain dusty heat has clung to it in my memory as a consequence.

Killdozer, “New Pants and Shirt”

This is the opener of Twelve Point Buck, a pounding exercise in downtempo noise that really is a statement of purpose for the band. It can be a bit much in extended doses, and my copy of this album is actually a double album with Little Baby Buntin’, which is a lot of Killdozer at once.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Bellbottoms”

Extra Width was truly mind expanding for me, a record that I played over and over, and one of the sole things that kept me sane during one stretch of a summer job that involved pulling staples from telephone poles 40 hours a week for an entire month. And when I got Orange, slapped it on, and this thing melted my face? I couldn’t believe that they managed to top it. Thank YOU very much, JSBX!

fIREHOSE, “Sophisticated Bitch”

We’ve had this Public Enemy cover before, so bonus song today!

The Hidden Cameras, “Music Is My Boyfriend”

You know, I have this band squirreled away in my brain as “extremely twee, not my favorite”, and so I haven’t listened to this album much. I pulled up a little writeup to get a little bit of background, and apparently I needed to pay more attention to the lyrics on these songs. But I do not, I pay very little attention to lyrics, so I missed that apparently some of these twee songs are really filthy. Oh well, they’re staying in that twee bucket.

It’s the end of the year, and the end of a second full month of Five Songs hitting every day. NOT BAD. I’m not sure how long this all will keep going, as I’d like to resume blogging about other stuff over on Game and Tonic, and it’s hard to keep both of these going. Not to mention the fact that if illegal streaming becomes a felony, uh…

Anyway, it’s a special today! I searched for “new year” in the library, which matched 21 tracks, and randomly picked five of them.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Mars, Arizona”

Damage was the last album before a hiatus, and so I kind of group it with the other albums from their initial sequence, and think of the post-hiatus records as a different thing. Two of these albums kind of stand out as different from the others, by virtue of having outside producers working extensively with the band and adding some new sounds into the mix. There have been electronics around since the days of the theremin, but on both Acme and this record, there is more variety to the sound. It’s all still unmistakably the Blues Explosion, of course, with the rock and blues sounds front-and-center. But the additional texture gives the two records a new sounds. Of the two, I slightly prefer Acme, but they’re both a bunch of fun.

Homeboy Sandman, “Name”

I first encountered Homebody Sandman through his (excellent) collaboration with Edan. I liked it enough to pick up his next record, Dusty, which I also enjoy. Lots of jazzy loops providing a great backdrop for his flows, which are a good time.

David Bowie, “Sound and Vision”

I’m not a Bowie scholar (I find myself saying a lot what kind of scholar I am not around here!). I have tried to stick to just some of his essential albums. In practice, for Bowie, that means I have five albums, Low being one of them. I’m not sure what else to say about it, other than it’s one of his essential albums.

Happy birthday to the most important listener/reader of Five Songs! YES, YOU.

The Pixies, “Where Is My Mind?”

I’m not sure a week doesn’t go by where Dave Lovering’s entry into this song doesn’t go through my head. And that’s without talking about how often the rest of the song goes through my brain. Where is my mind? It’s on the Pixies, most of the time.

The Jesus Lizard, “Mouth Breather”

Speaking of drum parts that go through my head all the time, Mac McNeilly’s drums here are indelibly printed into my head. When I die (probably crushed by a stack of board games falling on me), you’ll be able to slice me open and find the chunk of gray matter assigned to keep track of this. This is essentially a perfect rock song.

Versus, “Mermaid Legs”

This song comes from Hurrah, which was the last album from Versus in their first run. They would later come back ten years later for another album, and apparently another new one just came out last year, which I didn’t know about. At any rate, Versus were largely out of steam with this album. It’s pretty enough, especially the vocal harmonies, but not terribly exciting.

Ron Sexsmith, “Never Been Done”

I read a really good review of this record way back in the day, and popped for it. At the time, it didn’t stick with me at all. I thought it was perfectly nice to listen to, but not particularly memorable. I’m really enjoying this tonight, though!

Violent Femmes, “Out the Window”

Everybody knows the Femmes for their sublime self-titled debut, and with good reason, as it’s legitimately one of the all-time great records. But, they didn’t actually stop there! I know! This song was on the solid compilation Add It Up, but originally appeared on Why Do Birds Sing?, which is a little all over the place, but does have its moments.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Lovin’ Machine (Automator)”

One of the delights of my new approach here on Five Songs is that I don’t have to search around YouTube for whatever remix or whatever popped up. Luxury!

Here’s today!

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Born Bad”

Freedom Tower: No Wave Dance Party 2015 was a throwback for the Blues Explosion, bringing back the stripped down sound that they had really moved away from after Now I Got Worry. It’s pretty much just back to two guitars, Jon’s strange yelping/posturing, and of course Russel Simins wrecking it on the drums. What’s nice about it is that it doesn’t really sound like a throwback, it mostly sounds like a lost recording from that time. Which is great!